Between Linux and Anime

Kind of like Schrodinger's Cat

Category: Railgun

A Couple of Anisongs, My Piano, and Me

Pic mostly unrelated, unfortunately.

And that post title just flowed its merry way out of my typing fingers like it owned the place, causing me to gag in an uncontrolled, appalled fashion at its terrible cheesiness.

Anyway, as you might hopefully have guessed from the cheesy title, I have decided randomly to make a recording of myself playing stuff on my tragically neglected piano, a feat long adrift within the realms of impossibility due to a critical lack of passable video cameras. With my recent acquisition of a shiny new Nokia N900 though, that shortcoming has at long last found itself addressed. Somewhat. Anyway so without further ado, here are two Anisongs on piano, wrought by yours truly, that you can torture your ears with during your idle times :D

Tori no Uta (OP to Air TV)

Only my Railgun (OP to To Aru Kagaku no Railgun)

On the off chance that anyone might be disappointed that this isn’t in fact my long overdue Angel Beats post – it’s coming, I hope. Rapidly catching up on my backlogs for that show now, and it definitely deserves something. Just hope I get to do it sooner rather than later.

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The end of Railgun

So Railgun’s finale manages to be a pretty darn good blast of a ride – but also, simultaneously and rather oddly, a little bit of a tragedy. The final episodes managed to deliver quite well on the emotional tension, intrigue, and of course the sheer electricity one would expect of the finale of a show like Railgun. Absolutely a thrilling ride, but at the very end of it, casting our sights back over the entirety of the series, one cannot help but feel like we’ve been here before, that significant parts of the adventure we just went through bore unmistakable echoes of the series’ midpoint. I had been very happy to learn that level upper wasn’t the end, and in my opinion the episodes that followed it really weren’t bad at all. They were just nothing more, you didn’t feel like they really added value to the series – especially when a sizable chunk of them is spent on side characters who, though interesting, really didn’t matter too much when we got back to the grander scheme of things around the time of the finale. Outshining level-upper is a formidable task that the finale expectedly fumbled at, and as much as I am thankful for Railgun’s continued presence throughout this relatively dry winter season, a small part of me cannot help wishing, for it’s own sake, that Railgun had gracefully drawn the curtains in the wake of episode 12.

Even with all that said, though, the finale was one heck of a ride.

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Haruue.. Eri nano~

How to sucker Jason into taking an instant, completely unobjective liking to a new character?

  • Submissive character that awakens Uiharu’s Onee-san instincts [Check!]
  • An entire episode dedicated to her hanging out with the gang [Check!]
  • Interaction dynamics that induces Saten-Uiharu flashbacks [Check!]
  • Getting tangled up with Uiharu on yukata strap, requiring Saten-rescue [Bonus point Check!]

All these are undoubtedly great qualities for inducing my favor, but of course what really lets Haruue-san take the cake is…

  • Voiced by Kana Hanazawa… [Woo hoo Check!]
  • …doing what Noto Mamiko did with Kotomi! [Check nano!!]

:) Aaaaand it looks like we’re off to a good start for the final arc! I must admit that all those talk about this being anime original has gotten me on my toes, but I’m pleased to say that this was a great starting episode that I really enjoyed. Actually I almost always find myself enjoying this show whenever the focus is kept on the main four (okay I think I’d be happy to also include Haruue after this episode). Anyway hopefully the quality keeps up!

And man, now that I’m finally “anime-enabled” again, what a backlog have I mustered! Incredibly late as this post is, Railgun is currently my most ‘up-to-date’ seasonal show. Tough times nano :(

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Playing .asx streaming radio/media on Linux

So I sampled a teaser snippet of To Aru “Radio” no Railgun over at Keiri’s place. (for the uninitiated, that’s To Aru Kagaku no Railgun‘s web radio show co-hosted by the Seiyuu’s of Saten and Uiharu) Being completely suckered by it, I trotted down to Hibiki Radio hoping to give the real thing a spin… only to find that I couldn’t play it on Linux.

So what else is new :(

Anyway before I continue my story I should probably state up front here that I didn’t manage to find a “complete”, “elegant” solution, so if you’re a perfectionist you should probably be looking elsewhere. If you’re just desperate to play that damn .asx radio stream though (as I was), read on.

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Anisong of the Season: Only my Railgun

More than a little late now I know. I saw all the seasonal anime awards being given out all across the blogosphere, and then noticed that I haven’t posted an anisong for awhile. So I thought hey, why not :)

Personally I thought fall had been a season of really good music. A decent number of OP’s and ED’s captured me quickly and sufficiently so that I sat through them every week instead of skipping them. On top of that a couple of insert songs too were surprisingly good. There was plenty of competition for my favorite track of the season, but in the end I chose Only my Railgun for its upbeat and ringing sounds, its really great tune-lyric synchrony, and its simple, sheer electricity.

I suspect I’m gonna need a good bit of that electricity to survive the coming semester :(

Anyway, here it is. I make an exception to my ‘only post soothing, background-music-ish tunes’ rule to give you the Anisong of the Season. In case you don’t actually know, Only my Railgun is the OP to To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Because the TV-size version of this song just isn’t awesome enough, I have posted the full-length version :)

Hit the jump for pic, lyrics and translations. Then hit F8 to play the song. Enjoy :)

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The skirt-lift that speaks ~ Railgun 12

Mild spoilers ahead!

ただいま!

I know it’s like two weeks late but what a beautiful end of arc right there. I wrote not long ago about how the uniqueness of the character relationships is the central draw of the series for me. Well, we came back full circle here at the end. I held my breath when Uiharu went up to meet a recovered Saten, and when they defined the moment with the skirt lift that was immediate gold for me. And then pan to Misaka and Kuroko for that necessary bit of Yuri cheek. For me it’s not just good fun there’s something amazing about these familiar acts. A channel through which feelings incommunicable in regular language could be delivered. Remember what I said about these little surface comedic interactions having developed latent, deeper meanings? Great, satisfying affirmation right there. And ooh that amazing amazing song in the background..

Is this show perfect? No. Does everything make sense? No. Are there flaws? Tonnes. But is it enjoyable? Hell Friggin yeah. And that indescribable, familiar glow it leaves you with at the end of the episode. Here’s that oft-quoted, cliched remark again: Reminds me of why I love anime.

*happy sigh* Okay! Back to clearing the backlogs.

PS. What what what what? Did I just hear that this show is gonna be two seasons long? Champaign anyone?

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Why I like To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

I think I finally figured it out.

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