Musing: Toyota & the Vocaloids

In my proud tradition of continually being late to the party, I have decided to get into the Vocaloids. I have previously browsed a few songs, but now I intended to learn more about them. I now know at least the names of all of the important ones, some of their more popular songs, and covers of English songs. (From the last of which come my love of Luka Megurine, who is actually pretty good at English.) Convinently, I soon learned that my joining of the fandom happened only a month after the announcement that they are bringing Vocaloids over to America. (Now, this ignores the existing English Vocaloids, but I would not really say that they count as they don't seem to be used as characters, or at least have only a fraction of the fans.) The following commercial seems to be the only ad so far in the "Big Dream" campaign:

Now, I have a problem with this. Mostly, it's who Miku is, and who the ad is targeted to. Considering that the announcer is the same respectable gentleman and the lighting and camerawork are the same as in all Toyota ads, we can assume that it is targeting the same people: responsible adults looking for a reliable car. In American culture, these people would not like Miku.

Miku is 16, has a squeaky voice, and has pigtails. She is a certifiable teen idol. American Adults do not like teen idols; if they like any pop singers, they tend to be a bit more mature, with a deeper voice.

I, personally, feel that Luka would be more accepted my mainstream America. She is capable of having a similar musical style to Lady Gaga, as well as darker, more soulful songs. She also already has an English voice ready, which means unlike Miku they do not have to make one. And you cannot say that she isn't popular; she and the Kagamine twins joined Miku on stage at the Giving's Day concert.

Of course, Miku still has a place in America. We still do have teen idols; and they are quite lucrative. It is just tend to target a more younger crowd. Miku could replace Hannah Montanna on store shelves. Furthermore, having both come here at the same time could show Americans the versatility of the Vocaloid2 engine. Again, this is talking about Mainstream Americans, not those who are currently into the Vocaloids.

In short, don't put all of your eggs in one basket, Toyota; Luka and Miku together will reach a broader audience then just Miku alone.

Also, I have written as much this week as I have all year. Hopefully on Saturday I will be able to write a review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, thus breaking my lateness streak.

Musing: Green Lantern & Sinestro

So, Sinestro is in the new Green Lantern movie, and he is still a Green Lantern until, I'm told, the very end. This decision has baffled me. Considering the reviews, there probably won't be a GL2 until they reboot the franchise. Why save his most iconic villain for a sequel that they were not sure they would get?

Ultimately, I decided that they were attempting to imitate the Dark Knight saga. First movie sets up origin and uses two more obscure villains, second uses arch nemesis. Batman Begins used Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul, The Dark Knight has Joker. First Green Lantern uses Parallax and Hector Hammond, second will use Sinestro.

There is a problem with that, though. First off, Green Lantern is not as popular as Batman will ever be. Batman had the big name going for it, GL does not. Second, the writing for the DK Saga is much better than what I'm told GL has. The Dark Knight is considered to be a modern day classic, while Green Lantern is considered to be a subpar summer blockbuster. Put that together and it looks like there won't be a sequel.

It seems that they imitated surface qualities of a successful work without looking deeper. So, basically what happened when they created the Dark Age of superheroes. Oh well. at least this time there are less guys named Bloodkill.

Review: Tales From the 'Field #3

In my personal experience, there tends to be two types of independent artists. First there are the new guys, just trying to break into the field. This is like a garage band that hopes to be discovered and signed by a major label. The other type are the pretentious artists, who want to stay underground and loathe anything mainstream. This type is kinda annoying, as they insist that what they do is true art, and therefore better than everything else.

From what I have heard from them, and the third issue of their comic Tales Form the 'Field (which I picked up a couple of months ago at Gem City Comic Con), I believe that the guys at Twilight Star Productions are in the latter group of artists. They work out of Springfield, Ohio, hence the name of the series. They look down on mainstream comics (which I should note is still pretty niche) such as Marvel, as they called an issue of Dark Avengers "a steaming turd," as I recall in an old article in the Dayton Daily News. Still, I read works from assholes all of the time (I still read Dilbert, after all), so I decided to try them out.

The first thing that I noticed about the comic was that they already put it in a protective bag with a board behind it when they gave it to me. This is generally a way that you protect a comic from damage, and given that no one else at GCCC did that, reinforced the air of pretension I got from these guys.

I open it up. There are about 3 complete stories, and two story fragments. The first story fragment is part called "The Unnaturals," first part of a series. Least as I can tell, it's about a superhero who gets his power from a high-tech suit hunting vampires with the aid of a Moth Man, who in this story were high priests of Atlantis who were kicked out because they prophesied the end of their civilization. This looks like it could be entertaining, but with only 4 pages of it in a single issue, it would take too much effort to get the whole story.

The next story is the third part of "Legacy." This seems to be a traditional superhero story. It certainly does look entertaining, but there are only 3 pages of it in here, so it has the same pitfalls as "The Unnaturals."

Next is the cover story, "Perfect Day." An awkward man releases an genie from a jar, and the genie allows him one wish. There is a catch, in that the effects of the wish will go away in 24 hours. He uses his wish to become a superhero, in order to woo a woman who turned him down at the beginning of the story. He performs exactly one act of heroism, takes the woman around the world, has sex with her, then falls asleep. (Some hero.) Faced with the fact that tomorrow he will go back to his old loser self, he chooses to fly to the sun to watch it as he loses his powers, burning himself alive. This does not really work as a superhero story at all, and it feels like it ends up as a Shaggy Dog Story. He we see TSP fall prey to the notion that True Art is Angsty. It wasn't a particularly entertaining story, and kind of depressing.

And the next one is even more depressing. Titled "My Girl," A girl that has previously lost her dad is now about to lose her mom to cancer, and she jumps off of a bridge. That's it. We are not with the character long enough to feel proper empathy towards her, which turns a heartwrenching tragedy into a depressing waste of time.

The last story, "Dragnet," is also pretty dark, but it is at least genuinely good. A man robs a jewelry store, and accidentally runs into a gypsy, who warns him that he will meet his end in a dragnet. He thinks she is referring to the police dragnets, so he goes by ocean. He gets caught in a fishing dragnet, and drowns when his air runs out. Not bad, like a 2 minute short story that they could expand and use as part of the Twilight Zone, although the twist is not all that surprising.

So, ranking them, I would say I like "Legacy" the best, followed by "Dragnet," then "The Unnaturals," "Perfect Day," and finally, in last place, "My Girl." I do not plan on buying any more issues of Tales From the 'Field, and I would not suggest you do either. It just is not that good.