Ivy – Sonata of Temptation [Music Spotlight]

K-Pop solo artist Ivy released a music video for her song “Sonata of Temptation” a little over a decade ago (which I originally talked about back in 2009 on the blog before the relaunch), and it was quite the topic–not just around K-Pop communities, but around Final Fantasy fan circles as well…

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Music Spotlight: Deavid Soul’s “Miller Boll Breakers”

For those who are fans of House music or something of the like, here is one that needs to be taken into consideration, especially if you ever owned a Sega Dreamcast. Back in 2008, I wrote about my discovery of an album from an artist(s) going by Deavid Soul, who was featured in the popular (and underrated) skating/graffiti tagging game, Jet Set Radio (originally known as Jet Grind Radio in North America).

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Music Spotlight: Shing02’s “Ultimate High”

Bringing back an old post from the early days of the “Ni-Ongaku Spotlight” for the newer audience under Music Spotlight. We take a look at this video of Shing02, and the music video of his single, “Ultimate High”. Shing02 is a Japanese indie Hip-Hop artist who has provided music for the soundtrack for the anime Samurai Champloo, along with the late Nujabes.

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Pokémon – “Everything Changes”: I’m not crying, you’re crying!

February 27th, 2020 marks Pokémon’s 24th anniversary since the release of the first Pokémon games in the series. And what better time than to stumble across a gem from a part of the franchise that is the 2.B.A. Master soundtrack, featuring original music for the English dub of the Pokémon anime?

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Music Spotlight: Neru – Whatever Whatever Whatever

Here is something a little different that requires me to feature this as a Music Spotlight post, and one that features another VOCALOID song, because there isn’t enough on this blog–and some gems I have yet to discover to share with everyone! This one I came across while I was browsing around on Pixiv in the Pokémon Sword & Shield tags, an entry from what looks like to be an animation featuring the Gym Leaders Raihan (Kibana/キバナ) and Piers (Nezu/ネズ).

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Music Spotlight: L’arc~En~Ciel – Hurry Xmas

I know what you’re thinking. Christmas was last week. Yes, it was. However, this draft has been sitting in my archives from 2007! Can I have an award for longest sitting draft under 300 words? Well, it might go over 300 words since I do have something to say about this post. Anyway, moving on! To end out the decade, and to finally give this post the light of day(break’s bell), I am highlighting a beloved Christmas song from one of Japan longest running J-Rock groups, L’arc~En~Ciel.

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K-Pop Rules The World: How South Korea Overtook Japan in Digital Music Choices

If you are into J-Pop, including K-Pop, then you may be wondering why you don’t see enough content outside of Japan of your favorite artists without having to go to great lengths to obtain the latest release. It might be due to a generational issue of complicated, and possibly financial, reasons. I was originally going to just Tweet about this, but this needs more than 280 characters. So I am going to just write about this in a form of a blog post. It’s about the reasons why K-Pop is as global as it is, with even a handful of male J-Pop bands embracing the style of K-Pop. And it all falls back to an interest in music from another country that is right across from South Korea.

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Music Spotlight: kemu – イカサマライフゲム (Ikasama Life Game)

The next Vocaloid Song of the Month is from kemu, which different from the previous post about love throughout one’s childhood. Instead, let’s imagine this song as a candidate for a new anime series involving notes and diaries with serious consequences.

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