Try again…With FEELING!

As promised folks, here’s my second version of my Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga attempt! Hit the jump for production notes.

Climax Deka

So I just finished watching the first episode of Kamen Rider Kiva and right when I’m trying my best to snap out of my “Holy crap, Inoue Might Not Have Screwed Things Up” Daze, I go onto /m/ on 4chan and spot the following.

If these pics which were reported to have come from a cast member’s blog are true, we may be getting the first ever official Kamen Rider team-up DVD this year with Kamen Rider Den-O and Kamen Rider Kiva: Climax Deka.

Then again, this could just be an early peek at this year’s Hyper Battle DVD so don’t get excited just yet until a source pops up. I’d rather this not blow up like last time we got into a situation like this, dear reader.

EDIT (1/29/08): This pictures are indeed confirmed to have come from Takeru Sato’s official blog. Looks like Climax Deka is legit after all but there’s still no word on whether this is a brand new V-Cinema or the Hyper Battle DVD. One can only hope.

FRIDAY ACE: “The Twenty-Second” Edition - Week of 1/20/08

Before we go on, here’s last year’s theme to the occasion to which this edition of Friday ACE is dedicated.

As of this Sunday, I will be 22 years old. 22 years of walking this troubled planet and it’s convention wastelands and making it back in one piece to blow out the candles on the cake. I’ll be out of town celebrating the festivities with a friend of mine but even though there’s the promise of seeing Rambo on opening day, I still wish I could do what this guy did for his movie trailer.

This is Sakichi Sato. You may recognize him as Charlie Brown in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Others know him as the screenwriter for Gozu and Ichi The Killer and for directing Tokyo Zombie.

Anyways, click the pic to see the Greatest Movie Trailer of 2008 which consists of him being surrounded by cameras and screaming the synopsis of his forthcoming anthology film, “Sonna Mucha Na!!” (lit. That’s So Stupid!!). I can only dream of being able to get away with that for an R5 Central promo.

Anyways, it’ll be slightly shorter than usual as I’m preparing for transit to said vacation but nevertheless, here is this week’s Friday ACE!

組曲『ニコニコ動画』 VER. Gaijinder

Awhile back, I swore that I would do my own version of the Nico Nico Douga Musical Suite. Two months of lyrics memorization later, I finally nailed it. Somewhat.

Now, I proudly present to you Kumikyoku [Nico Nico Douga] VER Gaijinder!

Hit the jump for production notes!

Faiz was Gundam SEED to Kamen Rider, Kabuto was SEED Destiny!

Outlandish statement but there is some truth behind it. In the meantime, here’s everything you ever need to see from Faiz.

FINAL ACTION!

As per tradition, I have cooked up yet another Year-End Rider Series song parody. This time, we’ve got one more variant of Double Action that you won’t see in stores. Stay tuned to this entry for an mp3 version of this with new vocals from the R5 Crew. Hopefully.

In the meantime, here’s the tune. Lyrics after the jump.

I Won’t Sleep Until I Pass!!!!

Take “Clear Made wa Nemurenai!” (lit. I Won’t Sleep Until I Clear), the recent single from TEAM. Nekokan, get the amazing vocalist that is JUNCA, change the setting of the song, and you end up with the following: A brand-spanking new TEAM Nekokan collaboration that blows your socks off entitled “I Won’t Sleep Until I Pass!”

Keep the hits coming, guys!

FRIDAY ACE: “Attack of the Logos!!” Edition - Week of 1/13/08

OMG! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES GUYS! IT’S THE LOGOS!

Believe it or not, people have admitted to being freaked out by these logos when they were kids. At first it just seemed like one of those things that maybe it was kinda creepy when you were younger that you just laugh about now, that was until I actually sat through the montage and I was left scratching my head as to why and how the logos for Random House, the BBC, and That Typewriter Guy suddenly became the thing of nightmares.

Beats the daylights out of me. Besides, the time I could spend wondering how this Logophobia actually works is time better spent delivering this week’s Friday ACE!

Operation Roppongi Sky

No this isn’t evidence of Eiji Tsuburaya’s resurrection, it’s one of the many exhibit pieces in a currently running exhibition in Japan entitled “Ultraman Exhibition-Operation Roppongi Sky”.

Hit up SciFi Japan for details.

EDIT: And also check out pics from the event taken by Patrick Macias.

Retrospective In Print

With the death of Newtype USA fastly approaching, I’ve been in something of a nostalgic mood. It really kicked into overdrive when I was in the middle of dismantling Christmas here at my place and I rescued a couple of old magazines along with my slightly warped Guyver models.

See, when I was a kid, there were two Japanese print magazines that I always kept up with until their respective demises. Oh and one from Canada. I think. Meh, I’ll look into some other time. Back to what I was saying, these two mags were always on my shopping list and with the death of Newtype, it got me thinking about them again as I read through them again. So, seeing as how I keep going on and on about them and because I’m sure you guys are just dying to know what the hell I’m even talking about, I figured a good ol’ fashioned retrospective is in order.

DISCLAIMER: No I am not an expert on the full history of each mag. I’m going off of what I can translate off of Wikipedia and personal memory. If I fudged up anything, email me at r5centralATgmail.com and call me on it.

1.) B-Club - 1985~1998
The short version: Any and all things Bandai with a lower page count than Newtype but with all the informational content of several Wikipedia pages on a monthly basis

I had a quasi-subscription to this when I was a kid. By that I mean whenever a new one came in, I’d be the first to go for it at the local anime shop. Think of it as Newtype…but with Anime, Tokusatsu, Gunpla, Doujinshi reviews done in a Giant Robot staff review style, two page Illustration Page art spreads, Red (Freaking) Masoleum by Keita Amemiya (some of the best artwork I’ve ever seen in a mag), illustrated editorials and a freaking Karaoke column.

This could very well be the predecessor to Newtype THE LIVE with its Tokusatsu focus at the time, second only to Uchusen Quarterly (which I’ll get to in a sec). B-Club was where the epilogue manga to Chojin Sentai Jetman was first published back in 1996. Before that, B-Club ran a side story manga to Shaider revolving around his assistant, Annie, and her adventures around the world.

(Sadly, to my knowledge, that manga can’t be found anywhere in collected form. However, the Jetman Epilogue is available in a single volume. Click the previous link for a translation and synopsis)

The magazine ended in 1998 where it then turned into Dengeki B-Magazine which then made the transformation into Dengeki Hobby Magazine some time later and has remained so ever since. God I miss it. Especially because we got such gems like this fan drawing that shows what would have happened if Hiroshi Miyauchi had been a proper member of Ohranger.

(Scan forthcoming)

—–

2.) Space Magazine Uchusen Quarterly (aka Uchusen) - 198?~2005
The Short Version: Japanese equivalent of Starlog

This was the first Japanese print magazine I ever bought into back in 1994. Rather large format with features on Japanese and American Science Fiction, Tokusatsu, Special Effects, and Indie Productions. Yes that’s right, a whole section in the back dedicated to indie productions. Right down to that original Kamen Rider flick that only a select few remember seeing and Line The Barbarian…..

…Yeah, the rest of that episode is just like that opening.

How ironic that the anime shop that I bought this from ended around the same time that Uchuusen ended its run in 2005. I still treasure those few issues that I managed to get my hands on to this day and wish I could have gotten more. You can find back issues on eBay and around the net but they’ll most likely go for a pretty penny depending on the feature. (I wish I could scan some stuff in but I don’t have the room to keep the issues stacked permanently -_-).

Apparently though, some staff from Uchuusen made their way into Hobby Japan if the Japanese Wikipedia entry is right so the legacy sort of lives on. It’d be nice if they just did the Yearbooks at the end of the year again. Le sigh.

Highlights to speak of: Eight issue Gerry Anderson review, Indie production index in the back along with reviews, and that really creepy make up FX school add that had that guy who had his face made up like something was trying to climb out of his cheek.

Yeah. You’re not getting a scan of that one.