
I really shouldn’t be listening to this - I’ve got an exam later today hahaha. I really enjoyed it though, it has Haruhi forming a band with the SOS-dan members for the next cultural festival and features more bad warbling from Mikuru, lifeless singing from Yuki and hideous rapping from Kyon and Itsuki. It was funny hearing Hirano Aya play all of the other characters on Voice no Chaos though. She made a really convincing Mikuru, and well… anyone can play Yuki really. Aya got all of Itsuki’s mannerisms down ‘Yaa, sumimasen etc’. I don’t really like First Good-bye, the song that Haruhi ‘wrote’ though - doesn’t actually stick in my mind very long (unlike the SOS-dan members).

Oh, and also listened to Character CDs 6 (Kyon’s sister) and 7 (Kimidori Emiri). I prefer Emiri’s cos her song fixed mind is less annoying than Kyon’s sister’s (any song that features the word ‘potato’ in the lyrics isn’t going to appeal to me), but of course it’s partly because it’s Shiratori Yuri (Sayo from Negima, Mokona from Rayearth etc). Both have re-arranged versions of Harehare Yukai and again, I prefer Emiri’s gentler version. Partly because Aoki Sayaka’s singing sucks.

A little aside, Chihara Minori’s (Nagato Yuki) single Junpaku Sanctuary didn’t debut in the top 30 of the daily Oricon chart today (Kyon’s sister - No.11, Emiri - No.13) which is a little disappointing, considering she’s on avex (home to Hamasaki Ayumi) and not Lantis, Starchild or any of those predominantly anime-related record labels. She does seem to have built up a substantial otaku fanbase, but nowhere near Hirano Aya’s it seems.
I personally really like the single itself, but maybe she’s destined for the same fate as ppl like Nonaka Ai - apparently really popular amongst the otaku crowd but not achieving major mainstream success. Unlike Mizuki Nana, Horie Yui and Tamura Yukari who’ve all made their mark on the charts. Well, I’ll see how it goes over the next week but I doubt sales will be getting any stronger…. on another note, Goto Yuko’s album GO TO SONG has passed the 5000 sales mark. Brilliant stuff! Comparisons (for stuff released in 2006):
Mizuki Nana’s HYBRID UNIVERSE: 51430 copies
Tamura Yukari’s Gin no Senritsu, Kioku no mizuoto: 17904 copies
Makino Yui’s Tenkyuu no Ongaku: 10197 copies
Nonaka Ai’s Ai no Uta: 4692 copies
And she can’t even sing…….I did actually quite like the album though, mainly helped by the fact that most of the songs were written by Hashimoto Miyuki, one of my favourite anisong singers. Oh, and nearly forgot to mention it but the Haruhi Drama CD debuted at No.9, one place above the twice-as-expensive Negima 1000% Box set (featuring all the versions of 1000% SPARKING and A-LY-YA!). It’s a shame about Negima though, remember when all the otakus were trying to get Happy Material to No.1? A lot of them have shifted their focus to Haruhi now and sales for the 1000% SPARKING single were a little disappointing, despite it being about 1000x the song that Happy Material was.