20th Century Boys - Chapter 3

The last chapter of the 20th Century Boystrilogy has come out on 8/29.  Based on the comic series by Naoki Urasawa (also known for other works such as Yawara!, Monsterand PLUTO), this was one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer in Japan with heavy advertising.  It was publicly announced that the film version of the 20th Century Boys has its own ending, meaning the identity of "Friend" (or Tomodachi), the masked cult leader who is supposedly one of the childhood friends of the main character Kenji, is different in the film.  If you were in Japan this summer, you would have seen "Friend" saying "So-dayo, Boku-ga Tomodachi-dayo" (That's right, I am Tomodachi) in the trailer aired countless times on TV as well as in the theaters.  The trailer has left a lot of people curious about who this "Friend" was and generated a even greater hype over the last chapter of the trilogy than the previous ones did.  When the film finally came out at the end of August, it went straight to the number one on the Japanese box office chart.

I personally have fallen for this clever tactic myself and started to wonder who this "Friend" was before I even watched the chapters 1&2.  After catching the chapters 1&2 on TV that were aired not too long before the chapter 3 came out, I just had to watch this film to find out who "Friend" was.

I am not going to disclose who "Friend" was here but I must say it was a bit of dissapointment..  it was almost impossible to guess who "Friend" was with the info provided in the movie because this character hardly gets mentioned throughout the series.  I personally felt a bit cheated by this.

Other than that, however, the film in itself was entertaining and did a pretty decent job re-creating the world of Naoki Urasawa, which many said to be impossible to make into a non-anime film because of its unique and out of worldly storyline that spans close to 50 years.  The scene of the music festival where Kenji performs was quite impressive.  If you are planning on watching this film, my advise would be to not get too caught up on trying and guess who "Friend" is because chances are, you won't get it right.

Superfly - Box Emotions

Superfly's much anticipated 2nd album Box Emotionscame out on 9/2.  The 1st album that came out in 2008 took the one-woman unit consisting of Shiho Ochi to instant stardom and this one is set to turn her into an icon (if she isn't already).  Already at the time of the release of the album, 5 tracks on the album have been featured on commercials as well as movies and dramas and you can bet there will be more tracks off the album used on various media outlets.
The album kicks off with a fun pop-rock tune "Alright!", which is followed by another catchy rock track "How Do I Survive?".  In comparison to her self-titled breakthrough album Superfly, however, this album seems to focus less on the rock-side of Superfly and explores more of the tender and pop side of her.  There are beautiful ballads like #4 "My Best of My Life" and #13 "Ai-ni-Dakarete" as well as more traditional J-pop sounding #3 "Searching", #10 "See You" and #11 "Haru-no-Maboroshi".  In these tracks, Superfly's voice sounds more controlled and perhaps a bit toned down, which effectively demonstrates to us how skilled of a singer she really is.  I personally, however, think that her greatest strength is in the unparalleled powerful rock voice of hers and find these tracks rather dull and uninteresting compared to the more rock-sounding tunes.  All in all, this is a solid follow-up work by Superfly aiming to capture broader range of audience and I don't doubt it will be well-received by most of them.
Superfly gave a free performance on 9/2 at the Roppongi Hills arena in celebration of Box Emotions being dropped. Although this gig was announced only a day in advance, a couple of thousands of people showed up to catch the free performance by the rising star. I was lucky enough to be in the arena to watch her perform some of the tracks from the new album for the first time as well as her biggest hit tune from the previous album "Ai-wo-Komete-Hanataba-wo". It was my first time seeing her perform live and man, this girl's got pipes. I would love to see perform live again.