[Vocaloid: IA] Bookmark of Demise Project (by 150-p)

Bookmark of Demise Project (終焉ノ栞プロジェクト) are songs made by 150-P (one half P).

All of the songs are sang by IA (vocaloid) and it contains four original PVs
>>Update!!: The fifth song!

You can see my post about it here:
在来ヒーローズ (Common Heroes) <<

I have encountered these songs while I was searching for IA PVs to watch

As for how I have discover IA, I first saw her as a figure model on an online ordering shop and I was literally “bewitched” by her. (I’m still deciding everyday whether to buy her or not … but she is too expensive for me at the moment …she’s 9,975 yen, I never bought any figures or plastic model kit for more than 8000 yen OTL). Right now she became my most (and first) favorite vocaloid.

The figure was based on this official boxart (and I like IA even more after seeing this ><“)

The first video I saw was Warning of Imposters – it was the second song from the list of IA popular songs on wiki that the introduction hooked me enough to watch the entire video (the first one being Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story that hooked me with its introduction music.

All songs have dark themes and are all related to different urban legends (read the wiki link at the end of the post for more information). It’s not fully animated (umm.. I don’t know what’s the technique called used in these vids.. sorry), but the quality is defenitely on par with good animating levels (considering the amount of few people working on these videos).

Here are some screenshots of the vids: (the quality of the screenshots are pretty low because I captured it from the ones with English subtitles, since the HD ones are from the japanese original but I want you guys to see some of its translations so I uploaded the ones with Eng subs..)

First Song

孤独ノ隠レンボ (Hide and Seek of Isolation)

Niconico (original PV)

YouTube (with english subs)

Niconico (karaoke)

or DL it here (HD, English Subs) in case there’s a problem with Youtube
Note: I did NOT do the translations, I got it from YT and just upload them, all the credits to their respectful owners to the vid/english translators

This song and the third one isn’t really attracting for me at first. I listened to the second and fourth song around 1-2 weeks before I actually see the entire video for this song and the third.

Maybe it might be because this first song and the third had male protagonists lol (just kidding).

I felt that it doesn’t really have anything much in this video , but after I watch the whole video, it’s fine I thought – since it’s the “first” PV too.

My favorite part in this song/PV is where the TV broadcasting came up and IA sang along with it (somehow I like how the voice of the man broadcasting on the TV really goes along well with the rhythme of the song – you have to listen to its karaoke version to be able to clearly hear it though) you can read what is it wrote on the TV in the youtube link or trivia in the wiki link at the end of the post. And the meaning of what the TV broadcasted was creepy nice… if you know what I mean lol.

On my first viewing of this song, I totally have no idea what’s it about or what is it related to – -” (as for later, it was explained in the wiki with further links about this urban legend in which I have heard of it but wasn’t familiar enough to recognize it from the video).

Second Song

 ニセモノ注意報 (Warning of Impostors)

Niconico (original PV)

YouTube (with english subs)

Niconico (karaoke)

or DL it here (English Subs – sorry I couldn’t find the HD version for Eng sub) in case there’s a problem with Youtube
Note: I did NOT do the translations, I got it from YT and just upload them, all the credits to their respectful owners to the vid/english translators

The first song I encountered from the four PVs as well as it’s the second song I took interest and watch the whole video from popular songs featuring IA from the wiki.

The introduction hooked me on my first try, as well as the blue shadow image made me interest in it and watch the rest of the video. I was also stunned to see Battler there lol.

But after a while, after listening to this song around more than ten times, I grew bored to its latter part – specifically the part where they sped up the song more and more. I would have like this song on par with the fourth one if they didn’t speed things up.

I understand the reason they had to do it though, I think it was because the song sped up to show how desperate and life threatening the girl in the video is. I just don’t like songs when it is too fast to sing or it speeds up too much.

My favorite part of this song is the picture and how they laid out the words in the chorus (sang three times, and is sped up each time it is sang). Out of the three choruses, I like the first illustration the most (the one with tables alining upwards organizedly), she looks calm,cool and cold (the other ones show her face that she wants to escape she’s cute ><“). The other ones being where they drew the illustrations using black background and white lines (like the “wait” part). As well as the “game over” and “see you later” part is also my favorite.

I like this girl (than the other one) too, eventhough she has short hair, she’s still cute ><“

Before reading more in the wiki, the only I understood in this song is that the video’s about this girls’ doppelganger, and she was killed by it, that’s all ^^” (I first knew doppelganger from Devil May Cry 3 and latter searched about it so I pretty much had a big idea what it means in the vid lol)

Third Song

 完全犯罪ラブレター (Perfect Crime Love Letter)

Niconico (original PV)

YouTube (with english subs)

Niconico (karaoke)

or DL it here (HD, English Subs) in case there’s a problem with Youtube
Note: I did NOT do the translations, I got it from YT and just upload them, all the credits to their respectful owners to the vid/english translators

If I compare this to the first song (since I both listen to two of these latter), I like this one more than the first one.

Probably because this one has a more clear piano sound in the song playing at some parts and has more illustrations (because it’s the third song).

I think this boy looks better than the boy from the first video lol.

My favorite part is when the video revealed who is the murderer (where it is shown that the boy has blood all over him) – I love where the screen is full of “ah ha ha ha!!” part (lol). Oh, the shadow of the protagonist along with alot of words at the background is also cool and I like it eventhough it’s not that unique for a technique in videos.

I noticed at first, this “mearry-san” name… I was thinking.. oh no.. it couldn’t be.. (I heard about this urban legend when I was young, the girls in my classroom kept talking about it). And after the “because I’m right behind you” part, I was 100% sure that was it…

Fourth Song

猿マネ椅子盗りゲーム (Aimless Imitation Chair Stealing Game )

Niconico (original PV)

YouTube (with english subs)

Niconico (karaoke)

or DL it here (HD, English Subs) in case there’s a problem with Youtube
Note: I did NOT do the translations, I got it from YT and just upload them, all the credits to their respectful owners to the vid/english translators

Most favorite song, best of the four imo, and I’m addicted to it. It’ll be mainly the piano in the introduction and conclusion of the song  – I love it. It is currently my best and no.1 favorite song for all Vocaloid songs I’ve heard (well I don’t listen that much songs for Vocaloid anyways, I only watch/listen to the really popular ones and the ones sent to me by my friends).

It’s funny that, without reading the explanation for the songs further in the wiki, this is the only song I understood correctly lol. (Yes, I watched the previous three and I don’t really get much of what’s happening especially the boys PVs – I have totally no idea what’s going on and what is it about).

I like the girl in the Warning of Imposters more than this girl, probably because this girl has a hair color that tends to go to purple xD”… But overall, I enjoyed every single thing in this video :D

This vid has the most illustrations as well as more original illustrations compared to the previous ones (and again, I think it’s probably because it’s the last video made). Eventhough this is the fourth song, but the PV is made AFTER the album was released – the album was release in August but this PV was released in Niconico in October (read more below). The original song was in the album, while they changed/alter the song when it is made in the PV. But I love this PV version of this song. The original one is fine, but I felt like this has more real instrument playing in it and well, the piano xD.

My most favorite part in this video is in the introduction and ending part of the video – where the piano is playing along with floating tables (I felt that floating tables and how they switched the camera views are really cool and unique). Second, is where there are many white shadow figures as they zoom into the main heroine of this vid, it’s short, probably not really unique (as laying out all the characters of a story and zooming into the last person on the last row is oftenly used in visual novel vids) but I still like it alot. And lastly the last part where they switch between the girl from Warning of Imposters and this girl of Aimless Imitation Chair Stealing Game – especially the part where they each open up each of their eyes and the song says “who was it?”

I knew the Monkey’s Paw long time ago – guess where I learnt about it from? Yep, it’s xxxHolic I first encountered this urban legend xD. And of course, next is from Bakemonogatari – Suruga monkey and then this video. (Eventhough I fairly had a big idea on what it is about from the explanation and implications from both series, I have actually just searched it up and read it more after watching this video…)

Overall thoughts about 150-P’s Bookmark of Demise Project:

In my opinion, all videos are really well made – the animations, sound effects, songs (although I prefer to listen to its OST to be able to clearly listen to the intruments) especially the illustration – imo, it’s an illustration book level (you know, official art workbooks for games and illustrations which are not from the anime since anime has to draw many pictures frames they can’t have all those details?). I sometimes even prefer to watch these videos (especially the last one) than watching global anime OPs.

Each video has more creativity and more different camera angles/views as well as more effects on how they laid out the lyrics, each video gets better and better. And as I said, I think the fourth one was the best – with the most creativity of how they should display the song, lyrics and illustrations.

The videos are really unique to each of them as well as it is really great that all four videos could show relations to each other (eventhough it is more clearly seen that the boys videos are more related to each other as well as the girls videos are more related to each other). It’s cool to use urban legends and made them+connect them into a story. (read more in the wiki link down below)

Very very well done as expected from people who create vocaloid songs – sometimes I even felt that these videos (especially these four) made by small amount of people are even better than some official&popular things out there when it is made by a very large group of people.

I appreciate most songs of vocaloid that are made by fans – their creativity and sometimes humor in some videos is the thing I found that most official big companies out there can’t do it (it’s the uniqueness you can find from general people that aren’t doing these as professionals or as a work for them).

As well as as from all the songs I heard from vocaloid (as stated, it’s not that much) the music (music, not vocal) is really good for all songs made by fans. The intruments are really great I enjoyed all of the song’s off-vocal music, I mean I felt really good – they are doing these out of hobbies and interests xD!

The bad thing I don’t like, however, is that this is still sang by a vocaloid… as I don’t like computerized voice that much. But IA did a better job here than other vocaloids I think – she has the closest voice to human right now (well, since she’s from the 3rd generation of course there’s improvements). I’m quite fond to OSTs more than vocal songs too and that is probaly another reason why

 According to the vocaloid wiki:

There’s also an album released, called Re: 放課後-終焉ゲーム (Re: After School Demise Game) consisting of 12 tracks. It is released on August 11, 2012 you can find it/purchase in Japan’s Amazon.

To be honest, I was very excited and happy that there’s an actual album released for this (the cover is nice although characters on it are a bit too small..)

But then since the 4th song’s PV (Aimless Imitation Chair Stealing Game) is made after the album is released. They didn’t include the 4th’s songs PV version in this album. Aimless Imitation Chair Stealing Game is released on October 27,2012.

You can DL the album here. (I forgot where I took this link, credits to whoever uploaded it)

So in the end, I end up not buying/supporting them through the music album :/…. (well because there’s no song of the 4th song’s PV version….). Oh well, but actually by the time I found out about this project, all albums are sold out in amazon too.. (will probably need to buy it somewhere else if I do want it later in the future)

There’s also going to be a manga adaptation and a novel released though (read the wiki below for more information)

The Manga (montly in Comic Gene)

It will start on Comic Gene’s January 2013 volume, releasing on the 15th December in 2012

Here’s the January 2013’s edition of the Comic Gene monthly magazine with Bookmark of Demise Project’s Manga on its cover

>>You can now read Bookmark of Demise Scanlation at Mangafox<<

And the characters are named in the manga (see picture below):
The boy from Hide and Seek of Isolation is “A-ya” (right middle)
The girl from Warning of Imposters is “B-ko” (left middle)
The boy from Perfect Crime Love Letter is “C-ta” (most right)
The girl from Aimless Imitation Chair Stealing Game is “D-ne” (most left)

The 1st volume of the manga will be published on March 27, 2013
and here’s the cover

The Novel (publishing by Media Factory)
This will be released on Febuary 25, 2013
You can purchase it at Japanese bookstores or amazon

 I’ll have to see how’s the illustrations and the story written. Then I’ll decide to get it or not @_@a

This actually is the illustration they used on the cover for the novel.

As well as there are numerous amount of fanart pictures for the four characters from this, you can check those out via google or pixiv as the main ones (most fanarts are ok too, although I’m a bit hurt there’s less fanarts right now individually for the girl from aimless imitation because it has just been released not so long ago – -“). Favorite fanarts for this would probably pairing up the two girls for me xDDD.

>>> You can read more information, translating, story, and urban legend references about Bookmark of Demise Project at vocaloid’s wiki after you’ve finished watching the videos. <<<

I’m really sorry I wasn’t able to fully express my thoughts and opinions about this (I will try to improve) as what I wrote was just about 50% thinking in my head >_<” (as I am not really good at justing English vocabularies and I’m not good with writing). And do forgive me for English errors in grammar… I will improve.
I wanted to describe more and comment more about the music for each song, but I have less than 10 words to describe when it comes to music, so pardon me for that too…

You can ask me anything regarding this series/project as I’m totally into it >_<” (love the whole idea, overall, concept, art, theme, and the music – specifically the 4th one ^^”)

Thank you for reading! (although I would be more happy if you watched all the four videos especially the 4th one =^=)

Update2!!: Bookmark of Demise project finally has its own official website!
Also, a new album is released! 終焉-Re:write- (Demise-Re:write-) includes all the previous 12 songs and has added new songs in a total of 25 songs! You can purchase the album at Japan’s Amazon – it will be released on March 13,2013.

Note: The fifth PV song will also be included in these albums (track no.22)

終焉-Re:write- (Regular Edition)

終焉-Re:write- (Limited Edition)

>>And this is its own PV ,(YT link) to promote the new albums<<
(has song previews and PV video previews)

If I could choose I like the original album’s cover and the lineart of the PV so much more =A=
rant: Ok, whenever my most favorite character gets to be on the cover for some media, why is she/he always at the most back = =” and is always vaguely seen or is so small and far away .____.”

Update3: The sixth song

負け犬至上主義 (Underdog Supremacy), once again sang by IA

Niconico

Youtube

note: I’m not going to SS or make any post about this 6th PV…reason? Well.. it’s because A-ya and C-ta @_@…
opinion: feels like this song is a character song for A-ya……I have a feeling at least three songs will be coming soon featuring the other three as the main for each song >_>a