My definition of J-pop encompasses a wide range of musical genres, with the only condition being that the vocals MUST be in Japanese. This Weekly J-pop started out as a "weekly" post in my buddy's music related Facebook group, StereoNerds. One of the members suggested I start my own blog for it. I post J-pop songs, and give my opinions on them and kind of talk about whatever else. School usually works its way in there, especially since it takes most of my attention. I will post here and in StereoNerds simultaneously. I will NOT guarantee a post every week. The "Weekly" is more of a guideline, which I can fulfill most of the time. I hope you all like my ramblings about loving J-pop. Minna, gokitai kudasai!!
[MEMBERS AND HELP WANTED] for my J-Pop/Anime Cover Band
We're Zenbu-itadaku Re:Cover (Zenbu-ita), an anime/Japanese cover band based in Mankato, MN, and we're hoping to foster a community of people who want to help us share our love of all this cool stuff.
So, if you're interested in doing anything with us please reach out.😄
Members we're looking for:
[ CURRENT ]
Lead Guitar (Possum - injured)
Rhythm Guitar (Leo - wants to focus vocals)
Bass (Ace - busy schedule)
[ NEW ]
DJ + MP (Manipulator), we use backing tracks
Keyboard
Female Vocals
[ HELP ]
Social Media Manager
Techies/Roadies (can comp for show/con ticket, etc. if helping)
[ OTHER ]
Doubled Members (subs, extra parts for specific songs)
Other Instruments for specific songs
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you're interested in doing anything with us. These are just our main needs currently.
I don't know what I'm doing, but at least I'm doing something.
Last year I learned about #SingingMarch, and I kind of gave up on it until I realized that I could use my live performances I've been doing at local karaoke and open mics (because those are still covers).
That was after I tried to record Alcohol Free by Twice and ran into more issues than my burnt out former-engineer brain wanted to troubleshoot.
I generally find recording very stressful because of extremism and perfectionism, but also because I'm a live-performer type. I feel like every performer is either more comfortable performing in a studio or just doing one and done live performances. I'm the latter even though I freeze up and kick myself for "messing up" after, I still really just enjoy singing and bringing joy to people.. and being a bit of a ham and really getting into the music.
That's why I started my band Zenbu-itadaku Re:Cover, because it was so fun and electric to sing Japanese live with my friends' cover band the Spoon Cherries before they disbanded. And that was such instant gratification versus all the steps of recording vocals and "creating a product" or the years I put into trying to train an improve a machine learning model for pill counting.
That being said, our band is gonna work on recording some singles this year. And yes, I'm anxious about it. 😂
Anyway, back to #SingingMarch..
SingingMarch this year hasn't been off to a great start as I was dealing with a nasty headache and stomach issues at the beginning of March. And Sony Vegas Pro 14.0 is slow as molasses and froze up so many times that I decided to try Canva since I've been using it to design all our band's flyers, etc.
Aaand Canva is quirky. I threw multiple videos for Momotaro on the same track just so I could move them around freely instead of having to fill up the space like freaking Finale Print Music (so glad I have Cakewalk for a DAW now). But there is no jump to the beginning, and I have to "restart" multiple times for the preview to actually play with all the videos synced.
I probably will avoid doing stuff that ambitious with Canva in the future, but I hope I can use it to throw together the rest of my videos for SingingMarch.
I was excited about the prompts, and it's been a kind of puzzle to figure out which of my live performances (the majority of which are nowhere on the internet) I can share with people that follow the prompt.
I think I'm a decent singer, but I'm not as good as I want to be. And I love all these songs and want to do them justice, but at the same time this perfectionism drives me insane so I need to share something or it'll just be another missed year.
I'll post on YouTube, Twitter (X), and Bluesky
So if you want to follow you can find my SingingMarch stuff there.
If you took the time to read this all.
Thanks, it means a lot.
- Chris (Hoto)
Here's my band's LinkTree if you want to check us out
View Zenbuita’s Linktree to discover and stream music from top platforms like YouTube, Spotify here. Your next favorite track is just a clic
I made an Anime Detour panel vid description too long and am now in another world? (2025)
I’ve been sharing J-Pop in different ways now, mainly I started my own band. I’ve been filming and uploading our performances. I ran into a bunch of headaches with copyright and stuff uploading our J-Pop panel from Anime Detour, and one of those issues was that I.. maybe put too much stuff in the description.
[Edit] Here's the full panel video: https://youtu.be/pVciTitEokA
So, I’m just gonna post the revisions here that I couldn’t fit in the YouTube video description.
[ HOTO REVISIONS ]
It was a little hard to hear the audience at points, and I was tired and also trying to figure out more songs to share.
So, I didn't interact as much as I would've like to now looking back.
I was honestly confused how 一世風靡 translates to SWAY.
Google Translate says "A big hit", so I checked Denshi Jisho
一世風靡: ruling the times; holding sway over the minds of the people
And NOW it makes sense.
(Side rant. I hate how YouTube is forcing localization of foreign titles. I've had trouble finding songs, because I discovered with the original Japanese titles. For example, Suisei's ビビデバ (bibideba) now shows up as BIBBIDIBA. I think it's just a stylistic choice. But Spotify just uses the Japanese if that's what the artist submitted, so it's good to know both. It's harder to find on Spotify cuz you need the kanji. I think it's good to have a localization option to make this stuff more accessible to a wider audience, but I have not figured out a way to OPT OUT..)
I was blanking, but THIS was the video my friend originally showed me.
So, it was the hologram concert. And I'd never seen anything like it before.
(Also I got distracted trying to read her shirt, which I now think says ピアプロ (piapuro = piapro). I just searched it and found https://piapro.jp/)
10:50 So, the "India-inspired anime" I was talking about was because of a specific song I discovered on SoundCloud.
I remembered now it's Qunka! by Hanazawa Kana, but I had never checked what it was from. (https://soundcloud.com/shiruva-knight-anya/qunka)
But it is actually weirdly an opening to a tennis anime called "Teekyuu" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b0U9IQNT8M)
20:00 Audience question
Q. How did I expand in J-Pop from Hatsune Miku?
A. It was through music from anime like Precure, but then YouTube recommendations and SoundCloud. With both those algorithms, once you've looked up enough Japanese music they will recommend you more. Like openings or endings to anime or arrangements of anime songs.
I did not stop watching Fullmetal Alchemist because it was too long. It was because it's overall grim but throws a lot of fun and quirky parts in.
I just did not enjoy it enough to continue watching. I like more light-hearted and fun anime, and serious doesn't need to mean grim. I've heard Brotherhood is better, but the franchise is just not a big interest for me.
To be a Youtaite/cover artist you DO NOT NEED A FULL OFF-VOCAL to sing over. It has been heavily established in the Youtaite community to make full MVs and mix and master, but you can just sing and play guitar. Do what is fun and makes you happy without worrying about a standard. Fujii Kaze started off making piano + vocal covers on his YouTube channel, and they're still there.. AND FUN!
I actually did a blog post on this with more info on the song as well as a link to Stan Lee's interview and more. You can check it out.
It honestly ties in with a bunch of stuff I mentioned. (I've always been rambly)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oey8s7eteqk
IT IS TIME! Were you prepared for this?
Josh is doing his Physics homework, and I have a Stat
Just to give a timeline of some releases:
April 5, 1975 - Himitsu Sentai Gorenger ~ First Super Sentai Series
May 17, 1978 - SUPAIDAMAN
March 4, 1981 - Hyakujuu-Ou GoLion
September 10, 1984 - Voltron: Defender of the Universe ~ adapted from Hyakujuu-Ou GoLion
February 21, 1992 - Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger ~ First mech: https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Shinka_Gattai_Daizyuzin
August 28, 1993 - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ~ First Power Rangers Series (adapted from Kyouryuu Sentai Zyuranger)
The Power Rangers series had different actors, but they could reuse a lot of footage from the Super Sentai series when they're in their battle outfits.
I believe they initially dubbed over when the faces aren't shown, but then they filmed all the scenes in casual clothes or when their faces were shown.
And they changed the story to better appeal to a western audience and work better with the American cast.
41:20
(Man with a Mission, Spyair, Back-On, ONE OK ROCK), It was hard to hear, but I do know Spyair (from my bassist) and ONE OK ROCK
Q. What similar Japanese bands aren't well known for anime music, don't use english titles, and are more popular in Japan but not the west.
A. Most of the Japanese bands I started with are anison (anime song) artists, even if not exclusively.
And english titles are littered through so many band's discographies, cuz having english in a title was "cool" before it was for western accessibility.
But those bands have a lot more songs that aren't used in franchises and aren't well-known, so I'm just gonna throw some here that I think are similar.
Checking out a song from each of the bands I'm getting soft rock, harder rock, and some hip-hop.
And I'll use "~" for more obscure ones that I don't know from anime, so maybe start there (limiting to 10, but if you want more recs reach out!).
- L'Arc~en~Ciel
- Janne da Arc
~ Acid Black Cherry, solo project of Hayashi Yasunori (yasu) after Janne da Arc's indefinite hiatus
- FLOW
- Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets
- JAM PROJECT
- Home Made Kazoku
- ZZ
- UVERworld
- Bump of Chicken
I wonder who the visual kei band that played in Milwaukee was.
48:28
Q. Do we learn Japanese covers from knowing the language or phonetically?
A. Technically, it starts out phonetically especially when I first hear the songs. But as I've learned more Japanese I've recognized more words.
Although, sometimes I misinterpret due to the singer's pronunciation, audio processing, or artistic variation from the expected pronunciation.
But I don't just learn it phonetically, because sometimes I hear the wrong sounds. It's good to cross-reference what you've hear with what the lyrics say.
Many time people misinterpret when they romanize the lyrics, so I like to find the kanji and kana lyrics when I'm confused.
I initally memorized Dream Star from the kanji and kana lyrics, which included furigana.
Sometimes romaji is a lot more confusing and harder to separate the syllables, especially in bigger words, because my brain insitinctively tries to
read roman letters as english.
So, use whatever works.
You can just try to match the singer's phonemes, but I encourage you to understand the meaning of the song to convey the feelings and emotions of the song.
Here's the Google Form for any of you who want to submit questions or topics that we can answer at panels:
If you want to contact us directly to ask questions, etc.
Anime, music videos, AMVs, video games, memes: great ways to find music! We'll discuss our experiences and present songs, artists, and franchises for all!
Happy New Year 明けましておめでとう (Akemashite omedetou) This was a crazy but good year for me. I've been going to therapy and working on being more proactive than just doing the grind at work and feeling unfulfilled at home. I've been making our townhouse into a more livable space and getting my new computer setup. Things are coming together, bit by bit. And I've also been working on my relationships, not just getting stuck in projects. As we're starting the new year, I definitely feel like I could've done more. That feeling will probably always come up, but I have definitely come out stronger. I've been doing more new and scary things to break out of my shell more, have new experiences, and enrich my life. There are things I've wanted to do for a while, but I just kept dreaming about them or talking to people about them. Not doing them. And last year, I got LASIK and went to Japan. So, I'm excited (and nervous) to let y'all know some things I want to do: I'm working on making a video of my Japan trip. I've been coming up with more ideas for songs and have started developing some, but I'd really like to start finishing some songs. And I think it'll really help once I get a MIDI controller keyboard and maybe a better DAW. I want to get better at Japanese, and singing, and singing in Japanese. I want to make more vocal covers, but I also want to try to sing in more live venues. Several years ago I went on a spring break trip to Kansas City with our family friend Gordon Bute, and I sang a live cover at an open mic night in the Blue Room with an improv band. I also have this really cool idea for a music video I want to make for my "debut", but I still need to finish the song. 😅 I want to update my live streaming setup and start streaming again. I'm gonna continue Ultima IX, and do other gaming streams as well more talking streams, programming streams, karaoke streams, and whatever else I want to stream. I've also had a couple ideas for programming projects. - One, which I need to do some more research for, is a music player that can stream music from YouTube or SoundCloud (for now) as well as from files. I know I'm crazy, but it's fun Thanks for the support https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm-w1npNZNM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Hey all,
I just wanted to let you know that I have now setup a Twitter account for news and updates, so if you want to keep on streams and the like you can follow me there.
Thanks
Also, I will be streaming Ultima IX: Ascension tomorrow. Details on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Hotokeiki) and Twitter
The latest Tweets from Hoto☆keiki (ホット☆ケーキ) (@Hoto_keiki). Yo minna-san,
I'm Chris (Hoto), a software developer who loves music, video game
I know it's short notice, but I'll be streaming Ultima IX: Ascension tomorrow Sun, June 26th @ 12:00pm CDT (5:00pm UTC)
I streamed Ultima IX before, but I broke the game so we're starting over. XD
I'm gonna try to stream more consistently. I'm currently thinking every other Sunday 12:00pm - 3:00pm. And then I might try for every Sunday.
I'll be streaming on YouTube and Twitch. So, if you prefer Twitch you can watch me stream there, too.
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hotokeiki
YouTube: https://youtu.be/AtPeemlGRoA
Also, I don't want to keep bogging down my Tumblr with stream and video notifications.
So, I'll just be posting those on https://www.facebook.com/Hotokeiki
