angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!! Blu-ray

I treated myself to a Japanese Blu-ray in exchange for a huge sum of money. It's a recording of a live concert by the group angela who are known for their songs for anime such as Uchuu no Stellvia, Soukyuu no Fafner, Jinki: Extend, Heroic Age, Shikabane Fighter, and Asura Cryin'.

I have to admit, I didn't take to the lead singer - atsuko - straight away. Her distinct vocals must have overwhelmed me. They are.... somewhat piercing. But, after time.... I realised, she's really good and is especially great at nailing songs for live performances. Such a natural it appears almost effortless.

A few of their earlier albums are available in America, if you want to pick up Sora No Koe, I/O or PRYTHM, I recommend you go to rightstuf because they sell them for only $5 US dollars each.

So, I bought myself a Blu-ray direct from Japan, priced at 6000 yen (but somewhat reduced because I had a stack of loyaly points to spend... but then it was caught in customs and I had to pay another £17-something on top of that). So, uh, yeah. It's, um, cheaper than actually going to Japan....

It's called "angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!!" - Yes yes, that is one looooong title!

Here's the front:

Here's the back

And here's some of what's inside

The packaging isn't very impressive, I suppose. The blue thing with the cartoon of angela and a lion is actually a booklet full of info and interviews (if you can read Japanese), and photos. I don't know if it's clear enough on my photo but the back lists 14 songs... followed by two encores containing another 10 songs! (Full tracklisting is available here on the Starchild website)

It's a Soukyuu no Fafner concert, certainly. But it's also a circus. So there are many, many songs from Fafner and its offshoots, intersperced with clips from this tragic sci-fi anime, and clowns and acrobats run on and bounce around, and so on. They also perform some songs as their alter ego band "Domestic Love Band", doing raucously arranged versions of their songs with gusto that's kind of punk, kind of rock, almost like Tokyo Ska Paradise in places... really different and really good in an unexpected and fun way.

I'm actually only part way through watching this (it's 3 hours long!), but from what I've seen so far it's been really great! If you want a look, I think I spotted a few clips from this concert up on youtube. Otherwise, you can buy yourself a copy from CD Japan here: angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!! - [Limited Release] [Blu-ray]