Eurobeat, Para Para and other JDM shenanigans

At the beginning of this millennium, I was introduced to Anime. Yeah I am that old school! Back in those days Anime was stuff you had to download from obscure file sharing networks. I saw the birth of DivX, looked for impossible to find codecs. In those you had VHS rips none-of that hi-tech DVD rips.

'Nuff with the nostalgia, the first real Anime I saw was Neon Genesis Evangelion. That stuff was ahead of its time. The only thing that ever came close to it was GITS and GITS had a real budget. Being that old school, I of course watched Initial D before everyone and must admit, I enjoyed it. The story was crap, the drawing was average but the battle were full CG. I was pretty serious about it, I watched the entire Battle Stage and Extra Stage RAW! Hardcore!

I have to credit Initial D for my foray into J-Pop and J-Rock. My listening to Eurobeat was a direct offshoot of all that Anime watching. There is just something about high BPM and sucky English lyrics that makes no sense but all in all, it works. I got a kick out of it and listened to it for a while.

A collection Anime/Japaneses related mp3 on one of my friend server led me to a song called Endroll (remix) by some Ayumi Hamasaki. Even though, I could not understand the lyrics (maybe a good thing, J-pop is not renown for deep and meaningfull songs) but somehow I could endure the annoying voice and enjoy the music. Looking for more of her songs, I stumbled upon her Trance re-mixes and discovered Trance music.

More anime, meant more OP and Ending, meant more artists to discover. The final chapter came with FLCL and the Pillows. That was a brillant work of art and t0 this day, the only anime that I will watch again (I talk about re-watching EVA but can't bring myself to do it).

End of Part One, gotta run to the gym.