j1m0ne's blog

Quite a few releases out this week, mostly soundtrack albums though. I also lack the time to listen to everything in one go so reviews will be split into singles and albums. Singles up first.

Lucky Star Character CD Vol. 13 - Kusakabe Misao. Mizuhara Kaori

Whaaat? I thought we were done with all those Lucky Star-themed coaster/frisbee/CD hybrids. But no, here’s another one of them damn things. It’s beyond a joke now. I can’t stand this rubbish anymore. How could anyone possibly justify spending their hard-earned cash on something that’s so awful that I’m already scrambling for the off button by the first instance of Mizuhara shrieking ‘Ariene’. Why subject yourself to such torture? Carving yourself up with a steak knife is a more tolerable method to hasten your path to the afterlife than listening to this CD.
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LOVE TODAY. Taja (Gundam 00 insert song)

Good grief. I think I just found a contender for ‘Most Snooze-Inducing Gundam Song’ to rival CHEMISTRY’s insomnia-curing Wings of Words. Despite my apathy for Gundam Seed & GSD, those iterations did at least produce some fairly brilliant insert songs like FictionJunction YUUKA’s Akatsuki no Kuruma and the many good Lacus Clyne songs sung by Tanaka Rie. This is however, just awful, and is another one to add to the crappy Gundam 00 song arsenal that already includes other insipid songs like Stephanie’s Friends and The Back Horn’s Wana. The single is saved by Boku ni wa Dekinai, which at least has something resembling a tune.
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Melty tale storage. Chihara Minori

Eh. I’m not fond of Melty tale storage, a stupidly named song with lyrics that plumb new depths of pointless and hopeless Engrish. Hata Aki must’ve been asleep when she wrote it, and Minorin’s inability to render English words properly probably makes the song sound worse than it actually does. I was wondering what ‘Zetalisation’ meant when I looked at the lyric sheet and realised it was actually ‘The tale is ancient’. And that she was singing ‘So older’ and not そうだ.

The PV is nothing special either - there’s some nice close-ups of Minorin’s face, and her outfit look nice.. but you know that like Paula Abdul, if I’m commenting about the performer’s clothes that there is something seriously wrong with the song. I much prefer the remixed Echo of Melty tale storage, at least the rather weak chorus is obscured by the plethora of beats and squeaks. Not helping the single is the C/W song Sandglass~Kioku no Ryushi~ which starts off promisingly, but ends up being a pretty bland ballad dressed up with nice strings that mask the song’s shortcomings (another shit chorus). I’m sure Minorin’s songwriters can do better than this.
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Cosmos no Youni. Uehara Rena (ToHeart Another Days ED)

The immediate thought that entered my head when I heard Cosmos no Youni was ‘This sounds like something Suara might do’. So I looked Uehara up and lo & behold, she’s signed to Fix Records, the same label Suara is on. And the song is also written by a bunch of people who’ve worked with Suara before as well. Obviously, if you’re into Suara’s breezy, light pop this will be worth checking out. I myself find it a little dull.
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Rosario + Vampire Character Song CDs
I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed the image song CDs for Rosary Pants or whatever it should be called. Given how crap the show is, they have no right to be anything but rubbish but they’re actually anything bar rubbish - easily trumps the Lucky Star CDs. I love how they’ve been making one of the two songs on each CD a cover of old Jpop tunes - oh, the nostalgia.

Vol.4 - Shirayuki Mizore. Kugimiya Rie

I’ve been pretty neutral about Kugimiya’s voice acting skills, neither liking nor disliking her throughout the years. But I must say, for someone whose voice is so naturally nasal I’ve always found her singing surprisingly good. Well, good when you compare it to seiyuu with a similar vocal range like Koyama Kimiko and Kaneda Tomoko. I’ve no idea what sort of character Rie’s doing in Rosario, but she adopts a whispery, seductive voice for her two songs here. The enka-styled Yukidoke no Koigokoro is a little on the boring side, but I really like her cover of Nakamori Akina’s Slow Motion - in fact I think it’s pretty awesome. I’d recommend both Rie-lovers and haters to give this single a go just to hear a different side of her.
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Vol.5 - Tojo Rubi. Chiba Saeko

OMG, Chiba Saeko $%^$!@)}” (dissolves into a nervous wreck). She could be singing the Tunisian national anthem backwards or the alphabet and I’d still love it anyway. Hearing this CD reminds me how much I miss her singing career T_T I really love the cover of Minamino Yoko’s Hanashi Kaketakatta too, it’s even more awesome than Kugimiya’s cover song. The best single this week by a super long country mile, but I’m knocking off half an Alice for that gay saxophone solo on Tomodachi dayo. I hate saxophones.
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Vol.6 - The Kapucchu. Mizuki Nana, Fukuen Misato, Koyama Kimiko, Kugimiya Rie & Chiba Saeko

OMG. Can’t stop laughing. They chose to cover Ushirogami Hikaretai’s Toki no Kawa o Koete! I don’t actually care for the song itself but the PV, where Kudo Shizuka & co. looked like they were going to be swept away by the wind any minute has always stuck in my mind. The original track Tsumetai Rosario is also a decent enough song, and the number of able singers amongst the five girls (Mizuki Nana, Chiba & Kugmiya) nicely balances out those that can’t sing (Fukuen Misato, Koyama Kimiko). This is the weakest of the 3 Rosario CDs out today, but still stronger than Volumes 2 and 3. I hope this isn’t the end of the series though, unlike the Lucky Star frisbees I would gladly stomach another 7 CDs of thi… on second thought, maybe not. That would mean listening to messrs Kishio Daisuke, Koyasu Takehito and Seki Tomokazu sing and I’m not sure I’d like that.
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