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Old 2015.06.10, 11:27 PM   #4
The Most Curious Thing
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Location: Massachusetts
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My personal take on Jihen is odd. Mainly because my play button was stuck on them for a good ten months before I even discovered solo Shiina. Kyouiku, Adult, and Sports were favorites of mine in late 2010; my view of Jihen was this balanced triangle of pop, rock, and jazz that I hadn't seen before. I had no context for what (Phase 2) Jihen was relative to Shiina Ringo's career, and found myself on the outside looking in when Daihakken was released a few weeks after I joined EMF. And I was only really a fan of Jihen for 18 months before they disbanded, so I never had the opportunity to be "disappointed" by them as the years slipped by like the older fans here. I discovered Jihen, within a year they had a new album out, and within another year they had packed up and left.

Basically, I guess, I'm more susceptible to the pains of seeing Shiina Ringo phone in her career since I never really got to see Jihen do it in my shoes. If I had to go through 5-6 years of watching Phase 2 durdle around doing nothing on the level of Shiina's solo career, I'd probably think something like dg:

Originally Posted by deadgrandma View Post
It's much more painful than any Jihen disappointment because I had been waiting for so long for her to follow up Sanmon Gossip.
But for me? I guess "I really don't care either way." On one hand I'd rather have another Sports + Ultra C than a dozen Sunnies + EXPOs (and I don't think Sunny is "bad," per se), but on the other hand solo Shiina still can surprise with gems like Toutaikai and Omoitsuki Live that aren't possible on any level with Jihen. It's clear that she's just riding out the rest of the career, so she can do that however she wants and I'm sure I'll be able to pick out something here and there to enjoy.
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