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Straits Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Singer Regina Song is only Singaporean nominee in inaugural Music Awards Japan
Regina Song performing at Fangirl: The Tour in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 10. PHOTO: COURTESY OF BRYAN ONG SINGAPORE - Local singer-songwriter Regina Song is waving the country's flag high as the only Singaporean to be nominated at the inaugural Music Awards Japan (MAJ), competing in the Best Song Asia category for her song The Cutest Pair. The 21-year-old is among the most-streamed local artistes on Spotify in 2024, with the English-language single - from her debut album Fangirl (2024) - garnering over 44 million streams since its release in June. She also has over one million monthly listeners on Spotify, and has previously charted on the top of Spotify's Viral 50 - Global playlist. She is up against K-pop groups Aespa (Supernova) and Plave (Way 4 Luve), Thai singer Jeff Satur (Ghost) and Indonesian singer Bernadya (Satu Bulan). The MAJ, organised by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association in collaboration with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, aims to honour musical talents from Japan, Asia and the West. The awards show will take place on May 21 and 22 at Rohm Theatre Kyoto. Song, who made her music debut in 2021 with her single Lucas, said in a press release: 'It feels extremely surreal to be part of the top five nominees in the Best Song Asia category. It would be my absolute dream and honour to take this award home, but this nomination is already such a blessing, and I am so grateful for every person that has been cheering me on.' After she started to write her own songs at 13, her love of music blossomed. In 2017, she entered the School of the Arts (Sota) to pursue her interest in the piano, which she has been playing since she was six years old. While at Sota, Song joined the school's a cappella group and a pop band, where she underwent her first vocal training. While Song enrolled in the University of the Arts Singapore in 2024, she is now taking a break from school to focus on her career. Her latest single, Fairy, was released in February 2025, and she is preparing to release her next album. She has also played shows in Singapore, as well as a sold-out South-east Asia tour in January 2025, which took her to cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Theatre review: Pain is what binds all species in dark, butoh-inspired Umbilical
Rizman Putra as a machinist King Kong in Umbilical. PHOTO: MOONRISE STUDIO Umbilical Zul Mahmod, Rizman Putra and thesupersystem Sota Studio Theatre May 16, 8pm Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
One Piece animator calls for ‘immediate firing' of entire sound team, blasts ‘unprofessional' work; here's why
After constant complaints from fans about the 'awful' sound effects in One Piece, it seems one animator has finally taken note. Sota Shigetsugu, one of the animators behind the globally successful anime, recently blasted the Toei Animation sound team for their 'unprofessional' work (though he didn't get into specifics) and even called for immediate action to fire the entire team. Although the tweet was later deleted, it sparked a wild debate among fans and industry professionals about the show's sound effects. Many agreed that the show has been struggling with poor sound quality for months, with the main issue being the reuse of old sound effects, some of which date back to other popular shows like Dragon Ball. Fans had pointed this out frequently, but this was likely the first time someone from inside the team took charge and called out the subpar work. One Piece animator calls out the 'unprofessional work' Sota Shigetsugu, the animator known for his work on popular anime franchises like Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen, took to his X post and wrote, 'Toei should urgently fire the sound team for One Piece. That's not the work of professionals.' The frustration likely comes from the fact that Toei has not updated its sound design to match the evolving animation and direction. As anime quality improves over time, these outdated sounds feel lazy and disconnected from the high-quality sound production viewers now expect. Take One Piece Episode 1,127, for example. According to Dexerto, the episode titled Luffy vs. Kizaru! A Fierce Kaleidoscopic Battle was praised for its impressive animation and fight scenes, but the excitement quickly vanished when the sound effects kicked in. Fans have shared multiple clips to back up Sota's frustration, especially from a fight scene between Zoro and Lucci. The sounds used in these battle scenes, like the sound of a sword swinging, are repeated over and over without any variation. One fan expressed their annoyance, saying, 'In one of the more recent fights, there's a sword being swung at Luffy. And it has swung at least 10 times. And each time it is the EXACT same sound with ZERO change. It's f*cking grating and loud.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO Some even pointed out how the anime took a six-month hiatus just to upgrade their sound system and FX, and came back with absolutely nothing to show for it. 'Remember when they said they were upgrading their SFX during the 6-month hiatus?…liars,' one X user commented. 'He's not wrong re re-used sfx for 20 years being a billion dollar company is criminal,' another added. But not every One Piece fan is convinced by the idea of sound upgradation. Some are defending Toei and the old sound effects. They argue that these familiar sounds are a part of the show's charm and nostalgia. For them, changing these sounds would erase a piece of anime history that's been around for decades. 'What's wrong with the sound, it's not bad, right?' a social media user commented on Sota's now deleted tweet. 'The sound was fine. It's literally the sounds associated with One Piece. Like imagine if they changed the sound of the chidori to the kamameha sound effect because people bitched for 'better sound effect' i care for sound identity the effects are nice & have been around for ages,' another said. This debate has divided the fanbase. Some feel the criticism is harsh and uncalled for, while others see it as an opportunity for Toei to improve the show. For a globally famous title like One Piece, fans believe that studios like Toei should not only improve the animation but also step up their sound design to meet modern expectations.
Japan Times
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘The Brothers Kitaura': A sordid tale of filial impropriety
Corpse disposal is a complicated business even at the best of times. All the more so if you're as hapless as the eponymous protagonists of 'The Brothers Kitaura.' Masaki Tsujino's sophomore feature, which won the Critics' Picks Competition at last year's Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, is a tale of desperation compounded by incompetence and self-interest. When its characters find themselves in over their heads, they keep digging. At the start of the film, older sibling Sota (Masaaki Nakano) is in a state of arrested development: unemployed, work-shy and still living with his elderly father, Goichi (Taka Takao). He may be in his 40s, but Sota acts like an eternal teen, sleeping in late, getting up to no good when he's home alone and leaving his dad to do all the cooking. So when the latter threatens to turf him out in favor of a potential marriage partner, the ungrateful son chooses fight over flight, leading to an altercation that ends with Goichi lying dead on the kitchen floor. Unaccustomed to having to clean up his own mess, Sota enlists the help of his estranged brother, Akira (Hirota Otsuka), who's already in a bit of a pickle himself. Once the family's high-flier, the younger Kitaura is now facing personal ruin after an email blunder led to him getting fired for sexual harassment, then served divorce papers by his wife. You'd think he wouldn't want to add 'accessory to murder' to his list of problems, but he's more concerned about his job prospects than doing the right thing. I mean, who's going to hire the brother of a convicted killer, right? This is a much more acerbic film than Tsujino's debut feature, 'A Tale of the Riverside' (2020). Reviewing that movie for The Japan Times, Mark Schilling noted that all of its characters were ultimately likable, but Sota and Akira are too busy squabbling among themselves to earn the audience's sympathy. They're paragons of a very middle-class brand of mediocrity. Thanks to the financial safety net their father provided, both have reached middle age without ever having to take much initiative. Their attempts to get rid of their benefactor's corpse — a symbolic act, if ever you wanted one — are predictably pathetic. 'The Brothers Kitaura' features some impressive displays of ineptitude (as when the brothers try to squeeze the body into an obviously undersized suitcase), punctuated by extended bouts of bickering and inertia. After unintentionally offing his father, Sota's first reaction is to drape a towel over the dead man's face and retire to bed. The film recalls an earlier generation of movies about patricide, such as Terrence Malick's 'Badlands' (1973) and Kazuhiko Hasegawa's 'The Youth Killer' (1976), except in this case, the kids aren't exactly young themselves. Tsujino's script could probably have done more with this: Although there's an element of social critique here, it mostly takes a backseat to the bumbling neo-noir shenanigans. These are entertaining, although the obviously cash-strapped production struggles to pull off some of its big set pieces. Tsujino's background in shōgekijō (small-scale theater) also manifests itself in an unfortunate tendency to let scenes run on for too long, in the manner of an improv comedy skit that doesn't know when to end. But when the curtain finally falls on this sordid family affair, it's a delicious kiss-off.
Chicago Tribune
19-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
A 10-year-old boy from just north of Tokyo ends up with Shohei Ohtani's 1st home run of the season
TOKYO — Sota Fujimori is the luckiest 10-year-old in Japan. Sitting in right-center field on Wednesday night at the Tokyo Dome, he watched Shohei Ohtani's home run in the fifth inning fall off the hands of another fan nearby — and back onto the field. It looked like bad luck. 'I thought I missed out at first,' he said, doing an interview afterward in Japanese to explain with a small group of reporters. Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong made his night, tossing the ball back into the stands. Young Sota retrieved it as umpires reviewed the play to ensure the ball had cleared the wall and Ohtani had his first home run of the season. The Dodgers defeated the Cubs 6-3, making Sota's evening complete. He said it was the first time he'd seen Ohtani in person. The Dodgers also won on Tuesday 4-1, sweeping the two-game series in Tokyo to open the MLB regular season. Sota is from Saitama, located just north of greater Tokyo. He wore a blue Dodgers shirt and a baseball mitt on his right hand, and he pulled the keepsake ball out of small backpack to show it off. He looked awestruck but delighted. Crow-Armstrong confirmed during a postgame interview that he threw Ohtani's ball into the crowd. Even though he thought the home run call was questionable, he was pleased to hear the ball ended up in the boy's hands. 'Absolutely, I'm glad,' Crow-Armstrong said. His parents asked not to take a photograph of their son's face, and they were reluctant to give many more details. But photos of the ball were OK. Sota told reporters he is also an outfielder and in the fourth grade. 'I was really surprised,' he said. 'I couldn't believe it. I'm going to keep it as the family treasure.' Originally Published: March 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM CDT
