Mao is vocalist of the Japanese band SID, and to me, extremely attractive. Here, I'll show you why.
Hello and welcome, to where I'll be sharing some of Mao's personal pictures-- those he posts on his blog.I was originally going to post all of them, but my internet connection's not agreeing with me, and so I'll be posting only half.
The images have been scaled down, so I'd advise viewing the image for full Mao awesome-ness. They're in chronological order; the oldest ones are first. The first picture is from early October 2011, and the last mid-January.
Mao's Halloween costume; he went as Ayanami Rei
Well, those are all the blog pictures for now. I gotta say, arranging pictures in blogger is a bitch. Be sure to bookmark the blog, as the rest of the Mao Blog pictures will be coming next, and then the SID photoshoots for the music magazine What's In? And can I tell you, all the guys look amazing in all three issues ;)
I hope you enjoyed this fest of pretty men! Please stay tuned for more!
I absolutely love these girls and
the way they can do both awesome punk rock and upbeat, catchy songs. I
absolutely had to share my thoughts on their newest album, ‘Queens are Trumps’.
Yes, these cute girls actually make good music, too!
Queens are Trumps
Title track. Damn I love this
song. So classic rock. I think it might be my favourite off the album. It
doesn’t really sound too original, but it’s a good song. I actually love how
Haruna sounds here; the song really fits her voice. And, yeah, I try to sing
along. It’s the curse of all SCANDAL songs, really.
Taiyou Scandalous
Second single off the album. Bright,
sunny like the name (‘taiyou’ means sun), and it’s a fun song. It reached #2 on
the Oricon charts, and it’s not hard to see why (really. Scroll down for the
video, and you’ll get it). It’s really catchy, even though it’s not really my
favourite type of song.
Pin Heel Surfer
Third single off the album.
Another upbeat song, but more rock than Taiyou Scandalous. I’m not a particular
fan of the chorus, but I like how Haruna does the higher notes in two lines of
it. I actually completely brushed over it when I first heard it, but I’m now
really addicted to it.
Oh, and I just watched the PV. No
way. Rina sings the last part?
Rock ‘n’ Roll
If you can’t get it by the name,
this is a rock song. It sounds more girly than Queens are Trumps, but I like
it. But I am eternally annoyed at how I can’t be certain that the first two
lines are sung by Haruna. It really could be Mami, but I just. Can’t. Fucking.
Tell.
Bitter Chocolate
Not my favourite track off the
album. It really isn’t anything special. There’s a lot of Tomomi in this song,
but as she doesn’t have my favourite voice, I’m not really into this song. You
can feel some emotion in this song, though, even if it’s not slow.
Kill the Virgin
The Rina song! Alright, I’ll try
to not be too biased over here, which’ll be hard, as Rina’s my favourite
SCANDAL girl, and I really like her.
Alright, the beginning of the song
sounds like it’d be cheery and fluffy, but it isn’t really. It has a sweet
tune, but it just sounds rather deep and wondering. Rina’s sweet voice really fits.
Being a relatively new SCANDAL
fan, this is the first time I’d heard Rina’s voice (and recognized it!), and I
was really excited. I’m not disappointed.
Koe
The Mami song. Whole song is sung
by Mami, whose voice I quite like. It sometimes sounds like she’s not singing
but just saying the words, but I think it really adds to the quality of the
song. It’s not slow or fluffy, but has that rock edge I’d expect of Mami.
Rising Star
The beginning made me expect some
high-school-sounding song, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by this song. It
is a little what I classify as high-school-rock, but not cheesily or annoyingly
so. In fact, it has this… Japanese-y edge to the chorus?
Bright
The emotional, deep song. Not my
favourite, as it sounds pretty generic, and as though I’ve heard it many times
before. The chorus is strangely catchy, though, and I love shaking to it a
little. Still, not the greatest.
Welcome Home
Song is quite bright, one that I
might associate with an anime. To be honest, it sounds a bit like I’ve heard it
quite a few times before. Doesn’t make it a bad song, but it isn’t really
extraordinary, and easy to skip over. I do like how Tomomi sounds here, though.
HARUKAZE
First single off the album, and I
really like this song. Is calm, but not slow, and really nice to try and sing
along to. I think Haruna’s voice fits this song wonderfully, and I’m really
attached to this song and the wonderful melody it has.
Right Here
Another rather
high-school-sounding song. Except it’s not as good as Rising Star, as this is
pretty generic. All in all, not the best ending to the album, especially one
that started off so good.
Favourite song(s): Queens are Trumps, HARUKAZE
Least favourite song(s): Right Here, Bitter Chocolate
Overall rating: ●●●●○
Hope you enjoyed this review, and
maybe made you interested in buying the CD or album on iTunes? You won’t regret it, really. The
rating might seem a little harsh, but that’s only because the album I listened
to before this one was SID’s M&W, which was awesome and which I’ll be
reviewing next.
Ah, the bane of every writer.
Mary-Sues. Or, in my case, the male counterpart, Gary-Stus. So, if you don’t
know what a Mary-Sue is, let’s copy-paste a description off TVTropes.com: “She's exceptionally talented in an
implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or
nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least
story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are
obviously meant to be endearing… In other words, the term "Mary Sue"
is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses
unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized
nature.”
(I almost lost myself in there.
That site is addictive.)
So she’s the vision of perfection.
You’d probably think these characters would be easy to spot. They’re not.
They’re easy to spot if you’re an objective reader, but it’s damn hard to
realize it of your own character.
I actually didn’t realize I had
Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus (oh, the fuck, I’ll just keep calling them Sues,
applicable to both male and female) until I took the Mary-Sue litmus test. I
recommend it. Or, you can just read through my post. I recommend that more.
Let’s take Character A. Character
A’s not that great, I mean, he has flaws– he’s cold and cruel, he can’t love
anyone, and he has no problem manipulating and controlling people. Now, just
try and look closely– do you really think those are flaws? How many can you
look at and actually frown? Do you not secretly believe those are all really
cool attributes?
You might want to try writing down
each specific trait of your characters. Don’t bother separating the traits into
good or bad, just write them down. Sues will usually have an unbelievably long
line of good qualities, usually about how gorgeous or smart the character is.
Sues are usually characters we’d
secretly like to be. For female authors, this usually means their Sue is strong
and independent, sexy and alluring to men. Female authors are usually the
culprits of Gary-Stus (like… me). These are male characters we’d love to date. They’re
very good-looking (obviously!), intelligent and strong, with an inner romantic
side. Male authors also create Mary-Sues quite frequently, though I’ve hardly
come across Gary-Stus created by men. Unless they’ve been created specifically
to appeal to female audiences.
Ah, fuck it. Just go to the
Mary-Sue Litmus Test, because I couldn’t even recognize my own Sues without it.
Identified your Sue? Okay. Now
it’s time to fix your Sue. And believe me, all Sues need to be fixed. Well,
unless they’re background characters, and don’t have much screen-time. If not,
time to fix.
One of the Sues I’d discovered was
Rinna, younger sister to Ruki, who I mentioned last How Not to Write a Book
post. She got the most points in the test, even more than Ruki (who I suspected
might be a Gary Stu right from the beginning, but refused to admit it). Mainly
because she falls in category A of Sues– she’s the one I’d love to be. She’s
the most beautiful woman, with long, shiny black hair and purple eyes. She’s
pretty enough to be considered flawless by Shay, who’s unbelievably picky and
has really sharp eyes. She’s intelligent, and rich, and she’s good with swords and herbs, as she and her brother are
deadly assassins– the best in the land. She’s sickeningly good, but as most of
the Mary-Sues I’d encountered before were usually the strong, tomboyish type, I
really didn’t think Rinna was one.
You can just decide right then which qualities you’d like to change or
dump. After failing the Litmus Test miserably,
I decided right then to scrap Rinna’s skill with sword. I then looked at her ‘flaws’–
the nice traits about her that I’d tried to hide as flaws. Okay, so she’s
supposed to be really close to her brother, and be close to no-one else. How
about making her really dependent on her brother? Not just jealous for her
brother’s affection or anything like that, but really dependent? Unable to
properly function without his orders.
If you’re writing a Sue that you’d
like to be, you should consider writing in your own flaws. You should be able
to name at least three right off the bat. Prideful, lazy, bitchy… those would
be my three big ones. If you can’t name even one without thinking hard about
it, then doom on you. Doom on you!
I can’t write more on this subject
just yet, since I’m still struggling with it myself. If you have any tips, then
please leave a comment. Thank you!
SID are a Japanese band who do
primarily rock, as well as jazz and something called ska, according to their
wikipedia page. They are, to me, undoubtedly the best band in the world. Seriously,
I can sing along to their songs, even if I don’t understand more than three
words.
And so, I present to you, ten of
the best SID videos (I will be referring to them as PVs, meaning Promotional
Videos). I highly recommend the song in each of them, but it’s the actual video
that I’m presenting.
And, in no particular order:
Ajisai
It is in random order, but this song will be at the top of every list
I make– and being the SID fan I am, you can expect more. But I love this song–
it’s one of SID’s oldest, being the first track in their first full album
Ren’ai. It’s just so rock, and still beautiful, and haunting and is everything
that SID was in the Ren’ai period.
Alibi
The iconic SID video. You can
recognize Mao’s eye make-up and ice-cream pink pants anywhere. And the other
members look gorgeous too, even if Aki is playing bass left-handed (that has
always bothered me). I’m not really a jazz fan, but I love how SID play it.
One of SID’s newest PVs, released
last year September. They all look amazing, though if you can take your eyes
off Aki I will be impressed. The broken glass and crystal theme really goes
with the song. It’s a rock ballad, SID’s most successful theme, and this one
peaked #2 on the weekly charts.
Mitsuyubi
Added mostly because they all look
terrific, not really for anything else. I like the tube-lights, though. Now,
let’s stare at uber-pretty Mao while he wows us with his great voice.
Namida no Ondo
Yes, Mao is pretty. No, he’s not a
girl. Yes, the members aren’t that bad at acting. I’m not too big a fan of this
song, to be honest. But I do appreciate that it’s beautiful.
You might recognize this song if
you’re a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fan; this was the first ending theme
for that anime. And the PV of it is gorgeous, with those beautiful lighted
flower fireworks. And, of course, they all look great. I love how Shinji plays that acoustic guitar.
‘S’
SID’s newest PV. So unlike SID’s
usual style visually, and it sounds like something older of theirs. I love how
it’s so dark and grungy. And while my sisters may have criticized him, I think
Mao looks cool with that cigarette.
Sweet?
Old song, as you might be able to
tell by weirdness. Overload of make-up, but I like it. I also have a weird
fascination with what Mao does with his eyes while he’s singing. He looks real
pretty here, but in a rather weird sort of way? And everyone agrees– Aki’s
weird dancing is sexy.
Monochrome no Kiss
My sister’s favourite SID song,
and not surprisingly so. The song is original, rockish and very cool. The video
is spectacular. I love Aki’s hairstyle, and this is one of the few PVs where
they’re dressing with a theme. I love that they’re playing on a pool.
Damn it. Damn all these Ki/oon era songs that aren't on YouTube!
Again, not one of my favourite
songs, but one of my favourite PVs. The special effects are magnificent. The
background gorgeous. Mao and Aki even more so. Shinji and Yuuya look great too,
but I can’t get over how pretty Mao and Aki are. And the falling snowflakes?
Wonderful
Special mention:
Smile
Not the best video (damn weird,
too), but just skip to 02:42 and look at Mao’s smile. It’s so cute; I don’t
know why he’s so shy about it. I just replay this video to see him smile– it
always makes me smile.
Sorry for this overly-long post on
nothing but fangirling. I just had to share this list. I most definitely will
be posting How Not to Write a Book next, so don’t get scared away by my love
for this overly pretty man and his band!
Okay, disclaimer repeat: I am not an expert, I’m just someone who’s
made these mistakes before and am putting down how I got around them.
Alright, so the last post was
about reducing or boiling down your large cast, and the one point that I (and
everyone) kept making was to develop your characters. And that’s exactly what
this post is about.
So, the first step: actually
creating the character. All characters must be created with a specific purpose.
Like the last post said, you probably shouldn’t add a character simply because
you like their personality. They should add something to the story.
(If you could see my face right now, you’d see me in quite a bit of
pain. I hate sharing information about my story. I’m secretive like that. But I
really want to get my point across. And because I’m also quite weird, I’ll be
using nicknames only.) So, for me, all characters start out as one basic
trait. My lead character, Az, started with the basic idea of making him
intelligent. Shay was made to be energetic (and good-looking… this is actually
an integral part of his personality) and Aiku (I love this nickname!) just frankly mean. Once you’ve got the base
down, it’s time to start building.
Character development has always
come quite naturally for me. In fact, I’m always surprised when people say that
creating characters is the hardest thing for them. I’ve always found it
extremely easy, though this may be because I have quite a bit of free time, and
my mind is always circling around my story. I have never used character sheets–
never needed them.
The best way to develop a
character is to try and come up with as many scenes as possible about them. You
can write them out, but if you’re lazy like me, just thinking them up should be
enough. These scenes don’t have to be those influential to the story– in fact,
I think the mundane ones work the best. In the fantasy novel I’m writing, the
scenes that helped with the character development included campfire-talk
scenes, humourous scenes that had no place in the story, and… um… pillow talk. That
only worked for two characters though (since I typically suck at romance) but
it worked well.
Out-of-world scenes are very
useful too. My favourite one is the waiting-in-bank scene. My favourite
response was from Shay, who is a soldier. He’d just ask someone behind to hold
his place, and then go and sleep on the sofas that you sit and fill stuff out
on. One of his qualities is over-familiarity with everything.
Other scenes to use would be:
1.A
trip to an extremely crowded shopping mall.
2.If
someone were to fall sick.
3.An
interview for a job
4.A
trip to a bar. The actions of the characters both sober and drunk.
And loads more. It’s up to you,
really.
After the developing the
characters, try comparing them with the base; look at how many qualities they
gained and how they relate to your original idea base. Az is intelligent, but
he’s also embarrassed easily, generally perceptive but awkward when it comes to
women, and with leadership qualities he never recognized before. Shay is
energetic and fun, but superficial and flaky in relationships, vain and with
handicapping fear of blood. Aiku is mean and short-tempered, but very proud
with a noble air, and is very romantic too.
I don’t know if it’s happened to
other writers, but I’ve found that in the process of developing characters, the
bases can change. The original King written for the story was mature and
rational; the current and final one is shy and has unbelievably low
self-esteem. Ruki was originally noble, proud and short-tempered– he was
written as Aiku’s rival, and they clashed as they had very similar
personalities. He is now sneaky, clever and with a loose sense of morality– and
he and Aiku now clash because they’re too different.
The King’s personality changed
around the story, while Ruki’s personality changed the story. This has happened
a few times in the past, in previous stories for me, and I’m yet unsure as to
whether or not it’s a bad thing. I think it is.
Well, I hope this post helped someone. If not, I’m glad to just have
rambled anyway. Next post: Writing Mary-Sues and how to get out of it.
My first post in my series of How
Not to Write a Book, where I’ll give out tips to amateur writers. Now, I’m
hardly an experienced writer, but I’ve made these mistakes before and I thought
I should share how to avoid or rectify them.
Today’s post: Characterisation,
specifically dealing with long lists of characters. There’ll be more than one
post on characterisation, since this is, I think, my strong suit.
Right, so more than a few writers
have a large cast of characters. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem
is how you develop the characters, and how they fit in with the ‘bigger
picture’. A lot of the time, you can find yourself with a huge arsenal of
characters, all playing a part in the story, and you’re loathe to let them go. Sometimes
you can pull it off. Most of the time, you end up with the Seven Dwarfs.
The Seven Dwarfs is basically when
you’ve got a load of characters that have one trait only. It happens when
you’re afraid of adding conflicting traits to characters, and decide that
instead of ‘messing up’ that character, you can create a new one. For example,
you’d like to create a male character who is romantic, for some important
purpose in the story (give me time… I’ll think of one). You’d also like a male
character who is short-tempered and snarky. And another character is created.
I had this problem plenty of times
in the past. I was afraid of making my characters copies of each other, and so
I worked to give them all different qualities. Two characters couldn’t be fiery.
The heroine was a simple girl who liked sewing, and of course she couldn’t be fiery either.
I got over that problem. I think
the main thing that helped was to just look at life. This might be the
plainest, most overused piece of advice ever, but it’s true. My sister’s
short-tempered, bitchy and superficial, but she’s also selfless, giving and fun.
If a person can have clashing qualities, why can’t a character? If you can work
on creating deeper characters, you’ll find that you might not need so many.
I axed a character from my novel, and pushed another one further into
the background. I didn’t like doing it, since I loved both those girls, but it
was necessary. I’m also in the process of picking out unnecessary gods. They’re
a set of seven, but I know now that they don’t all need to be equally main.
And now another problem: condensing characters. I don’t mean that
literally– don’t just take two characters and mush them together, to try and
get all of their qualities in one. You don’t really need to. If you develop a
single character far enough, they’ll eventually cover another one’s job. (I’m
trying to articulate this as clearly as I can. I think I’m failing).
I wanted this post to be a bit
longer, but I can’t seem to increase it right now XD. Like I said before, I can’t
quite get what I’m trying to say across. I am a failure of a writer.
The next post is going to be about actually developing
your characters, to get them to fulfil their roles and more, and that post is
going to be longer and more detailed. So please check back again. :)
Yeah, this post will be a bit about OneDirection, so if you’re a crazed
fan and only wanna read about them, roll down to the big font.
So today I finally got around to
watching SCANDAL’s new PV, HARUKAZE (yes, the band name and the song name are
stylized like that– I am not trying to caps-lock scream at you).
It’s a good song. It’s pretty
SCANDAL– rock, but with a lighter melody. You can view the PV in high def here:
http://vimeo.com/37037804 Of course, I
had to watch it in low def, since my internet connection is so shitty. Damn you
shitty connection.
Anyway, the biggest change I
noticed was their visual style– their image has totally changed. Only one member
of the band still has their original cut and colour (my sweetie Rina). The
others are trying something new.
The new cover for HARUKAZE (aargh
I hate typing in all-caps) is down there:
Check out Rina's legs. So jealous.
And here’s an older SCANDAL single
cover:
It’s pretty easy to see the
difference. They’ve maintained their trademark style–the mini-skirts (wait, is Haruna wearing shorts in HARUKAZE?)–but
they’ve added a more mature overtone. Those are not Japanese school uniforms
anymore. It reminds me of their song Haruka (even the names are similar). The
look was similar, but mature enough for you to know they’re not high-schoolers
anymore.
Which is basically what this post
is about. Bands changing the image that got them their fans in the first place.
Because, let’s face it, the look can be 50% of the band’s appeal. Unless you’re
in a Korean boy/girl pop group, then it’s basically 110%. Even their fans know
it.
SCANDAL remind me of one of my
favourite bands McFly in a lot of ways. Apart from the fact that they’re both
composed of four fantabulously good-looking members, playing some awesome rock
music, there’s also that like SCANDAL, McFly started really young. The youngest
member (our cute little Dougie) was sixteen
when McFly was formed. Their first single, Five Colours in her Hair, went
to #1 on the U.K.
charts, making them the youngest band to reach #1– they beat the Beatles. Oh
yeah.
Now if you didn’t click the Five
Colours in her Hair link (I’m watching you), then you should try their video
for That Girl, made around the same time. Or Obviously, also one of their first
songs.
And off their new album Above the
Noise, you can find That’s the Truth, and Nowhere Left to Run (they don’t have
an official video for that one, but I find that vid pretty damn awesome).
There’s also Party Girl, but the video for that one is rated, and is not suitable for all audiences. Mmm…
So, McFly changed not only their
look, but their sound too. And this might’ve miffed a few fans– okay, more than
a few, I being amongst them. What can I say? I liked the radio:ACTIVE period,
when they made Lies. But I still love them, of course, and I understand why
they did it. Tom, the oldest member, is married, and I cannot a twenty-seven
year old drooling over a hot girl while he’s working at a petrol station (and
then ruining her boyfriend’s credit card– the love between these guys is
priceless XD). Harry’s engaged too. Girls may all weep over the loss of these
two sexy men.
Though we can all still fantasize *wink*
Which brings up one of my main
points: OneDirection, or as they’re sometimes written, 1D. I’m not a big fan,
but I have heard a few songs of theirs, and I must admit they’re adorable (my
older sister’s a fan). They’ve got some nice voices, and the songs are catchy.
Which is actually one of their problems.
OneDirection if you don't know them (i.e, you've been living in a cave)
Okay, so Louie’s the oldest. He’s
nineteen, right? (I don’t know… I have this disease where I think they’re all
younger than me). Well, if OneDirection go well, then in five years he’s gonna
twenty-four. Add on a few more, and he’s twenty-seven. And I do not see
twenty-seven year olds singing songs like What Makes You Beautiful. I hate the
lyrics of that song– they’re immature and just don’t sound good. When I get in
a pissy mood one day, I’m so gonna tear apart that song. Along with the movies
Immortal, Clash of the Titans, Avatar, and the tremendous piece of work that is Fifty Shades of Grey.
Right, back to OneDirection. Now,
I have no doubt that if they do change their style, their fans will keep loving
them. Everyone by now should know the earth-shattering powers of teenage girls.
They make OneDirection bigger than OneRepublic. But can OneDirection change
their style so easily? Or, did they make a mistake right at the beginning, by
actually falling into this style?
Let’s take a similar boy-band– The
Wanted. Similar, in that they’re all British, and well, they’re all guys.
They’re also pretty much in the same age-group– Nathan’s the youngest at
eighteen, and Max and Tom the oldest at twenty-three (okay, so they’re not exactly the same age-group, damnit!)
L to R: Tom (<3), Siva, Max, Jay and Nathan
Let’s compare. OneDirection’s
first single:
The Wanted’s first single:
OneDirection’s most successful
song (Wait, that's What Makes You Beautiful. Well, they can be forgiven; they've released only three)
The Wanted’s most successful song:
Subtle differences, I’m sure you’ll notice. The Wanted desired (I
almost wrote wanted right there…) a more mature theme, and went for it right
from the beginning. The problem with OneDirection, you could say, is that
they’re too adorable. The image just
fell onto them, and let’s now try and imagine them singing something rock-ish
or with a dance beat. Kinda like watching Billy Bell krump.
Never again. Never again put my cute Billy through that.
Breaking out of the image would be
pretty hard, though they’ll have to do it one day. They’ll definitely need
their fans then, and I’ve no doubt they’ll come through.
It's kinda scary. It's actually really scary.
So ends this long music post,
which actually seems rather rant-y now that I look at it. Hope you enjoy the
songs I’ve put out. I’m a bit surprised my first post on music isn’t about SID,
my favourite band. Still, I just felt I had to write it all down. (I stylized OneDirection properly, right? Or is it really One Direction? Random fan, please help me.)
And now some more songs I
recommend from these four bands:
SCANDAL
Shunkan Sentimental
Scandal nanka buttobase
beauTEEN!! (Damn, what is up with
all these caps?)
McFly (this is gonna be hard… I know too many songs of theirs)
Corrupted
Star Girl
Transylvania
Too Close for Comfort
The Wanted
Warzone
Lightning
OneDirection
Moments
More Than This (skip the chorus,
damn it!)
And I am not old! I sound old, but I am sixteen! And this post clearly illustrates that.
