I finally started wrapping my head around the concept of HDR photography.

According to Wikipedia:

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

Basically it means the pictures are more pretty than real life.

So these are my first 2 attempts… I have some more in the pipe but it takes some time to get them done… and time is something that seems to be lacking at the moment.

clicky the piccie to get the biggie:

 

What do you think?

Any Good?

Feedback peeps!

ZARAKI KENPACHI SINGING!!!!!!!

Ok so if that picture is not enough of a reason to explain why I desperately wanted to see this show, not much else is :p

Helen sent out a message over the book of face asking if anyone was keen on the Bleach Musical… I was he only one who was. Admittedly I was in it for the shits and giggles and because I knew it would make peeps jealous… and its one of those Once in a lifetime, only in Japan sort of things. So i said fuck it, Shelled out Y6600 (which is more pricy than any VK one man I have been to thus far) and went along.

Helen was uber amped for the show. Her bleach fandom far exceeds mine (I stopped watching after they rescued Rukia… the rest is bullshit) but I did really enjoy the 70 odd eps that I did watch. I was more in it for the lulz. I didn’t expect anything special and wasn’t worried about anything really… besides seeing Zaraki Kenpachi on stage singing :p

As a result the awesomeness of the show took me by surprise.

The music was typically Jpop and nothing special. The emotional songs were not emotional enough, the inspirational songs threatened to inspire me but didn’t take me all the way and the funny songs were only worth a chuckle. The accompanying show however, that was extremely entertaining. Having said that however Some of the individual singers, especially Rukia and Hinamori (Miki Sato & Kumiko Saito) They actually did have what it takes to stir me, which was pretty impressive. In fact, most of the female cast was pretty damn good at singing.

It was a Live Bankai Show so it didn’t follow any storyline… It was more a best of show with a bunch of the best songs from the previous 5 runs and 2 live Bankai shows with one (I think) new song.

It was essentially a fanservice show.

“We were not watching actors… We were watching the actual characters as they appear in our world ”

The character impersonations were perfect. We were not watching actors… We were watching the cast the actual characters as they appear in our world . Personalities were perfect and the attitudes were spot on.

Audience interaction was great. More like a live than a musical in that sense. Many tines, members of the cast moved through the audience. Even up close however they felt like the real deal. At the beginning Soi Fong even did the please don’t stand up during the show and don’t take pictures during the show speech… or as she put it…

“If I catch you taking pictures of my beloved Yoruichi-sama, I’ll kill you”

Being that it wasn’t a storyline driven show it felt like a Kon special almost (which are some of my favourite parts of the TV series) It was unbelievably funny (If you know Bleach) and the little skits between songs were gutwrenchingly hilarious.

Roll all the aspects together and you have a thoroughly brilliant show. It didn’t leave you feeling shattered and alive like many of the live bands I have seen. But the feelgood sensation that it imparted is softly glowing inside me even as I type this.

If Deluhi live was like a crazy night in a love hotel with an earthshatteringly beautiful (15/10) and extremely energetic sex machine. The Bleach live could be compared to dating someone who makes you feel like you want to be with them for a long time even if they are only 7/10 in the looks department. 

I shit you not… Baby squid biltong. It wasn’t unpleasant… Hell it was even a little tasty… but I wont be in a hurry to consume any more anytime soon.

I could give you a write up about the whole thing but the truth is you just want to look at the pictures and wish you went with… so here you go… I may throw in some captions for good measure… I may not.

 

We left Shibukawa THIS early. Innit pretty?

 

The cars were fucking amazing… no shit huh!

The girls however (with the exception of the D1 and Tire company girls) were clearly hit by the recession. The girls were average at best. Very Disapointing actually. Hell one of the hottest girls there was a TRAP! so yeah. Fucking yanks and their stupid economy fucked up my fanservice. BASTARDS!

And wherever there were ladies, there were these motherfuckers. Like flies on shit. They swarmed and went into a frenzy. Its funny how the guys with the uber badass equipment only ever took pics of the girls… Didn’t see anyone of these fools (whose cameras cost more than their cars) actually shooting the stars of the show.

 

So more cars then?

 

 

There was a rather interesting deal at the show aswell… THERE WERE FUCKING HIPPIE MOBILES!!!!!!

MUGEN, The legendary Honda tuning house and their star concept… no, not an NSX. Not an S2000 not even a Civic. A FUCKING HONDA INSIGHT!!!!!! A FUCKING HYBRID!!!!! FUCKING HIPPE SHIT!!!!!!

 

Give me a 2JZ any day.

 

Badass parts too :p

and the fucking HUGE turbo… About the size of a small child. No really… It half as big as the rotary it was feeding… Its ok… The car had a parachute.

 

pink wheels are real sexy… though I wouldn’t kick some of the Up Garage(middle pic)  girls out of bed though.

And in the Otaku had a tiny corner at the back of the smallest hall for their Itasha. Funnily. It was not a terribly popular stand. Who would have thunk it?

 

and the dressup and crazy crowd was in the house too…

 

 

Best for last….

Supra modded into a Shelby… with an LED bonnet.

Sexier Supra with BMW lights…. Damn it was fiiine.

 

Amazing widebody S2000. DO WANT!

 

THE BEST REAL CAR AT THE SHOW!!!!! Someone destroyed a fucked up piece of shit Honda Odyssey and kept the lights. He attached them to a hot S13 and made the sexiest sr20 housing I have ever seen!

THE BEST CONCEPT AT THE SHOW!!!!

Behold… THE Toyota FT-86 The new Hachiroku.

 

Yes. This is late. This time I actually was genuinely too busy instead of lazy…

Deluhi is my favourite band in Japan. I was waiting to see their one man to publically admit it, but I think anyone who listens to my show or talks to me about VK will have probably figured this out by now.

Having missed the O-West one man I made a special effort to get me a ticket to this one (I did it a whole month and a half in advance… which is late by ravening hyena standards, but I am not one so there.)

For a change I was not alone. Jans joined me on my escapade and broke his VK live cherry at the show… which I must ad is way more than all the yank supposed Visual Kei fans I have met so far… there I go, bitching again… BUT FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!! if you are going to go around calling yourself a VK fan put your fucking money where your hole is and go to a fucking show… Don't use the fact that you don’t know Deluhi as an excuse to cover the fact that you still think Malice Mizer is still around and that Dir en grey just released Gauze… get with the fucking programme!!!!

 

ok ok, i will continue…

 

Jans and I had “C” tickets so we were right at the back but like all shows I go to here, it didn’t affect my ability to see anything. Being late in means that we didn’t have to wait too long to get to the action. In the short time that I did wait I met a guy in a Hibria T-Shirt… Japanese but lived practically his whole life in the US so communication was not a problem… HOLY SHIT A FELLOW METALHEAD AT A VK SHOW!!!! too good to be true. Admittedly he was not huge but he was steel and that makes up for size… He could have given hell in a real pit. We chatted, talked and bitched about the same things… yeah Its good to find someone else that thinks that there is too much pussy and too many pussies at VK shows. We were not alone though.. there was a very good ratio at the show and many looked like they could have gone in hard. Hell there was even a girl in a Children of Bodom T-Shirt, so at least at Deluhi shows.. there is hope.

The show cut us short however because even though we had no pit, as soon as the intro was done they ripped straight into G.A.L.D. I mean ripped… as in ripped me a fucking new one.”

 

“I mean ripped… as in ripped me a fucking new one.”

 

I have a setlist this time! which I shamelessly stole from here :p

Overture-Yggdalive-
G.A.L.D
REVOLVER BLAST
s[K]ape:goat
-MC-
シェイド
flow snow
WAKE UP
LORELEI
-Leda solo-
HELLO
-MC-
F.T.O(新曲)
Rebel:Sicks,Shadow:Six
HYBRID TRUTH
Orion once again
星の無い夜に
-ENCORE-
-Leda solo-
-MC-
Baby play
Two hurt

 

As you can see they pulled out all the stops… They thoroughly entertained us and they fed off our energy. Despite not being totally sold out I would say that not many more than 20-30 could have been shoehorned into the venue… but this IS Japan so maybe 60-70? despite this there was barely space to move, and when Brian and I got Our heads flailing we there was even less space… for everyone else.

 

LORELEI… Leda’s acoustic guitar was hot shit… and his hand work on it would have (and did) given many of the hyenas something to fantasize about… Impressive playing. Even more so were his Solos… his first one was a Mozart and his second one was random old school anime stuff.

 

“Deluhi is a Metal Band…”

 

Leda (Yu-to) is a metalhead. You can dress him up like a manorexic lady boy but when he shreds, he is pure brutal steeeeeel Heavy fucking Metal. Deluhi is a Metal Band… there are purists on both sides that will give me shit for this statement, but Purists don't know shit about the music they listen to because they don’t have the balls to experience all the other aspects that make their music what it is… Yes, this is my way of saying fuck you to the stupid hyena fan girls that don't get out of their VK closets and the dumbass metal puritans that ignore the music in VK because the artists look like manorexic lady boys (they do too!)

 

Orion Once Again… the sing-along version… I think we all sang the chorus 12 times… at the band’s insistence… 4 times were without music. I was both surprised at the fact that apart from a few words I had it down without ever reading the lyrics. but mostly I absolutely loved the connection. I honestly felt that at that moment, every single person in that room was one with the band. I mean there is always gratitude toward the fans from bands but that song was not them playing for us, it was about us being there for them.

Two Hurt… well it was the last track of an amazing show… there is nothing I can say to describe it. Orgasmic would be a horrible injustice. It was so much more.. It was the culmination of my existence… yes. for a brief moment… 3/4 of the way through. It touched the same [art of me that Children of Bodom did. Were Deluhi THAT good? not the whole way through, but it was the first time a J Band took me to that level of ecstasy… I am willing to bet that if there was a pit, It may have even been 40% of Children of Bodom. Which if you think about it is pretty impressive. Versailles only hit about 25% and Blind Guardian was about 23%. admittedly I had no Idea what 100% was till I saw COB so this whole scale could be a fucked up attempt of trying to rationalise irrational sensations. Actually I am lying… Deluhi Themselves provide us with a word that truly explains these very sensations…

It is the process of being Yggdalive!

 

It left me with an adrenaline rush of note, which died just as I got into Club Atom later that night… sadly without any chemical assistance there was no way I could get myself going enough to enjoy the club so I ended up retiring in a Massage chair in a net cafe. Jans kept going though… Don’t know what he did, but I hope he used a condom when he did her.