Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad
I dunno, Neko has posted this idea that Zazen was Shiina saying goodbye to her Western garb and embracing traditional japanese stuff. Its true that its the first time she was more traditional visually (which I honestly think accounts for very very little.) Its not like it was a full out sayonara to her "western roots."
Yes, there was Sugoroku/EM -- but lest we forget the tour before Sugoroku in promotion of KZK. The tour that was akin to BX (tho the actual performance in BX was before this tour of which im speaking.) I think this is a very western presentation. Jihen for the most part (excepting the very recent sotc2 shows) undoubtedly western. Even if you discount Jihen, HF was a classically showtunes affair.
I just think Neko has ran with this "leaving behind of western stuff" idea a little farther than it was worth.
Bongo: You are talking of the GX DVD release. Not when the GX show was performed live tho  |
I'm actually paraphasing more or less the album liner notes that came in the ZX copy of RAT that was at Tower when I bought the magazine. In it there is a really long article about the show, where they describe how SS was released that march, followed by GX in the following months, then a month as Hatsuiku Status, then the Zazen show....in the last paragraph they really go into detail about the mannequin and what this show represented, mainly a move away from her earlier image and into what we saw later. I guess saying leaving "western stuff" is a little misleading, but the way it is written is very difficult to translate, they talk about her embracing "和” which literally means harmony or peace but is used in general for anything of Japanese aesthetic....so I think I may have put it a bit crudely....but it still more or less served as her first jumping off point where people realized we weren't going to get another SS.