Gandamu to Urutoraman

I woke up this morning with the theme song from the original Gundam cartoon in my head. That despite the fact that I had heard the Ultraman theme more than 5 times the previous evening. Go figure.

Yeah, we started watching that last night. I had never seen it and can't pass up something that campy and Japanese and geeky. I'm working on getting the theme song down so I can be really obnoxious all the time.

URUUUUTORAMAAAAAAN!!

I think I was thinking about Gundams, though, because I started watching Gundam Wing again. I must've seen the first disc ten times now, but I've still never gotten to the end of the show. I only have up to the fifth disc and I don't even think I ever saw that far. Sort of sad. Anyhow, it seems my free time will continue to be interminable, so I can hop to it. Also, once I get a paycheck I can finish up my collection. Fancily, they have boxed the first and second halves of the series separately. I have no idea why, but it sure rocks for me.

Actually, I don't think I've watched this at all since something like my first year of college, or maybe even high school. Gundam Wing Volume 1 was the first anime I ever bought. Got it at Suncoast and I was sooooo excited. It's a pretty nostalgic show for me (although it's surprising how nostalgic I get for Ultraman, which is from two decades before I was born, not to mention the other side of the planet.) The biggest difference between now and the last time I saw any of this is that I know a lot more Japanese. That's not to say that I know a LOT of Japanese, but just that I can pick out a lot more than I used to, i.e. something other than "gandamu."

Watching Ultraman last night, however, gave me less confidence. They talk so fast! I remember in my French intermediate-advanced bridge class the prof had us pick out lines from movies and repeat them. In fact, we did a whole seen from Le Dîner de Cons in class. I guess this sort of speed training could be useful. I'm not sure it really helped my French, but it's sort of satisfying to be able to say SOMETHING at native speed. Even just "urutoraman" is a bit of a tongue-twister. From "ru" to "to" there seems to be a little bit of a hitch.

Ok ok ok, and CHECK this OUT:


I'm so happy right now. I just wanted to see if I could find the song since it was in my head all morning, like I said, and youtube has this glorious thing for me to find. Not sure who those guys are; one of the comments said the original version was sung by Kou Ikeda, which seems to be the case. I'm still impressed. Should learn this song, too.