2/27 Listening!

ちゃんみな - 美人

I had first heard this song when it first and have been a fan of ちゃんみな ever since. I had come across her First Take video of this song and it was fairly new when she had first released it so I couldn't wait to watch. I was very astounded by how much her voice had matured after first hearing this song. I included the music video because it was so amazing and the storytelling is immaculate. But the First Take video below really moved me especially when she told the story behind the song. I loved the live band and the trumpets in the back to accompany the original instrumental. I also love that she raps and sings very well in the song and does very expressive acting throughout the song because of the different perspectives. Although I didn't understand the song when I first heard it and used English subtitles, I was so happy when I was able to recognize a lot of the Japanese words in the song. The words I knew included: 私, あなた, 今, すぐ, もうすこし, 入, 女, かわいい, あの, 時, 本, etc.

2/20 Listening!

水曜日のカンパネラ - バッキンガム / THE FIRST TAKE

I had come across this video on YouTube and thought the video cover was interesting. I thought that from her image that she'd be singing a metal or rock song but I was pleasantly surprised to hear this pop electric vibe and for her to rap. Especially because she was dressed in this extravagant, sequined, colorful ballgown and had intricately styled and colored hair. I loved how expressive and cute she was during some parts of the song and how she easily switched back to serious. As for my Japanese practice, I was first able to recognize the kanji and katakana in her name and the katakana in the title. I used Japanese subtitles when I first watched the video and I was able to recognize the numbers she was singing and heard にある a lot. and also recognized the kanji: 大、山、川、間 、田、分、and 食. I also recognized that she was saying a lot of katakana words and I translated them and recognized she was rapping European palace names. The whole song was repetitive so I was able to catch on after a while. I really enjoyed watching the video and being able to better my katakana practice.

2/13 Listening!

Kenshi Yonezu - KICK BACK（Live with Daiki Tsuneta)"Chainsaw Man" OP

I had come across this live performance on YouTube and decided to watch it. Although I had never watched Chainsaw Man, I had heard the opening song multiple times and really liked it. I didn't know the band had done a live performance of this song until it turned up on my feed. First of all, the performance was amazing! The background dancers, the lighting and fire, the lead singer vlogging on stage for everyone to see, were all great stylistic choices. Second, the lead singer's vocals were great; he sounded just like the recorded version of the song. I listened to the performance with no subtitles and later looked up the English translation. Although I'm not completely sure what the song is about, I did recognize some words in the song: だれだ 、これ、あれ、ほしい、うた、四、三、すべて、かさ、and 何か.

2/6 Listening!

Anime: Tomo-chan is a Girl!

I was ecstatic to find out that one of my favorite shojo manga was getting animated. I had read this manga during the pandemic and never thought it'd be animated until this year. I watched the first episode yesterday and was pleased with the animation and how much plot they covered in the first episode. It makes sense since the manga chapters were really short. I also love the opening song. I love how cute it is and how they depict their romance as a shounen fight because it really reflects their personality and relationship dynamic. It's basically about this tomboy named Tomo who is in love with her childhood friend, Jun, but he doesn't treat her like a girl even though her body and priorities are changing. This is basically a slow burn, friends-lovers story with lots of comedic relief and characters with strong personalities.

For this anime, it's a lot of casual speech and masculine particles and phrases used between Jun and Tomo so I didn't recognize too many familiar Japanese words from them. However, one of the side characters, Misuzu, uses a lot of polite speech so I recognized alot of the words and phrases she used like 話します、待って下さい、帰りたいです.