Sound Ex – Back-on Official Street Team – Website relaunched!

We’ve been meaning to write up the news of the Sound EX website relaunch for weeks now, and so in the gap between (attempted) exam revision, we would like to congratulate Sound EX for their amazing redesign!

The redesign and coding has been the brainchild and work of Sesshy, and is inspired by the cover of Back-on‘s latest single Sands of time. I really like this new design, as it looks very sleek and clean, and is extremely easy to navigate, so kudos to Sesshy for doing such a great job! I am very glad she decided to retain the grungy font from the original site as well :)

In addition to this makeover, a new intro flash to the website has also been released, featuring photos of Back-on from their latest photo shoot and Sands of time playing in the background. Unfortunately (as before) we haven’t been able to include screenshots of the flash animation on their front page, and so it is best enjoyed by visiting the Sound EX website yourself!

If you like the relaunch of Sound EX, why not write a comment on their guestbook and let Nao and Sesshy know? :)

Celebrating our very first birthday on April 6th 2008!

BOO and Back-on Online Forums will be turning one!

Lots of websites are started up every day, and just a little over a year ago, BOO was started and joined very shortly by BOO Forums. With the upcoming release of Back-on‘s new song, Sands of Time, it seemed like a great opportunity for us to celebrate our very first birthday and also their new work at the same time!

After some discussion, we’ve opted for April 6th 2008 as our official birthday, and we’ve already started planning a number of things to mark the occasion! As BOO+Forums is fundamentally a fan community built for Back-on fans by fans, one of the major areas that we are focusing on is the:

Fanwork donation request!

This is where we would humbly like to ask everyone for their contribution! And what we are looking for, as ookami, one of our forum moderators (who came up with the idea) so excellently put it: (everyone’s) own little tidbits of Back-on goodness!

So, it can be art, writing, sketches, music, singing, covers, wallpapers, videos, literally just anything that you’ve made as a fan of Back-on. Please don’t hesitate to submit your work, as they will be appreciated, since you have spent time on it!

In addition to this, we are also going to do a:

Banner Rotation

To celebrate this event, and for the forseeable future, we will be randomly rotating the forum banner (the large image at the top!) using member-contributed work! The idea is with thanks to Sesshy, and I really hope everyone will be kind enough to submit their work!

The current banner featuring flower and Butterfly was kindly created for us by Sound-Ex/Nao, which I think is a fantastic example! Simple yet so very effective. So long as the banner is less than 850px in width and has a suitable height (minimum 150px) then please send them in! The minimum criteria (of course) is that it should say the forum name somewhere.

Another thing that we will be doing includes:

The New BACK-ON Dictionary in WIKI format

Originally a concept started by ichiban (forum moderator) as a forum thread where users contributed their definitions and collaborated to form the content. We’ve decided it’s time to make it ‘official’ and neat and tidy by making it like a WIKI! This will form part of the main site and will be editable only by forum members. The original forum thread will still remain though!

And as with every website, the time comes for a new fresh look, so we will be introducing:

Music page updated with new downloads and a new poll

I’ll admit, it’s been a LONG LONG time since we updated the Music section of BOO, but better late than never, ne? Our last update was in September 2007, when New World and Hikari Sasuhou were voted the most wanted downloads, and up till now, each song has been downloaded over 1100 times, a new record for the Music page and definitely not just because of the delay in updating this page!

This time, a day dreaming… and Kodou were the top favourites of our voters, and as usual, we have also put up two extra downloads for just one week only, including the much-requested Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) as well as the runner up from the previous polls, forward.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the latest polls, and if possible, it would be great if you could vote again in the next one, where:

• Butterfly (Butterfly single)
• DRIVE (New World album)
• Believer (Chain single)
• Grab (Survive compliation album)
• Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock album)
• RAIN (New World album)

are all up for selection. It might be a bit more difficult to choose this time! :)

More updates will be forthcoming throughout the site, as well as more content from various contributors! And before I forget, we have updated the affiliate link with Sound EX from their Myspace to their official new website! The people behind the website are Nao and Sesshy, and I would encourage everyone to pay a visit, particularly as the graphics used for the site design really are fantastic! I’ve included a screenshot of the new site design below as a taster, but look out for the flash movie on the splash page – it’s worth the wait – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually take a second glance at splash pages.

Watch the ‘a day dreaming…’ PV online!

With thanks to Sowon, it is possible for you to download the PV and mp3 of a day dreaming…. However, for those who prefer to watch it online, blueblueblue has uploaded the PV on Youtube, which you can find here!

Of course, the video is included in this post as well, and it seems that this is a special version of the PV with extra ending credits! The info comes courtesy of Koutarou, and you can find out a little more below the video.

Anime Matsuri 2007 – SoundEx’s interview with Back-on Video

Nao (SoundEX) must have been incredibly busy during Anime Matsuri, as yet again there is new video footage of Back-on provided on the:

SoundEx Youtube Channel

With reference to the video captions by Nao, in the first 50 second clip, the translator Tomo runs through the list of the questions to ‘prep’ the band. I’ve taken the executive decision to use a picture of Tomo (and Nao‘s head?) for the screenshot, since by all accounts on the Forums (ok, I meant Ichi), the official translator is meant to be very cute! Click on the picture to go straight to the video.

 In the second interview clip (with a running time of 4:02 minutes) we get to see/hear each Back-on member give a brief account of their “typical day“, which was the opening question so there are presumably more coming up! (I’ll try and find out more about the answers either from the Forums or by listening to the clip again.)

This is the video that highlights that all the band members look incredibly cute when they’re smiling (smile more!) and Gori definitely struck me as a very happy man, because he was smiling from the start of the clip! Hence we have his picture for the screenshot below. :) As before, you can click on the picture to watch the clip.

There are also more videos (in sequence) of the Post Autograph session which are worth watching too, so do pay a visit to the SoundEx Youtube Channel! Apparently it’s already one of the top 100 most watched channels in the Musicians category today. ^^

Anime Matsuri 2007 – Two more video clips from Sound Ex

Following on from the previous post with videos galore, Sound EX have uploaded two more video clips entitled “[BACK-ON] Pre Q&A” and “[BACK-ON] Post Q&A: Autograph Signing” from (front-row) seats at Anime Matsuri!

I’ve taken the liberty of taking screenshots of the two videos where:

Teeda is waving his hand in the air

and Kenji03 and Gori look bemused!

You can view the individual clips by clicking on the links above or by visiting the:

Official SoundEX Youtube Channel.

Anime Matsuri 2007 – Videos galore!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how does one quantify the impact of a video, let alone several! :)

First up is a video posted by SoundEX (Nao) on Youtube titled “Kenji’s drinking contest” and features the group (and presumably Anime Matsuri staff) Alas embedding has been turned off (understandably) so to watch the video, please visit the official channel directly by clicking the link below:

Official Back-on Street Team – Youtube channel

More videos after the read more…

Anime Matsuri 2007 – Pictures from Ichiban et friends and Miyu-Chan

If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll already know of Ichiban (Ichi) who is one of our most active forum members. This weekend, Ichi, Ookami and Nao (SoundEX) all attended Anime Matsuri, and Ichi has been kind enough to upload pictures from the convention on to the Forums and share it with everyone! Thanks Ichi! Click on the link below to go straight to the forum thread! :D

Anime Matsuri Pictures and such…

The captions underneath each picture are pretty self-explanatory but they are really awesome pictures with great closeups of the band! :D Everyone in the band (especially TEEDA and KENJI03 looked even more gorgeous in these photos! This is what I’ve stayed up for! No really… the other pictures are brilliant too (I must ask about the camera) – they won the Ramune Cosplay Contest as Pocky Boxes that they worked very hard on.

Miyu-chan (a brand new member!) has also kindly shared her photos with everyone from Anime Matsuri as well! :) You can see a few of them below but again, check the link to the thread above for more pictures!

Site updates 4 – New Forums, new staff and navigation change

As promised from yesterday, this news update summaries the changes to the site.

• New Back-on Forum – http://www.backon-online.com/forums/
  The original idea for the forums was conceived by Sowon, the new Forum-Supermoderator. :) You can find out more about him by clicking on Site Staff but this is the first forum dedicated to Back-on by fans for fans. Please do signup and participate in the discussions where possible! Its still work-in-progress so feedback and activity really help!
• New Staff – Please welcome Sowon to the Back-on Online Team! Sowon hails from France and has stepped into the role of Forum Supermoderator. He has already made an impact by triggering alot of forum activity!
• New Affiliate – I would also like to welcome Sound Ex as our brand new affiliate! Sound Ex is the official Back-on US street team and you can find their current website here: http://www.myspace.com/backon_soundex Nao runs Sound Ex, and Back-on Online look forward to working with her to promote Back-on as much as possible.
• Site Navigation Change – The top navigation bar was becoming a little bit clogged up so, taking inspiration from JaME (who will feature in a later news post) I’m starting to re-organise the static site content. Hopefully it will also make it easier for users to find more information.I am very keen to hear feedback with regards to how easy it is for you to find what you’re looking for on Back-on Online, but in case you weren’t already aware of it – the Search function at the top of each page is usually very good, as well as the Related Posts found on the left of each full article.

I am currently considering creating a special page for each anime that features Back-on‘s music ie. Murder Princess OVA as well as Air Gear and Eyeshield 21. Each page would introduce the anime as well as Back-on‘s actual song and links to any media available on the site. Please do let me know if you think this will make your user experience of Back-on Online much better!

p/s: One of the forthcoming news updates will be something extra special – *hint* its to do with new lyrics!

Watch the “Chain” MV

In the future all media will be streamed from Enchained, but in the meantime – Youtube (being the source of all things video) is our friend. You can watch Back-on’s Chain PV on Youtube courtesy of Absjpn.

Other Back-on MVs that you can find on Youtube are from blueblueblue include:

• Flydom from ‘Baby Rock‘, Back-on’s 3rd mini-album

  
  

• Gaku Ten also from ‘Baby Rock‘ featuring (Nao Oikawa)

  
  

• Baby Rock CM where CM stands for ‘Commercial Message’.