Monday, October 31, 2005
	| First| Prev | Next |Last | Parody Strip #36 "Akimanga-Daioh 2" (Story Arc: Akimanga-Daioh) | First| Prev | Next |Last | "Akimanga-Daioh 2" by Akira (2005-10-31) The joke is just a duplicate of page 70 of "Azumanga Daioh-1"... The most difficult part of making "Azumanga Daioh" parody is... almost all the basic jokes are already covered in the original manga. Any joke (I came up) will be just extension/modification of already existing jokes. There is no way to come up with a new original joke. Kiyohiko Azuma is a genious. Chiyo Mihama is a very smart girl who entered high school at age 10. She's very cute character and she's is my second favorite character from this manga (guess who is first) :) Yomi is a very handy character to use since she's very normal (compared to others). She can show to readers how funny the joke is with her common knowledge/action. If you can tell which characters Tomo is talking about, you are watching too much anime ^_^; Also I made a mistake. It seems like she is teaching mathematics rather than science at high school. Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum

	Tuesday, November 1, 2005
	"I've Sound" by Konstantin (2005-11-01) This time around, I'll rant a bit on my main musical obsession of the past year, namely I've Sound. For those not already hooked on it, I've is a label founded by a few trance DJs from Hokkaido that specializes in making songs and soundtracks for erogames and, more recently, anime. I first found out about their music about a year ago when, in the process of trying to find out more about denpa (a subgenre of j-pop that's pretty much the musical counterpart of moe: very fast, very cute, very high-pitched), I happened across a collection of I've compilation CDs, which gleefully proceeded to take over my playlist for the better part of the following year. Musically, the most interesting feature of their songs is the flawless integration of trance loops with a standard pop structure and sensibility. The songs range from ultra-fast and energetic denpa to regular pop and slower R&B ballads, though most of them end up being cute and extremely catchy. Out of all the composers employed by the label my favorites are Takase Kazuya and C.G Mix, both of whom are equally comfortable laying on the cute and laying down the psychedelic vibes. I've's most famous projects are probably Takase's collaborations with Key's Togoshi Magome to produce the soundtracks for Kanon and Air, though there have also been I've songs featured in recent anime (most notably Onegai Teacher/Twins, Kannadzuki no Miko, Starship Operators, and the TV adaptation of Air). Aside from their unique arrangements, I've's other great strength is their pool of top-notch singers. KOTOKO is by far the most prolific and the best known, having broken out into the mainstream, but she still regularly contributes to I've releases. Her fame comes with good reason, since she has a wonderful voice that can reach heights unknown to all but possibly Momoi Haruko without becoming annoying (YMMV, of course ^^;) or off-pitch in the process and doesn't lose any of its power on slower and lower-pitched ballads. If you want a sample, check out the demo of the opening to "Princess Bride" (click EXTRA -> Opening -> DOWNLOAD) from "13cm" (warning 18 over), the song that is largely responsible for turning me into the denpa fanboy I am now. Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum