A new shiny to listen to came on Saturday. Yes, way to answer! Yay!!!
Listening to the instrumentals and full songs… yes, this single still feels like an ode to old fripSide.
way to answer
No lie that way to answer is my favorite part of this single. So glad you are in my life.
My favorite instrumental parts of the song are definitely the intro riff and the beginning of the 2nd verse.
I still do not hear what the lyrics claim to be in the song. I’m sitting here playing with the song trying to pick out any words and it’s simply impossible. Messing with pitch and speed, I *think* I’m hearing some of the words now, but maybe that’s just because I’m trying to believe they are there. Specifically “time out … hold your solid faith! shoot now! shout now!”
Not that this is important, haha. But it’s on my mind.
As far as lyrics go, these are my favorite of all the a-sides.
last fortune
Where are all my old comments so I can just copy and paste causeimlazy.
This part is short because I think I talked a lot about this song already in the past. I think I enjoy the instrumental more than the vocal version. But, I love the vocal melodies. The way the song flows from verse to chorus is so seamless, you could almost miss the switch. If you loved songs like praying over, split tears, and snow blind, you might like this one.
My favorite parts in the instrumental? The pre-choruses and the synths in the chorus. I also like the bridge before the guitar solo comes in.
I forgot how this song went since the short version in December, unlike way to answer. The chorus of way to answer was still fresh in my mind after not hearing for a while.
The rest of this post is pretty much why I think way to answer PV is keyboard-smash amazing. And it’s picture-heavy!
way to answer – the PV
No idea what the lyrics are supposed to do with the video, so I’ll just appreciate that these awesome beats are the soundtrack of this awesome video. The intro♥ Love when the video’s speed and cuts match the music rhythm.
The thing that really gets me about this video is how it tries to mimic the cliche horror film set up. Walking through scary woods, finding an abandoned rundown building, and being stalked by suspicious looking fellows. I LOVE IT, OKAY. Even the lighting and video effects give it that old movie feel. Very interesting considering how modern their fashion is. This is what Sat must’ve meant when he said he thinks that the video is artistic.
Anyway, the pair are hiking up a mountain together to find and infiltrate the hideout of the robed men. They are searching for something inside.
Nanjolno, always channeling her inner Ayu through eye makeup. Honestly, I always look forward to how her eyes will be decorated each single. A little more than her dresses.
Most of the video is spent showing the two walking around the hideout, avoiding the caped members.
The camera angle, coloring, and lighting here remind me of an old and very bad horror flick I saw once. I want to say this particular film was from the 80s.
Why video director, why? Maybe I can see why you put this on here, to show who in the real world is a member of this cult, but if that’s the case, then it could have been executed a lot better. Like, the font.
Anyway, here is the point where Sat and Nanjolno find a rubber ear on the ground and stumble across another magician, Magician Toshihiro (Toshihiro Muggy if you go by the DVD case. fripSide’s CD creators have never been very good at spell-check and text editing). The two watch him do some tricks then sneak away to another room.
This is the part of the video where fripSide reveals their epic & hilarious climax. This video was meant to be the end of the ‘Railgun PV’ storyline, so this is how it all ended.
After spending some time sneaking around the hideout, the duo find themselves at a strange room crowded with the robed members. Sitting down, they are facing a wall decorated with a golden mask and an altar draped in white cloth.
What is that on the altar? What are they worshiping over there?
I like the two scenes of Sat and Nanjo after. They do the classic anime “let’s not show their expression to make the scene more dramatic”
So, what is that?
Is that?
…………………………………….
It is.
THE EAR THE CULT STOLE FROM THE PYRAMID
*duh duh duhnnn*
All the members get up and start doing some weird dance. Then, their leader sits up and reveals himself.
Upon seeing this scene, I immediately thought, “their hideout is a freaky nightclub!!!!” Probably alone in thinking that, hah. That part was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen in a music video. And Boo Takagi looked so ridiculous on his reveal. I watched the making-of and Nanjolno was trying so hard not to laugh, but couldn’t help it. If it were me, I probably would’ve been rolling on the floor.
Apparently, the higher the position, the more unsuspecting the person. Who would’ve guessed it was Boo Takagi running the show except for all the people that read the spoiler on all the anison news sites.
not that I know who Boo Takagi is. had I grown up watching him, I’m sure this would be a lot more hilarious to me
elle oh elle x100. His mask almost hit the ear.
So then he started doing this…
Then came my favorite moment of the whole video.
My feelings summed up in 35 frames.
(This gif also shows the 80s/early 90s video effect quite well, I think.)
A…. happy ending….? I’m not sure what just happened here.
The music stops, everything goes black. Is it over?
Not yet! They finally got a treasure!!
…………..
…………..
o it’s cursed. o well.
So, the story of the masked men may have concluded, but there are still questions left unanswered. Why did this cult give fripSide such a hard time? Was their mission to interfere with fripSide’s activities, and so fripSide wanted this stuff to have super powers to get back at them, then Boo cut them a break?
Why did fripSide want these things, anyway? Are they just treasure hunters? Is the pop group just a front to find rare, valuable things to steal?
Am I reading too much into this?
Two criticisms about the video:
I think the mandatory scenes of Sat and Nanjolno jammin’ don’t fit in with the video as well as they could. Although they have the same effect going on as one yellow/orange scene I mentioned above, it feels like I’m watching two videos that were put together. Nanjolno’s outfit doesn’t really fit. It looks nice, don’t get me wrong, but it just doesn’t belong. Nothing she is wearing in those scenes do.
I would’ve liked to have seen the past guests make an appearance. That is criticism #2.
way to answer – making-of
I enjoyed watching this a lot. Very unreal to see the set in real color after watching the finished video!
Yoshino is so cute. “Seems we are filming at some ruins today… they look scary. I hope nothing bad happens.”
Before we leave here, can we just take a moment to look at how cool Sat looks?
It’s still black, but at least he is not in a white shirt and tie this time! Now challenge some colorAlso in this scene, he gets down on the ground and “practices” the hand movements with the extras. Sat was his normal silly self behind the scenes. Although Nanjolno gets a lot of screen time, it’s nice that we get to see Sat a lot in the behind the scenes all the time.
This ends my journey through the CD+DVD that is way to answer.
I anxiously wait for the next release ^^
Oh lol, the facepalm of sat. It’s been a while since I watched the PV so I sort of forgot. gif saved on hard disk.
it’s so funny, glad you like the gif!!
GIF saved too. I love reading your reviews Katie ^^
thanks ^^
I’m not a professional writer by any means, but I always gotta fangirl about my fripSide things!
no need to be a professional to write interesting stuff
“fripSide things” heh^^ I’d love to encounter people with “fripSide things” like you but the place where I live (france) does not make this easy… thanks internet!
by the way I just listened to sat’s new track “spoon”, you gotta love the satSound but strangely enough I feel like something’s missing… what do you think?
=3
all the people I encounter with fripSide things live on the internet. I just got fripSide a new fan recently =D
Are you talking about Silverlight, the song by spoon?
Definitely is the satSound (I like that!), however I feel something is definitely missing, too. It’s lacking that debut punch. It reminds me of the songs he did for all those Twinkle Crusader releases (which are certainly not his strongest works IMO).
The lyrics flow nicely. I just don’t care for their content =/ Problem with Jpop in general seems to be overuse of the generic “I looked at the vast blue sky back then, thinking about my dreams, I’m not gonna hesitate any longer, let’s go on together hand in hand, your smile makes me happy.” Make up some new metaphors and imagery!
It’s so hard to give a negative review about a Sat song like this, but yeah =/ The remixes are more interesting. I’d still like to get the single.
I feel exactly the same about those overused metaphors. Are those lyrics by yuki-ka too?
In general I don’t really care about the lyrics because all I’m interested in is the melody as well as how the voice enhances this melody (but not the lyrics themselves). After all, sat’s work is all about the melody =D
Yes I meant Silverlight by spoon, sorry! I haven’t listened to the remixes yet.
By the way I feel quite the same for the Twinkle Crusader themes, except for… last fortune. To me this track is one of the best sat has ever made (I think I’ve got 10-15 tracks like that on my list, that’s all). The way it flows… I just love it!
The problem of the lyrics is something that is applied not just to sat or fripSide, but to the songs of most bishoujo games/anime. And true, not only that, but it’s actually even worse.
I don’t even know Japanese but I get tired of the same lyrics because I still hear the same words and such, I notice that I like songs a lot more if they have more uncommon words in lyrics. I wish I could understand more of the metaphors, but unfortunately I don’t know Japanese that well (yet).
O definitely!
Lyrics have been boring in mainstream Jpop since 2011 (or maybe that’s just when I started noticing it), and all theme songs have same lyrics content, save for that one line that connects it to its anime/game/whathaveyou.
with fripSide, I’ve noticed the more unique the music, the more unique the lyrics.
NOT THAT the other songs aren’t good CUZ I LOVE THEM TOO
lyrics/music/arr were all Sat. I’ve found that yuki-ka tends to have more variation in their lyrics, so I’m glad they joined the team.
The flow of last fortune is pretty nice, I agree! It doesn’t like it’s for that series, actually. I’m not sure if I’d mark it as one of the best personally, but it’s a very good track. But now it’s something I want to think about, what would I put on that list? What songs display the best of Sat?
@Katie (Lyrics have been boring in mainstream Jpop since 2011 (or maybe that’s just when I started noticing it), and all theme songs have same lyrics content, save for that one line that connects it to its anime/game/whathaveyou.)
I did too, but the problem is not only with the music, but also with the content of the anime/etc. There are much too many lovecomedy/harem/bishoujo/likethat and they all get the same treatment with both the melody and the lyrics. When an anime has a (totally) different song or approach of the story itself I like it often more because the bishoujo stuff starts to get very boring after a while.
Again I realize we should actually really need a forums for this, don’t you think so too?
I don’t really watch anime, but that’s sad to hear =/ I’ve seen a couple episodes of those kinds of anime and couldn’t get into them. I should add that I never found anything special about those shows, either.
There wasn’t enough interest for one… the whole situation really depressed me, actually. Especially considering how many people click the link vs how many answers I actually got. boooooo
(edited the wrong comment LOL sorry!)
(I’ll answer here since replies can’t be stacked anymore, or so it seems)
I’m glad you asked Katie^^ Some time ago I said something like “I’ll post a review for infinite synthesis too”; unfortunately I never found the time to complete it. But now, you made me want to create that list of “sat’s best tracks” =3
I think I’ll start tomorrow! And I just bought myself high quality Sennheiser headphones… happy ears of mine say thank you, sat!
By the way, If you have the time, let’s compare our lists! What do you think?
(also, how many tracks? I think 20 is a good number, but…)
WP doesn’t like super long threaded comments =( it’s okay, it messes up the layout here.
I’ll start one up too! I’ll make a new post for it. 20 is a good number, but no more than that, since it is a lot!
OH! Do we include songs that were composed by sat but arranged by someone else?
Well I thought about 20 because if you add fripSide + ALTIMA + others it piles up quite high^^!
Mmhhh you mean stuff like trusty snow? I’d say yes. Also I think we should exclude music arranged by sat but not actually made by him, such as crying moon or escape (both great awesome though, sat has great taste!)
I agree. Though I’d put crying moon on the list if it were “greatest fripSide songs ever”…maybe
Haven’t even hit anything outside of fripSide yet and I have over 20 songs! This is gonna be fun ^^
(*I forgot to erase the first “great”, feels so weird now >_>)
ね (^o^)b
I can’t stop thinking about that, but now it’s time for me to sleep a bit, morning is coming, I overslept (again) ^^ have fun =P
I think my list is over. It’s quite hard to classify so much masterpieces! I think I’ll write some explanations as to why I chose some tracks and not others (something weird awaits you! haha)
I’m not posting it right now, I don’t want to influence you (I’ll wait for your new post)
I’m almost done! I have 3 more songs to choose. I definitely have my #1 song picked out! I’ll try to put it up this week.
It’s rock
it does!! I tend to like fripSide’s rock songs. stellar, magicaride, and now way to answer~
YES
fripSide recorded something new the other day!!!
Oh I am excited
And now ALTIMA stuff!
yeah!! Saw that they filmed the new song’s PV~
Burst the Gravity preview on ALTIMA site! Too bad I missed the nico live
I missed it as well, I totally forgot it was airing…
I\’m missing infinite synthesis(must have with DVD but its sold out at cdjapan and only other place I know and found it in stock is at play-asia which I don\’t like how they ship stuff with extremely cheap packaging for how much they actually charge for it) and the pc game compilation CDs – really want it too. Kept spending my spare munny collecting other stuff and now I\’m also going after the Altima singles.
btw I just stumbled upon their live performance of \”Heaven is a Place on Earth\” on youtube by accident. Been looking for their 2011 animelo live performance to no avail and gave up…then just so happens to chance upon it while listening to fortissimo -from insanity affection-
this the link to it if anyone\’s interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxN6OtTZGfE&feature=plcp
Usually, their first-press releases tend to be around for a while (excluding Judgelight and OMR). I’m sad it’s hard to find new now, but I’m also glad they are finally selling out. You may just have to settle with PA if you really want it.
I need to get the ALTIMA singles, too, but they aren’t top priority. I have AAA and Namie CDs to buy first lol
Loved her outfit in that performance~~
I’m really glad for them as well \(^0^)/ and yeah, I decided to get it from PA once I save enough spare cash for it, sad thing is, since I moved farther from my workplace I’m spending that extra spare cash(about $20-$30) on gas that I could’ve saved each week (ToT)
Yeah, her outfit looks really nice
and I sort of wished I could see the whole dance from those maid cosplayers XD. Also thought how Sat jammed on his keyboard looked really cool too.
their animelo 2011 was great! its much cheaper to get the discs though when i was in Japan itself. saved me about 20-30USD on shipping and somehow it was tax free haha.
that being said I have this feeling they are gonna be left out from Animelo 2012. They have no new release anyway, hope that they would release something soon and make it for Animelo 2012.