Moe is but a state of mind.

This is probably the hardest thing to do, this talking about oneself part. I mean, I could write a two thousand word article without thinking too hard about it, within some hours, with lots of coffee. But a self-introduction? That takes days, even weeks of introspection. I have to identify what it is that defines me, insert a couple of bad jokes, and then put it up for the dedicated denizens of the Internet to see. It’s daunting. But I’ve thought deeply about this, underneath a waterfall in Nagoya, and I think I can do this. I shall begin with a…

Hi. They call me Maskerade around here parts. I’m an amateur writer and was humbled and utterly thrilled when Zz and his awesome band accepted me as a contributor for this brilliant blog. I shall try my very best to produce the finest works for your reading pleasure.

I’ve been watching anime for 15 years now, since the high school days. I devoured series after series in my university days, but now that I’m in the realm of full-time work, I do find that anime-viewing has decreased quite a bit and now pick the ones I really like. I completely believe that anime has shaped me somewhat. I went through various phases in my childhood trying to be a revolver-wielding robot-samurai after watching Rurouni Kenshin, Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop. I still make this attempt. You should see the looks on the street.

I’m a big lover of anime music and though I’m more partial towards jazz, rock and instrumental/classical music types, as long it sounds good and is made with feeling, I’ll like it. Yoko Kanno is my goddess, L’Arc-en-Ciel my gods, Nujabes (RIP) my muse and there are way too many indie J-rock bands for me to keep track of, try as I might. I hope this kind of gives you an idea of what I do listen to. Just incidentally, I was having a karaoke session with some friends of mine, a couple of them Japanese. Now, I can’t speak Japanese but when someone put on Evangelion’s “Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” my lips automatically moved along. I couldn’t help it. The song was ingrained in me. Of course, I was rubbish at the second verse, but the body remembered first verse and chorus. I had to sing it.

Now, I don’t really have much in musical background. I sang in a choir in junior college, so I do have some basics, but nothing too technical. I can’t go into the gritty bits of the song, but I’ll focus on the emotions they invoke and what the overall feel of the album is trying to achieve is. Hopefully, I can convey a good sense of the album for you out there. I’ll probably focus on the backlog, the missing songs from long ago, and try to make this blog the foremost site for anime music reviews. Then, I’ll gain a few fans. Then, I’ll take over the world. One step at a time. With much evil laughter. Very evil.

I’ll leave you with this. Anime music has grown so much, it currently rivals anything Hollywood can give us. It’s definitely surpasses music that television series have provided. It’s a soundtrack over the span of episodes, designed to evoke emotions while watching coloured images interact with each other. It’s brilliant. I love it. And I hope to love it even more.

I thank you for reading my ramblings and reviews to come, and should you have any comments, critiques and love, please do not hesitate to send them my way!

Do the impossible, see the invisible. ROW ROW, FIGHT DA POWAH

This is kind of what I feel like.

Hello everyone! I go by Yu around the web. After applying to Anime Instrumentality I was pleasantly surprised and rather ecstatic to find that I’d been accepted as a new writer by Zzero and Co. Many thanks to all of the AI staff for welcoming me into their ranks and answering my questions! The pressure is on to write my best!

Only recently have I become an anime fan. Previously, I was only vaguely aware of anime due to the pervasiveness of Miyazaki’s films in Asian culture. It was when I began sampling other titles out of curiosity that my interest in the media truly started to blossom. As of now, I’ve seen a good number of series and have found that I am not very picky about what I watch. Somehow I manage to find an enjoyable aspect in almost anything (Of course, there are always the exceptions). The music, on the other hand, I’m a little more critical of.

My background with music started with the piano. Since then, I’ve also picked up the cello and played in several amateur ensembles. While that’s fine and dandy, I have absolutely no music theory knowledge past the absolute basics – something I plan to rectify as soon as the opportunity presents itself. But that shouldn’t take away from what knowledge I do have since my experience definitely helps me analyze music without getting too technically deep. Besides, talking about the nuts and bolts is Aftersh0k’s job

As for the genres of music I like, I’m fond of classically-influenced works. That’s not to say I dislike everything else. Jazz, rock, trance, high pitched female singers… I’ll listen to it and enjoy it if it’s been composed with imagination and performed with feeling.

Other than that, my pastimes include being an ardent science nerd and using my name to make terrible puns (It’s so hard to resist. Look at all of the post titles recently!). I apologize in advance.

Thanks for listening to me ramble, I look forward to my time discussing music here!

Yu

After going through all the applications, I’m really happy to announce that the talented and enthusiastic Yu will be joining our staff! You might have seen Yu’s comments pop up from time to time on this site and she’s demonstrated a good amount of insight into anime music through said comments. Expect an introduction from her in the next few days as well as a review of a soundtrack I’ve heard a lot of good things about, but have not yet listened to. Wish her well and I hope you enjoy her anime music musings.

Aw, yeah, you better recognize a Photoshop expert when you see one. Smudge tool ftw.

Hello, all! The name’s Aftershok, and Zzeroparticle has been kind enough to let me join the staff here on Anime Instrumentality so I can Geass your minds with my opinions on anime, soundtracks, and music in general. I hope you guys will enjoy my contributions to the site, and I hope I can continue the standard of excellence the prolific Mr. Zzero has kept up since the site’s founding. I would like to ask for forgiveness ahead of time, because I will be doing a lot of this:

Blah blah blah blah blah.

…droning on and on about my opinions like they’re the only ones in the world; I can only ask that you guys put up with me .

I’ve been watching anime for quite some time now, and can say I’ve seen a lot of shows. My tastes in anime are heavily eclectic; I can’t say I have an affinity for any one genre but, like anybody, I appreciate quality, entertainment value, and attention to detail (or shows that are so spectacularly bad, they are good in their own way).

Music has always been a passion for me, and, having played saxophone for more than half my life, I can say I’ve amassed quite a bit of knowledge on the inner workings of melody, harmonic progression, and music theory that go hand-in-hand with an education in jazz and improvisation. Although jazz is a favorite of mine, I enjoy at least some aspects of all genres, especially alternative rock and classical. I’m the sort of huge music nerd that cannot be satisfied with a song I really like until I’ve analyzed it harmonically and memorized the chords and melody on piano (thankfully, not too many songs tickle my fancy to that extent). As you might expect, this may result in me being somewhat technical in my viewpoints and whatnot, but I’ll try to tone it down and not be the huge geek that I am .

No matter what medium it is, though, I think critically of all my media intake and try to go past the obvious and elementary. Hopefully, I can come up with viewpoints and criticisms that are worth your time. I’ll try my best to respond to everyone that is kind enough to leave comments and hope that we can all be friends and get along.

Thanks for your time, and wish me luck!

- ‘Shok

UPDATE: We finally have a review up of the Makoto Shinkai Promise album. Do enjoy the thoughts and opinions in that review!

It’s kind of funny actually. I had already been aware that the Eminence Symphony Orchestra was working on something called Project Promise because I had seen the name come up on Hiroaki Yura’s signature on Eminence’s forums. What I didn’t know was whether it would focus on anime or game music, so when I saw nyoronyolo link to Xcomp Randomness’s post on this latest Eminence project which celebrates 10 years of Makoto Shinkai’s collaboration with Tenmon through an orchestral arrangement of some of the most memorable pieces from Shinkai’s works, I was pretty excited.

The tracklist is already posted on the Xcomp Randomness site and the music covers Tenmon’s stuff from Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second, Beyond the Clouds: The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and even the short She and Her Cat. Of those works, I’m probably most familiar with 5 Centimeters Per Second, so over the next few days, I’ll be making some time to reacquaint myself with some of those other works, mostly to ponder how exactly the tracks from those works will be arranged. It should be delightful though since Tenmon does have the ability to write simple, but wonderful tracks like in 5 Centimeter’s “Sora to Umi no Shi.”

Sora to Umi no Shi
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Anyhow, people will inevitably have questions about Project Promise and I’ll do my best to see if anyone over at Eminence will divulge more information about this. Omo has come up with a few good ones already and if anyone else has any questions they’d like me to ask, just put them here and I’ll forward the questions on. No guarantees on the replies, but it’s worth a shot anyhow.

Other News:

You may have noticed that as of yesterday, Anime Instrumentality has a new contributor in Jen, who has started things off with an excellent review of Pandora Hearts Original Soundtrack 1. She’s been very enthusiastic about anime music in general and I’m glad to have someone with her passion on board, so join me in giving her a warm welcome to the review staff!

Name: John Kim

E-mail: supuhaznpbrein@gmail.com

AIM: seraphjei

Website: sunggyu.wordpress.com…

Favorite Anime: Clannad ~AS~, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Toradora!, Kanon, Aria the Origination

Favorite Manga: Yotsuba, Aria, Welcome to the NHK, Monster, Unbalance x Unbalance

Favorite Literature: Jude the Obscure, Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, The Merchant of Venice, Death of a Salesman

Favorite Musicians: Tommy Emmanuel, Kotaro Oshio, Depapepe, CYNE, Damien Rice

Hobbies: Playing guitar, visual novels, rhythm games, writing short stories, and of course watching anime and everything associated with it.

General Information: It was just a few months ago when I approached zzeroparticle and asked him for a position on his writing staff for his Anime Instrumentality blog. After a long hiatus I’ve finally started to contribute to the site, so it seems that it is a good time to introduce myself, and give the readers of Anime Instrumentality a little bit of background info.

My name is John Kim, otherwise known as sung gyu on the site, and I have been a dedicated fan of all things anime related for five years. I’ve been managing my own blog Hara Hetta for a little less than 6 months, and have been reviewing music and anime for about a year. Currently, I am enrolled as a freshman at my university, and plan to major in English. I have been working as a musician on the side, playing acoustic guitar at local cafes, and producing hip hop instrumentals in my free time. My music experience includes playing piano for 10 years and guitar for 8 years. Much of my music specialization is in classical guitar infused with new-age techniques.

As for anime, I have been deeply involved in anime culture for many years and have become quite obsessed with the anime industry as a whole (perhaps as a deterrent to my own health and well being.). I enjoy watching all kinds of anime, and have only one golden rule when it comes to anime: “A good anime will allow the audience to reflect upon their own lives, and leave a profound impact on the watcher for years to come.” I am very lenient, and always tend to give shows the benefit of the doubt, but the same can’t be said when it comes to music though. As for genres, I am a huge fan of slice-of-life and magical realism, but also tend to like philosophical and psychological anime as well and I rank Clannad ~After Story~, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Toradora!, Kanon, and Aria the Origination among my favorites.

It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I’m looking forward to the comments and feedback. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail me or IM on AIM.