Miscellaneous

Moomba

Hey guys and gals! Looks like I’m going to be one of the new contributors starting this spring! You may or may not know me from somewhere around the web since I go pretty much universally by “Moomba” these days. If not, hopefully this introduction will give you some idea of what kind of person I am!

Jumping right in, the first anime I can remember watching with the knowledge of what constituted an anime was Escaflowne. Before this time, I’d watched Pokemon, Digimon, Sailor Moon and all the other mainstream anime aired in the UK that all young boys were expected to have watched to be considered “cool”. Of course, at that time, I didn’t even know they were anime, so I don’t really consider them what drew me in.

Escaflowne was a starting point, but it wasn’t until Code Geass that I became completely hooked on anime (and discovered Random Curiosity in the process!) Did I know, almost six years ago (apparently – wow, time flies), that I’d one day be contributing directly to the site? No, I doubt the idea even crossed my mind!

So why did I decide to apply? It’s simple really; for years now, I’ve read almost every blog post on the site, keeping up with all the anime I watch. Many times now, Random Curiosity has been the driving force which pushed me to watch certain anime which I’ve then proceeded to become hooked on! The insights provided over the years have given me new ways to look at what I watch, and I hope my insights might be able to do the same for someone else!

My tastes in anime are pretty diverse and I usually end up watching more than half of the shows every season. It’s really hard for me to pick specific favourites, but if I absolutely have to, I’ll probably still consider Code Geass to be my number one, closely followed by Sora Kake Girl, the entire Macross franchise and both Full Metal Alchemist continuities. To pull from other genres (those seem to be pretty saturated with Sci-Fi), Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Shiki, Durarara!! and Legend of the Legendary Heroes (compulsory Fantasy addition since I’m a huge Fantasy lover but don’t seem to rank many of them amongst my favourites).

Moomba

Oh. Did I forget to mention Pandora Hearts?

I feel as though it’s important to say a little bit about myself at this point; my day job is that of a composer. I write music for a variety of things and even have an interesting new project in the works that I’ll be sure to make passing mention of at some point in the future! You know what this means right? Yep, expect to hear a fair bit of commentary on music in my blogging! I’m also quite the gamer, read a fair bit of manga (special points to anyone who happens to have read and loved The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer), regularly tumble down the slippery slope of figure collecting and have a strange obsession with Sci-Fi. Oh, and Fukuyama Jun’s voice.

It’s worth warning everyone that I have been known to read too deeply into unimportant events, possibly even making connections that don’t exist and coming up with ridiculous speculations of what’s to come. Sometimes these turn out to be correct. Most often, they do not. If you ever see me going down this road, feel free to call me out in the comments!

At this point, there’s nothing else I can really think of saying, if you ever want to catch me outside of Random Curiosity, feel free to send a tweet my way (@MoombaDS) and if you’re interested, you can browse My Anime List!

I’ll close with what appears to be an old tradition:

ムンバです。よろしくお願いします！

Moomba desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

153 Comments

      2. You guys don’t worry about it.. It does gets hard to keep-up sometimes. Especially now that we’re reaching 60-80 people inside the room. We were getting 40-55 when I first came in. It wasn’t always this busy. :p

        MrRei
        Reply

    3. Also a HUGE Pandora Hearts fan but admitted was only introduced to it when the series started to air as an amine at first. I made both a B-Rabbit mascot costume and just finish my Jack cosplay using period fabric. Current chapters make me want to bully my cosplayer friend who did OZ more. haha

      Ani_BEE
      Reply

  6. Eden of the East? Digimon? Pokemon? Full Metal Alchemist? Code Geass? Durarara!!?

    I see we are going to be the best of friends. Don’t even try to argue. You have no choice in the matter.

    Jason
    Reply

    1. MAL says he’s a guy. 🙂

      So far is Cherrie the only female? When Divine announced 7 new writers for some reason I assumed they’d all be female haha.

      Don’t really care though, all the people he chose all seem like great people.

      2 More to Go!

      Imasugu
      Reply

  8. welcome to RC cant wait to see which spring animes you’ll pick up to blog hehe
    Full Metal Alchemist, Code Geass, Durarara!!, Eden of the East very good animes enjoyed each of them

    lol i see u dropped blood c and dantalion i didn’t liked them neither but somehow i finished them haha
    had great expectations from both -.-

    dany1908
    Reply

    1. I also had great expectations and I suspect I’ll go back and finish them one day – I don’t really like dropping anime, but it’s inevitable that it happens sometimes.

      No anime is dropped forever!

      Moomba
      Reply

      1. It is one of the most suprising manga I read last year, I really liked reading through it and it seemed to be not such a popular manga for the quality it offers. It feels very unique and the charachters are really good. Glad to see that you like it and now I’m really looking forward to your post

        Shugima
        Reply

  9. hoho~ You sound pretty cool, Moomba! I look forward to your reviews and posts! 😛 *btw please bring Phi Brain into RC! The art aint exactly top-notch but the puzzles and added mysteries are awesome~*

    CID
    Reply

  10. “Did you not see their noble features? Their gem-like eyes revealing innocence? Their bright red hair symbolizing passion? Their spectacular hair signifying power! Their soothing, adorable cries! Their mighty hands with incredible strength! Their proud postures demanding respect!”

    ObsidianTK
    Reply

      1. It is one of the most suprising manga I read last year, I really liked reading through it and it seemed to be not such a popular manga for the quality it offers. It feels very unique and the charachters are really good. Glad to see that you like it and now I’m really looking forward to your post

        Shugima
        Reply

  16. Oh. You don’t see a composer getting picked to be a blogger everyday. Welcome aboard. I’m looking forward to read some of your insights on music on the upcoming new shows.

    underMebius
    Reply

  19. wow a composer… my attention just got caught O.0
    can I ask what instrument do you play?
    (but from the looks of it, i think it would be a piano?)
    by the way welcome, I look forward reading your posts.

    The Concoction
    Reply

    1. usually composers can play a variety of instruments. but piano is like a total must, since it has the widest range of options for voice. (bass, tenor and soprano w/n)
      But nice to have you on board.

      aimless
      Reply

    2. Correct; Piano is my primary instrument. I’ve also been known to play the guitar and flute (pretty badly) but since most of my work is done digitally, I tend to stick to the keyboard.

      Moomba
      Reply

    1. It wasn’t actually violence that lead me to drop Another or Deadman Wonderland. As it happens, Another was still on my watching list last night, but I decided I’d prune it since I’d managed to fall pretty far behind. I’ll likely finish it one day.

      Deadman Wonderland is another story entirely – I watched part of it and ended up reading the manga instead! Because of that, I didn’t feel like continuing with the anime at the time. Maybe I’ll go back to it at some point in the future when I’ve forgotten some of the plot details.

      Moomba
      Reply

      1. Hmm, I agree about marathoning (is it the right word?) Another. Watching it weekly made me forget one or two ‘tiny’ bit information from last episodes.
        But personally I think you should watch Deadman Wonderland anime first, then the manga. I’m very doubtful whether Manglobe will make continuation of it. Either way is fine, I think.

        Btw, what’s your favorite anime OST right now? Knowing that you’re a composer, I’d be glad to hear your opinion.

        Kusabi
        Reply

      3. I’ll admit Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon has plenty of decent soundtrack. But what do you think about the story? I wonder if it’s the translation fault or my comprehensive skill is lower than expected, but the plot of KSnH is somehow confusing for me.

        Kusabi
        Reply

      4. I would very much like to see it adapted as a video game, or read the original light novels. In my opinion, the adaption could have been much better than it was – it relied too much on prior knowledge of the work and outside information. The only reason I managed to follow everything that was happening was thanks to various resources which had additional info on the characters and their backgrounds, as well as the background to the story.

        It had an interesting cast, a great setting and brilliant ideas for each member’s abilities, but there wasn’t nearly enough time within the anime to explain everything clearly. At least not without resorting to episodes comprised almost entirely of discussion of elements that would probably be better served in writing. I found myself thinking that they could have made a prequel anime that would have better described the state of the world (the historic events leading up to where the anime begins are barely even mentioned, despite being fairly important).

        In the end though, despite a lot of grumbling, I did enjoy it overall.

        Moomba
        Reply

      5. So, basically, in order to understand the story that takes place in anime, I need to read those WHOLE THICK LAYER KSnH novels, right? Well, I’d say I’m rather surprised that Sunrise even managed to make adaptation from it.

        One last question, then. Could you recommend any anime which involve music in its plot? Don’t tell me you’ll recommend Detroit Metal City.

        Kusabi
        Reply

      8. First off, I extend a warm welcome to Moomba; glad to have you with us! Lol, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer; what can I say? An enjoyable, heartwarming tale overall- with some of the most uninspired monster designs I’ve ever laid my eyes on, especially in the earlier chapters. Which I found to be a little contradictory considering how competently designed the actual characters seemed for the most part…[my way of saying I liked it 😉 ]
        _____________________________________________________________________________________
        And on the issue of Horizon; the show is one of my personal favorites, but pretty much for the reasons that you mentioned, I don’t think I could objectively rate it any higher than a 7.5/10 (probably lower) due to how horribly inaccessible the show was. The intricacy of Horizon’s faction mechanics is at a level far exceeding that which is usually present in anime. The most common, and the most damning problem tending to arise when any media (anime or otherwise) attempts something of this level of intricacy is flat-out mechanical dysfunction; motivations for the actions of characters materialize out of thin air, contradict basic political and cognitive theory, etc. Which is why we see anime so often resort to absolutist monarchy as their choice of political system, mainly because it’s much easier to work with, due to its relative simplicity- CODE GEASS is a prime example of this…done pretty well certainly, but I would’ve liked to see how things might have turned out if they had chosen to go with a more complex system reminiscent of something like Soviet Union instead…

        Funnily enough, mechanical dysfunction doesn’t seem to be the problem with Horizon; things seem to be mechanically sound for the most part. The problem with Horizon instead lies in its inability to provide viewers with a proper context/backdrop as a basis for the actions/motivations of the legion of characters/factions that form its world, no doubt, due in no small part to the show’s short 13 episode length; ixnay on the upcoming second season due to independent self-containment. The show provides us with an intricate, (mostly) structurally sound lattice of faction/character mechanics but fails to provide us with the necessary context to base everything upon, leaving us floating in a foundationless limbo of confusion.

        Thing is, it’s not that the foundation doesn’t exist, it totally does; it was simply cut out of the TV anime because it wouldn’t fit the (short) format. And that’s all good and well for those who cared enough to look for it (read the novels, lurk forums, etc.), but, the thing is, most people really don’t, and are simply looking to be entertained by a self-contained piece of media without being forced to look elsewhere. And somehow the producers of Horizon managed to completely ignore this second demographic of viewers, which might I add is the majority demographic; whether this is due to plain old incompetence, obliviousness, pretentiousness, or any combination of the three at varying magnitudes, I have no idea…

        Another factor contributing to Horizon’s inaccessibility was the…unconventional…nature of the relationship between the two main characters. How is it that two people with contrasting personalities and perspectives (Toori a flamboyant idealist, and Horizon, a reserved realist) are so in love with one another? And in the first place, how is this thing that we call “love” present at all when one of the parties is missing most/all of her emotions? Horizon suggests that Toori and the emotionless heroine are together in spite of the apparent incompatibility of their personalities and perspectives because their purposes “converge in the horizon”- like how the two parallel lines always appear to “converge” in the distance; they may not walk the same path, but they are headed in the same direction; to the same destination; therefore their paths must also converge in infinity. And the show also seems to suggest that this thing that we call “love” is something that transcends emotion; emotion is an important part of it, but at its core, true love is something more; something related to the aforementioned unity of purpose, which can exist even independent of emotion, if in an incomplete form. This is the crux of Toori and Horizon’s little duolog in the last episode- a conversation undoubtedly intended to serve as an emotionally powerful expression of the pair’s connection to one another, as well as an abstract allegory to the construct of their relationship; i.e. the light novel author’s own unique perspective on love.

        And therein lays the problem: it’s abstract; most folks aren’t going to get it, have difficulty relating to the characters and dismiss it as overly pretentious- not that it’s bad thing in of itself, there’s certainly a place for abstractions and philosophy in shows because of the depth they add, in fact I’d say that we don’t have nearly enough shows containing these elements in just about any media these days (Anime being just one of many). My point is that I don’t regard the abstract nature of the relationship between Toori and Horizon to be a problem in of itself; on its own it would, more likely than not, have even been a boon to the show, triggering much discussion and whatnot. But it works in negative synergy with the foundationlessness of Horizon’s faction mechanics that make up the bulk of the show, creating a product that is excessively inaccessible, and overly difficult to understand as a sum of its parts.

        The irony is that I love Horizon for pretty much the exact same things that made it inaccessible. I found the show’s intricate class mechanics to be interesting and refreshing, and I daresay I was one of the few who actually understood the ending duolog- and even had it resonate with myself in some way; I found the show to be surprisingly deep, with Toori and Horizon’s unique relationship, and the whole “Toori is our King” element. Personally, I love this show, but as an objective critic, I can tell you that a well-polished piece of art Horizon is NOT….

        Zen
        Reply

  21. Don’t comment all that much, but I had to mention how very awesome you are for mentioning The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. That manga deserves a lot of love!

    And welcome to RC! I’m looking forward to reading your posts.

    Now, back to being an invisible lurker.

    DakkerDB
    Reply

  22. Welcome…. I really look fwd to your posts. I even look fwd to your insights on the music. Hope you’d be covering fate zero. I’d love to hear your take on yuki kajiura-sama! And possibly all future shows that has her as the composer!

    c2710
    Reply

    1. I’m not entirely sure whether I want to be part of the epic battle that’s going to take place between writers over Fate/Zero. I hear there will even be Servants involved.

      Moomba
      Reply

  23. Nice to meet you ! I’m eager to read your opinions on RC !

    @Divine

    Holy… that’s the 5th writer you’ve hired now. You’re on a roll dude.

    I hope that Stereoman, Zanibas, Cherrie, BakaMochi and Moomba have a good time here and can get you with the coverage.

    JiCi
    Reply

  26. Welcome and congrats on getting the “job”,
    I’m looking forward to your posts. Curious about how you will slip audio in your posts
    it one of the most important things in anime ( although i do forget that sometimes xD)

    Isolence
    Reply

  29. Wow, a musician anime blogger! now I’m excited to read your posts. I’m a musician/composer as well, though I wish I could write in an anime blog too. =) Anyway, I’ll be looking forward to your posts. Ganbare! =)

    Kaz
    Reply

  34. I thought that I found my soulmate here – Pandora Hearts’s fan, but you don’t have it in your favs ;< However you seem to be interesting person and cool that you will be also pay a lot of attention to music in series. Welcome!

    Shirocat
    Reply

  35. Welcome! Just a quick question or two:

    Q1: Can you give some advice on / how do you usually go about composing music?

    Q2: What are some of your favourite games and why?

    LightnDark
    Reply

    1. 1) Composing is generally something everyone has their own methods for doing – in the end, what matters is what you feel most comfortable with. Personally, I tend to vary my approach a fair bit to see how it affects the results. My usual starting point is generally the harmony; I’ll come up with a chord progression or write something very minimal and then improvise over the top, taking notes until I find a melody I’m happy with and then expanding things from there. It’s always good to have a knowledge of music theory, but sometimes the best melodies can come from ignoring what would be considered a natural progression and just doing what works! I could actually go on for a very long time on this subject, but then I might start boring everyone! 😛

      2) Some of my favourite games huh? Let’s see…
      -The Assassin’s Creed franchise because plotting assassinations is fun.
      -The Final Fantasy franchise, though not quite as much since XI. (IX is best game!)
      -The Tales series, particularly Vesperia (also a lot of JRPGs in general) mostly for character designs and the battle system.
      -The Star Ocean franchise, because I enjoy the settings, characters, lore and gameplay.
      There are many many more, but these are the top few that spring to mind right now!

      Moomba
      Reply

      3. @BakaMochi: Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss, Graces F, Narikiri Dungeon X, Radiant Mythology 3 and currently playing Twin Brave! I still need to get around to playing the other flagship titles I’ve missed.

        Moomba
        Reply

      4. -The Final Fantasy franchise, though not quite as much since XI. (IX is best game!)
        -The Tales series, particularly Vesperia (also a lot of JRPGs in general) mostly for character designs and the battle system.
        -The Star Ocean franchise, because I enjoy the settings, characters, lore and gameplay.
        There are many many more, but these are the top few that spring to mind right now!

        Holy ****, You are not me are you?

        Love you already. Good luck in RandomC.

        xRichard
        Reply

  40. Fellow musician? Pandora Hearts fan? Fukuyama Jun fan?
    So far, you’re my first draft pick, Moomba. Rookie of the year material.
    I’m liking the writing style, too. Conversational without being too LOL-IZ-DIS-SUM-INNERNET?
    All I need to hear now is that your favorite Gallagher brother is Noel.

    Cloud is Not Amused
    Reply

  46. it never occurred to me that it was cool for little boys to watch sailor moon @_@ heheheh oh wells i guess when IN UK do as UK does… just kiddding 😀 she sooo should been sailor eaaarth whats the deal with her being a moon and everyone else is a planet!! RAWRRR

    puzzzled
    Reply

  47. Wow, someone else who has read “The lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer” that series was amazing! I wish that they made an anime of it.Though it was only about 50 some chapters long, it was probably one of my favorites.

    Bookkid900
    Reply

    1. It’s something I’ve intended to watch for quite a while now, but my backlog is pretty large so I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to get there! I’ve heard only good things about it though so it’s probably pretty high up on the list.

      Moomba
      Reply

      1. It’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on the show when you get to watching it. :3 Has that been done before? Blogging an old anime? Either way, I hope you enjoy your time here at Randomc! -salutes- I look forward to your posts.

        IntricateRadiance
        Reply

  50. HI! WELCOME!

    YESSS, someone that is really into music! I think that was the one that was kind of lacking comments about in RC. I think only Guardian Enzo is the only one that has really talked about sound/music in shows. But now…we’ll probably have something more in depth? 🙂 I think anime OSTs are top notch. And I’m looking forward to your insight.

    grey
    Reply

  51. I hope you’ll compose a theme song for our new Random Curiosity drama. Something that says “Shits going down between the writers this episode!”

    But aside from that, 始めまして、むむさん！Will look forward to writing with you this year ^^.

    Zanibas
    Reply

  52. Man: “I’m not trying to hide anything. It’s just that I don’t want to see”.
    Currently loving this quote from Leo, and finally someone who likes Pandora Hearts!
    I’m looking forward to all of your reviews; and the most important have fun doing this,
    Congrats!

    bishounent
    Reply

  53. “Yep, expect to hear a fair bit of commentary on music in my blogging!”

    Welps, another writer I’m very interested in hearing from! Music is a factor I’ve always really taken into account when watching a show too. The episode may have been terrible, but just a well-placed song with an exciting scene is enough to make me laugh out loud at the awesomeness. Audiovisual composition is my thing (plus story/narrative execution); music is definetly up there.

    Actually, 70% of the music I mostly hear are soundtracks from anime/movies/TV shows. Baccano, Guilty Crown, Ao no Exorcist have wonderful music…Any others you could recommend to me sir?

    Anyway, Good luck blogging, Moomba!

    PS: That title really caught my eye. I’ve been hearing that song non-stop these days (another show that wasn’t perfect, but had an excellent opening).

    I tried to talk to God to no avaaaaaail….

    Justinnnnnn
    Reply

    1. You beat me too it lol I asked him to recommend anime music to me too right below! I’m the same as Justinnnnnn in that most of the music I listen to is also anime music ^_^

      Justa_Dream
      Reply

  54. I loved Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer too! Just for mentioning it, your my favorite new writer right now ^_^ Everything else(music, legend of the legendary heroes, code geass, durarara, and digimon!)is a huge plus so needless to say I’m really looking forward to your posts.

    Also, really liked the KSnH OST too! Are there any anime OSTs that you recommend?

    Justa_Dream
    Reply

  58. I’m going against the grain and my own personal preferences of liking by saying that because you mentioned Hoshi no Samidare as one of your favorite mangas, I publicly announce that I will never ever read a single one of your blogs.

    >_< …wait, I've already read this one haven't I?

    Well… <__> Not distracted. Okay.

    Guess that means I’ll read your blogs with vigor and thinking of some random anime song from that one time when those two anime characters did something or other and we all were like something. You know the one I’m thinking of.

    Yeah ^_^… How about I just admit that its awesome you are here and you blew my mind with liking a lot of things I liked? Does that work Moomba?

    Dorian
    Reply

    1. …wow, I broke my post. Half of it is gone.

      Well, I was trying to be funny about you being here but you’ll never get all of it. Shucks. Anyways, great to have you here.

      Dorian
      Reply

  60. *o* Code Geass fan and basically everything I like are on your list…*takes a deep bow* ありがとうございます. Also, I can’t wait to hear your take on music 😮 …gah I’m bubbling with excitement! Can’t wait for your first post.

    Oh, welcome aboard!

    shamaticgrl
    Reply

  61. Interesting, we seem to have the same back story when it comes to our introduction to anime. The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was one of my favorite manga before it ended and I’m disappointed in myself for having forgotten about it until now.I look forward to your writing.

    Avalanche
    Reply

    1. My favourite OPs of the past couple of seasons would probably be:
      –Mirai Nikki (Kuusou Mesorogi – Yousei Teikoku)
      –Mouretsu Pirates (Mugen no Ai – Momoiro Clover Z)
      –Rinne no Lagrange (TRY UNITE! – Nakajima Megumi)
      –Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (Zannenki Rinjinbu – Tomodachi Tsukuritai)

      It may not be from the last two seasons, but I always have to mention Break Blade (Fate – KOKIA) since it’s undoubtedly my favourite OP of all time!

      Moomba
      Reply

  68. A fan of Pandora Hearts! I think I just found my favorite writer.

    I hope you have been keeping up with the manga. It would be really cool if you could blog a section of Pandora Hearts for the manga.

    FadingMoon
    Reply

  71. Glad to see someone here who will talk about the music! Welcome aboard, and I look forward to your posts.

    So we know you like Jun Fukuyama, but what other seiyuu’s do you like? Also, do you watch anime that are based around music?

    Jel
    Reply

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