IOSYS - Toho Ageha

IOSYS
Toho Ageha
[IOSYS; 2010]

4.3








Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: The doujin anthem we love and/or hate that introduced many westerners (and possibly Japanese people) to the Touhou series. “Overdrive” (as dubbed by Americans): The birth of EASY MODO, still used when anyone dare mentions they have starting to play the (by typical shmup standards) entry-level bullet hell. Cirno’s Perfect Math Class: The spitting image of what every “primary” fan hates. IOSYS has had a strong impact on the memes, the behaviors of the fanbase, and, arguably, one of the only reasons why there are westerners who ever found themselves giving a flying-fuck about the one-man project series. It’s been quite a while since ARM, miko, and co. have cooked up something worthy of a laugh to some and to stand as the manifestation of the “true fans” hatred. Their solution to following up such infamous videos: Terribly dull parodies, cherry-picking other peoples shit off of other albums, and juvenile humor.

Toho Ageha is 25 minutes of parodies, with the not so subtle, Engrish-laden bitchslap to the ears Letty Whiterock Rock You!, the Tarou homage/failed attempt to create another memetic anthem Captain Murasa's Ass Anchor, which is enjoyable in a way you are always red-faced when listening to kind of way (probably because Murasa’s theme is the bees knees as is), along with an ARM arrange, who should really sing more songs because it gives me a chuckle, kind of like what Akira Yamaoka would sound like if he were a dime-a-dozen J-Rock vocalist who washes his throat with liquid angst. I must admit, I do applaud Convictor Yamaxanadu! for being one of the most creative ways to basically have a flag reading “Pendulum sucks!” even if that was not their intention.

Tenko's Love Domination from Below! Excla-lala& love-me-tion! would have worked better as a short drama track at half the length, seeing as how it’s smack in the dead center of the album, instead changes back and forth better a deluge of puns and singing. Taking up 10 minutes (and being the two longest tracks), Mizuhashi Jealoussic Parkmusic and Hinarin's Relation of Misfortune appear to have been kidnapped from what I assume to be better albums. MJP changing between drum and bass, breakcore, and hardcore with youtube poop-esque vocal pitch shifts and cuts whenever miko isn’t talking like an office worker who has downed a whole pot of coffee and hasn’t slept in three days days or screeching like a banshee. HRoM is better, boasting strange transitions, with the highlight sections having a 4/3 hardcore swing-like groove, which are tragically short-lived.

Toho Ageha is already long forgotten by fans. The best stuff could use some tweaking with musical and vocal direction, and the worst just cannot be saved. Being only 15 minutes of content made for the album (12 if you disregard ARM’s rendition of Ass anchors), every minute counts. Their big song of the album Ass Anchor is still better than their other meme milestones musically, now only survives because of everyone making fun of it’s lazy, slapdashed, and down-right crapass flash quality. It’s rather funny just how well that video managed to sum up the at-the-time forecoming Toho Ageha.