Kurogane's Anime Blog

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! They just announced May’n's gonna be in Singapore for Anime Festival Asia 2008. I am totally freaking out (in a good way) about this. Now I have a good excuse to go to Singapore and visit all my kouhai bloggers there, ROFL.

It’s too bad only May’n's going, they could’ve brought Megumi along as well and then we might be able to see Triangler (fight on stage) live!

More information over here, looks like AFA 2008 is gonna be a pretty darn huge event. Definitely not gonna miss it, but looks like I’m gonna be especially broke afterwards ._.

Sure is crazy how fast Macross Frontier CD’s are leaking. Not that I am complaining though….

Tracklist：

01 Prologue F
02 ノーザンクロス／シェリル・ノーム starring May’n
03 トライアングラー(fight on stage)／ランカ・リー＝中島愛＆シェリル・ノーム starring May’n
04 HighSchoolLife
05 トランスフォーメーション
06 アナタノオト／ランカ・リー＝中島愛
07 Test Flight Delight
08 星間飛行／ランカ・リー＝中島愛
09 イヌミミランカ
10 妖精／シェリル・ノーム starring May’n
11 追憶のトランペット
12 真空のダイアモンド クレバス／シェリル・ノーム starring May’n
13 愛・おぼえていますか～bless the little queen／ランカ・リー＝中島愛
14 蒼のエーテル／ランカ・リー＝中島愛
15 is this LOVE?
16 shadow of Michael
17 アイモ　O.C.／ランカ・リー＝中島愛
18 Battle Frontier
19 娘々サービスメドレー／ランカ・リー＝中島愛＆シェリル・ノーム starring May’　[(1)ﾗｲｵﾝ (2)ｲﾝﾌｨﾆﾃｨ (3)私の彼はﾊﾟｲﾛｯﾄ (4)ﾀﾞｲｱﾓﾝﾄﾞｸﾚﾊﾞｽ (5)星間飛行 (6)what'bout My Star? (7)愛･おぼえていますか (8)ｱｲﾓ]
20 プロトカルチュア

My favourite OST tracks are Prologue F, High School Life and イヌミミランカ. Those three tracks are probably the “signature” tracks of the show for me and it’s good to finally get to hear them in full. High School Life’s full version was a bit different than I expected though.

This time, the number of vocal tracks nearly equal the BGM ones. Aptly named Triangler (fight on stage) ver. is the Sheryl x Ranka duet of the song, and damn, it would be fun to actually see them “fight” on stage with that song, LOL.

It’s also good to hear the full version of Anata no Oto finally, and it’s a catchy song as I expected. Sheryl’s Yousei and Ranka’s Ao no Ether is also in the album, but I’ve already heard the full versions. Still, it’s good to get the official releases.

There’s also the remixes. Without doubt, Shinkuu no Diamond Crevasse is the official, best version of Diamond Crevasse ever, and it’s good to see they actually gave justice to it with a full track. Ranka’s Do you Remember Love ~ bless the little queen~ doesn’t really evoke much excitement to me, since it’s basically Ranka singing the full version isntead of a excerpt. Aimo O.C. is best described as a “demonized” version of Aimo, and I do think that description fits it the best, considering the context it was made. Wonder what does the O.C mean? “Over Clocked” maybe? Or “Over Charged” ?

Finally, the highlight of the album is THE MEDLEY, “Musume Service Medley”, which is the clean version of the one played at the end of the series. Needless to say, it’s an awesome listen, but I do feel the medley more better in the context of the series. Frankly, the medley song changes got a bit weird to me during the early parts, mostly during the transition to “My Boyfriend is a Pilot” and when “Seikan Hikou” comes in.

Overall, another awesome sound track from this series. Of course, we still have the movie to wait and anticipate much. Man, I hope we get more Sheryl tracks. I still feel there’s not enough pieces from Ranka and Sheryl.

Yes, it’s been leaked, again. Awesome medley is awesome.

But I still feel the “clean version” feels lacking. I think it’s the awesome Alto shouting.

Maybe I should just rip the audio straight from the show.

Since I was bored and had some free time, I decided to rip out the version of Diamond Crevasse played in episode 20 and Ao no Ether in episode 21. You can download them from the links below:

• Diamond Crevasse (Episode 20)
• Ao no Ether (Episode 21)

In my opinion, the version of Diamond Crevasse played in episode 20 has been the best one yet on the show so far, and the poignancy of song is enhanced even more when it’s played as the send-off for Micheal ;A;. The song actually sounds BETTER taken from the episode. I do hope we get a clean version as well in the upcoming OST or perhaps in another CD.

Ao no Ether is also another solid song from Megumi Nakajima, and it really is a nice, slow, meaningful and melancholic song that represents Ranka’s feelings towards Alto.

Needless to say, these two songs really complement each other when put in a looping playlist. Only for me perhaps, but oh well :P.

Found a recording of the full version of Lion being sung live by May’n and Megumi on Youtube. The quality is kinda terrible, but you’ve gotta live with what you can get I guess.

The live version is actually quite interesting because Megumi uses a lower voice to sing, not her Ranka one. I guess it’s hard to keep up the Ranka voice and perform live.

I still can’t stop looping Lion myself, I think I’ve already rewatched the whole OP sequence at least 20 times since yesterday. I gotta love the lyrics, they give off a strong feeling of “I will survive” for me.

The weird subtitle aside, awesome O.S.T. is awesome.

The O.S.T. is packed full with songs by both Sheryl and Ranka, although Sheryl gets more of the time since she has more songs. The best part of the OST has gotta be the 3 “Sheryl on Stage” songs, done back to back, giving the impression that it was recorded live at one of her gigs. They sure did a good job in to including the ambient noise which also captures a lot of feelings in the recording than the clean CD version. I daresay I’d be looping them instead of the clean ones. 「Infinity」 and 「Diamond Crevasse」 is also included as well towards the end of the disc. If I haven’t made it public yet, then let me just say that 「Infinity」 is god damn awesome as well, especially now that I have the CD quality version of it.

As for Ranka, the 「What ’bout my Star? @ Formo」 is basically the extended version of the one she sings in episode 5, with some accompanying vocals by Sheryl at the extended parts of the track. Aimo is included, in both short and long versions, and interestingly, the long version of Aimo is called 「Aimo ~Tori no Hito」. Another allusion to Macross Zero yet again. The Nyan nyan and Ninjin songs are also included, sadly both of them are the same length as the ones used during the TV series. I would’ve loved a full version of 「Ninjin loves you yeah!」

Coming to the BGM’s by Yoko Kanno; 「Big Boys」, 「Private Army」 and 「Take Off」 are the ones that I really liked the most. The rest are of course, awesome as well. There was also a S.M.S theme song in the CD as well, man that one really made me laugh out loud, thanks to the lyrics and the singing XD.

Overall, awesome OST is awesome! Remember, ninjin loves you Yeah!

Picture sourced from Heisei Democracy.

Seeing this poster over at Heisei Democracy’s post, this really cements Alto’s androgyny. I remember the last time a male character (technically) was in Megami was OtoBoku’s Mizuho, and we all know what that did to us…

I wonder if Alto-hime is going to tsun-tsun over it or dere-dere over it. Either way, he loves it, I guess.

On a side note, Diamond Crevasse’s single got leaked. Gabriela Robin.com is such cocktease by putting up the samples. Already procured 「射手座☆午後九時 Don’t be late」, now looking for 「ダイアモンド クレバス」.

ツイニキタ―――(・∀・)―――!!

Spice and Wolf OPED is awesome. Horo! \o/

Tabi no Tochuu full version feels more dreamy than the full version, while the Engrishy-ness of Ringo Biyori is rather endearing for some reason… “I’m a little wolf inside a girl~~”

Nana-chan’s new single is out!

Taking a departure from the traditional formats of her singles, this CD contains four full tracks, but weirdly doesn’t include the instrumental versions of the songs. I really want the instrumentals for Astrogation and Dancing in the Velvet Moon.

Track 1: Astrogation
- Initially, I didn’t like the song too much, but after a few listens, this song really grew on me. What I really like is the combination of piano and violin accompaniments of the song, vividly featured in the PV. Speaking of the PV, it’s one of the rare Japanese PV’s that I actually like a lot.

Track 2: COSMIC LOVE
- The Rosario+Vampire OP song. An upbeat and happy song from Nana-chan. It’s quite fun to listen to.

Track 3: Dancing in the Velvet Moon.
- Rosario+Vampire ED. The main attraction for me in this album. It’s another “powerful” song by Nana-chan, with a gothic feel. I love how the song slows down 2/3rds in, and slowly cresendos upwards again.

Track 4: Soradokei
- And finally, to round up the album, a slow song by Nana-chan. Generally, I’m not a fan of her slow songs, because I fell in love with her “powerful” ones, but it’s a pretty good song, but I won’t be remembering it much.

While the show is going down the usual Sunrise trainwreck trail, you gotta admit, the new OP and ED are both awesome.

Been looping Stephanie’s Friends ever since it was out a day or two back. The powerful vocals and meaningful lyrics makes this song rather addictive. Too bad the ED sequence in the show itself is a bit…