Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I got my Utada CD "This Is The One" today!



I got my new Utada CD "This Is The One" in the mail today. Pre-ordered it on Amazon.com. The only difference is the 3 bonus tracks "Simple and Clean" (which is the same music as "Hikari"), "Sanctuary (Opening)," and "Sanctuary (Ending)." These were featured in a video game series called "Kingdom Hearts." I never played the games, but Utada has a big following because of the games. The music for "Sanctuary" is the same as "Passion." It's interesting to hear English lyrics with those songs I've heard so many times in Japanese. If only I could see her in concert.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

More depressing animation

Because I wasn't scarred enough from watching "Watership Down" the animated movie as a child, I netflixed "The Plague Dogs" which is from the same people that did "Watership Down." It is quite a disturbing movie, told in a "naturalistic" way about the flight of two dogs from an animal research lab. The animation is superb. Not for the kids at all. I will probably ruin the end, but think "Thelma and Louise" and you get the idea.

Utada news update

On Utada's official website are 3 big updates. 1) She is making 5 in-store appearances in the US, 2) myspace Karaoke contest to win a trip to Japan to karaoke WITH Utada for 30 minutes plus 3 friends, and 3) leave a question for Utada to answer on Utada.com. Why does her SF appearance happen on a day I have to work? Here was my chance to possibly see the top of Utada's head or something as she ducked into a crowd of fans and to get terribly disappointed after waiting around for hours. I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm being serious. Seriously.

Another streaming outlet: ANN

Anime News Network is now streaming a large selection of anime from legal outlets like Joost, Crunchyroll, YouTube, and Funimation. Sort of a one stop legal streaming site for Code Geass, Death Note, Bleach, and Skip Beat!.