Well, I for one...
Feb. 8th, 2008 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spottoOkay, so I was randomly reading Youtube comments. (Yes, I know reading Youtube comments, YOUTUBE comments will burn all of my brain cells and boil them to death with the utter stupidity levels reaching over 9000...but...) while watching some 1000% Sparking! remix videos. Now, I for one am not a big fan of remixes, but as I continued to watch them, I started to like a few. Some worked, others did not.
But I was questioning why the Eurobeat version was used most in other AMVs, and as I continued my journey of sabotaging my brain cells, I realized that was the majority favourite. Well, I should have known that when I noticed it being used in lots of AMVs, but I confirmed my suspicions with the reading of comments. I just wonder why. My opinion doesn't register because Eurobeat is the one sung by Kazumi and Sayo, so no matter what, I am going to be very biased. Of course, in that song and the original 1000% Sparking! sung by Kazuyoshi-ness, Kazumi and Sayo actually suck there, since Satsuki and Chao utterly take over the song with their superior singing skills. Yes, Kazumi and Sayo sucked. Not really because they sang bad, I mean they didn't sing bad...but Chao had this POWERFUL singing voice, unlike her high-pitched stereotypical chinese-person voice. It is a very godly voice. I always imagine THAT voice in the manga when Chao speaks, particularly when she is being evillish in the festival arc. The standard stereotypical voice fits much better with Chao-pretending-to-be some random student. (of course her being the smartest student anywhere didn't register as random, but still)
Which is why Chao-noob destructively PWNS Chao-veteran.
As for Satsuki? Her voice fit the song better than the voices of Kazumi and Sayo. I don't know how to explain. The song is one of those songs that require a powerful beautiful voice to sing, fittingly good for someone like Chachamaru or Ayaka (except I think Chachamaru failed in her version, lol) Sayo has the cute moe voice that doesn't really work, and Kazumi...well, her voice might fit better for some joke song or...never mind, I just don't like Kazumi singing for some reason. Lol. Her voice was awkward in Girls, be ambitious~, and it was kind of out of place in Precious Pride, but I think if fit for Oshiete and Happy Material. Ah yes, her voice fits better on happy sappy songs.
Now, in Ayaka's 1000% Sparking! She sang most of the solo parts. Makie's seiyuu is the one who's SUPPOSED to be the singer, being an idol and shit, but Ayaka's strong voice seemed to make all the people at Shaft put her obnoxiously THERE. People complained when she got a solo in Hello Again, and someone like Nodoka didn't, but Ayaka sounded GOOD. Same for her 1000% Sparking! song. She had like 60% of the solos, Makie 30%, and Ku Fei at a sad 10%. (It was almost impossible to HEAR Ku Fei there...)
This is the same for the Chachamaru version, in which she and Evangeline took over the song and poor Satomi who sounded too much LIKE Eva, who did get a few solos probably got people assuming the person singing WAS Eva. How utterly sad.
And thus it also applies to this 1000% Sparking! version, where Kazumi and Sayo are downplayed, because like Satomi, Ku Fei, and maybe Makie...they suck. At least to Shaft. I think Akira was the one who was "shafted" (horrible pun, >>;) on her version, and there's probably moar, but I don't bother listening to all 9000 versions of 1000% Sparking five billion times.
The point is, in the REMIX, they are even MORE thrown into the back. Chao is able to stay dominant with her awesome voice, but they greatly exaggerated Satsuki because she got all the "repeats" for lack of a better word. I'm not complaining, Satsuki's voice fits very well for that role, but it does downplay them more. O:
Actually, they do suck. Shaft hates Makie, and I don't need to explain that, XD. Ku Fei stayed "oblivious" to magic when she was supposed to know earlier like in the first anime/manga, which made her even more dumb than she really is. I can't really say anything for Hakase because she doesn't really do much anywhere...actually Akira got screwed in the first anime, I think Misora is screwed here. The point being all the " we don't give a shit for these characters" are obviously downplayed DESPITE their popularity (at least for Makie). I mean Sayo got her own episode and has an EPIC character design in Negima!?, but she had to share it with...EVERYBODY ELSE like every episode after episode 6, which were NOT about the main four girls.
But I must be the only one who hates how Shaft depicted Kazumi. I mean screw Makie, she's too obvious. Kazumi on the other hand was very screwed, because her role turned into...well. First off, I hated her character design, while Sayo's was epic. Sure the blue eyes and even more spiky than usual hair was nice, but they were never consistent with her hair. One shot it's insanely spiky and all over the place, another shot makes her look like a mace. Not only that but they SHOW a fucking hair tie on her hair, and I hate that. It was only shown in one panel ever in the manga, and NEVER in the first anime. The fact that there is NO hair tie there is part of her character. There probably IS one, but you never see it, which represents her personality. She's always able to avoid trouble, but nobody knows how the hell she did it. In the manga, they were sent ALL OVER THE MAGIC WORLD in DANGEROUS places, and Kazumi avoided all trouble and bounty hunters so easily without having any freakin' skills in fighting or something. And all the non-fighters who don't know how to fight either nearly got tentacle-raped, got anmesia, or something similar to that. The ones who didn't even know magic got turned into slaves, or are working or something.
What I mean is that, she can support herself, she can avoid trouble, she is independent...you just don't know how. Her hair can stand up like that, and you never see the hair tie. The hair tie represents dependency, so if there is never one seen...you know she's someone you can't mess with. That's just how Kazumi is.
So I got a little psychological with her HAIR, but that's what fans do when there is no chapter this week. The other thing is she got possessed, along with Ayaka, big-boob girl...I mean Chizuru, and Natsumi by Eva.
...that once again hurts. Yes, Kazumi is not completely invincible. She got caught by Wilhelm in the manga along with like...every other girl except people who can fight. (Ku Fei and Asuna got caught because they weren't strong enough. Notice how Kaede, Eva, and Chachamaru managed to stay away) But here Kazumi is paired with people who are NOT ignorant and oblivious, and even people who can fight. Setsuna got caught because the evil dood knew her weakness...using Konoka, lol.
But in Negima!?....she was caught with other people like Ayaka, who is definitely a dumbass...really. Natsumi is portrayed as a NORMAL girl...while Chizuru is also an ignorant oblivious person who doesn't even question how a dog turns into a kid and has like dog ears and a dog tail. Uhm...
So one, they killed her personality by destroying her strongest asset. Two, they killed her character design. Three, like every other character in that entire anime, she is turned into some drone who is obsessed with the one thing they associate her with. Her reporting skills. Notice how the cheerleaders always have pompoms, and even have them popping out of nowhere sometimes. Setsuna is insanely in love with Konoka instead of something more calm in the manga, Asuna is dumber, Ku Fei is dumber, Makie is dumbest...Ayaka is extremely obsessed with Negi even moreso than the manga, Yuuna has an obsession with guns...I could go on and on and on with this.
Of course, you notice that this happens a lot in fanfictions too...some site calls this "Flanderization" Negima's even listed as one of the examples, lol. (Of course they use Konosetsu, because everybody loves Konosetsu. You can't have a Negima conversation without talking, fangirling, squealing, and drooling over Konosetsu... >>;. You may also replace Konosetsu with Nodoka, and fangirling with fanboying, if you wish.) And I am also guilty of writing that in fanfics. Like Max is supposed to be a happy-go-lucky positive boy. In several humour fanfics...he's this hyper clinically insane dude obsessed with sugar who likes to bounce off the walls. See that? SEE THAT?
But those are fanfictions, this is supposed to be an anime...but it is a remake, after all...(AND a comedy. Plus, how can you develop thirty one interesting deep rounded characters in just TWENTY-SIX episodes? I suppose in that way...)
But this is Kazumi, this is Makie, this is Ku Fei, this is Setsuna, Asuna...characters who have some importance in the manga, not characters like the cheerleaders, but even THEY don't deserve what happened to them in Negima!?. Sure they don't have MUCH in the manga, but reducing them to just talking at the same time basically repeating what everybody says and wasting ten seconds of an episode is brutal.
Good things? Zazie speaks more. All Zazie fanboys rejoice. Except Zazie is NOT SUPPOSED to speak more. Anya and Nekane having a large role...while there are lots of happy fans of them, they aren't supposed to have such gigantic roles. Anya will probably get a good amount in the manga since she was introduced back in (probably due to the influence of Negima!?...notice how Ayaka had a Negi jet after that anime...) but not to the sheer magnitude of that Shaft anime. And so life moves on. You can't develop your 31 characters if you introduce more characters...that's just that. There's too many. I can barely write HFF because there's so many characters and I haven't even introduced the whole class yet. Urgh. Maybe I should've kept Yuuna dead or something.
But this rant is supposed to be about 1000% Sparking! Eurobeat Remix.
And once again I wonder why it's the favourite. I guess I already answered myself, I suppose. It is not because of the people singing it, either. Kazumi, Sayo, Satsuki, and Chao do not rank that high up in anywhere. Otherwise the first version, with the four main characters would be the most popular, or arguably the library girls, or even Evangeline, or even the Makie version, but not this one. Actually, the first version sounds like shit. Negi, Asuna, and KonoSetsu's voice don't fit the song. When they released a different version of Love Sensation with just KonoSetsu, Setsuna sounded like shit. Her voice didn't fit the upbeat of Love Sensation.
You get the point.
Now to end this very off-topic entry, the song itself! I will not bore the readers who care not for Negima with a video with a bunch of Negima clips. THIS IS A SAILOR MOON AMV with the song 1000% Sparking!, teh Eurobeat version. It's very good, actually, and I have a pretty high standard of AMVs. Oh, and it's a little fast, you might get dizzy or even get seizures, you have been warned.
That is all.
...oh, and Kazumi doesn't look great in the first anime either. I mean, RED EYES!? But better than Shaft. However, manga pwns all.
But I was questioning why the Eurobeat version was used most in other AMVs, and as I continued my journey of sabotaging my brain cells, I realized that was the majority favourite. Well, I should have known that when I noticed it being used in lots of AMVs, but I confirmed my suspicions with the reading of comments. I just wonder why. My opinion doesn't register because Eurobeat is the one sung by Kazumi and Sayo, so no matter what, I am going to be very biased. Of course, in that song and the original 1000% Sparking! sung by Kazuyoshi-ness, Kazumi and Sayo actually suck there, since Satsuki and Chao utterly take over the song with their superior singing skills. Yes, Kazumi and Sayo sucked. Not really because they sang bad, I mean they didn't sing bad...but Chao had this POWERFUL singing voice, unlike her high-pitched stereotypical chinese-person voice. It is a very godly voice. I always imagine THAT voice in the manga when Chao speaks, particularly when she is being evillish in the festival arc. The standard stereotypical voice fits much better with Chao-pretending-to-be some random student. (of course her being the smartest student anywhere didn't register as random, but still)
Which is why Chao-noob destructively PWNS Chao-veteran.
As for Satsuki? Her voice fit the song better than the voices of Kazumi and Sayo. I don't know how to explain. The song is one of those songs that require a powerful beautiful voice to sing, fittingly good for someone like Chachamaru or Ayaka (except I think Chachamaru failed in her version, lol) Sayo has the cute moe voice that doesn't really work, and Kazumi...well, her voice might fit better for some joke song or...never mind, I just don't like Kazumi singing for some reason. Lol. Her voice was awkward in Girls, be ambitious~, and it was kind of out of place in Precious Pride, but I think if fit for Oshiete and Happy Material. Ah yes, her voice fits better on happy sappy songs.
Now, in Ayaka's 1000% Sparking! She sang most of the solo parts. Makie's seiyuu is the one who's SUPPOSED to be the singer, being an idol and shit, but Ayaka's strong voice seemed to make all the people at Shaft put her obnoxiously THERE. People complained when she got a solo in Hello Again, and someone like Nodoka didn't, but Ayaka sounded GOOD. Same for her 1000% Sparking! song. She had like 60% of the solos, Makie 30%, and Ku Fei at a sad 10%. (It was almost impossible to HEAR Ku Fei there...)
This is the same for the Chachamaru version, in which she and Evangeline took over the song and poor Satomi who sounded too much LIKE Eva, who did get a few solos probably got people assuming the person singing WAS Eva. How utterly sad.
And thus it also applies to this 1000% Sparking! version, where Kazumi and Sayo are downplayed, because like Satomi, Ku Fei, and maybe Makie...they suck. At least to Shaft. I think Akira was the one who was "shafted" (horrible pun, >>;) on her version, and there's probably moar, but I don't bother listening to all 9000 versions of 1000% Sparking five billion times.
The point is, in the REMIX, they are even MORE thrown into the back. Chao is able to stay dominant with her awesome voice, but they greatly exaggerated Satsuki because she got all the "repeats" for lack of a better word. I'm not complaining, Satsuki's voice fits very well for that role, but it does downplay them more. O:
Actually, they do suck. Shaft hates Makie, and I don't need to explain that, XD. Ku Fei stayed "oblivious" to magic when she was supposed to know earlier like in the first anime/manga, which made her even more dumb than she really is. I can't really say anything for Hakase because she doesn't really do much anywhere...actually Akira got screwed in the first anime, I think Misora is screwed here. The point being all the " we don't give a shit for these characters" are obviously downplayed DESPITE their popularity (at least for Makie). I mean Sayo got her own episode and has an EPIC character design in Negima!?, but she had to share it with...EVERYBODY ELSE like every episode after episode 6, which were NOT about the main four girls.
But I must be the only one who hates how Shaft depicted Kazumi. I mean screw Makie, she's too obvious. Kazumi on the other hand was very screwed, because her role turned into...well. First off, I hated her character design, while Sayo's was epic. Sure the blue eyes and even more spiky than usual hair was nice, but they were never consistent with her hair. One shot it's insanely spiky and all over the place, another shot makes her look like a mace. Not only that but they SHOW a fucking hair tie on her hair, and I hate that. It was only shown in one panel ever in the manga, and NEVER in the first anime. The fact that there is NO hair tie there is part of her character. There probably IS one, but you never see it, which represents her personality. She's always able to avoid trouble, but nobody knows how the hell she did it. In the manga, they were sent ALL OVER THE MAGIC WORLD in DANGEROUS places, and Kazumi avoided all trouble and bounty hunters so easily without having any freakin' skills in fighting or something. And all the non-fighters who don't know how to fight either nearly got tentacle-raped, got anmesia, or something similar to that. The ones who didn't even know magic got turned into slaves, or are working or something.
What I mean is that, she can support herself, she can avoid trouble, she is independent...you just don't know how. Her hair can stand up like that, and you never see the hair tie. The hair tie represents dependency, so if there is never one seen...you know she's someone you can't mess with. That's just how Kazumi is.
So I got a little psychological with her HAIR, but that's what fans do when there is no chapter this week. The other thing is she got possessed, along with Ayaka, big-boob girl...I mean Chizuru, and Natsumi by Eva.
...that once again hurts. Yes, Kazumi is not completely invincible. She got caught by Wilhelm in the manga along with like...every other girl except people who can fight. (Ku Fei and Asuna got caught because they weren't strong enough. Notice how Kaede, Eva, and Chachamaru managed to stay away) But here Kazumi is paired with people who are NOT ignorant and oblivious, and even people who can fight. Setsuna got caught because the evil dood knew her weakness...using Konoka, lol.
But in Negima!?....she was caught with other people like Ayaka, who is definitely a dumbass...really. Natsumi is portrayed as a NORMAL girl...while Chizuru is also an ignorant oblivious person who doesn't even question how a dog turns into a kid and has like dog ears and a dog tail. Uhm...
So one, they killed her personality by destroying her strongest asset. Two, they killed her character design. Three, like every other character in that entire anime, she is turned into some drone who is obsessed with the one thing they associate her with. Her reporting skills. Notice how the cheerleaders always have pompoms, and even have them popping out of nowhere sometimes. Setsuna is insanely in love with Konoka instead of something more calm in the manga, Asuna is dumber, Ku Fei is dumber, Makie is dumbest...Ayaka is extremely obsessed with Negi even moreso than the manga, Yuuna has an obsession with guns...I could go on and on and on with this.
Of course, you notice that this happens a lot in fanfictions too...some site calls this "Flanderization" Negima's even listed as one of the examples, lol. (Of course they use Konosetsu, because everybody loves Konosetsu. You can't have a Negima conversation without talking, fangirling, squealing, and drooling over Konosetsu... >>;. You may also replace Konosetsu with Nodoka, and fangirling with fanboying, if you wish.) And I am also guilty of writing that in fanfics. Like Max is supposed to be a happy-go-lucky positive boy. In several humour fanfics...he's this hyper clinically insane dude obsessed with sugar who likes to bounce off the walls. See that? SEE THAT?
But those are fanfictions, this is supposed to be an anime...but it is a remake, after all...(AND a comedy. Plus, how can you develop thirty one interesting deep rounded characters in just TWENTY-SIX episodes? I suppose in that way...)
But this is Kazumi, this is Makie, this is Ku Fei, this is Setsuna, Asuna...characters who have some importance in the manga, not characters like the cheerleaders, but even THEY don't deserve what happened to them in Negima!?. Sure they don't have MUCH in the manga, but reducing them to just talking at the same time basically repeating what everybody says and wasting ten seconds of an episode is brutal.
Good things? Zazie speaks more. All Zazie fanboys rejoice. Except Zazie is NOT SUPPOSED to speak more. Anya and Nekane having a large role...while there are lots of happy fans of them, they aren't supposed to have such gigantic roles. Anya will probably get a good amount in the manga since she was introduced back in (probably due to the influence of Negima!?...notice how Ayaka had a Negi jet after that anime...) but not to the sheer magnitude of that Shaft anime. And so life moves on. You can't develop your 31 characters if you introduce more characters...that's just that. There's too many. I can barely write HFF because there's so many characters and I haven't even introduced the whole class yet. Urgh. Maybe I should've kept Yuuna dead or something.
But this rant is supposed to be about 1000% Sparking! Eurobeat Remix.
And once again I wonder why it's the favourite. I guess I already answered myself, I suppose. It is not because of the people singing it, either. Kazumi, Sayo, Satsuki, and Chao do not rank that high up in anywhere. Otherwise the first version, with the four main characters would be the most popular, or arguably the library girls, or even Evangeline, or even the Makie version, but not this one. Actually, the first version sounds like shit. Negi, Asuna, and KonoSetsu's voice don't fit the song. When they released a different version of Love Sensation with just KonoSetsu, Setsuna sounded like shit. Her voice didn't fit the upbeat of Love Sensation.
You get the point.
Now to end this very off-topic entry, the song itself! I will not bore the readers who care not for Negima with a video with a bunch of Negima clips. THIS IS A SAILOR MOON AMV with the song 1000% Sparking!, teh Eurobeat version. It's very good, actually, and I have a pretty high standard of AMVs. Oh, and it's a little fast, you might get dizzy or even get seizures, you have been warned.
That is all.
...oh, and Kazumi doesn't look great in the first anime either. I mean, RED EYES!? But better than Shaft. However, manga pwns all.
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Date: 2008-02-09 09:06 pm (UTC)