"X Japan (エックス ジャパン, Ekkusu Japan?) is a Japanese heavy metal band founded in 1982 by Toshimitsu 'Toshi' Deyama and Yoshiki Hayashi.[2] Originally named X (エックス), the group achieved its breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second album Blue Blood. They started out as a power/speed metal band and later gravitated towards a progressive sound, at all times retaining an emphasis on ballads. After three more albums, X Japan disbanded in 1997.
The band did not perform or record for another 10 years. In 2007, the band re-united and performed live for the first time in a decade. The band will perform their first North American tour beginning in September of 2010 and will release their first studio album in more than 14 years in the autumn.
"Innocence (イノセンス?) is the 2004 sequel to the anime film Ghost in the Shell. Released in Japan on March 6, 2004, with a U.S. release on September 17, 2004, Innocence had a production budget of approximately $20 million (approx. 2 billion yen)[1].
To raise such a large amount of money, Production I.G's president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa asked Studio Ghibli's president Toshio Suzuki to work on the project with him as a co-producer. The film is written and directed by Mamoru Oshii, with a story loosely connected to the manga by Shirow Masamune. The movie was produced by Production I.G, which also produced the original movie and the spinoff TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
In order to better market the film outside of Japan, the Ghost in the Shell 2 moniker was added to the title of the film, with Innocence simply becoming the subtitle. This was seen by some fans as conflicting with Oshii's statements that the film wasn't in actuality a standard Hollywood-esque sequel, and was able to and intended to stand alone.
Alongside the film, there was a book published that served as a prequel to Innocence called Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: After the Long Goodbye.
"Yoko Kanno (菅野 よう子, Kanno Yōko?, born March 19, 1964 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements. She has written scores for famous animated works, including Macross Plus, Turn A Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, and is the most trusted composer by veteran and new-wave directors such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinichiro Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori.[1] Kanno has also composed music for J-pop artists, the most notable being Maaya Sakamoto and Kyōko Koizumi. She is also a skilled keyboardist, and is the frontwoman for The Seatbelts, who perform many of Kanno's compositions on the various original soundtracks for which she is responsible.
