#because jazz musicians went off the deep end with bebop

[cleavetheclover]

Valorant Agents Music Taste & Playing Instruments

Brim canonically plays bass, as alleged in Breach’s voice mail

Brims main music taste is in classic rock but can also play upright bass for some jazz standards, used to play casually at like weddings and stuff

Brim is secretly a jazz nerd and absolutely will infodump about pre-1950s big band if asked

Breach plays drums since he lacks the fine dexterity for most string instruments, but is learning to play trumpet

Chamber plays solo classical piano and only solo classical piano. Likes Beethoven and Debussy, thinks Strauss is overrated

Kayo downloaded the entire Garage Band instrument library into his memory, plays drum sounds and calls it beatboxing

Kayo knows enough physical drums to play “badum-tsss” every time he makes a joke

Viper listens to heavy metal, dislikes pop-punk. She can play electric guitar but chooses not to

Phoenix played trumpet in 5th grade band, then became a theater kid so now he knows the soundtracks to like every musical ever. Hamilton is his favorite because it contains rap, dislikes sad musicals and will cry when watching them

Phoenix can improv rap like no one else’s business

Reyna’s acoustic guitar is better than sex. Self taught/a natural. Has never played it in front of other Agents

Cypher used to do karaoke with his wife Nora, but hasn’t sang since she passed away. A shame, since his voice is excellent

Jett listens to Kpop, has been indoctrinating Phoenix. She doesn’t play an instrument but has been recasting the choreography to work with her knives, wind powers, and various other weapons in the Amory

Killjoy listens to German House

Astra listens to contemporary classical and tribal/folk music from all cultures, is fascinated by work songs

Harbor listens to movie soundtracks. Thinks Hans zimmer is excellent but doesn’t listen to his tracks as standalone objects because he finds them to be so focused on ambience that they become monotonous.

Harbor sings sea shanties on the helicopter and the duelists (sans Reyna) join, much to Chamber’s chagrin

Fade listens to alt rock. Likes Tricky, Massive Attack, Rage Against the Machine, and Radiohead

Fade’s guilty pleasure is listening stalking everyone’s Spotify profiles and secretly listening to the things they do. Now she has a healthy dose of grunge (from Viper) and some dubstep (from Killjoy)

Raze listens to Brazilian music, mostly Carnival and axé, and enjoys anything else loud

Omen wants to play an instrument, but doesn’t know which one. Cypher recommended the cello

Sage listens to cpop and meditative music, two opposite sides of the spectrum. She has been teaching herself the harp

Sova listens to EDM, otherwise generally prefers silence. He hasn’t found a genre he likes yet

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Review

I should’ve probably called this “Why You Should Watch It” because it’s a pretty strong show that went under my radar when it first aired.

TL;DR (Summary): If you like fun hitmen going after each other and most likely being gay in the process, you’ll like this show! It’s plenty of fun to watch especially towards the end. The art is simple, but the soundtrack has some jazz fun! The story is paced well enough to keep you interested from beginning to end. It has a major lack of good female characters.

If you like: Banana Fish, Durarara, Baccano, Hamatora, or Bungou Stray Dogs

Those are my recommended picks. I’ve only watched Durarara’s first and second season, and I haven’t watched Baccano or Hamatora (besides clips), so these are really just based on my views of the series.

If you want a quick rundown of the cast and why you should watch it, I recommend this post by @hypermoyashi​

Synopsis:

Although the city of Fukuoka might look relatively peaceful at first glance, in actuality it houses a thriving mixture of dangerous individuals. Zenji Banba, a laidback and observant detective who is investigating the work of other hitmen companies in the area. However, Banba might not be the only one with a bone to pick with these organizations, as Xianming Lin, a crossdressing male hitman in the employ of one such company begins getting fed up with his lack of jobs and pay. Frustrated, he is offered the job of taking out Banba, whom his organization believes has been interfering with their business. However, when Banba arrives at his home and finds the hitman inside, Lin surprisingly doesn't even attempt to kill him. Instead, he offers the detective another option: to join him and form a team. With the offer on the table, exactly how will Banba respond, and just what plans does Ling have in store for the underground world of Fukuoka?

[Source: MAL / edited by me]

Characters

The characters are one of the most charming things about this story. While story hijinks are fun, but this cast is full of interesting personalities. For the sake of simplicity, I’m only going to mention the Japanese cast. You can search the English cast on your own.

Banba Zenji [played by Ono Daisuke]

Lin Xianming [played by Kaji Yuuki]

Enokida [played by Ono Kensho]

Jirou [played by Namikawa Daisuke]

Martinez “Maru-chan” Jose [played by Maeno Tomoaki]

Misaki [played by Yuuki Aoi]

Saruwatari “Sarucchi” Shunsuke [played by Nakamura Yuuichi]

Nitta Naoya [played by Matsukaze Masaya]

Feilang [played by Shimazaki Nobunaga]

Saito [played by Kobayashi Yuusuke]

[Left to Right: Enokida, Saito, Benba, Lin, Jirou, Misaki, Saruwatari]

Each of these characters has their own unique design and their own sense of uniqueness. 

If you want more information about these characters, read this post. It’s the same as the one I referred to above, but it’s just so accurate.

I like the fact that this anime doesn’t make fun of its cross-dressing character for the sake of comedy. They allow him to still be badass while allowing him to dress the way he wants, and I like that. The gay characters also don’t get any bad rap for being gay. 

The gay man even adopted his own child... at least, I think that’s how he got the kid... I think. 

Story:

In terms of story, this is a whole lot of fun. It’s fast-paced enough to keep your interest, and in my opinion, the story gets even better with time. Towards the end, I started to actually feel excited. I wanted to know what was gonna happen. I don’t want to reveal too much besides that. If you’ve watched Durarara, I think you know that revealing anything (especially since this series is 12 episodes) will be detrimental. 

Art:

The art is simple, but it works. It’s really nothing special, and the fight scenes are better in other shows. This was done by studio Satelight, and they have worked with other studios to create awesome anime like Fairy Tail and Hellsing Ultimate, but alone, they aren’t as good. Nonetheless, they really held it together and created some okay art. The direction was good, but I think a collaboration could’ve made it even better.

Sound

This part is a whole lot of fun. Artistically, this is where it shined. The score composer is experienced. He wrote for Code Geass, Gosick, Inu x Boku, and so many other shows. They have some jazz tracks that will really make it like Durarara, and it has so much spunk. I would’ve gotten more attached to the OST if it wasn’t constricted to 12 episodes.

I wish they went even wilder with the ED. It felt a bit too structured. When I listen to jazz tracks like that, I want the musicians to go wild and to improvise. It doesn’t need to sound clean. As a classical musician who has tried jazz, I really like trying out random things when given a chart. When the trumpet or saxophone blares that top note then trills or pulls off difficult runs, now that... that is more satisfying than any slime video will ever be. They had it in the full version, but they cut it out on the TV version. I think that’s a huge loss. When the improv fits and goes well, that’s just pure gold. I wish the ED had a moment like that, and when they talk during the credits about the next episode, follow with a slightly muted drum solo. That would be really cool too. I think these comments go towards the sound director, but I just wanted to make these suggestions.

Have a listen here: 

The OP was not original. I felt like it blended in. In fact, let’s just switch the two. Let’s pull a Cowboy Bebop and have a jazz instrumental theme song. That would be SO GOOD.

Voice acting was great. They cast pretty much all well-known people who have already gotten at least one good role under them. These performances are no exception. But I would have chosen different voice actors for this cast a lot differently if I was in the director’s position. I questioned some of the choices at first, but they all won me over eventually. I think it’s because I’ve heard Ono Daisuke play too many of these kinds of smooth-talkers, Kaji Yuuki has played so many deep-voiced protagonists (although this one was different), and Namikawa Daisuke has played so many characters with that kind of voice and personality. I would’ve liked to see some new people. Especially for roles like Saito, I know that Kobayashi Yuusuke is relatively new, but I would’ve liked to see someone who’s even newer. Kaji Yuuki has voiced a lot of protagonists. I would’ve liked to see someone semi-new. Same with the other roles. Seasonal anime is the time to let your fresh crops flourish.