This will be fairly short and sweet and will mostly serve to update people on my activities and why this blog isn’t as updated as often as it should be. I think there are only two or three people who already know about this (family doesn’t count), so it’s about time I made this a general announcement. I have been working on building up a decent amount of content on the Eminence Symphony Orchestra’s website. My primary duties on that site are to submit anime soundtrack reviews, the occasional anime music feature article, and of course, anime music news snippets that I’ve gathered from around the web. Aside from the news articles, these are things that I’ve regularly posted about on this blog, so in that regard, it’s not exactly a new experience. What does excite me though is being able to mesh with artists like Minorin and composers so as to expose the English-speaking fan community to them.

So the obvious question will be what will change on this site. The short answer: not much. Though one would think that by contributing to Eminence, my output on here will see a decline, I’ve been contributing since February and have been doing so consistently since then. So no, there will not be any change of pace as far as output goes for Anime Instrumentality. After all, it is kind of nice to be able to have my own space where I can do things like post music clips alongside the reviews to be able to give the reader an idea of what the soundtrack sounds like. It’s not something that has been implemented on Eminence’s site (and I don’t know if it ever will) and seeing the positive response that step has garnered on here, it’s worth having a webspace where I have the freedom to do just that.

And of course, my other sphere of activity will continue on. The #MALKeionbu (the MyAnimeList Anime Music Piece of the Week Club for the uninitiated) has been going strong and Omo’s post discussing how fun it is to be exposed to new artists and composers captures my sentiments exactly. It’s definitely been an enjoyable voyage of discovery every week and I have always managed to learn something new, whether it’s some piece that flew under my radar or even rediscovering some old melodies that I’ve forgotten.

Taken in sum, this represents a tremendous opportunity. The potential for raising a greater amount of awareness of anime music is just too good to pass up and by contributing to the Eminence website, this blog, and the MALKeionbu, I really hope to see a stronger, more active anime music community.

Also, for those who haven’t done so already, you should follow me on Twitter at zzeroparticle (and for that matter, Eminence has a Twitter account as well). Sending me a message through AIM to the nick zzeroparticle works as well. Hope to see some familiar faces poke around the Eminence website!

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.

Naturally, only the soundtracks and vocal collections will actually have the sample tracks and even then, I’ll only put up at most five excerpts per soundtrack with a minimum of three excerpts. The OP/ED albums will continue to have that youtube link at the bottom since a major part of what makes OP/EDs so enjoyable are the accompanying animation sequences.

In any event, samples have been loaded for the following soundtracks below, which can be found at the bottom of their respective posts. Please take a visit back and listen to what I’m talking about whenever I praise or pan a certain track. If there is a track that isn’t working or you can spot some errors, then please let me know.

Updated Posts:

• ARIA the NATURAL – Aria the NATURAL Vocal Collection
• Kure-nai – Kurenai Original Soundtrack
• Macross Frontier – Macross Frontier Original Soundtrack – Nyan Furo
• Romeo x Juliet – Romeo x Juliet Original Soundtrack

At this point, I feel that I’m ready to expand the blog further, which means that I’m going to be looking for people who are enthusiastic about anime music and are capable of writing reviews that are similar to what I’ve put forth so far. If you’re interested in helping me in this endeavor, please comment here and send me an email at webmaster[ATSIGN]animeinstrumentality[DOT]net with a sample review.