Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

You can literally hear the otakus sharpening their claws, fattening their wallets and all getting ready to pounce on the 5000 pieces of Max Factory Haruhi. Not only are the usual hardcore collectors interested, many a casual anime lover is also planning to make her their first figurine purchase. Will 5000 be enough? Not a chance in hell. But of course, it’s obviously a stupid ploy by Max to BURNING the market before releasing subsequent batches.

She’s pretty affordable (at least in terms of retail price) at 3990 yen strangely. I would have expected at least the usual 4800. And comes with an extra arm, that allows her to morph into super Director mode! I need this piece badly because Haruhi and Mikuru will be the grass that accentuates the beauty of the greatest rose, Nagato Yuki.

It’s funny how everything Haruhi related churns up a storm.

But that’s not the main point of what I’m going to talk about today. I was listening to the excellent Depapepe, a duo of cool guys, witn a down-to-earth image. They write and play only semi-acoustic guitar instrumental songs. I first got to know them through a PV of Start! (though the version I have here has some weird noises at the end), which is a totally awesome piece. Then came along the rest of their albums and it was pure quality.

First, a bit of background. Depapepe was formed in 2002’s November, by Tokuoka Yoshinori (29) and Miura Takuya (23). They both shared the dream of creating songs which can convey their emotions, be it sad or happy feelings. Both guys are from Kobe.

With catchy melodies, great strumming rythmns and a simple yet energetic style, Depapepe’s songs are seemingly popular across all genders, ages and languages. Their quick interchanges, skilfully smooth and melodic solos and synergistic accompaniment are so brilliant that even without vocals, the song feels complete for instrumental newbies. Depapepe has a very well-rounded range of guitar techniques and they apply very basic stuff such as harmonics, tremelo etc aptly to augment the song. Their songs aren’t technically difficult but the two guys just do it very well. It’s the soul and the energy!

So you can imagine how pleased I was when Honey and Clover used one of their songs as an insert! And yeah, I do think they are better than Spitz, Suneohair and Suga Shikao.

The single for this particular song, Night and Day, was out just recently. The songlist is:

1. Night & Day
2. Pastel Doori
3. Hachi Roku
4. Hikari no Saki he

Out of the four, Night and Day is the best. The other 3 aren’t exactly that good, when compared to their other masterpieces. Or perhaps it could be my taste, that prefers songs similar to Start!. Hachi Roku is pretty unique though.

Start! is my all-time favourite though there are quite a few that come close to its greatness. I’ve pretty much lost most of my collection so I just picked up another good one here, Sazanami.

Please enjoy.

When I was in school, I was in the Guitar Club. Back then, anime wasn’t really part of everyday life and manga was a weekly thing. So how did I spend my time? Playing guitar of course. The days of hiding out in the storeroom doing impersonations of Flea from the RHCP… lol. Although I played both electric guitar and bass, my main club activity was still classical, which wasn’t that interesting. That said, since I saw the uber Kurikinton Fox play his arrangement of God Knows and other great songs, it struck me that I haven’t touched my own guitar for almost two years! Now that’s bad. Figurine collecting is so NOT a skill. I better start practising again.