Hai wa Hai ni

Mood:

Or: Ashes to Ashes. Some people have been writing out the romaji as Hai ha Hai ni. The 'ha' is pronounced 'wa', since it's used as a particle. But, I've read that some people are confused about the title. In the original video, they give the title out in romaji, too. So, they should just use that...(I think the confusion might be that the title's written in katakana the rest of the time, instead of hiragana or the kanji. It's just not used as often. Normally it's for foreign words/companies/etc. But, can be used to emphasize other words.) Anyways, this is sung by the Kaito vocaloid. I love his songs (he's one of my favorite vocaloids), but people tend to make his songs comical. Which is fine, but it's good to hear the serious/cool ones too. He has a nice vocal range. This one is kind of sad, yet sounds amazing. 

In Tokyo Bandwagon, Ao and Suzumi got married. It was kind of overshadowed by a reporter getting a 'scoop' on Ao's birth mother. Apparently, she's a famous actress, and wanted him to have a better life. So, she allowed his father to raise him. He's a rock star, and she also felt she couldn't be associated with him in public. Kind of sad. His father would send pics of Ao to his mother once a year. They were usually pics of him celebrating his birthday with the rest of the family. Anyways, this reporter repeatedly threatened them about going public with the whole thing. Ao never was actually told who his birth mother was by the family before. But, the reporter mentioned it to him, and he retaliated by punching him. Eventually, they managed to get the reporter to stop and not to publish his big scoop. Instead he was reassigned to work for the rock music section of the company. (It was bought out by a friend of the family, so he could pull the strings in the background. Basically cornering the reporter, and showing him how powerful he really is.) The rock music section was Ao's father's suggestion, since the reporter used to write articles pertaining to that music scene. The wedding itself went off without a hitch. His mother managed to watch it, and was even in the family wedding photo. She had told them that part of the wedding ceremony would be a good setting for a scene from her movie, and that when she thanked them, they encouraged her to be in the photo. It was kind of a touching episode. She never came out and told him who she really was. The episode ended with Ao's father coughing up blood, and collapsing. I hope he isn't dying or anything like that. They had finally resolved their differences. 

I decided to drop Toradora. The only characters I liked were the 2 main ones. They seemed to have been growing closer to each other, but both of them are in denial of it. Kind of painful to watch. Especially when their crushes don't like them romantically. It just doesn't seem to be progressing much. It's cute at times, but just 'eh' most of the time. Sad, since so many people seem to gush over this series. I can't seem to really get into it.

World Embryo has been very interesting so far. Much better than I expected. Plus, I thought it was going to be short, but apparently it's not. Funny how the author refers to the first 2 volumes of the manga as a 'prologue'. There was a ton of stuff in that prologue. We still don't know who or what Neene is. (The little girl in the pic.) She's growing up much faster than a human would. She also 'hatched' from an egg Riku found. The egg was surrounded by Kanshu, so she has something to do with them. Kanshu are humans who get infected by some sort of virus that's transmitted through cell signals. (Or, if you're bitten/attacked by one.) It turns them into weird grotesque 'monsters', and they go off on a killing spree. People who knew them before start to forget about them. The Kanshu themselves have forgotten who they were. Riku was forced to kill his childhood friend, Youhei. Before a person gets totally taken over, they have the option of becoming a Jinki user. Jinki users get weird little metal balls implanted into their hands. This prevents the infection from spreading further, and they can use it to awaken what Kanshu they have and turn it into a weapon. They fight the Kanshu that way. But, if the 'ball' is taken from them, they must be exterminated. They'll revert to becoming a full Kanshu otherwise. Riku has joined the Jinki users organization, and his partner is now Rena. Rena was Youhei's partner. There are Jinki hunters, as well. The main one so far is Takao. He's trying to locate the source of the infection. He's a ruthless mass murderer, and kills anyone who gets in his way. He tried to take Neene and Riku, saying that their power will aid in his search for it, and to defeat it. They managed to get away though. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. 

Finished writing the fourth short story to my nightmare anthology. I think I like this even more than my other ones. It's a little bit longer, though. Fun to write. Should be interesting to see how the next one turns out.

Played my clarinet. Did some more klezmer tunes, and some 'advanced' Mozart pieces. Sounded pretty good this time, too.