j1m0ne’s blog

23 May 2007
I really don’t think I’ll get much revision done this week…… Must. Pass. Exams. So. I. Can. Graduate. Oh, and I’m starting to get into point-and-click adventure games again (Guybrush Threepwood rules!) - playing Beneath a Steel Sky now, wonder why I never did pick it up earlier….

Oh, and random, but Ono Daisuke’s getting a solo mini-album release from Lantis in June called Hinemosu (me pencils in date on calendar). Should I buy it? Depends, lol. Ono’s writing one of the tracks and (yikes) Sugita Tomokazu is writing another one LMAO.

Last week’s reviews chart placings:
Singles
01. Ashita hareru kana. Kuwata Keisuke (167,965)
02. Kiss~Kaerimichi no Love Song~. Tegomass (96,073)
03. SUMMER TIME LOVE. EXILE (89,522)
04. HOWLING. abingdon boys school (35,040)
08. Aiuta. GreeeeN (12,959)
09. Shura. DOES (12,848)
13. Dramatic. BASE BALL BEAR (11,537)
23. United Force. Kuribayashi Minami (5,278)
39. Hikari no Yukue. savage genius (2,816)
65. Yuukyuu no tabibito~Dear boy. Snow* (1,665)
Albums
22. The World E.P. 9mm Parabellum Bullet (6,255)

Singles
Hayate no Gotoku!. KOTOKO

Waddya know, the full version of Hayate no Gotoku! is so much better than the watered down one used in the anime. The c/w song Naitakattanda is also one of the more memorable KOTOKO ballads in recent memory. Though I suppose if you hate her or I’ve sound in general, this single will be as appealing as listening to a cat screeching….
First day Oricon chart placing: No.6
Rating: ★★★★☆

Jasmine. V6

Both songs are starting to grow on me now, but I still prefer their cheesier stuff like HONEY BEAT. I sure hope their fans beat Motteke! into submission….
Watch: Jasmine PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.1
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Motteke! Sailor Fuku. Hirano Aya, Katou Emiri, Fukuhara Saori, Endou Aya

I’ve already made my feelings clear about Motteke! Sailor Fuku so I won’t comment further on it. I did have fun matching up the lyrics to what some of the fansubbers put - some of which were off the stratosphere in terms of accuracy (Darlin’ darlin FREEZE? lol). Reminds me of the Katakiri Rekka comparisons a while back….I’m not quite sure why ppl really bother with karaokes and whatnot; a lot of them are obviously horribly wrong (til the single comes out) and it just spoils it for all the Konata-wannabes out there ;). At least the c/w song Kaeshite! Knee Socks marginally manages to not be as annoying as Sailorfuku.

I always cringe when all the otaku try to push anime songs into the Oricon chart regardless of its quality, witness all that Happy Material rubbish. Can never stop laughing when stuff like that comes up on CDTV - it just sounds ridiculously out of place. Not that anyone who’s not into anime cares - the standard response is ‘誰? Another anime song??? Whatever, it’s rubbish.’ There’s some ppl I’ve encountered who don’t know who Mizuki Nana/what a seiyuu is, but love her music cos well…. it actually sounds good. If this reaches No.1, 日本オワタ＼(^o^)／
First day Oricon chart placing: No.3
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Chippoke na Yuuki. FUNKY MONKEY BABYS

Horrible band name asides, this is another charming little song from FMB with an equally charming PV.
Watch: Chippoke na Yuuki PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.10
Rating: ★★★★☆

mellow melody. Ceui

Pleasant enough without ever being exciting, mellow melody plods along at a leisurely pace (like sola really). Binkan na fuukei is included here again, after first appearing on the Prologue CD. Doesn’t matter, it’s a lovely song anyway. I can safely predict that this will be the less sucessful one out of the Hata Aki-penned singles out this week (Motteke! is the other one).
First day Oricon chart placing: No.41
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Concordia. kukui

Formed after the dissolution of refio (myu + riya of eufonius), kukui (myu + Shimotsuki Haruka) are best known for their contributions to the Rozen Maiden soundtracks. Concordia which is the Polyphonica ED is rather slow, but it grows on me after a while… speaking of Polyphonica, I was putting some info in for the anime on ANN the other day as I’d noticed Chihara Minori had a sort of cameo/crossover role as Matia Machiya…. and I was gonna put in the full name of Kosugi Juurota’s character til I looked at the katakana on the Japanese wiki - マナガリアスティノークル・ラグ・エデュライケリアス (Managariastinokkuru Ragu Eduraikeriasu) and promptly gave up. Oh, and Mizuki Nana also voices one of those fairy thingies in addition to Perserte - Bourai or something.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside Top 50
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Kodoku no Kakera. Angela Aki

So I thought her first few singles weren’t great, and I couldn’t understand all the fuss over Kiss Me Good-bye (the FF6,489 theme) which was IMO as interesting as listening to my Finance lecturer droning on about the Efficient Market Hypothesis. But I liked the last single Sakurairo and I love Kodoku no Kakera. Maybe marriage makes one write better songs? Any complaints? Yeah, her covers all look the same….. get a new photographer or concept artist!
Watch: Kodoku no Kakera PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.7
Rating: ★★★★☆

Tsukiakari. Rie fu

It’s only been a year or so since her last single but it feels like ages… Her last album was quite frankly dire, but this single is amazing. Both Tsukiakari and dreams be are great songs…. the last song of hers I actually liked was Life is Like a Boat. God, has it been that long?
Watch: Tsukiakari PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.28
Rating: ★★★★☆

Anemone. Nakahara Mai

Nakahara can just about hold a tune, as nasal as her voice is (and as plastic as her face may be). Both Anemone and the c/w Sazanami no Koe are written by the members of marble (what happened to the usual Yuumao or rino collab, sob); the duo that did the Hidamari Sketch ending theme. This is the Kamichama Karin ED song, and very much one of my faves from this season. No doubt the single would do better if Lantis didn’t always lump all their releases in one week and burn holes in the pockets of the otaku crowd…..
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside Top 50
Rating: ★★★★☆

Azurite. Urakabe Tae

Great, another Hirai Hisashi design on the cover. A bit of digging around tells me that Urakabe is from the musical/stage group Nansho whose former students include Chiba Saeko, Nanri Yuuka and Kobayashi Akiko. Guess it’s not so surprising that she can sing well then…. Didn’t think she was old, but turns out she’s 31, was in the class above Chiba Saeko and has a bunch of stage credits to her name. This is her debut single, is the Heroic Age ED…. and it’s a slooow ballad. I guess it’s not really that bad a song, but it’s probably gonna get lost amongs the mass stampede of anime releases this week.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside Top 50
Rating: ★★★☆☆

TSUBASA. Sena

God, another ballad….and so I was starting to switch off. But hey, this is actually a really good single. Reminds me of a Sowelu song. C/w song Baby Love is a more upbeat affair, and overall this gets a thumbs up from me. God knows who Sena (she wrote both songs) is though, can’t seem to find anything on her……
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside Top 50
Rating: ★★★★☆

Perfect Tears. Riryka

Well I’m glad she’s not really using the Kurumi Miruku pseudonym (palindromes are not cool) anymore. This is her second single as Riryka and is apparently the image song for a PC game called Clear. Perfect Tears is composed by Tamura Shinji (worked on most of the Tales series) and the lyrics are written by Kodama Saori (wrote all those versions of 1000%SPARKING!). Probably not as good as Bravin’ Bad Brew (VVV OP), but still a fun song nevertheless.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside Top 50
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Albums
Denim. Takeuchi Mariya

One of the all-time great Japanese female singer-songwriters, Takeuchi sold more than 3 millions copies of her hits collection Impressions in 1994. Her last album was the great Bon Appetit! in 2001, another million seller. It’s unlikely that Denim will hit such heights again, but it’s still a very good pop album. Produced once again by husband Yamashita Tatsuro (boy their kid has a lot of musical talent in her blood….), most of the songs contain that trademark sound of Takeuchi’s - somewhat nostalgic, MOR pop ballads that you can imagine your mum listening to. Guess if you hate 80s Jpop you won’t be too interested in this but for me……. now I’m starting to miss Moritaka Chisato too. Blubber.

I really hope Takeuchi beats off the competition from BENNIE K & Ryu Si Won to No.1, she just shaved the former on the NINKI charts (a survey of what releases ppl are most looking forward to) - guess the 30/40s age group have more money to spend on records ^_^
First day Oricon chart placing: No.1
Rating: ★★★★☆

Nanoha StrikerS Sound Stage 01. Various

Oh here we go again….but positive point #1: Yuuno’s not here (JOY). Positive point #2: The gang go on a mission to Japan, which means the return of Suzuka/Arisu/Arf/Amy/Nanoha’s family!!! It was good to hear them again ^_^ And as usual, poor Subaru got clobbered by Tea the tsundere, this time for saying 私はティアのこと大好きだからね。(I really like you, Tea). 誤解な招きようなもの言ってんじゃないわよ！何が大好きよ、このバカ！！(Don’t say things that will cause misunderstandings, waddya mean by ‘Daisuki’, you %$#^%$.) ^^;;;; There’s some nice Erio + Caro moments though.

There’s three insert songs included here as well from Chiwa Saito (Subaru - was used in episode 8), Ueda Kana (Hayate) and Tamura Yukari (Nanoha)…. guess there’ll be at least 2 more sound stage collections.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.22
Rating: How do you rate a (mostly) drama CD?

Songs from D.C.II Spring Celebration. Hashimoto Miyuki, Yozuca*, CooRie, Misato Aki etc

Another Da Capo related release….. I know nothing about the games, but the music’s mostly good. There’s only 5 tracks on this, so it gets a star for each song I like… which are all written by rino. I still have no idea when she decides to use the rino name and when she uses CooRie since well…CooRie’s just her really.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.47
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Still looking:
Singles: Yuzu (No.2), Yoshii Kazuya (No.7), Asai Kenichi (No.13), SUEMITSU & The Suemith (No.43), Miyano Mamoru (xx)
Albums: The Back Horn (No.8), Clammbon (No.14)

Next week: I’ll be listening but not no e-writing next week - instead it’s frantically paper writing economic gibberish I’ve memorised but in reality, understand nuts about. That’s what you get when you go to university y’know - you don’t actually learn anything useful/become smarter, but it’s just a rather expensive signal to send to employers about yourself. Oh hang on, I guess that’s the one thing I did learn from my 3 years in tertiary education…..

Highlights: aiko, UVERworld, Quruli, Aobouzu, Onitsuka Chihiro, Laruku, Hoshimura Mai, MELL and BEAT CRUSADERS.

OT: I skimmed through KissDum 08………. the animation in the last 2 eps are a joke. Let’s see if those Director’s Cuts on the DVD fixes anything……

Posted on May 23rd, 2007 under music, this week in japan • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback