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]

EIZO JAPAN - upcoming album

This is one to look forward to! Anyone who is a fan of Sakamoto Eizo (lead singer of Anthem, Animetal and an ex member of JAM Project) should look into this!

He's got a new album of covers of anime songs coming out at the end of August 2009 in Japan - it's available to preorder on CD Japan.

Tracklisting from his official website

Engine Sentai Go-onger
Pegasus Fantasy (Saint Seiya)
Butter-Fly (Digimon)
Unbalance na Kiss o Shite (Yu Yu Hakusho)
Turn A Turn (Turn A Gundam)
Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan (Sakura Wars)
Kimi o Nosete (Laputa: Castle in the Sky)
DELUGE(Instrumental)
Dengeki Sentai Changeman
Aiai Mikochan (Norakuro)
Kioku no Umi (School Days)
Hana - Shinomori Aoshi no Theme (Rurouni Kenshin)
Towa no Mirai (Rurouni Kenshin)
Pegasus Fantasy Acoustic Ver (Saint Seiya)

It'll be good to hear the self-cover of Animetal's Towa no Mirai (presuming it is a cover). I saw a video on youtube of him singing Butter-Fly live at an anime song event, it seems to be a song with a resurgence in popularity, which is great because it's always been a fun song. ^_^ I have wanted to hear him sing the Sakura Taisen theme for ages too. ^_^

It mentions on his English MySpace page that "We are also promoting overseas. Working hard to bring the album to your countries!!", I think that means concerts rather than the CD being released internationally, but I can't be sure. I think I'll put an order in for the Japanese version anyway.

EDIT: 2009-07-15

Keep an eye on his official myspace page! It now contains clips from the album to listen to, and he'd revealed that he will start recording EIZO JAPAN 2 next month! :D

Horie Mitsuko - Koi no Hana Uranai

This evening, I came home to find that my ebay purchase had arrived! Not the Horie Mitsuko LP, but a thingy that you use to place on your turntable in the middle of records that have had the centre punched out. Yeah, one of those things. Took me ages to find one because I didn't know what they're called.

So I took out some of my singles and tried playing one. The first one is a Horie Mitsuko single, it's from 1980 and it's called "Koi no Hana Uranai". The B-side is called "Lilac no hanakotoba". I looked it up, and it seems that both songs come from the anime Hana no ko Lun-Lun, as insert songs. The 6th and 3rd tracks from the LP are on this single.

I tried making the tracks into MP3s (MP3 players being far more portable than record players), but there's something up and the tracks keep stuttering.

So here's the cover I scanned, along with the back which contains lyrics and sheet music!

Animelo Summer Live 2007

Source: Anime News Service

4-16-07 (3:57PM EDT)---- Animelo Summer Live 2007 Generation A Event Scheduled
Animelo Summer Live 2007 Generation A will occur at Nippon Budoukan on July 7. The large anime songs concert will feature many popular artists and seiyuu. Similar events were presented in 2005 and 2006. 10,000 people showed up last year. Hironobu Kageyama, Masami Okui, Nana Mizuki, and Momoi of JAM Project are confirmed participating artists this time around. A CD featuring the particpating artists songs will be put on the market on June 20th.

--

Since when were Mizuki Nana and Momoi Halko members of JAM Project? -_-;;

I see ALI Project, Kuribayashi Minami and Takahashi Naozumi listed too, according to the official website.

Momoi Halko (momo-i) - Famison 8-bit - tracklisting

I've romanised the tracklisting for this album, for making it into MP3s:

1. Touch (from Touch)
2. Koi no Jumon wa Suki Tokimeki to Kiss (from Sasuga no Saru Hi)
3. Hadashi no Flone (from Fushigi na Shima no Flone ~ Swiss Family Robinson)
4. Lum no Love Song (from Urusei Yatsura)
5. Delicate ni Sukishite (from Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami)
6. Yume Ippai (from Chibi Maruko-chan)
7. Fushigi na Melmo (from Fushigi na Melmo)
8. Hajimete no Chu (from Kiteretsu Dai Hyakka)
9. Moonlight Densetsu (from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
10. Sougen no Marco (from Haha o Tazunete Sanzeri ~ 3000 leagues in search of mother)
11. L wa Lovely (from The Kabocha Wine)
12. Areare Arale-chan (from Dr Slump Arale-chan)
13. Romantic Ageru yo (from Dragon Ball)

BONUS TRACK:
14. Kimi wa Hoe Hoe Musume (from Idol Hakkenden) (vocal arrange version)

FAMISON ORIGINAL KARAOKE:
15. Touch (from Touch)
16. Koi no Jumon wa Suki Tokimeki to Kiss (from Sasuga no Saru Hi)
17. Hadashi no Flone (from Fushigi na Shima no Flone ~ Swiss Family Robinson)
18. Lum no Love Song (from Urusei Yatsura)
19. Delicate ni Sukishite (from Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami)
20. Yume Ippai (from Chibi Maruko-chan)
21. Fushigi na Melmo (from Fushigi na Melmo)
22. Hajimete no Chu (from Kiteretsu Dai Hyakka)
23. Moonlight Densetsu (from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
24. Sougen no Marco (from Haha o Tazunete Sanzeri ~ 3000 leagues in search of mother)
25. L wa Lovely (from The Kabocha Wine)
26. Areare Arale-chan (from Dr Slump Arale-chan)
27. Romantic Ageru yo (from Dragon Ball)
28. Kimi wa Hoe Hoe Musume (from Idol Hakkenden) (original ongen version)

Tracklisting Source: http://www.5pb.jp/records/works/2007/0321/VGCD0070.html

Tatsunoko Fight! (PS1 game)

Tatsunoko Fight! (PS1 game) Opening Sequence

Wow, that looks fun!! :D

Gatchaman vs Casshan vs Hurricane Polymer vs Tekkaman vs... Volter?

...looks like Volter is especialy created for this game. I wonder if he's been character designed by Amano Yoshitaka as well (since all the others were). Though... he left Tatsunoko Pro in the early 1980s and I'm not sure he'd return to that kind of anime character design again... but this is game character design, and he was still doing Final Fantasy designs... so...

It's still for sale at Play Asia! But... £26 for a PS1 game? But it says.. Sasaki Isao, Mizuki Ichirou, Horie Mitsuko! oh.... well, £26 is a bargain, then!!

Lynn Minmay sings Bomb Jack! (Mrs Pepperpot)

I remembered earlier today about the cartoon version of Mrs Pepperpot. I think I used to read the books when I was younger... there was a cartoon series too, in English, I think it was on Sky in the 1990s, sometime...

I remember that the music to either the opening or ending (I wasn't sure) was the music to the first level of the arcade game Bomb Jack, but never knew why.

Well, apparently, that cartoon version was actually an anime from 1983-1984 from Studio Pierrot, called Spoon Obaasan, and the ending theme is that Bomb Jack 1st level BGM. Both that and the opening theme are sung by Iijima Mari, who is famous for being Lynn Minmay in Macross.

I can't find the OP/ED in English... pity, since I've been wondering what the lyrics were...

NES (NSF) anime cover versions

I've placed my preorder for the Momoi Halko album I mentioned yesterday. The cover of the opening song for 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother has really impressed me! It's just so appropriate; it sounds exactly like *going on a long journey in a classic RPG* music. This isn't a novelty track; it's proper artistic genre fusion, of two of my favourite genres of music (retro anime & retro videogame). I'm in love with this whole concept.

So I went looking, and discovered .nsf file cover versions of anisong and game music. *_* Oh, I'm so in love with this!

There's an archive here - the zip file plus everything in the "incoming folder". Music players are there too, in the "software" folder.

All sorts of anime, game, and, well, every other sort of music has been covered. There's a large range of anime songs; Cutey Honey, Sailor Moon, Ryvius, Masaru-san, Bottle Fairy, Soul Taker, 2x2=Shinobuden, Pretty Cure, Blue Seed, Lost Universe, Gatekeepers, Patlabor, Great Mazinger, Slam Dunk, Slayers, Suzumiya Haruhi... It's lots of fun. ^_^

I like the cover of Masato Shimon's Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun which is merged with the Final Fantasy 1 battle theme. ^_^

And.. yeah, Momoi Halko is the most geek-friendly idol *ever*.

Momoi Halko - Famison 8-bit

The official website for Momoi Halko's upcoming album "Famison 8-bit" is now open. The site's going too slow for me to hear any of the tracks yet! Tracklisting is here!

Covers of old anisongs in 8-bit Famicom style! What an excellent concept! *_*

EDIT: Wow, this is the best thing ever! It's even got a proper cover of Hajimete no chu! I need to pre-order this...

Horie Mitsuko - Kaze no Shoujo Emily CD

It was Horie Mitsuko's 50th birthday yesterday. I forgot.

Play-Asia sent me an email advertising a new CD of hers

It's the OP theme for an NHK anime coming in April:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/anime/emily/

Juspion / Daireon on youtube

More stuff I get to see that I've only heard before...

Daireon fighting, this comes from the tokusatsu series Juspion

more youtube links

Uchuu Majin Daikengo OP (or Horie Mitsuko's Live performance from SRS 2000...)

I hadn't seen the original opening before...

IT IS NOT THIS! Kore Ja Nai Robo! appropriately poor filming of the music video for this... you can faintly hear Mizuki Ichirou and Apple Pie there...

One 8 second Autobacs Advert, and another 8 second Autobacs Advert - a tiny bit more Mizuki Ichirou...