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

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

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Kajiura Yuki ~ Hanako to Anne OST 01 - unboxing / OST 02 listed


I've received my copies of the Yuki Kajiura LIVE Vol.#11 FictionJunction YUUKA 2days Special 2014.02.08-09 Nakano SunPlaza Blu-ray and the first Hanako to Anne OST.  I've been wanting to do the un-boxings but there has been so much Kalafina news and too little time that I never really got around to them.  I figured that there are probably photos and scans of the FJ Yuuka BD live floating around on the internet somewhere so I thought I'll do the Hanako to Anne OST un-boxing first. :)

Like the Rekishi Hiwa Historia OST CDs, this isn't really a high profile release from Kajiura Yuki.  There are no photos of Kajiura Yuki or of anyone at all actually.  The cover is quite nice though, kinda sweet. :)

First up, all the photos....

        

As usual, I took photos of the CD with the plastic wrap on and off.  There is a short message one page message written by Kajiura Yuki and another one page message written by a member of the NHK dorama team.  It's a pretty simple release.

As for the music.  I actually quite liked it, more than I thought that I would. It's more classical than almost all of Kajiura Yuki's OSTs except for the OST for Achilles and the Tortoise which I remember being quite traditionally classical.  The OST for Hanako to Anne has strains of what make a Kajiura Yuki track so Kajiura Yuki. :)  Meaning that, we have some world music / folk music sounds mixed in with the more traditional classical sound to tracks.  A lot of the tracks have a nice light touch to them which is slightly reminiscence of her lighter, happier tracks in Mai Hime and the opening portion of Kimi no Gin no Niwa.  I don't mean that they sound the same, just that they have the same tone.

If you want to hear what these tracks sound like, there are short samples of every track on the CD online right now.  CLICK ME and scroll to the bottom of the page and hit LISTEN SAMPLES to listen to them. :)

I'm quite happy to have made this purchase and happy to find out that there is a  second OST for Hanako to Anne which I've now also pre-ordered and bundled together with my pre-order for Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#11 elemental Tour 2014 2014.04.20 @NHK Hall + Making of LIVE vol.#11 .

For anyone else who might want to also pick up vol.2 of the Hanako to Anne OST.  CLICK ME to get to the direct product page. :)

That's it from me for now... off to bed... today was a pretty tiring day at work and I kinda miss my bed now. :P  Oyasumi. :)

p.s.  I forgot this... I took a close up photo of the musicians who performed in this recording, just in case anyone was interested... here u go. :)


Kalafina interview on KKbox

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Earlier today, Kalafina's staff announced via twitter and their official website that there would be a video clip of an interview of the trio on the KKbox website.

The video is up and streaming right now.  Go check it out. :)  Here is the link... CLICK ME.

I have no time to watch it right now... at work and it's the end of the lunch hour.... will watch it tonight. :)

cheers

Kajiura Yuki announces twitter event for Kalafina's THE BEST albums

Oh.... I was about to go to bed when I saw this on twitter.


Kajiura Yuki is once again organising a twitter event.  This time it's for Kalafina's "Red" and "Blue" albums.  For those who are new to this.  Kajiura Yuki organises these events from time to time, usually after a major release where she and all other participants in the twitter even will start their CDs or BD/DVD to play at the same time.  And everyone can enjoy and chat about the music on twitter.

The event will take place on the 3rd August Sunday.
21:00 JST start playing Red album
22:30 JST start playing Blue album

Use this hash tag #KalRB for this event.

For those who cannot participate, you can still read the comments from the session at this account. @FJukatsu

She gets a bit confusing at the end, I'll try and remember to double check it with my friend tomorrow but I think she writes that you can write comments to her at either this account @FJukatsu or this account @Fion0806  during the event.

I've personally never yet participated in any of them.  Someday I think I will.  Maybe this Sunday I will but I'm not sure if I'll be home during that time... so we'll see. :)

Okay... it's time for me to sleep, gotta be at work early tomorrow.

If all goes well, I will try and do the Hanako to Anne CD un-boxing tomorrow.  I'm actually listening to it now and quite liking it. :)

Okay... I'm off... oyasumi!! :)

Kalafina ~ AnimateTV article - The Best albums sales exceeds 100,000

Okay, I'm not sure if I'm reading it correct because I'm kind of still in disbelief myself and I keep worrying that I may have read it wrong... so I have messaged my Japanese friend to ask her to help me confirm that I got it right.  Of course she's sleeping in Japan now, they are one hour ahead of us in Singapore.... so I won't get a confirmation till tomorrow morning.... so IF I got this wrong... let me apologise first.  BUT I think I did get it correct.... and it's my inability to believe it that has led me to second guess myself. :P

UPDATE 8am:  Yup, my friend in Japan has confirmed that that line means that Kalafina has already sold 100.000 copies of their first Best-of albums!!! Omedetou!! :)

This is the headline from an AnimateTV article today. CLICK ME.  It was the "10万枚のセールス" line that caught my attention.

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I know these numbers are probably combined numbers for both the "Red" and "Blue" albums but still, if we split it right down the middle and say that's 50,000 per title, that's still amazing.  In the days of declining album sales, for these two albums to pull in an estimated 50,000 copies each in such a short time is amazing. The albums were only released on the 16th July which makes this barely two weeks.

I'm seriously finding this quite incredible news since I really didn't think these albums would be able to pull in these figures.  These are Best-of albums which means fans like me already own every single song there is on those albums except "Prelude" on the "Red" album and "Heavenly Blue" on the "Blue" album.  And if we didn't want to blow the cash on these albums, we didn't have to because they are releasing "Heavenly Blue" on its own, meaning that, unless you really wanted to, you don't need to spend the extra yen on a full album.  And "Prelude" isn't even a full song, it's more like a short musical piece than a full song which means, unless you really wanted to, a fan doesn't really need to pick up that album either.  Rabid fans like me and my other buddy will buy LE versions of both albums of course but I also know there were fans who either only bought one of them, likely the "Blue" album, or none at all.

Whatever the reasons... all I can say is.... Wow...this is amazing news for Kalafina.  I am really happy for them and for Kajiura Yuki.  I think the lives at the Budokan should sell well. :)

The article continues to talk about how Kalafina was ranked top two on all the anime music charts including online hi-res music webstores.  The Best albums also ranked 3rd and 4th on Oricon's weekly charts and top two on Amazon's best-seller music chart.  So we all knew the albums were selling well.  But what I didn't know was that the albums did more then sell well, it broke through the 100,000 mark in a really short amount of time.  While I love Kalafina to death, I also know they aren't the biggest names around, so I'm really pleased that their albums are selling well.  :)

Page two goes on to detail the trio's various promo campaigns across Japan.  I won't really go into them because I need to be at work early tomorrow and I will need to go to bed soon. :(  Anyway, click through them, there are several nice photos of them at work. :)

I don't really bother to track album sales and I have no real idea how many copies of each of their previous albums they've sold, but seriously, does this mean that Kalafina's top selling albums could actually be this pair of albums??

Monday, July 28, 2014

K: Missing Kings ~ Singapore general screening

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First, Selamat Hari Raya to all my muslim friends who to check out the blog.   :)

Next, anime movie screenings often slip quietly under the radar in Singapore.  So as far as I can, I try and highlight it to whoever may be interested in them on the blog.  Although, my readership isn't very high, still I hope to be able to contribute somewhat to the growth of anime, Japanese pop culture and music etc in Singapore.....

..... So guys!!! If you missed the world wide premiere of K: Missing Kings, it looks like Cathay has scheduled a general screening to start in September.  The film did very well on premiere day in Singapore.  It started sales with 4 screenings and Cathay kept adding to it till there were screenings late in the night too.  Unfortunately, I didn't keep count so I can't say how many more screenings they added to it, suffice to say, it was several times more than the initial 4. :)

So if anyone else wants to catch the screenings, keep an eye out on Cathay's webpage.... CLICK ME. :)

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Kalafina to sing the ED of ufotable's Fate/Stay Night adaptation :)

I returned home too late from Japanese class to view most of the just concluded ufotable Fate Project presentation on Niconico.  I only managed to watch the ending bit where they announced the vita game, an adaptation of Fake Strange Fate and the movie version of Heaven's Feel.

So I searched through twitter to see what I could find and I found this!! :)



It should be legit. :)  And I'm really happy about this!! :)

I'll watch the presentation later but I can only watch the timeshift from 8pm tonight, so I have to wait to see if I missed anything else. :)

UPDATED:

It's confirmed 100%.  Kalafina will sing the ending theme... ufotable updated their website. :)  CLICK ME

p.s.
I'm kinda disappointed about the music though.  It's not Kajiura Yuki, I was really hoping it'll be.  It's by 深澤秀行  Fukasawa Hideyuki.  Sorry Fukasawa fans, I know he sounds like a good fit.... but as a Kajiura Yuki fan... I can't help but feel disappointed. :(

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Detective Conan: Dimensional Sniper ~ to screen in Singapore

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Looks like Cathay and Odex are bringing in more anime films into Singapore.  (I think I'm beginning to forgive Odex with every anime film they bring to the big screen :P )

The next one up is Detective Conan: Dimensional Sniper (名探偵コナン 異次元の狙撃手).

This film which opened in Japan in April of this year is scheduled to begin screening in Singapore from the 7th Aug.  It also looks like they'll be giving out movie premiums with each ticket purchased.  Also, it looks like they looking to screen this movie for more than a week since the premiums will change every week.  I guess they were pretty happy with the box office returns of the previous Detective Conan movies screened in Singapore. :)

I might go for this screening depending on how busy I am.  Lately, it's been crazy... I've been busy both at work and after work because I've been working on another project at night.... it's been tiring but kinda fun and I'm thinking of starting more personal projects after work because I'm beginning to really enjoy doing my own personal stuff again.... feels like my film student days and I really miss those days. :)

Anyway, more anime movies please!!! I would like AnoHana and Patema Inverted just to name a few. :)

Working today too.... off to check a render. :)

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" - debuts at 3rd / 4th on weekly Oricon chart

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Really awesome news for Kalafina.  I really didn't think that their best-of albums would do so well. :)

They are getting A LOT of publicity lately, good for them but must be tiring too.  I can hardly keep up with all the news, must be more tiring for those who are actually involved.  お疲れ様です !

The official Kalafina blog has an update from Keiko with lots of nice photos of the trio at the Kalafina Cafe at Parco in Nagoya. CLICK ME I'll try and read that post on a late date and then write about my own small experience at the tiny Kalafina Cafe at ufotable cafe last year.  It's not as grand as this one of course but it was still cool that I managed to make it to at least one of these cafes.

Also, if you can afford it, don't forget to buy the albums. :)

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition



Okay... render's done... back to work. :)

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Kalafina ~ Heavenly Blue (Aldnoah.Zero OP) - postcard tokuten


Ahhhh... it looks like we'll be getting a bonus item for this release too.  Its a postcard of an illustration from the Aldnoah.Zero anime.  Fans of Kalafina will obviously like a postcard of them too but ah well... free stuff is always nice. :P

It seems like everyone will get the same tokuten. (source) So those of us who get it from CDJapan will also get this postcard. :)

Kalafina ~ Heavenly Blue (Aldnoah.Zero OP) - cover art released


The cover art for Heavenly Blue, the Aldnoah.Zero OP that Kalafina sings, has just been released. :)

The single is set for a 6th August released and has only one version for sale.  This is a Limited Edition release and they'll stop pressing this CD after the 31st Oct 2014.

Here is the track list:

1. heavenly blue
2. heavenly blue ~instrumental~
3. heavenly blue ~TVsize~

My usual line :) ...please buy this CD if you can afford it.  You are welcome to use the webstore that I usually use, here is the direct link:

Heavenly Blue LE CD

Back to work... render's almost done. :)

Monday, July 21, 2014

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: Rebellion ~ Akemi Homura Denim Jeans ~ cool!

Finally after post after post about Kalafina, here's something that's not really Kalafina related. :P

Again... it's another short post to while away some time in between long renders.  I could watch a tutorial I suppose, I was doing a bit of that last week.  But I have a slight headache and it has been bugging me all afternoon so I'm not really in the mood for another tutorial.   So, I thought I'll blog a bit. :P

I saw this on CDJapan a few days ago and have been obsessing about getting it.  It is a pair of Homura denim jeans. 

Check out the design.  I really like the back pockets and the label with Homura standing tall and straight with her bow in hand.



I could do without Homura in my pocket :P  but it's not a deal breaker for me and I'm sure some people will like that. :)  And I wished that the button was a customized one with some Madoka design... maybe Kyubey.  I remember seeing an Evangelion pair of jeans which had a customized button, very nice but quite a bit more expensive than this pair.  Still, that would be nice but that may increase the price of this pair of jeans.

Gosh... I'm so tempted.... :P

p.s. I forgot...  if you want to get them from CDJapan too, here is the direct link... CLICK ME

Kajiura Yuki LIVE vol.11 FJ Yuuka 2 Day SP BD + Hanako to Anne OST are here!! :)


I'm at work now, waiting for a long render to complete so I thought I'll write up a short post first. :)

Finally,  I have these two items in my hands.  They were actually released a while back but I bundled them with my friend's Scandal CDs and so it took a while to get to me.

I'll be doing these un-boxing's next although I'm sure that photos or scans of the Kajiura Yuki LIVE vol.11 BD are probably available somewhere online by now.  But still, I'll do the un-boxing because I enjoy doing them. :)

The Hanako to Anne OST CD will probably be a pretty bare-bones release, much like the Rekishi Hiwa Historia OST cds but I'll do that un-boxing too.

I will probably be unable to get to these tonight because I actually have something else I must do by tonight if possible, if not latest tomorrow night.  So we'll see. :)  But I am mighty pleased that these are in my hands now... more background music while I work. :)

If you're keen to get your own copies too,  I get them through this webstore.  If you like, you can use the links below. :)

Yuki Kajiura LIVE Vol.#11 FictionJunction YUUKA 2days Special 2014.02.08-09 Nakano SunPlaza

Hanako to Anne OST

Friday, July 18, 2014

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" LE ~ blu-rays

This is just a very simple post.  Originally, I wanted to stick this at the back of the un-boxing post (CLICK ME) but I was still working on that post at about  3:10 am in the morning so I decided not to do it then.

I wasn't going to write anything too extensive then but I did originally intend to go watch the WOWOW version of the 5th Anniversary Live first before writing too much more.  When I first saw it on a streaming site, I remembered thinking that the mix for the WOWOW version wasn't that good as it had a tendency to always emphasise the main vocals too much.  But without watching that live again, I don't really have a point of comparison.  And since I won't know if I'll ever get around to doing it, since I'll be working weekends this week, I decided that I'll just post up the photos anyway since I already shot them.

I don't have a BD player on my computers so everything has to be shot off my telly which isn't the ideal setup.  I play these BDs using a Sony PS3 which is hooked up via an HDMI cable to a Sony HD Ready TV.  So we're not getting full HD on the tv, just 720P.  The audio is hooked up to an amplifier which sends the music to two bookshelf speakers.

Red BD photos

    

Blue BD phootos

    

I haven't actually had the time to really watch these BDs, I just left them playing as I wrote up the un-boxing post.  From what I saw, they seem pretty good but they really seem to have really pushed the brightness levels in some of the darker parts because they was a fair bit of colour noise.  I think it was probably pretty dark in those shots and they wanted more detail.

This really would have worked better at the end of that longer post since my main intention was just to show the opening graphic, the menu page and, a few shots of the actual concert footage even though I could not really replicate the quality of the video using a phone camera and my not very ideal setup.

You can also tell that I forgot to take the menu page for the Blue BD, so um.... heh heh... just imagine a blue version of the Red BD menu. :P

Okay... time to dash to work.

Have a good weekend everyone. :)

Kalafina's THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" tops sales charts ~ omedetou!


I've noticed for about two days or so that Kalafina's THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" albums have been topping the anime songs sales chart on Amazon Japan and I actually even started writing a post on it two nights ago but stopped because I was too tired from doing the un-boxing post on the night of the 15th.  Dang it... missed a chance to get a scoop. :P


Source: Amazon JP, on the left ~ screen cap of the music sales chart, on the right ~ screen cap of the anime music sales chart.

Well...today several music sites are reporting that Kalafina's topped the anime sales charts on Amazon JP, itunes, online hi-res music store "mora" etc.  On Amazon JP, they did more than just top the anime sales charts, they topped the overall music sales charts till sometime late this afternoon when it was over taken by releases from boy bands Tokio and Kis-My-Ft2.  Even as I am writing this, Kalafina's two albums are still the top selling titles on the anime sales list at Amazon Japan.

The albums did pretty well on the Oricon daily sales charts too.  It debuted at 4th for the Blue album and 5th for the Red album on the 15th July and move further up the chart to 2nd and 3rd positions on the 16th July.


source: Oricon

I'm not sure if they'll sell enough to rank within the top 5 on the weekly charts but this is pretty good for two best-of albums I think.

It's pretty clear though which album is the more popular album.  The "Blue" album comes out tops in all the lists.  I suspect that it maybe because of the newly released "heavenly blue" track that's on this CD and the contents of the BD that's included in the "Blue" album.  Most fans have already seen the live that's included on the the "Red" album.  That's the 5th Anniversary live and the tracks on the BD had already been featured in a WOWOW program earlier this year.  On the other hand, the BD on the "Blue" album featured their live performance at Lisani! Live-4 of which only two songs were released previously.

Okay... that's probably it for me for now... I had a major external HD crash on me earlier in the night and am trying to recover data from the failed drive.  It seems to be going fine... if it does its thing like it's suppose to do, I can go to bed soon. Fingers crossed! :)

ps.  Please do buy the albums if you can afford them. :)  If you like, you are welcomed to use the webstore I use. Links below...

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

Kalafina and angela in 「Animelo Summer Live 2014 -ONENESS-」 Poster

 Here's a short follow up post to this post.  CLICK ME. In that post, Katsu from angela tweeted that angela and Kalafina was at a photo shoot in what looked like a Tower Records.  I couldn't remember then and was too lazy to look it up then but here it is now.  The completed poster for the "No Anison, No Life" poster.  It's Tower Records and collaboration with Animelo Summer Live, the largest anisong festival in Japan.  This year's festival will take place over a 3 day period on the 29th-30th August and both angela and Kalafina will be performing at this festival.

Here's the poster. :)  The others in the poster are JAM Project and Itou Kanako.  There will be a series of 4 posters which will go on display in Tower Records.  This is the first of the 4 and is scheduled to be displayed at all Tower Records and TOWERmini stores till the 1st Aug. :)




Thursday, July 17, 2014

Kalafina Live at the Budokan ~ "We got tickets!!!"

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This very simple line was all my friend wrote but it was enough to send me into stratospheric happiness for today, probably for this week, possibly for weeks, heck maybe even for months. :P

Yup.... my friend joined the FJC draw for tickets to the Budokan and we have tickets to the 2 day live next year!!!!! ☆*・゜゚・*\(^O^)/*・゜゚・*☆

I'm so excited now... I'm going to talk to my other friend who'll be travelling with me.  Even though the lives are on the 28th Feb and 1st Mar 2015, I'll start to plan the trip  now.  Gosh got to save, save, save!!!! ヾ(。⌒∇⌒)ノ

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" gets the truck treatment in Japan :)


Check this out!  So cool!  Man, it would be so nice to see it and listen to it go by in Tokyo.  If only I had teleportation skills. :P 

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" - un-boxing (completed)


I'm writing up the post now but it'll take a little time... I have to sort thru' the photos etc.  I'm going to need more coffee now. :P

UPDATE 1 ~ 1:30am

I'm going to do this in parts and just update the post as I go along, in case this takes too long and I crash out because unfortunately... I'm tiring a little faster than I like :(  ... if I do it in bits at least part of this post will be completed should I really need to give up and sleep. :)

First up... the mousepad First Press bonus from CDJapan.  Unfortunately for those of us who live outside of Japan, we don't get anything special for purchasing both the Limited Edition albums.  So while I would have killed for the box case that Animate is giving out with the purchase of these two albums, I will just have to settle for two of the same mousepads... sigh...

Still... these are nice mousepads even though they are pretty impractical. :)

  

The above are the photos of the mousepad.  You have the front with the photo of Kalafina.  I'm too lazy to pull out the previous mousepad tokutens from their previous albums. But if memory serves me well, this is the mousepad with the nicest and sharpest print yet. :)

I shot close ups of the front and back to give you an idea of the texture on the front and back.  There is a very slight texture on the front of the mousepad but it's pretty smooth when you touch it.



This is what the mousepad looks like with a regular size mouse on it.  Pretty useless right? :)  But I don't intend to use this mousepad and I actually don't use mousepads at all.  Laser and optical mice don't really need mousepads so I haven't used one for years.

NEXT UP.... "RED" album.

UPDATE 2 ~ 2:30am

Here are the photos for the Red album. It's looking like it'll be a very picture heavy post actually.  Since I'm only at the Red album and it's 2am already. Yikes :P

   

First up, photos of the slipcase and the jewel box with the insert booklets in them.  I shot a close up of the slipcase to try and show u the texture of the paper that they used.  It's pretty standard actually, smooth and glossy and not too thick.

      

The above are the photos of the insert booklet.  It's has the lyrics, credit page and a few nice close-ups of the girls.



This is the lyrics page for "prelude" the new song that's included in the "Red" album.  Yup, no lyrics. :)  It's pretty much a 1:30 min instumental piece with some kajiuran in it, I think.  I had to play it pretty softly on my speakers, so I'm not sure if it's kajiuran or just some female chorus work.  Suffice to say, this is reminiscent of the work Kalafina did on the OST of Kara no Kyoukai.  It's nice stuff but nothing to write home about because on first listen, it sounds like something that belongs in a OST album for an anime rather than a Best-of album.  Let's just say... "prelude" is the perfect name for this track. :)




These are the photos of the CD, the BD and the back jacket for the jewel case.

         

The above are some sample photos of the deluxe booklet that comes with the Limited Edition.  I like these photos.  Lots of nice close-ups and I must say they seem to be playing up the sex appeal of the trio. :)



Just look at this silhouette picture of Hikaru and Keiko.... now.... isn't that suggestive? :)

NEXT UP.... "BLUE" album.

UPDATE 3 ~ 3:05am

Gosh, it's almost 3am and I have to up at 630am later today... am going to really speed through these... the photos took a while to upload. :(  Good thing, there isn't much difference between the concept for the Red and Blue albums, so I won't describe the Blue album that much.

  

First up, photos of the jewel case with the insert booklet in it.

      

Those are the photos of the insert booklet.  Nice pictures of the trio. :)

  

There are photos of the CD, BD and the back jewel case jacket.

          

And these are the photos for the Blue Limited Edition's deluxe 60 page full colour booklet. :)

I've also now heard the full version of Heavenly Blue, the OP for the currently airing anime series Aldnoah Zero.  I still like it.  It's really my kind of song.  Wakana fans will be happy to know that as far as I can tell, this is pretty much a Wakana centric song with Keiko and Hikaru proving support for the greater part of the song.  The harmony of their voices is lovely as usual and even though I always want to hear more Keiko because I'm greedy :P, even without more Keiko, I still like this song. :D

Okay... that's it.... I was thinking of talking about the contents of the BD but that'll have to wait for tomorrow night. :)

I hope you enjoyed this un-boxing post. :)

Don't forget, if you can afford it, do buy their albums to support all who worked on these albums.  You are welcomed to use the webstore I use if you want to. :)

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

That's it from me... off to bed... good night!! :)

p.s. if there are any grammatical errors please ignore them. :)