Singing and Dancing Throughout Time

For me, music is a delicate thing, if something fits in my ear it'll stay in my brain for days, the sole reason I only listened to J-music while keep an open eye of good pieces from the Western and others, apparently it's been months and I haven't heard any single new tune that made me hum, so in desperate in a new (or perhaps old) sounds I turn to youtube (instead of playing WOW), apparently I discovered a few things:

No, not this one, I already know Darth Vader is a member of NKOTB

I started with my old relationship, when I was young the TV constantly streamed with animes so needless to say I grow with it, that's why at my early age I always think that the opening of Saint Seiya is the best song in the world.

"Yep"

and 20 something years later....

Apparently rock star don't live fast & die young,

they haunt you for the rest of your life

The singer still exists and the anime/manga are being remade or sequeled, or spin-off-ed, Japanese are die hard =))

Macross

This used to be a separate writing, but I included this because there's a relation, and because they're animes that breathed good songs and story. Started at 1982 the original series tells a story about a giant spaceship colony called Macross which hurled into uncharted space by some unknown stuff and tried desperately to get back home, inside this spaceship the people started again to live their daily life, it's a slice-of-life soap opera sprinkled with war action and giant robots, running close to 100 50 episode, and also intertwined with musical numbers sang by Linn Minmay

There is a God

Minmay (voiced by actress Mari Ijima) quickly gained momentum that started the franchise, Macross get a retelling OVA (which contains new song and the original ones) and Ijima herself become instant celebrity, 

Probably one of the best song I ever heard, and no I'm not joking

Apparently the franchise are plummeted down when the true sequel Macross 7 experimented with the sound of Slow/Glam Rock and set the fictious Fire Bomber Band as the next star, the story is completely scrapped although it was once set into the wandering space cowboy plus mariachi theme , changing the true spacefighter robots into giant speaker carrier that shoots lights and sound instead rockets and lasers, the pilots themself equipped with mock musical instruments used to 'shoot', as cheesy as it can be there is one memorable song

Please don't try this concept again, MBS

The franchise get back to it's feet when the next sequel Macross Frontier get it right, included two songstress, Sheryl Nome (voiced by singer May'n) and newcomer artist Ranka Lee (voiced by set-to-be-idol Megumi Nakajima), the unique thing is May'n song are R&B stuffs while Nakajima sang Easy Listening ones, the songs are decent, the duets are good, the story is not groundbreaking but still enjoyable, like all Macross Franchise Frontier also got a retelling OAV which in my opinion contains more action, better storyline, and smoother animation, especially when the show scene of the singers, it's also the first Macross that used CGI to animate combat scenes, the opening song also sang by already famous anime singer Maaya Sakamoto

Catchy, catchy tunes (otaku mode on)

Folder

I stumbled across Folder when rummaging on anime songs and have nostalgic reunion with Dream, apparently my clicking ability brought me into the girl/boyband territory from the late 90s era, one of them is Folder, although they never sang a song that became an anime song, but I'll get back to it later, here they are on 1999

Yep, they're S Club 7 clone, but this song damn catches my ears (yes, it was a song by two brats but hey, I'm at the same age as them at that time, okay maybe a few years older) also this song reminds me of the R&B fusion genre from the late 90s Japan, most of them are dorama songs though, sang by famous Japanese  singer like Ken Hirai

Okay, let's get back to Folder, here they are one year later, 2000

Whoa!

So, the boys left the group because of their changing voices (puberty sucks) and the girls has.... well...grown :P this is the second opening of anime One Piece, a flagship anime/manga title from Jump and Toei, Folder become Folder 5, apparently they dance better now, and now I know where Suzumiya Haruhi's dance is from

I have two additional songs for my mp3 player now, yay, happy happy me, after some browsing I also found some dance group AAA's songs are decent enough to enter my collection, anyway Folder 5 was disbanded like 6 years ago and their members pursued solo career, one of them even starred on some famous movie like Death Note, but their solo singles are nothing good enough to enter my ears

Reverse S Club 7 (in all aspects, including quality of songs)

AKB48

Well now, I was once promised myself never venture into deep otaku territory but I'm already knee deep within girl/boyband swamp, might as well checked out the latest ones, so I hold onto my nose and dive. This one is a major stuff, AKB48 (formed 2006, but I just found out about them last year, silly me) was short from Akihabara 48, sporting tagline: "Idols you can meet" (yes, otaku things, watch your step), they performed dance and sing act in a theater every day on Akihabara region, their total members exceeded the number 48, almost close like 157 teenage girl!! But they're the top selling Japanese artist last year on their region, here's one of their hit single:

Apparently I now hummed it.... damn you Akihabara

AKB48 wasn't the first, there are already similar group called Morning Musume (formed 1998) which held the record for the japan's highest record seller on girl group, they swapped members every year (a method which also embraced by AKB48), I never followed them since at that time rock band such as L'arc en Ciel, Luna sea, and Glay grew in me, and at that teen angst moments, who needs a bunch of dancing pre-teen girl? >:)), Morning Musume and AKB48 also toured and performed on Anime Expo held on US or Europe

Anywaaaaaaay, who wants to see another one from my regional area? HERE THEY ARE!!!

THEY'RE INVADING!!

Apparently AKB48 chooses Jakarta as their sister girlband city, dubbed JKT48, the reason of it... is... I don't know, people in here knows nothing about good songs and the culture is different, I might put their song in my mp3 player but I'm not glorifying them or anything like that, they sang decent song and probably practiced that choreography like hell, but it become a question, who're they targeting here? I probably knew the answer, but apparently it's so out of this world (or this country) that it's probably not true

Well, come what may, at least I have some new/old songs, time to research some more catchy tunes tonight (yep, it's WOW maintenance night)

Hello, Instrument

UPDATE: MAX

Okay, this probably the most exciting discovery: MAX is a Japanese four member vocal group, they excel in voice's quality and sang upbeat tempo song, eurobeat, and some speed techno things, they're also has different image from other Idol Group, more mature theme. Apparently they're once the rival of Morning Musume in term of selling singles.

Max's song ranged from their initial R&B to upbeat ballad, most of them are not my kind but this one is awesome

The song called Issho Ni, I don't know why it can be so appealing in my ear, some secret organization could brainwash me or something, but it's good stuff, it's so different from other MAX's song (you can browse the rest of them on Youtube) and the music brings a sense of smoothness, I personally liked that brief acoustic guitar at the end.

Max has one more ballad song, this one is not as impacting as Issho Ni, it's called Spring Rain, but it's still good enough to enter my collection, it has the same upbeat element from the thing that made Issho Ni good but the execution of vocals are not quite good as the other, oh yeah, the PV is good to watch too

With MAX's song I concluded my search for skipped tunes and j-music from groups between early 90s and now, it's been a wondrous and colorful journey

(Now, back to LFR, dammit Gurthalak Y U NO DROP!!!)