A Guide For J-Rock Online Radio Stations

Online radio has taken off in recent years to become one of the fastest growing digital frontiers for entertainment. Here are several ways you can enjoy the best of Asian rock and pop on the net from grassroots organizations who know what they’re talking about.

JRockRadio.com – probably the most obvious place to start, wouldn’t you think? JRockRadio.com features streaming audio on a random selection. Though this isn’t really a “radio show” with DJs, commentaries, and structured playlists, it does offer the ability to switch between genres and skip the current song. The quality of the stream isn’t the best, but you can hear artists from all over Asia and read articles and reviews while listening.

Japanator Radio Podcast Download – from ZB’s A to Z of J-Music, this radio download features artist spotlights, new music, and some of the best from a range of genres. They’re up to 120 episodes now, and you can listen at your leisure.

TaintedReality.net – This is one of the best sources on the net for quality J-Rock radio broadcasts. Includes DJs, interviews, live news, call in opportunities, and is presented LIVE! TR is best for fans of metal, hard rock, and indies. You wont find much pop here Be ready for a great time!

CureRockRadio @ cure247.com – Hands down the best source for formatted online J-rock radio with options. Cure Media are the gold standard for j-rock presentation in the U.S., featuring some of the biggest bands in the scene. The radio is 24/7 and allows to you choose between a live stream or an On Demand option of selected songs you can listen to immediately. The site is also jam-packed with videos and many other goodies like video fan letters and special guest host spots. For the serious Japanese rock fan, start here!

Japan-A-Radio – if you like some serious Otaku tunes and happy bouncy pop, this is the station for you. Lots of Pop. Lots of anime themes.

Last.FM JRock tag Radio – Last.FM is your most comprehensive radio experience available, especially if you want to learn about the artists. Since this is user-generated content, you’ll get a wide spectrum of adherence to the tag. Last.FM is one of my favorite websites (as a member/user) but their radio is just streaming songs rather than hosted programming. This will expose you to numerous new artists since many unsigned/new bands use Last.FM to promote themselves. For each song, you’ll be presented with an overload of band info from bios, photos, videos, albums, tags, top tracks, top listeners, similar artists, community groups, related radio stations, upcoming live events, a shoutbox— All of this is presented on the radio page and refreshes with every song!

Shoutcast JRock tag – Shoutcast is a site that allows average users to have their own stream of music hosted and broadcast to the world. Here is the search page for the “jrock” tag which has brought up about 10 stations. It’s my experience that most of the Shoutcast “jrock” stations play only pop and anime music, but if you want something lighter and sweeter than metal or rock, this might be a good place to start.

If you know of a great place to listen to Japanese pop or rock on the internet, please let us know in the comments! We know there are more out there, but we also know the stations listed above are quality sources to expand your J-music horizons!

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Kiddy Grade

Synopsis:

In the distant future humanity is no longer restricted to life on Earth as it has now inhabited multiple planets throughout the universe. Technology has gone beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and as humanity grows so does everyone’s political stand points and styles of government used across space which also causes an increase in crime. To keep the peace and laws enforced the GOTT was formed, Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs, or a kind of Galactic Police more or less as they not only enforce the law but also keep the peace by performing odd jobs such as protecting political figures or enforcing peace treaties. The GOTT has a special unit called ES that contains 16 superpowered individuals, two of which are Eclair and Lumiere, that are the focus of our story. After a variety of relatively simple missions Elclaire and Lumiere are sent to planet Aure to prevent a violent uprising of it’s citizens against it’s own government run by a race called the Nouvelesse. But what Eclaire later learns is that the planets citizens were actually enslaved by the Nouvelesse and Eclaire begins to question her orders to support this dictatorship. Later, during a violent stand off between the people of the city and the local military Eclaire realizes she can no longer condone the senseless slaughter of innocent people simply because they are protesting for a better life and turns against the Nouvelesse military and, with the support of her partner Lumiere, manage to destroy most of the militant opposition within a matter of minutes. Although Eclaire and Lumiere are now hailed as saviors of the planet Arue they are now the target of every GOTT member with only one order, execution. Not about to lie down and die Eclaire and Lumiere take off to find out more about the dark side of this galactic law enforcement that they’ve been employed by for so long.

Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 24

Review:

Kiddy Grade is a different style of anime which takes something potentially typical and really complicates it, which in this case, it’s a very good thing as it’s refreshing. As the series starts it just looks like you’re getting the usual good looking underage superbabes with ridiculous powers going on a new mission in every episode. They get an assignment, go there, blow tons of shit up and look good doing it with scantily clad space outfits and gratuitous panty shots, and the day is saved. Kiddy Grade puts things on a different level because about the time you start to get bored with this routine the show mixes things up and brings out the real plot it’s been hiding all along and reaches out grabs you and pulls you back in. Now, you’re watching a plot that gets thicker and thicker with each passing episode which has you wondering if Eclaire and Lumiere will ever get out of the hole they’ve dug themselves with numerous obstacles that are piling up against them. While all this is going on the series also does a magnificent job of dropping in a few episodes to help explain Eclaires super strength, why Lumiere can control anything with a computer, and why neither of them have aged in almost a hundred years all the while maintaining that sense of hopelessness throughout the latter part of the series. So, enjoy the uber-babeness in the first few episodes because that quickly fades and is replaced with betrayal, espionage, and shadows of the past that bring forth the question of what really is true friendship. This really is a great series by taking it’s really shallow looking exterior and hiding away the overly complicated plot that lies within which makes for one awesome show. The animation is top notch, the women are hot (that’s always a plus), the right amount of sci-fi action, and the plot has some great twists that present themselves at just the right time. There are no other story arcs to follow as you’ll be with Eclaire and Lumiere for the entire 24 episode ride which is fine since things will get complicated enough because even in the future, nothing is ever as easy as it seems.

Kiddy Grade (opening and closing)

Recommendation: |High|

Online viewing: Available at FUNimation’s website -

Kiddy Grade (English dubbed) – Sorry guys… no subs, shit dub only

Media type: DVD
From: FUNimation
Spoken languages: English;Japanese
Subtitles: English

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Durarara!! - 05

This week our narrator is Masaomi Kida and with it we get to see a whole new side of him.  If there is one thing Durarara!! is great at its character development – it would have been so easy to just leave these characters as standard archetypes, but it’s so much more interesting to see them develop beyond their pigeon-holes.  This episode also fires in a few new characters (as if the cast wasnt big enough as it was!)

The episode starts with a flash forward of Selty being attacked by a girl with a sword and Mikado & Masaomi escaping from a trio of gang members; and then goes back to show us how we got there.

During his narration Masaomi  reveals that he is interested in Anri and has been since their first encounter, he’s even rescued her from the slimy advances of the pervy teacher.

Unfortunately for Masaomi, Mikado arrives on the scene and the three of them end up spending the afternoon in the park.

Masaomi warns Anri about the pervy teacher – he apparently has a history of preying on students.  Conversation soon turns to Anri’s missing friend Harima Mika – who turns out to have been a bit of a stalker – the object of her obsessive affection being Seiji.  Mika  left messages with her family and Anri before disappearing saying she was going to go on a trip to heal her heart after Seiji rejected her.  Anri shows Masaomi and Mikado pictures of her and Mika together and talks about their strange friendship (which is more like them using each other).  Mikado makes a few very straightforward and astute comments – Masaomi remarks that this part of Mikado’s personality is one of the things he likes most about his best friend.  I’m glad Mikado is getting a little bit of development – however he’s still the dullest character in the series thus far.

Mikado is bothered by Mika’s disappearance and thinks that perhaps she and Seiji are together afterall, but that they would need the help of a larger organisation such as the ‘Dollars’ gang to find out, although he also says he has no desire to join the Dollars.  This has Masaomi worried though – he expresses the desire to protect Mikado from the darker elements of the city, also saying that he himself will ‘not go back to that side again’.  The ‘again’ part interests me – I assume this has something to do with Masaomi’s shared past with Izaya.

Masaomi is concerned enough about Mikado’s interest in Dollars that he goes to see the Otaku group to ask for information on them, but they can’t tell him anything meaningful really.

Elsewhere we are shown shots of a man in a hat, who is interviewing residents of the city about various characters – his name isn’t given and its unclear what his deal is.

We’re also shown a girl in a hospital room who has some sort of connection to Masaomi as she has a picture of the two of them together on her phone.  Masaomi has apparently stopped visiting her, although he does make it to the outside of the building below her window.  This girl has another visitor though – Izaya Orihara, and she greets him without any sense of fear and they seem to be friends.  I’m now even more curious about how these three are connected and what happened in Masaomi’s past – Izaya doesn’t seem scary at all in this scene, I wonder why Masaomi now seems extremely wary of him?

While Masaomi is wandering about town soul-searching, Mikado spots Seiji and the girl with the scar round her neck when he’s coming out of a shop.  Mikado follows them and calls out to Seiji who tells him not to interrupt his elopement……Seiji is a bit strange.  Upon getting a closer look at the scarred girl he realises that she isn’t Anri’s friend Mika.

At about the same time Masaomi spots Mikado and makes to follow him, but accidently bumps into the trio of Yellow Scarf gang members we’ve seen floating about the place all episode.  They drag Masaomi off down an alley and threaten him, but Mikado spots Masaomi and attempts to help him – luckily a commotion at the end of the alley provides a distraction to allow Mikado and Masaomi to escape.

The handy distraction was provided by Selty who was on another of her jobs – retrieving a briefcase from a fugitive.  However she is stabbed through the arm and has her helmet cut off by a long-haired girl with a sword – as Selty’s wound on her arm heals she hears voices calling her a monster……which freaks her out a bit.  The sword girl seems to have been responsible for a number of slasher attacks in the area. This slasher girl encounters the Yellow Scarf trio Mikado and Masaomi escaped from and attacks them…….its unclear who this girl is, we don’t get to see her face.

Back home with Shinra, Selty seems worried about this mysterious slasher girl – she seems particularly concerned about the fact she could be an alien!  I found this adorable and hilarious – an Unseelie Court faerie worried about an alien!   Shinra doesn’t seem all that concerned though

At the end of the episode we see Mr Brown Hat Guy coming home and calling out to a girl called Haruna, who appears to be some sort of Hikkomori – she’s shown to be on a laptop, could she be one of the people in the chat rooms?  Her long tangled hair also seems similar to the Slasher girl……will be interesting to see who she actually is and what her role in the story is.

Thoughts:  So this was a really interesting episode – not a lot actually happened on the whole, but there was plenty of character development.  I was also impressed by the way the episode was put together, with the flash forward at the beginning and so many things all happening at once – lots of information is thrown out, but its difficult to figure out whats important.  The girl with a scar round her neck makes me think she’s got Selty’s head and Mika’s body……but that seems a bit obvious so wonder if there is something more going on there.  The addition of another seemingly superpowered character (that slasher girl) is interesting, but I can’t help but feel that it was unnecessary as the cast is bloated enough as it is.  Selty’s reaction to that whole incident was nice though, she’s now a really accessable character – amazing how Miyuki Sawashiro’s voicing of her really changed her character.

Masaomi was the star of this episode though – I am so glad he’s more than just the standard bubbly best-friend character; he’s got his own back story which I’m extremely curious about.  Masaomi’s narration also revealed a lot of insecurities and shows that a lot of his bravado is a front he puts up.  The fact he mentions a period of deep depression and a stint on the dark side of society raises questions about how he pulled himself out of that, his protective instincts towards Mikado is also touching – I’m definitely looking forward to finding out more about Masaomi.

Next week the focus seems to be on the Otaku quartet – should be amusing.

[Via http://caraniel.wordpress.com]

Tatakau Shisho – The Book of Bantorra after episode 19

Spoilers ahead. I am still watching The Book of Bantorra, but my enthusiasm for the show has long since been lost, and I follow it mostly out of habit and out of a desire to finish what I started. The writing has always been The Book of Bantorra’s weakest aspect since the beginning, but unfortunately it has not improved at all, and has gone further downhill. The show has been constantly loaded with cheesy lines about love, purpose, the past, and so on, that usually serve as some kind of character or plot revelation or resolution. Every arc has ended in a terribly cliché manner. Cheesiness aside, the writing also suffers from shallow or poorly explained developments, such as The Church of Drowning on God’s Grace and Armed Librarians actually being cohorts in the grand scheme of things. The show better answer the many lingering questions of “why?” soon because my suspension of disbelief is being sorely stretched. The plus side in these past few episodes are Hamyuts wearing a dress and glasses, and Mirepoc in a dress and makeup. Hamyuts is so much more attractive as a meganekko, and I knew Mirepoc would be very pretty if she ever changed out of her fatigues and dolled up as a lady.

[Via http://muirwoods.wordpress.com]

[New Anime! April 2010] 会長はメイド様! (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)

The new anime release of April 2010. Oh~ 会長はメイド様! (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!) Though I would definately prefer Kaichou wa Shitsuji-sama (笑), maid is fine with me. So, the story goes something like this…

Once an all-boys school, 鮎沢 美咲 (Ayuzawa Misaki, cv. Fujimura Ayumi) becomes a Student Council President at Seika High School. As Misaki tries to reform the school for the girls to feel safe, she is facing wild male students with her aggressive attitude day by day. However, despite her strict, uptight boy-hating dictator appearance, she is secretly working in a maid café to support her family. And her secret is discovered by the popular, school idol of 碓氷 拓海 (Usui Takumi, cv. Okamoto Nobuhiko). What will happen to Misaki as her hard-earned reputation is in jeopardy? Double life as a Student Council President and Maid!

I like the story. But what’s up with this anime version of Usui Takumi? Let’s compare it with the original manga version.

Please, don’t say you guys can’t do it! Vampire Knight was beautifully pulled off in the anime! I think the anime version of Usui Takumi needs some more edge. He looks too… too… animated? I can’t find the right word for it. But he is missing the soft, yet cool with the edge Usui Takumi of the manga version. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t judge any anime before watching it! As I mentioned above, 会長はメイド様! (Kaichou wa Maid-sama!) will be airing in April 2010.

[Via http://usagitsuki.wordpress.com]

Yumeiro Pâtissière

Dream-colored pastry chef is one of ongoing anime that I’ve been watched. I love the storyline, the illustration, super pretty desserts  and the cute + big eyes characters! The story is full with a lotttttttt of colorful and refreshing desserts and sweets. So, yummy!! ^^

The synopsis:

The story centers on a 14-year-old girl named Ichigo Amano who wants to be a pâtissière (female pastry chef), but is extremely clumsy. Encouraged by a pro, she enrolls in St. Marie Academy, a culinary school for sweets, and meets a “sweets spirit.” She gets off to a rough start when one of the Princes of Sweets called Kashino yells at her, but then meets her sweets spirit, Vanilla and begins to learn the ups and downs of being a pâtissière.

Source; Yumeiro Patissiere – wikipedia

p/s: Hey, hey, hey!! You guys should watch this one because it is full with ambitious characters whose want to become a great pâtissièr and pâtissière!! And the anime takes it to the best possible place by spending more effort on animating the food than anything else.

-nuna-

[Via http://dibawahlangitbiru.wordpress.com]

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood 42

The mind-numbing op over (I’ll stop griping about it when they stop putting it before every episode), the episode proper opens to Winry and the others sitting around a campfire attempting to decipher an ancient manuscript, which may or may not be encrypted! Thrilling. After a few seconds of this, Al wakes up. Finally. After a through explanation of the situation, which the watchers are spared, Al is reassembled. This gives May the idea to break apart the book and start an impromptu game of “go fish” assemble them by their purpose.

Turns out that they already knew all of this (not that suprising, considering the sheer amount of dialogue), so the documents are worthless and it’s a wild goose chase. But wait! Al notices that hey, there’s more to these documents than meets the eye! Just like the last two times. After a Sneeze Ex Machina and a horrid pun, they finally realize that the paper is printed on both sides (as I’ve found out the hard way with many a test). This reveals the new, nearly-identical transmutation circle with the power of both Eastern and Western Alchemy. Title card drop. 6 minutes and two paragraphs worth of text in.

Back where the action occurs, Kimblee explores the mines looking for Winry and company. However, he runs into Pride and is tasked with “carving a bloody crest” into Briggs. Carve a bloody crest is the phrase, my dear. We can’t just say “go kill a ton of people”. That’s not proper. One must carve a crest, as a proper nobleman. A similar thing is happening in the West. We’re reminded of Ed’s condition (which is nice, as the main character hasn’t been on screen yet), and get one of the more uneccessary flashbacks, reminding us of the horrors of trench warfare. Except that it isn’t trench warfare. And none of the people we care about are rank-and-file grunts, except for Mustang’s “old” team. (That was, what, ten episodes ago? “Old” team? Really?) At the end of this conversation, Sloth finally finishes the tunnel. Eyecatch.

After the break, we’re dumped back with Rosa and Hoenheim in Lior (you remember Lior, right? It’s not like it’s been 30 episodes since it was mentioned… oh wait). After a much-needed recap of events, Hoenheim is introduced to the same church that Ed and Al fought the high preist of Lior in. At least, they did so in some continuity. I still like the Birdman of Lior story from the first too much to give it up. Hoenheim ventures beneath the church, breaks through the wall, and finds none other than Pride waiting for him.

One somewhat-interesting chase and poorly-explained escape later, Hoenheim and Pride settle down for a civil chat on the purpose and nature of homunculi. A few minutes later (yes, actual minutes), Hoenheim leaves a message for Father. And what a message it was. There may or may not be a confrontation regarding something or other at some future date. Back at Briggs, the Drakman army is on the attack, led by none other than Kimblee. I honestly did not see this one coming, and I say that without sarcasm. As the cannons fire, the ending theme plays.

Ugh. TEXT TEXT TEXT. It’s not quite approaching Code Geass levels, but the way it keeps changing scenes and the sheer omghuge of the script, it’s coming close. Rating: 8.5/10. Yep. I actually dropped it points. Even though the next episode promises action, the last episode promised action, and did we get action? No. We got more talky. So, it’s an enjoyable faux-action series, but it’s not at the pulse-pounding rate of… actually, does anyone know of a decent action series that doesn’t involve buckets of blood or megs of dialogue? Comment or mail me. (I actually check comments now. For reals.)

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