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. :)

Hikari Furu [w/ Blu-ray, Limited Edition / Type-B]

Hikari Furu [w/ DVD, Limited Pressing (Anime Edition)]

Hikari Furu [Regular Edition] 

Hikari Furu [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type-A]

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. :)