description

Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams. - Yeats

UPDATED: Tong Yao Film & TV guide 28/05/2023

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Perfume Live in Singapore - videos

Ohhhh... there are videos of two news packaged regarding Perfume's recently concluded live at Scape in Singapore.  Cool!!!!!  Now I can re-live some of the experience. :)  My friends and I spotted ourselves in the crowd but I'm not telling you who we are in there. :)

I must say... after the concert, I was soooo high... I'm seriously considering going to the EOY on the 11th Dec.  Initially, I didn't want to go because I didn't want to spend any more money... but... hmmmm.... I'm beginning to lean more favourable towards going.

Anwayz... as usually, I have a ton of posts I would like to write but no time to do so. :(  My final book in the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Key Animation artbook series has arrived and it is cool... but I haven't even had time to do vol.5's unboxing yet.... (00;)  Got to gambatte!!! :)

Sadly... lately... I have been really tired and I am going to go to bed almost immediately after I post this.  Here are the youtube videos... :)

(Thanks SGCafe ~ I got this news of they website)





SGCafe also posted up a review of the concert.  Here's the link.  I don't think I have time to do my own review...  at least... don't wait for me... read their review here.... click me.

I'm not a Perfume fan and I don't think I am yet... but I think they are really fun to watch live and would totally go to see them live again.  I have a very wide taste in music.. so although this isn't my favourite genre, I like Perfume's songs enough to want to buy an album or two.  Am very close to getting this compilation album... :)

Perfume Global Compilation "LOVE THE WORLD" / Perfume

K... time for better... tired.  Oyasumi. :)

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Perfume in Singapore ~ fun!!!



I had such a good time at Scape today. The concert was so fun and we were right at the front. The 3 girls danced so well and we jumped and danced a lot!!

Perfume had a special guest star today... Doraemon!!! They announced that they will sing the theme song for the new movie next year.

Soooo.... cool.... we were so close... I could really see their faces and the twinkle in their eyes. Awesome!!! :)
posted from Bloggeroid

Kalafina 5th Anniv LIVE SELECTION track list & Hikari Furu ~ Oricon

The track list for Kalafina's 5th Anniversary Live Selection 2009 - 2012 CD/DVD+Blu-ray has been released.  I think this was released either yesterday or today.  I'm not too sure, I've been kind of busy lately and haven't had time to blog much.

Anywayz... from CDJapan... 29 songs in total... here you go :)

1. [Disc 1] overture ~ seventh heaven
2. [Disc 1] oblivious
3. [Disc 1] 夏の林檎
4. [Disc 1] serenato
5. [Disc 1] lirica
6. [Disc 1] Lacrimosa
7. [Disc 1] 明日の景色
8. [Disc 1] storia
9. [Disc 1] 傷跡
10. [Disc 1] 君が光に変えて行く
11. [Disc 1] interlude 01
12. [Disc 1] ARIA
13. [Disc 1] Gloria
14. [Disc 1] うつくしさ
15. [Disc 1] また風が強くなった
16. [Disc 1] 輝く空の静寂には
17. [Disc 2] fairytale
18. [Disc 2] intermezzo
19. [Disc 2] red moon
20. [Disc 2] progressive
21. [Disc 2] Kyrie
22. [Disc 2] 音楽
23. [Disc 2] sprinter ~ acoustic ver. ~
24. [Disc 2] overture ~ Eden
25. [Disc 2] 光の旋律
26. [Disc 2] overture ~ 満天
27. [Disc 2] Magia
28. [Disc 2] to the beginning
29. [Disc 2] symphonia

Looks like a good track list to me. :)  I'm not sure which of the 9 lives they are using but I'm hoping it's not from any of those that have already been released on dvd and blu-ray because that would kind of suck.

Of course the Anna ni Issho Datta no ni performance from Animielo 2009 did not end up in the CD... that was just my wishful thinking. :)

In other Kalafina news... Hikari Furu continues to do well on the Oricon charts.  Earlier this week, the single managed to push past to the beginning to become Kalafina's best selling CD single yet.  Omedetou!!! :)

Also, CDJapan is also offering Hikari Furu LE DVD and LE BD at a 10% discount.  It's not a HUGE discount but if anyone's been thinking of getting the singles... it's something worth considering.  Too bad the regular version isn't discounted.... I think I might really have caved into temptation. :)

Here are the links for the 5th Anniv collection and the Hikari Furu single again.  Once again, if you can afford it.... please buy them. :)

5th Anniv LIVE SELECTION
This is the link to the Limited Edition.
This is the link to the Regular Edition.

Hikari Furu

Alrighty... time to go... need to get a ton of stuff done before I go to bed... this will be a very busy weekend... so need to try and get some rest in too. :)  Ta ta!!! :)

UPDATE:
Oh.... it looks like Moonfesta has a nice discount on CDJapan....

Moonfesta [w/DVD, Limited Edition/Type-A]  @ 30% off
Moonfesta [w/Blu-ray, Limited Edition/Type-B] @ 30% off
 
This makes the LEs cheaper than the Regular Edition which isn't discounted. Sadly for me... the RE is the version I want the most!!! :(

Also... for those who are into sheet music.  Sheet music for the Fate/Zero themes have been released.  This includes Kalafina's to the beginning, LiSA's Oath Sign and Eir Aoi's Memoria.  Click on the picture below to go to the CDJapan product page.

Yasashii Piano Solo & Hikigatari Fate/Zero / Shinko Music

cheers :)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

TYPE-MOON Fes. 10th Anniv BD Box ~ cover art & tokuten

I've been really, really busy at work lately and had to put a lot of things on hold, blogging included.  So all the AFA2012 posts had to wait, unfortunately. :(  But as I am currently mostly a Kajiura Yuki fan, I decided that this post take precedence. :D

While browsing through CDJapan, for some reason, I decided to revisit the Type-Moon Festival 10th Anniversary BD Box set product page and found out that the page has been updated to include a First Press release bonus.  And although CDJapan was not able to provide any details, it looks like it will be a poster.

So I decided to check out Type-Moon's website.  I should start following Type-Moon on twitter too since I like a lot of their stuff.  Anyway, I checked out Type-Moon's website and followed a link to their 10th Anniversary festival page.

Type-Moon has been updating their news section with news on this release but I haven't been keeping up.  If my Japanese doesn't fail me again.  I think that the picture that they posted up yesterday is the cover-art for this BD box release.  The picture that is currently posted up on CDJapan's product page is merely a place-holder.  Here, on the left, is the jacket illustration for this very exciting release. :)

The other piece of news of interest to me is about the tokuten that Type-Moon will be giving out to those who order this release early.  While, as usual, CDJapan isn't listed in the shops in the post, it is likely that these are the posters that will be given out to those who ordered early enough to get the First Press release of this item.

If I did not read it wrong, it looks like the bonus on this occasion will be a set of two A3 size posters.  Type-Moon also posted up the sample illustrations on their website and they look like this.



Very nice for fans of Type-Moon's work. :)

But for Kajiura Yuki's fans, the biggest reasons to get this set is for both Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina.  Both Kajiura Yuki and the vocal unit she produces performed at the Type-Moon 10th Anniv Festival and their performances are included in this BD release. :)

I've already pre-ordered mine. :)  There are currently only 20 copies of the First Press edition available at CDJapan, so if you want the tokuten posters, you might want to considering placing an order soon. :)

K... time for bed... it's approx 2:30am... way past the time I had originally intended to sleep at. :p  Oyasumi. :)

Monday, November 19, 2012

Utada Hikaru ~ Evangelion 3 theme ~ Sakura Nagashi

Yay!!! Utada Hikaru is releasing a new single.  She's taking a hiatus from the industry these days but according to the press release, returned just to do this song for EVA due to her deep fondness for the anime.  This is the theme song for Evangeion 3, an anime I hope will be screened in Singapore.  If it's screened here... I'm definitely going to try can watch it.

The first press bonus for this single is quite cool.  It's a B2-size poster of an illustration of Utada Hikaru, drawn by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki.  Nice... I'm very tempted and am leaning towards getting this single.  It is Utada Hikaru after all and one of my all time favourite song is "Beautiful World" by her. :)

Here is the product link to the CDJapan page for those who are interested in purchasing this single too. :)

update:
Cuz I'm lazy to write up a new post about it :p ... here is the youtube video of the song... hope it doesn't get taken down or something. Enjoy...

test ~ posting photos from flicker

2012-11-03 12.58.40 by kiasukid2000
2012-11-03 12.58.40, a photo by kiasukid2000 on Flickr.

Very short post. Testing posting photos from flicker. Need to go to work soon. Photo of my cafe kaffello, fancy name for cafe latte with coffee jelly, from TCC cafe. :-)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Kalafina 5th Anniv LIVE SELECTION 2009-2012 & concert ~ info


The official announce of this release was released by Sony earlier today but I didn't have a chance to put it up.  I've had a horribly busy day at work and only reached home at 1:20am.  But as I hate going to bed immediately after I get back from a long day at work and also because I'm feeling a little blue about some things not happening the way I hope they would at work... I decided to do something that makes me happy. :)  Yeah... blogging and blogging about Kajiura Yuki, FicitonJunction or Kalafina. :)

The official announce has a teeny little bit more info then what CDJapan has given us.  It gives the number of tracks planned for the CDs and the number of videos they intend to put on the DVD and BD

The two CDs will contain 29 tracks selected from 9 different lives since Kalafina's debut 5 years ago.  I'm thinking it's unlikely that Anna ni Issho Datta no ni will be on the discs but I like having something to hope for. :)

Also the Limited Edition (2CD+Blu-ray+DVD) will come packed in a box and I made a mistake in the previous post.  The booklet isn't 16 pages.  It's a whooping 60 pages. :)  On the down side... expect the shipping to be more expensive than your usual CD LE releases.  Also, expect that the shipping rate may go up once the product is actually released because right now, the dimensions and weight of this LE release is anyone's guess.

In total, there will be video clips of 14 songs on the DVD and BD and if my Japanese doesn't fail me, I think they will be producing a video clip for oblivious for the first time.  I'm not sure exactly but maybe a PV?

I'm really curious as to why they didn't just put everything on the BD and why they would include both a BD and a DVD instead of their usual practice of a separate BD LE release and a separate DVD LE release.  I'm hoping that it isn't just going to be a collection of their PVs on BD and DVD, with the exception of a new clip for oblivious.  I would like concert footage and other stuff etc too.

There will also be a live, titled "Kalafina 5th Anniversary LIVE" oblivious ", to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Kalafina's formation.  That'll be on the 23rd Jan 2013 at Shibuya-O-East.  If I read the announce properly, I think that the reason why they chose this date and this location was because on the 23rd Jan 2008, Kalafina's first paid one-man live was held at Shibuya-O-East. (aside: at that point in time, Hikaru had not yet joined the vocal unit).  They named this 5th Anniversary Live "oblivious" because they would like to return to their beginning. Hence, most of the songs that they will sing at this live will be from their first album.

Personally, I think this would be an awesome live to go to.  Since this is their 5th Anniversary live and scheduled to be performed on the date they threw their first paid full concert and at the same location too... it should be an emotional event, especially for Keiko and Wakana.  Fingers crossed that we'll see a video release... although, I'm not too hopeful they'll release any videos since they will already be releasing this set to commemorate their 5 years as Kalafina.  Too bad I really can't afford to go to Japan for this live.  If I could, I would have because I think this live will probably be very good.

Here are the links again:

This is the link to the Limited Edition. (2CD+BD+DVD+60page deluxe booklet ~ packed in a box)
This is the link to the Regular Edition. (2CDs)

And my usual line... please buy their music if you can afford it. :)

Anyway, that's it from me for now.... it's past 2am and I have to be up and 6:30 to start another very, very long day at work.... not exactly looking forward to that.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Kalafina 5th Anniversary LIVE SELECTION 2009-2012

A photo of Keiko just cuz I like her lovely smile in this picture. :)

Awesome news!!!! More Kalafina music for us Kajiura Yuki & Kalafina fans.  In celebration of their 5th year since their formation, Kalafina will be releasing a compilation of music recorded from their lives from 2009-2012.  This is very cool since most overseas fans have very few opportunities, if any at all, to see the vocal unit live.  :)  I am really excited about this release.

Thanks Shangyou for alerting me about it... I'm still recovering from my crazy AFA weekend and have purposely reduced the amount of time I spend online so didn't even know about this release. :)

There are 2 editions.  The Limited Edition comes with the a Blu-ray+DVD and the Regular Edition comes with the 2 audio CDs by themselves.

This is the link to the Limited Edition.
This is the link to the Regular Edition.

The LE is, in my opinion, completely worth getting.  It'll be a 2CD+Blu-ray+DVD set which makes it a 4 discs set and will retail at 7619yen.  That's a pretty good price, in my opinion. :)  The Regular Edition will be released at a more affordable 3714yen.

The item is slated for a 23rd Jan release.  The same month as the Type-Moon Festival 10th Anniversay Blu-Ray set.  And on the same day as the Sword Art Online Vol4. DVD/Blu-ray LE set which comes with Kajiura Yuki's vol.1 soundtrack.  This will be an expensive month for fans of Kajiura Yuki.  But it's good... more good music for us fans!! :)

This new Kalafina release is quite epic.  The BD and DVD will contain video clips of the trio from their debut song Oblivious to the just released Hikari Furu.  The release will also come with a 16 page booklet. :)

Fingers crossed that they will put the Anna ni Issho Datta no ni performance from Animielo 2009 into this disc.  I loved their performance of this song.

So far that's all the info we have, I'm sure there will be more later and hopefully some bonus items too.  Am going to go pre-order it now. :)

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Fate/zero theme ufotable cafe

ufotable (@ufotable) tweeted at 6:31 PM on Tue, Nov 13, 2012:Fate /ゼロカフェ特設サイトの公開をお知らせ致します。不定期に落書きやweb漫画が更新されてゆきます:) http://t.co/FF2feaBq 何卒、お楽しみあれ! http://t.co/sN79Nwst(https://twitter.com/ufotable/status/268299993834745856)

Actually I am posting this mostly to test how posting from twitter to my blog via bloggeroid works. :-)

This tweet is about the Fate/Zero theme cafe at the ufotable cafe. I'm not sure when it began I didn't really go check it. I have been to the ufotable cafe near Nakano station in Tokyo. It was quite cool. When I went, the cafe was hosting one of the Tales themes. Too bad I am not familiar with any of the games but it was still nice to be able to check out some of the artwork up close.

ufotable also announced in that tweet that there will be a Fate/Zero web manga. I went to check it out but it's not up yet.

That's it for now. I will be on my way home soon. Had to work today so am feeling a little tired and sleepy after dinner. Hopefully I can get a seat on the train, I might try and nap. :-)

posted from Bloggeroid

Sword Art Online vol.7 comes w/ Kajiura Yuki's OST :)


Oh.... before I go to bed.... I just checked my email and just found out that Sword Art Online Vol.7 Limited Edition releases come with Kajiura Yuki's soundtrack.  This will be vol2 of the OST for SAO.  Man... I wish I had more money.... I would love to own this.

For those who can afford it... here is the CDJapan link to the blu-ray relaese.

As for me... I really need to go to bed... tomorrow I will go and earn more money. :)

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ my haul part 1

Unfortunately, even though tomorrow is a public holiday in Singapore, I have to return to the studio to put in a day's worth of worth.  Ah well... it's okay... I'll get paid and that money will go into my "save money for Japan" bank account which is looking quite pathetic right now unfortunately. :(

Anyway, here is a photo of my haul from this year's AFA.  It's not as much as previous years and I didn't buy the t-shirts this year.  I was really trying not to over spend this year because I really do need to put some money away for now and I already have several pre-orders pending.  Most of them are Mahou Shoujo Madoka related. :) I'll definitely be using that lanyard, the One Piece lanyard that I use for my work pass is looking quite sad these days which is why I wanted the Mahou Shoujo Madoka lanyard. :)

I also wanted a earphone jack accessory for my phone and I would have loved the one of Kyubey but in order to get that, I had to buy these trading figure type boxes and I decided that I'll just get the one of Wooser from Good Smile instead.

I'm thinking that I'll probably also use the Hello Kitty - TM Revolution cross-over accessory too.  Not sure yet I'll I'll use the Madoka neck strap and the pen.  The neck strap will probably be used with my Vita.  As for the pen, I guess I'll just use it at home for now.

I did some unboxing photos which I'll put up in another post.  I will probably work on more AFA2012 posts with photos tomorrow night after I get back from work.  Today, I didn't feel like blogging for too long because I have to be up bright and early for work tomorrow.  So that's it for today. :) Oyasumi. :)

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ Singapore - comments part 1


(photo courtesy AFA)

I would like to write a longer post about my experience at the AFA2012 this year.  I have tons I would like to write about and photos that I would like to put up.  But I am truly tired and I have to work tomorrow so I really would like to try and get to bed by 11pm or so.  Hence, first up, an over view of my experience.

In general, I really did enjoy myself at this year's AFA.  I have several regrets but these regrets are actually not really negatives.  In my opinion, the organisers for the AFA are going in the right direction... sort of.  Okay, there is room for improvement but then, there always is.  That said, I really would like to give credit where credit is due.

In spite of some organizational mistakes, some of them quite monumental too, this year's AFA was really pretty good.  It was packed to the brim with so much stuff, much of it free too, that it would be wrong of us fans not to acknowledge just how much effort that must have taken.  The festival has gone from something I easily completed in a few hours in a day last year to one where there were so many things going on, I had to make very difficult choices.  Last year, I walked the festival and attended the stage events and did everything I wanted so quickly, that I didn't even think that it was worth coming back for the 3rd day of the festival except that I had free tickets to the festival and stage events and Kalafina was singing that night.

I was lamenting to my friend after AFA2011 last year that the so called festival exclusives were all available online shops at one point in time in Japan.  This year, however, there were items at the Sword Art Online booth, the Mahou Shoujo Madoka booth and the 009 Re:Cyborg booth (I think) that are usually only available at events and online auction sites in Japan.

It's regrettable that I didn't get to do everything that I wanted to do... I still wish I managed to get Watanabe Shinichi's autograph and I wish that I could have gotten into the Sword Art Online booth but even so, I am happy.  I am happy that the AFA is becoming the kind of festival really worth going to for 2 full days.

Yes, things could have been done better but if you've ever done any kind of production work or event production work of some scale, you'll know that things always go wrong even for the most experienced of teams.  That's not making excuses for them but it's just me acknowledging just how horrid this job can be sometimes and me just wanting to encourage the organizers rather then simply tearing them down.

I would like to write more about the fun stuff that I managed to attend, the fun stuff that I missed :( and some of the not fun stuff that happened for everyone but all that will come in a later post.  For now... let's leave it at... AFA2012 was really quite good and I hope that next year's will be even better.  Otsukaresamadeshita guys!!! Good job and I hope that all the experience gained this year will be put to good use for next year's event... and bring in Kalafina and/or Kajiura Yuki (with FictionJunction & the Front Band Members) to SINGAPORE please!!!! :D

Arrrrggghhhh... it's past 11pm.... bedtime now. :)

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 3 Part 2

The Mahou Shoujo Madoka movie 2 was awesome... they screened the trailer at the end.... can't wait for movie 3. :)

Hikaru Furu is actually the end theme of the movie. Lovely song... wish the sound system was better.

K.... gotta dash... later. :)

(photos later)
posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 3 Part 1

I need to make this quick... have to shower and then get going for the 2nd Madoka movie screening at the Expo later.

Lots to write about... I hope I have time to do it.  The concert was fun yesterday.... I still missed seeing Kalafina there... but it was still great. :)

Am giving tonight's concerts a miss.... all I'm doing today is just watching the movie.  That's it for now. :) p.s. blogspot is being annoying with the photos upload... even tho' my photo is clearly within the free upload dimensions... it still wouldn't let me upload it... I'll have to sort this out tonight. :(

(photos later)

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 2 Part 3



Resting during a lull period at tonight's anisong concert. so far it has been fun. :) cool!!

I would like to write a fuller over view of the concerts and the festival on another post.  In general, I really enjoyed this AFA... there were a few hiccups during the concerts and there was no Kalafina or Kajiura Yuki :P... but it was fun for me in general. :)

Updated with photos and edited some of the text. I had trouble posting photos via mobile blogging.
posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 2 Part 2



Woah!!!! Huge crowd today. Good thing my friend picked up our Mahou Shoujo Madoka tickets and collectibles early. It's a bit mad now.... am inside and it is crazy crowded!!!

Updated with photos and edited some of the text. I had trouble posting photos via mobile blogging.
posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 2 Part 1


I am about to meet up with one of my friends to go down to the festival to watch the Mahou Shoujo Madoka movies.

I didn't buy the tickets for these movies. Another one of my friends bought the tickets online for us, so he has to go pick them up early. This new ticketing procedure by the AFA organizers is so no ideal. After last night's ticket pickup debacle at the AFA, I hope he has no problems picking it up. I could have picked them up yesterday but I needed a copy of his ID, the letter of confirmation and a letter of authorization.... wah!!! So much documentation just to pick up the tickets at the venue itself.

I also found out yesterday that I have exceeded my picassa storage limit which means all the photos i upload from now must be 800x800 or less. This makes mobile blogging a bit of a pain too because I have to edit each photo before i upload it. :(

Anywayz.... that's it for now.... hope today we have loads of fun. :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 1 Part 4

Woah!! So fun!!! :) I like T.M.Revolution!!! The ticket redemption was kind of sucky for people I think because I think a lot of people were still redeeming tickets when the concert started. Good thing I took half a day off from work to pick up tickets. :)

The above photo is of the concert venue as we were about to leave from a side exit.  This venue feels bigger than the Suntec Convention Centre venue.  I think so far, I prefer the Expo to Suntec.  Our seats were on the far right of the stage, 9th row.  It was a little hard to see T.M.R. from where we were seated but when I was able to see him through the sea of heads, we were close enough for me to see his face quite clearly.

The sound system was deafening where we were cuz the large speakers were really blasting away.  Our seats aren't optimum so there was some muffling of the sound as well and I couldn't really hear what T.M. was saying most of the time... so we just cheered at whatever he was saying. :)

The concert was really fun and I jumped and danced so much I got really hungry after the concert and had to get something to eat. :P



The truth is I don't know all the songs but I know his Seventh Heaven album quite well. Its a funny story for me. Before I was a huge Kalafina fan, I was checking out their music when I chanced upon TM's Seventh Heaven album because I thought it was Kalafina's Seventh Heaven album. I ended up really liking T.M.'s Seventh Heaven album.   Hahahaha... I just can't seem to get away from Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina. :)

Anyway, when they announced that T.M.Revolution was coming for AFA, I was quite excited and happy.  The only VIP tickets we bought for this year's AFA was to T.M.Revolution's concert.

We were so high after the concert, bought some merchandise too. :P The Hello Kitty cross over is so cute. The towel is nice too.  The small Hello Kitty is cute and it is mine. :)



They are setting up for tomorrow's festival. :) Can't  wait for tomorrow's Madoka movie screening.
K.... going to go now!!! Got to make my way home

Friday, November 09, 2012

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 1 Part 3





We are outside the halls right now.... lots of people waiting to redeem their tickets and to buy tickets. Good thing we picked our tickets up earlier. :)


posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 1 Part 2


We collected the tickets... no problems there. :)

Now am just chilling at a cafe with my friend while we wait for the concert to begin tonight. :)






posted from Bloggeroid

Anime Festival Asia 2012 ~ S'pore ~ Day 1 Part 1


Today is the first day of AFA2012 Singapore. The only event happening today is the first day of the anisong events. T.M.Revolution will perform tonight and two other friends and I have tickets for tonight's concert.

This year AFA decided not to use sistic and instead they are using a different company called eventclique. Last year, sistic screwed up by not opening the internet sales at the stated time so perhaps this is why AFA chose a different company this time.

However, this means that the collection of tickets is kind of painful because instead of collecting it at one of the sistic counters, you either have yo have them mailed to you or you have to pick it up at the venue itself. I had to take a half day off work to pick up the tickets because we finish work too late and the studio is located quite far away from the Expo which would make ticket collection before the concert a little difficult.

I decided to take the opportunity to have lunch with my parents and sister and am now on my way to the Expo to pick up the tickets. AFA's Facebook page posted a photo with a large crowd... here's hoping that ticket pickup won't be horrible.

posted from Bloggeroid

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Hikari Furu ~ Kalafina -- unboxing

I'm going to make this as picture heavy and as succinct as possible for someone as verbose as me. :P  I'm in the process of trying to scan and upload my Japanese notes in to cloud storage so that I can try and work harder at my Japanese, also there is Nuke and there is Python, both of which I would like to know more about.  So I really would like to do everything as quickly as possible. :P

So, although I would have liked to have written a post that was about blogging etc etc since this would be the post no.169 for this year and would be the post that bettered my previous high, I have decided that that post will have to wait... maybe I'll do it as part of my year end wrap up. :)



For now... here it is as quickly as possible... photos of the the Hikari Furu cds.  First up, the Blu-ray Limited Edition photos:



Way back, in a post that I posted on the 15th Sept, I said that, from what I managed to make out with my limited understanding of Japanese, one of the things that would come pack with the BD & DVD Limited Edition of the cds was an illustrated sticker and that these two stickers would be different.  Looks like my Japanese isn't half bad since in photo no.2, we have our illustrated sticker with Ultimate Madoka. :)  I'm not sure what the DVD LE's sticker is like.  I'm still trying desperately to resist the temptation of getting the DVD LE for the other sticker and the Regular Edition for Keiko's solo photo.  Don't get me wrong... I really do like Hikaru loads... but I just happen to like Keiko best, but I never get her solo shot because I prefer to buy the BD Limited Editions which have, so far, always come with Hikaru's solo photo which is a teeny bit disappointing for me.

Next... here are the photos for the Anime Limited Edition:



In the above set of photos, you'll see where my Japanese failed me. :P  In that same post that I created on the 15th Sept, I said that the Anime Edition would come with a postcard to win a special Special Memories card.  That's obviously wrong because the CD comes packed with the card as a bonus item. :)  I'm happy to be wrong though... I like this bonus item because I like it when they have the trio from Kalafina x-over with the Madoka characters. :)  

And here are the photos for what CDJapan was calling "another jacket".  This is the bonus item for folks who ordered early enough to get the First Press release.  The bonus is the same for all editions of Hikari Furu, So, I got two of these. :)  They aren't exactly a "jacket" but more like a card that you can slip into the front of your CD jewel case to change the original photo to this alternate photo.  It's a nice idea and I'm happy that it comes with a Madoka illustration on the one side.

 

The Kalafina pv version of Hikari Furu was released some time ago via NicoNico which I reserved and watched. :) :)  This video version of Hikari Furu can be found on the dvd and the blu-ray LE editions.

a low res screen cap
of the Hikari Furu PV
Screen caps as well as the video itself can be found on various streaming sites and I think most fans would have watched it by now.  The entire video is one long take, no cuts at all which means that everyone had to get everything correct.  I doubt if this was taken in one take.  They probably had to do it several times both during the rehearsals and the actual shoot itself.  These kinds of shots are usually tricky and take a certain amount of effort to get it correct.  Those of us in the industry know that there is no real money to be made in music videos and although I love Kalafina to bits, I also know that they aren't the biggest names in the Japanese music industry.  Hence, I suspect that the budgets for their music videos tend to be relatively modest which is why they don't usually try any fancy tricks

This certainly isn't the most challenging long take video I've ever watched but it's nice enough.  The camera was mounted on a jib arm and was used to shoot various angles and various shot sizes of the trio and they all look lovely and very emotionally involved in the song.  To tell you the truth, personally, I like it that Kalafina's music videos don't have too many fancy tricks.  I just like watching them and their expressions when they sing.  I've never been a big fan of MTVs anyway and some of the fancy ones are so fancy that you don't even see much of the performer or the band which is really not something I particularly like since I actually rather watch the performers and the bands then actors, props and fancy editing or camera tricks etc.   I'm odd that way. :)

screen cap of Akemi Homura
(my fav charcter) fr the Anime PV
of Hikari Furu
The Anime LE edition of the single contains the Anime pv version of Hikari Furu.  Unlike "to the beginning", aside from their voices, there is absolutely no Kalafina at all in the edit.  I'm okay with either, as long as the cut works, I am quite happy to not have Kalafina in the Anime pv version of their anisong related releases.  This particular cut was very moving for me.  It might have something to do with me really liking Mahou Shoujo Madoka, the anime.  I'm not sure if that coloured my view of this PV but I really, really like how the visuals worked with Hikari Furu.  The song is a lovely song and if you know the Madoka story, even if one doesn't understand the Japanese lyrics, it's still easy to be emotionally moved by the song itself and even more so when it is combined with the visuals from the anime.

All in all, this is a really nice release for fans of Kajiura Yuki, Kalafina and Mahou Shoujo Madoka.  I really, really like Hikari Furu, the song.  I think it fits really well with the tone of the anime and may even move me to tears if it's used well in the movie which I will only get to watch this weekend.  The photos of the three vocalists are also very prettily shot and although the anime covers are a little bit simple, the Precious Memory card more than makes up for it.

Before I go, please bear with me as I give you links to the purchase these cds via CDJapan again.  The single has been doing pretty well on the Oricon charts which is really awesome for Kajiura Yuki and the girls from Kalafina.  So if you like the songs, please also purchase the CDs if you can afford it. :)


That's it form me... time to try and scan one or two of my Japanese notes before I hit my bed. :)

Will fix any grammatical errors etc on another day. :)