My general thoughts on movies, dramas, anime, RPG games, and music from East Asia.(Japan, South Korea, and China.(Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China)
Please note that this blog is not a review blog nor do I clam to be a professional. I just like talking about East Asian pop culture. My opinions are my opinions good or bad. It's no hard feelings. Feel free to comment your thoughts as well.
Youtube/Twitter/Instagram @Rico is 에리코(Erico)
Group Demotion or Everyone is Demoted is a Japanese drama that Aired on Sundays during the month of July. The drama lasted for ten episodes and is based off the novel of the same name originally written by Tetsuo Ebato. Japan's Bon Jovi: Masaharu Fukuyama stars in the drama with Teruyuki Kagawa, Hiroshi Mikami, Ryunosuke Kamiki, and Kai Inowaki. Yoichiro Hirakawa directed the drama.
A bank worker is transfered to a smaller branch that is said to be failing. If the branch can get a certain amount in loans that branch could save it's self from being closed down. This bank worker works as hard as he can to save the branch but little does he know, there's more problems under the surface of this bank he loves so much.
First off, let me start by saying that Group Demotion has absolutely no romance in it whatsoever.(middle aged marriage life only folks..) Sorry, this is not that kind of drama. Banking is strictly the main focus here. I know a lot of people won't watch this drama because to them there's no eye candy or a bank drama just seems like a boring viewing experience. You could say I wasn't too excited to watch Group Demotion either but Fukuyama was staring in it so I decided to watch as a fan of his. Not to mention most of the stuff he's in turns out to be pretty good. Group Demotion is about banking while not being only about Banking. I've ever watched a Banking drama where I actually cared about the aspects of banking itself. Somehow the story made me care about the math of the fact through the character's struggles. Viewers learn that much more goes into giving customer loans and how the loans benefit both parties. Also, the positive message that comes out of the bank helping so many people get back up on their feet. Most of us don't really take the time to realize how much banks help society. Sure, you have to pay the money back however, costumers are allowed to get a start on their businesses then pay the bank back later when they're earning more than enough to return the loan. This all ties into the plot full of fun events that you wouldn't expect from a drama like this. Each episode tries it's hardest to be as not boring as possible. I enjoyed the fast pace Group Demotion has when using scenes of on foot chases, running down roads toward the office, as well as fights in the office. Like I said above the drama gives viewers a heart warming feel watching the characters in the bank work for a honest corrupt free method to help people support their dreams financially. I loved how the drama flies into second gear after a few episodes that seem to be bring a sort of closure to the first conflict in someone's perfect world. Too bad the world is far from perfect in reality and the drama keeps going, adding a new bunch of conflicts to the story. Some parts of the drama can be frustrating when you think about the villains… Yep, A banking drama with villains. Who would have thought? Group Demotion concludes pretty normally though.
Group Demotion is at the type of Drama that requires everyone to be good at acting. No person in the cast being off their game throws the whole show off balance. Even the costars who have small parts have to be perfect in their character for the whole thing to stay interesting. Otherwise this would be another boring banking drama. I've watched other Japanese banking dramas before and stuck around because of the performances. Same instance happens here too. Fukuyama's performance in a character who went from being a deer in headlights to a strong stable character who fought for the justice of the integrity of his bank struck a chord within me. Teruyuki's character supports Fuku's character as the whole branch's team strives to survive in the corrupt world of banking. The unwavering support between the characters is something to seek out in your own life.
Group Demotion won't be a drama that makes it on to many J-drama lover's to watch lists. Still I suggest taking the time to watch some of this drama if you don't have anything else to do. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Men Envy Children was suggested to me automatically by Youtube's system because I listen to a lot of different music all the time. I've only seen one music video of theirs and I liked what I saw but I wasn't blown away. I did however decide to check out their album called The 3rd Wish anyway. They have had three albums so far. Plus a couple of the songs were released as singles prior to The 3rd Wish's release. I'm not sure how popular this band is in Taiwan. They seem to have a good sized fanbase for a rock band though.
01. 征服 – Conquer 02. 男孩与狮王 – The Boy and the Lion 03. 我的骄傲 – Proud To Be Me 04. 转身以后 – After I Turn My Back 05. 旅行公路 – Road Trip 06. 薛丁格的猫 – Schrödinger’s Cat 07. Goodbye My Friend 08. Never the Point 09. We Are 10. Rise and Shine
The 3rd Wish was a really smart rock record in my opinion. It's tracks explore different sides to the rock n roll genre. Not just one style of rock like most people would expect. Men Envy Children's sound could have evolved from a more mandopop realm. I'm not really sure since I didn't listen to their older albums. There's various elements in Men Envy Children's Rock anthems. Lyrics span across topics of love. Some being the romantic kind while others are normal friendships. I enjoyed the little sprinkle of English lyrics mixed into the Mandarin. These moments give the tracks a foreign flare just enough to stand out among the acts. Chinese bands sing in English but it's all in the way you use English to create a solid musical art form. Tracks such as Never the Point(one of my favorite tracks.) use English in a addictive way in order to uplift the song's catchy atmosphere. The track also inserts a Reggae and Country sound to an already rock inspired song. I guess hard rock fans would consider this pop or pop rock. Speaking of Hard rock listeners, a hand full of tracks on The 3rd Wish hit the ground hard in a good way. This was something I didn't expect, still the album opens with a hard rock number then bounces off the energy of that first impression. You will be able to feel the swift of slow down tracks before the tracks build up momentum again. We Are is another track that vastly super charges the album when the compilation gets on it's last legs. None of the songs are actually skippable and the tracks keep a consistent flow throughout the whole album.
The lead singer is female supported by an all male band. I like their band name a lot. Got to wonder who came up with the name… Maybe it was the front woman as she seems well versed in English and Mandarin. Her vocals sound like summer on a sunny day: Lively yet composed. She has a flexible confident energy when she sings also. I loved how she tries to sing rap sometimes. That time signature change on one of the earlier tracks(我的骄傲) on the album didn't trip her up either.
The 3rd Wish is an album I keep coming back to. I really can't get enough of the fun music Men Envy Children creates. This album probably isn't even their best body of work.
Kingdom Heart 3's development took about twelve years overall but the game fanbase still held strong through Square Enix and creator Tetsuya Nomura trollings. The game kept getting release dates only to constantly being pushed back. Fans began to think that the third game to the franchise would never come out or that the game would come out generations after the first two games. Finally the game got a release date that was set in stone. When Kingdom Hearts 3 was released the long awaited game was met with positive reception across the board. There was/still is negative opinions about the game online but the game still ended up selling over five million copies worldwide, making the game the top best selling game of January 2019 in America and the third best selling game of the following month.
Sora continues his journey to learn how to awaken the Power of Waking after the events of Kingdom Hearts dream drop distance. He must also find the lost Keyblade warriors to stop a revived Organization XII and their leader Xehanort from opening Kingdom Hearts: The heart of all worlds. Another bunch of whole new Disney worlds awaits Sora and his friends…..
I've played almost all of the original Kingdom Heart games. I didn't play the remixes or Kingdom Hearts: Recoded but I have a good idea of the story even after not playing the series for so long. My opening thoughts about the game remain the same as the other games, Players get a fantastic looking opening matched with a fantastic theme song sung by Utada Hikaru before you get a tutorial on the basics of gameplay. Kingdom Hearts is an RPG game that uses real time battles and this time around the game controls are much more slick to use. All in game actions feel very fast, including the new features of climbing up walls, bouncing off poles, plus switching weapons at the press of button. Being able to use two Keyblades at the same time would have been sick… I'm still sad about that. Battle controls give players a ton of options to use for victory. Sora can use magic on top of special attacks which include summons or team attacks with Donald and Goofy. There's hoards of enemies(known as Heartless, Unverse, and Nobodies in the game.) you have to beat throughout each Disney world. You can choose to fight these enemies without some of the abilities you are granted for more of a challenge. Just don't believe what you might read online about this game being an easy one button mash session. Those comments are not true, You need to do a little bit more than hit one button to win certain battles. I do agree with some people saying that the boss battles at the first half of the game are a little easy. If you are a first time player of the franchise, The first boss you fight will scare you, especially if you don't know his weak points. I had problems with one or two bosses because of the mechanics needed to beat these bosses. Other than that, the real challenge comes in when you get to the latter half game leading up to the final battle. You can do a lot of little mini games and stuff to boost your attributes in battle but none of it really effects the outcome of the game. Well, unless you want to count the lucky emblems you have to take pictures of that are hidden in different worlds to unlock a secret movie at the end of the game. My biggest complaint about Kingdom Hearts 3 was the Gummy ship travel that turned into a real world exploration. the old Gummy Ship travel between world was less of a headache in my opinion. This new improved way of travel was so hard to control that I dreaded the thought of having to travel to a new Disney world every time I completed the world I was currently in. The controls to move the ship are absolutely awful. I spent more time crashing into things than having a smooth ride on my journey. My upmost priority became getting to the new Disney world after awhile otherwise a detour would have made it hard for me to return on the right course toward the next world. Lord have mercy, It frustrated me to no end. Who ever made the Gummy ship travel system like that should be ashamed of themselves. Customization of your ship wasn't really needed either. I guess this feature is for people who want to do the most. You can win the space boss battles without do much to your ship. Just putting that out there for those who would were wondering. Other than that, I enjoyed playing Kingdom Hearts 3.
The story of KH3 was good and in-depth on the questions that needed to be answered. I would say at least for fans that know the whole story. Nomura claimed that new players can enjoy KH3 without playing the other games. He's telling a lie. I don't recommend you playing this game unless you have knowledge from the other games. People who don't understand the KH universe will be confused by all the characters. Even some people who played the first two games might get confused. I think you need to at least play the remix games of Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance if you can. Chain of Memories, 358/2 days, Birth by Sleep, and Dream Drop Distance are all KH games that are VERY IMPORTANT in order to fully enjoy KH3. A lot of character backstory are in these games which tie into KH3's plot. I'm not sure how much the remix games retell the story of the original games but they're good for people who didn't have the game consoles to play the older games when they were released. I was one of the losers that held on to my PSP instead of selling it around the time Birth By Sleep came out originally.[INSERT ME LAUGHING.] Somehow the flow of KH3's story goes so fast to a degree of not realizing you're approaching the final battle. I wouldn't say the story is rushed. Instead there just wasn't much else to tell outside of the overall reason for why the events of the first two games happened and reuniting all the characters across the other games. Each new Disney world was fun to experience excluding the fact that another two worlds before the final battle might have helped make the game feel longer. No, I mean another two worlds before the two you are forced to go to thanks to the events of the game. Players are then blindly walking into the final boss without realizing that that's the end of the road. I know I did. KH3 normally gives players a strong vibe that you are about to enter the last battle. Kingdom Hearts 3 mentions a final battle but you don't take the cutscene seriously until it's in your face. I though that there was more time so I walked into the final boss having zero items on me and fought the final boss using mostly spells to heal myself or depended on Donald to heal me. KH3's final boss is the most epic boss battle of the series. You have to be on your toes for those hard hits cause the opening battle alone will make you sweat. Kingdom Hearts isn't over yet. Xehanort's saga is over though. The ending was like a punch in the gut….. Poor Kari never gets a break. Just when I thought a happy ending was coming my way. Lastly, Kingdom Hearts always had a youthful atmosphere because of the affiliation to Disney. Wannabe hard asses complain all day about how the KH series has disney characters. It wouldn't be Kingdom Hearts if Disney wasn't apart of the game. It doesn't take away from the magic of the story at all. Sora's character was really child like fun loving for a guy in his twenties during the game but that's his character. The story tries at certain points to aid comic relief using Donald, Goofy, and Mickey to lighten up the mood toward the darker parts of the game. Certain sections of the game are not for children. Especially during the last few battles.
Kingdom Heart 3's graphics show years of hard work the creators put into the game. Not a thing in this game looks flimsy appearance wise and the colors of the Disney worlds pop on your TV screen as if you were watching a film. Even pictures taken by Sora in the game look like priceless memories when you look at them later on. Battle graphics don't blur in color no matter how fast you move around the battle field. They keep up with your movements for a lush gaming experience. This is how Kingdom Hearts should be.
Was Kingdom Hearts 3 worth the wait? My answer is yes mostly. Was it the best game of 2019? I don't know about that yet. However, it was a good enough game to end a game saga that needed a conclusion before 2020.
Chanmina was a rapper that blew up on Youtube originally. She actually has more Youtube views compared to pure album sales that she has made from her first album. I've kept up with most of her digital singles and the physical single for "I'm A Pop" but none of her releases has turned into a major success. Even the collaborations she has done(Teddyloid) got some Japanese people to check her out, just not to the point of having higher sales. I'm not quite sure how she had concert footage of a venue full of that many people either… unless she was opening for someone else. The audience seemed into her performance at least. Never Grow Up is the rapper's second album after a whole bunch of single releases. Fun Fact: Chanmina is of Japanese and Korean decent. She speaks English, Japanese, and Korean fluently. You can hear her rap some of the lyrics of "I'm a Pop" in Korean.
TRACKLISt
01. Call 02. I’m a Pop 03. Pain Is Beauty 04. Never Grow Up 05. Yesterday 06. You’ve Won 07. My Own Lane 08. Girls 09. Can U Love Me 10. Like This 11. Doctor 12. Cafe 13. A Song Saved to Archived 14. Sad Song
Chanmina's sophomore effort was highly anticipated when first I heard the tracks released to promote the album: Call and Never Grow Up(same name as the album title). Call is a RnB Pop fusion track that might be one of the calmer tracks on the album while Never Grow Up has a summer pop beat that's clearly catering to the J-pop loving mainstream market. Most of the highlights of the album come from previously released singles such as Doctor, Pain is Beauty, and I'm a Pop which isn't a good thing. I wanted an album that brought the same energy as I'm a Pop's boss bitch persona portrayed in diamond quality swag. It's dramatic beat patterns surely leave a lasting impression in the form of bullet smoke when the gun's been fired. Never Grow Up doesn't quite live up to the epic road created for it's homecoming but there's some alright sings worth noting. Yesterday fits in the same atmosphere as Call, only as kind of like a part two to expanding on the style during the album. Girls fits the same style as Never Grow Up in the comparisons of the cute girl pop vibe both songs give off. My Own Lane could have come close to standing side to side with I'm a Pop. There was just a little hint of creativity in "My Own Lane's" production that Chanmina's older songs have. Somehow the track still missed the mark lacking a sense to push the boundary. Never Give Up as an album lacked an artistic direction in each tracks instrumentals when it comes to the new material. All the beats sounded the same plus the album tries too hard to be a top ten charting album in Japan. Producers are probably to blame. She's started to remind me of Daoko, a female soloist who does the sing/rap thing too. She's not the strongest singer but she makes up for it with charisma. Daoko can rap pretty well when tested like Chanmina without the bad girl image though. I don't want Chanmina to conform to being another Daoko in order to sell well. She better sell based on her bringing her own unique self to the Japanese music scene. Which brings me to my next problem of the album's overall theme being all over the place. Sad Song doesn't even fit into the rest of the album. Then the track stands out even more because it's the very last track on the album. Producers got away placing Pain is Beauty on the record as a pop rock track until they pushed their luck adding a second one.. I don't like witnessing this tug of war Chanmina has created for herself. Never Grow Up isn't the masterpeice I wanted to believe it would be to say the least. A mini album might have been her best bet at this point. Considering the lack of good material Never Grow Up has.
Chanmina can sing pretty well considering she's claiming the rapper title most of all. I would like her to hone the vocals to be a bit stronger. She is still young so her voice could change again once she hits her mid twenties. Never Grow Up messed up the opportunity for her to shine as a rapper. Where was the bars that demands respect? Where was the swag that her first album had? Something is seriously missing here. Rapping takes a huge back seat to her trying to go mainstream.
Track List: 01. HOW WE DO 02. I’M ON FIRE (Feat. Blue.D) (불나방) *Title Track* 03. SEXY 04. WORTHLESS (쓰레기)
05. HOOLIGAN (Feat. MINO of WINNER) 06. GET READY 07. TIPSY (비틀비틀) 08. HATE 09. SAME (비슷비슷해)
Eun Jiwon is a big legend from the first generation of Korean Pop music in the nineties. He originally was apart of the group Sechs Kies, who was a hugely popular group until they announced their disbandment out of the blue in 2000. Each member went their separate ways. Eun Jiwon has had a very fruitful solo career as a rapper and actor even though he constantly jumped from record label to record label. Most people from my generation know him from the appearances he made on shows such as Replay 1997 and 2 Days, 1 Night. Eun JiWon is now signed to YG Entertainment who released his first solo album in ten years called G1.
G1 is an YG Entertainment album through and through. Listeners couldn't doubt this fact if they tried. I didn't know much about Eun Jiwon since his reign in Korean music was before my time…. Not that I wasn't born but I was too young to care, Plus I was halfway across the world too so… Yeah. Anyway, G1 might be the first impression that Eun Jiwon wants to give listeners who don't know of his legacy. The tracks are very vintage Hip Hop that would fit along the lines of older YG groups like H.O.T and 1TYM in my opinion. Which could be seen as very funny because Eun Jiwon's group was made to be in competition with H.O.T by their record label back in the day. Who would have though that he would sign to the label that housed his rivals for many years. Then make a Hip Hop record that sounds just like the rebel music that was the complete opposite of the pop music Sechs Kies was flourishing from at that time. Jiwon's change in musical direction has angered fans in the past but I believe he feels that the new generation would take a better liking to his musical vision as an older artist who's already cemented his name in Kpop. Songs like Hate give G1 a bit of a modern day twist avoiding the pit hole of sounding too one sided while also adding a singing side to Eun Jiwon. I'm On Fire just sounds like a YG hip hop song that been the label's forte for years. It's a good track to get you in the feels of how all the generations of YG artists did Hip hop spanning over more than a decade. Sexy is one of those dance house hip hop songs you either love or hate. I can feel both depending on my mood. Hooligan featuring Mino was a good pairing to make Eun Jiwon appeal more youthful to new younger fans. In reality, It's another pump your hands up in the air hip hop song Eun Jiwon doesn't need to keep up with all the new rappers but he somehow is in his forties and looks to be about twenty one. G1 isn't anything new to Korean music listeners like myself, however, G1 still manages to be a fun album that uses the old riding on some new themes in Korean Hip Hop out right now. This was a very good comeback in my opinion.
Eun Jiwon's G1 similarities to some of H.O.T's earlier works are uncanning. He's no Teddy Park but his flow reeks of a seasoned veteran in the game. I like that he did most of the singing expect for one feature and does well sliding back and forth between both. G1 in someways was needed in the Korean music scene when the album was released since it took Korea back to old school hip hop roots during a time of a younger generation. None was really bringing that essence on a mainstream level so this whole project was a great thing.
01. Chica 02. 우리가 즐거워 (Young In Love) 03. Call It Love 04. Flourishing 05. Snapping
I'm really late to making a post about Chung Ha. I'll admit that I didn't know anything about her until seeing her music video for Snapping. I've been a semi fan of this girl ever since. Snapping is her latest title track to promote her new mini album called Flourishing that came out in June. She was a contestant on the music making program called Producer 101 which I don't watch. I'm not a fan of Korean music reality show as I believe I stated before but I do love some of the artists that came from this show as a result.
Chung Ha has released four mini albums to date. The soloist becomes more in-depth to her own lane of artistry with each release she puts out. Most of her mini albums chart high on the Korean music chart making other solo female singers like Heize wonder how the hell another chick come out the woodworks to claim the crown so fast. Chica shows that Chung Ha can be diverse while still flourishing under the normal Kpop marker. Super Junior(like many others) also has dabbled in Spanish influenced sounds recently and ChungHa takes to the style, doing it justice in Korea as well. Her voice really turns bright on the uptempo of the chorus. China also contains a great message written in English along with Korean lyrics for female listeners that need a pick me up. Young Love and Call it Love are tracks that worry me a bit when it comes to ChungHa's career. Being cute is a super popular trend in Korea. One that may female singers think they need to conform to in order to sell. This girl has a cute image naturally but I don't want her music to sound so high pitched dipped in pink cotton candy. Those two songs give me that. Snapping was put at the end of the album for some reason. It should have been right after Chica. This track is the best Chung Ha has to offer on her new effort and you have to go through a few songs to get to hear it. Powered using a fun pop beat filled to the brim with girl powered tones, Snapping brings out all the fun in a listener that a Kpop song should. It has a great start that makes Chungha's vocals feel very attractive before building up to a finish that would make any pop star in the world proud. Flourishing(also a track on the album) acts as an opener for her masterpiece of a track, leading us back to a matureness of the singer. If only the whole album could have been made excluding tracks three and four. I would be just fine.
ChungHa still has managed to impress me though. I went back to listen to her Offset mini album and I was glad to see her singing mature songs there too. Rollercoaster could be that one tack that strongly blends cute and mature together for a wonderful result. Rollercoaster has been on constant repeat the last few days on my iPod… Her time in the states can be heard in the way she performs music too. She has a strong vocal that doesn't need much overproduction.
Beakhyun is a singer who is apart of the popular South Korean boyband known as EXO. He is also apart of the group's sub unit called EXO- CBX. City Lights is his first mini album as a soloist. I'm not a huge fan of EXO to tell you the truth. I like a select few songs here and there but I don't follow their releases by choice. UN Village just came up as a suggestion on my Youtube account.
Track List: 01. UN Village 02. Stay Up (Feat. Beenzino) 03. Betcha 04. Ice Queen 05. Diamond 06. Psycho
City Lights was an interesting record considering the background of the artist who released this album. The tracks sound more closer to the effort of an indie artist than an idol singer from SM Entertainment. It's a very Hip Hop/RnB driven album fit for the indie Korean music scene in my opinion. This was a big reason why I was so drawn to City Lights on my first listen. UN Village is a mid tempo RnB track that has a smooth production perfectly catering to listeners who want a jumpy melody friendly track. Many of the variations in the beat don't sound like anything you would hear in other Kpop songs out currently. Baekhyun even hires the aid of foreign producer Cha Cha Malone to produce Stay Up featuring rapper Beenzino. Most of the tracks are super consistent with each other to create a solid debut RnB record. My only con for the mini album would be that the tracks are too alike. No, Not like they sound alike but the music has a same dynamics in production which might bore some people. Ice Queen and Diamond are super artsy when it comes to their sounds. Still, something about these two songs make the album lose a bit of momentum when you get to them. They're both still good songs to listen to while Psycho is the unwanted child of the whole album. I can see why it's a bonus track though. Psycho can be apart of City Lights till you realize how different it sounds from the other tracks. Korean RnB isn't to everyone's taste. SM must have given the guys in EXO full reign over their musical projects to do what they felt self represented them as solo artists. There's no way such a free vibe sounding piece of music like City Lights would have been created otherwise. You don't have to be a fan of EXO or SM to enjoy City lights from back to front. Well, now we know what Beakhyun's music would sound like if he ever decides to ditch SM Entertainment. He was meant to be a indie artist at heart looking at his solo masterpiece anyway.
The vocals are chill on the album. Baekhyun comes off as very in control of the musical flow as he sings. RnB singers need that sense of control without trying too hard. Everything is suave in each track. I actually love his voice in this style, more than I did in EXO-CBX.
City Lights is a mini album that I highly recommend for those who love Korean RnB and are tired of waiting for Zion T and Crush to make new music. You will be pleasantly surprised at how addictive City lights can be.
U-know is a member of the legendary Korean band known as TVXQ. This band is very well known all over East Asia and have broke records for album sales in Japan as well as South Korea. Legal issues with SM Entertainment caused the original group to spilt up leaving U-Know and Changmin to carry on the official name of TVXQ while the other remaining members formed another group called JYJ.(a group that just disappeared after some time. SM black balling them was too great to handle.) U-know and Changmin always release solo songs on their albums so U-know debuting True Colors wasn't much of a surprise to fans. What was a shock was how to roll out came so suddenly. None of us fans saw it coming. I still haven't recovered which is why this post is so late.
Track List: 01. Follow 02. Blue Jeans 03. Swing (Feat. BoA) 04. 불러 (Hit Me Up) (Feat. 기리보이) 05. 왜 (Why) 06. Change The World
True Colors did what everyone knew that it would. The mini album too the top spot on the charts in Korea right away. U-know went on different shows to just show his face for promotion even though he didn't really have to. Anything associated with TVXQ does well sales wise most of the time. I did enjoy his television live performances of Follow. U-Know is one of the only Korean male singers I've seen who can dance in such a natural way that doesn't feel too rehearsed. Dance is meant to be in that man's limbs. With this being said, True Colors didn't have much of a concept to me. Even after watching his lives and buying the album, I still questioned what the concept for True Colors was suppose to be. The tracks on the album don't create much of a solid concept either. Follow is a awesome title track that makes you think U-know channeled his inner love for Michael Jackson. Some of the electro pop disco beat used in the starting parts of the track are no doubt inspiration from the King of Pop himself. "Follow me like a Robot"kicks in making the chorus stick in your head and want to sing along. Blue Jeans comes across a bit lop sided to the title track of True Colors. Maybe even a bit messy or unkept. U-know wants to continue to share his sexy manliness with his female fanbase making this track make a little bit of sense. I had to go back and listen to the lyrics again then after that I started to see the vision U-know what going for. He still has a bit of Michael in his vocals here too. BoA joins U-know for Swing making the track shine because of how good their voices flow together. You can tell they're seasoned veterans in the Korean pop music world based on their skill. I loved the big note they hit tougher at the bridge of the song. What bummed me out about Swing was that I wished they song had a bit more lyrics in the chorus. Heavy dance beat numbers with no vocals are not my style. Hit Me Up was another song that I shied away from on the first listen. It almost sounds like a sell out song because the album needed a cute sounding track. Nothing in the lyrics is really immature but the song sounds vert cutesy. Hit Me up became my jam once I could see the whole picture the song was conveying. Why was s track seemed to be written for another artist but SM Entertainment bought the rights from the original writer. U-know tries to make it his own and I like the song in the album. Especially the "get jiggy with it" vibe the instrumental has. None of the songs have a consistent sound with each other. True Color seems to be a whole bunch of songs placed together that don't jive with each other at all. None of the songs are bad per say. Change The World was a good ballad to end the album on for U-know and the track shows that he can sing ballads really well alone.
I used to think that U-know had the weakest vocals in TVXQ. Well, until I got the chance to listen to True Colors. There's many moments on the album where U-know steps up to the plate vocally. He shows that he can hit all the same notes as Changmin…. Not as high pitched but he is more than just a handsome face.
True Colors is stil a bit shaky as a mini album concept. Critics have said constantly that TVXQ's albums lack a solid direction using a concept and I agree kinda. At least the guys still make good music to listen to despite of this problem.
I've made posts about a few of Keigo Higashino's works. One being Malice, that I loved more than I thought I would. The Galileo series of books( The Devotion of Suspect X, Midsummer's Equation etc) will always be some of my favorites by this author just because I love Galileo as a character himself. I also thought the live action films/ tv drama do the novels very good justice if I could say so myself. His newest novel to be translated into English is titled Newcomer and is apart of the Kaga Kyoichiro series of books. Malice is apart of this series as well. Kaga is mentioned in the Galileo novels as the detective that worked beside him from the police force. I would like to think that his series of books are his background story before he met Galileo. Keigo Higashino is a hugely popular writer in Japan who's works have been adapted into many other forms of entertainment. He has won many awards in Japan and outside of Japan for The Devotion of Suspect X.
A women is found strangled in her high rise apartment in the middle of metropolitan Tokyo. There's absolutely no evidence at the scene of the crime except for the mark around her neck and a whole neighborhood of people who could have seen the criminal in their self owned shops days before the murder. Who could have committed this seamlessly perfect crime? Why would they?
Newcomer seems to craft a story of community as you turn the pages. Each chapter contains different perspectives of the people who live in an old neighborhood full of stores. You learn about the various things that the stores sell as well as the people running them. Some of the character insight might seem kind of meaningless as first but readers who have read Keigo's works know that not piece of information given is useless to finding out the mystery. So, I spent most of my time learning about the many cast of characters while reading between the lines to find out if what was being told proclaimed to the murder. It wasn't that the characters were boring- just not very interesting until you got to the people introduced later on in the book. Everyone was pretty suspicious to me. I did find most of the interactions the characters had with Kaga to be very funny. Their thoughts about him and his appearance cracked me up too. Heck, everyone had kind of mean thoughts about Kaga to tell the truth. Not that he cared… Moving on, I was looking for that shocking twist of a mystery that Malice used to knock me off my feet. Newcomer doesn't quite live up to the brilliance of mystery within Malice's pages. However, Newcomer does a great job presenting a "who done it" mystery that literally guides you step by step of how the murder was done in a way that left no evidence. The murder victim's background is also a mystery so readers piece together who she was through character interactions of who had seen her, including her family members. Hiding who had killed her wasn't handled as well as in Keigo's other novels in my opinion. This novel gives you all the information you need to make your decision before you reach the end of the book. Keigo seemed to want to focus on why the murder was committed and how instead of trying hard to hid who the killer was. He tries to add one last layer to make the story feel even more complexed towards the end. That's just how Keigo likes to write his novels.
Newcomer makes certain to be full of rich details for the reader to feel the culture of the neighborhood Kaga transverses during the novel. I could envision the old style of the store buildings that would seem outdated to the youth of today but full of history for one who cares about that sort of thing. Newcomer down to the core is really a story about a community of people connected to each other. I might be going a little deep here, Still I also believe that detective Kaga going into the community to investigate led him to form a bond with the people there. His actions also signify Kaga being a newcomer to not only the community but also the police force that he was transferred to. The murder victim was also a newcomer in a sense too. You'll learn more about that if you decide to read the book. I won't put any spoilers here.
This Detective Kaga Mystery felt a bit weak around the edges. Especially if you just came from reading Malice. Readers might be a bit disappointed at the drastic turn Newcomer decides take compared to the other novels. It's not a bad mystery novel but it's not up to par with the greatness of Keigo Higashino's other works.
