Skip to main content
Terrestrial Human

Unison Square Garden

The band Unison Square Garden is from Japan, and they have been cranking out the rock for a while. The first track here is from their 5th Album “Catcher In The Spy”, called Heaven and Hell, released in 2014.

The second track came out about 5 weeks ago, and is the short version of Sugar Song and Bitter Step, Short Version in Japan apparently meaning they will give you one verse, and if they are feeling generous half a chorus. This isn’t the first time I have posted an official short version Japanese song on this site, for Anime OP or ED tracks are usually 90 seconds long, and worth every moment of it. And since it turns out this song IS an Anime ED track, specifically for the Anime Blood Blockade Battlefront, track 2.5 is the Anime version of it. Which also could explain why such a kick ass Rock band recorded such a Pop tune; they needed to land that Anime contract to get the word out about the majority of their body of work. At least, I hope that was their justification, and they didn’t just go belly-up into full-tilt Pop on us.

For the third track we jumped all the way back to the live version of their 2012 song Out Of Place Hummingbird. As always, the actual song titles are the best guesses of a guy with a very limited vocabulary in that language, but the music needs no translation, it is just that good.

Something to Watch: Streams: Live-Action Death Note

On July 5th the Death Note live-action TV series will premiere on Nippon TV, which doesn’t have great reception at my house in North America. All is not lost for American fans, however, because Crunchyroll will be airing the show just a few days behind its Japanese release date each week. Thanks to Otaku USA for the heads up on this one, although I will feel more confident about the information when Crunchyroll actually adds it to their menu system.

Hitman: Agent 47 new trailer

This one looks better every time they release another trailer. Hitman: Agent 47 is a genetically engineered elite assassin who was designed as the perfect killing machine. He uses the last two digits on the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck as his name, and strangely enough he is the hero of this story. It should be hitting the big screen on August 21st.

Live-Action Attack on Titan trailer

This isn’t the first Live Action Attack On Titan trailer, but it is the first one that includes visuals on the 3D Maneuver Gear which is the core of the defense groups arsenal, and has helped make the animation such a success. Then they did it not once, but twice. I am so ready for this production set, which will be released as a theatrical presentation (i.e. Movie) on August 1st, a short series of weekly shown TV shows covering the space between, and then the concluding Movie on September 19th. The release dates I am quoting are all for Japan, but with the world-wide excitement the original Manga and Anime have generated, I have very high hopes one of the streaming services will pick up on the TV series, and someone like American Multi-Cinema (AMC) (founded in 1920 Kansas City, Missouri, now owned by China) will carry the films. Keeping my fingers crossed, at least.

LightSail Kickstarter

The Planetary Society had a Kickstarter goal of $200,000 to fund their LightSail Project. When they met that, they went for a stretch goal of $450,000, to use the extra money to educate scientists and engineers about how the combination of CubeSats and LightSails will change the exploration of the Solar System, making orbital observation missions to any of the planets cost about the same as buying a new car. When they met that and the money kept coming in, their next stretch goal was to educate the public about how unlimited free energy from the sun will provide CubeSat propulsion and revolutionize access to space for low-cost citizen projects. They passed that goal, and the contributions will be open for the next two days. If you haven’t already gotten in on The People’s Spacecraft, you have 2 days left to make your support known and get in on the rewards for your chosen donation level.

Something to Do: Movies

This week we get a whole new level of dysfunctional fantasy with Ted 2, a comedy going places the first one didn’t dare to. Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but to qualify, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law. It is basically Heinlein’s Jerry Was A Man dressed up with outrageous gobs of raunchy humor. If you prefer your comedy a bit less raunchy you might want to check out the award winning Australian film The Little Death this weekend instead. At least I think it is a bit less raunchy, but I know it isn’t genre; and the trailer had me laughing, so I figured I should mention it here.