I planned to make a review of Ys Seven; but decided to forget about it since I wouldn’t be able to create decent video of gameplay as it’s a PSP game. Instead I will focus one of the renowned aspect of the franchise, the music which was the first reason why I decided to play the game. Though to understand the music, it’s better to get acquainted with the game. So I will cover a bit the game, then the music of game I have played. Just to warn, it’s world apart from Shikata Akiko and Kanon Wakeshima’s song, expect rocky music!

Every Ys game follows the adventure of Adol Christin, adventurer also known as Adol the Red, 700 years ago. He has every qualities of hero. Silent, strong, extreme bad luck with boats, trouble magnet, and a natural lady killer. Random fact: Adol Christin seems to be the source of inspiration of Kenjiro Hata for Hayasaki Hayate ( yes that butler in debt ), and when asked about which historical figure he would draw, Kenjiro Hata would draw Adol ( while other mangaka certainly answered with real character xD )

It’s a JRPG, so expect some déjà-vu in story and place. However, it’s an action RPG or hack and slash, both fits the bill. It’s extremely fast paced, with fodder enemies, big hard bosses, and a game over screen you will get familiar with. The nervousness of the game is also quite noticeable in the music.

In most RPG, music is fitting to the general ambiance of the place. It’s background music, which blends with the game. Falcom Sound Team JDK begs to differ to some extent; it’s a general “Let’s rock!”. While cutscene will get the music to get the proper mood, fields, dungeon, are where the liberty shines. Mystic ruins? Bring on the electric guitar!

The first Ys I played was the VI, the Ark of Napishtim on PSP. Not the best port, but it was a cool introduction to a good battle system though perfectible and music, starting with the opening.

The Ark of Napishtim is a bit of an exception at the rules I said earlier, as synthesizer is heavily used through the OST. It’s not my favorite OST of the series but that’s what I started with. I liked quite a few tracks, but the most awesome was “Mighty Obstacle”, for MIGHTY BOSS! And they all are to a certain extent.

Mighty Obstacle

But the first few games were on old computer, meaning using MIDI.

Considering that I have yet to play Ys I, II ( waiting for PSP game ), IV, V ( lack of translation , I will skip to Ys III with the field map music, one of the first music, “The boy’s got wings”:

This is the original version, on SNES in 1991. I was only 2 years old so of course I didn’t play that one. But I played The Oath in Felghana which is a remake of it ( and the best Ys IMO ), and the OST is epic.

Fully instrumented this time, here is “The boy’s got wings”, which is the first music you hear when getting out of town:

The Boy’s Got Wings

It’s still a bit hard for me to believe that I would get this for a field map music, but it gives to the adventure a taste that I have hardly found in other RPG: I’m a freaking CHOSEN HERO! Moreover, Adol is a very fast hero highly agile so the title fit him quite well. Final Fantasy has been known for having several remixed soundtrack; Ys also got them. Personally, re-arranged OST are rarely up to my taste, and the remix provided for “The Boy’s Got Wing”, is middle the case.

The Boy’s Got Wing SAV

A bit of a short, so here is a second service, “Sealed Time”, theme of a clock tower. When I think of clock tower, I often think of Castlevania, especially Symphony of the night’s “Tragic Prince”. But here, we are not in the Goth, but in the Rock! Once again, SNES version, then PC, and remixed:

Sealed Time

Sealed Time SAV

The orchestral remix is by an order of magnitude even more epic than the game version; in fact too much for it to be integrated as it doesn’t fit the game OST, nor the game. The Oath in Felghana has simply the Rockest OST of all RPG I have played to date.

One of the best composition for the duo of electric guitar and violin is in the remixes of Ys Origin ( I put it’s opening at the top of this post )

Scarlet Tempest

Scarlet Tempest SAV

This is the theme for a lava place of the game. Game version used guitar and synth, but the remix switched the synth for the violin. I like the attack part middle way and the guitar follow up. Both instrument shine here and make it one of the coolest music from a game remix.

Moving on with Ys Seven which I finished recently. As expected the music is on par with what I have come to expect.

Once again, it’s a the field map and boss themes which are the main attraction.

Mother Earth Altago

To Reveal The Way To Go

Vacant Interference

Mother Earth Altago has a nice start. It’s like discovering the new land on which Adol just set foot; slashing monsters. The second field theme, which is available latter in the game, underlines the determination of the hero. I prefer by a very small margin this second one, for the synth and violin part. Vacant Interference is the boss theme, and it’s as striking as Mighty Obstacle.

Ys doesn’t always rock your hears; parts require of course calmer music, and Falcom deliver as well in those area, with very good town music, sad one but this is already more common. The remixes can be orchestral, rock, jazz, piano, vocals and more. For now I will just provide some more track and the OST.

The Oath in Felghana:

Peaceful time

Soothing song for a change, and simple.

A Searing Struggle

Steeling The Will to Fight

Valestein Castle

More dungeon music. First is for lava underground, rock as expected. The second one if memory serves me right, is for ice mountain. Contrary to other game which has rather chilly music, here we have a march; the struggle of the hero against the cold wind! Last one is for a castle; when you first hear it it’s like “Hello, I’m not sorry at all for barging in and slashing everything that move!”.

Ys Origin:

Tension

Genesis Beyond The Beginning

This Genesis Beyond the Beginning is a remix of the opening, with piano and violin only and a slower pace. It’s a very nice one and contrast with a lot of the other musics. The other one is a boss theme, Jazzy and Techno fusion, pretty cool one.

Ys The Ark of Napishtim
While not my favorite, it’s the one I started with and it has some good tracks like Moutain Zone, Windslash Step, ERNST.

Ys The Oath in Felghana OST + SAV
If there is one OST to get, it’s this one.

Ys Origin OST
Ys Origin SAV

Ys Seven OST

Originally I didn’t plan to make a post out of it, just some analysis for me to learn, but here we go again, digging into an artist style and technique. First I don’t own any piece of art by Kishida Mel, I know him through scans. Some may have seen the video where he draws on his Cintiq; I’m providing a slowed down version so that you can appreciate more his hand movements and his techniques. Artist are skilled, some more than other. Kishida Mel has impressive skills.

Roughly ( since I can’t translate Japanese ), Kishida Mel started by randomly drawing, then went to college design, dropped out, and put his work online and got spotted. So he does illustration for magazine, light novel, anime character design, and certainly most known recently for his work on the Atelier serie.

Kishida Mel, judging by his drawing video, did a lot of work on paper before moving to a digital environment. He started digital art on image board, so no pressure control, and with a mouse. He switched to a tablet, the Intuos 2 and with Painter 7, he could  finally enjoy the pressure control of his pen. He upgraded to the Intuos 3, Intuos 4, and finally the new Cintiq21 UX pen-screen which is simply the best at the moment. Also, he switched from Painter to SAI, and using Photoshop for some final editing.

His computer is overkill, with a Core I7@2.66ghz, 12GB of RAM, and a secondary 23″ screen. I’m not sure of what he can do with 12GB since he use SAI. As it’s only a 32bit software, it can only use up to 2GB of RAM.
Now the technique. As I said, here is a slowed down video. Initially, at 3 times the real speed, I had to put the speed at around 40% of this speedy video. It’s a little bit faster than reality, but the movement will look more fluid than if I tried to put it at the real speed.

His style is quite soft, with little hard shadow. The color he uses are desaturated, he doesn’t use vivid one. Well, let’s see how he does.

Sketch and inking

Kishida Mel use SAI’s pen tool, with the second hardness tip. His movement is mostly hand/wrist because he dezoomed quite a lot the canvas. In fact, you won’t see him zoom nor rotate/mirror much at all which shows the precision of his movement. Sketch is a bit see-through for anatomy, but that’s all.
Inking is done with 2 different type of movement. For most line, he will use a single fast stroke, and if it’s not good, CTRL+Z. Then, for adjusting the thickness of his line, he makes several stroke where he wants them to be thicker. Some hard shadow are done during the lineart instead of the coloring.
Finally, while the lineart is black, he adds a layer to color it in brown.

Coloring

For coloring the character, he only use 1 layer. He doesn’t really bother with layer management which makes me think that he has colored previously on paper. White color is provided by the canvas.

His SAI has no color set in the color swatch, they are all picked from the color wheel. He use a brush to color, and mix the color directly on the canvas, then pick them up directly on the canvas. While coloring, the color and the size of his brush changes quite often. I would say that it’s a technique similar to the one used in painting, but I don’t have much knowledge in traditional media.
He only use the brush tool to color; I can’t see the settings, but it seems to be set rather low as he can put a light blue color on black without it turning quickly grey. Also, I wonder what is his pressure control setting. It doesn’t seems like it controls size, which would explain the regular change of brush size. At the end, he cast some light by using the softest tip.

End

For reference, I used:

• The video
• Atelier Rorona & Totori artbook scans
• Interview

It’s not always that I can get enough material to see an artist technique, but I hope I will get more for someone else.

Just for the history, we started when I once told Ippiki Ookami “I wonder what is happening in Gothic Lolita Dagguereotype”. As it was quite, disturbing, she translated it, and then latter I wanted to take part in the workflow hence the creation of the team. However we didn’t want the burden of having people requesting us to work on some project; we wanted our own pace, thus the name Sakinobashi, Japanese for “procrastination” ( or something like that xD ).

But now Ippiki Ookami is leaving the scene, so it’s the end of our team. I know, I could search for a new translator, but as we are both founder I don’t want to use this name again without her. It’s the end of Sakinobashi, but I will remain.

Next month I will finally have a home, till then, I just got my goodies from the Japan Expo. This year again, Shiitake was present and she signed my doujinshi! She is really a beautiful artist, and she was wearing a yukata.

Sadly no, I don’t have another photo of her booth. Anyway, she had 2 doujinshi which she had released in April, Hanaotome and Eternal Wings, 32 pages each. Hanaotome is themed around traditional clothing, meaning yukata. Eternal Wings features, well, wings. This time I took photo of the book, but not with my usual point and shot; I borrowed a Nikon D300S.

Book opens on one of her old illustration, which was featured in previous doujinshi, as well as a little message in Japanese. THe version in English, French, Korean and Chinese aren’t translation, it’s the usual description she puts for her circle when she travels.

The book is quite impressive as it’s printed in A4 format, rather than the usual B5 format and is bound by stapples. Printing is good. For this illustration thought, it seems like the copy on the right was upscaled, but that would be the only complain I will have on quality.

Most of the art seems recent, though some illustrations are from her older style.

I experimented a bit on the photo end as well, as I shot at least 5 times before being satisfied by the photos. This one is particularly bluffing as it can fool people into thinking that it’s a scan.

The end of the book got comments on each illustration as well as the rough sketch and a quick showing of her CG step by step of the cover under SAI and Photoshop.

You can buy the doujinshi easily since it’s available for worldwide shipping:
Asianbeat

And to be frank, I have a preference for Eternal Wing, but it’s mostly about my taste since I quite like angels and so on; and butterfly wings are beautiful as well.

Here is the first loot of the Japan Expo; at the Wasabi Record booth, Kanon Wakeshima’s new album collector version. It will be released tomorrow in Europe, and on the 27th for the rest of the world ( not only Japan ). Since it has yet to be officially released, I will just provide some sample and a bit of history. Anyway, it’s certainly already available in download somewhere on the intraweb.

Kanon Wakeshima is certainly known to western public thanks to the ending of Vampire Knight, Still Doll. I’m quite surprised over the fact that she has her album released abroad, but other than that, I greatly welcome the move and hope that other singer will follow this path.
Now, let me be frank, the ending of Vampire Knight didn’t leave me an impression; meaning I didn’t download the ending single and I don’t remember the name of the singer. It was very dark, fitting for the anime, maybe too dark for my taste. But I became interested in Kanon Wakeshima thanks to a small concert she held at Paris’ Maison de la Culture Japonaise ( House of Japanese Culture ). She did it at the beginning of a gothic lolita fashion show for a very small audience, maybe 200 persons max. She opened with Still Doll, which allowed me to recognize her. Other than being a great singer, she is also very beautiful and a great violoncellist.

Now the two other song certainly marked me most, and having such a small room and audience for a concert was bliss for the ears. Shinku no Fatalism and L’espoir ~Mahou no Akai Ito~ are bright compared to Still Doll. All 3 are featured in her first album, Shinshoku Dolce. This album is a mix of genre, but it is quite on the dark side.

Now, Shōjo Jikake no Libretto: Lolitawork Libretto is a little bit less dark, and more gothic. It also seems to me that her style is more definite in this one. The theme is based around girls’ imagination. Limited edition includes a cardboard jacket and a DVD with the PV for LOLITAWORK LIBRETTO ~Storytelling by solita~.

The european package includes 2 booklets, 1 in japanese, the other one is the translation in english of the lyrics. There is also a card featuring Kanon’s drawing, and her photo on the other side. Now in term of music, there is 13 tracks on the CD. Like Shinshoku Dolce, there are 2 smalls instrumentals one for prologue and epilogue.

First vocal one is Kajitsu no Keikoku, starting first with the instrument, and of course, her cello. Ok I can cheat since I have the translation and tell you that it’s about a forbidden fruit. But for an opening, it’s quite close to how Shiku no Fatalism opened Shinsoku Dolce; strong cello, impressive vocal.

Second vocal is Heroine Syndrome. If you liked these 2, I think you will like the rest. Afteral, this was for a me an impulsive buy, without having ever heard one song from this album, and in the end, I like it overall, which is quite rare. Sellers told me that I had good taste, and that it’s rare from a man ^^;.

Now for those who love her dark style, it’s a lot less present, but the most dark one is certainly celmisia, but it doesn’t trump Still Doll.

Last track, is not the epilogue surprisingly. It’s LOLITAWORK LIBRETTO ~Storytelling by solita~ which is also on the DVD. The PV is quite impressive, featuring a wicked world of literature and fairy tales. Of course, she has a beautiful dress and you can see 2 of her 3 cello. Now, there is also someone else in the PV, solita, a young french vocalist. Now, even if I’m french, I had a hard time to understand since it’s too creamy, but that’s certainly a wanted effect since the song is based around call and response. I regret not having seen the 3D version at the Japan Expo as it seems like something which would profit from it. I didn’t plan to put the full PV, but since it’s already on Youtube, there is little point. Of course, Youtube quality sucks and doesn’t do it justice.

I took a break from my moderating job, as it can get tiresome after one year and half without a break. There are still a few things I think will need to be done on E-shuushuu, but I don’t know if I will have the motivation.

In fact, I have been quite enjoying these last 2 months. Never have I procrastinated so much. I just finished in 2 days a project which was supposed to be done in 2 months. Also I have been playing an MMORPG… Maybe more details on it in another article. Since WoW, I didn’t touch one for 3 years. I spent quite a lot of free time playing meaning you didn’t see much tweet nor activity around the Web.

Now how is this blog going to continue? First of all, if you did keep up with my tweets, you know that my fellow Macbook Pro’s screen has a dead back lighting. The problem started 6 months ago, when the screen connector started to get worn out. I tried to fix it with… pieces of paper. Yes, it did work, and when I got problems, I just needed to twist the screen. But I had to dismantle it several time to get things right, and I put quite a lot of stress on the bezel which got cracks. It’s not a problem because there is the case which still support the weight of the screen. The problem is that the case needs first to be fixed with screws which go lost. I once had a dead graphic card, and I think those who repaired it messed with my screws.
So with the weight started to stress the LCD screen itself, and I think that this stress generated a shortcut in the back light circuitry. In short, it’s unusable, unless I put my desk lamp behind it to replace the back light ( no joke ). So for now, I’m using an old laptop, slightly less powerful than my Macbook Pro and with a clear lack of matte display and multitouch trackpad. I’m in the market for a new one!

This also mean that my main machine for scan is well, dead. Right now, scanning on this one is a pain since I need to adapt my workflow. I have a huge stack of C77 stuff waiting to get reviewed. The problem is that now, I really lack time, and next week, I will be in Canada for internship. So, I won’t be able to provide any update for the C77 loot, or maybe I will take a round of photos before leaving, but scanning is time consuming. Count one afternoon for a thin doujinshi.

The question is what I will do during the 3 months in Canada for this blog. My main focus is out of range. Well I guess I will need to go back to one thing I like; technology. I had in mind to dedicate some articles to technology when I first started this blog. On my Mac, there is already the draft for one article for HTML5/Flash and one about the interface paradigm on tablet. Now I don’t know if people are interested in those, since it’s a deviation of the line I had set up for this blog a few months ago, but it seems like I won’t have any visual goodies for the next 3 months. I guess I can also finally use my manga category, I have some manga I always wanted to review. I guess we will how it will shape.