Dubious Discourse

Dubious Disc · Sep 10, 2025

New upload from Chinozo with the topic of "flower goes to karaoke alone and eats crab instead of singing the chorus" (???). I don't really know what's going on here, but I'm on board with it.

I still haven't been feeling so good these past few weeks, my dizziness problems got worse again and now I've learned that it isn't because of my eyes. Hearing that my eyes are normal should have been a relief, but honestly it just made me feel even worse because it means there's something else completely different that's wrong and I don't know what it is.

When I'm not well, all my mental resources laser-focus on how I'm physically feeling at the moment, so my mind goes into low power mode regarding other emotional matters that I'd normally be thinking about. I couldn't even enjoy my birthday properly because of how bad I felt and how worried I was. As a result I haven't had enough on my mind to write a full post about something that isn't just how messed up I feel.

So anyway, instead of writing a regular post with a music commentary section at the end, I decided to just do a special-edition music-section-only post! Consider this your lucky day (or your unlucky day if you don't care about my music discussion. you can skip this one if you want.)

New songs (Vocaloid):

SAI LOVE JINSEI RUNNER by Kairiki Bear (feat. Hatsune Miku) - Save me, Sonic music… Sonic music save me… Between the Crazy Raccoon collab song and now Project ONSOKU, the world's pushing me back into a Sonic music renaissance lol. I like how this is probably the only Kairiki Bear song that's even remotely positive, like it still has darker-sounding parts but it's in more of a "taking the ups and downs of life" sense. The rhythmic lyrics also help to sell the speedy vibe, it really feels like dashing around releasing a lot of stored-up energy.
We Are Pico Pico Hammers!!!! by cosMo@Bousou-P (feat. Hatsune Miku) - Unparalleled good vibes!!! It's so happy!! Of course they got the Really Really Fast Music guy on the Sonic collab lmao. I like how this one is more cute and cheery, since it's Amy-themed, in contrast with the previous song that was Sonic-themed and had a cool energetic feel instead.
Jet Black by Yunosuke (feat. Hatsune Miku) - I KNEW this was gonna be the Shadow song lol. Always always love some dark electronic! It's a bit more minimalist than I expected, but it's definitely still fitting for Shadow's vibe, it's got all the intensity without being overtly edgy. This one's my favorite so far!
Adeyaka Hadeyaka by Dopam!ne (feat. KAFU) - (flashing lights) Every song that has a Toki Chiaki MV feels like it was designed specifically to have a Toki Chiaki MV, and I mean that in a good way. Like there's a specific kind of chaotic mood in a song that fits really well with Toki Chiaki's fast-paced animation. I have no idea what this genre is and I can't identify a single instrument in it but it's so satisfying to listen to. Even though they're very different in style, this song almost reminds me of Law-Evading Rock, with a sort of "cheerfully dead inside, doing my own thing" vibe. I'm not explaining it very well, but that's the impression I get.
NecroBite by Chogakusei (feat. KAFU, Kasane Teto SV) - (blood warning I think? it's very stylized) A very unexpected name to find among the Vocaloid producers! It's neat to see Chogakusei experimenting more with making original music, especially with vocal synths too. Although it has a different energy from I Love Internet, they've got a similar fast-paced swing style, and it does feel like they're by the same person. I particularly appreciate KAFU as the main vocal (Teto is there too but only in one verse) because even though she sounds so different from Chogakusei's own voice, you can still feel his singing style in the tuning. I really wish we got more songs with KAFU's growl, it's so rare to hear growls and distortion from realistic-sounding synths.
Walk theory by MIDy (feat. KazehikiV) - This is one where I really want to talk about the MV specifically – there's just so much charm in the combo of live footage with animation. From what I know about Kazehiki, his character doesn't lend itself well to positive stories, so it's nice to see him just wandering around town to get out of a creative block.

New songs (non-Vocaloid):

All memories by Gero (music: whaledontsleep) - I can't keep up with these heart-wrenching emotional songs, man ;__; It's a good song, but it's definitely one of those that I can only listen to when I'm in a specific mood at a specific time of year. Like, since it's not summer break anymore and I'm not feeling bittersweet and nostalgic, I'm not in the right frame of mind to listen to this. That's how it works.
See you next attack by Meychan feat. Hatsune Miku - (unsettling imagery, themes of stalking/obsession) (This isn't a Vocaloid song, it's Meychan's vocal with Miku's backing.) There's been plenty of dark Meychan songs before, but this is probably the one that comes closest to actual horror. Fake came pretty close too, but that song felt more like internal conflict and despair rather than being actually threatening (also both MV's are by the same person! the distorted low-poly graphics do so much for the horror feel). I'm always struck by how much emotion Meychan's voice can convey, especially in darker songs like this. The final chorus and the "Regret!" shouts are particularly haunting.
Gimme Gimme Sanctuary by NANAOAKARI (music: NayutalieN) - This is such a perfect artist anniversary commemoration song, there's so many references to past songs in the lyrics and MV and I was so happy spotting them all lol. It really feels like a definitive "this is NANAOAKARI!" song. kemu's arrangement really gives it a powered-up feel compared to the Nayutan/Nanao songs from before, like in a final boss battle when your friends come to help in a critical moment and turn the tides in your favor.
Ghosts Play to the Audience (New ver.) by NANAOAKARI (music: PinocchioP)- Did you know the NANAOAKARI version of Ghosts Play to the Audience is actually the original? Although it's more popular, the Hatsune Miku version is a self cover. Anwyay, it's nice to return to this song! I love the new remix, the guitars are awesome.
Noah by Phantom Siita (music: Hiiragi Kirai) - HIIRAGI KIRAI!!! I've never listened to Phantom Siita before, but I like how they sound here - the dramatic crazy-sounding vocals blend perfectly together into the weird unsettling atmosphere that Hiiragi Kirai always creates with their music.
Blue Screen by Sou (music: mekakushe) - (flashing images/fast camera motion) This one is really nice ^_^ The visuals alone are already right up my alley, computer screen imagery mixed with the illustration/live video combo, but the song itself grew on me pretty quickly. It sounds refreshing and gentle, but it's a bit melancholy too, I really resonated with the lyrics' theme of dwelling on memories of someone so they don't fade from your mind.
ERROR! by Ivudot - This feels like an anime OP for being transported into a video game lol. Sometimes I have to look at life as a game in order to get through it, so any song that uses video game metaphors to talk about life automatically has my vote. I feel like I usually only end up relating to more negative songs, so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I vibed with this more upbeat song.

New remixes:
* Many of these aren't on Youtube, so I linked to Niconico instead. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Marshall Maximizer by Hiiragi Magnetite - Honemaru remix feat. Kasane Teto SV - Marshall Maximizer but with cool guitars!! I like how Teto is tuned here, it gives her a kind of androgynous sound.
Worst Regret by youman - Kofi Oribe remix feat. SEKAI - I've never heard SEKAI sound so cool! It's neat to hear so much power in her voice. The way the remix starts out sounding really quiet and calm before suddenly ramping up is really satisfying, it adds a whole new layer of emotion to the song.
Remote Control by WONDERFUL★OPPORTUNITY! - 2525mocurry remix feat. Kasane Teto SV, Zundamon - We love seeing Remote Control in 2025!! This one's really fun, I like how it keeps the spirit of the original but adds more chiptune details to amp up the digital feel. The eurobeat-style interlude is a nice touch too.
GURU by Jin - isonosuke remix feat. Kirune - All I can say is that this is, definitively, the isonosuke remix of GURU. It's a perfect adaptation into their funky electronic style. (Also, this has nothing to do with the remix, but I only just recently learned that Chinozo worked on KAFU's tuning in the original?? That's pretty cool :0 )
Psychologic Disco by r-906 - Sera. remix feat. flower – My thoughts on the first listen were something along the lines of "woah, love the chill spacey sound WAIT IS THAT FLOWER?" But yeah, I do like the more dreamlike atmosphere that you get from the softer synths in the background. It feels calming.
Panopticon by r-906 - Aile remix feat. Hatsune Miku, Kizuna Akari - Panopticon! (big smile) The instruments almost make it feel like elevator music? Like, this is the music I'd use to put you on hold if you called me. This one also feels more soft and calming than the original. Even though I like the robotic sound in the original, I do think this tuning works too, it gives the emotional conflict a more human feel. And I like how the illustration was adapted to an actual human form, while still keeping the "you're watching yourself" image.
Catchy ?! by r-906 - YKAWA remix - I'll admit, I just went through all the remixes looking for r-906 songs lol. This one is still electronic-y like the original, but it's got more going on, so it's a bit less ominously minimalist (???). It's catchy!!
DaiDaiDaiDaiDaiKirai by Amala - KIRATORA remix - YEEEEAH METAL DAIKIRAI!!! Now that's music catered to my tastes. The metal remix makes it feel overly dramatic, like they're blowing their rivalry way out of proportion, and it's so much fun.

New covers:

Chogakusei & Luca Kaneshiro - GETCHA! (Giga & KIRA) - GETCHA GETCHA GETCHA! This came completely out of nowhere lol. I've said in the past that I prefer listening to duets where the voices sound very different, but here I think the contrast between the Japanese and English lyrics actually makes it better that they sound more similar. If that makes sense. They sound alike, but their personalities are distinct. Also yay for more Rou Shitou artwork!! I'm surprised by how dynamic the MV is this time, there's a lot more detail and motion than what I'm used to seeing from them. It's really cool!
Amatsuki & Sho - APT. (ROSÉ & Bruno Mars) - I don't think I've heard Amatsuki sing in English before! They both sound cute here. I like the MV too, most of the APT. cover MV's I've seen have been fairly static but this one has a lot of the same personality of the original, it's really fun to watch.

I couldn't enjoy Youtube Music Weekend at its fullest while it was actually going on due to being sick, but I did check out a few after the fact and generally had a good time with it. syudou, Surii, and Kairiki Bear were all great as usual, and I liked natori's performance and Guchiry's self covers too.

I also stopped by CDs, because I always enjoy seeing what they're up to even if I have no clue what their deal actually is. Their works are almost calming to watch - I feel lost and confused watching them, but in a good way, it feels like being sent to another world where things are free from the burden of having to make sense.

And I checked out Sheeno Mirin's upload, because I saw r-906 in the title and knew I had no choice but to watch lol. I watched it primarily to see r-906's guest appearance, but I ended up liking Sheeno Mirin's own music too, so maybe I'll listen more to them sometime.

Congrats to Rabbit Hole for becoming the seventh Vocaloid song to hit 100 million views! I'm surprised it took this long for a DECO*27 song to get there lol.

Unrelated news, but apparently they're making a movie adaptation of Exit 8?? I haven't really researched into it at all, just heard about it from word of mouth, but I'm intrigued as to how they'll adapt the game into a movie storyline. I think the lack of a distinct plot adds to Exit 8's minimalist horror aspect, so I feel like trying to make it into a movie-type story will inevitably dilute some of the game's appeal, but I'm sure they'll figure something out d: And maybe we'll get some cool music out of it too. In terms of what would work well for an adaptation, I actually think Platform 8 might be a better choice, since there's more definite action and Things Happening vs. the minimal setting of Exit 8.

I also heard that Exit 8 has an updated version with some new anomalies, I'll have to find a good video to check them out. Meychan is streaming it next week, so maybe I'll watch then.

Dubious Disc · Sep 23, 2025

I already made the "now someone remix BIG SHOT with Law-Evading Rock" joke elsewhere but I'll make it here too

I thought a long time about what song I should post, and initially I was thinking of something from the soundtrack itself, but ultimately I had to go with Tokyovania - out of all the remixes and fan songs I listened to during the peak of my Undertale phase, this one had to be the one with the strongest grip on my soul. (Plus it's got Tokyo Teddy Bear in there, so it's on-brand for what I normally talk about in this blog lol.)

Happy 10 years to Undertale!! Embarrassingly, I completely misremembered the actual date of the anniversary - I genuinely thought it was October 15th, not September 15th. So I thought I had a whole extra month to get any art or whatever done. It was a bit of an unpleasant surprise to see I got the day wrong lmao.

Undertale has been a part of my life for so long now that I thought it would only be fitting to sit back and think about all the memories it's created for me. I'm not gonna have any music stuff in this post, it's just all Undertale today. I won't apologize for the long post this time, I'm saying everything I have to say.

I got into Undertale in late 2016, so not exactly when it came out but pretty close to the beginning. Initially I didn't have any interest in Undertale, but all my friends liked it, so eventually I started looking into it so that I wouldn't feel left out of their discussions. A lot of the interests I picked up during that time were for this reason, just so that I'd understand what my friends were talking about lol.

My biggest exposure to Undertale-related content was Youtube for sure, everything from music to remixes to memes and animations and comic dubs. The Stronger Than You variations (I was guilty of thinking the Sans version was the original lol), Undertale the Musical, SharaX's remixes, the ECHO animation (which also led to a very short Vocaloid phase), the big animated series, all of those were part of my core during 2016-2018.

There's so many things about the so-called "cringe" part of the Undertale fandom that I'm really nostalgic about now, even if they had their own problems and I arguably wouldn't want to go back there. All the AU's and alternate timelines, the theories, the overt mischaracterization of certain characters, it's endearing to come across anything from that time. In particular, I look back at the different Undertale AU's with a ton of fondness. I recognize now how messy and weird they could get, ~~and how they seemed to all be Sans-centric,~~ but it was just so much fun seeing all the different designs and especially listening to the themes and remixes people would make. My old sketchbooks had several full pages of AU designs for my own OC, and for a swap AU I designed myself. I did have a self-insert OC, as well as a personal AU featuring some of my friends (it did not escape me that they all had a shared self-insert AU that I was not part of). Maybe I'll redesign some of the old characters I made someday d:

I remember the day Deltarune came out. I came home from school and found the internet buzzing about some kind of new Undertale that wasn't Undertale, and saw a bunch of art with some blue kid who looked like Frisk but wasn't Frisk, and out of burning curiosity I had to check it out for myself. Unlike Undertale, I didn't really get into the Deltarune fandom at all, I mostly just enjoyed the game on my own time and occasionally talked about it with my friends. I really liked the soundtrack in particular, it was my go-to background music during study hall.

After that semester, though, I kinda fell off Undertale for a while. I was feeling a bit burnt out from the fandom and I was starting to gain some other interests, so I didn't really interact with anything else Undertale-related for the rest of high school. As a result, my memories of Deltarune Chapter 1 are really concentrated in just that one semester of high school where I was absorbed in it.

After a long hiatus from UTDR stuff, Deltarune Chapter 2 eventually brought me back in. I don't know exactly when Chapter 2 came out, I just remember I didn't bother with it until the summer after graduation when I was feeling a little bored and decided to revisit Deltarune on a whim. A friend had casually mentioned that Chapter 2 had a cyber theme, and as an unabashed cyber theme enjoyer I had to see what it was like. I basically spent the rest of that summer listening to BIG SHOT on loop and turning the ending cutscene over and over in my head. Later it slipped into the back of my mind again, since I still had other interests occupying my thoughts, but this time it wasn't negative like the previous time. Not like "I'm tired of Undertale", more like "I still like Undertale, but I'm putting it on low power for now until I can return to it."

Undertale Yellow, while being a fangame, was definitely the next part of my ongoing history with Undertale - I played the demo shortly after it came out, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the characters and where the story was likely to go, but then it gradually faded out of my mind and I assumed it'd just end up being abandoned. And imagine my surprise when, in mid-2023, I checked back in on UTY out of curiosity and saw a release date. If you haven't played Undertale Yellow yet, I seriously recommend it - the quality is incredible, you'd never guess that it's unofficial.

The way I interact with UTY is actually quite different from Undertale, and I think it's because I had much less exposure to the fandom. My relationship to Undertale was pretty heavily influenced by fanon and others' interpretations, it was more like I was joining in on a bigger thing that everyone else was doing. I had seen so much content about the No Mercy route that it didn't really feel personal when I did it myself, I was just going through a narrative that everyone had established. Does that make sense at all? I didn't really have the chance to have my own feelings and reactions about it because I had already absorbed others' perspectives. I might have interpreted the Sans fight in a different way, but the fandom had already painted it in a particular edgy light and I just accepted it like that.

With Undertale Yellow, I went in completely blind, so I got to see everything through my own eyes and experience it fully the way I never got to experience Undertale. (This could also be because I played it as an adult, rather than a middle schooler who was very easily influenced by others' opinions.) I was desensitized to Undertale's No Mercy route, because I had seen so much fan content about it that it wasn't really real to me, but it would be impossible for me to do in Undertale Yellow. I can't even contemplate killing a single enemy, even for the sake of the game.

And I know people have said stuff about how the No Mercy route is specifically a "for the sake of the game" deal where you've played the game so many times that you start doing things differently just to see what might happen. You play the game, you reset, you play again, you reset again, and when it starts to feel more like an actual game than a story, that's when you start messing with things. That's how I played Undertale. But my attachment to UTY felt stronger, the characters felt more real to me, so I didn't feel right resetting the game with impunity and messing around with different endings. It's why I still haven't replayed it after the first time, because I can't bring myself to undo the happy ending. It's a tragic ending, true, but somehow I feel much less at ease about resetting it than I did with Undertale.

And of course, Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 are the newest parts of my Undertale journey. I haven't engaged with them as in-depth as I'd like, since there's so much hidden stuff and mysteries that it's still quite overwhelming, but it's still another chapter, another marker in my life just like the ones before.

With how the tone suddenly got darker with Chapter 4, it really feels like the game is maturing along with the players. I was in high school when Chapter 1 came out, but I'm growing up now, and the game I started playing then is growing up with me.

I don't think I was necessarily affected a lot by the actual story of Undertale, like I don't know how much I picked up emotionally from the themes or whatnot, but I still have so many memories surrounding it. My friends and I would talk and joke about it constantly, and it even helped me bond with new people sometimes - I'll always remember being at summer camp one year and drawing some Undertale AU characters in my sketchbook on the first day, and someone in my cabin recognized them and we became friends within minutes.

I actually think that not interacting much with the fandom has made my experience with the Undertale universe richer, simply because of what I mentioned about the difference between how I saw UT and UTY - being able to see the games and stories my own way, without others' opinions and interpretations getting in the way, meant that I could develop a better personal connection with them. That's not to say that I don't occasionally enjoy looking through theories and fan art, but in general I have a better relationship with the things I like when I just enjoy them on my own instead of letting myself be swayed by the voices of a huge fandom. I'm not as susceptible to feeling negative and disillusioned about them. This isn't exclusive to Undertale either, I find this is true for all my interests.

My interests tend to change very quickly, it's pretty rare that I stick with something for more than two or three years without some other hyperfixation coming along and overthrowing it, but Undertale has really stuck with me in the 9 years since I first learned about it. It's not an interest that I engage with constantly, it's one that lives quietly in the back of my head and stays there even as my interests in the forefront change. I think it's something that will always be with me, it's in my DNA at this point.

Happy anniversary, Undertale! Congratulations on 10 years, and here's to many more. I could have gone on rambling for even longer, Undertale is such a big part of my history and there's so much more I could say about it. I'm glad this game has been with me for so long.

I've been feeling a bit better since last post. And next time I'll probably have my usual hat back on, talking about Project Voltage and Project ONSOKU and Chinozo's latest self cover and my favorite animated music video artstyles. This one was all just a dream.
Sushi Riku's new cat has been all over my Youtube recommendations lately and it's kinda funny. I don't mind though, I could never complain about a sudden influx of silly cat videos.

Dubious Disc · Oct 13, 2025

Happy 5 years to the first Chinozo song I heard

That's Shamer! That's a self cover of Shamer!! The last Chinozo self cover was two years ago and I was worried that he had stopped doing them altogether, so this Shamer out of nowhere was the best surprise I could hope for. I still can't believe this finally exists lol. I really like Chinozo's voice, it's very calming.

I ended up feeling a bit less better since last time, but that's just how it is d: I'm pushing through until we can find whatever's actually wrong.

Anyway, this is a post I've been wanting to make for a long time - I've really wanted to introduce some of my favorite artists, and since this is a very music-focused blog I thought it'd be cool to show my favorite MV illustrators in particular. For obvious reasons this will mostly be from vocal synth and utaite music videos. There are at least a dozen artists that I want to talk about, but for this specific post I just want to focus on my three biggest favorites that I can discuss in more depth.

I don't really feel right directly posting screenshots of their work, so instead I'll just link to a handful of their videos that I particularly like and that show their art style really well. Not necessarily their most well-known works, I don't just want to talk about their popular stuff. (for socials and stuff, you can find those on your own if you'd like, I'm not really in touch with that part of the art world d: this is just about youtube videos) They're also all songs I like, obviously, but since this is about the visuals you don't even need to listen to them, you could just watch on mute if you wanted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I really, really hope the thumbnail image embeds work correctly...

Ryuuseee
* Eye strain warning for all of Ryuuseee's videos - his editing style has a lot of fast cuts and brightly colored glitch effects.

Innocent Tyrant (Chogakusei)

Absolute Zero - natori (Watarai Hibari cover)

Absolute Zero (Watarai Hibari cover)

Ninja Like Ninja (Wolpis Carter)

Jackpot Sad Girl (syudou)

Antithese (Shiina Natsukawa)

Apart from these I also recommend every syudou MV in the playlist. All of them. They're so good.

Full playlist
Ryuuseee actually has a very broad art style, it goes anywhere from stylized and cartoony to crisp and professionally rendered. If you look through the full playlist, you'll see a lot of visual styles, and some of them look very different from each other, but in the end it's all the same person.

I like all of Ryuuseee's work, but his cartoony art style with the exaggerated shapes and sharp lines is my absolute favorite. (All the videos I listed above are in that style, the playlist has others.) I've gotten out of the mindset of comparing my art to others', like I'm confident enough in my own artwork that I can look at more skilled artists without feeling inadequate, but every time I see a Ryuuseee MV in that style I instantly go "man, I wish I could draw like that."

I managed to get my favorites down to two specific MV's, these both perfectly showcase the specific Ryuuseee style that I like. You're getting a piece of my lore here, you get to see which art style brings me the most envy lol.

Jinsei Muri Game (SoraMafuUraSaka) and Reversal (syudou)
(despite having watched the jinsei muri game MV about a million times i only just now noticed that their pose in the final chorus is a reference to Role-Playing Game d: )
The LINEWORK. There's so much life in those lines. I really love how expressive this style is, the angular sketchy shapes and the exaggerated expressions and gestures give off so much personality. It feels so free, especially with all the line weight variation - you can almost feel the pen movements that drew them. And the lack of shading makes the lines stand out that much more.

Even though I like that specific style most, I still have to comment on how much range Ryuuseee's art style has. Like, many of his most popular videos look so different that you'd never guess they were by the same person. Even within the video itself, like the rendered illustration at the end of the Absolute Zero cover vs. the rest of the animation.

Arusechika

Yosasou (Sou)

VANiTY (Fushi)

Just leave it. (Gero)

Spicy (Senra)

Represent=Underdog (Rinu)

PaIII.AGITATION - Yunosuke feat. Hatsune Miku, GUMI, Kagamine Rin

PaⅢ.AGITATION (Yunosuke)

Misfortune All (Ichi)

Error Dance (Nexus-Cry)

Abnormality Dancin' Girl - Guchiry (manika remix)

Abnormality Dancin' Girl (manika remix)

Full playlists (organized by year, under DOMESTICA)
Arusechika is best known for Goodbye Sengen and their subsequent work on nearly all of Chinozo's music videos, but I've already posted a ton of Chinozo videos here so I won't bother going over those again. My picks here focus more on visuals that have a different vibe, whether it's darker, cooler, using sharper lines or more saturated colors, more animation, etc.

I like Arusechika's linework as well, but unlike Ryuuseee they don't use a lot of line weight variation - a lot of the personality and depth in their lines comes from the texture of the brush, rather than actively changing the line weight. It makes the lines feel very clean without feeling flat. They also don't use a lot of detailed rendering - the majority of their MV illustrations are flat colored or minimally shaded, and their shading style uses a lot of gradients and soft edges.

I also kinda like the gender-ambiguous nature of Arusechika's style - they don't really distinguish at all between male and female characters with regard to build, facial structure, etc. Usually you can tell the character's intended gender from stuff like clothing or hairstyle, but sometimes they have a more androgynous appearance, especially with the specific short hairstyle that they often use.

I guess what I like most about Arusechika's art style is its simplicity - like, their art looks clean and fresh and complete despite not using a lot of complex techniques, like detailed lines and painterly shading and whatnot. Their style is naturally cute and charming, but it's flexible enough to fit darker subjects as well.

WOOMA

Strong language warning for the first two.

Usseewa (Ado)

Yosomono (FAKE TYPE.)

Vita (Gero)

Bocca della Verita - Hiiragi Kirai feat. flower

Bocca della Verità (Hiiragi Kirai)

Tot Musica (Ado)

Bitter Choco Decoration - syudou (Nightcord at 25:00 cover)

Bitter Choco Decoration (Nightcord at 25:00 cover)

Cliffhanger - Michica Sayuu feat. Hatsune Miku

Cliffhanger (Michica Sayuu)

Children Record (NILFRUITS remix) (niconico link)

Full playlist
A lot of popular MV illustrators focus on conventionally anime-looking styles, so WOOMA's style really stands out in comparison. It's kind of an interesting combination of realistic and stylized - the body anatomy is usually very detailed and realistic, while the face has its own distinctive sharp shapes and proportions (sharp chin, pointed eyes with detailed lids, straight nose, small mouth, etc.) that automatically make any subject look darker and more serious. It feels very different from the rounded shapes that you typically see in styles that look more cute. And even in WOOMA's artwork that is meant to be cute, the cute factor is very subtle. It's a refreshing change.

I like the rougher feel that comes from WOOMA's stylizing and rendering. It looks realistic, like you can see the details of joints and bones, but it's not so realistic as to be homogeneous. In works that aren't rendered, her linework is very crisp and doesn't have a lot of sketchiness or line weight variation.

WOOMA does Flipnote animation sometimes as well! I don't know if she's ever done a full MV in Flipnote, but it's still cool to see the shorter animations.

WOOMA and Arusechika's art styles are kinda like exact opposites - Arusechika's style is soft and simple and makes anything look cuter, while WOOMA's is sharp and defined and makes anything look darker. You'd expect that putting both of their illustrations together would have a huge style whiplash, and yet Unfriendly Hater does exactly that and it looks awesome.

Unfriendly Hater - Meddmia feat. Hatsune Miku, KAFU

Unfriendly Hater (Meddmia)
I saved Unfriendly Hater for last, because it's one of my all-time favorite vocal synth MV's. I absolutely love how these two extremely different art styles met in the middle and retained their unique identities without looking out of place. WOOMA's art still has the sharp defined features, but it's not so finely detailed as usual, while Arusechika uses stronger lines and more saturated colors to cut back on some of the softness. The simple color scheme unifies the styles too - it's just black, white, and then their respective accent colors, with very minimal shading.

I feel like the things I like most about these art styles are always the way they manage to execute things in a way that I can't. Like, I feel like my lines are always very restrained and rigid, so I admire the life and energy that goes into Ryuusee's sketchy, exaggerated linework. My art feels incomplete if I don't fully render it and put in a lot of detail, so I like how Arusechika's style is so expressive with just flat colors and simple lines. My style tends more toward the softer, brighter, cartoony/anime-influenced side, so I like the very sharp shapes and realistic/stylized combination that WOOMA uses. I don't mean any of this in a self-deprecating way, I just really respect others' ability to do the things I struggle with.

If you look hard enough you can probably find some influence from Ryuuseee and Arusechika in my own art style. I don't want to directly copy anyone's art style, of course, but sometimes things just stick in my muscle memory, like the way Arusechika draws hair. In 2024 I did an Art Fight attack based on one of Ryuuseee's MV's, and it was pretty interesting trying to adapt his linework and rendering style to my own without just 1:1 replicating it.

I'm actually skipping the music section again this time, I'm kinda tired of adding links at this point d: It does mean that the next one will be longer, but whatever. I'm just gonna put one single new cover that I found, because I'll explode if I don't talk about this artist somewhere:

HALKA - DaiDaiDaiDaiDaiKirai (Amala) - Youtube kindly, generously, recommended me a remix cover with some of the most unhinged vocals I've ever heard. The scream at the end of the bridge? The beginning of the final chorus?? LIFE CHANGING. This is exactly the kind of loud intense shouting singing that absorbs directly into my bloodstream. (Also he did the artwork too??) I haven't listened to many of HALKA's Vocaloid songs yet, but I went through all his remix covers and they're crazy, they're so good. I don't know how someone with this much power doesn't even have 5,000 subscribers yet.

Apparently a niche Vocaloid song I like has been getting popular on TikTok lately, which is kinda funny considering how random and relatively unknown it was. I actually don't mind, even though I don't like TikTok I've never been a gatekeeper when it comes to finding music there. If anything I'm happy about it, because it's a song I really like and I'm glad it's getting more visibility. And maybe the producer's other songs will get more attention too.

Been a bit slower on the art front lately, both from feeling a bit worse and getting busy with projects. I'm still keeping up with art shop stuff though.

Dubious Disc · Oct 31, 2025

That's a new remix of manimani!! The song that got me into r-906!! Hearing the "2022" call change to "2025" gave me chills lol.
It's definitely really good, I enjoy the crisper sound and all the new things in the long instrumental part. I heard a sample from the Hole and I'm sure there's references to other songs that I haven't found yet.

Anyway, absolutely thrilled about Surii doing a Project Voltage song! I'm really glad it has Len along with Miku. And the references to Ego Rock and Telecaster B-Boy? Love it. This one is definitely up there with I GOT YOU! as my favorite Project Voltage song so far. (Incidentally, I'm mostly neutral about OOPÁRTS, I don't feel strongly about NILFRUITS or N so it's not a song I'm super attached to. It's fairly listenable though, I like the guitar solo or whatever the part at 1:31 is.)

I couldn't really think of one singular thing to write about, after all the planning that went into the previous post I wanted to just kinda throw stuff at the wall for this one.

I ended up getting sick again because my body is a machine that turns every life experience into overactive anxiety and stomach problems. It'll get better on its own, it always does after a week or two, but it still sucks :/

I recently changed the quote in my sig, after staying with the previous one for over two years. Initially it was plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, i.e. "the more things change, the more they stay the same". I do still think it's a quote that defines me, for better or for worse - I find that no matter what things change, somehow I always end up in the same patterns and not changing with them. Sometimes it's a positive thing, but I've always looked at it through a negative lens, and I've started thinking lately that I don't really want to live by something so negative. Like, although I still resonate with that line, maybe I shouldn't be focusing on it so much and using it to define myself.

The new quote I'm using now means "Somehow I'll make it work." It doesn't come from anywhere in particular, I just noticed that I was using that sentence a lot in my journal whenever I had a tight deadline coming up. I used it to reassure myself, like "I've had tough deadlines in the past and I've managed to get through them, so I'll get through this one too." Sort of a reminder to trust myself, instead of panicking and worrying that things won't work out.

I initally only thought about it from a school-related context, but I've found that it helps me through other things where I have to do something difficult and I'm not sure how. It could be anything from making a tough personal decision to just figuring out how to get something heavy up the stairs without help. Despite my anxiety, I've found that I paradoxically also have a knack for BS'ing my way through situations and making things work even in tight circumstances, and I'm trying to trust that ability more instead of constantly fearing that I'll fail.

It doesn't stop me from fearing the things that are beyond my control, but it helps me deal better with the things that are within my grasp. Somehow I'll make it work.

Anyway, I've been getting into Inazuma Eleven lately. Technically I've been slowly getting into it for months but only recently I actually started ~~playing it~~ watching it played by someone on Youtube who, unlike me, owns a Nintendo DS. I still want to watch the anime, but I don't have Amazon Prime and I don't think I could finish all of it during the free trial period d: I have commitment problems when it comes to watching long series lol.

I actually started with GO instead of the original trilogy, which is probably weird, but I don't really care d: I imagine most people are more attached to the original series, so I'm doing my part by supporting another generation instead.

I tend to feel some fake fan syndrome when it comes to being a fan of video game franchises, since I can't really play video games myself and I have to experience them secondhand. But in this case I don't really mind that much? I don't plan to ever interact with the fandom, I'm fine with this particular interest just being a silly thing I share with one friend. Interacting with individual fans of something is way different from being part of the general fandom, like I feel a bit daunted with large-scale communities and discussions but I'm fine casually conversing with people who share my interests.

Ultimately I'm just glad to have found new things to draw lol. I've drawn Kirino (or Gabi idk what the general public calls him) about a million times already even though my favorite character so far is actually Fei. my the bunny ^_^

I think I'll be taking a break from my usual music reactions at the end of each post. I still enjoy doing them for myself, but I've started to feel burnt out, and it's been getting harder to find things to say. I'll probably bring them back in future, but for now I'll put them on hold until the spark, or whatever, comes back.

Chogakusei's new album dropped and I've been enjoying it so far! All the new tracks are really good, so far Never Ending Amphitheater is my favorite but since it's by Sasuke Haraguchi that's hardly a surprise. It's the song I had the highest hopes for and it absolutely delivered.

Dubious Disc · Nov 23, 2025

Yay for a flower & Teto song from Chinozo!! Songs about the internet are always cool.

In the midst of the Z-A hype I've been over here absorbed in Inazuma Eleven Victory Road. Kind of a miracle that I got into this series just before the first new game in ages, it must have been destiny... this is funny because the main character's name is a pun on "destiny"

Even though I'm just watching a playthrough, it's so cutscene-heavy so far (especially in the beginning) that it pretty much feels like watching an anime lol. I don't even know how they would adapt this into an anime, it practically is one already. I am kinda glad it doesn't just jump immediately into the soccer stuff, though. There's a lot more story buildup, and it feels more natural and believable. (Also, the way arguments and social interactions are portrayed as turn-based combat is very relatable.)

I really like Unmei so far - it's interesting to see a protagonist who has a more complicated relationship with soccer, with how he has to lead the team from the sidelines instead of being in the middle of everything like previous protags. I also like the whole "I am four parallel universes ahead of you" level of strategy this guy has, like he just keeps so much stuff in his head and doesn't elaborate on anything until after his plan has already succeeded. He's always a step ahead of everyone else and totally chill about it, I imagine someone with this kind of character would be pretty formidable as an antagonist. I'm always a fan of tactician-type characters.

Granted, show me any character who has an illness that stops them from doing what they love, and I'll latch onto them and cry about them without fail. The same thing happened with Sol Daystar, after all. I don't know why this particular trait always damages me so much, it might just be because it relates to more than one of my biggest fears. Sudden illness scares me enough, but the idea of no longer being able to do something that is really important to you is pretty frightening too. Like, I can't imagine what I would do if I couldn't draw anymore - I remember how it felt this summer when I had to stop drawing because it hurt my eyes too much, and it felt so wrong. Not being able to draw felt like a part of my soul was out of my reach, like I was trying to push back against my identity and my instincts. I know art is not the same as sports^{[citation needed]}, but a part of me was still able to empathize with the likes of Unmei and Sol, who had something fundamental to them taken away. (to be fair, Sol wasn't really letting it stop him, but still. he was cutting it pretty darn close)

So I'm glad Unmei found a way to engage with soccer and be a part of the team, even if he can't be on the field himself. I hope he gets to be happy.

The other characters are a lot of fun too! They've all got their own unique charm. I feel like everyone has a lot more time to develop and interact and show their individual personalities, compared to previous games. I'm waiting until I finish the main story before I get around to drawing everyone, but you bet I'm gonna draw them so much lol.

I'm about halfway through the main story as of writing this, so I don't know where the plot is going to go apart from the overarching tournament stuff, but I have really high hopes. I'm pretty curious how all the stuff with Haru is going to turn out, they've been building him up in an interesting way. It seems like (spoilers) with his injury he'll end up having some parallels with Unmei, it really shows through in the few interactions they've had so far.
I just got to the anime opening-style animation that happens right after everyone arrives at the venue for the nationals, and the amount of hype I felt watching it was utterly transcendent. I'm gonna be chasing that rush for the rest of my life.

This might temporarily become an IE blog until I get through the rest of the game and exhaust everything I need to say about it lol. You'll have to humor me

~~also there's a guy in the Raimon team who looks like a Simipour gijinka. I just needed to get that out lmao~~

I'm working on a project for one of my illustration classes where I have to work in Photoshop, and it's... kind of a nightmare?? I can generally survive in Photoshop when it comes to editing, but it's so difficult for drawing. I'm used to Krita's workflow, with all the shortcuts and tools and settings and whatnot, and I can't adjust to all the keyboard shortcuts being different. Like, since when is it more intuitive for the move tool to be V instead of M? I admit I've messed around a lot with Krita's shortcuts to match what I was used to in GIMP, so maybe the defaults are more similar to what's in Photoshop, but it definitely slows down the process when I keep accidentally hitting the wrong keys d:

The brushes feel different too, like I can't really control them in the same way and it weakens my lines. There's probably some way to fiddle with the pressure sensing and stabilizing and whatnot, but I haven't found it. Photoshop is too much of a mystery to me.

Apart from class stuff, I've been drawing more lately! Most of it is just random Inazuma doodles, but I've been doing some rendering here and there. There's so much character design stuff I want to do too, I've got some new mage gijinka ideas and I need to get them out of my head... I don't know when I'll get around to reopening the art shop, maybe during the holidays. We'll see.

Dubious Disc · Nov 30, 2025

(This video's audio is kinda loud for some reason, so be aware)

Meddmia made a song with Rin and Len!!! Let's gooooo!! Their voices really bring out the attitude in Meddmia's lyrics, I hope he uses them more in the future.
(Also, Arusechika got a lot of other Vocaloid producers to contribute illustrations for the MV and it brings a nice chaos to the visuals lol.)

Anyway, I've still been stuck in the inescapable soccer game abyss. I've made a lot more progress in the story since last time, and I'm stuck in this weird place where I really want to get to the end and see how everything turns out, but I also don't want it to be over. I've gotten incredibly invested in this story and I know there's definitely going to be a gaping void in my soul once I've finished it. I genuinely can't remember the last time any media, be it game or show or whatever, has taken over my mind to this extent.

I'm just gonna dump my thoughts here because I have to get them out of my head somehow. None of it is any kind of brilliant analysis, but I need to ramble somewhere lol. Obviously my thoughts might change once I finish the story and actually have all the information, instead of just speculating (especially in Haru's case), but I think there's something interesting about looking at things through this limited perspective too.
(Everything here contains spoilers!!)

I said previously that I always get attached to ill characters, but I also resonate with lonely characters, and this game has no shortage of lonely characters. And a lot of them don't even seem lonely at first until you dig deeper. At the beginning I thought Kisoji was just gonna be that annoyingly cheerful "let's be friends whether you like it or not!!" type, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was actually a lot more going on with his character.

It's strange how I can relate to Kisoji even though we are, essentially, complete opposites in terms of why we're lonely. Kisoji always thinks about other people first, trying to act in a way that makes them happy even if it means having to hide his authentic self. He makes friends easily because he knows what methods work and what people like, but he ends up not being able to make deeper connections with any of them because they can tell he's faking.

I'm the exact opposite in that I cannot change myself to make others happy. It's not in my nature to be a people pleaser. I can't pretend to be someone I'm not in order to fit in - instead, I just withdraw. I might stop talking, or leave the conversation, or just fade into the background, but I can't put on an act. I won't fake a smile if I don't feel like it. In my case, it's less about feeling the need to act insincere in order to make friends, and more about cutting myself off from people if I can't be myself around them.

It's an instance of trying too hard vs. not even bothering to try.

Both mindsets are probably equally selfish and contribute equally to our inability to make friends. It might not seem like Kisoji is acting out of selfishness, since he tries to give so much to others, but he does admit it - he's a calculating schemer who, above everything, acts out of fear that he'll be forgotten if he doesn't connect with as many people as possible.

But even though Kisoji is coming from a perspective that I could never personally have, I still completely understood his conflict. Feeling like you're always the weak link and anyone can replace you, getting rejected over and over, trying so hard to make others happy that you neglect your own happiness, not believing other people when they say you matter. Even the "I've never had a best friend" line - you can know so many people, but still feel lonely if none of it is real.

And it's only after he learns to think of himself too, and remember that he matters just as much as the people around him, that Kisoji can finally overcome his doubts and fully sync with the rest of the team. It's not necessarily about being selfish, but it is about learning that it's okay to put yourself first sometimes - hence the "you'll always be just a sidekick" "not today, this time I'm in the lead!" conversation.

That's why his keshin is so thematically perfect - it embodies the idea of getting to be the star performer and put yourself in the spotlight, instead of always working in the shadows to support the "real" stars. And its goofy whimsical entertainer nature fits too, because ultimately Kisoji just wants to have fun and laugh with others. It's not that the energetic personality we usually see from him is a complete fake - it's what he really wants to be, but he was just having a hard time being genuine.

I liked Sakurazaki's role in this chapter too, with how he was encouraging Kisoji throughout. At the beginning he did try to explain that Kisoji was a genuinely important member of the team, that he could connect people in ways that others couldn't, but Kisoji didn't believe him. Which makes sense!! When you're lonely and isolated like this, and you feel bad about yourself, everyone's encouragement will just fall on deaf ears. And this could also have been because Kisoji knew that the cheerful, social, connecting-everyone character was just a front, and so he rejected Sakurazaki's (and Unmei's, and everyone else's) words because he thought they only applied to the act he was putting on and not his real self.

And yet Sakurazaki eventually managed to see through that act and pinpoint the real reason why Kisoji couldn't sync up with everyone's energy/aura/whatever. Like, Kisoji could sense everyone else's auras in sync, and he thought that was enough - he didn't even consider the fact that he himself needed to be in sync with them too, he didn't see himself as a team member on the same level as them. He went so long believing that while his role was to bring together the more skilled players and help them connect more to each other, he was just a conduit for that connection and not a real part of it. Learning that he was just as valued as anyone else, and overcoming the part of himself that kept insisting he was worth less than the others, is what ultimately let Kisoji reach his full potential. You have to realize that you matter too!!

Haru is in many ways still kind of an enigma, I think they're developing him like that on purpose, but a lot of what I've seen from him keeps furthering the parallels with Unmei. I admit that when he first appeared, it seemed like he was just resting on his laurels because he was so much further ahead than everyone else, like he was so skilled that nothing was a challenge to him, and it was getting hard to care. But then he got injured, and with the prospect of never being able to play soccer again, he realized how much he had taken for granted.

I find it so interesting how both Haru and Unmei are basically the exact opposite of what you'd imagine given their situation. Like, Haru is a star player, you'd expect him to always be in the middle of everything and content with his place, and yet he's lonely and isolated and difficult to get to know. On the flip side, Unmei can't play at all, there's a fundamental barrier separating him from the team, and yet he's the one who keeps the whole team together and guides them to victory without even setting foot on the field. Haru seems like he's connected to everyone but feels like he's on the outside, while Unmei actually is on the outside but has overcome that separation and connected to everyone anyway.

Haru has always had everything, like he has all this skill and fame and legendary player status, but he was disillusioned with it and found it hard to put his heart into anything. Unmei had everything taken from him, so he had to fight and climb and work hard to take it back (after running away from it at first). And it's only after Haru himself gets injured and understands where Unmei is coming from, that he finds something to fight for.

I wanted to say something about the whole Ayle situation, but I'm still struggling to take it all in lol. I really hope I'm getting his name right, I'm not bothered to go back and check d: It seems like this game really has a thing with career-ending injuries, first Unmei and then Haru and then we find out about Ayle. Ayle's case is much more tragic than the others, so it's on a different level, but it does serve to shed even more perspective on where Haru is coming from. And more connections with Unmei, because now we know that Haru used to know someone in his same situation. I wonder if Haru sees Ayle in Unmei? Or at least has drawn that line between them, subconsciously. The "I'll play with you in spirit" thing that Ayle says does match the same thing that happened back when Unmei was having those visions? hallucinations? of Haru, like even if they can't physically play together, the other person still represents what soccer means to them.

In terms of side characters, I actually really liked Alice! I didn't expect the dark edgy + whimsical magician + data nerd combo to work so well, I enjoyed his character a lot. I hope we get to see him again in the main story. (Also, is Jude his guardian?? That's pretty cool)

In other news, Adachi Rei is gonna become a Vocaloid!! Or is getting crowdfunded to become one, anyway. We don't know when it's actually happening yet. It's pretty cool, although I'm a bit curious about how she'll sound, since the choppy robotic voice is a core aspect of her voicebank and I don't know how that'll mesh with the more realistic Vocaloid sound. Especially if she ends up getting a V6 as well, not just a V5. Still, it's neat seeing more UTAUs get Vocaloid voicebanks recently.

Final projects are coming up... I've had a lot of stuff going on lately and it's been pretty draining, both physically and mentally, so my motivation isn't what it should be. But I'll get through it somehow.

lisianthusakura · Dec 1, 2025

WAAIIIIIIIT Inazuma Eleven fan spotted in the wild?????? The new game has been on my Steam wishlist ever since I knew it existed (the day it released .) BUT I'm happy you're enjoying it!! I've heard good things about it from the one other girl I know who's a fan too LOL. Once I buy it, we better talk about it, got it?? ←only played the first game on her 3DS but loved it

In a similar-ish boat, soooo I hope your finals end up going well, somehow or another, queen. (was about to just straight up type なんとなく before remembering it is polite to take a few seconds to remember how to say it in English orz) DMs forever open if you need anything.

Dubious Disc · Dec 2, 2025

lisianthusakura said:
WAAIIIIIIIT Inazuma Eleven fan spotted in the wild?????? The new game has been on my Steam wishlist ever since I knew it existed (the day it released .) BUT I'm happy you're enjoying it!! I've heard good things about it from the one other girl I know who's a fan too LOL. Once I buy it, we better talk about it, got it?? ←only played the first game on her 3DS but loved it

woooah you're an IE fan too??

I'm still a pretty casual enjoyer, all things considered, but a friend here got me invested in it recently and I've had so much fun with it c: (person who also only knows one other fan lol) I hope you like the new game once you play it, it's really really good

lisianthusakura said:
In a similar-ish boat, soooo I hope your finals end up going well, somehow or another, queen. (was about to just straight up type なんとなく before remembering it is polite to take a few seconds to remember how to say it in English orz) DMs forever open if you need anything.

thank you, 絶対に頑張ります ( _ _ ) i hope things go well for you too!

escolopendror · Dec 2, 2025

resisted the urge to reply because i didn't want to shift the topic too much but i'm not normal about the funny soccer game aaaaa

lisianthusakura said:
WAAIIIIIIIT Inazuma Eleven fan spotted in the wild?????? The new game has been on my Steam wishlist ever since I knew it existed (the day it released .) BUT I'm happy you're enjoying it!! I've heard good things about it from the one other girl I know who's a fan too LOL. Once I buy it, we better talk about it, got it?? ←only played the first game on her 3DS but loved it

You also like Inazuma???ヽ(>∀<☆)ノI'm the friend that Disc mentioned lmao I preordered the new game, been playing since release and it's so good indeed!!! The new story is great, same with the characters

you gotta play the rest plsss IE2 is one of my favourite games EVER and i'm the number one IEGO apologist so i will tell you it's also peak hehe ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Dubious Disc said:
In other news, Adachi Rei is gonna become a Vocaloid!! Or is getting crowdfunded to become one, anyway. We don't know when it's actually happening yet. It's pretty cool, although I'm a bit curious about how she'll sound, since the choppy robotic voice is a core aspect of her voicebank and I don't know how that'll mesh with the more realistic Vocaloid sound. Especially if she ends up getting a V6 as well, not just a V5. Still, it's neat seeing more UTAUs get Vocaloid voicebanks recently.

You're more knowledgeable than me so I must ask... is there a lot of different between UTAU and Vocaloid other than their availability? I've always understood it as UTAU being Vocaloid's FOSS cousin lol And that Vocaloid probably have a more complicated technology behind it

Dubious Disc · Dec 2, 2025

escolopendror said:
You're more knowledgeable than me so I must ask... is there a lot of different between UTAU and Vocaloid other than their availability? I've always understood it as UTAU being Vocaloid's FOSS cousin lol And that Vocaloid probably have a more complicated technology behind it

I believe UTAU is closed-source, but other than that, yeah it's basically a free alternative to Vocaloid that has a slightly different voice quality - I don't know much about the technology behind it, but UTAU tends to sound a bit less realistic. UTAU also lets people record and edit their own voicebanks, since it isn't a commercial/licensed software, so there's a much wider variety of UTAUs than Vocaloids since anyone can create one. (Adachi Rei, incidentally, doesn't even have a human voice provider, her voice started out as entirely computer-generated tones.)

Dubious Disc · Dec 20, 2025

(Eye strain warning!!)

It's the holiday season, so I get to post this Meychan song that has nothing to do with Christmas but still has Christmas-themed visuals for some reason.

Winter break is here!! I've pretty much been spending every day drawing lol.

I always look forward to the holidays, I enjoy the atmosphere that comes with having the decorations up and getting to chill and relax, but I am kinda worried about how much my health problems will affect things this year. I don't want the holidays to be ruined just like this summer and semester were. I guess "ruined" is a strong way of putting it, but I definitely feel like those times were taken from me, and I don't want this holiday to be taken from me too.

Dubious Disc said:
I always approach the new year with a bit of unease, like I said a few posts ago I tend to get anxious about facing a whole year where I have no idea what might happen. There might be good things, of course, but there's always the possibility for something to throw things dramatically off course when you least expect it. I know it's pointless to worry, last year I had the exact same fear that something would go wrong and yet here I am, still in good shape.

This sure aged well, didn't it? I wouldn't say "dramatically", but things definitely did get thrown off course this year, and here I am, in less good shape. And now I really don't know what next year will bring - I could get better, or I could get worse. There's no way to tell.

I had to go back to my Iron Bundle holiday avi from last year, I love it too much ^_^ I'll miss the Fei one though. I want to use an Unmei avi sometime next year, but I need to actually figure out how to draw him first

His hairstyle is a bit unintuitive to me, I've been trying to practice it but it hasn't clicked yet.
I kinda want to use a Sol avi, too... we'll see when the holidays are over. I've mostly been using cool colors in my avatars lately, might be nice to have some orange for a change. Dunno though, I feel like the cool colors suit my image better... these are the kinds of things I think about.

Anyway, I finished the soccer game! I finished Inazuma Eleven Victory Road! I've already had a chance to get my thoughts out elsewhere, so I won't be quite as wordy about it here, but the finale was brilliant and I loved it. I honestly feel like up until now, I've never fully understood what people meant when they talked about being obsessed with some media or character and having it take over their mind. Maybe it's because a lot of my recent interests have been difficult to get into in terms of story or individual characters - like, Mega Man is very much not story-focused, and vocal synth is a lot more open-ended instead of having a singular canon. I mean, even with the newer Pokémon games, I've found it strangely difficult to get attached to the characters, something in me just doesn't seem to resonate with them. I've gotten used to feeling a bit of emotional detachment from the stories I consume, so it was almost a shock to see how easily Victory Road went straight to my core, like my mind and heart just absorbed it completely.

I was worried that I'd feel kinda sad once the story was over, the sort of empty feeling that comes when there's nothing new left to experience, but I actually don't feel bad at all. If anything, I'm happy that I got to see the whole thing and follow the whole journey. Like, I don't miss anyone, they've just made themselves at home in my head lol.

I think the lack of a main antagonist does so much for the writing. There are some antagonistic figures, and they do move the plot in various ways, but the fact that the final match isn't like "you have to defeat this villain's team, the fate of soccer/the world depends on it!" allows the story to shift its focus more onto the finer points of everyone's characters. You aren't playing to save the world, but instead to prove yourself. IE games are usually more plot-focused, but I think Victory Road's character-focused approach really shines, the story takes itself much more seriously and everyone feels so real.

There's so much in my head about Unmei and Haru, but I can't figure out how to get it all out lol. I think everything I said about them before still holds true, I still love seeing all the ways that their stories parallel and connect. They impacted each other's lives a lot considering they only met in person like three times over the entire story, I didn't mention before how parasocial they are about each other lmao. I'm honestly a bit curious as to how their friendship/rivalry/whatever would go from here, since the idea of facing each other in the tournament seems to be what was driving them both. I hope they can still be friends, we've already seen that that's possible.

Yet another Vocaloid song reached 100M views recently! Congrats to KING! Monitoring is getting there too.

Also Mega Man 12 is coming!! I know it's not actually called Mega Man 12, but "12" has 80% fewer syllables than "Dual Override" and I always end up going with whatever name is easier to say. I still can't believe this is really happening lol.

Glad I haven't heard much Spotify Wrapped discussion this year. I already know Gero was my most-listened artist, I don't need a streaming service to call me out on it d: I don't usually care much about Wrapped stuff, but I wonder what an art-related data collection report would look like. What was my most-used brush this year? How many total layers did I create? Which character did I draw most? (This is either v flower or Kirino Ranmaru.) Average canvas size? Longest time I spent drawing in one sitting? Lots of things I'd be curious about.

I really want to catch up on Z-A, but man I'm not feeling the motivation d: I've watched Chinozo stream it a few times, but I still haven't gotten through the story from start to finish.

Dubious Disc · Feb 11, 2026

(3/5 edit: the animation got copystruck so here's just the audio x__x)

Throwing the Victory Road opening at you for the first post of the year! I really love this song, it never fails to cheer me up.

I would have posted earlier in January but I couldn't think of anything to write about lol. I've got a bunch of unfinished drafts sitting around but nothing polished, a lot of it is just miscellaneous artist identity thoughts but there's still soccer game stuff here and there.

Anyway, it's 2026! 2025 wasn't my year, but I'm hoping 2026 will bring some good things. (Granted, Victory Road came out in 2025, so maybe 2025 actually was my year. hmmm.)

My new year's resolution is to learn HTML and CSS for real this time!! I've learned them several times in several classes over the years, but I've always ended up forgetting everything after the semester ends, so this time I really want to actually learn stuff and keep it in my head. I've been mulling over the idea of starting a Neocities, although it's so far out of my comfort zone that I still have to get in the right mindset for it lol. I figure that if I have some personal interest in learning HTML and CSS, rather than just doing it for a grade, it'll motivate me to learn more. Because as it is, I get so caught up in meeting deadlines and checking boxes and getting the right grades that I know I'm not really learning the content. I know my classes are making me focus on the wrong thing, so I want to do something that will direct my attention and motivation to where it's supposed to go.

It'll be a while, but it's definitely something I want to do somewhere down the line. I've got no shortage of content, I just need to know how to put it all together.

The design aspect is a bit daunting too. Like, you hear people saying that personal websites are a way to push back against how formulaic and boxed-in modern web design and social media has gotten, but I'm so used to the boxes and formulas that I don't think I fully understand how much design freedom there actually is. So my scope is limited by both what I'm capable of and what I know.

I'm not gonna overthink it yet, though. I'll get stuck on the middle of that bridge when I get to it.

It's been 10 years since I started doing digital art! I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my art thread lol. Granted, I was still doing digital art before that (with a trackpad in MS Paint, of course), but I got my first drawing tablet for Christmas in 2015, so that's what really kicked it off.

I've been looking through my old art lately, and it's really interesting looking back and revisiting all those memories. I can feel that everything I drew was made with love, even if that love was directed toward different things over the years.

I still think that 2025 was one of the biggest shifts that my art has had so far, like I don't think I've ever consistently focused on non-soft shading at any point. So I'm treading completely new territory here. It's still kinda hard to make peace with making such a sudden change in the way I draw, like there's times when I compare my current art to my soft-shaded art from last year (2024. 2024 is still last year to me) and worry that my older art is better and I'm progressing backward. Like my soft shading looked better than the stuff I'm doing now.

Honestly, it's a weird place to be in. For the most part, I've managed to move past comparing myself to other artists, and I've learned to derive motivation and inspiration from styles that I perceive as better than mine, but apparently I still have a weak point when it comes to comparing myself to myself. I don't need to be better than other artists, but I do want to be better than my past self, don't I? It's not the same as feeling inferior to another person. The "you're not worse, just different" mentality that I usually use doesn't work as well here.

I guess there's just a difference between dismissing what someone else says and dismissing what your own mind says. Like, if I make a wrong decision and someone else says "you should have done this instead", it's easy for me to go "yeah, well, what do you want me to do about it, go back in time? Get off my back." But when I keep saying "you should have done this instead" to myself, I can't ignore that because it's my own feelings, not someone else's.

None of this is to say that I'm in a negative place with my art. I think I'm still growing, and I've started the year doing a lot of experimenting with new things. I've been trying to get better at drawing side profiles, as well as more complex poses and physical interactions. I know I'm gonna keep improving.

Anyway, I did end up drawing that Unmei avi to start the year lol. I honestly can't see myself switching away from it any time soon, it just really feels like it fits. Now that I finally actually have a singular favorite fictional character, I have to make the most of it

Seriously, the way Victory Road has been filling holes in my soul is kinda crazy. It's just a video game about soccer and yet it's like, the greatest thing to happen to me this decade.

Here's some music! It's been a few months, so some of these are older, but I still wanted to talk about them. I still don't know if I'm gonna go back to consistently doing these yet, but I needed to get back into the music posting groove before VocaColle, since that's coming up in two weeks.

New songs (Vocaloid):

Silly Terror by r-906 (feat. IA :[R]) - Let's go new IA voicebank!! She sounds so good here! r-906's chill songs never miss. I like the story in the MV too, the twist ending is nice.
bebatoh by Frog96 (feat. Kazehiki) - (cw: flashing lights) FROG96?? AFTER A YEAR?? HECK YEAH??? And with Kazehiki too! It's on the shorter side but it's so catchy, it has that "confidently weird" vibe that Frog96 always brings.
Ideal by TENBIN (feat. Adachi Rei, flower) - I like how the overlapping vocals kinda make it sound like it's flower's voice but with Rei's choppy robotic texture, it's a really interesting combo.
Creature by 32ki & Daibakuhasin & Yoshida Yasei (feat. Hatsune Miku, Kasane Teto SV) - (cw: flashing lights) This is a HECK of a collab! It's cool to see this kind of collab with newer producers, these three have all become big names relatively recently. I love the futuristic sound, all their styles come through in both the tuning and instrumental. Also Ryuuseee's animation!!! It's been so long… The designs go so hard!!
ra by HALKA (feat. Kagamine Rin) - It's cute ^_^ The silly synths and all the chaotic 3D animations are really fun.

New songs (non-Vocaloid):

Inochi Kezuri by Gero - (cw: blood, violence) When I say Gero is my favorite singer, THIS is what I'm talking about!! This kind of "hitting you in the face with an electric guitar" singing style. I live for intense rocking battle music! And WOOMA's art too!!!! New MV's from two of my favorite illustrators...
E1evat0r by SIXFONIA - (cw: flashing lights, unsettling imagery) Love some elevator horror!! I've gradually come to like songs that have jarring style changes like this, where it starts out sounding calm and then suddenly goes crazy and frantic during the chorus. The MV is a lot of fun to watch too, there's so many details and eye-catching effects. I mean, it is still horror, hence the "unsettling imagery" warning, but it's like liminal-space horror.
Ningen by Masayoshi Oishi - Good vibes... so many good vibes... This is one of those songs that always makes me feel a bit better when I listen to it, it's really uplifting c: The MV is chock-full of personality too.

New covers:

HALKA - Kyouran Hey Kids!! (THE ORAL CIGARETTES) - THIS ONE'S REALLY GOOD. THE GUITARS ARE REALLY GOOD THE SHOUTS ARE REALLY GOOD. How does any human being get their voice to sound like that??
ARKHE - Outer Science (Jin) - (cw: flashing lights) Kagerou Project fans feel free to come after me with hammers for constantly listening to Outer Science without knowing what it's about. I really like the arrangement in this one, it's a lot more electronic than rock and it scratches my brain itch nicely. I like the voice too, obviously (even though I have no idea who this guy is lol), it's very fitting for the song's atmosphere.
ARAKI & Sakaki Ness - Invisible (kemu) - ARAKI's been doing so many good collabs lately... Invisible in 2025!!! Invisible is a really important song to me, I'm glad to see it's still getting banger covers like this. The original is already rock but this is Even More Rock and I love it.
dongdang - A Spoonful of SPELL (r-906) - Every time dongdang covers an r-906 song, my lifespan gets longer. This might honestly be my favorite so far, the mysterious atmosphere really sets it apart.
dongdang - Namida (MARETU) - (cw: mild blood, themes of death because it's MARETU) I know I just said that A Spoonful of SPELL was my new favorite dongdang r-906 cover, but Namida might be my new favorite dongdang cover overall. The amount of emotion is crazy…

GERO'S DROPPING A NEW ALBUM!! YEEEEEAH!! I'm gonna be so annoying in April when it comes out lmao. Alllllmost makes up for all his epic collab concerts this year that I can't attend :')
Been listening the heck out of TEST ME lately. I've never seen Oshi no Ko but the openings seriously never miss.

Huge fan of the Skiploomening going on

this is one of those silly things that makes me happy I'm here. go my popocco beam!!!

Dubious Disc · Mar 21, 2026

(flashing images warning. as usual)

I finally listened to Sheeno Mirin :) So here's some Sheeno Mirin. (And Sasuke Haraguchi.) Loooove these kinds of visuals. The inside of my soul must look something like this.

I was going to do more Victory Road posting, but I'm gonna hold off on talking about spoilery stuff for the moment. Plus I still need to organize my thoughts a little more, my draft doc is up to like 3k words about Haru's character and most of it is just me needlessly repeating myself lol. Still got some editing to do d:

Anyway, does anyone want to hear more about my OC's...?? I've only just realized that even though I've occasionally posted art of my Pokémon gijinkas, I've never really talked about them in depth outside of their bios and stuff. I figured it might be fun to just do a quick dive into all the characters and their world, and whatnot.

The motif that I randomly picked up and have now consistently stuck to for my Pokémon gijinkas is that they're all mages. They've all got witch hats and they all study magic. Originally I didn't really have any specific story for them to live in, but now I think I've pretty much solidified the concept that they're students at a magic school. I also decided that this is a universe where modern technology exists alongside magic, so they have smart devices and stuff, but I haven't really explored that in a lot of detail yet. I just liked the idea of a world where magic and tech both exist, instead of magic replacing tech.

I've put very little thought into making any sort of consistent magic system lol. I loosely divide everyone's magic abilities into type-based stuff and other abilities specific to the individual Pokémon's concept. Type-based magic pretty much translates 1:1 to elemental magic, like fire, water, wind, electric, earth, etc. And then a lot of the more abstract stuff gets grouped into "psychic". Ghost and Fairy and Dark and whatnot all fall under psychic for my purposes.

The Pokémon-specific abilities are where I like to have more fun adapting Pokémon's characteristics to magic powers. Usually it starts as a pretty straightforward concept, like Theo seeing the future, Emmy reading emotions, Atsuki influencing emotions, Angela draining magic, etc. and then I add spins and limitations as I see fit. If I can't figure out how to make a Pokémon's traits into magic abilities, then I incorporate it into their personality instead.

In terms of visuals, the witch hats are absolutely mandatory. It's the thing that unites them all visually. Other than that, I use a lot of layers, flowing shapes, and long sleeves for everyone's outfits. I didn't notice until very recently that everyone has long sleeves, so I'm retroactively making it an intentional design choice d:

I don't really have a good way to transition directly into the individual character introductions, so here's a transition into the character introductions. They're ordered by when I designed them, from earliest to latest.

The first one! This was originally a design I did for the gijinka challenge, and I basically just threw it together without much thought lol. Sometime after that I thought something like "why don't I design more mages for him to hang out with?" and that's how I got here. I kinda see him as the main character, but overall I don't think he's that much more important than the others. They're all basically on the same level.

In line with Mismagius' incantations being able to bring torment or happiness or love or whatnot, Atsuki can influence people's emotions, but on a very subtle level. He can't change what someone is feeling, but he can put a sort of subconscious vibe in the back of their head that might mess with them. So he can't make you actively afraid, but he can give you an undefinable sense that something is wrong. He can't make you happy, but he can make you feel a sort of vague optimism that makes it easier for you to shrug off negative things.

But as someone who knows how annoying it is to have some inexplicable nagging thing in the back of your mind, Atsuki really doesn't like this power and generally refuses to use it. So he's trying hard to learn his friends' elemental magic instead.

In terms of design he hasn't changed much. He still carries around that red book everywhere, it's a sort of textbook-journal where he writes down various cool things he comes across. At first I envisioned his personality as edgy and contrary, but now he's more chill and the edgy factor is just part of his reputation. He's not overly cheerful, but not unfriendly either, just a bit reserved. He likes learning new kinds of magic, since he doesn't like the abilities that he naturally has.

I randomly named him after Atsuko Kagari as a placeholder name and somehow it grew on me lol. At some point I'll pick out some kanji for it d:
Atsuki's, Theo's, and Mick's names are all placeholders that stuck. Everyone else's have some kind of origin but these I just kinda went with because I couldn't come up with anything interesting lol.

Emmy's concept generally comes from me wanting to embody the idea of feeling overwhelmed. I always found it interesting how the Hatenna line perceives all strong emotions negatively, regardless of whether they're actually positive or negative, and in a strange way it resonates with me. Like, noise can overwhelm me even in situations where everyone else is happy and I feel like I'm supposed to be happy, so somehow I appreciate how Hatenna and co.'s concept works with the idea that when you're overwhelmed, all noise is bad noise. If emotions are noise to you, even happy emotions can be bad noise.

You know the whole "would you want the ability to read minds if you couldn't turn it off" thing? Where you're stuck hearing everyone's thoughts around you all the time? Emmy is like that, but with emotions. If she's physically near someone, she will feel the same emotions they do, and it'll interfere with whatever she herself is personally feeling. And in a school setting where she's always surrounded by people and all their different feelings, she struggles to maintain her own emotional state.

Aside from the primary emotion-reading ability, Emmy has a lot of powerful psychic magic, which she usually uses in the same way as Hatterene - to try and keep people away. In her eyes, it's about self-preservation more than anything. She just wants to be allowed to feel what she feels, instead of being stuck carrying everyone else's emotions.

She enjoys painting, and finds it a good outlet when she's alone. Her name comes from "empathy".

If I said Orchid wasn't my favorite child, I'd be lying lol. He's my favorite of the mage gijinkas c:

Essentially, I designed Orchid to be someone who appears very cool and collected and graceful, but is actually goofy and clumsy and full of goober energy. He's a silly guy down to the core and despite all his comedic slip-ups and hijinks, he enjoys life to the fullest and laughs at himself louder than anyone else. Although he's physically clumsy, he's quite skilled with words and is good at expressing himself.

Orchid specializes in plant magic and illusions, but they also enjoy sleight of hand and other such non-magical magic tricks. Although whether it's magic or not, there's always a decent chance that they'll mess up, whether it's from fumbling their handful of cards, accidentally exploding a flower bomb in their own face, or successfully making something vanish only to be unable to find it afterward.

He's afraid of bugs, for reasons that should probably be obvious lol. His name is a reference to orchid mimicry.

"Hotheaded fire user" is a trope I will never not be sick of, so Theo is very chill and deadpan instead. He isn't very expressive, but has a sort of dry detached sense of humor and always makes interesting conversation. He's rivals to besties with Orchid, and is usually the one who has to stop them from tripping over or walking into things. He's very dedicated when it comes to academic matters, but a bit lazy and laid-back otherwise. Like, his desk is very organized while the rest of his room is a mess.

Theo uses fire magic, both on its own and as a method of casting illusions and seeing into the future. Although he can see the future, it's a useless ability for the most part, since the visions he gets don't make any sense until they actually happen. It's basically like seeing out-of-context spoilers, where you don't understand what they mean until you get to that part of the story and realize "oh, so that's what that was about." Future sight is kind of a boring ability to me, so usually if I have a character who can see the future it comes with some kind of drawback.

I don't think Delphox actually have illusion powers, but I just really liked the image of fire-based illusions, I think it'd be a cool visual. He usually uses the stick when casting fire magic, just to give him some more control over it.

Out of everyone, I think Theo's design was the most difficult to put together. It was really hard to figure out a good silhouette and get all the shapes to work together, so ultimately he resembles his Pokémon inspiration much less than my other gijinkas.

Anyone else notice how creepy Shiinotic's face is? That blank =) stare has always been so unsettling to me. That's the idea I built Angela around, an otherwise cute design with an inexplicably empty expression. In terms of personality she's pretty normal, maybe a bit quiet and lost in thought. She's very diligent with her studies. And she's also cursed. She's been working on an independent project involving working with cursed plants, and although nobody has been able to confirm this, there's been a general suspicion in the air that her magic-draining abilities have led her to absorb curses from those plants as well.

Angela has very strong plant magic, with an extensive ability to control plants as if she's communicating directly with them. She can also drain the magic of others around her, temporarily allowing her to use their magic abilities to a limited extent. The spots on her hat can glow, which will cause fatigue and disorientation in anyone who looks directly at them. It seems like this is an instinctive defensive mechanism that developed as a result of the curse, in order to keep people from getting close and investigating further, rather than an ability that Angela consciously learned.

Her backstory is a bit more in-depth than the other mages, with how she got cursed and what her magic was like before and all. This is just the very abridged version.
Her name comes from "destroying angel", a type of poisonous mushrooms.

I'm a big opponent of the glorified smart-device-ification that Rotom has undergone these past few gens, so for my Rotom gijinka I wanted to go back to its roots as an annoying mischievous prankster. And because Rotom has so many different forms and can get STAB from so many different types, I translated this to Mick being a prodigy at elemental magic. She's a pre-burnout gifted kid who has a big ego and essentially takes advantage of her perfect grades to get up to all sorts of trouble. She's very well-known for being a class clown and causing a lot of chaos.

Mick really likes to pull pranks on people and mess with them, and the more of a reaction she gets, the more she enjoys it. She especially likes to target more serious people like Theo, she gets a kick out of pushing them to their limit until they finally snap. It's really funny to her. A lot of people find Mick funny, but a lot of people also find her annoying - her friends/haters ratio is probably about even. She's popular in a polarizing way.

I didn't include it here, but some parts of her outfit temporarily change when she's using elemental magic. The blue accent color changes, as does the shape of her scarf and cape.

a meowstic gijinka, in both male and female forms

Initially I had concepted them as twins, but somewhere down the line I decided to combine them into one person, so now they're the same person, just presenting differently.

Wave's magic is a bit of a departure from their Pokémon origin - since Espurr and Meowstic's psychic energy comes from their ears, I shifted this a bit sideways and made their magic sound-based. So they can manipulate any sound waves that they create, usually their voice but generally any sound that they're responsible for generating (tapping on something, plucking a string, scratching a chalkboard, anything like that). They can use this to move objects, create barriers, break things, etc. It's pretty versatile. They can also mess around with their own voice, like changing the volume, pitch, direction, or pinpointing it to just one person. Maybe even some audio effects like bitcrushing or echo and reverb.

One of Wave's greatest passions is singing, and although they don't mind using their magic for everyday speech, they make a point of never magically altering their singing voice - everything they sing is their own natural sound. But when they started to get a reputation for their singing voice, some jealous students started rumors that they were just faking their singing ability using magic, and once this got around to Wave, it hit them hard and started to diminish their interest in singing. Although they really want to sing again, they just can't get the accusations of fraud out of their head, and it shuts them down every time they try.

They'll figure it out in the future. I personally think they'll end up taking up rock singing or something more aggressive, compared to whatever their current singing style is.

Their name just comes from "sound wave". Technically also a placeholder, but at least it's a placeholder with a meaning d:

I hope you enjoyed meeting everyone!! There's a few characters I didn't include, either because I haven't drawn them yet or I haven't fully figured out their personality and abilities. Maybe in another post

No music section this time because this was a long post lol. Ego Renegade Boy was really really really good, we got a DaiDaiDaiDaiDaiKirai sequel, Ado & Kikuo collab goes crazy, r-906 posted a Kagamine Rin song for the first time, etc.

Dubious Disc · May 24, 2026

i am sorry to the two new chinozo songs i still haven't posted here yet... i will get to them

I think what I love most about music is that I'll never run out of new things to listen to that just pierce through my soul and make time stop. Whether I haven't discovered it yet or it hasn't been made yet, there's always another song out there to completely lose myself in.
Gero and Meychan covering World's End Dancehall... I don't even have any words. I don't. There is some context for what makes this cover meaningful, but even without that, it just sounds so good. I've been waiting so long to hear them collab again, it finally feels like they're really back.

I was going to post something for this blog's two-year anniversary, and then I dropped the ball on that. I guess I don't really have anything to add to what I posted last year? I know I've kinda moved away from music posting lately, and I still wish I could get back into that, but it's just gotten harder to think of what to write. Is writer's block a thing for blog posts? Maybe I shouldn't be trying too hard to hold on to the existing formula I've been using. Anyway, happy two years of discblogging! Even though I haven't been posting as much, I still like just having this corner here whenever I need it.

I was going to post something when Gero's new album came out, and then I dropped the ball on that too. It was really good! I like how every song has its own distinct energy, I always enjoy seeing how many different personalities his voice can have. In terms of which song I liked most, I wasn't expecting anything to top Inochi Kezuri, but surprisingly Gero on the MIC ended up being my favorite by a long shot! It's just such a feel-good song, it's fun and funky and full of good vibes. I really liked the MV as well, I always like when Katagiri Ikumi illustrates for Gero. As someone who knows how difficult it is to faithfully stylize a drawing of a real person, I'm impressed by how well Ikumi captures Gero's face and personality, you can tell they understand him really well. If that makes sense. There's a lot of MV illustrators who have stylized Gero in their own unique ways, but Ikumi's is my favorite.

I was going to post something for my three-year bulbaversary, and then I dropped the ball on that too. Has it really been three years?? It's almost scary to think about lol. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's been three whole years, other times it's hard to believe it's been only three years. I'm still really glad that I decided to join, this place has kept me company during my messy college years and I'd be really lonely without this community to come back to. I've made so many good memories here, like the RM Hunger Games, the Color My Tree and secret santa events, the Skiploom explosion, sharing stuff in the Art Gallery, all sorts of things. Even just the random interactions and conversations, sometimes small interactions and being randomly messaged out of nowhere mean the most of all.

So yeah, I'm still walking around. Hopefully these are the first three years of many.

music ↓

New songs (vocaloid):

Rejected Diva by PinocchioP (feat. Hatsune Miku) - PinocchioP has such an interesting interpretation of Hatsune Miku. I don't want to just repeat what everyone else has said, but I like these kinds of meta Vocaloid songs that don't feel nihilist or depressing - like, emphasizing the difference between humanity's real existence and Miku's conceptual blank-slate existence, but without making it seem like one is better than the other. Neither of us can be each other, but both of us have things that make us unique and special. And I can't not mention Miku demolishing Teto with the "I am beyond trends" line, maybe it's just because I'm burnt out from Teto's popularity but it was so good to hear lol.
Dark Veil by Guchiry (feat. MYK-IV) - The bass!!! And the guitars!! And MYK-IV!! I've always been curious about what Maiki's vocal synth sounds like, so I'm glad to finally find a song that uses him. I really like how Guchiry tunes CeVIO's in particular, their softer voices sound really cool with the metallic echoey effect he uses. From the comments it looks like this song has an existing narrative behind it, but I think it stands on its own as well, I really like its kinda mysterious vibe.
Harappa by Wataru Matsushiro (feat. Kagamine Len) - My recommendations just handed this to me one day and I ended up liking it, it's very groovy and silly c: I like Len's casual design too, he's just chilling out lol.

New songs (non-vocaloid):

KIRA by Ado (music: Tatsuya Kitani) - (+ audio only, since the MV has sound effects) I feel like it's been a long time since we got a really bright pumped-up rock song from Ado, it's great to hear some battle music again! Even though I still don't care about real-life soccer, I can't help but get hyped listening to this lol. (And yeah, my brain on Inazuma Eleven is eating up the MV animation. It goes so hard. This might actually be less crazy than the stuff that happens in IE, in terms of flashy elemental attacks and stuff lol)
Crazy Hero by Crazy Raccoon - (cw: flashing lights) There's something oddly reassuring about listening to this kind of upbeat music, like I can't be sad listening to this lol. It's not something deep or emotional, ultimately the message is just "we can do this!! heck yeah!!!" and sometimes that's all you need.
SOS by ¿?shimon - (cw: flashing lights) I will never get tired of shimon's messy noisy industrial sound, it's so good... It's interesting how this song feels both frantic and chill at the same time, like even though it sounds overwhelming and desperate there's a calmness to it as well. Not necessarily a positive calm, it's more like a "still keeping it together" calm, but it still makes for a cool contrast.

New covers:

HALKA - AiAiA (Ado) - THE SCREEEEEEAMS I never have anything to say about HALKA's covers apart from "how does he do that???" The range.... It sounds even crazier than the original, which is pretty impressive.
Kurousagi - TOXY! (short ver.) (KUJIRAGI) - Okay maybe I just wanted an excuse to mention TOXY! because I've been obsessed with TOXY! lately lol. I love how dynamic and expressive this cover sounds compared to the calmer vocal in the original, it squiggles around a lot more and it's really fun to listen to.
Sou - Everything (iyowa) - yaaaaay I love Everything so much, it's a really heartwarming song and Sou's soft voice fits it so well.
- Everyone else will tell you that Everything is a love song, but I'm here representing the friendship interpretation instead. This could just as easily be a song about best friends and that's how I read it c:
Chogakusei - NecroBite (self cover) - (cw: blood [thumbnail only]) I KNEW we were getting a self cover! I never lost hope!! I didn't expect it to get a new arrange, but it's really good! A bit of extra electro swing never hurts.

I miss Hiiragi Kirai... can't believe it's been two years now since Bad Bird.

I'm on summer break now, which means I'll be gloomy and listless until August, but I guess it's better than having class work d: It's weird to think that I could have graduated this year if I hadn't changed my concentration, I still have a few classes left to get done but I'm uncomfortably aware of how close I am to finishing. I don't like thinking about how I still don't have a job or any sort of preparation for the real world.

Been experimenting with my hairstyle this summer, I wanted to see if I could pull off a shorter cut and honestly I think it's really working out

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