The SmileVideo Meteor Shower

Say you want to go to DENPA 電刃, that crazy ヲタク (otaku) dance party in Tokyo (as seen on TOKYOMANGO), but you are way behind on your NicoNico culture? Well, this is your chance to study up!

Basically, there is a compilation of popular NicoNico Music called ニコニコ動画流星群 (niko niko douga ryuuseigun, NicoNicoDouga Meteor Shower), as it is a blast of popular songs on ニコ動 in quick succession:



There are a few versions:

1. The original:


2. With VOCALOID lyrics:


3. Orchestrated:


4. With the original songs remixed:


5. Like above but more chaotic:


6. Ronald McDonald style:


And below I have compiled a list of (almost) every one of these songs in order! Title linked to ニコニコ動画 and YouTube embeds. Enjoy!

00. 時報 - This would be a whole 'nother blog post trying to explain these. Basically, sometimes you get the time when watching ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga).


01. Star Rise - The ending theme to バンブーブレード　(Bamboo Blade).


02. 寝・逃・げでリセット！ - a song from the anime らき☆すた (Lucky Star).


03.　ハナマル☆センセイション - The ending theme to こどものじかん (kodomo no jikan)


04. caramelldansen - Best explained over at Tokyo Mango...


05. カービィのグルメレース - Did you know there are lyrics to that Kirby song (besides "drop it like it's hot")?


06. nowhere - a song from the anime Madlax.


07. チーターマン - Apparently a rap someone came up for the Cheetah Men II game theme.


08. Ievan Polkka - I've already posted this one, but hell, I love it so much, here it is again.


09. バラライカ - I won't pretend to say I understand what this is all about...


10. 男女 - A single by an artist called 太郎 (Tarou) released in late 2006. In early 2008, this nicovideo revived the song from obscurity!


11. モンタギュー家とキャピュレット家 - A movement from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" that was in a SoftBank commercial.


12. "I'm lovin' it!" Do I really need to explain this one?

13. The Last Wolf Suite - a BGM song from るろうに剣心 (Rurouni Kenshin)


14. クリアまでは眠らない - "Can't Sleep 'til I beat it!" One of the two awesome Team猫かん (Team nekokan) rock songs about MegaMan.


15. 未来への咆哮 - "Scream to the Future", an opening from the anime マブラヴ (MuvLuv)


16. エアーマンが倒せない - "Can't Beat Airman" The other awesome MegaMan song. So brilliant.


17.　メルト - An original 初音ミク song.


18. だんご大家族 - "Big Family Dango" An ending theme from the anime Clannad.


19. 風の憧憬 - Known as "Wind Scene" in English, this is a song from Chrono Trigger.


20. 雪、無音、窓辺にて。　- A song from the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.


21. you - a song from the game ひぐらしのなく頃に解 (higurashi no naku koro ni kai)


22. 魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました - a popular flash video made by IOSYS (featured previously).


23. U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか？ - Originally from the game 東方紅魔郷, this one has been remixed so much! My favorite is the Ronald McDonald one.


24. お嫁にしなさいっ！ - Another IOSYS production. "Make me your wife!" @_@ Very cute though.


25. ロックマン2 ワイリーステージ1/おっくせんまん/思い出は億千万 - Another hard one to explain in complete. The short version is that this the Dr. Wily Stage 1 song from MegaMan 2. The long version is that X Japan did a cover, and then someone did the linked video, and... I dunno. When culture gets remixed so much like this, it is awesome and really hard to follow! XD


26. After Dark - (Åh) När Ni Tar Saken I Egna Händer - Another one where I'm fairly confused about, but everyone calls it オナニー. Oh, nani?


27. ハレ晴レユカイ - That dance song from Haruhi, probably popular enough for you to have already heard of it. There's even a MegaMan version.


28. God knows... - Another song from Haruhi.


29. JOINT - The opening from the anime 灼眼のシャナII (Shakugan no Shana II)


30. 解読不能 - another anime song from コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ （CODE GEASS Lelouch of the Rebellion).


32. パーフェクトスター・パーフェクトスタイル - A perfume song!!! This is the version with the Idol Master characters.


33. 患部で止まってすぐ溶ける～狂気の優曇華院 - Another IOSYS creation.


34. Help me ERINNNNNN!! - Another IOSYS creation. From the CD Flowering ERINNNNNN!! Seems to have a lot of stuff going on related to it.


35. 千年幻想郷　～ History of the Moon - from the game 東方永夜抄.


36. Little Busters! - opening theme to the game of the same title.


37. 1000％SPARKING! - From an anime called ネギま！？ (negima!?)


38-39. Some songs from the Prince of Tennis musical


40. エージェント夜を往く - From THE IDOLM@STER game.


41. ネイティブフェイス - from the game 東方風神録


42. true my heart - Opening from the game Nursery Rhyme, here is the VOCALOID version.


43. ケロ⑨Destiny - Another IOSYS production.


44. YATTA! - You know this one if you have been alive sometime in the last decade. I'm actually in this video if you know where to look. :)


45. みくみくにしてあげる♪ - An original 初音ミク song by ika.


46. レッツゴー！陰陽師 - a song from the game 「新豪血寺一族 －煩悩解放－」


47. Air on the G String (nice boat)


You can now go to 電刃 without feeling too much like a 外人 (gaijin). I hope you enjoyed going through all these songs as much as I did. XD

Is perfume breaking up your marriage?

So remember I was taking about perfume, the wildly popular elecropop girls trio?

Well, looks like perfume are so popular, they are starting to break up marriages.

The story comes from
a thread on the message boards over at Yahoo!知恵袋 (Yahoo!chiebukuro). My translation of the initial post is as follows:

My wife is pressing the "perfume" question.

Hello. I'm a 29 year old married man. I don't have any children.

It's not like I'm really big into music, but I download and listen to a lot of different kinds of music. It doesn't matter if it is Western or Japanese and I enjoy music from any genre.

The other day, a friend of mine recommended I give perfume a listen, but although it was music that was fairly off my particular radar, I gave them a listen and really liked it. The music videos are also quite spectacular, so I really started to get into them and started to buy DVDs on Yahoo! Auctions and collect all the CDs I could.

When I recommended them to my wife, she quietly listened and said "This is some interesting music, huh?" But then, one day, I asked her over dinner, "Who is your favorite out of the three perfume girls?" She responded angrily, 『殺すぞ』 (korosu zo, "I'll kill you.")

"Who gets these girly DVDs and CDs at this age?! You are always listening to it everyday! You pervert!" Among the verbal abuse, she overturned the table. Since then, my wife has started to curse the very thought of perfume. If they show up on TV, she will change the channel. If their music is the background of a commercial, she will mute it just for that commercial. She does this all with a blank face. It's scary.

One day, when I came home from work, I found that almost all the pictures on perfume CD covers had labels put over the faces of かしゆか (Kashiyuka) and のっち (Nocchi). Somehow, あーちゃん (A~chan) made it unscathed. When I asked my wife what she was doing, she replied with the question "Which is more important, our life together or perfume?"

We aren't very wealthy nor affluent. It seems my hobby of trying to buy CDs and DVDs had ticked her off. In the end, she hit me with these conditions. "Put all of your perfume stuff on Yahoo! Auctions, and stop listening to perfume completely. If you can't do this, I want a divorce."

Up until now, I had a lot of CDs of young girl bands/singers in pretty heavy rotation, and I bought some DVDs, but my wife had never said anything before... And how come あーちゃん was the only one to make it out without being covered in stickers? But I'm not in any position to be asking these questions right now. I have to get rid of the CDs and DVDs by the end of the month. This is really harsh...

To the wives and women out there, is there some way that I can peacefully end this thing? My wife is the same age as myself.

Thank you for reading.

On a side note, my real name is Yasutaka.

(Translator's note: That last thing about Yasutaka, the DJ who produces and makes perfume's music is Nakata Yasutaka.)

Poor guy. But, I gotta say, if is wife is that upset about it, he must be totally otaku-ing out on perfume.

But that is a good question... why perfume? And why not A~chan? Maybe it is just her cryptic way of saying which on is her favorite?!

perfume

The fabulous trio known as Perfume are starting to leak across the sea...

There is this odd phenomenon where when you don't live in Japan, but are interested in it, it takes a while before something reaches critical mass and starts to leak out to other country's Japanese-speaking populations. perfume archived this a few weeks ago.

perfume (generally not capitalized) is a three girl group from Hiroshima. The members are あ～ちゃん (A~chan), かしゆか (Kashiyuka, sometimes ksyk in ローマ字), and のっち (Nocchi). They struggled for many years, apparently since elementary school, to make hit songs, but until Yasutaka Nakata, a fairly popular DJ, picked them up, they didn't really succeed.

My personal history with perfume started when I saw the IKZOLOGIC video a while back. From that video, I started to get into capsule. Yasutaka Nakata is the DJ for capsule, so when I went looking for more music by him, I ended up hearing a lot of perfume.

But I didn't think much of them. And then they took off and started showing up on TV and now I am on-board... they are a girl group... they don't make their own music, but Yasutaka-san is awesome, so at least it is good music. They are just there to look pretty and dance. All their live performances are lip-synced to allow them to dance in their very unique way.

Funny thing is most people have a favorite. They are made to all look different, mainly with wardrobe and hair styles differing. I must admit that のっち is my favorite. She's the short haired one... (-.-;)

Their blog is here. Sorry, it's in Japanese... for now...

I leave you with their music video/commercial for Pino brand bonbons. Enjoy!