音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

At first, please don't mind I using such a combined title. I was super impressed by Yoko Ueno's (上野洋子) "EXEC_METEMPSYCHOSIS/." last night (well, I was already impressed by it long time ago). Yoko's composition surprised me -- as a "new" A.T. artist, her work should be the most close to the "original" A.T. style, no? XD As I listen to that track, I can't stop willing to dance with the music, graaah~ I saw someone's comment on Youtube toward this song: "starts dancing". lol Sounds good! :supersun:

well... too much off-topic... :see:

What I want to say in this post should be...

「何やってんの？もう何週間たって何も書かないってなんだよ？！」

↑ don't mind if you don't understand~ :fan:

Yes, time to post something!! XD
and I'm going to initialize myself!

って、どういうこと？

hmmm.....
気にしないで、わたしは独り言してるわ～ :typhoon:

I think I've said in July, I watched "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" and liked it. So, in last week, I watched it again, while reading its fan-made (?) wiki spoilers (hey, it's not spoiler anymore since you've watched it once :P).
Its wiki site made me recalling the time when I had a NGE fever. I'd never known they can dig so much from that anime (really, never)!! But the wiki articles (and some fan-arts) are really fun.

Just one example, based on the last episode, got from its wiki site~

and some ASCII ARTs:

AAs are awesome! m(_ _)m

I believe the reason to rewatch was Yuki Kajiura's OST. Saw that information from a forum, and got excited. The first track is awesome! I haven't heard such a good track from Yuki for a long time. Yet, the rest tracks are not that impressive like the first one... hmmm, at least I have one track in love from that work, good, good~ :sunny:

Shoujo Kakumei Utena -- kyaa, she's cool!!!

I began to watch this anime a few days ago. Because... yes, because of its music again... (おい、お前って音楽と関係ないこと言ったら死ぬのかよ～)
But, but, the music is EXCELLENT!
Shinkichi Mitsumune (光宗信吉), the composer of Rozen Maiden (only watched this...), can really mimic classical style and write "fake" classical tracks. The most impressive track to me is "根室記念館 (Nemuro Kinenkan/Nemuro Memorial Hall)". Of course, there are lots of tracks he wrote having a strong influence from classical music. ------- Anyway, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS ANIME, AND ITS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK TO ALL OF YOU!! No matter if you're yuri or not! --- Yuri? yes, a bit (?) yuri. well, don't care about this, you'll like it~ :tea:

ahh, mentioning yuri...
A few days ago, I was searching some Shoujo Kakumei stuff by typing its original title in Japanese, and then, my dear Google Japanese IME gave me the following suggestions...

Why shoujo-ai??!! Σ(ﾟДﾟ；ｴｰｯ!

Alright, now, just on last night.
By chance, I listened to binaria's "花紺青 (スマルト/Smalt)".
Actually, I have a strong complex about this song. I always want to make some image art for it, but... as what you hear, this song is so formless that no one can catch any solid "idea" from it.
Oh, my, you mysterious binaria girls! :foggy:
Anyhow, I eventually figured out... from zero, from scrap, from void (なんだか絶望かな、この雰囲気 lol).
-- Therefore, I wrote randomly beside my scrap...
「その歌は自由であまり、形にすることがほとんど不可能です。絵という形式は形がある。だから、この2つには本質的に区別がある。けど、人類の想像がね、いつか何でも形に出来るんだろう。だから、なんとなく、こんな絵が出来上がった♪」
↑ So... I may have a new drawing soon! (but I don't know when I can do it since I have a labmtg in the next of next week) XD

p.s. did it in last weekend~
Bungaku Shoujo - Harukana Hibi / 文学少女 - 遥かな日々 cover

As what I wrote in my last post, I began to use Google plus a few days ago. I'm not good at using social communication services, yet this time, I want to give myself a change -- Google is just awesome, and this is the simple reason for me to make the decision.

However, since my last post, I did change my mind about the usage of different services. Too many services will only make people crazy on deciding where to put what and then jumping around and wasting time. So, eventually, my google buzz, plurk, and twitter were stopped officially (as well as my Facebook, though I didn't care it much from the very beginning). Anyway, my g-buzz only contains stuff from my G-reader; plurk and twitter, it's so hard to use them separately since their functions are so similar, though so far, both of them look like places for people to spam. orz Therefore, there's no need to use them on this point.

Now the problem is kind of solved -- only G+ was left, and that's the thing I'll keep using. As for how to use it and what to post there, I'm still not that sure; it's really my first time to decide using such a service. But, we'll see. Just hope I won't stop using it quickly. :P

Also, for the game DragonNest that I'm playing. Before I wanted to put all screen caps onto G+, but now, I have made another tumblr microblog to put all my screen caps, so that my G+ won't be like a game image warehouse. After putting all images there, it's so easy to find out a special picture (FOR ME, I know people won't understand what I'm going to express unless I explain more!); I feel so good now for getting such a sweet game diary~ xD

Here I'll leave the address:
my google plus:
http://plus.google.com/109648214869266774446/
my microblog for DN screen caps:
http://hoshiyomi-melody.tumblr.com/

Add me if you want. :3

I just got onto Google+ yesterday. It's like FaceBook but it's much neater than FB. I love the design and the most important thing, it's Google based! I'm a big Google fan, of course! :3

However, now I'm still confused how should I use Google+, because I don't use FB that much at all. Plus, Google has a few other similar services, like orkut (don't use) and buzz (only used for shared reader stuff). Okay, I confess that I'm not a person who likes social communicating services too much. But, my problem is, I do love the interface of G+ and want to use it. OTL

Also, recently, I suddenly want to write something about my game life on DragonNest, since my screen caps folder has got more than 200 pictures. Time to clean and organize them! I always want to find a good image service that allows you upload images and people can view them in original size. But except those blog services, most microblog-like services will shrink the images and even I myself can't see the full size. That's not what I wanted! So far, after many times of searching, I gave up the idea to find out a good image service. Instead, I want to just use wordpress for uploading images (3GB and supports for hotlink), and then post them to... where? I'm not sure yet. It may be plurk, since it supports for multi images in one "thread", but plurk's interface looks too small to an image based "microblog". Though somehow I don't mind it, since you can enlarge the image and the original link will show below it.
Yet I want to use G+!!! LOL

I still need to have a good content balance between twitter, plurk, g-buzz, and G+. Okay, I know I'm really bad at using these, and maybe it's really the time to completely get rid of services that I don't use at all.

So, first I'd like to throw away twitter. It's such a dull service: limited text, bad interacting functions... the only think I like from twitter is the widget, which is decent enough to put into my blog.
Plurk, I do like its interface, but it has an ugly widget (if you're not logged in, there will be a red bar above the widget that destroy the entire balance of my blog colour scheme. *dies*)
Now, only G+ and G-buzz are left (which is normal since I'm a google fan xD). The issue is I don't know how to treat them differently. The only difference to me is the place to post. Currently, I'm linking my google reader shared items to g-buzz. I think I'll keep this, and also integrate things I used to post on twitter (especially things I saw online) into g-buzz.
The last one, the newest G+, alright, now it's time for my to-be-organized DN images. xD If g-buzz is the collection of stuff I see online from others, G+ should be a collection of my own stuff. Just a collection, not blog posts. So, G+ will probably become my online scrap book and contain mostly funny scr-caps and quick daily phrases.

How it will be? I don't know yet. I've deleted my twitter widget from my blog, and now, time to enjoy G+ and G-buzz more!!! Hope I can post my ~200 DN scr caps to G+ ASAP (ideally should done in this week, but who knows? :3)

What? You ask about my FB? That's already discarded months ago! lol

I'd never known that I would love Yui Makino's newest album "Holography" that much. I liked her song since "ARIA" and "synchronicity", so then I tried her first and second albums, but I didn't like those albums. To me, I think there was not a good consistency in those albums, which were more like a collection of her anime theme songs.
However, her third "Holography" is really very good. Even though I have to say they are still pop songs, this time, songs in the albums are more like one unity (and I'm not sure if there are lots of anime songs in it.xD).
I strongly recommend this album. If you love cute voice, you mustn't miss it!

"Haru Machi Kaze". It's a good one as the opening of the entire album. This song's melody is also a bit nostalgic to me.
"Onegai June Bride" is one of my favorites. I love it's bouncing melody and the joyful ambience. When I know it's a song for Shiseidou CM song later, I could understand why this song has such a pleasant charm in it.
"Merry-go-round". It's called "album ver.", but I don't know anything about it's "original ver." (I haven't paid attention to Yui Makino since her second album ^^;). It's still a delightful song and can make you relaxed, but to me, there's nothing very special in it.
"Fuwafuwa" is another of my favorites. I loved it as soon as its single released. The melody is so sweet, yet the lyrics is rather bitter. Yui's voice is cuter than other songs (I believe!). I also tried to sing this song, but I still need to control my voice in a better way. Well, hope I can do better in future. :3
"Cluster", not very special to say...
"Precious". I love this song, especially its melody. As the title says, Yui's voice is so precious and gentle. However, the only thing I want to say is this song is too short!
"hologram". Here, the style got changed. This song's ambience does fit its title. I like the mysterious feeling.
"crepuscular rays". Nothing special to me.
"Nidome no Hatsukoi". Same as above. Just, this song has a similar nostalgic feeling as "Haru Machi Kaze".
"Brand-new sky". I like its melody, but don't like some parts of its arrangement. But overall, this is a good song, and it's also one not-that-delightful song among all tracks.
"Ao no Kaori". I didn't try this song when the single was out. But I think I should get the single sometime (because then I can get the instrumental version of the song xD). The melody is pretty good, and the lyrics is good. I especially love the last phrase. Her voice matches with this type of melody. +_+
"Mirai no Hitomi wo Hiraku Toki". Why, why I have a deja-vu of another melody I ever heard before? xDD Anyway, I love this one~ the last part is superb!
"Sono Saki e". Hmmm, a good ending song here, isn't it? :P

So, here, just remembered suddenly, about the monthly top songs plan. Maybe I should quit before I start it. To me, I more like to write about new good songs as soon as I find them. Monthly top songs... what if I loop the same album for lots of times and I love them equally? Therefore, I told myself, I should quit here! lol

Time for a new blog post, huh?
Actually, I myself don't know how to write this time, because everything happened recently was so dispersed and hard to be organized into the same post. -_-'
Anyway, I'll just write randomly (which means, not in order of time) and see how this post looks. xD

Gmail's new look
Google has released a new post about their new gmail look. Before I saw that post, I've noticed the difference in g-calendar and my iGoogle homepage. The transparent top bar became black. At first, I was like "What? Did I do something wrong in the settings so it gets a weird color?" But later, I was finally sure about that's a general change for all google users. Gosh, now google looks like My Opera homepage! xDD
Yet I do like the new "preview" theme of gmail/other google services (switch to it under gmail's themes tab~), though I think it currently doesn't have a good integration with some gmail lab products, e.g. putting g-talk widget in the right makes that widget very weird. So hope they can figure out such bugs as soon as possible, I really love this neat theme!

Opera's new look
OMG, this should be written before gmail's! I've upgraded Opera Browser to the newest version, which is v.11.50. Nothing too much about other new features or fixed bugs, I just want to say the new Opera look is SO PRETTY! I like they changed the "unread new tab notification" from a blue dot to a folded edge of the tab. It's so cute. Also, the entire interface is much neater than previous version, which includes the top-left "Opera" main button~
However, I have to use Chrome instead sometimes when some conflicts come out between google stuff and Opera... ^^;

A new way to use my gmail
I spent some time to send myself all my past blog posts into my own gmail inbox. Why? Comparing with using MS Word to save my posts, using gmail is a better way to access them anytime, anywhere as if I have Internet access. And without Internet access, I can't post to my blog. Should be a more organized way to find out a specific post too, I believe.
So will my inbox become a writing pad? lol

Anime Times!
Long time no watching animes, and I watched 3 in all in last week!
"Angel Beats!", "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", and "Bungaku Shoujo OVAs". To summarize these three animes briefly, maybe I should use "excellent", "crazy" and "kinda boring"... orz

"AB" is really excellent, no matter from the plot, character design, settings, cast voices, and music. It makes me want to know what happens in next episode. Like other Key-related animes, there are pretty many of amusing scenes, and suddenly it turns into a more formal ending (The original ending was so touching, yet I don't like the "another epilogue", it looks sort of... well, depressing, maybe). So it's just my warning, to get a satisfied ending for it, DON'T watch "another epilogue".

"Puella Magi", the beginning was no much difference between this anime and other magical girl related animes. But there are still some unique elements. I mean the witches' barriers (and I really love those scenes). After, maybe ep3? The anime got overturned. Later, when I read the staff list, the director's, the story writer's names, I suddenly realized why this anime is so special! Anyway, not want to spoil to people who haven't watched it, so I'll just stop here. xD

"Bungaku Shoujo". To be honest, I watched it only because of the heroine's cast voice from "AB". Even not because of the music since I can enjoy any good music without knowing any about the anime/movie/etc itself. The OVA's are short, so that's why I watched them first. And I just felt bored with the story. Or maybe the previous two animes were too exciting comparing to this one. However, I'll still watch the movie soon, since there is more Hanazawa Kana's voice in it! lol

Angry Birds
Another "old" topic, huh? I ever saw a friend playing this game on her iPhone, and noticed a chrome ad about the game's chrome version.
The result was, I got addicted to this game.
But I think I need another individual post to talk about my tie to this game, so I'll just leave this topic in the beginning here. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe later, I'll post about it again~!

Dragon Nest~~
DN again? Yes, I'm still a big DN fan~
Since last September, a lot of things have happened in game, and now, I've made my main character (though she was the last character I created) to lv50 in last night!
Same reason as above, I need an individual post to talk about my game life... so that's all. xD

A monthly blogging event, can I do it?
I was planning to do this since a while ago, but haven't decided. That is, to post my monthly top 5 songs. Or maybe weekly, since last.fm keep track my online music weekly (it's so stupid last.fm doesn't have a feature to collect your monthly tracks, which should be a more useful span -_-).
I remember there is one blog I follow, and the author ever made herself a weekly plan, to post a song each week. As a result, she quit (or this or that kind of forgetting of posting). Probably my plan will be the same as hers, so I'll keep quiet at this point right now. :3

The last thing before I end. Summer has come for real. Bad luck! :P

P.S. Suddenly realised today is Tanabata... so the title will be............

@pixiv

The original idea was from Noriko Mitose's cover album "Cotton -2nd-", the song called "Kuroneko no Tango". Although it's a world-famous (?) song, I had never listened to it until Noriko's cover... =_= Anyway, I loved this cute song. The melody is so vivace and catchy. Then I also tried the original version (don't like it so much, I love Noriko's version! lol)
Then, as you might have expected, I got the inspiration to draw for the song. To draw what? Of course that's the time for neko-mimi~ oh, gosh, I'm MOEd! XDD
Since the theme is about tango, I think I'm supposed that's what I need to draw. However, from online search, I've known that tango is sexy... (before, all about tango is the rhythm.. =/ ). Oh, no, how I can I draw my girls to be sexy? o_O Never, it's impossible to me!! Is there a cuter way to depict the theme?
I didn't know, so I did another search for tango videos, hoping to get some good moment as a model. As a result... I ended up with a kind of fine thought (and that's what you see here, though I think people may not think that's tango, actually xD;).
Anyway, whether it's tango is not important. I want to mention, I tried to change their hairstyle this time, to make them more into a "dancing" mood. But, in this work, I've seen that I still need to improve my skill, to make my characters not to be so still. Hmm, seems it's hard, since I've tried for quite a long while... but I do like the colour matching between black and red! xD

A small P.S. I used 5 pieces of A4 paper for drafting, and thus shortened my pencil for about 0.5 centimeter... lol

Moreover, a surprising I got from it. While searching for a good tango video, I found a pretty "interesting" music video called "tango", by a band called "negative". At first, before the singer starts to sing, I thought it's another tango show, but since she sings, I was completely attracted by the song, as well as the scene in this video. Pretty gothic! No? And... the red rose petals! What an excellent video!!♥

hmmm, I'm getting off-topic now... must end this post here! lol

音楽の中には、強い力をはらんでいると、私はずっと信じています。

いくつか日の前に急に、私の頭の中に浮かび上がったのは、昔のある日、私は音楽に泣かせることだった。どうして私はあの忘れかけたことを覚えたのか、私もよく分からないけど、きっと最近の自分の気持と繋がっているだと間違いない。
気分の悪いときは、やっばクラシックが一番いい選びだね。そうだ、あの時、私はクラシックモードだったから、「あれ」によって特別な気持ちが感じられた。
そして、昔のことを覚えた。

「心を感銘されたかったら、チャイコフスキーを聞いてみよう」と、あの日、テレビから聞いた。クラシック音楽の番組で、チャイコフスキーのバイオリンコンサートを紹介した。私は、13かな14かな、初めてあの作品を聞いたが、すぐに感動された。そして、なぜ、涙がこぼれそうになったのか…私はほとんど泣かない子なのに…ただ普通にテレビからこのメロディー聞いただけ、初めて聞いたこのメロディが、私を泣かせたなんて…
私にとって、泣くことはとても恥ずかしいだ信じるから、小さな出来事に泣くなら自分が自分を嫌いになるかも知れない。そして、他の泣き虫のことも好きじゃない。 「どうしても、泣けない」って信念は、私をどんどん強くなせる。こんな私は、あの時に泣いていた私のことを、嫌いになったのかな？
でもやっば、嫌いになれなかった。
まるで不思議、私という存在は――いいえ、より不思議のは、あのメロディだった。みんなの毎日とも関わっているメロディは、こんな力があるだと、あの頃は初めて知った。

音楽は不思議、この世界中何よりも。だから音楽に泣かせる時なら、その原因もある「小さな出来事」じゃないね。音楽は本当に奇跡みたいなんだ。ある短く旋律から、心を震わせそして泣いて、これはある程度で、人生の素晴らしさじゃないのか。音楽は人間が作るもの、そして人間の心を癒す。これ、まるで「いのちの詩」そのものなんだ！
たしかに、音楽に泣かせたら、恥ずかしいと感じる必要はないの。これは本当に、イノチとタマシイを味わい、人生の最高のことなんだ。

私たちは自分の道にて、何もかも覚えて、そして忘れ続ける。でも、いつまでも忘れられないこともかならずある。なんども忘れかけになっても、いつか覚えらせる。
と、私の記憶の水底、自分を泣かせたこんな「いのちの詩」はいったいいくつある？数えてみれば、このリストを書いた。もちろん、時々、本当に泣いたことはなくても、ただ心がなんとなく、解放されたような超然な気持ちになれる曲も一書にここにある。

I believe that there is a strong power in music.

I retained a piece of old memory a few days ago: I was almost in tears by a piece of music. Yet, I'm not sure why I retained that memory, though I think that should be related my recent mood.
When you're not feeling that good, you should try some classical. Right, I was in classical mode at that time, so toward "that incident", I got the special feeling.
And thus I recalled that old memory.

"If you want to be impressed, please try some Tchaikovsky." I head this from a television program someday. That was a classical music program introducing Tchaikovsky's violin concert. At that time, I was 13 or 14, and that was my first time to listen to that piece. I got impressed immediately. Then, why I was in tears? I couldn't cry that easily... yet I couldn't believe that I cried because of a piece of melody from a television program...
To me, I always tell myself, that crying is ashamed, and I would really hate myself if I cried because of a tiny incident that could happen in every day. Also, I don't like others who tend to cry often. "No matter what, I can't cry" is my belief, and that made me stronger. Would I really hate myself in that situation?
Anyway, the answer was that I didn't.
The existence of myself was so strange -- I think I would rather say the melody was even more amazing. Everyone would have a touch with music somehow in their daily life, but it was the first time I realised in such seems-to-be regular melodies, there is a kind of power that you might never noticed.
Music is the most wonderful thing than any others in the world. When I got into tears by it, the reason was certainly not the "tiny incident" in my mind. Music is like a miracle. It's just so marvelous that our hearts could be touched by a short piece of melody, isn't it? Music is written by humans, and then it heals humans' hearts. It's such a perfect "ode to life"!
It's so true, that there's no need to be ashamed if you cry because of music. Yet, it's the greatest experience during life.

We remember lots of things in our life, and then forget them as time elapses. However, there must be something that we can never forget. Even though we might have almost forgotten it for several times, we'll finally regain it again.
Thus, in the bottom of my heart, how many pieces of the "ode to life" are there? I tried to count and wrote this list. Of course, sometimes you're not really crying, pieces that makes your heart being released and in a superb situation are also in this list.

クラシック編/Classical：
- 「Prelude & Fugue 9 in E Major BWV 878」;
- 「English Suite No.3 in G minor BWV 808 - Gavotte I-II」;
- 「The Art of Fugue」 by Bach
To baroque music, I just love the style. Similar pieces of Bach and others are still a lot, but in my heart, I have special memories to them. The first is so calm, the second is very vivace, and the last one, ah, what I can say? It's just epic.

- 「The Four Seasons」 by Vivaldi
I believe no one doesn't know this work yet.

- 「Symphony No. 9」 by Beethoven
The same as above.

- 「Poem II- Vltava (The Moldau River)」 by Smetana
This could be the most colourful piece I ever knew when I was young. The melody was easy to remember, and like the work itself, it's a perfect paint made by music.

- 「Sostenuto – D-flat major ("Raindrop Prelude")」;
- 「Walze op. 64 KK 849-869 No. 2 C sharp minor Tempo giusto」 by Chopin
Chopin has an unique style to recognize. From most of his typically written works, these two gave me a clear impression of the melodies. No need to say too much here, just listen to them in a silent night.

- 「Hallelujah」;
- 「Amen」 by Handel
Another two most famous works among all classical music pieces. It's the absolute holy talk between the God and Human.

- 「Canon in D」 by J. Pachelbel
Stop thinking any about counterpart, and just feel the entire piece by your soul.

- 「Flute Quartet in A, K.298 - I. Tema (Andante) con variazioni」;
- 「Zehn Variationen in G-Dur, KV 455」;
- 「Zwolf Variationen in C-Dur, KV 265/300e」;
- 「Nine Variations in C, KV 264/315d」;
- 「Serenade 6 in D Major, K239 'Serenata Notturna' mov 1 Marcia -Maestoso-」 by Mozart
Mozart's music is so sweet, you can somewhat feel it even from his requiem. The melodies are simple, but well organized. Endless peace, that was the only phrase I could use to describe. However, superb pieces of him are not only these ones, you know...

- 「6 Symphonies」;
- 「The Seasons」;
- 「Violin Concert in d minor movement 1」 etc. by Tchaikovsky
Ahh, after looping my small collection of Tchaikovsky times by times, I suddenly realised, the god of music in my heart isn't Bach, that should be Tchaikovsky! Although I need to claim, the power from his music is completely different from that from Bach's... so, actually, they're not comparable at all... ^^;

J-POP、そのほか編/J-pop and others：
- 「暁の車/akatsuki no kuruma」 by FictionJunction YUUKA
The origin of how I became a Yuki Kajiura/FJY fan. Though Yuki seemed stopped working with Yuuka, I still believe only Yuki + YUUKA is the best.

- 「THANATOS」 by 鷺巣詩郎/Sagisu Shiro
A masterpiece.

- 「Ailes Grises」 by 大谷幸/Ootani Kou
A quite touching piece. I remember only for this track, I got the whole OST of "Haibane Renmei" and thus loved Kou Ootani.

- 「I'm always close to you」;
- 「セレナーデ/serenade」 by 岡崎律子/Okazaki Ritsuko
Sweet, sad, and warm.

- 「天気雨/tenki ame」 by Choro Club feat. Senoo
This track is so peaceful; ah, life is so beautiful...

- 「謳う丘 ～EXEC_HARVESTASYA-.～/utau oka」 by 志方あきこ/Shikata Akiko
An epic poem. The most touching part to me is the final ending.

- 「大きな古時計/ookina furudokei」 by みとせのりこ/Mitose Noriko
Touched, just being touched...

- 「dandelion」 by 七瀬光/Nanase Hikaru
The vocal version of it (which is called "L'aura ～精霊の唄～") is nice too, but I more love the pure instrumental version. Since I really love Nanase's excellent arrangement of strings.

- 「頼・来・也/rai.rai.ya」;
- 「忘れ咲き/wasuresaki」;
- 「未完成な音色/mikanseina neiro」;
- 「Pray」;
- 「Rainy Soul」 by GARNET CROW
You might think most of current pop songs are so regular and tend to be forgotten soon. But it's a difference case for GC's works. I'd never stopped loving their songs. These songs I listed here are those of my favorites. Sometimes, the ambience of their songs are so close to real life that made me a bit fear to listen (like the second one)...

- 「楔/kusabi」;
- 「夕立/yuudachi」 by 奥華子/Oku Hanako
Oku Hanako's forte is to use the most normal elements to create the purest songs. I can really feel that every note she sings is from her real heart.

- 「moon」;
- 「karma」 by Lia
Well, no need to mention how good Key+Lia is (I hope)...

そして、私の一番大好きなKOKIA編/now, it's the turn of my favorite KOKIA：
I don't want to list all my favorite KOKIA songs here (actually, I could make another long post for it). Just talk simply, KOKIA is really special to me. She told me how warm a song can be, and how life is beautiful to sing. At first, I just liked the melody of her songs, as well as her voice, but since I watched her concert in Paris in 2007, my life has been entirely pulled into her world. Like 「調和/cyouwa」, I had never paid too much of attention to this song in aspect of "touching" songs. But after that concert, my mind changed. I remember, I looped this song after watching the concert, and got a brand new feeling of strong impression from it. It's the very ode to the harmony between human and the nature! Another example, 「I believe ～海の底から～/umi no soko kara」. Watching KOKIA sang it, from the kinda calm prelude to the real climax, ahhh, this song, I could never forget it anymore! Then, 「祈りにも似た美しい世界/inorinimo nita utsukushii sekai」. I can tell you that I really cried while watching the concert. How come? This song is full of happiness and praise to the god of music... Maybe that's the extreme bliss, and KOKIA, you were the first one showed me it.

From her other albums, of course there are lots of nice songs I could talk here. From "The VOICE", songs like 「小さなうた/chiisana uta」, and 「何もかもが星になって/nanimokamo ga hoshi ni natte」; from "Trip Trip", which including 「人間ってそんなものね/ningentte sonna mono ne」 and 「天使/tenshi」; from "balance", like 「おばあちゃん/oba-chan」, 「世界の終わりに/sekai no owarini」, 「INFINITY」, and 「vintage love」. Then, 「ぬくもり ～aigakikoeru～/nukumori」, 「孤独な生きもの/kodokuna ikimono」, 「single mother」, 「本当の音/hontou no oto」... ohh, stop, I can't, I really can't list all of them here... KOKIA has an easy to recognize style. She can do every type of melody, from happy to sad, fast to slow, mature or childish... and inside her songs, it's her true love to music. She ever said "there is no better song than the one you sing to someone special." She's really an angel, sings to the world, and spreads the love to everyone. To know such a splendid singer, it is one of the most important thing in my life.

At last, before I turn this part longer, I have to mention the song 「Road to Glory」 she performed in her 2010 OTO NO TABIBITO concert. I already loved this song soon after its release, but I'd never experienced that glorious scene in that concert... At that moment, as she sang it, I was seriously touched, again and again. That's an experience I couldn't explain in words. I assure that no one else can describe it well either. That's the very power of music. No need of words, and respect it with your heart.