I hope everyone has enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. I've been away from the site for a bit, so I've been catching up on all the great community blogs. You have no idea how pleased I am to finally see one promoted to our front page. You guys are all awesome, so keep it up. Now, let's go over the results from the last debate.
It's been two long weeks since our last debate started, and I know some of you are itching to for me to post another. Thankfully our last one was pretty close, so it made for a good cliffhanger. I didn't think it was possible but it appears that Manji managed to edge out the ever-so-popular Afro Samurai by a mere two votes. I'm still not sure how that happened, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only Blade of the Immortal fan.
Manji - 25 votes
Afro Samurai - 23 votes
Check out the next debate after the jump.
Our second music debate is a bit less pop, and a bit more rock. Okay, well maybe I should take that back. Rock vs Pop-Rock, maybe? L'Arc~en~Ciel is incredibly popular, though I'm not even sure why. It probably has to do with the various anime and games they've contributed music to over the years. Maybe it has to do with their boyish good looks, or the plethora of studio albums they've put out. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of their work myself, even I have to admit that some of it is pretty damn good. Take, for example, "Drink it down," which was used for Capcom's Devil May Cry 4. I actually really enjoyed this song. They've definitely come a long way over the years. But are they better than Dir en grey?
Dir en grey, on the other hand, has a strange, albeit very loyal, cult following overseas. It's very hard for me to explain their sound and look without provoking some kind of argument to the contrary. This is more due to the fact that practically every single album they've released sounds a bit different than one before it. I doubt boyish good looks are really on their side for this one, and that probably has more to do with their own attempts to distance themselves from their Visual Kei roots. They also haven't felt the need to work on music for games and anime, though I'm sure they could have if they wanted to. Their concerts do tend to have their fair share of blood and screaming though, and I've been to a few of them, so I'd know first-hand. I don't have high hopes for them in this debate, but maybe you'll surprise me. I guess we'll see.
live comments!
But it's really not that big of a debate for me. Dir en grey wins hands down. Their variety and growth throughout the years has been amazing to follow and their lives are always, always mind-numbingly worth it. It's interesting that you should pick these two since Kyo and hyde both have incredibly versatile and capable voices, but Kyo has demonstrated a wider ability overall since Diru's music in general covers and overlaps more genres.