This week, Sakamichi gets its own beach episode! At least I’m pretty sure it can count as a beach episode. Seems a bit early, but not that there’s any complaints. It is a short series after all.

Martinman: So….this episode was pretty good, and lived up to the expectations the first episode gave me.
Ghosty: I agree.
Ghosty: I was smiling the whole time.
Martinman: There were some more fun/short fight scenes, some jamming, some SOL-ing, and some hijinks.
Martinman: I was not quite as impressed with the OST this time though.
Ghosty: Yeah, the OST was a tad lacking.
Ghosty: Aside from their jazz session, I liked that one tune they played when they were swimming.
Ghosty: I really liked the episode, but my boyfriend felt that they lost focus a bit.
Ghosty: Which I don’t really have a problem with.
Martinman: Yeah, we don’t really know yet whether there is going to be a strong linear story, or if this is more like an SOL.
Martinman: I’m honestly ok with “The Daily Lives of High School Jazz Freaks”.
Ghosty: Me too.
Ghosty: I can see this being more romance centered after this episode too.
Ghosty: Also…
Ghosty: Jun is totally awesome.
Ghosty: We need more of him!
Martinman: Speaking of the jazz session, that was the tune Bag’s Groove.
Ghosty: Oh yeah?

Embedding was disabled for this video.

Martinman: Yep, it’s a Miles Davis tune featuring Milt Jackson on the vibraphone.
Ghosty: I like it.
Martinman: It’s good stuff, as usual with Miles Davis.
Ghosty: I wonder if there will be any other characters that play music later on?
Martinman: And yeah, Jun was a pretty cool guy. He plays teh trumpet and doesn’t afraid of anything.
Ghosty: So dreamy~
Martinman: I was kind of surprised to see the dad pick up the bass. I guess someone had to be the bass player.
Ghosty: Actually…
Ghosty: When watching the OP, I noticed he was on the bass and I was like “Oh my gosh, I wonder when we get to see him play music?”
Ghosty: And sure enough, it happened.
Martinman: Lol…shows you how much I pay attention.
Ghosty: Hehe. I may pay attention to some minor details.
Martinman: Women are generally more detail-oriented.

 

Ghosty: These kids at this school seem like they fight dirty.
Ghosty: I mean, you have them throwing sand in Sentarou’s eyes it was like 4 on 1, at least until Kaoru kind of helped.
Ghosty: Then again, physical bullying is pretty foreign to me, outside of cartoons.
Martinman: A kid tried to steal my pencil case in middle school.  I threw him into a table and he never bothered me again.
Ghosty: It’s great that Sentarou is looking out for Kaoru though! Sentarou would be the best friend to have at school!

 

Martinman: In regards to the romance, I agree that the show seems to be moving in that direction.
Ghosty: I love it.
Martinman: Which I certainly think is a good thing. This is a coming of age story, more or less, and high school romance is certainly a part of that.
Martinman: Unless you are me. ;(
Martinman: *Foreveralone*
Ghosty: It’s been a while since I’ve watched/read a good romance that didn’t involve killing people, ghosts of childhood friends, or penguins.
Martinman: And like that guy said in the OA discussion thread, I am glad to see the triangle of the main three characters broken up already.
Ghosty: Same.
Ghosty: I’ve seen quite a few fangirls upset at the fact that Sentarou had his eyes on another woman
Martinman: I know Japan has its childhood friend fetish, but Sentarou and Ritsuko are better as friends than as a couple.
Martinman: Plus, poor Kaoru has no chance with like…any other woman.
Ghosty: True
Ghosty: maybe the guy that undid his pants in that one scene
Martinman: Those fangirls are just jealous that it isn’t them Sentarou is after.
Ghosty: Well…
Ghosty: More like…
Ghosty: They’re jealous that he’s not after Kaoru. <_<
Martinman: LOL
Martinman: True.
Martinman: There is still room for a threesome though…
Martinman: Nevermind.
Ghosty: I WARNED YOU ABOUT THOSE FUJOSHI, BRO.
Martinman: Let’s not go there.

 

 

<<<< Martin
Ghosty: I know we didn’t see much of the record store this time around, but I saw that there were some different albums on the wall. Did you notice any of them?
Martinman: I still see only the same albums from last time though.
Ghosty: Oh really?
Martinman: I do see the soundtrack for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Ghosty: Hahahaha.
Martinman: Other than that, there wasn’t anything new that I recognized. The shots were very brief, and then the scene shifted to the basement.
Ghosty: Maybe next time.
Martinman: Yes, I’d really like to see some new stuff.
Martinman: One other thing I wanted to discuss was the first part of the episode.
Martinman: When Kaoru was trying to learn how to play Moanin’ by ear.
Martinman: They were playing what sounded like the actual Art Blakey version of Moanin’ which was very cool.
Ghosty: Oooh.
Martinman: Also, learning to play by ear like that is the best way to learn, but it is very hard at first and takes forever until you get good at it.
Martinman: I can’t imagine doing it with a record player; using modern technology is hard enough.
Ghosty: And the fact that he had to run up and down the stairs…
Martinman: Indeed.
Ghosty: That must have taken up quite a bit of time.
Martinman: Seeing that Blue Note label on the record was a nice touch.
Martinman: People definitely did their homework.

Martinman: Blue Note is a label that a ton of the great jazz recordings were on.
Martinman: Dexter Gordon, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane (I think), and many others made records for Blue Note at one point in their careers.
Ghosty: Ahhh Dexter~
Martinman: And by looking at it, that sheet music that Kaoru was writing down is actually accurate.
Ghosty: Yeah?
Martinman: Yes, I just tried it out on my keyboard. I don’t know of it is in the right key, but I’m going to assume that it is.
Ghosty: I’m sure they paid extra attention to make sure it was right
Martinman: Definitely.
Martinman: I love it when directors take care of little details like that.
Martinman: And I expected nothing less, considering who the director is.

 

 

Martinman: Anything else to say on the music?
Ghosty: Hmmmm…
Ghosty: I wonder if they’ll end up doing a gig at some point.
Ghosty: All 4 of them
Martinman: That would be awesome.
Martinman: I have no idea what the 60′s jazz scene was like in Japan, but I’d assume there is some place they could play somewhere.
Ghosty: Yeah, maybe other than the basement?
Ghosty: I’m sure Ritsuko’s father has some connections or something.
Martinman: Most likely.
Ghosty: They did mention something about the jazz greats performing down there, or something along that line.
Martinman: I’d really like to see a cameo from an American jazz player, but I don’t know if that is possible.
Martinman: I’m pretty sure Coltrane was in Japan at some point, but I don’t know for sure who else was, if anyone.
Martinman: Many of those guys did not make a lot of money, and travel is expensive.
Ghosty: Yeah, I can’t really see them going overseas.
Ghosty: My memory may be a little fuzzy, but I think my dad mentioned that they had to travel just to see them perform.
Ghosty: And I don’t mean one state over.
Martinman: Yeah. A lot of those guys probably either stayed in New York, but there were some that traveled around too.
Martinman: It varied from performer to performer.
Martinman: Anyway, I don’t have anything else to say about the music.
Martinman: Something else I thought was interesting though, was the Christianity aspect.
Martinman: I was really not expecting that, and am wondering what bearing it will have on the plot. It seems like Sentarou has some kind of interesting history with it.
Ghosty: Oh yeah!
Ghosty: My friends keep saying you need a soul to play jazz.
Ghosty: I’m curious as to why Sentarou seemed a bit reluctant to stay on the subject, but maybe I am overlooking it.
Martinman: He probably has a rough past he doesn’t like to talk about. He’s probably also not as comfortable with Kaoru as he is with Ritsuko.
Ghosty: Maybe he just goes to church to repent for his fighting.
Martinman: That certainly could be it.

Ghosty: A few people were complaining about the lack of saxophone in the show.
Ghosty: Which I think is silly to complain about, but I guess people really like the sax.
Martinman: I agree with them. There is a MAJOR lack of sax.
Martinman: As a sax player, I am much disappoint.
Martinman: Especially since it is the “other” lead jazz instrument besides trumpet.
Ghosty: Yeah, that’s true.
Martinman: It may be too hard to draw a detailed sax though.
Martinman: There are a TON of keys, rods, and other stuff on those bad boys.
Ghosty: Like I said earlier, maybe we’ll see other characters come along that will play with them.
Ghosty: Who knows? Maybe the new girl plays a mean saxophone?
Martinman: That would be epic.
Martinman: She’d be my waifu.
Martinman: Automatically.
Ghosty: ;D

Martinman: Here is my current saxophone waifu.

   

Martinman: I read something on MAL about her that I guess is a spoiler, and I don’t like where it is going. I’m not sure where it came from though, since I didn’t remember a next episode preview, and I thought this show was original.
Martinman: I’ll keep mum though, and hope it was someone just being stupid.
Ghosty: Yeah, it’s based on a manga.
Martinman: Oh, well, nevermind then.
Ghosty: And the manga isn’t really fully translated either.
Martinman: I have a hunch that someone will pick up the pace since the anime will make a lot more people interested.

Ghost and I venture into spoiler territory here:
Show ▼

Nice Boat.  Hehehehe…Ghost made a bad choice dumping the rest of the pics on me to upload so she could watch Game of Thrones.

Rapetime.

“Hey there Kenshin, my name is Tomoe.  I like taking long walks on the beach and narrowly avoiding getting raped.”

Battosai the Drumslayer.
Martinman: Well, I have nothing else to say except for some more music links.
Ghosty: Alright
Ghosty: That swimming scene was probably my favorite too. I remember seeing it in the second PV.
Martinman: It would be soooooooo awkward swimming with a girl I had a crush on wearing nothing but whitey-tighties.
Ghosty: oh man
Martinman: I remember some movie I saw part of once that I can’t remember the name of where a kid was swimming like that in a pool and popped a boner in front of the chick.
Martinman: Found it.

[pro-player width='530' height='253' type='video']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMWZUV287WA[/pro-player]

Martinman: I don’t ever remember watching this movie.
Ghosty: I’ve never even heard of it.

Martinman: Moving on…

Martinman: Since the title of the episode was “Summertime”, I thought I’d share a couple versions of that tune. They are quite different, and almost feel like different songs.
Martinman: The first is the Miles Davis recording, which is probably the most famous.

[pro-player width='530' height='253' type='video']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQtAWKQ_M7w[/pro-player]
Ghosty: Who did the original?
Martinman: The original tune was from a Gershwin (?) musical called Porgy and Bess.
Ghosty: Oh, I know about that.
Martinman: Miles Davis did a record arranged by Gil Evans with a mini-orchestra where he basically played the soundtrack of the movie.
Martinman: The second version is the John Coltrane version, which is…quite different.

This one didn’t allow embedding either.

Martinman: It is faster, more intense, and very Coltrane-esque.

Here are the eyecatches because Ghost is making me put them in.

That’s it for this week.  See you next time!

Also, to quote Ghost, “jeez, wordpress is ass.”  So true.  I only do this because I love you, dear readers.