astromantic

毎日grind, 毎日rhymes

Tag: 2016

  • A year in dramas (2016).

    A year in dramas (2016).

    JAPANESE

    Boku no Yabai Tsuma
    Dias Police
    Cold Case
    Fragile
    Good Partner
    Juhan Shuttai
    Kyouhansha (SP)*
    Love Revolution*
    Love Song
    Nietzsche-sensei
    Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu
    ON

    Seirei no Moribito (Season 1)
    Slow Dance*
    Totto Terebi
    Watashi Kekkon Dekinain Janakute, Shinain desu
    Yume wo Ataeru*
    Kono Machi no Inochi ni (SP)
    Gou Gou Datte Neko de Aru
    Kuroi 10-nin mo Onna
    Kenja no Ai
    Suishou no Kodou

    KOREAN

    Age of Youth
    Baek Hee Has Returned
    Beautiful Mind
    Entourage
    Ms. Temper & Nam Jung-gi
    Oh My Venus
    One More Happy Ending
    Page Turner
    Signal
    The Good Wife

    The King 2 Hearts*
    Moonlight Drawn By Clouds
    My Wife Is Having An Affair This Week

    * = did not air in 2016

    TOTAL: 34

    Not too bad. Maybe this’ll be the year I break 40? Right now I’m still watching Doctor X 4 and Yuusha Yoshihiko to Michibikareshi 7-nin, which I’ll probably just include in my count for 2017. My undisputed favorites this year were Juhan Shuttai! and Signal; the former made me really optimistic about j-dramas again, whereas the latter ruined me and I just had no patience for tired old formulas in k-dramas. Here’s to another year in dramas! I guess my continuing resolution is to try more “classics”, haha.

  • Best of 2016: everything else

    Best of 2016: everything else

    Happy new year! I think the only album I 100% (heh) loved in 2016 was KAYTRANADA‘s 99.9%. There were other albums that came close but none of them had the replay value I felt this album did. Anyway, I added links for only the more “obscure” songs on the list. Enjoy! (more…)

  • Best of 2016: Japan

    Best of 2016: Japan

    WHO KNEW that a song commissioned by Yamato Transport would be the song of the year? Amazing. I’m kidding (sort of), but NEKO FUNJATTA is genius and visually stunning in every way. Meow!

    I listened to a lot less Japanese music than I should have and the only real release I looked forward to this year was Utada Hikaru‘s Fantôme (featuring my personal favorites, 俺の彼女 and 真夏の通り雨). I was looking forward to Gesu no Kiwami Otome.‘s album, but Kawatani Enon sucks and we can’t have nice things!! A few days ago I took it upon myself to listen to some new-to-me acts (chay, WONK, G.RINA) and old favorites (Nobuchika Eri, Superfly, the pillows) who also dropped new material this year. Some recent favorites:

    1. chay – “12月の雨”
    2. Gesu no Kiwami Otome. – “無垢な季節”
    3. TRY TRY NIICHE – “Cガール”
    4. 1983 – “文化の日”
    5. DAOKO – “FASHION”
    6. Uyama Hiroto – “Yin and Yang”
  • Best of 2016: Korea

    Best of 2016: Korea

    pictured: Red Velvet, “7월7일 (One of These Nights)”

    A post inspired by Melissa Johnson’s wonderful blog (The Mind Reels). But before I get into what I liked in k-pop this year:

    Over the past few months I’ve had a Red Velvet reversal. Being a big fan of f(x), I was convinced RV were the harbingers of doom when Sulli announced her hiatus (2014, RV debut) and withdrawal (2015, debut album). I couldn’t help but think that SME was putting my favorite group on the backburner! MY FAVES!! You know, irrational fangirl feelings and what not.

    Then “7월7일” dropped and I was shocked by the generally negative responses it got. Maybe because it was a slow R&B ballad and not completely suited for INSTANT popularity, something destined to be a b-side. For me though, it was perfect. It felt like Red Velvet found their niche (the “velvet” concept). Unfortunately they went back to a crowd pleasing poppier sound for Russian Roulette just as I started listening to more of the velvet themed stuff… at any rate, I hope they’re not scared to be experimental in the future because in the end, the music is what makes them interesting to me. If they’re like everyone else, it’s just boring! (more…)

  • Autumn ’16, Part 2

    Autumn ’16, Part 2

    Mooooooooooore draaaaaaaaamas. This post is a long one!
    (more…)

  • Autumn ’16, Part 1

    Autumn ’16, Part 1

    TOTAL DRAMAS WATCHED: 21

    I just barely passed this amount in last year’s fall roundup, and that was in November! What can I say, weekend marathons are my specialty. Now onto the state of things…

    (more…)

  • Summer ’16, Part 2

    Summer ’16, Part 2

    As some of you may have seen from my Twitter, I was at PAX this past weekend! Spoiler: it was awesome. I was only away for 3 days, but I was surprised by how many drama episodes I was able to squeeze in…

    (more…)

  • Summer ’16, Part 1

    Summer ’16, Part 1

    Yaaaay k-dramas.
    (more…)

  • Spring ’16, Part 2

    Spring ’16, Part 2

    The future is ✨ BRIGHT ✨, my friends! I decided to “pass/fail” (so to speak) some dramas, but ended up passing most of them. I love having so many Japanese dramas to watch!
    (more…)

  • Spring ’16, Part 1

    Spring ’16, Part 1

    NOTE: I wrote this on May 1, where it continued to languish in my drafts until I finished Fire Emblem Fates (AGAIN) and realized that I didn’t have anything to do. And I finally started watching Japanese dramas again after not finishing any of the ones in my Winter ’16 post. Progress!

    I’ll be honest. After Signal, I lost interest in watching any dramas. And how could I not? It was just… so much. SO MUCH PERFECTION! And you heard it here first — there’s nothing that will top it this year. I didn’t bother finishing any of the other ones I started either, and it probably didn’t help that I was in the middle of last minute travel prep and Fire Emblem Fates. I did watch some of Sanadamaru while I was in Japan and while it was very exciting to go to Osaka Castle (where I had a moment and realized why I kept seeing Sakai Masato’s face all over Osaka stations… lol), I wasn’t like “oh my gosh, gotta watch some dramas!”

    (more…)