finer appreciation for the otaku (speed) arts

Jul. 11, 2023 12:35 AM

This post was originally written for my Dreamwidth blog on the timestamp written above - the original formatting has been preserved whenever possible.

The most-liked comment on a public Youtube upload of the album sampling masters 2 gives me some food for thought.

"the first song [Notteldam] is proof of time travel"

Having studied in the school of history for the better part of a decade at this point, it shouldn't strike you as much of a surprise that I am a very big fan of boomer shit. My favourite video game genre is rhythm games. I constantly make references to obscure anime shows only remembered in the annals of numerous homoerotic meme videos. Hell, I am literally friends with several people who ONLY know about weird esoteric shit. I am living in the depths of unknown subculture shite.

That being said, I am frequently reminded that many things in life are never made equal, and one such example is how late 90's, and early 2000s otaku culture seems to be commemorated on the modern internet. Many a video essay is dedicated to the obscure visual novels that dotted the landscape of post-AOL society, often times sold to a small handful of people at conventions you'll have never heard of in your life, but end up terraforming the entire anime scene at large through its influence. You'll see all sorts of articles about the masters for some random dogshit anime that aired once in 2003 and only survived through VHS recordings of a guy in the booth vocal chopped into yelling "SEX" in a NicoNicoDouga video. Don't even get me started on manga... I've read Onani Master Kurosawa, you know I ain't fucking around here.

But what about music? Why does nobody talk about the music?

As I listen (and frequently relisten) to the sampling masters trilogy, this question sticks out in my mind like a loose nail on an IKEA display cabinet. The history of otaku music might be comparative to other aspects in terms of its anomalous history, mainly because it takes inspiration from basically everything in contemporary existence as if some subculture ouroboros, but it's continually neglected in favour of "the banger" culture that seems to have gripped the last 23 years of audio in a death vice. People who get into doujin music through rhythm games nowadays don't even scratch the surface of how this whole microcosm started life. Rather, and I say this with a hint of dejection instead of snideness, they skim the details of the water. They slide and then sink, rather than hop, skip, and jump. It's actually a tad depressing.

I digress. On some level, I understand there's a deeper appeal for unknown anime, manga, and visual novels, that music just doesn't satisfy in the same way. Watching a video by Amelie Doree or Kenny Lauderdale makes it abundantly clear that information on these pieces of otaku history is in vogue. It's in some demand. By contrast, only the most fanatical of sickos would be remotely interested in how the roots of Japanese hardcore (now colloquially and lovingly referred to as J-core) stem almost entirely from near endless respect for revered cult classic anime, and the trailblazing EU-inspired machinations of the sampling masters crew. I get it. The history of music in general just isn't that interesting for most people.

To many in this area of internet culture, DJ SHARPNEL is a name that may not invoke much fanfare. Some may know of a few tracks, mainly through some really old Youtube uploads, but not of the Pandora's Box that such music would unleash upon the teens of the new millennium. Unbeknownst to many, it's hard to dispute that DJ SHARPNEL influenced many elements of what the genre would become today. Heavy anime-inspired aesthetics, hard-hitting (happy) hardcore kicks that really get close and personal, the blending of several other genres that would otherwise make no sense into a strange harmony - listening to the sounds of the earliest High-Speed Music Team Sharpnel releases feels like you barely left the home comfort of 2023 J-core. Take a listen to sharpnel vs. Project Gabbangelion, and I swear down people are just making this shit on Soundcloud like RIGHT NOW. It's uncannily contemporary.

Alternatively, take a look at HARDCORE TANO*C. If you play rhythm games and were born before 9/11 happened, there is a very strong chance you know of this group's existence adjacent to wider Japanese internet subculture. They're basically a household name nowadays, but you cannot talk about doujin music at all without acknowledging their contributions to J-core. The group's first release... didn't age that well, truth be told. However, Qimailla-8k is a groundbreaking shift in J-core history, because it establishes a broader spectrum of influences for bedroom producers to adopt from. No longer were tracks taking their cues from Asuka yelling ad nauseum, the most gritty of Rotterdam gabber only a mother could promote, and, uh, The Brain from Planet Arous? The spectrum was wider, the stage greater. Though the genre was used to describe Japanese artists' interpretations of the hardcore music genre, this may have well been one of the first truly internet-based music genres out there, with a whole sleuth of artists like JAKAZiD occasionally collaborating with TANO*C themselves.

So why do I write this blog post about sampling masters, DJ SHARPNEL, or HARDCORE TANO*C, when the focus of this whole thing was about a greater respect for every aspect of what makes otaku culture so unique? It's because I think many of us have lost touch with our roots. With the advent of newer, cooler fads like gacha games, Vtubers, and an increasing push towards always-online culture, it often feels like many people who were into these obscure, underlooked works have been snared by the trap of shiny things that often feel like they're coupled with an expiration date. I got nothing against any of the aforementioned, but when I look at a Youtube video discussing some underground VN I could never fathom existing in my head, the ephemerality of sampling culture reminds me of what makes these subcultures so great. It's the bizarre immemorialism of shit that should be lost. By some twist of fate, we've stumbled upon something that would have been completely wiped from all but human memory just 40 years ago.

And that's peak.

I feel like people don't appreciate the history of their internet subcultures as much, because it's boring to read about history on the internet. Whether that may be you, that's fine. Totally understandable.

I simply wish towards finer appreciation for otaku history as a whole. Perhaps that will put my sentiments towards the current internet at ease.

[real boomer shit]