Miscellaneous / PV

MONKEY MAJIK – Aishiteru PV

 

A commenter on the Negai post last week reminded me of some of the past groups I’ve posted about, and one of those groups put out a really good song recently. MONKEY MAJIK is a band that I talked about a few years ago but haven’t been paying attention to for a while. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, they’re a group led by a pair of Canadian brothers who speak Japanese. Aishiteru is the aptly-titled theme song they perform for the NTV drama Aishiteru (which incidentally I hear is quite good). It’s a really nice love song that, like their others, is a mix of English and Japanese. The PV was very interesting to watch too because it’s a combination of papercraft-esque animation with ragdoll characters and real life. I’m not sure I completely understand it, but it appears to tell the story of a guy in love who falls out of heaven, gets eaten by a fish, and the girl saves him in the fish market. I know it sounds like of stupid, but I thought it was worth the watch and definitely the listen. I’m even curious about the drama now.

The single for Aishiteru is due out June 10th, 2009.

Light Novels

Light Novels: Ben-to v01

Full title: Ben-to – Saba no Misoni 290 yen
Author: Asaura
Illustrator: Shibano Kaito
Label: Super Dash Bunko
Year of publication: 2008
Pages: 291

Let’s be frank, my friends. I read the first chapter of Ben-to, and I didn’t like it. The setting is completely bizarre; the “hero” is an asshole; supporting characters are weird; and the story gets repetitive. But did I give up? No, for I am one of mankind’s great readers. I struggled on, never letting go of Hope. If you persevere, God will reward your efforts.

Here’s the deal: this series is all about people who fight (punching-kicking-biting) to be one of the last standing, in order to claim a half-priced box lunch at the local supermarket. I mean it, that’s really the setting for Ben-to (which is a bit of a pun on bento, the true depth of which still eludes me).