Kalafina on Kawaii Girl Japan again :)

I've been waiting all morning for this video clip since SME annouced that Kalafina will be on Kawaii Girl Japan again. :)  What's cool about the Kawaii Girl Japan videos are that they have English subs.  SUPER!!! :)

It's almost lunch at work, so I thought I'll post this up real quick. :)  I haven't watched it in it's entirety yet.  Probably will after I get back late tonight. :)

I do want to say though.... HEY KALAFINA, a lot of Singaporeans were there at AFA Malaysia too and we were part of those fans who kept calling for the encore... so don't just go back to Malaysia, come back to Singapore too.... heck, make it a South East Asia tour and include at least both Singapore and Malaysia. :)

K... back to work!!!

enjoy
p.s. You can win an autograph postcard too... read this link.  Good luck!! :)

Kalafina "to the beginning" commemorative t-shirt box set - unboxing

I was really, really, really disappointed that I was unable to pick up tickets for Day 2 and Day 3 of Kajiura Yuki Live Vol.9.  I actually checked the auctions immediately after Itsuko confirmed that she was unable to get any tickets in the open sales.  Open sales tickets sold out so fast that by the time she managed to get in, they were all gone.  As for the auctions, the bid prices are ridiculous and I'm not playing that kind of game with profiteers.

Hence, to ease some of the disappointment, I made an impulse buy. :)  Actually, this purchase was in part because I saw some people wearing the t-shirt at the "to the beginning" Live at the NHK Hall in July and really liked the shirt.

I was doing a pretty good job at resisting it till it was clear that we had exhausted all avenues in our quest to get the Day 2 and 3 Live tickets.  After that my defences crumbed and I ordered it from HMV Japan (edit: a/of 23rd Aug, the box-set is also available from CDJapan, click me)and received it in the mail today.  I really do like the t-shirt and since we have failed to get tickets to the Kajiura Yuki Vol.9 Live Day 2 and 3, as well as tickets on the Cassiopeia and Hokutosei trains to Hokkaido, the arrival of the t-shirt box today did make up for some of the disappointment. :)

This set isn't terribly cheap if all you want is the t-shirt.  But if you consider that the box-set also comes with other Kalafina related memorabilia, then it's not too bad, although shipping cost would always kinda suck.

Alrighty, let's cut to the chase. :)  Here are the photos of the box-set.




The box-set comes packed in a nice thick cardboard box.  The box itself isn't made from any kind of special material.  It really is just a thick cardboard box.  However, it is made of a nice enough quality that I think any avid Kalafina would keep it and use it to keep any small bit of memorabilia of the vocal unit.  I know I'll be using it to put the postcards, credit card size calendars and mouse-pads etc.



The contents on the box are quite nicely packed.  You'll get the wrist band, a nice size pouch and a little t-shirt charm.  There are several versions of this charm.  Which one you receive will depend on where the box-set was purchased.  As I purchased mine from HMV, I get the HMV t-shirt charm which is the one I like best too.  The t-shirt size is different from the usual sizes sold at the concerts.  Usually, I will get the Large concert t-shirts but for this box-set, the Large would be too big, so I ordered the medium.  If you intend to purchase it, you'll need to check the measurements carefully. :)



The pouch looks the same on the both sides.  I don't know if I'll use the wrist-band.  I may use it when I play table-tennis, I haven't decided yet.  I'm definitely using the t-shirt though.  It doesn't look that nice in the photos but the pale blue is really quite pretty and the graphics are kind of gold and a little shiny but not flashy at all.


The Space Craft website for the Fiction Junction Club shows you what the Lawsons, Animate and Tower Record t-shirt charms look like.  Lucky for me, I like the HMV one the best.  Some of the others are too busy for my liking.

Finally, I decided not to do the Lisani! Vol.9 post today because my photos aren't very good at all and I have decided to re-shoot them.  Hence, this post.  My next post will most likely not be the Lisani! Vol.9 post either.  Instead, I would like to do a short review of the Kalafina phone app that Sony has released for Android and iPhone phone users.  I managed to install it and had a play with it when I was in Japan in July.  That's what the app's icon looks like on my Android homescreen.

For now, it's time to go to bed. :)  Oyasumi. :)

屋根の向こうに - Kalafina

On the way home now. I worked on a very long shot today so am a little tired. So I am happy to play Yane no Mukou ni on loop all the way. :)

For some reason, I have really taken to this song. It really moves me. :)

I still remember the thrill of hearing this song for the first time at the "to the beginning"Live. It sounded beautiful then and it still sounds beautiful now.

Ahhhhhh..... I am addicted to Kajiura Yuki's, FictionJunction and Kalafina's Lives. :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka movies - trailer 1

BEWARE the trailer contains SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for the anime.

Do not watch if you have not watched the anime. The first trailers and teases for the first two Mahou Shoujo Madoka movies have been released on the official website.  The current trailer doesn't feature any new music from Kajiura Yuki or Kalafina or even Claris.  Kajiura Yuki scored the music for the series and will also be involved in the movies.  It had earlier been announced that Claris will sing the theme song for the first movie and Kalafina will sing the theme song for the second movie.

I'm not sure how much new music there might be for these movies, I expect that there will be some re-hashing but there may also be a certain amount of new music which would be cool.  This trailer features Claris' original opening theme song for the anime, I don't think this is the final song for the movies, it's merely the song they are using for the first trailer.

Too bad I won't be in Japan in October.  I would go to the promo events, the screenings etc.

K... time to go to work. :)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica KEY ANIMATION NOTE Vol.3 - review

Finally, here is my review of vol.3. of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Key Animation Note artbook series.  Both vol.3 and vol.4 were shipped sometime ago and were waiting for me to pick them up from Manami when I visited Japan in July.  So although, I already bought these artbooks, the un-boxing had to be delayed till they were actually in my possession. :)   It will be the same situation for vol.5 and vol.6 of this series of artbooks.  Both will be making their way to Manami and I will pick them up from her in the early part of September.

I think the format of these artbooks have been quite clearly established in the vol.1 (link to my review) and vol.2 (link to my review) releases.  Unlike the Production Note (link to my review), these Key Animation Note releases are a condensed version of each episode's "key animation" drawings.

Vol. 3 features Miki Sayaka and episodes 4-6 of the anime.



As with the previous releases, one of the extras packed with the artbook, is an graphical illustration printed on textured paper.

The other bonus item packed with this release is really kind of cool.  It's a notebook with different drawings printed on each page.  The binding of this notebook is reminiscent of the style of binding used in the Production Note.

This is no ordinary notebook and I doubt if anyone would want to use this notebook to write notes because when it is flipped, it acts like a flipbook animation.  It's really very cool and I even tried to shoot a video of it.  It's not terribly well flipped or well shot but I was holding my phone camera with one hand and trying to flip the notebook with my other hand so... yeah... it's less then ideal. :)

(hmmmm.... I may re-upload this to youtube... I forgot that the compression that Blogger uses is very unforgiving.)

The artbook itself is designed in a similar style as the previous artbooks.  It's very shiny and very reflective. When the cover is stretched out in full, it'll form an almost continuous picture of whichever character is featured for the release.

When the removal shiny cover is removed, there is a different illustration on the actual cover of the artbook itself.  This time, since the focus is on Sayaka, the drawing on the cover is of Sayaka..  The binding is pretty standard stuff.



The pages of the artbook also follow what has come previously.  There is a reverse silhouette of Sayaka and a pull-out illustration by Inu Curry.  The first few pages are the usual coloured illustrations with the accompanying line drawings and the rest of the artbook contains the key animations drawings used in the anime.



A very nice release for fans of the series.  If you're a Miki Sayaka fan and you don't wish to purchase all 6 volumes of this series, it is really worth considering picking just this volume up. :)

I got mine, as usual, from CDJapan and here is the link to direct product page. :)

Alrighty... it's time for me to go to bed.  Blogger hasn't been playing nice with me and it took me forever to upload these photos... the Lisani Vol.9 post will have to wait till tomorrow. :)



Oyasumi. :)