メカクシティレコーズ/Mekaku City Records by じん aka 自然の敵P (Shinzen no Teki-P)

     Overview

 Hey again readers! Sorry for the delay between updates; Thanksgiving did a number on my ability to review. I was away from my good headphones and equipment after all, and I didn’t want to review this album without giving it its due justice. I’m glad that I’m doing this on the heels of some cool Kagepro news, though; at an even yesterday, SHAFT’s President announced that they’re targeting April 2014 as the air date for the anime adaptation of Kagepro, called Mekaku City Actors.

 Anyway, Mekaku City Records is Jin’s follow-up to Mekaku City Days, and features the rest of the Mekakushi Gang’s story. It’s a nifty follow-up to the first, and due to the series’ popularity they beefed up the release a bit. There are two version - a normal version and a limited-edition version. The normal version is simple; it just comes in a case with and outer sleeve that has the album art and tracklist on it. The limited edition comes in a bigger, metallic-looking case and has two CDs: one with the PVs and one with the music. Honestly, it feels like a bit of a rip-off considering that everything you get with the limited edition is analogous to the content that came with the regular release of the first album, but the regular edition of Mekaku City Records is cheaper than both of them, so it’s not too bad.

 Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.

     Music

1) サマーエンドロール/Summer End Roll: Another one of Jin’s little spoken intros, this one is voiced by Asumi Kana again. It introduces the album and the idea of getting through the endless summer. It’s an interesting and stylistic way to open the album, so I’m glad to see Jin sticking with it.

2) チルドレンレーコド(Re Ver.)/Children Record (Re Ver.): One of Jin’s most well-known songs, Children Record is a general introduction to many of the characters and the series; some have essentially classified it as the official theme of the Kagerou Project. It has a catchy beat, and the guitar and drums especially are pretty good. IA’s vocals can be pretty harsh at times - this is Jin, after all - but the composition of the song is really fun, and it makes a great intro song for the album and the project as a whole. There’s a PV of the song, and it’s quite cool. However, be warned that the PV is for the original mix of the song, while this version is slightly different. I’d say the biggest differences are some slight improvement tweaks to IA’s tuning and better instrumental mixing.

3) 夜咄ディセイブ／Yobanashi Deceive: This song’s about Shuuya Kano, a user who has the Eyes of Deception. The guitar work in this song is absolutely awesome; the opening riffs jolt the blood and get you into the groove that the rest of the song follows so well. The bass guitar kicks in once in a while to give us an funky burst of energy, and peppy drums keep the excitement going from start to finish. IA’s tuning is great here as well; it’s not too harsh and does a decent job of conveying some emotion. One of Jin’s finest pieces for sure. The PV is damn cool too; it has a graffiti style to it and features some great artwork.

4) 少年ブレイブ/Shounen Brave: Another song with an amazing opening guitar riff! This one’s a lot more relaxed then Yobanashi Deceive was, and it’s a more bouncy listen. IA’s voice is nice and soft in this one, as it’s a lot closer to a poppy balad than a serious rock piece. The song itself tells the story of Seto, and how he met a dog when he was younger (and was also bullied, because Japan). The chorus is memorable and catchy, and cute button flashes of synthesizer in the background tie the piece together really well. The drums are a little quieter here, but they’re still lovely when they can be heard. Shounen Brave is a cool follow-up to Yobanashi Deceive. Interesting trivia: there was supposed to be a PV for this song, but it was cancelled for being too spoiler-y.

5) 夕景イエスタデイ/Yuukei Yesterday: This song, like Shounen Brave, is cute. It’s cuter, in fact, then most of the songs in the Kagepro verse, on par with Souzou Forest. Yuukei Yesterday is about Takane and Haruka, the two characters who later become Ene and Konoha. Specifically, it’s about the lovey-dovey feelings Takane has for Haruka, and her reluctance to admit them. The percussion section shines brightest here, keeping the rhythm bouncy and fun through the whole song. IA’s also really well suited to this song, as her slightly nasally and cute voice matches the other pieces very well. The guitar is present, but it’s not really a pronounced element of the song other than a cool guitar solo. The synth works itself in there as well, though you might not notice it under the strong percussion. My only complaint with this song is that the mix is a bit jumbled, and the instruments seem to sort of chaotically slam into each other and become slightly indistinguishable. The PV is suitably adorable as well.

6) 群青レイン (Re Ver.)/Gunjou Rain (Re Ver.): This is a very bittersweet song about Mary and her mother Shion. It concerns their life together before Shion’s untimely death, and about how much Shion loved her daughter. Shion looks out the window at the rain and wishes it would never end, so that she could protect Mary forever (this is what the title is referencing). The song fits the theme very well; it’s relaxing and mellow with a slight hint of tension (as Shion no doubt feels in the story). The guitar is haunting, as Jin uses delay effects to great length to create an atmosphere soundscape, and IA’s voice is lamentful and wistful. The guitar solo in this song is particularly kickass as well. The drums are fairly standard and don’t stand out as anything special, but they’re still good. 

7) アウターサイエンス/Outer Science: One of the most celebrated songs in the Kagepro fandom, spawning several great covers by many renowned cover artists (such as cillia), Outer Science is the “bad end” of the Kagepro series, so to speak. In it, Dark Konoha kills everyone dear to Mary in an attempt to goad her into using her eye powers to reinvent the world. It’s primarily synth driven, and the synth is great. It’s gritty and dirty, and conveys a lot of the tense/dark atmosphere Jin’s going for. The guitar is also put through what a fuzz pedal to match the grit of the synth, and it works really well. Unfortunately I can’t give IA’s vocals huge points; they’re too delicate for the rest of the song to really work as well as they should. They’re far from terrible, but they don’t convey the right emotions as well as I’d like. I’ve heard some great UTAU covers come out of this that do the job better (again, check out cillia’s cover). The PV is damn cool also.

8)オツキミリサイタル/Otsukimi Recital: It seems that Jin wanted to lighten the mood a bit after Outer Science, so he put this song next. Otsukimi Recital is an interesting combination of cute, happy, and sad. The song’s about Momo trying to cheer up Hibiya, who just managed to get out of the Kagerou Days loop and is still quite sad over watching Hiyori die (it’s all a part of growing up in Japan, I assure you). The song takes a lot of interesting queues from ska, and the brass section makes a very prominent appearance in the song. It’s bright and cheery, and does a lot for the mood. IA’s vocals play right into this, and her cheery voice lifts us out of any gloom we may have had after Outer Science (I see what you did there, Jin!). Her voice is very well suited to this kind of song; that slightly nasal quality she has just seems to have a penchant for sounding cute if her voice is tuned gently. The other instruments aren’t really all that stand-out here, with the exception of the keyboard, which acts as sort of a melody section. Percussion is largely handled by the sound of claps, which is another fun touch. The PV is a neat little watch. Cheer up, Hibiya! Though, I can’t really expect you to get over your hellish Groundhog Day for a while, can I?

9) ロスタイムメモリー/Lost Time Memory: This is “the song about repeating regret,” and it features Shintaro, who is trying to get over his grief caused by Ayano’s suicide. There are two Shintaros from alternate universes here; one who is able to move forward, and one who is caught in an endless sea of sorrow and can’t get on with his life. The song makes this poor guy look pitiful, but it’s hard to blame him for it; I can’t even begin to fathom to psychological effects of having a close friend (and potential love interest) commit suicide. But anyway, the song itself is all right. The beat is certainly catchy, and the instruments are played well. However, IA’s vocals are too harsh in this song for the most part, and I’d love to hear Jin bring her down an octave. Outside of a couple of sections, especially near the end, the instruments kind of blend together in a sonic mishmash, and I wish the mixing was done better. I will give Jin and Shidu props for a very cool PV though.

10) アヤノの幸福理論/Ayano’s Theory of Happiness: This is a very sad and very beautiful song about Ayano, the friend of Shintaro’s who committed suicide. It deals with her motivations for doing so, what she thought of herself and Shintaro, and her relationship to a few of the other characters to whom she acted as an older sister. Ayano was in fact the founder of the Mekakushi-dan, as she tried to comfort the kids with red eyes who thought of themselves as monsters. The mood of the song is mellow and a bit nostalgic, which makes it all the more heart-wrenching to listen to. IA’s gentle vocals and the shining violins in the background tug at the heartstrings, and the guitar does a good job of accompanying them into a gorgeous soundscape. The drums feel like they’re mirroring the beating of one’s very heart as they listen to this song. The final little crescendo near the end of the song feels like the final goodbye you might say to someone you love. It’s without a doubt my favorite Kagepro song, and I give it my highest recommendation. Go watch the gorgeous PV while you’re at it.

11) マリーの架空世界/Mary’s Fictional World: This song is all about Mary’s feelings as she uses her eye powers to create a fictional world. It’s another sad but beautiful song, and it keeps us in the same mellow mood that Ayano’s Theory of Happiness had us in. The violin croons as Mary sadly sings about her love that she wish would never end. There’s something about IA’s voice in this song that feel particularly “Asian” so to speak, in a way that none of her other songs have, and I can’t place my finger on exactly why that is. Perhaps it’s the nasally quality coupled with a gentle tone and lack of inflection that does it. Soft and slow drums back up the violins, and there’s little else to the instrumentals in this song (that’s far from a bad thing). The sound of rain is also filling the soundscape as background noise, and it helps to ground you in the scene it’s trying to portray. It flows right into the next song, which is a nice little touch.

12) クライングプロローグ/Crying Prologue: Right from the beginning, the ambient background sound pick us up and create a mysterious but uplifting feeling. Then, whose voice kicks in but the lovable Kanahana! Kanahana is voicing Mary in the upcoming anime adaptation (GET HYPE), and here she repeats the prologue that was at the beginning of Mekaku City Days. It feels like a really cool way of ending it, but then…

13) サマータイムレコード/Summertime Record:…we get another song! This is the overall “outro” for the Kagepro series, and tells us what happens to all of the characters after the Good End. It’s energetic, bubbly, and hopeful, and leaves us with a good feeling to finish off the saga. It’s pop-rock, and features strong guitar and drum work. IA’s vocals are nice, but they’re not particularly stand-out or anything. They work fine, but nothing super remarkable. The guitar and drums ultimately carry the song’s mood really well to completion, and we’re ushered out of the Kagepro show with a positive feeling. The guitar solo at the end of this is very cool, and it’s a wonderful way to end the series. The PV even acts as credits.

   Final Thoughts
Mekaku City Records undoubtedly shows a huge improvement over its predecessor. The songs are written just as well, if not better, but Jin seems to really have gained a good understanding of what IA’s strengths and weaknesses are and how to utilize them. As usual, his guitar and instrumental work are spot-on, the the PVs are top-knotch. There are a few bumps in the road along the way, but this album deserves all the recognition it’s getting for sure. There’s a bright future ahead for Kagepro fans with this album behind them.

   8/10

メカクシティデイズ／Mekaku City Days by じん aka 自然の敵P (Shinzen no Teki-P)

         Overview

             

          Well, here we go! This album is the first full album of the star-studded Kagero Project, or Kagepro as some call it. This album's story has spawned just about every type of merch including novels, manga, fanart, fanfic, and more. An anime adaptation has been announced by SHAFT, which should prove to be quite awesome if it's done well.

          I'll try to give a brief summary of what it's all about before I get into the music. Mekaku City Days tells the story of a group of teenagers (life ends after high school in Japan, so there's no other possible setting) who have mysterious eye powers with various abilities. The one uniting characteristic that they share is that their eyes are red, which marks them as eye power users. The songs on the album generally tell the story of each character and how they came to get their powers. It's quite interesting, but you have to really delve into the manga/novels/wiki summaries to get the full picture.

          As for the album itself, it comes in a really nice little box that contains the CD as well as some extra goodies. The CD itself is actually a pair of CDs: one disc contains the music, and the other is a DVD which contains PVs of a few of the songs: Kagerou Days, Headphone Actor, Souzou Forest, Konoha's State of the World, and Toumei Answer (You'll get more info on these songs later, don't worry). It also comes packaged with nice little booklets that give you the band score for Kagerou Days as well as Souzou Forest, in a ddition to a little booklet that has the lyrics to all the songs. It's all quite lovely, and the stellar artwork of Shizu and わにゃんぷー adorns pretty much everything. This album definitely gets an A+ for packaging.

But how does the music fare?

1) ロスタイムプロローグ/Lost Time Prologue: This is a cool little spoken word prologue that introduces us to the album. It uses some nice reverberant noises behind the vocals to create a sense of dread before topping abruptly and having the vocals lead us into the last song. I'm pretty sure the vocals are done by Kana Asumi, who you might know as the actress of Strength from the Black Rock Shooter anime(s). It's a nice way to start things off. I'm not 100% sure what she's saying, but I do know that she's supposed to be Takane Ene, and A.I. character in the Kagepro series. Check out the translation here.

2) カゲロウデイズ/Kagerou Days: Here it is, the big ol' granddaddy of the project. This song's skyrocketed into Vocaloid legend already, having easily surpassed 3,000,000 views on Niconico. Interestingly, わにゃんぷー made the first PV that everyone came to know; it was a fanmade PV with no official support (check it out here). Soon after, as the song started to reach its massive popularity, Jin put out an official PV of the song, and thanked わにゃんぷー for his support. The song features Jin doing what he does best - playing guitar. Jin's stellar guitar work coupled with some great synth work make the song especially memorable. This song is unique on this album due to its use of Miku; the rest of the songs use IA, as this album was commissioned as part of the IA Project to promote her. Jin's tuning of Miku here is a controversial thing: his Miku is very high-pitched and shrill. I remember playing around in the Vocaloid program and transposing Miku's voice and octave lower;  I liked it better that way. This high-pitched tuning is very common in Jin's stuff, and it tends to draw sharp lines over who likes it and who hates it. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, though I can tolerate it. Jin's songwriting itself is superb, with all the instruments being very interesting and well mixed. Miku's vocals just get shrill.

3) ヘッドフォンアクター/Headphone Actor: Another popular song and the current focus of the manga, Headphone Actor is the story of how Takane Enomoto, a regular human girl, was forced into an A.I. body and reborn as Ene. The PV is quite lovely, and tells a cool tale. As I mentioned before, Jin's tuning is generally quite shrill, especially with IA. This shows through in Headphone Actor, as IA's voice reaches incredibly high pitches that might make your ears crawl if you're not used to Japanese music. The instrumentation is, again, awesome, with ゆーまお's drums and the bass guitar sticking out especially.

4) 想像フォレスト/Souzou Forest: This is another very popular song from the series, with another very popular PV. It's about a 1/4 Medusa girl named Mary who has shut herself away in the woods. It's very cute, and features a much more mildly-tuned IA. The synth and drums are the most prominent parts of the track, with the guitar and bass being present but secondary. Souzou Forest is one of the best songs on the album, as it's got a nice groove with cute-yet-not-harsh vocals. The synth breakdown in the middle gets extra points.

5) エネの電脳紀行/Ene no Dennou Kikou: This song picks up right where Headphone Actor left off; it's about when Takane first awakens  in her new A.I. body as Ene. The synth and guitar dominate this song, and they're really cool. IA's tuning here is a strange middle ground between her overly high and harsh tuning and her soft ballad voice. It's not awful - there are worse in the album - but it comes out a little too robotic for my taste. The song's still fun though, despite some misgivings about IA's tuning. There are some really cool effects with the synth that you can pick up with good headphones.

6) デッドアンドシーク/Dead and Seek: Not much is really known yet about exactly what this song is about. Judging by the lyrics and my knowledge of the series, I would guess it's about people getting their eye powers and being spit back out into the normal world to entertain Dark Konoha (see the sound "Outer Science" for an idea of what that's like. It's on Mekaku City Records, which I'll be reviewing next. Spoiler!) Regardless, it's a synth-based song with a decent backing track. It's not one of my favorites; IA's voice is VERY robotic here, even moreso than the last song. That may be Jin's objective, which is fine and all, but it just doesn't make for all that pleasant of a listen. The instrumental track is acceptable but altogether forgettable, and blends a bit too much with tracks 5 and 7, which make it almost tough to tell when the songs switch if you're not paying attention. It doesn't help that it's short.

7) 人造エネミー/Jinzou Enemy: This is actually the first song in the series; it's about Ene watching over her master, Shintaro, and trying to convince him that being a NEET is not the answer to his troubles. The song is almost at 1,000,000 views, and it'll probably get there soon enough. Like the previous two songs, the synth is very strong here. It's sung by Miku again (I'm surprised they allowed more than one non-IA track on an IA Project CD), and her voice is as high and shrill as we've come to expect from Jin. It's by no means an awful song, but it suffers from Dead and Seek's syndrome of sounding emotionally stale and forgettable, a shame considering its cool message.

8) 透明アンサー/Toumei Answer: Finally, a break from the synth! Toumei Answer is a pretty sad song actually; it's about how Shintaro's friend Ayano commits suicide for an unknown reason by jumping off the school roof, which does such emotional damage to Shintaro that he becomes a NEET (and later, Ene's master). It's a gorgeous little tune, with high-but-gentle tuning of IA, and an absolutely wonderful guitar track that makes great use of the delay pedal. The drums are groovy but not overpowering. It's a pretty little ballad, and definitely one of the high points of the album.

9) 如月アテンション/Kisaragi Attention: One of the most popular songs on the album, Kisaragi Attention is a cute little number about Momo, a girl with the eye ability to make others look at her, aka draw attention to herself. She becomes and idol and rises to stardom, but she quickly comes to dislike the fame and the inability to go outside without drawing in crowds. She meets Kido, whose eye ability can cloak her. Momo joins the Mekakushi-dan in the end. The guitar and drums stand out, but the bass line is pretty nice as well. IA's tuned very well in the songs; her voice has just the right amount of wetness coupled with a high pitch to sound cute but not annoying. The guitar solo is also damn cool in this one. The PV is quite cute too, which contributed to its popularity. A great song to cheer us up after Toumei Answer.

10) メカクシコード/Mekakushi Code: This song is about Kido, the leader of the Mekakushi-dan who has an eye ability which can cloak the user and make others around her practically invisible. It features a very grungy and fuzzy synth at the forefront with the guitar chiming in on occasion. We surprisingly hear Miku again, and her voice is a bit robotic, though not as high as Kagerou Days (thankfully). The background music isn't very strong, though it serves very well as just that; it backs up the vocals very well without calling too much attention to itself. All in all it's a very well-written song, but Miku's vocals are a bit bland and take away from the song's replay value.

11) コノハの世界事情/Konoha's State of the World: One of the darker stories in the project, even for Jin. This song is about Konoha, another strange A.I./android type character (it's unclear what his deal is yet) who is forced to watch the unfortunate events of Kagerou Days unfold over and over again. He wants to do something about it, but he is powerless to stop it, though a glimmer of hope appears to him in the end. The song is sung by Miku and IA together, and is the only duet on the album. The guitar in particular is awesome in this song, and credit for it goes to Nakanishi, an awesome guitarist whose work appears in a lot of Vocaloid stuff. The song draws you in, gets you excited for the climax, and explodes into an awesome finale. It's incredibly well written, and there have been a ton of great covers of it. Ultimately, I like some human singers better than the Vocaloid duet of the original, but it's still very good. Check out the PV here.

12) シニガミレコード/Shinigami Record: A gentler piano piece to wind us down as we approach the end of the album, this is a sweet IA ballad to treat out ears nicely. It tells the story of Azami, a Medusa who is the grandmother of Mary. She lives alone in the woods and detests humans, but one day a man meets her and, over time, they fall in love and start a family. She realizes, however, that he will age and die long before her, which saddens her deeply. She uses her power to create a never ending world where her family can live with her, but fails to do so before her husband dies. She goes into her own world, along. It's quite tragic, but also very beautiful. The gentle piano works very well for this song, and it's quite cathartic to listen to.

13) カイエンパンザマスト/Kaien Panzermast: This is the outro of the album, and is a spoken word section much like Lost Time Prologue. It's about carrying out some sort of plan and meeting someone (check the translations out). I'm not sure who the voice is, but I'm pretty sure it's Ene/Kana Asumi again. It's a cool way to end the album.

  Final Thoughts

   Ultimately, Jin suffers from what I like to call "Bob Dylan Syndrome." He's an excellent songwriter and a stunning instrumentalist, but he just can't seem to consistently nail the vocals down well. A few great hits here and there are equally matched by some unfortunate missteps that occur along the way which drag the album down. Ultimately it's worth having for the sake of the extras, the story, and the good songs that are present, but I wouldn't call the album as a whole a masterpiece. It's of acceptable quality, but it's not great.

     6.5/10