Don didn't know what the music is. But he's ripped the audio from that section of ep 9 and posted it on his blog.
It's strange listening to it without the video. I know what happens in that scene, but it's strange listening to the swordfight without being able to see it. And, of course, to heart-felt dialogue in Japanese without subtitles.
There's a piece of orchestral music that gets used during the dramatic climax of Dog Days which keeps bugging me, because I don't believe it was written by the series composer, and I can't figure out where it's really from.
The best place to hear it is the intro to ep 10, before the OP runs. It sounds like Mozart to me, like maybe the overture to one of his darker operas. (Don Giovanni, maybe?) Does anyone have any idea what it is?
1
Why no love for Maiko Iuchi? She did Railgun's music after all. I'm sure she can knock-off mood pieces for the movies with the best of them. John Williams and Yoko Kanno, I'm looking at you.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 17, 2011 03:21 PM (8GmqX)
Just my musical intuition. It's not exactly unprecedented for background music to incorporate stuff from the classics. (For instance, recently someone on "Ask Metafilter" asked about some background music from a live action Japanese film, and it turned out to be from Beethoven's 7th symphony.)
Yeah, the composer could create something new in that style -- but that's slow and expensive. Why bother when you can borrow from something that's in the public domain?
3
No, I just listened to it twice, and it definitely sounds operatic. And I've heard that style before, I just can't place it. Post-baroque, but not by more than a century. All strings (with muted drums), no horns or woodwinds, so if it's not european classical, it's a damn good imitation.
Posted by: ubu at August 17, 2011 03:57 PM (GfCSm)
4
RahXephon included a number of classical pieces, but they were all credited.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 17, 2011 04:28 PM (8GmqX)
Ubu, other parts of it do have brass and woodwinds, so it's a complete orchestra.
One of the episodes of the "Sakura Wars" TV series had background music at one point which was definitely operatic. It turned out to be the Japanese translation of a piece by Verdi, and the two solo parts were performed by two of the seiyuu in the show. And it was indeed credited.
For all I know it's credited in Dog Days, too, but I can't read the credits so I wouldn't know.
I am trying to skip through Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi looking for top-rotation grabs, because it has girls like this in it:
Which is what you expect from an eroge adaptation, isn't it? Well, I didn't expect this:
The show is surprisingly fruitless for my search, because there are too many guys around. Nearly every scene which makes the girls look good has at least one guy in it, rendering it useless for my purposes. I only came up with 3 in the first episode.
You know, if I can't have a beach episode or an onsen episode, then a school sports festival is a pretty good substitute.
This show is turning out to be somewhat better than I expected it to be. For one thing, it really is a comedy. For another, they aren't doing many "unfortunate accidental compromising positions". And the male lead is really a rather nice guy.
I'm not really watching it; I'm just scanning through it with the subtitles turned on. But there aren't any outright jerks, or people I want to shoot. And things are getting better; certain people who began with negative opinions of Kazuma are coming to like him.
Hinata is still a hold-out, but that's because she's the requisite tsundere.
I found my password to Crunchyroll, so now I'm looking around.
They cross-reference series by when they were broadcast, and right now I'm looking at the listings for spring 2011. Every single series is rated either 4.5 or 5 full stars out of five, usually by several hundred people. (Except Tono to Issho, which is 4.0 stars.)
There's something really wrong about that. Let's take a look further back, shall we?
1
It's a frequent problem in a lot of online rating systems. The only people that bother to rate have extreme views, either positive or negative.
Posted by: Boviate at August 10, 2011 05:24 PM (RPpft)
2
No anime site has an excellent rating system of ANN, where well-known series form beatuful smooth histograms, often with peaks away from 10. I attribute it to the thoughtfuly developed explanations which even a lazy teenager can easily follow. If ANN only had numerical ratings without explanations, it would end in the same boat as MAL and AnimePlanet. That is because 1. a person cannot properly grade own feelings without a scale, and 2. cannot do it in a consistent way.
Now, if you look at one person's distribution, it will trend high, if he follows the grading guidelines. This is because everyone pre-selects what he watches.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 10, 2011 06:20 PM (9KseV)
3
To answer Steven's direct question, Yatler is 2.0 at Crunchy, and Abunai Sisters is 1.5. Justice.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 10, 2011 06:25 PM (9KseV)
4
Probably most of the raters are like me. I only bother to rate the shows that I watch regularly, which means that I only give high ratings. After all, I wouldn't watch it if I didn't like it.
The vast majority of shows I don't watch at all, or drop after one episode. To make the ratings meaningful, maybe I should go through them all and give them each one star. But that would be a lot of work and in any case it hardly seems fair. Maybe one of those shows would turn out to be brilliant if I gave it a fair chance. The first episode often isn't representative, etc., etc.
Posted by: Jonathan Tappan at August 10, 2011 06:42 PM (7wFYN)
6
Great observation, Steven. I watch shows on Cruncyroll a lot, but ignore the ratings because of the high-bias mentioned. I'll have to start paying attention to the number of voters from now on, see how that tracks with my preferences.
Posted by: Dave Young at August 11, 2011 08:23 AM (DYR2Q)
I've stopped bothering to look at the listings at TokyoTosho, because there just isn't anything I care about. Not even old stuff; and no OVAs or other BDs that I'm looking forward to. It's just a vast wasteland.
Nine Million Cat Gods turned out to be mediocre, and there were several series which I considered at the beginning which got rejected without even a single viewing. All the rest were tossed after only one.
It's making me guilty that I'm not posting much around here. My traffic is deservedly lower. About the only thing I can think of to do is find obscure stuff and do Mystery Meat posts about them. Maybe I'll try to find one and post about it tomorrow.
Sorry, folks.
UPDATE: It's not quite a complete disaster. Marie & Gali ep 28 just came out. So that's five minutes of new video for me to watch.
My "to watch" lists contains 58 titles, although that includes things that are absolutely impossible to find, like Mizuiro Jidai. Surely some of those are watcheable.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 06, 2011 08:15 PM (9KseV)
2
If worst comes to worst (and it's getting close) I've got the unwatched pile to fall back on -- which still contains Haibane Renmei, Gurren Lagen, 90% of Ikkitousen, 40% of Mythical Detective Ragnarok Loki, and I can order a new set of Dirty Pair TV. I gave the others to the Stainless Steel Brat as a graduation present.
Or I could do what I've been doing, spend money and time on Magic:The Addiction again.
Posted by: ubu at August 06, 2011 09:57 PM (GfCSm)
3
People keep taunting me that the new My Little Pony is actually really, really good. If this drought of good anime continues, I may be forced to succumb....
Posted by: Mauser at August 06, 2011 10:58 PM (cZPoz)
4
Conversely, I think I'm watching more at the moment than I have been at any other point in recent years...
Posted by: DiGiKerot at August 07, 2011 06:43 AM (Bbf65)
5
Ubu has the best anime still ahead of him. Us? Just decadance and Madoka.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 07, 2011 09:24 AM (9KseV)
6
No need to apologize, I'm watching a bunch of anime and I'm struggling to find stuff to blog about.
I can't remember if you mentioned it but did you try out Mayo Chiki?
Posted by: thenullset at August 07, 2011 06:24 PM (9SgP1)
7
There are good shows around, too bad, none of them seemed to be in your
taste range such as Nichijou, Tiger & Bunny, Usagi Drop, etc.
Posted by: BigFire at August 07, 2011 06:26 PM (jSRcl)
8
Be careful with the My Little Pony cartoon. The thing is apparently filled with infectious mind viruses.
Posted by: metaphysician at August 07, 2011 07:02 PM (hD30M)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 08, 2011 02:19 AM (PiXy!)
10
Is the Dirty Pair TV the older 80s/90s series, or the shorter version ADV released in the late 90s? I liked the shorter version with the new art style, but I still like the original DP too.
Posted by: Tom Tjarks at August 09, 2011 09:14 AM (T5fuR)
11
The TV series is the original. It was unavailable for a long long time - I went so far as to order the DVDs from Japan and start fansubbing it myself.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 09, 2011 09:23 AM (PiXy!)
12
Tom, you're thinking of Dirty Pair Flash, which is... okay. I liked it, but I like just about anything Dirty Pair related.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 09, 2011 04:43 PM (KBBJ+)
13
I've just been watching Uta no Prince-sama for the inevitable intervention/liver replacement surgery episode that's bound to happen:
Green Pupils and Jaundice. That should be the finale song in the penultimate episode!
Posted by: wahsatchmo at August 09, 2011 07:43 PM (qAn1+)
14
And the picture, because I messed something up:
Posted by: wahsatchmo at August 09, 2011 07:48 PM (qAn1+)
15
Thank you Wonderduck, yes, that's exactly it. May need to rewatch it, as well as find all my old DP movies. Have the urge to see some good classic 90s anime again.
Posted by: Tom Tjarks at August 10, 2011 01:55 PM (T5fuR)
Ubu's got a preview of the Fall 2011 season, and now that I've read it, I almost wish I hadn't.
The only thing on there looking even mildly interesting to me is Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinesai, and that only because it's virtually guaranteed to have lots of fan service. It's a sad note when the only thing I have to look forward to is an eroge adaptation.
1
Nothing really jumps out, but I'll watch Fate/Zero and Working'!! because I enjoyed the prequels to some extent. I'll probably also give Tamayura ~Hitotose~, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai and C Cubed a go.
Posted by: Jordi Vermeulen at August 02, 2011 12:29 PM (AJZdn)
2
Oh, God, not Shana again. Also, Fate and Nikki? Blech. I think I'm gonna go with Working!!, BoToSu, Ika Musume and Bakuman. Hopefully it will be better than this summer.
Posted by: Jaked at August 02, 2011 01:49 PM (VvUy8)
3
Ubu is not listing it, but DiGiKerot says IM@S is going to continue into the second cour. Since I only unretired for idols, I guess I'm going to stick with it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 02, 2011 02:39 PM (9KseV)
4
Oh c'mon, how can you not love the idea behind Ben-To? No holds barred Supermarket Survival Battle?
I've been waiting for Mirai Nikki ever since the promo came out... um... a year ago?
Fate/Zero? Mmm... tasty, tasty Grail War!
Good lord, Tamayura ~Hitotose~ sounds like someone broke into Pond Central, took one look at all the slice-of-life shows I own, and decided to create an anime just for me.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 02, 2011 03:46 PM (KBBJ+)
6
Mirai Nikki "OVA" was back in December. Going back to watch it reminded me... it's not just Gasai Yuuno -- all the women in that series are bughouse nuts, with the possible exception of #8.
I didn't list any continuing series, since they weren't in Crunchy's list, but it looks like the big three are going to continue: Bleach, One Piece, and probably Naruto. At least I've seen nothing about any of them ending. Also Fairy Tail has been picked up for a third year..
Posted by: ubu at August 02, 2011 07:45 PM (GfCSm)
8
Easy streaming has a certain effect for lowering of barriers. I would not bother with downloading Nichijou, but watching it on Crunchy is acceptable.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 03, 2011 09:55 AM (9KseV)
1
Someday I should write up my proof that Cyber-X is the villain in Hand Maid May.
On a related note, I clicked through some of the others, and found the one about Rune Soldier Louie being the bastard son of the king and the high priestess. According to the Wikipedia entry for the novels, it's eventually revealed that he's the son of the king and an elf, making him the least half-elvish-looking half-elf in anime history.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at August 01, 2011 12:00 PM (fpXGN)
2
I have mixed feelings about the WMGs. There's a lot of really interesting ideas, like this one, on most of the pages. However, sometimes you have to trudge through dozens of random, arbitrary nonsense entries to find them. Not *every* in existence needs a Dr Who crossover WMG.
Posted by: metaphysician at August 02, 2011 01:18 PM (hD30M)
TV Tropes banned me for correcting an entry that insisted the Egyptians never practiced slavery on the "You Fail History Forever" page. Maybe it was my edit comment that pissed everyone off: "Yes, there is [evidence of slavery in Egypt]. Sorry if that sounds rude, but there's really no polite way to say 'you're wrong' without sounding kind of like saying 'you're right.'"
Posted by: Tatterdemalian at August 02, 2011 04:21 PM (4njWT)
4
TVtropes never managed to keep my interest. Also, it became worse with age. I read through their list of anime tropes once and that was it forever.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 02, 2011 05:00 PM (9KseV)
At this point it's so huge that I don't believe any single person has read it all, even those who are running the site.
But it's become one of my go-to sites for looking up things about series I'm interested in. It has a different point of view than, say, ANN or Wikipedia.
The whole universe is Japanese
This is interesting: turns out the DogScript (from "Dog Days") is a cipher of hiragana. No wonder Shinku learned to write in it in just a few days!
1
Gurren-Lagann's written language was English, only with a different glyphs for characters -- with one exception: writings in Parallel Works episodes were all gibberish.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 01, 2011 10:38 AM (9KseV)
I woke up early yesterday morning, with a song running through my head. I knew it was from anime but I simply could not place it. It bugged me all day. Eventually I was able to turn it off, replace it with something else.
It was in my head again this morning when I woke up about 4:30. Only this time I remembered where it was from. It's the Railgun OVA, and it's the music that plays when Mikoto goes into the alley alone, near the end.
Don't ask me why that particular song showed up to bother me. It's still in my head as I post this, but it no longer bugs me because I know what it is.
UPDATE: Speaking of which, the urban legend which is featured in that OVA is called dare ka ga miteru. They translated it as "Somebody's watching" but isn't it more like "Who is looking?"
dare ka means "Who?" and then they've stacked a ga particle and tossed in a form of miru "to look". I don't quite understand the construction; does the ga particle turn what is before it into a noun?
1
Actually dareka is "someone". Take any question word and slap ka on it, it turns into equivalent of our "something", "sometime", "somewhere". It's not the particle "ka" and should be transliterated without the separating whitespace, IMHO.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 29, 2011 10:14 AM (9KseV)
2
I've got the OP for Fractale stuck in my head. Fortunately, I like that song.
Posted by: atomic_fungus at July 29, 2011 10:20 AM (6rZab)
4
The OP and ED were the best thing about that series, a_f.
Oh wait, topic drift. Hey! Isn't that a demonic duck of some sort?
Um....ok then. Yeah, especially when I first hear it and it gets lodged in my head; the only way to deal with it is download the song and listen to it over and over and over again until I'm sick of it.
5
Other particles can act like that. "mo" with a question word turns it into "no one", "nothing", "nowhere". "de mo" means "everyone", "everything", "everywhere". The last usually isn't followed by an ordinary particle.
