Uto
Veteran
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| 181 | 182 | 183 | 184 |
| 4s4ki | Hotei ft Aina The End | FAKY | Konatsu Sogabe ft Yuki Murata |
| Hyper Angry Cat | Andromeda | Bad Things | Wasure Rareta Ike (Forgotten Pond) |
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ZoboCamel
Well-known member
Re: Japan | 日本 | WV113: Rock & Instrumentals NF
Thanks to
for their votes, bringing us to a total of 7 voters so far! Here's where the scores stand right now...
53
50.5
37
34.5
So we've pretty much got two packs at the moment: a tight two-horse race up the front, then a couple of stragglers a while behind. A couple sets of voters could turn things around completely, but things are especially close with that top two! There's about a day and a half to go, so let's see what happens
Thanks to
for their votes, bringing us to a total of 7 voters so far! Here's where the scores stand right now...53
50.5
37
34.5
So we've pretty much got two packs at the moment: a tight two-horse race up the front, then a couple of stragglers a while behind. A couple sets of voters could turn things around completely, but things are especially close with that top two! There's about a day and a half to go, so let's see what happens
Re: Japan | 日本 | WV113: Rock & Instrumentals NF
Zobo, have you been following Carole and Tuesday a bit more? Their most recent song "After the Fire" with Crystal (Lauren Dyson) from this week's episode is amazing, I can't stop listening to it
The English dub is on Netflix here
Zobo, have you been following Carole and Tuesday a bit more? Their most recent song "After the Fire" with Crystal (Lauren Dyson) from this week's episode is amazing, I can't stop listening to it
The English dub is on Netflix here
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
WV114: Minami - Kawaki wo Ameku
So this NF winner got delayed a bit due to me, uh, messing up the voting deadlines in WV112 and missing WV113 as a result. And this green room post is kind of stupidly late too. But hey, here it is! Just a short post this time since I'm about to drop into bed, but I wanted to at least put something up before the SF2 voting deadline.
NF results were as follows:
In pure score terms, things were pretty close, especially between those top two. But when you look at people's favourite entries, Kawaki wo Ameku had a surprisingly huge win in this NF - managing 7 favourites against just 1, 1 and 0 for the other three songs! Hopefully that's a good sign for being some sort of consensus entry at WV itself... though given my usual track record at the contest, I probably shouldn't get my hopes up
Whatever happens, though, thanks again to all my NF voters for taking part - and sorry for the wait in sending the entry! Hopefully people enjoy it as much as I do.
Slightly late to reply, but I've been... kind-of up to date? I've most recently seen episode 22, so I'm a few weeks behind but did hear After The Fire (which didn't stick with me quite as much as The Loneliest Girl but is still absolutely a good listen and a bit of an ear-worm). I'm hoping to finish off the last few episodes some time this week, seeing as they've now aired; it's good to see someone else has been watching it too!
Touhou song in 2nd
@ZoboCamel First post is pinned.
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
ow.
The King of Flops is here for a green room update! Lots to catch up on, so I'll try to be brief... [edit from future-me who has finished writing this post two hours later: I have failed to be brief]
It was particularly lovely to finally make it to the finals with a rock song, which I'd been trying to do for a long time – to my count, I'd previously sent nine rock songs over the past 50-ish WV editions, and NQed with all of them. I was thrilled to break that curse, so thanks to everyone who got this into the finals!
In the end, Kyoumen no Nami may not have gotten too many supporters at the contest (placing second from the bottom in its semi to start off my current NQ streak)... but as usual, I'm happy to have shared it in the first place. #noregerts
Then when I was trying to decide on my entry for WV116, I had the music video for Nuedori pop up in my recommended feed on YouTube... I hadn't even known there was a music video! Probably because in classic Japanese-music-industry fashion it was only put online a solid four years after the song released. But anyway, that was my entry decided!
Apparently I hadn't learnt my lesson from Nuedori's flop in that old NF, because to be honest I was half-expecting a decent result from this in WV. I think my bias was getting in the way a bit there - I'm a huge sucker for big epic ethnic stuff like this, what with the traditional Japanese touches and the big drums layered over a tasty power ballad. And then it came 19th in the semi. Which obviously wasn't quite what I was hoping for. But it always feels good to send through something that's been in the backlog for ages; and as usual, it was nice to see at some people saying they liked it!
Combining nasally vocals, Japanese rock and in-your-face hip-hop sounds isn't exactly the formula to WV success, after all, so the eventual result (second-last in its semi) is about what I expected.
But I was enamoured with this from the first time I heard it (i.e. a few years ago, when it was released as a B-side to a more poppish song that got used as an anime ending theme), so I felt I had to send it nonetheless. It's kind of liberating, I think, to just go in with rock-bottom expectations for the occasional edition and have some fun with it, and I don't plan to stop with that any time soon!
I cheated a little in WV98, sending a third member (Sho) not as a solo but as a trio with the returning Aiba and Ohno for the recently released and rather quirky Bazuri Night. That left me with Nino (who has one solo that I quite enjoy, but was never quite in the right mood to send to WV) and Jun (who, uh, has kinda boring solos despite being one of my favourite members of the band. Dammit, Jun). So I figured, eh, bugger it, I'll just skip ahead to the big finale and send something from the full band.
That something ended up being Truth, a piece of... power pop, I suppose you'd call it? with some big orchestral instrumentals that I just adore. Thankfully, in the lead-up to the group looking to essentially disband later this year () after a 20-year career, they finally started to make some of their music videos available online just recently, and that included Truth. And I latched onto that opportunity hard - a group I'd been wanting to send for almost 60 editions, now without the need to jump through Vimeo hosting and copyright strikes? Sign me up!
In the end, Truth only came 21st in its semifinal despite my internal hype, which was a tad disappointing. But at the same time, I managed an amazing fourth-place score in REJU - much higher than expected, and a pleasant surprise! So I think I may have been a tad unlucky with the draw for that edition. Nonetheless, it was nice to finally get the full band out there at WV - and should the opportunity present itself, there are plenty more of their songs that I'd like to send in an effort to avenge the flop...
To be honest I'm not usually the biggest fan of grungy-sounding music, but I nonetheless love Headhunt; I suppose the fact that it's kind of grunge-lite draped over a pop-rock framework helps a bit there. And the way the verses gradually build up and promise more, leading into that explosive, catchy chorus... yes please
Again, this didn't exactly get me the best result at WV - coming fourth from the bottom in its semi, albeit with a much nicer 9th-place finish in REJU. But I still had a lot of fun being pop-rock-bop Zobo for the edition. Wah o-wah o-wah-o.
Euterpe itself is yet another song from the "I'd been considering this as a WV entry since I first joined" pile; I can never quite resist this kind of overstated melancholy in music. Unlike most songs, my favourite bit here is actually the first verse; that moody minimalism, with the quiet breathy vocals against the piano minor chords and nothing else, gets me every time. Though I do still like how it all develops throughout (side note: why does the bridge at 2:03 sample what sounds to be a WW2-era English-language news clip? I've never seen anybody else mention it before and I'm curious, especially as I can only make out the odd word here and there).
The result here wasn't anything to write home about - 18th place in the semi, marking a fifth consecutive edition of bottom-six SF finishes. Not the worst thing ever, since as always I'm in WV more to share my favourite music and find new stuff rather than top the scoreboards every edition. But still, I think at this point it's long past time to change things up a bit. Which brings me to...
The King of Flops is here for a green room update! Lots to catch up on, so I'll try to be brief... [edit from future-me who has finished writing this post two hours later: I have failed to be brief]
WV114: Minami - Kawaki wo Ameku
The qualification here was a pleasant surprise! 25th may not be the biggest success, but it's something I can never complain about all that much (especially given, uh, my results in the following six editions).It was particularly lovely to finally make it to the finals with a rock song, which I'd been trying to do for a long time – to my count, I'd previously sent nine rock songs over the past 50-ish WV editions, and NQed with all of them. I was thrilled to break that curse, so thanks to everyone who got this into the finals!
WV115: Yurika - Kyoumen no Nami
This one was kind of a last minute decision as I approached the submission deadline, but it's nonetheless something I'd wanted to send for a year or so (it'd been my backup entry a number of times, and it's a great listen when I'm in the right mood for it). I love the chaotic instrumentals and the odd rhythms in particular; I'm able to focus on something a little different each time I listen.In the end, Kyoumen no Nami may not have gotten too many supporters at the contest (placing second from the bottom in its semi to start off my current NQ streak)... but as usual, I'm happy to have shared it in the first place. #noregerts
WV116: Suara - Nuedori
Nuedori actually appeared in one of my earliest WV NFs, back in WV67. I'd thought at the time that it was the equal most likely NF winner, so I was a tad surprised when it came a distant fourth; either way, I still wanted to send it, so I put in on the backburner for a later time (albeit not expecting that time to be a solid 50 editions later).Then when I was trying to decide on my entry for WV116, I had the music video for Nuedori pop up in my recommended feed on YouTube... I hadn't even known there was a music video! Probably because in classic Japanese-music-industry fashion it was only put online a solid four years after the song released. But anyway, that was my entry decided!
Apparently I hadn't learnt my lesson from Nuedori's flop in that old NF, because to be honest I was half-expecting a decent result from this in WV. I think my bias was getting in the way a bit there - I'm a huge sucker for big epic ethnic stuff like this, what with the traditional Japanese touches and the big drums layered over a tasty power ballad. And then it came 19th in the semi. Which obviously wasn't quite what I was hoping for. But it always feels good to send through something that's been in the backlog for ages; and as usual, it was nice to see at some people saying they liked it!
WV117: Hilcrhyme - I'm Ready
Okay, so I can't complain about this one flopping; while I love it as much as anything else on this list, I knew before I even sent it that it was doomed Combining nasally vocals, Japanese rock and in-your-face hip-hop sounds isn't exactly the formula to WV success, after all, so the eventual result (second-last in its semi) is about what I expected.But I was enamoured with this from the first time I heard it (i.e. a few years ago, when it was released as a B-side to a more poppish song that got used as an anime ending theme), so I felt I had to send it nonetheless. It's kind of liberating, I think, to just go in with rock-bottom expectations for the occasional edition and have some fun with it, and I don't plan to stop with that any time soon!
WV118: Arashi - Truth
Sending Arashi as a full band was a big plan of mine back from when I first joined the contest in WV65. Originally, I'd planned to send one solo entry from each of the five band members, sprinkling them throughout my WV career before finally sending the band as a whole. And I did actually get off to quite a fun start with that, sending Aiba's Disco Star as my second entry in WV66 and then Ohno's Bad Boy in WV82.I cheated a little in WV98, sending a third member (Sho) not as a solo but as a trio with the returning Aiba and Ohno for the recently released and rather quirky Bazuri Night. That left me with Nino (who has one solo that I quite enjoy, but was never quite in the right mood to send to WV) and Jun (who, uh, has kinda boring solos despite being one of my favourite members of the band. Dammit, Jun). So I figured, eh, bugger it, I'll just skip ahead to the big finale and send something from the full band.
That something ended up being Truth, a piece of... power pop, I suppose you'd call it? with some big orchestral instrumentals that I just adore. Thankfully, in the lead-up to the group looking to essentially disband later this year (
) after a 20-year career, they finally started to make some of their music videos available online just recently, and that included Truth. And I latched onto that opportunity hard - a group I'd been wanting to send for almost 60 editions, now without the need to jump through Vimeo hosting and copyright strikes? Sign me up!In the end, Truth only came 21st in its semifinal despite my internal hype, which was a tad disappointing. But at the same time, I managed an amazing fourth-place score in REJU - much higher than expected, and a pleasant surprise! So I think I may have been a tad unlucky with the draw for that edition. Nonetheless, it was nice to finally get the full band out there at WV - and should the opportunity present itself, there are plenty more of their songs that I'd like to send in an effort to avenge the flop...
WV119: Okamoto's - Headhunt
As with I'm Ready in WV117, this is something that I wasn't much expecting a qualification from but felt the need to send anyway. I first heard it when it was used as an anime opening, it'd been on my shortlist for quite a while... yadda yadda, the usual Zobo "why I sent this song" spiel To be honest I'm not usually the biggest fan of grungy-sounding music, but I nonetheless love Headhunt; I suppose the fact that it's kind of grunge-lite draped over a pop-rock framework helps a bit there. And the way the verses gradually build up and promise more, leading into that explosive, catchy chorus... yes please
Again, this didn't exactly get me the best result at WV - coming fourth from the bottom in its semi, albeit with a much nicer 9th-place finish in REJU. But I still had a lot of fun being pop-rock-bop Zobo for the edition. Wah o-wah o-wah-o.
WV120: Egoist - Euterpe
And finally we're just about up-to-date in this writeup with Euterpe, a stripped-back ballad that's decidedly on the more moody, melancholy side of my tastes. I realised when trying to decide on an entry here that "hang on, why have I just sent three male-fronted upbeat-ish entries in a row, those never do well for me and I try to make it a goal of mine to mix things up every edition". So of course I had to go full Pot-8 sad-Zobo this time around. It's something I feel I haven't done quite enough lately.Euterpe itself is yet another song from the "I'd been considering this as a WV entry since I first joined" pile; I can never quite resist this kind of overstated melancholy in music. Unlike most songs, my favourite bit here is actually the first verse; that moody minimalism, with the quiet breathy vocals against the piano minor chords and nothing else, gets me every time. Though I do still like how it all develops throughout (side note: why does the bridge at 2:03 sample what sounds to be a WW2-era English-language news clip? I've never seen anybody else mention it before and I'm curious, especially as I can only make out the odd word here and there).
The result here wasn't anything to write home about - 18th place in the semi, marking a fifth consecutive edition of bottom-six SF finishes. Not the worst thing ever, since as always I'm in WV more to share my favourite music and find new stuff rather than top the scoreboards every edition. But still, I think at this point it's long past time to change things up a bit. Which brings me to...
WV121 soundtracks/instrumentals NF coming Soon™
(hopefully over the next couple of days)
(hopefully over the next couple of days)
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this nf sounds promising
ow.
The King of Flops is here for a green room update! Lots to catch up on, so I'll try to be brief... [edit from future-me who has finished writing this post two hours later: I have failed to be brief]
nekoisneko
Well-known member
Egoist - Euterpe was my in the semi 
in the semi
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
WV121 NF: Soundtracks
A couple days later than intended, but hey, I've finally posted this thing! Yes, it's a good old six-song Japanese NF, featuring (mostly instrumental) soundtracks from a mixture of anime, games and visual novels. Let's dive right in!
1. Yuki Kajiura - Point Zero
2. Manack - Tenshi no Namida
3. Koutarou Nakagawa - Madder Sky
4. Remedios - Sink
5. ZUN - Yuuga ni Sakase, Sumizome no Sakura ~ Border of Life
6. Shinji Orito - Roaring Tides II
Recap Video
Text List
Yuki Kajiura - Point Zero
Manack - Tenshi no Namida
Koutarou Nakagawa - Madder Sky
Remedios - Sink
ZUN - Yuuga ni Sakase, Sumizome no Sakura ~ Border of Life
Shinji Orito - Roaring Tides II
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YAS at every nf having a touhou song 
love you zobo
love you zobo
nekoisneko
Well-known member
Omg yuki kajiura
theditz83
Veteran
has voted - best of luck to
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
Thanks a bunch to my first seven voters here! That's + Quebec.
Nothing's tied at the moment, but it's still all rather close , especially among the top four. Rounded to the nearest number (to prevent spoilers), the current standings are:
58
54
50
49
40
39
So we have a leader, but there's still plenty of room here for things to turn around. Now, the submission deadline has crept up on me a lot quicker than expected, so I've left it kind of late for a mention-spam post... but I'm doing one anyway!
@Amir @cegs5 @Eulaliya @EurovisionSmile @Fierro @Gabor77 @Gogerko @JSSArcos @Mike @RainyWoods @whiteshoes @anybodyelsewhomightwanttovote
The deadline for NF voting will be 12:00 CET on the 18th of March, so anybody who still wants to vote has about 24 hours to get their votes in and potentially turn things around. Curious to see how things will go!
+ Quebec.Nothing's tied at the moment, but it's still all rather close , especially among the top four. Rounded to the nearest number (to prevent spoilers), the current standings are:
58
54
50
49
40
39
So we have a leader, but there's still plenty of room here for things to turn around. Now, the submission deadline has crept up on me a lot quicker than expected, so I've left it kind of late for a mention-spam post... but I'm doing one anyway!
@Amir @cegs5 @Eulaliya @EurovisionSmile @Fierro @Gabor77 @Gogerko @JSSArcos @Mike @RainyWoods @whiteshoes @anybodyelsewhomightwanttovote
The deadline for NF voting will be 12:00 CET on the 18th of March, so anybody who still wants to vote has about 24 hours to get their votes in and potentially turn things around. Curious to see how things will go!
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
We have a winner! While there wasn't a huge point gap between first and second, the winning entry was fairly well liked across the board and was favourited by more people than any other song here (though the runner-up did get more in the way of super-high points... perhaps it'll get another chance sometime). Entry submission has been sent!
Thanks to all of my eight voters (the previously mentioned seven plus) for giving your thoughts; hopefully you're happy enough with the winner
Thanks to all of my eight voters (the previously mentioned seven plus
) for giving your thoughts; hopefully you're happy enough with the winner 
RainyWoods
Croak-kay
Mentions are totally busted for me right now. Not receiving any at all in my notifications, but missing voting here is my own fault as I was aware you were running this. I just wasn't sure until last night if I was taking part or not, and then voting in NFs was something that never crossed my mind until it was too late. My apologies. I watched the recap video anyway, and I feel like my ratings would have been close here, probably not helping too much. My guess is I would have liked song 3 the most.
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Gosh I'm sorry for not voting here, I intended to vote in all NFs this time and I missed this one accidentally 
ZoboCamel
Well-known member
This green room post is brought to you by @anaraqueen wanting to know who killed off the NF's Touhou song. Be afraid.
She's back again! Yuki Kajiura has been one of my more successful artists in the past, managing two top-10s and a narrow NQ out of three past attempts (if you count the fact that she composed WV73's To The Beginning). Will she manage another qualification on top of that record to break my six-edition NQ streak? My fingers are crossed
In all honesty, I wasn't super impressed by Point Zero when I first heard it (which would've been... jeez, almost nine years back? Time flies). I loved the climax, but thought it took perhaps a bit too long to get there. All that build has grown on me big-time over the years, though, and it's now one of my favourite Kajiura songs. So I'm glad to have it representing me here!
Kajiura – who's got a fairly impressive track record of composing for TV, games, anime, albums and more – put together Point Zero back in 2011 as part of the Fate/Zero anime series, which also gave us my WV73 entry To The Beginning. The show's focused on a big, team-based battle royale that mashes together a modern setting, historical characters, classic folklore and a magic system – which I think is quite a good fit for Kajiura's style! Point Zero is used more than once in the series' soundtrack, from memory, but I'd have to say its most notable appearance is from the end of the first episode, where it plays in the background as some of the battle royale's participants summon in their historical or mythical partners:
Now, let's take a look at some NF results...
I kind of had an inkling that this song would win the NF; from memory this is the third time that I've included a Kajiura entry in a Japanese national final, and they've won every time. Maybe I should keep them out of my more general NFs in the future if I want to give the other songs a chance
That said, I was surprised to see just how much of a solid base of support there was for Point Zero across the board! With eight voters, it managed at least a solid 7/10 for everyone, which is something I'm not sure I've seen before in my NFs (though as a slight disclaimer I don't always use this voting system). Hopefully that's a good sign for WV-proper.
Only 6.5 points below that, though, was Madder Sky, which despite getting a few more low scores actually managed more top-end support than Point Zero. Managing at least a 9/10 for half of the voters is no small feat... maybe I'll have to give this one another chance someday.
A little further down, Yuuga ni Sakase, Sumizome no Sakura ~Border of Life~ managed to come a respectable third place while also filling the NF's "token Touhou soundtrack" and "way too lengthy to fit neatly into any NF graphics" quotas. I'm glad to see that it had its supporters, but these kinds of in-your-face synth things do tend to struggle a bit in my NFs (especially in this sort of voting system) due to being more divisive. Roaring Tides II then sounded completely different from that third-place entry, but came less than a point behind and suffered from a similar issue, with some high scores and big fans but also a couple of voters who didn't seem to love the ambient, atmospheric sounds quite as much as I do.
Sink and Tenshi no Namida were then pretty much neck-and-neck for last place, which I'd kind of expected of the latter but not so much the former. I suppose Sink was again a bit too divisive (what, you mean not everyone likes minimalist sad piano noises with forest ambience? perish the thought), and Tenshi no Namida a bit anonymous among a number of more unique entries.
And with this edition's overly-delayed, overly-long NF post out of the way as per tradition, I'm going to just cross my fingers for qualification and then set my sights on WV122. There's plenty left on the shortlist, but I haven't decided on a specific direction just yet... I guess I'll see what mood strikes me a few days down the line!
WV121: Yuki Kajiura - Point Zero
She's back again! Yuki Kajiura has been one of my more successful artists in the past, managing two top-10s and a narrow NQ out of three past attempts (if you count the fact that she composed WV73's To The Beginning). Will she manage another qualification on top of that record to break my six-edition NQ streak? My fingers are crossed
In all honesty, I wasn't super impressed by Point Zero when I first heard it (which would've been... jeez, almost nine years back? Time flies). I loved the climax, but thought it took perhaps a bit too long to get there. All that build has grown on me big-time over the years, though, and it's now one of my favourite Kajiura songs. So I'm glad to have it representing me here!
Kajiura – who's got a fairly impressive track record of composing for TV, games, anime, albums and more – put together Point Zero back in 2011 as part of the Fate/Zero anime series, which also gave us my WV73 entry To The Beginning. The show's focused on a big, team-based battle royale that mashes together a modern setting, historical characters, classic folklore and a magic system – which I think is quite a good fit for Kajiura's style! Point Zero is used more than once in the series' soundtrack, from memory, but I'd have to say its most notable appearance is from the end of the first episode, where it plays in the background as some of the battle royale's participants summon in their historical or mythical partners:
Now, let's take a look at some NF results...
I kind of had an inkling that this song would win the NF; from memory this is the third time that I've included a Kajiura entry in a Japanese national final, and they've won every time. Maybe I should keep them out of my more general NFs in the future if I want to give the other songs a chance
That said, I was surprised to see just how much of a solid base of support there was for Point Zero across the board! With eight voters, it managed at least a solid 7/10 for everyone, which is something I'm not sure I've seen before in my NFs (though as a slight disclaimer I don't always use this voting system). Hopefully that's a good sign for WV-proper.
Only 6.5 points below that, though, was Madder Sky, which despite getting a few more low scores actually managed more top-end support than Point Zero. Managing at least a 9/10 for half of the voters is no small feat... maybe I'll have to give this one another chance someday.
A little further down, Yuuga ni Sakase, Sumizome no Sakura ~Border of Life~ managed to come a respectable third place while also filling the NF's "token Touhou soundtrack" and "way too lengthy to fit neatly into any NF graphics" quotas. I'm glad to see that it had its supporters, but these kinds of in-your-face synth things do tend to struggle a bit in my NFs (especially in this sort of voting system) due to being more divisive. Roaring Tides II then sounded completely different from that third-place entry, but came less than a point behind and suffered from a similar issue, with some high scores and big fans but also a couple of voters who didn't seem to love the ambient, atmospheric sounds quite as much as I do.
Sink and Tenshi no Namida were then pretty much neck-and-neck for last place, which I'd kind of expected of the latter but not so much the former. I suppose Sink was again a bit too divisive (what, you mean not everyone likes minimalist sad piano noises with forest ambience? perish the thought), and Tenshi no Namida a bit anonymous among a number of more unique entries.
And with this edition's overly-delayed, overly-long NF post out of the way as per tradition, I'm going to just cross my fingers for qualification and then set my sights on WV122. There's plenty left on the shortlist, but I haven't decided on a specific direction just yet... I guess I'll see what mood strikes me a few days down the line!
charly and ditz showing ultimate taste yet again
btw CONGRATS ON YOUR QUALIFICATION I TOLD YOU YOU COULD DO IT
showing ultimate taste yet againbtw CONGRATS ON YOUR QUALIFICATION I TOLD YOU YOU COULD DO IT