Manly Songs: Kamen Rider Birth (Instrumental)

Okay, I know that this is supposed to be a feature shaped by visitors and readers, but I’m going to have to hijack the Repository for a moment.  Just a moment.  Because it’s kind of important.

As noted, I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of Kamen Rider OOO recently.  I can’t speak for anyone’s preferences besides my own -- especially since I’m a Rider greenhorn -- but for what it’s worth, I think OOO is pretty freakin’ great.  (Then again, I watched the first episode of Fourze recently, so we’ll just have to see which one retains top honors.)  In any case, part of the allure of OOO is the music, and how it weaves into the series at large.  The way it works is that the titular Rider uses a combination of three medals to mix and match parts for his suit’s weapon loadout.  As long as he has one head medal, one body, and one leg, he can freely choose between parts.  But if he puts in three matching medals, he gets an even stronger form…and said form brings with it a swanky tune.  (“Power to Tearer” is as godlike as its title is Engrish-y.)

What I didn’t expect was for there to be a hidden gem on the soundtrack.  Two hidden gems, in fact.  That’s because they were tied to a certain character I didn’t even know existed until I’d gotten knee deep in OOO.  But now I feel ashamed for not getting into the series sooner -- because not only is the music amazing, but the character in question is just as incredible.

Now then.  It’s time for a manly henshin…unless you’re wary of spoilers, which there WILL be.  Then again, the title of the post is a spoiler in its own right, so go nuts.

Pacific Rim: Fight a Hurricane

There’s a scene relatively early on in Pacific Rim where our hero Raleigh is giving the audience a voice-over to explain the mentality behind piloting a Jaeger, the giant robots employed in the future to fight off the kaiju invaders.  He says something to the effect of “standing up” and “looking forward” -- or more specifically, he mentions that normally when there’s a hurricane coming, you run and hide.  But when you’re in a Jaeger, you feel like you can stand up to it.  You have to fight the hurricane.

That…sounds like a really dumb idea, even if you’re in a giant robot.  A hurricane is a swirling mass of wind, water, and debris, isn’t it?  That really doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing you could get rid of just by punching it.  It sounds cool as hell, sure, but pretty impractical.  Still, it’s something you can chalk up to the nature of the movie and the universe therein.  It’s a world with giant robots and giant monsters.  It’s not supposed to make sense; it’s just supposed to be cool.

Except that mentality doesn’t really work for Pacific Rim.  Believe it or not, this isn’t necessarily the sort of movie where the “turn your brain off” mantra can come into play.  The movie is inherently dumb, but if you take even a few minutes to listen to these people and get invested in their world, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised.  Surprised, and rewarded -- and walking out of the theater with a smile on your face.

I know I did, at least.

There are likely some SPOILERS to follow, but there shouldn’t be anything too heavy here.  Besides, you shouldn’t even be reading this post anyway if you haven’t seen the movie; go out there and watch it so it can beat out Grown Ups 2.

Do the right thing.  Don’t let Adam Sandler win.

Manly Songs: The Tyrant

Hoo boy.  Playing The Last of Us has really been taking it out of me.  Especially with these posts I’ve been doing.  I mean, it’d be all right if I was having the blast with the game, but right now it just feels like I’m forcing myself to play it.  Not a good situation to be in…

Whatever.  I’ll just use this post as a break.  It’s been too long since there was a Manly Song post.  Too long, actually.  It’s true that there were those other posts from a while back with video game and anime songs, and the official post with Jin’s theme, but…I don’t know, it feels like there’s something missing.

I guess I haven’t thrown anything up into the Repository since I started this thing, but that feels a little dishonest.  This is supposed to be about others contributing.  Then again, I can’t get others to contribute UNLESS there are posts, so it’s only fair that I pop in every now and then, right?  But on the other hand, those posts have some other songs listed; it’s just a matter of listening to those and giving proper attribution.  But I wonder if it’s all right to count those…well, they probably are, but…

Ugh.  There I go, over-thinking things.  I think I’d better go take a break; cooling my head could do some wonders.  Besides, I could sure go for some hot dogs.  So I guess I'll switch off for now.

…Oh?  What’s this?  “Cross-Up”?  Well…this sounds like fun.

Spirit Showdown #10: The Biker

>tier-two summoning completed

>transporting data packets

>analyzing boundary

>analyzing tri-existence quotient

>analyzing

>pondering

>wondering

>thinking

>hoping

Manly Songs: Highway to Hell

Wow.  Been a while since I’ve done one of these.

In my defense, I have a good reason why.  I’m coming up on the final chapters of the current I Hraet You story arc and while I’m glad to have made the progress that I have (in the sense that I’m starting to feel like this is a project with some real potential), I know it’s about time to put it up on the shelf and work on something else for a little while.  So I’m motoring towards the arc’s climax, and between that and other themed posts -- the Looper post, the Tales of the Abyss posts, and the Spirit Showdown posts, all of which are a bare minimum of four thousand words -- I’m firing on all the cylinders I can.  You would think that I’d rather work on shorter posts and save the longer stuff for later, but…well, I can’t say I’m always the most logical person.

But enough chatter about internal affairs.  You’re here to listen to some manly songs, and use the lyrics to drone out the incessant rabble of a thousand-word post trying to rationalize it and subsequently take out all the magical elements.  Or if you’re from Bizarro World, you’re here to studiously imbibe every word I offer in my analysis and digest it, in the hopes that you’ll be able to offer your own thoughts and deductions, and hope that the stream of words flowing from your brain is enough to blanket the harsh sounds of soul-enflaming music and reality itself.  But then again, if you’re from Bizarro World, I wonder if you can even read in the first place.

So with all that said, let’s talk about a little-known, under-appreciated Australian band that has long since faded into obscurity and will never ever be referenced again after this post.

Manly Songs: Go the Distance

You know, they say the first step is always the hardest.

It’s hard to change.  It’s hard to get out of a rut.  It’s hard to do anything in the face of difficulty, or convention, or reason, or even in light of one’s own mind.  Hard, but not impossible; as you know, the right song can make all the difference.

So it was that I decided to take the first post of Cross-Up’s brand spankin’ new Manly Song Repository.  It’s a side project that’ll likely bring with it plenty of unforeseen problems, but it’s one that I’m willing to undertake if it means building manly bonds between us all -- and of course, creating THE MANLIEST PLAYLIST IN THE UNIVERSE .  The problem was that I needed the right song to start things off.  I needed a song that said, “Hey!  This is what being a man is all about!”

It would have been too easy to post a song from Gamma Ray or Stratovarius or Hammerfall, or any number of metal bands (though I will eventually).  It would have been too easy to post a guitar-heavy track from an RPG (though I will).  It would have been too easy to dip into any one of Daisuke Ishiwatari’s shredding masterpieces (though I will).  I needed something unexpected.  Something that would raise eyebrows.  Something…godly.

And I think I might have found it.

Introducing…The Manly Song Repository!

Did you know that I like music?

Well, under the circumstances, who doesn’t?  The only ones who don’t -- to my knowledge -- are Dr. Robotnik from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and that one evil maestro dictator guy from long-defunct animated series Oscar’s Orchestra (which I remember mostly because it starred a talking piano and had an episode paying homage to The Lord of the Rings.  And again, a talking piano).  So chances are that if you’re a living human being, you’re likely a fan of music in one form or another.  Unless you’re planning on becoming some sort of wig-wearing fascist ruler.

Come to think of it, in a universe full of talking instruments, wouldn’t that effectively make you some sort of genocidal monster?  Was that a sub-textual issue the writers were aware of?  Is it possible that I blocked out the memory of on-screen instrumental murder?  I mean, the opening has the bad guys detonating all music-related paraphernalia in a treble clef-shaped burst of smoke; who’s to say how many lives were lost, or how many panicked, pleading screams were heard?

…Then again, it does have a triangle-man who opened a portal to the past.  So maybe I’m taking the source material too seriously.

At a glance, it DOES lend itself to philosophical discussion.

So I’ll go ahead and switch gears -- and proudly announce a new feature here on Cross-Up.

Look! The East is Burning Red!

*leaning against a wall, with hands in pockets*

A blog hop, huh?  That’s the first I’ve heard of it, but I’ll give it a shot.  Now then, let’s see…if my guess is right, then all I have to do is…yep, that should work.

*rotates neck*

*steps away from wall, takes hands out of pockets, and raises a fist*

This ability to self-promote, allowing a no-name writer and his reputation to keep on spreading… I’m positive.  This idea has acquired abilities of TV Tropes…with the help of CHIHUAHUA ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*bursts into a storm of lightning*

This blog of mine glows with an awesome POWER!  Its burning code tells me to entertain you!  Take this!  My words, my gags, and all of my pageviews!  SHINING CROSS-UP POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!  


GO!  GO!  GOOOOOOOO!

*stabs the internet in the eye, causing terminal combustion*

…Ahem.  Let’s talk about the trope “Hot Blooded.”