j-mAdness - sheet musics from anime, dorama, games, and Japanese movies!

Cleaning Line Art in Digital Art Work

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Well, though today I'm totally down because I'm exhausted, I think this is the only chance I can update the site.

So, I found a very interesting work of Red Priest Usada from deviantart. She is very talented and she released several tutorial and.... she permitted me directly to link her tutorial to this site. That's good, right?!

So, I found that cleaning traditional line-art might hard to do by beginners and her tutorial, hopefully, can help you. She gave a clear instruction and description; I am sure you will understand it in instant.

Have fun, enjoy!

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DOWNLOAD

Go to the page: here
To download, click Download at the left side of the page.

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P.S: Thanks, Red Priest Usada! ^_^

Hashima Island - the deserted island

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:35:00 +0000

I never heard anything about Hashima until I watched Life After People in History Channel. It was inspired me to write a novel again though of course I would not said it was set up in Hashima.

I made a small research about Hashima and found some interesting facts about it. WAIT! CHOTTO MATTE! What was the connection of Hashima and anime/manga/video game/dorama/movie? Oh, it had the connection, indeed. Let me reveal some of them.

According to Wikipedia, Hashima was several time used for filming, including Battle Royale II: Requiem. A video game called Killer7 took it as final stage. Two mangas referred Hashima in their story: Midori no Hibi and Get Backers. Air Gears manga set a race in that island.

So, if you go to Japan, do you plan to see it?

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Reference:

Wikipedia: Hashima Island
History Channel: Life After People
Boing Boing.net: Deserted Japanese Island Photo Gallery

Manga to Release -November 2009-

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:37:00 +0000

These are my list for November. Note that my list is not based on best selling but only based on what's ready to release to market from Amazon. You can pre-order at my store as linked. However, I compare to what's on best selling in Japan itself, based on MyAnimeList . All manga are already translated into English.

1. Bleach, Vol. 29 (Bleach (Graphic Novels)) by Tite Kubo

2. Bleach, Vol. 30 (Bleach (Graphic Novels)) by Tite Kubo

3. Skip Beat!, Vol. 20 (Skip Beat (Graphic Novels)) by Yoshiki Nakamura

4. Gantz Volume 8 by Hiroya Oku

5. Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 13 by Kenjiro Hata

6. Nana, Vol. 20 by Ai Yazawa

7. Vampire Knight, Vol. 9 by Matsuri Hino

8. Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Rebellion Volume 6 by Majiko

9. Maria Holic Volume 2 by Minari Endou

10. Tegami Bachi, Vol. 2: Letter Bee/The Letter to Jiggy Pepper by hiroyuki Asada

Kenji Kawai in Apocalypse The Second World War & Top Games

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:02:00 +0000

wuiiiiihhhhh
I was shocked when I watched National Geographic Channel program called Apocalypse: The Second World War. I found out that Kenji Kawai worked on the original score! Whoa! The music just fit the documenter and if you watch it, you'll be excited to see the videos in colors. I was a bit tricked about that. I thought it was reconstruction/with actors for some videos. But no, it was real. So, if you live around Asia (especially), you can watch the complete show. Just check at your TV cable/satelite. If not, then check here!

Another release time is officially declare by Kenji Kawai official site: by November 28, East of Eden The movie 1 will be released and on January 2010 for movie 2. So watch out! Complete info: here!

Improving j-mAdness store
Ok, now let's go to the store. I have improved the links there so you can access more and more soundtracks and novels from Japan. It is now automatically updated by Amazon. So I don't have to put manually anymore. (fiuhhh...).

If you also pay attention to the game part, Naruto seems shining with 4 stars given by players.

Naruto Ultimate Ninja: Storm (PS3)

Anyway, this is the next Naruto games, awaited by player:
Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution III (wii)
This game is not yet release but you can make a pre-order.

Please buy those product through j-mAdness. Ok? ^_^

Happy watching, happy playing!

Will You Color Me...?

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:14:00 +0000

For you, who wants to become a mangaka or illustrator, I think you had seen some of recommendation article from me -- from how to draw a face to make a digital coloring.

But sometimes we lost our precious time for work and you must sacrifice a little of your time for your hobby. It happened to me. Recently, I only could coloring. So, crazily, I looked through deviantart, any artist whom kindly let us coloring their line art. Lucky, I found many of them. Even a club! (for detail, check my dA account)

So, these are the sample of work and artists who let their work to be used for coloring. Note that some of them, and even most of them are asking for their name to be credited if you finish it. I think it's a good deal. Some are asking to link back to them. These artists will feature your coloring version to their account. So they can track how many and how different each artist worked on that line art. My advise if you're looking in deviantart, you better make an account so you can easily track the line art and confirm to the artist that you use their work.

So, these are the artists:

tamsytiggy

This is a cute work and I love the clean lines. If you're a beginner, this picture suits you the most.

Either you work traditionally or digitally, I believe the result will be superb. So just go on.

Go to download this picture: here

meago
The lines are clear and I think you will need a lot of time to finish it. Well, don't drop your spirit. This is a training of becoming patient. The good thing is -- for digital artist -- the download file format is psd (photoshop). I think you can work on it easier. For traditional artist, I believe you will enjoy to color on such detail.

Go to download this picture: here

skyzen
The picture is quite complicated but you will enjoy to color it since the lines are very clear. Not only this picture, skyzen lets visitors to color his works as long as you agree to link back and credit him. I discussed about coloring with him personally and he is willing to give you advise if you ask.

Go to download this picture: here

My version of coloring (left)

and my favorite style by nener:

So, happy coloring!

Here To Stay ~from Bleach~

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:13:00 +0000

One of the 'saddest' song from Bleach. I totally enjoy the tunes. The sound was simple though the you can really feel the electronic influence in it. The piano sound did not sound like an acoustic one but from a keyboard, so did with the strings. It was totally sounded as been played using keyboard. For that reason, I did not put this score as philharmonic orchestra but simply "pop instrumental".

Some Notes for You

The music is pretty easy. I am sure the beginner can play either using piano, keyboard, violin, guitar.. anything. Actually working on this score is quite amusing me. I need to separate the main sounds with the backgrounds. Those that you see in my transcribe are only the main tune that I heard. Any ornamental sounds are ignored even when it sounded like the main tune.

Anyway, at the last part ("D" part), the violin and piano plays together. Violin part is played at the higher tune while the piano takes the lower one. It will stop at the half of bar 39th.

Happy playing!

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DOWNLOAD

Download page: here
Direct download: here

Good Morning ~from D.N. Angel~

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Ups!

I actually tried to post a new project but it is still in progress. Meanwhile, I just realized that I never made an official article for Good Morning. Gosh! How terrible I am >.< Well, Good Morning is a simple music, a very easy listening, that you're going to love. Our experience with Music Demo showed that the score really got its hook. The kids loved and enjoyed it so much.

The notation was not hard however, a note for violinist, the third time the song was repeated, you're going to play in free-style. While playing, you will use 'gliss' for several time and I think, that was why the score sounded very cheerful.

I cannot write totally much now; you guys had known my reason. So cut the crap, and go:

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DOWNLOAD

Download page: here
Direct download: here

Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:48:00 +0000

Whoa! a year!

Hahaha, I never thought that I can pass a year with lot of surprises. I remember it was only to share my Music Demo project because I felt pity if the sheet music was just kept with me. I developed the blog with small plan and after a year I realized that I changed it (too) much :D

Having 21000 views surely nothing comparing to other blogs and website. For me, it is a bless. I remember that the first 3 months I only gather 100 views. :) Sheet music blog is already common. The competition is rather tight. There are better web and blog which give you professional sheet music. I decide to keep my work as my style which is simplified. You mostly only get the melody with chords. The sheet is also a 'generic' which any instruments as long as it is played on clef of G. I left the sheet with no specific signs such as legato and finger number. You have to decide by yourself. This - I hope - can sharpen your musical EQ and IQ (huhhhh...?!).

As the blog starts to grow (slowly hahahaha!), I decide to add new 'service' for you. Recently I put interest to listen to games' soundtrack. So, we'll see which of it I can transcribe here for you (Oh, do you see that I also put j-games to the header?). Anyway, for those who loves to draw, I also had a friend who let his line-art to be colored. I had posted some tutorial on how to draw and color, now it's your turn to take the challenge. I'll post about it later :D

Again, thank you very much for keep coming here!

Sheet Music E - H

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:03:00 +0000

~ E ~
Eureka 7: Medley "To Wish Upon A Star" and "Nirvash TypeZero"
Eureka 7: Sprinting Spirit (multipurpose sheet music)
Eureka 7: Sprinting Spirit (for advance violinist)

~ F ~

~ G ~
Gundam Seed: Find The Way

~ H ~

Sheet Music #, A - D

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:03:00 +0000

~ A ~
Angela Aki (singer): Tegami

~ B ~
Bartender: Hajimari no Hito
Black Cat: Konoyo no Uta
Bleach: Here to Stay

~ C ~
Chevalier D'Eon: Owari ni Mata Kotoba Ariki
Code Geass: Mosaic Kakera
Cowboy Beebop: Goodnight Julia

~ D ~
D.N. Angel: Good Morning
Darker Than Black: Tsuki Akari
Death Note: Light Lights Up Light
Digimon: Butter-fly

Sheet Music I - L

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:01:00 +0000

~ I ~

~ J ~

~ K ~
Kingdom Heart: Roxas Theme
Kodomo no Omocha: Always Be With You

~ L ~

Sheet Music M - P

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:00 +0000

~ M ~
Majo No Jouken: Sanctuary (j-dorama)

~ N ~
Naruto: Grief and Sorrow (HQ and LQ)
Naruto Shippuuden: Hakubo
Natsume Yuujinchou: Issei no Koe

~ O ~

~ P ~
Persona: Trinity Soul: Trinity Soul

Sheet Music Q - T

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:59:00 +0000

~ Q ~

~ R ~

~ S ~
Saint Seiya: Pegasus Fantasy
Saiunkoku Monogatari: Saiunkoku Monogatari Main Theme
Satomi Hakkenden: Brave Soul (j-dorama)
Seirei No Moribito: Balsa Hashiru
Seirei No Moribito: Daichiyo

~ T ~
Tsubasa wo Oreta Tenshitachi: Find The Way (j-dorama, see Gundam Seed)

Sheet Music U - Z

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:55:00 +0000

~ U ~

~ V ~

~ W ~

~ X ~

~ Y ~

~ Z ~
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou: Aishiteru (see Natsume Yuujinchou)

Release Date of FF XIII

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:02:00 +0000

I just browsed some blogs and got an interesting fact for you. According to yokaze no shirushi blog, FF XIII will be released on December 17 in Japan. Most of other countries will be able to have it on Spring 2010.

Ordering through Amazon.com can be done through this link:

Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox)

Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS 3)

Other Final Fantasy product that will be released soon is
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)

Since it's not yet release, if you're a true FF fan, you can do a pre-order. You are encouraged to buy through j-mAdness store. This is a way to help j-mAdness to keep its service.

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NOTE: Please read yokaze's blog for details.

Drawing tutorial 2

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:26:00 +0000

I posted how to draw face and skin. Now, I post here how to draw the body. Surely the tutorial seems too short but this can be a first step for you before you learn the intermediate and advance style. So, enjoy the tutorial from JayneFolest at here!

The other tutorial is how to color with watercolor. The artist is kyrn. It's very detail. I'm sure you're going to love it. Get it here!

Happy drawing, happy coloring!

Goodnight Julia ~from Cowboy Bebop~

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:15:00 +0000

I peek again at deviantart. It's hard to find music arrangers who post their work in deviantart, especially anime. Well, maybe because music is not part of 'art'? Hopefully someday deviantart also gives some space for arrangers.

Anyway, as I digged, I found this nice transcription. funkmastertrag worked on it for tenor sax. I was totally happy to find diversity of transcription since it will enrich my (and your) knowledge about music.

So, if any of you is a sax player, please enjoy this work!

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DOWNLOAD

Download page: here (if you want to download, look at the left, there's a link called Download.)
The picture above is linked directly to arranger's page.

Sprinting Spirit (for advance violinist)

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:06:00 +0000

If you follow my posts, you know that I already posted Sprinting Spirit from Eureka 7. That one was written as a general transcribe which mean, any instrument in Clef of G can play. So whoever play piano, guitar, violin, keyboards, electone, organ, can use that version of transcribe. I also purposely never put any dynamic, accents, finger numbers, or other signs, in order to let you to decide by yourself how you want to play it. And anyway, if the sheet is for a general use of any instrument, it will be hard to follow. For example, finger numbering system for piano is totally different to violin.

So, today, I specially release the transcribe for violin only. You will see that I really put legato signs and even finger numbers. I once had explained how hard this composition (here) including some tips for violinist. I will not repeat them. Just a little additional tips from me:

- other than practice with theme from Saiunkoku Monogatari and "Two Themes from Eureka 7", the best is by practicing scales. Ask your mentor to teach you G scale in:

1-3-5 position from playing playing that positions in E string only; E and A; E-A-D; and whole strings.
2-4-6 position
1-3-5-7 position
warming up yourself by playing G scale on 1-3-5-7 maybe about 10 minutes before playing Sprinting Spirit
well, playing scale might be bored, but.. you can stabilize your fingers with this training. I personally take 2 months on scales just to make sure I can reach all important positions. Especially because I'm a left-hand person, it takes time for me to stabilize my left fingers and bowing hand. Bowing hand (right hand) can be very annoying for me, since I hardly stabilize them at high tones. So I believe you can progress much better if you're a right hand person.

So, happy playing and ENJOY!

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Download

Download page: here
Direct download: here

Adjusting to a new life schedule..

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:05:00 +0000

It might sound like an excuse but.. that is the truth that I'm facing right now. I'm no more working as a 'laid back' teacher where I have less paper work. I suddenly have a lot of thing to do, especially paper works and it really hard for me since I'm not yet used to it.

I'm sorry that I abandon - if I can say that - to update the things here. Due to non-stop activities from June, my health was far from healthy. I eventually lost my voice, my health several times dropped, and now I lost my voice again - thanks to the lower level elementary students whom having same level with my voice so I need to shout out... >.>

Believe it or not, I only touched my piano only once from June. I never practice for my violin course. Every time I come there, I already feel exhausted. Lucky that the teacher understands my situation and for a student whom almost never read classic notation for 2 months, yesterday I played quite ok :D (well, I almost forget where the notes are, actually... just use my instinct though.. hehehehe)

Like it or not, I must declare that I have to slow down a little. I have to re-schedule everything for j-mAdness. But whatever that are already on the list like requests, will remain in list-to-do. I hope you all can pay a little patient with me. I won't promise anything but I try to constantly write here, at least by end of the week (well, sometimes I still have to come to school on weekend -_-" ). But I really hope that I can write twice a week starting October.

Please pray for my health and for a clear mind so I can continue my work in my real life and here. I love you all and I still want to share a lot of thing with you ^_^

Manga List for September 2009

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:43:00 +0000

* please note that most of the manga here are not yet published when I take it for the first time. But some, when I checked after a month, they already had been published.

** eh, umm... if any books here interest you, please buy it through my shop, because that's the only way I can maintain this blog. *sweat drop* ThanQ!

1. Bleach, Volume 29

2. Naruto, Volume 46

3. One Piece, Volume 22

4. Honey and Clover, Volume 8

5. Vampire Knight, Volume 8

6. Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives, Volume III

7. Chibi Vampire Volume 14

8. Eyeshield 21, Volume 28

9. Nabari No Ou, Vol. 1

10. Natsume's Book of Friends, Volume 1

Yasuharu Takanashi: welcome to the dark world

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:49:00 +0000

I might not really realize that I've heard his work when I watched Jigoku Shoujo. I must admit that several score really hooked my sensitivity. The weight of the sounds and composition surely made Jigoku Shoujo succeeded as a psychological drama/horror.

The second time I heard his works, of course, through Naruto Shippuuden which really took Naruto into a deeper feeling. Takanashi didn't only bring Shippuuden into a mature feeling but also a serious drama.

Genji - a PS game - was the third time I 'accidently' found Takanashi. But in that period, I didn't know that he was the composer. However, I already had been impressed with the sound of the scores which gave me the thrill during playing. Ah, I think I must be honest here. I'm not a good player so even a game that quite easy like Genji really took time and shorten my lifespan because I was so stress during playing :D However, again, the music really gave me the impact. I won't feel the game so lively if the score wasn't Takanashi's work, maybe.

Other Works

I tried to find out more about Takanashi. I found an interesting data that beside working for anime and games, he was also working for Toho. You know the human sci-fi action story like Gogle V (rrr... sorry that the sample is the classic one)? Well, he worked the music for a kind of entertainment. According to tohokingdom.com, he worked on The Gransazers (2003), The Justirisers (2004), and The Gransazers: Super Battle Memory (2005). According to imdb.com, Takanashi worked on Zeonic Front: Kidou Senshi Gundam 0079 (2001). His other work for video game, as mentioned at game-ost, entitled Guilty Gear (1998, 2005). But maybe, he was well known with Angelique since he was mostly worked in that video game (source: vgmdb.com).

Characteristic

What I think interesting from Takanashi is that his work has characteristic of deep, dark, and sounded etnical. Both Naruto, Jigoku Shoujo, and Genji has similar taste. It sounds pretty japanese etnic music, it made the story darker, and surely it is all beautiful. In the three works of him, I can mostly hear the japanese traditional instruments like the flute, combining with western orchestra.

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reading source has been directly linked in the article.

additional source:
Anime News Network: here

Higashi no Eden: Know Your Action

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:36:00 +0000

"The strangest romantic sci-fi, conspiracy, terrorism story that I would remember the most."

If coincidence is a real fate, then I will include this anime as part of my fate. It is quite strange that after receiving a news of capturing terrorist, somewhere in Indonesia, I found the anime called Higashi no Eden (translated: East of the Eden) which actually referred to a group of young people whom developed a recycling group and end up making website and social internet community that mostly was signed up by students.

However, the story was not about their struggle of making their bussiness. It was about a game of life where Akira, who had amnesia, found himself as terrorist. Very interesting to see Japanese put themselves as terrorist, somewhere in America. Taken 2010 as where the story was started, Saki visited Washington DC during her graduation trip. As she was suspected because of her action (throwing coins to the White House's garden) by polices, a naked man with gun and cellphone came to rescue her. This man, later picked 'Akira' as his identity from his many passports.

Akira decided to returned to Japan and found out about the 'Careless Day' which happened 3 months before, a day that Japan was 'attacked' by terrorist using missiles, or so it was believed. Strangely, there was no victims. That event evidently was connected to Akira as he was 'number IX' of a game where 12 person was selected and must play as a Messiah or savior. These people were labeled as Selecao. But one between them was also a Supporter who must kill any of them if they disobeyed the rules, use the money inappropriately, or one of the player win the entire game. The game itself was about to save Japan from injustice (if you take a serious look to the logo) and each player had virtual 10 million yen to use for that.

The meeting of Akira with 'Number IV', 'Number XI', and other Selecao, surely helped him to track his past and also the truth behind the game itself. However I left this part for you to watch by yourself ;)

Very Morita, Very Honey & Clover!

Seeing Akira, I was shocked. His profile was very close to Morita from Honey and Clover, thus, of course, by seeing in a second, I just knew Umino Chika was involved. I thought it was her story but then found out that Kamiyama Kenji was the brain of the story. I was almost praised Umino if she really wrote the story because this was way too different from her style. A story where terrorism, cyberworld, and romance were told in one place would be too superb for her but if she really did,... wow..

Meanwhile Kamiyama was quite known well with his involvement to some famous anime such as Jin Roh (ahem, my favorite) and Blood: The Last Vampire (ahem, another favorite), and Ghost in The Shell (aheeem, also my favorite!). So I could see the influence of those anime to his work.

Other character was also reminded me to Honey and Clover. It was Hirasawa Kazuomi. His profile was so much resemble to Mayama. The glasses and his calm character was so much close to Mayama. Akira himself, somehow, had some same quality to Morita. Even seeing Saki had reminded me to Ayumi Yamada in shorter height but with characteristic of Hagumi. For this part, I would say that Umino had failed to broaden her imagination. However, her quality to create beautiful characters were still superb.

The Beauty, The Romance

If you're not a conspiracy story lover, then at least, enjoy the beautiful panorama graphic of this anime. It is surely beautiful. It is like Darker than Black was set in Honey and Clover. It has every quality from both anime: comedy, mystery, conspiracy, gloom, and sadness.

The second beauty you must recognize is the music. Not only the theme songs but also the background music. The opening had involved OASIS and for the scores was worked by Kawai Kenji. Lol, again, Kawai-sensei!

The anime is surely not stop at chapter 11. The 2 movies are confirmed to be aired on this year and 2010. I'm looking forward to see it.

The Strange Stuff..

I believed it has no relation to our real life terrorism, but I was quite surprised that the room of Number XI had spent in the hotel was number 1109. Of course this is - somehow - as if trying to remind us to the tragedy of 9/11. To the recent bombing act that I know, the terrorist who blown Ritz-Carlton/Marriot in Indonesia took room 1808 to prepare their action (later, official said that the terrorist planned to bomb the president houses on 8/18 on this year). Is Kamiyama able to read a terrorist mind or it just a common that terrorist would think that way? I mean, would it just common that terrorist tried to symbolize their action through number? Or Number XI had her own reason of taking that room? Another thing that almost out of my attention but then thrilled me a little -- was the shopping mall's shop named 'Indonesia'. Was it only coincidence because Indonesia was quite fame in Japan (I mean... Bali mostly...)? Was it because some bombing happened in Indonesia, mostly right after 9/11?

What kind of message that Kamiyama wants to deliver, I'm exciting to know.

Conclusion

For a story which began with terrorism issues and turned into conspiracy story, I think this anime is awesome. I don't think there were any anime which took terrorism as background as real as Higashi no Eden. Somehow, Kamiyama tried to bring reality into animation and for me it is so refreshing also thoughtful.

Though the story was not as dark as Ghost in The Shell, some important messages was delivered: taking responsible to kill, yet taking responsible as terrorist had a lot of consequences. You're not about to take one random person's live, you're not about having some idealism behind your action, you're not about to create a new world. Rather than killing, you can save 20.000 people, especially if you have 10 million yen in your hand..

Some recommendation:

If you like a kind of conspiracy story, please also watch: Jin Roh, Darker than Black, Ghost in The Shell, Appleseed, Black Cat, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohaninohoheto, Samurai 7, Blood+

If you like some kind of 'terrorist' story, then Naruto, Code Geass and Gundam Wing 00. What I mean here is... Lelouch of Code Geass let himself known as terrorist, while Celestial Being in Gundam Wing 00 was labeled as intruder by other party. For Naruto, don't you think Akatsuki is acting as terrorist...? o_O

Reading source is Wikipedia:
Eden of the East
Honey and Clover
Kenji Kamiyama

Homecoming - a novel by Osaragi

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:41:00 +0000

During these hectic days which I can't really predict when to over -- I tried my best to suppress my stress with reading novel. I remembered that about 2 years ago I bought a bunch (oh, it WAS really a bunch..) of Japanese classic novel when I had a trip to Bali. I remembered I spent almost $100 to shop the books and I needed to drag my brother to bring the heavy plastics back to our hotel which more than a kilo :D

It's been 2 years, I still have a lot waiting to be red. I just finished Kobo Abe's Secret Rendezvous - which I will talk about him later - and decided to open Jiro Osaragi's Homecoming.

The first chapter attracted me. This was the first time I red a Japanese book talked about WW II with Japanese perspective without making them as 'innocent' imperialist. It was a genuine knowledge that Japanese had refused some fact of their crime of war like the case of juugun ianfu, romusha, and even not telling their role during war in school textbook. Of course I understand that if Japanese government did apology, it meant they approved to conceal their crime which could led them to international court of crime.

For Japanese who reads this article, this post is not a critics or attacks. It's simply reality as I am now living in an South East Asia where the countries there were tasted the Japanese occupation. And by God's hand, I decided to read Homecoming which I thought was a good moment: most of ASEAN countries are going to celebrate their Independence Day on July to August.

Brief Story

Published in 1950, Homecoming or Kikyo (in Japanese) was set somewhere in Malaysia and Singapore. I was quite confuse with so many part in the story took Singapore as if it was a part of Malaysia but then I remembered in that period, Singapore was still a part of Malaysia.

The characters were mostly met during the World War II in Malaysia (Malacca) and Japan right after the War ended. I'm reading the Tuttle Publishing English version, now chapter "Night Birds". However, I already encountered some interesting characters:

-Kyogo - whom I think was a loner and a person who had gift of ability to make a good prediction.
- Saeko - a charming woman. In my opinion, she's a very smart one.
- Yeh - was a minor character because he wasn't list at The Principal Characters page but I found him having important role to drive the story.
- Ushigi - a typical military person. You know what I mean, right...?

The story was opened with Saeko accompanying Onozaki, a painter, to a sightseeing. Then we were dragged to find her secretly bought diamonds in a china town. On her way back to pick up Onozaki who was still on the hill, painting; she met Ushigi. Saeko seemed well-known among the Japanese military, thanks to her business in Malacca. The meeting led her to meet 'a man without a name' (the chapter's title). This person was an old friend of Ushigi who completely abandoned his mother country and his nationality. Yes, he was Kyogo.

Kyogo's Thought

When I was drown to him at the first time, I thought he was a pesimist but later I thought he was too realistic. His correct prediction about the war (and even a gamble) showed me that he was a careful and observer type. Probably, this was developed because formerly he was a military person. Osaragi revealed Kyogo's past little by little after that. His nationality was taken and in Japan, he was known dead already. As a ghost, I quite understood when he said, "When a man has no definite citizenship, like me, you shouldn't be surprised no matter where you find him."

The most interesting part of Kyogo started at page 58, when he decided to walk alone the suburban. This chapter was set when Japanese announced surrender. On his walk, he met some Japanese soldiers whom were on the way go to the port, sailing back to Japan. Suddenly he heard a big sound of explosion. What was it?

One of the silent soldiers spoke. "Somebody's killed himself." He stood up and looked back into the grove. The others didn't move from their crouch, and none of the soldiers lying on the ground got up.
Like an assembly of mutes suddenly given speech, they started talking. But their talk was strangely subdued.
"It's him, I bet," one of them said.
"Yeah. Him" the one next to him answered. His hand moved on the ground as though he were plucking grass or picking up pebbles.
"He was done for anyway." (from page 59)

By the next time he passed that way again, this was what happened:
Something white hanging on the trunk of a rubber tree caught Kyogo's eye while he was still in the car. He got out alone and went over to it. It was a dirty knapsack with a scrap of paper attached to it that must have been torn from a notebook.

Kyogo turned the paper over and found "Salt" wirtten in pencil. The single Japanese character, written large, and next to it, in a running scrawl: "Not dirty." And the bag hung heavily, as though full of salt. This must be the work of the soldiers who had been here last night. And Kyogo knew that the bag and the salt must have belonged to the soldier who had killed himself. (from page 61)

I was shocked reading this page. It was so real that the war could drive a person finished his life. This was no relationship to Japanese way of seppuku either. In any other place in this world, many young soldier decided to suicide as if there was no future. Kyogo, in later chapter was also thought that way. He had his sympathy to those soldier, as he encountered one more time the march of returning soldiers. His feeling toward Japan then completely changed when he visited Batu cave (page 67).

Smooth Interlock Characters

Homecoming would be one of the best novel I'd ever red. I always love a story where the characters are connected one each other in a way. For example, I enjoyed watching Crash (Oscar winner) and Babel. The stories had a great way to connect all characters and showed me how great it was developed.

For a book that was written in 1950, I would say Homecoming was a genius book. I never find any old movies or books which made interwoven characters ever.

So, my recommendation?
This is a must! Not so much War literature that astonish to read as A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway), this Asian perspective should be on your list, too. Osaragi, as a Japanese was neutral and objective to write Kyogo's thought. It was very human to think as Kyogo, to think as a universal human, to think as a man without citizenship..

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Get it from Amazon for very very veeery cheap price!

picture is relied from Library Thing

Anime/Manga: Drawing & Coloring Face

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:33:00 +0000

Well, well, this is the only time I can online for this week. I decide to bring you some tutorials that are useful for you. I once also learned from here and.. many tutorials that I found in deviantart are helpful so I recommend some of them to you. If you like, you can actually search by yourself. There are bunch of tutorials from computer graphic to manual hand drawing.

The tutorials that I list here are for computer graphic.

1. Drawing Anime Face by Crysa

2. Anime Eye Coloring Tutorial by gchanmaiden

3. Tutorial: Coloring Anime Faces by deviantbluebug (specifically a tutorial on lips coloring)

4. Skin Coloring Tutorial by apchi

I hope these would help you improve your skill. Good luck and ENJOY!

Anime List for July 2009

noreply@blogger.com (mitayashi) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Anything that in your wish here?

1. Naruto Uncut Box Set, Vol. 16

2. Bleach Movie 2: The DiamondDust Rebellion

3. Darker Than Black: Volume 6

4. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, Part 1 (Limited Edition)

5. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, Part 1

6. Romeo x Juliet: Juliet Collection, Part 2

7. Nana: Uncut Box Set, Vol. 1

8. One Piece: Season Two, Second Voyage

9. One Piece: Season Two, Third Voyage

10. Samurai Deeper Kyo: The Complete Series