and maybe some other incidental details too...

We can almost make out the badge just in that one shot, but later shots make it much more explicit:

It's a Nikon F100, a classic 35mm SLR film camera. Mystery solved that was easy!!

If I were really serious about things, I would try to find out all their models of bikes, but I am a lowly camera geek so I'll leave that for others.

You should read Yotsuba&! btw. It is very good and I have been learning a lot by struggling thru the Japanese originals. At the start I was doing maybe 2 pages every 30min and now I am up to 20 pages in that time.

But enough about that. Really, this post is a low-effort one intended to answer "why have I not meaningfully posted for over a month". In order of relevance:

1. I've acquired a medical condition that is forcing me off estrogen for at least another 2 months, which sucks major ass and has been an acute reminder of why I went on in the first place.
2. I have a few drafts in various states of completion, but I haven't had enough time/energy due to my new job. It is a fine job but unemployment will always be better for blogging turns out.
3. Other hobbies like "learning FL studio" & "hanging out with friends" have eaten into the time I would have otherwise used to blog.

There likely isn't anyone I am disappointing here except myself, but to everyone who's subscribed to this over RSS, thank you for reading.

So this is a manga about racecars that go very fast. And it's a good enough first chapter¹ (yay he wins wahoo) but I am more interested in the side character that appears for 2 pages taking photos of the race, because he has a cool camera!!

Panel 1

Panel 2

My goal for today is to find out exactly what gear he's using.

The Lens

From these photos, we observe the lens MUST have the following traits:

1. Is Very Long
2. Has the little thing that sticks out on the bottom for mounting
3. Outermost cone flares out a bit
4. Comes in a white-colored variant

(4) is obvious, and turns out the rest map cleanly to filters too:

1. We're looking for a "Telephoto"- or "SuperTelephoto"-class lens
2. We're looking for a lens with a "foot mount"
3. We're looking for a "Prime" lens; all "Zoom" lenses tend to be perfect cylinders to make the zoom optics easier

Browsing online stores like B&H Photo that sell All Lenses, we come across two likely candiates: the Canon RF 600mm F4 L IS USM² & the Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS Lens³:

	Front View	Side View
Canon
Sony

Given what we can observe, I claim the Canon lines up better:

1. The front is more uniformly conical.
2. Hard to see, but the side knob is behind the button group instead of in front.

Also, we should probably be sure this is actually the 600mm Canon; there are various other telephoto Canon lenses of varying sizes that it could be right? Well, let's take a look at the other 3:

	Short Cone	Long Cone
Short Mount	400mm	600mm
Long Mount	800mm	1200mm

Looking at all these, it seems the 400mm actually fits the observed button layout in the second panel the best: the "long mount" lenses (with those built-in zoom doublers) are much too long when compared to the second manga panel, and the 600mm also has an extra ring, so only the 400mm is short enough to include all the buttons that are shown. I guess the perspective in the first shot is fake, or there is some other non-straight hood I don't know about?

Anyways all's well that ends well, the Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM is a near-exact match for what's shown in the manga.

...

"But wait!!!" I hear you yell, "Haven't you forgotten about the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS III USM lens, which looks almost identical?" And yes, I have considered that, but in order to explain why, we'll need to look at the camera body too.

The Body

Given we almost certainly have a Canon lens, we're also very likely to have a Canon camera body. Compared to previous camera searches, this one is a lot easier because of one key feature on the camera: it is tall, much taller than an ordinary Canon camera, meaning it is top-of-line professional-grade stuff. (As expected of a press sports photographer lol.)

Of the available Canon bodies that exist, the following are potential matches:

	EOS R1	EOS R3	EOS-1D X Mark III
Front Profile
Side Profile

And of these, the EOS R1 side profile visually fits best, especially the dimensions of the viewfinder. This choice makes sense in-context too, because at the time of writing, the EOS R1 is the "best" Canon camera money can buy, for photography at least⁴.

So, because the camera is a Canon EOS R1, which is a mirrorless camera, we can be very confident he is using a mirrorless lens for it too, closing our earlier argument.

Bonus: The Camera On His Hip

You can hardly even see it, but in the first image Daisuke also has a camera strapped around his body lying on his hip. You can't make out much except the top panel, but I claim that's enough for us!!

The reasoning is, we can make out the following features:

1. Information display is rectangular
2. Dial is on the right (when looking at the lens)
3. (Assumption) It's another Canon, based on boot shape + being in the Canon ecosystem

Just these two features alone are enough to rule out all of Canon's mirrorless offerings. Those all have more square-ish information screens, and all the high-end ones have the dial on the left, taking the EOS R5 as an example:

Instead, I think this is a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, the last & best DSLR Canon made, whose top does match pretty well:

I think it's that one instead of another one because, given the rest of his gear, no way a press photography would settle for anything other than the best.

Double Bonus: Conspiracy Theory

Either Canon has a massive mindshare among the Japanese people (unlikely, I've seen plenty of Nikon & Sony at press conferences n such), or there is some sort of agreement with Canon that allows them to use their cameras in manga...

What "The Backrooms" means to Millennials vs Zoomers is very different; while Millennials view those liminal spaces as once-bustling & having lost their purpose, Zoomers view them as always having been deserted. In the former interpretation, the creepyness comes from the fact that they're deserted & inherently wrong-looking while empty. In the latter, the creepyness comes from the fact that these spaces were built at all despite "not having a purpose". Therefore, it makes more sense to put a spooky monster if you're going for the latter interpretation; in the former, it just ruins the idea of the space being empty.

(not an exact quote my any means, just my recollection)

This movie does lend itself more toward the latter interpretation (being originally conceived & now directed by a Zoomer will do that), but I think it understands the former perspective as well. There are motivated reasons for why the spooky monster is in there that fit in with the overarching theme of "Backrooms is a physical reflection of society's unconscious remembering/forgetting". What it means for such a place to exist still eludes me, even after watching the movie, but the concepts r juicy & fun to munch on so i dont mind :)

Also mad shoutouts to the 3D design team, the myriad VFX teams, & the rotoscoping teams. Making this entirely inside Blender is no easy feat but they pulled it off flawlessly, immaculate vibes/aesthetic, as should be expected from a product that hinges so heavily on aesthetic to convey meaning. Oh and also the sound team, good use of subsonics without being too overbearing w/ it.

Overall there was a lot of tension but I had a great time, scary enough 4 me 2 get my stomach excited but not too scary that i cant watch. 4/5 would highly recommend if you liked the youtube videos

Also also terrible idea to go into One Of The Most Backroom-y subway stations immediately afterwards... 😰

Anyways the plot is not what we're here to talk about today I want to know what model of camera they used!!!!!

pg04

From this first close-up, we can immediately tell it's a Canon, despite the lack of an explicit branding mark. The giveaways are the shape of the boot above the lens & the hand grip, both of which are fairly unique to Canon.

Upon seeing this camera, Tenichi says "An SLR?!". Given this information, we might be tempted to starting looking at just Canon Film SLRs. However, I think that's just what normal people call non-pocket-sized cameras, so for now we must include DSLRs and mirrorless in our search going forward.

However, even looking at every camera Canon's ever made, none match this body profile exactly. The combination of boot shape, distance from boot to lens mount, and position of the top dial are all things that can be found in isolation, but never perfectly together. Still, going thru everything gives us a few more hints:

1. It is not a film camera, because those generally have wildly different (blockier) body shapes until the first EOS models, and no EOS film has that same top dial (presumably a mode-switch dial if it's digital).
2. It is not a mirrorless camera, because those never have that area between the lens and the boot (because they don't need to do anything w/ optics for their digital viewfinders).

Therefore, despite the inexact dimensions, hitting all the key details means we can be relatively confident it is a Canon DSLR. Just from this one image!! Hopefully further closeups & better references will let us narrow it down further:

pg09	pg10
pg16

Fortunately, for the rest of the chapter, the mangaka realizes trying to draw a camera by hand is really hard/overly time-consuming, so they photobash it instead. This gives us a few more good clues into what the camera actually is.

The last image 100% confirms it's a DSLR; the image preview rules out it being film (lol) and the viewfinder focus correction dial rules out it being a mirrorless. Also, the button layout + the clearer body shape/badge location in the former images are a strong indicator this is a camera in the Rebel T-series, which I because I own very similar-looking T5i. Comparing the button layout to what I have, however, we see there's an extra "DISP" button in the main cluster on Honoka's camera, as well as it missing the "MENU" & "INFO" buttons on the top left bridge (photo from https://mpb.com):

Looking at all the other T-series, those ending in "i" are also missing this button, probably because it turns on/off the screen, which you can do on those "i" cameras by just flipping the screen around. Looking at the standard T5, T6, and T7, we see that the rubber patch is different compared to the T5, and exactly the same on the T6 & T7, so we can be fairly sure it's one of those (photos from https://mpb.com).

T5	T6	T7

Just for good measure, I did in fact look at a bunch of other Canon DSLRs with similar body shapes, and indeed the T6/T7 are the only ones that match the back exactly. Unfortunately, this is where the trail runs cold. There are really are no external differences remaining between the T6 & T7; the only possible thing is the color of the zoom button labels, but we can't tell that from the manga, and everything else is better image sensor/software differences. So, without further evidence we cannot decide which one they used.

Fortunately, I do have some evidence to show, so bear with me :) On Canon's official website, we only see them (re-?)selling the EOS Rebel T7, not the T6. I think this is because it's the last entry-level DSLR in their lineup, their last one before their move to mirrorless with the EOS R100 for that market segment. There was a 5-year gap between the T7's 2017 release and the R100's 2023 release, and the T7 is still being sold officially today. Meanwhile, there was only a 2-year gap between the T6's release in 2016 and the T7's release, and the T6 was discontinued immediately after the T7 started being sold. So, just speaking statistically, this camera is much more likely to be a T7, based on when the manga is set (effectively modern-day).

Some final notes:

• The pictures on Canon's official website don't exactly match the photobashed ones, but I don't take that as an issue, the photobashing looks pretty thoro anyways.
• The lens also matches the 18-55mm EF-S zoom lens that comes with the kit, with it appearing "longer" in the pg10 picture perhaps due to it being in a zoom configuration.
• While I have been using the American market names this entire time, the Japanese name for this camera is EOS Kiss x90.

With all that out of the way, I think I can pretty confidently say: Tenichi & Honoka use a Canon EOS Kiss x90. Very appropriate for a romance manga lol!

To celebrate a "working site" milestone in my driver SSG project, I decided to take a look back at my Static Site Generators post. It got a lot of traffic at the time!! Thank you again to everyone who read & commented on it, y'all made my week <3

As one might have expected, talking about SSGs online had a "360 noscope nerdsnipe headshot" effect, so across multiple platforms I have amassed a grand collection of Static Site Generators, based on peoples' mentions/recommendations, to gaze upon at our leisure. Sure it's not as grand a collection as Awesome Static Generators ("all 148 of them!") or Jamstack ("all 377 of them!") or staticsitegenerators.net ("all 484 of them!"), but I think it's impressive nonetheless.

To avoid bias, I shall order them alphabetically, and give reviews to all:

• 11ty: Embroiled in controversy over their acquisition by Font Awesome & their recent rename to "Build Awesome", but beloved by a strong community. One of the classic Javascript SSGs.
• bai by Kayla: Seems like a custom templating program, written in Rust, which can be used as part of an SSG? neat
• Bilo by domm: Perl! Poking around the codebase it's honestly pretty readable. Very much a "tool-for-one-person" deal tho
• blogserver by Bert: Instead of just producing files, this then loads produced files as part of a Go binary, and serves directly from loaded memory that way. Looks like it uses a Make-like system called redo to efficiently produce changes, TIL about that looks cool.
• flora by Nick: What a cute Ruby DSL! Be careful not to mix it up with flower by Jynn, that one uses a Clojure DSL instead.
• her.esy.fun by Yann: Makefile + org-mode, a classic pairing
• ikiwiki by Joey: Is a wiki a blog? I guess it sort of is, considering icefox's blog is a wiki. Anyways I like the name, it is a bit of complex Perl however
• luasmith by Jared: I was thinking about using a Lua DSL for my project, but didn't because I like Javascript more. Pretty cool to see just how much can be done with just Lua, and also how many libraries there are for it!
• mk12/blog by mk12: Zig, designed for speed, includes a custom Markdown & MathML parser?? pretty awesome honestly
• md2blog by Jared (same person as before): Deno binary, "zero config" opinionated setup, another classic type of personal project. This came before luasmith.
• Nanoc by Denis: Ruby! Tho this one uses more standard HTML templates. Seems like good docs too.
• nextgen by Florian: Purpose-built generator where most all the logic is written in Rust, again highly-opinionated to site layout/features. If Javascript SSGs are classic then Rust SSGs are modern :3
• riki by Lars: An attempt at re-writing ikiwiki in Rust. I like Rust more than Perl so I want this to succeed...!!
• susam.net by Susam: Common Lisp!! Specifically, Steel Bank. Seems like this author has re-written their static site generation multiple times, where this is the latest. I tried to read it but it sure is Lisp yep.
• tumblelog by John: Both Python & Perl versions of the same program, kept in feature parity?? They say it hasn't been done before now. Interesting concept to use Markdown files as the basis for templating instead of HTML; I guess makes sense given technically it's a subset, and given the intended use of the program (microblogging).
• YOcaml: It's always nice to see OCaml being used for real code <3 Seems like a pretty extensive tutorial too!
• Zensical: An offshoot project created as part of the whole MkDocs fiasco. Was plugged to me in a comment on Mastodon, seems very corporate somehow.
• Zine by Loris: It's all Zig!! The configuration, frontmatter, & templates all being Zig-inspired is a neat touch :3

I had a lot of fun cataloging these small corners of the internet. Really makes me aware of just how many other people are out there, also doing cool stuff. Hope this was as inspiring for you as it was for me!

PSYQUI was my introduction into the fascinating world of Japanese EDM, by way of those pirate Youtube channels that just put a simple visualizer on top of some anime art. The albums he contributed to back when he was most most active in 2018-2019, like SPD GAR 001 and TECHCORE EVANGELIX 01, absolutely still hold up to this day. His style is effect- & bass-heavy with a strong beat, one of those micro-genres where no one else can replicate it. It's been a long hiatus for sure, but I am very happy to see some more from him in a full EP!

Favorite Track: 02 – Why Don't You

(this was the only non-queer album I promise the rest are Very Queer lol)

Poetically – Queer Oddities

I found this artist somewhat randomly when their song Girls In High Heels came up in discovery a while ago. That's from their first album, Odd Queer, and this is their B-sides follow up. Like the song that first enamored me, this album is very queer & a bit cheeky about it, distorted vocals & instruments leveraging the vocabulary of pop music to make something a little outside of it but still very catchy.

Favorite Track: 06 – Sun of a Beach

passengerprincess – PASSENGERPRINCESS

Apparently this was a meme in some furry circles when it first came out?? I overlapped just enough to find out about it, and my rule of thumb "if it's a meme, it's probably good, because a lot of people liked it" hasn't let me down.

This debut album definitely falls into the "hyperpop" genre, with similarities to artists like 100 gecs & Vylet Pony being readily apparent. The messages are a little more plainly stated, but I still get the sense we are laughing with the artist; it's very joyful & laser-targeted at the queer + furry spheres I inhabit.

Favorite Track: 04 – 4K CARPET

June LaLonde – Framemaker

Before listening to this album, I did not understand what the big deal w/ guitar was, "why are people so obsessed with that instrument?". After listening to this album, now I understand. June LaLonde uses it to incredible effect, pulling emotions out of me I was not ready to feel yet ones I am glad to have felt anyways. It was written while she was grieving the deaths of people close to her, which checks out. The resulting pieces are sad, yes, but also hopeful, a fitting message for such a commemoration. My favorite song is one of the more up-beat ones, but I think this album deserves to be listened to in full. Give it a shot even if you too think it's out of your strike zone; it sure did hit for me at least.

Favorite Track: 06 – Land of Kings

I've had a blast listening to lots of albums this year! it's been a great way to consume music and I plan to keep this going into next year too. Hopefully there will continue to be Bandcamp Fridays to force my hand at periodic roundups like this, otherwise I tend not to remember lol. Anyways that is it for now, happy listening!!

Ninajirachi – I Love My Computer

Man. I was extremely hyped for this one after listening to Girl EDM (covered in issue #7), and not only did this not disappoint, it completely blew me out of the water & is now my favorite thing put out by Ninajirachi.

This is a hyper-modern kind of EDM, very much the kind that can only be made on a computer, which this album is absolutely reverent of. It's also about Nina's relationship with computers & making music, most obviously in tracks like "F**k My Computer" & "Sing Good", but really this theme is present in all tracks.

Favorite track: 04 – CSIRAC

"All I Am", "All At Once", and "Sing Good" are all really good as well, but are sort of too emotional for specific moods. CSIRAC is my overall favorite because it's a pumping bop no matter what!

Various Artists – Stream Palette 5 -Ranked-

Stumbled upon this by a chance algorithmic recommendation and yeah, I do love Japanese music, thanks for noticing! It's got all the big names like Zekk, Nhato, KO3, & more, with a corresponding diversity of genres like trance, phonk, color bass, & of course, dubstep:

Favorite track: 08 – Nhato – Killer in the Mirror

This being the 5th in a series does make me want to go back for more. The "-Ranked-" part seems to mean that this is the more hardcore version, as compared to "-Chatting-" which is more chill; wonder how that mix works on the previous, non-split albums? anyways

Iglooghost – Bronze Claw Iso

With Iglooghost, you always know you're getting cool new experimental music, complete with tons of backing lore, this time at https://neurowaste.net. True to the theme, this one is a lot more industrial-sounding than past albums like Lei Line Eon or Tidal Memory Exo.

Because the sounds are so experimental, they're always a bit hit-or-miss for me, but there's usually a banger tucked away, like Slug Song. Not to insinuate the other tracks aren't good (of course they are), just that this one song gets stuck in my head quite often & doesn't leave.

Favorite track: 04 – Slug Song

Moe Shop – EVO EVO

New classic Moe Shop! Their last full album release was Moe Moe, all the way back in March 2018!! They've certainly kept busy since then, with a steady stream of collabs with other artists, commercial commissions, & DJ sets over the years (as per their website, https://www.moeshop.jp). Still, it sure is nice to have something full-length to chew on :)

Favorite track: 02 – COMPLICATIONS

Like I said, "new classic Moe Shop", very distinctive flavor of music they have :P Of course, this album also includes a bunch of collabs, including one with everyone's favorite Cohost artist:

07 – NEWLY HUMAN FEELING (feat. Jamie Paige)

Lastly, I do want to give another shoutout to an album that I've been listening to a bunch again, Tanger – Prefer not to say. Can't believe it's almost been a full year... Anyways, that's it for this issue, happy spooky pumpkin season!

• The ways in which the monster is used as a prop to trigger the real juicy political/emotional conflicts
• Lingering shots of machinery/infrastructure/crowds of people to get a grounded sense of what's going on, and demonstrate that these operations are more than just one person imposing their will, but a collective organizing towards a common goal
• The "don, don, don, don don-don" music that plays whenever there is a tense scenario (score in general seemed very similar i think!)
• Misato for president of the united states of america

I can see why it was a flop with foreign audiences: the CG is real bad, and the movie mostly consists of people talking about things rather than directly fighting the big monster.

I can also see why it was critically acclaimed in Japan: very simple, positive message about the tenacity of the Japanese people in times of crisis, if only these darn old politicians would stop ruining everything.

i rate it "hit Godzilla with a skyscraper"/5. highly recommend if you like Eva 1.0

Ninajirachi – girl EDM (disc 1)

Very fun & energetic EDM. Album description on Bandcamp:

there are girls and EDM and there is girl EDM... cat ears, furry paws, headphones on world off, sci-fi fantasy cosplay windows down hands in the air, kandi bracelet, computer, the next step in evolution and a window to the soul <3

i think that about sums it up ya!

Favorite track: 03 – Ninacamina

I'd also like to purchase her next album, I Love My Computer, but that is only a pre-order so i am unsure if the full discount applies. oh well doing it anyways.

Bad Computer feat. Gold – Connected

Not an album, just a single. Also getting Move Like This, basically everything Bad Computer puts out immediately goes on my favorites playlist.

Pretty much their own microgenre of EDM at this point, very distinctive style, just part of that classic Monstercat sound ya know? u could load a Rocket League menu to this

Emplexx & Sunnexo – Control Shift

It is Emplexx & Sunnexo, two indie artists who I already really enjoy separately, doing a collab!! Must-buy single for sure yaya

They call this genre "complextro 2" and who am i to argue with the masters?

They also wrote about the making-of process on their blog, including the visuals! Very cool behind-the-scenes stuff, u should check it out: https://sunnexo.moe/controlshift

Various Artists – emo.gen 3

Doctór! inject that breakcore directly into my veins, please :3

Apparently this may be the final "emotional breakcore" compilation? As much as I enjoy having Literal Hours Of Breakcore to jam to & crave more, I can understand it is a massive effort to put together, plus there are two more like this lol.

technically u don't have to pay for this one but i did anyways just to be polite. haven't listened to the whole thing yet, just choosing the track by which i discovered it:

38 – Yem – Twin Hearts

UPDATE 2025-08-10: I have listened to the whole thing now. 11, 12, 26, 27, 32, 33, 34, 35, & 36 r all Pretty Good but i still think 38 is the most interesting. got it in one huh !

Jamie Paige – Constant Companions (Deluxe Edition)

yes i know i posted about the normal version before. but this one has BIRDBRAIN on it. and ROT FOR CLOUT again. i would buy another album for those two songs again :P

No need to post track snippets for this one, just watch those youtube videos if you haven't already. soon u too will be up birding ur brain & rotting ur clout :)))

Anyways, there are many, many more tracks I'm buying (including some for a project I don't want to spoil!!), these are just the ones I thought were worth sharing today. Now go! Go forth and consume!!

4: Auvic – Voices Call

That link is actually to the bandcamp remastered version, which doesn't contain all the songs seemingly? The original version on Apple Music version has many more (and being honest I am not super into the remastering anyways but i digress). That original version is very 2015 in its soundfont, makes me feel groovy, bouncing in my seat a little, saying "woo, yeah", etc.

I do not know genres very well but I will try my best: upbeat electro, inspired by chiptune in some ways, but mostly it's its own thing. Once again, very 2015.

Favorite track: 08 – Upgrades ¹

3: Virtual Riot – Simulation (Deluxe Version)²

No bandcamp link, just an Apple Music one sorry. The original is probably a more cohesive album, the only reason I include this one is because (a) more songs = more flow & (b) between Deluxe/non-Deluxe, it has my favorite song, so yeah :)

Virtual Riot has a long track record of releasing very good color bass (i think that's the right genre label?), never let me down really, but that's all mostly in singles, so it's nice to get a full-length album from them to just plow through when I need that good good.

Favorite track: 17 – Bossfight Afterparty

2: Adam Tell – Peripheries

I mostly knew Adam Tell from his lyrical work/singing in Superseded, Falsework, & Data Loss. Turns out he can work those hardware synths too!! Bit darker than the other ones so far, but it's kind of like that starry night nighttime darkness, kinda cozy in a way at times.

Feels like it'd fit right at home in an Explosions&Fire video during one of those chemistry montages , so I guess that puts it in the ambient genre? anyways

Favorite track: 01 – Transfer Orbit

1: free.99 – Out For Blood

Trans Pride is over. now is the time for Trans Wrath /j

in all seriousness, this album is very angry. overall i am better off just choosing not to comprehend the lyrics³, treating the words as if they were from a foreign language instead, getting all i need to know from keywords/tone of voice. which is to say: get angry!

never fails to light a fire under me. however, because the concepts slide right off me, it is more "generic high energy" than "angry" for me at this point. still feels like a problematic fave, but whatever it's my problematic fave, and you can't take it away from me :P

genre feels like highly produced rave music, if i had to describe it. very move-to-able.

Favorite track: 02 – Lilith

That's it for this month, hope you found something new you liked! Music is very important to me and I hope you enjoy it too <3

1: Amamelia - Bananamelia!

rykarn recommended this one!! from the artist page:

Auckland based trans weirdo electronic breaks and house

so yeah, that's what it's all about, no wonder i enjoyed it :3

Compared to many other contemporary songs, the hooks on these aren't quite as strong, but in exchange, they hit a lot harder once you match yourself to their pace. Definitely worth listening to as a full album for that reason.

Favorite track: 4. Colorbox

2: OK Go - Hungry Ghosts

You all know them from their fantastic music videos, and I'll admit I was already familiar with many a track on this album thanks to those too. But! I just really like all the tracks on here?? Even the ones I haven't seen videos for before. These guys rock.

Favorite track: 1. Upside Down & Inside Out

3: Pedestrian Tactics - Nerds Trying To Dance EP

A rare W for Apple Music algorithmic suggestions. Usually it feeds me "niche stuff I've already listened to" or "pop music that I don't particularly like", but once in a blue moon it'll hit me with the new stuff that I vibe with. Best part is, Pedestrian Tactics has an extensive catalog for me to go through, though so far this is my favorite EP of theirs. Slightly experimental electronic, extremely danceable.

Favorite track: 2. Nerds Trying To Dance

4: Jamie Paige - Constant Companions

I think I bought this album as a pre-order when I was listening to a lot of other Jaime Paige and then just... forgot about it?? Either that or fell to the bottom of my pile while waiting for the "perfect moment" to listen to it, after experiencing the sublime artistry of the Machine Love music video/album preview.

turns out the perfect moment is right after watching the berd rots youtube video and getting ROT FOR CLOUT stuck in my head. who else up ROTTING THEY CLOUT /j

Bit more of a "collection of songs" than an "album listening experience" than the other albums I mentioned, but still very good. It's Jaime Paige after all, so every song is lyrical & fun to listen to.

Favorite Track: 3. ROT FOR CLOUT

Oh yeah and update on my last post: We Live In A Society was indeed p good, Track 1 is the most banger but The Ocean Is Fake is nice too, and unfortunately TOHO BOSSA NOVA 14 has not released on streaming services yet :( oh well

Also, as always, if you have any recommendations for things you think I should listen to, please let me know in the comments!! my ears r always hungry 4 more good tunes :3

Main character is a dipshit & very cringe, but never unwatchably so, at least for me. He's a narcissist beyond all redemption, a child's impulse control in a man's body, a toxic human being rewarded by the toxic society he inhabits, and many other poignant descriptions explicitly pointed to by the film. And that's just one of the characters. Anyways I think it's a pretty good flick you should watch it.

I found out this was coming due to a teaser video for the first track. It's a bit crudely animated, but I think that was an intentional artistic choice to capture the transition from "meandering jam sesh with crazy discordant electronic noise" to "immaculately layered harmonics extracted from the best noise & ideas". I keep coming back to it for two reasons: the song they get to near the end is quite catchy & exactly my thing yes, but also I really like seeing that raw artistic process, really captivating even if it may have been a simulacra.

An accompanying text post lists the set at 4 tracks long, dropping May 2nd on presumably all major streaming services. That's quite soon, exciting!! All Flume stuff is worth a listen imo, even if I don't end up liking it :)

Shibayanrecords - TOHO BOSSA NOVA 14

This is a very conventional release, both for Shibayan and for Japanese music artists in general: Crossfade available as a whole-album sampler a week before release on May 5th, available for immediate preorder on melonbooks if you live in Japan, and streaming internationally some indefinite time later.

Shibayan always releases a TOHO BOSSA NOVA album in May, every year for 14 years running now I guess. I've mentioned before, and while #2 is so far my favorite, it is nice to have a yearly tradition to listen to something fresh yet familiar, nostalgic yet novel. Excited for this one too, hopefully I can hear it some time in May.

Usually I find a third album for things like this, but heh it's really only these two. Instead, here's two more already released albums I have not listened instead:

• Aritus x FIBRE - Virtues EP (Deluxe): Story goes that this was produced in they heyday of future funk, when high schoolers didn't quite know about music licensing, so now they finally figured out how to get the licensing for this remaster, neat!
• greyl - SINGALS CHRONICLE 01: u already know how i feel about greyl. i def gotta get this

Also, feel free to reach out with album recommendations of your own!! Comment links should be at the bottom of the page assuming my software works correctly. I cannot possibly keep up with all the cool music coming out, so hearing things from people directly helps filter that down considerably.

That's it for now, until next time!

In doing so, I discovered why Spotify keeps its spot as the biggest game in town: it's not just the playlist non-portability, it's the fact that it's algorithmic recommendation system is leagues ahead of the competition².

So! I'm listen to albums now. Here are some of my favorites:

Madeon - Good Faith

Man. What an album. My current favorites are "Hold Me Just Because" and "Heavy With Hoping", but yeah pretty much top-to-bottom bangers really. "Miracle" and "No Fear No More" were on an older playlist of mine, so it's also a bit nostalgic. Good album.

Laufey - Everything I Know About Love

I heard "Fragile" as part of an animated YouTube Short and immediately had to listen to the full thing. As expected, I cried hard.

After that catharsis, the rest of the album didn't hit quite as much. But still enough to tug at the yearning lovesickness living inside most every 20-odd-year-old. Good album.

ShibayanRecords - TOHO BOSSA NOVA 2

Like seeing an old friend after so long, this album welcomes me back in with open arms and a warm embrace. Yes it has the (at this point quite old) meme song on it but who cares it's my favorites TOHO BOSSA NOVA entry. Yes I've listened to all 13.

#14 is coming out in May of this year, like it always does, and I'll listen to that one too, but even if it usurps this, #2 will always have a special place in my heart. Good album.

It at its best when it shows you a spectacle and lets you infer what the characters from body language/presentation alone, and does an excellent job of this many times.

It's Ghibli. You should watch it anyways no matter what I say.

1: Tanger - Prefer Not To Say

It's really really good. I love how all the songs fade into one another. I love the variety & how it feels cohesive despite that. I love the beat, lyrics, album art, just everything. Phenomenal pieces of electronic music. And they're only 19??

2: Potsu - STAR-CROSSED

I purchased this one last Bandcamp Friday, purely on the basis of "if it's potsu, it's gotta be good", and sure enough yep, it's really good too. Some classic potsu stuff here, but also some new stuff which works quite well. Really hard to say if it's better than ivy league or not, tho...

Besides the albums mentioned in my last Bandcamp Friday post, I don't really have any other contenders for "album i liked the most this year that was released this year". However, I do have some other albums from this Friday's haul I'd like to talk about, so talk about them I shall:

greyl - made for you

greyl is another artist who, whenever they release an album, I know I will like it. Just a master of doing funky anime mashups. Their EISEI EP and 02:02 projects, released under the name EISEI, are still my favorites, but i do always appreciate more :)

SCRANTON - Love Letter To The Light

So what if they're a brony? They make some pretty bangin' dubstep. I am only vaguely familiar with their work, remember liking a few specific songs in the past, nothing off the top of my head tho. This self-proclaimed return-to-form hits very good for me.

Snail's House - Snö

Bit old at this point, but it was just sitting in my wishlist & I've kept on forgetting to buy it whoops. Kinda nostalgic for me tbh, takes me back to when I first discovered Snail's House... the MV for their most recent single, う​た​か​た (utakata) had me in tears, really quite moving. Anyways, this album is definitely meant to be listened to as an album, which I appreciate :)

Deezer's music recommendation algorithm sucks, so I've started listening to more albums in general now. It's pretty good! Turns out musicians bundle songs into an album for a reason, or something. The only downside is I am running out of albums; I do not like to listen to the same thing too many times, 'tis why I tend to make monster playlists that I can just put on shuffle & not think about. Maybe I should make my next one of those soon... Always accepting recs!

1. Discover new music on Spotify Deezer, sometimes YouTube
2. Keep a "canonical" list of songs I like in a YouTube playlist, transferring over my Deezer likes every once in a while
3. Once that list grows to about 100-150 songs, prune it.
4. If the list remains large, purchase all the songs (Bandcamp > iTunes > not paying)

However, the sporadic nature of this process means the purchasing time rarely overlaps with a Bandcamp Friday. Since nowadays, Bandcamp Fridays are so rare, I figured I'd get in on this one while I still can.

I won't be covering all the albums I purchased (there are a bit too many to list, you can see them on my bandcamp page if u really want), and will instead be highlighting a few I think deserve special mention.

NOTE: due to time pressures, I have not listened to all albums in full, these are just my first impressions

Emplexx - Hiraeth

Really happy to see this one come out! I've been following their work for a while, they've gone thru some rough patches, so it's nice to see an album representing work they feel proud of. And boy should they; this is, in my opinion, genre-defining work in complextro. "LUV U" is one of my favorite songs ever, and the rest seem of equal quality. Good album.

Sunnexo & Tanger - Any% EP

I really like Sunnexo's style. Very chiptune-y, bit dubstep-y, nice video-game-inspired music that is very catchy. They have a devlog! Good EP.

camoufly - In Plain Sight

Bit more laid-back than the other albums, but still great energy in these. Dance-able beats, neat instrumentation, all the drops are so groovy. idk how to describe it, it's just a good EP.

Andrew Huang & Undulae - Labyrinth

I don't do experimental music too much, but this album might just convince me! I liked these songs a lot more than I would think at first glance. Andrew Huang works his magic once again, good album.

another good manga by Inio Asano. follows a group of girls from middle school onwards as they navigate an ongoing alien invasion in Tokyo. i finished it today, really liked it up until the last volume, at which point it sorta became a parody of itself, pretty much solely in order to end at exactly chapter 100. i would still recommend it tho! lots of interesting ideas it presents and explores. there's even a trans girl in that image and you didn't realize

Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk

Also very good. Art is at a much higher level, soundtrack and colors maintain the original unique vibe. Took me ~1hr to get thru my first playthru, there are apparently 5 total endings possible (judging by Steam achievements). Still very well worth the pricetag.

Playing the first game is essential to understand this one imo. The opening cutscene and the ending I got simply don't make sense without it. Do it go play them now don't procrastinate like i did

I finally played Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk.

Great visual novel. The vibes are simply immaculate. Short game (~20min) but easily worth the (very cheap!) price of admission. idk why I procrastinated playing it for so long.

Will be interesting to see how the sequel, Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk, holds up in comparison.

Please Read Blue Flag.

it's tagline is "An unexpected love quadrangle with a dash of unrequited love." and hoo boy they were not kidding about the love quadrangle:

that's right! we have a whopping 3/4 characters being some form of queer.

Some notes about this diagram:

1. It contains spoilers, but also I believe they're the kind of spoilers that enhance the manga; the start is pretty slow and having this knowledge going in makes it better
2. These relations do shift a bit as time goes on, but this is sort of the baseline for how the drama works.
3. One could add more characters to this diagram, but this is the core of the quadrangle upon which most of the drama is built.

anyways yeah it's really really good & only 54 chapters (8 volumes), please give it a shot if u like coming-of-age manga that grapple with queerness.

wow turns out i am a sucker for unconventional artsy stories dealing with the human psyche. I did love Shimeji Simulation, after all.

this one is a lot heavier though. unashamed to portray adults as fundamentally broken creatures, and children as just one step away from being broken by adulthood or already broken by a traumatic upbringing¹. let alone any of the sex/violence stuff.

anyways! i plan on continuing with it. likely won't end up as a favorite because it makes me feel sad & confused instead of happy, but likely worth it nonetheless

what a ride. glad there was something approximating a happy ending, at least. I started reading it quite some time ago and have been slowly digesting all 7 volumes (13 parts?) as I could stomach. There were parts I didn't get because I don't have enough life experience and parts that made me hate everyone in it and parts that I'm grateful I'll never understand, but that's just life I guess. Big and messy and impossible to summarize without having lived thru it. I recommend this manga if you can stand being reminded of the human condition.

the art's pretty nice too ya

i read the first 4 volumes in a day, then had to pace myself with the last couple because i didn't want to waste a drop of goodness.

it has the best possible ending. everything was leading up to that moment. i'm so glad i was alive to experience it ;-;

in the running for best manga i've ever read, 10/10 no notes (that i can give without spoilers)

A while back, I swapped manga recommendations with a friend, which led to me reading Song Of The Long March. My friend has good taste, so naturally it was really really good. More recently, while thinking of things to do on a lazy weekend, we stumbled across The Long Ballad, a live-action adaptation of the manga, available for free on YouTube, and decided to give it a watch. It was not very good at all. Bad, even.

In this essay, I'll try to explain why I think the manga is so much better than the show. Strap yourself in, it's gonna be a long one. Spoilers ahead.

First Episodes

I believe that, from just seeing the first episode/chapter of a piece of media, one can generally sense the upper bound of quality it's likely to achieve. The first episode is where authors should be pulling out all the stops, grabbing your attention with their juciest hooks, setting the scene for what you should expect going forward. So, what do these first episodes look like?

Song Of The Long March

Princess Li Chang Ge throws off her pursuers by commandeering the horse pulling her carriage, galloping full-tilt toward a cliff edge, stabbing it to make it jump, and then jumping off the horse mid-air to gracefully make an otherwise impossible leap, successfully escaping. Title card.¹

Her pursuers return to the capitol in low spirits, the sole failures of the new dynasty's attempt to squash out the old royal family, but are covered up for by a crafty retainer who is sympathetic to the princess, thinking she's powerless and safe to let go with her life intact.

Meanwhile, Li Chang Ge disguises herself as a traveling boy, exchanges most of her jewelry she had on her for funds, swiftly dispatches some highway robbers who try to take said funds, and then tricks some guards into eating poisoned dim-sim, all so she can visit the grave of her mother.

There, she meets her mentor, who has also helped cover up her continued survival, and who predicted she would arrive at this gravesite. They trade words over what she'll do next, and she swears to enact her revenge on the current emperor who's killed her family:

Chapter ends.

So yeah. She's hardcore, she's a girlboss, she's intelligent & coolheaded when she needs to be, and she's traumatized. Overall, a really interesting character that you can't help wonder what she'll do next.

The Long Ballad

Li Chang Ge is fleeing her pursuers on horseback, galloping onto a rope bridge when the boards snap out from underneath her, sending her plunging into the raging river below.

huh. that's different...

Cut to some indeterminate amount of time in the past, and Li Chang Ge berates a guard for almost trampling over some dude. No one is in the right here².

Next, Li Chang Ge goes to see her mother, whom she has a loving and intimate relationship with³, and they talk about some marriage contract thingy.

After that, Li Chang Ge goes to hang out with her cousin, and they exchange lucky charms and talk about the cousin's crush. They also witness a (secret?) execution (by accident?), which does not have much impact other than to cause the cousin to lose her charm thingy on the way to the soccer game the crush is playing in.

At the soccer game, the crush gets hurt, and Li Chang Ge sneakily steals his uniform while he's in the sick bay, walks onto the field wearing a batman-style mask, and rallies the team to win the match with a critical tie-breaking final point. The other team might have won if their leader (whom the audience knows is an important person because they have an hawk screech sound effect every time he appears on screen) didn't get out of position to save a child on the sidelines from a ball speeding out-of-bounds.

As a reward for being MVP in the soccer game, she gets a cool dagger as a prize, which she then gives to her mentor as thanks for teaching her all these years. They then do a mock fight with the extremely dangerous unsheathed dagger.

The episode ends.

????? No seriously, what the heck was any of that??

Analysis

As you can see, those were very different first episodes. The TV show completely invents an entire storyline, that, in my view, does a much worse job of introducing the main character. The first chapter of the manga is focused & punchy, quickly getting the ball rolling and setting out all the who, what, where, when, why, & how. The TV show's first episode is unfocused & plodding, overall disjointed with how it presents the characters and sets up the story.

To be fair to TV show, there may be lots of symbolism more familiar to Chinese audiences that I'm failing to pick up on. But also, the source material was right there!! Why did it deviate so much?? I have a couple hypotheses for why the producers would have done this, neither of them charitable:

1. They needed to pad the runtime for their planned 49 episode run, each 40min long
2. They didn't want to lead with such dark themes because that's what expected in their target audience of drama-watchers.

Overall, not a great impression. But it wasn't just the plot that turned me off; there are more surface-level problems too.

Aesthetics

It's a bit unfair to compare to compare the manga and the show directly, since they're different forms of media, but I do think comparisons within each medium is warranted.

Song Of The Long March

As you can see from the panels shown previously, this manga is just absolutely gorgeous. The linework, shading, composition, paneling⁴, scenery, character design, portraits, you name it, it's spectacular. Probably the thing I would guess hooks most readers, who are then also captivated enough by the story that they can't put it down. The art also helped get me through the rare slow parts, being able to appreciate every panel.

The Long Ballad

By comparison, the direction here is extremely mediocre. Looks exactly like what you'd expect a mid-budget drama to look like. As you can see from the screenshots, the costumes are ok, the scenery is ok, the composition is ok, everything is just barely passable and inoffensive enough to not stand out. Good for a show you just want to make money off of, not good enough for a Piece Of Art like the manga was.

I should mention, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to write this piece, the editing is very strange. Which is the least offensive way I can put it. The only way I can truly explain it is by showing off a shot-by-shot breakdown of the very second scene, which had me crying laughing by the time it was over. Not because the scene itself was supposed to be funny, but because the editing was just that bad.

Ok so: here we go:

Establishing shot of some city. Cool.

Slow pan and rotate around from behind this dude to frame his face looking out the window, as ominous music plays.

We see the room he's staying in and the attendant behind him, and they're both POSTED UP.

Cut to a different angle from outside the balcony, framing both him and his attendant. These screenshots don't do it justice since it's static, but neither of them move an inch as they speak. It's frankly incredible to witness.

Quick cut to an angle just above his brow to highlight the end of his sentence. Take note that it's close-up with low depth-of-field. They love this shot.

Cut to the same static shot of the room as before to see them walk out the left side, as stiffly as possible, with an ominous flute playing to punctuate their exit.

Cut to a straight-on shot of them exiting the building, STILL POSTED UP, when suddenly a slow-motion effect hits. But not like, that slow, maybe 3/4 of real-time speed?

Quick fade transition (???) into another angle of them exiting the building, framed between some wood slats, still in slow-motion

CUT BACK TO THE FIRST ANGLE of them exiting AND THEY'RE STILL IN SLOW-MOTION.

You have to be kidding me. there is. another angle of them exiting. but from their right this time. Also framed between (different) wood slats. Also the dude is looking directly at the camera now.

Ah ok it was for the cut to this candy seller, who then nods, presumably at the dude he's making eye contact with. The candy seller is out-of-focus the entire shot, only the low-angle close-up of the candy is in focus.

Quick cut back to this guy. And his eyes jerkily move further to his right, and...

Cut to this guy selling colored thread, also presumably looking at the dude. Still low-angle with only the thread in focus. There's a whoosh sound effect and some speedup/slowdown and some inserted black frames to create a flashing effect for extra drama.

Back to the dude looking around, and then...

Now it's a guy selling plates, there's more whooshing and flashing and slow downs, and he's still out-of focus with only the close-up low-angle plates in-focus.

You know the drill. Whoosh cut back to the guy, whoosh cut to...

A guy selling food on sticks. This time from above! with the food in-focus and the guy out-of-focus. ok so clearly the out-of-focus and speed changes were a stylistic choice here. I am not sure why they felt the need to do this four times in a row, but apparently they thought it was important to note there were four street vendors looking directly at this dude as soon as he exits the building. Good to know.

There are many more rapid-fire cuts in this scene of the dude and his attendant walking to different booths, but at this point I had already lost it and needed to pause.

I hope the breakdown of this minute-long clip gives you a sense of what the directing/editing is like for the entire remaining 40 minutes: sloppy, over-dramatic, with musical cues constantly telling you what you should be feeling at any given moment. It's sort of like a toned-down version of Most dramatic scene ever, but still not pleasant to watch unless one is used to it.

Last thing: you may have also noticed I didn't bring up this scene in the plot summary earlier. That wasn't just because the episode was too long, that's because this scene is nothing: it doesn't matter, nothing shown here pays off in any way during the rest of the episode, it's pure filler. When so much of the first episode is like this, it was just too exhausting for me to want to continue.

Themes

It's also not quite fair to compare the overall themes for these, because I've read all of Song Of The Long March and have a complete understanding of what it's about, whereas I only get hints at themes from The Long Ballad, and who knows maybe it gets better! Still, even from the first episode I can opine about what I think it wants to do, so opine I shall.

Song Of The Long March

What's interesting to me is there's quite a strong gender theme in this manga. Li Chang Ge not only disguises herself as a boy and actively goes out of her way to be thought of as a boy, but even laments how she felt more at home in the palace learning about military strategy with the men (but could never be accepted fully due to her gender), and spent all her time there instead of learning how to be a proper princess (because the only female role-model in her life, her mother, shunned her from birth⁵).

It's not a trans-gender reading, though, since:

1. She never expresses a desire to be the other gender, only really pushing against the rigid social hierarchy and doing what she must to achieve her goals. To the extent she enjoys being treated like just another boy, that's mostly her enjoying being freed from the social stigma of living as a girl under patriarchy.
2. Once she comes into contact with strong female role models, like the captured Uighur who looks like her mom and teaches her about period cramps, or the temple priestess who's not-so-secretly running an underground trading business, or her long-lost grandmother, does she discover how to be comfortable in her own skin and reveal her secret to more people.

It could be said this sort of theme is common among coming-of-age stories, just most focus on boys doing boy things. Yet, I think this story is more than just "girl doing girl things", and the topic is treated in a pleasingly thoughtful way. It's very gender, the process of self-discovery as explored throughout the series, and it resonated with me.

Other themes the manga focuses on are the realities of war, figuring out what your aspirations are, how to live with repeated trauma, and the importance of family, both blood & found. All in all, great stuff, handled pretty well I'd say, nice deep themes that really engross you in all the characters' lives.

The Long Ballad

Again, I only watched the first episode so can't comment on the themes of the work as a whole, but from that first episode it seems this adaptation is not nearly as interested as exploring the themes I listed previously. Instead, it seems to be more about forbidden romance, the theatrics of war, and castle politics. Which, sure! Those are themes you can have. And yet, those themes are still executed more poorly than in Song Of The Long March. Combined with the jarring aesthetics, I saw no reason to continue and dropped it at the first episode.

Conclusion

I hope it's now clear why I prefer the original manga over the TV adaptation. I also hope you had fun reading this, and are maybe even convinced to give the manga a shot yourself. It's fairly short all things considered, only 61 chapters, and I do highly recommend it.

Potentially not as highly as my favorite manga like Goodbye, Eri or Kagurabachi, which are all things you should read immediately, but I'll write about those more some other time maybe.

I completely forgot that nothing besides the first season of PSYCHO-PASS was any good. This movie didn't do a whole lot to change my mind about that.

Not a lot of the plot points made any sense. Fistfight scenes were well animated in terms of realism, but were often dragged out and not well composited. All of the dramatic deaths clearly had their final scene planned with no regard to how they got to that point. Everyone has as aversion to helmets and ear protection in gunfights. Pacing was all over the place.

However! Some of the new tech was pretty cool. Loved the twin-engine fly-by-wire drone, and while the communication station didn't make sense for how it stayed in the air, its design is rule-of-cool & it even has realistic-ish laser weapons!! (helpfully colored green for viewing pleasure but hey their range and damage is realistic ok). I also really appreciated the background work done in the automated city ruins, very cool mysterious stuff that didn't need over-explanation. Lots of other background work was spectacular too, lot of the building interiors looked great.

Unfortunately there are still a lot of technological missteps in this sci-fi film. I could accept the original Dominator's rule of cool, "it's some sort of beam", but the souped-up one's energy ball thingy is just too outlandish. Don't even get me started on The Divider (stupid-ass brain chip), or how the inside of the submarine looks like a luxury apartment.

Also, while I really really liked the ending, and thought it was paced well, and was thematically satisfying, the question it poses there should honestly have been the main point of the film. "What happens when someone commits a crime in broad daylight but the Dominators don't react?" is so much more interesting than "What if there was a second Sybil System that talks like God and whose followers want to use it to control all wars somehow? (never mind the details about how, exactly (no we're not going to explain their supply chain))". The rest of the movie just took so long to get going to that one good part.

2/10 not worth it, go watch the original PSYCHO-PASS