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

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

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Kalafina ~ Consolation - bigger cover art

Got to get ready for work but wanted to put this up quickly.  A friend sent the bigger cover art for Kalafina's Consolation to me via email.  YAY!!  Thanks!! :)

Here you go:


From left to right... LE BD cover,LE DVD cover, RE cover and some random picture she got from somewhere. :) 

These covers look really nice.  And I think I like the LE DVD and the RE ones more than the Blu-ray one at this point in time.  But I pre-ordered the LE BD so, too bad for me.

Anyway... got to go... please buy these if you can afford it.  The better they do on the charts, the more stuff we'll see from both Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina... so yeah... here are the links again. :)

Regular Edition

Limited Edition + DVD

Limited Edition + Blu-ray

Got to go!! cheers!! :)

Yuki Kajiura Vol.9 Shibuko Special ~ Blu-ray Unboxing

Okay... I lied... :) I decided to do the unboxing tonight because I feel a little rested enough to do it and because I am really excited about this BD.  So I decided to try and do the unboxing while I "watch" a bit of the BD.

It'll be picture heavy again because I really need to sleep ASAP.



The above are the photos of the the casing with the cover insert. I included a photo of the front of the case with the shrink wrap still on and the shrink wrap off.



Photos of the inside of the case and the blu-ray itself.

    

Here's the BIG surprise for me.  While I expected to get an small booklet inside, I did not expect postcards. We get 3 post cards... VERY NICE!!  Am happily surprised.



Here's a really horribly shot photo of the back of the postcards.  It was really hard to get a good focus on my cel phone and I didn't really feel like trying too hard since it's a pretty simple print.

  

Here are 2 photos of the booklet.  It's only 6 pages.  Hmmmm... I should have gone ahead and shot photos of all the pages since it's so thin but... ah well... it's a little late for that now.

First impressions ~

So far... while writing this unboxing, I have "watched" (essentially just listened :) ) to the first 4 songs.  The 5th song, "every time you kissed me" is playing now.  Just really quickly... I must say... I am totally loving Keiko in the first 4 songs.  And I must give her a huge thumbs up for her English enunciation.  It's really pretty good considering that English isn't her first language.  She's come a long way.  That said, that is the least important thing to me... what I really liked is that she sounds AMAZING!!

I want to wax lyrical about how good she sounded with Hanae Tomaru in "lotus" or how sweet she sounded in "long forgotten cloistered sleep" or how nuanced she sounded in "I swear" but... I desperately need sleep. :(

I have a long day ahead tomorrow and I really do like my job and my current shot is really quite interesting... so need to rest... tomorrow I go back to battle.... so... sadly... must stop my BD now. :(  Maybe, if I have time and feel inspired enough, I may write more about my impressions about the music in the BD.... we'll see.  Now it's playing "I reach for the sun" and so far I am sooooooo loving this BD.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the music!!! :)

Also... I wanted to write this the other day... the JVC FictionJunction website has changed it's opening page to reflect this new release.


url: http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/fj/

Finally, I leave you with this... if you can afford it, please do buy these discs.

Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" Blu-ray (NOTE: includes the "making of" video clip which will not be on the dvd edition) [edited 28th Feb: The BD comes with the 3 postcards shown above, the DVD, unfortunately doesn't.]
Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" DVD


Good night!! :)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Kajiura Yuki ~ Live vol9 ~ twitter event confirmed

梶浦由記 Yuki Kajiura (@Fion0806) tweeted at 11:22 PM on Wed, Feb 20, 2013:
Yuki Kajiura Live vol9 "渋公Special"みんなでいっせいのせで見ようon twitter、03/02 22時startで行ないますヽ(*^^*)ノ。詳細はこちらで。http://t.co/Ao2d2ICE
(https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/304234607182749696

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

Kajiura Yuki has confirmed the details of the tweeter event for the Live vol9 Shibuko Special release. It'll be on 2 Mar 10pm Japan time. The details are in the above link. :)

I think she also said in a later tweet that she was thinking of doing the same for Kalafina's 4th album.

My BD arrived today. :) Maybe I'll do a simple unboxing tomorrow.... still on my way home from work.... a little tired... :) but happy.

posted from Bloggeroid

Kalafina ~ Consolation - nico nico broadcast

Kalafina_Staff (@Kalafina_Staff) tweeted at 10:00 AM on Wed, Feb 20, 2013:
“4thアルバム「Consolation」発売記念特番 トーク&スタジオライブ”をニコ生にて実施決定!!
詳細はコチラ!!
http://t.co/v22rtDsS
(https://twitter.com/Kalafina_Staff/status/304032869515399169

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

Awesome news... Kalafina will be on nico nico again. There will be a talk session and then a studio live on nico nico. This is likely to be similar to what they did for the release of the Hikaru Furu single where they aired the full version of the PV for the first time.

This time round they intend to air the full version of Yume no Daichi (Land of Dreams. They'll sing a song or two live as well because there is a studio live included with the talk session...but I am not sure which ones.

Check out the link for details. Don't forget to sign up for a free account at nico nico if you don't have an account yet. And then don't forget to reserve the screening session in case you can't make the live screen times. :)

K... gotta go... have a lot of homework and I need to try and do some in the train.

posted from Bloggeroid

Kalafina ~ Consolation ~ website revamp / cover art / Yume no Dachi PV


YES!!!!  I've been waiting for this.  They have revamped Kalafina's official website (just the home page) to reflect the upcoming release of their 4th album "Consolation".



Very cool.... and it's got a small snippet of "Yume no Dachi" (Land of Dreams) the new ending theme for the NHK docu series, Reikishi Hiwa Historia.  First impressions... I still like Symphonia more but this song is nice... lovely harmony just lacks the grandeur of Symphonia.


url: http://www.kalafina.jp/

Quick first impressions... I like the cover art... very Kalafina... as in once again not a modern setting or clothing choice.  But this is less lolita gothic and I actually prefer this.  Wakana seems to be sitting down in all 3 versions of this release.  From what I can tell, I'll probably end up liking the regular cover more.

Also... if you access the site on your mobile, you'll get this revamped home page. :)


Anyway... got to go... I'm seriously tired... really... really tired... was going to go straight to be without turning on the comp but I read on tweeter that they have revamped the website and I just had to share it with whoever cares. :P

K... the usual... please buy if you can afford.

Regular Edition

Limited Edition + DVD

Limited Edition + Blu-ray

Also, Kajiura Yuki's dvd / blu-ray of the Vol.9 Live Shibuko Special will also be released tomorrow.  My copy is in the mail.  I'll hopefully get it in the next two days and if I'm not dying from exhaustion.... I'll do the un-boxing on the day I receive it.

Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" Blu-ray (NOTE: includes the "making of" video clip which will not be on the dvd edition)
Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" DVD


K... got to... need sleep... I need to reserve energy for tomorrow at work... night night :)

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Ultimate Madoka & various ramblings

Sooooo tired and only just managing to keep up with my Kajiura Yuki / FictionJunction /Kalafina obsession on the trains by reading tweets that are often beyond my Japanese reading capability.  :P This, however, I have to share because the box that Ultimate Madoka came in is like HUGE!!!!!!!



Ultimate Madoka is finally in my hands. :)  To save on shipping, I had this figure shipped to my friend in Japan and it was sitting there in her home for sometime till she was ready to return to Singapore.  Then this friend hand carried Ultimate Madoka from Tokyo to Singapore where she passed it to another friend who passed it to her friend to drop it off at my place of work. And this was how this really awesome figure landed up in my hands. :)

I am really very fortunate.  This box is HUGE and for my friends to take so much effort to get her safely to me... I am really grateful and touched. :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... I miss Japan.... I miss my friends... I miss going to Kajiura Yuki's and Kalafina's lives.... but I must resist... must save money.... maybe I'll make it in the 3rd quarter of the year and will be able to a live then. I almost can't bear to read any news on Kajiura Yuki's vol.10 live... sigh... there is no way I can go to that live. :(

Ah well... I have been putting in a lot of weekend work at the office so I will probably be able to put some of that money away for what I hope will be my 7th trip to Japan and what I hope will also include either Kajiura Yuki's or Kalafina's live. :)  It seems like my year isn't complete without a trip to see either one of them in concert in Japan. :D

Also on the happy side, my really difficult prep shot is looking quite good and I've began work on another prep shot and have another challenging one coming up after that.  Lots of busy days at the office coming up... but it's been good for me so far... I know that I am learning a lot and I will come out of this gruelling period stronger and better than before. :)

For now though... time for bed again... tomorrow it's another working day. :)

ps. for those of you who may want to get this figure... here is the CDJapan link... CLICK ME... it maybe a good time to take advantage of a weaken Yen to do some shopping in Japan... checking the cost of shipping carefully tho' ... this box is huge which may make shipping potentially expensive.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Kalafina ~ Consolation - 1st Press freebie

Looks like we'll be getting postcards again.  The Kalafina staff announced it yesterday and CDJapan has also updated their webpages to reflect this.





Some lucky people in Japan will also be able to win tickets to a special event, postcard size calendars or poster.

As usual, please do purchase these CDs if you can afford it. :)

Regular Edition

Limited Edition + DVD

Limited Edition + Blu-ray

K... am going to be bed... need sleep.... zzzzz :)

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Gekkan Kalafina and Lisani TV



Wow!! This must certainly be a sign of Kalafina's growing popularity. They will be hosting a monthly tv programme called 月刊 Kalafina.

Fingers crossed that someone will record these and put them online...hopefully on youtube cuz I have no time to hunt for stuff these days.

Details are the screen capture above.



Also, there will be a two part tv programme featuring the trio. Details in the screen capture above.

More details are also available on their blog.

Got to go.

edited: Fixed the missing pictures. :)
posted from Bloggeroid

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Yuki Kajiura vol9 Shibuko SP digest video

梶浦由記 Yuki Kajiura (@Fion0806) tweeted at 7:33 PM on Wed, Feb 13, 2013:
0220発売YK Live vol9渋公Specialダイジェスト映像でござるヽ(*^^*)ノ。http://t.co/30Z7ShxF
(https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/301640300567351297

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download




Ohhhh.... Kajiura Yuki just tweeted about a digest version of the CM of this upcoming release.  FlyingDogs uploaded it to their channel on youtube today.

Oh man... I can't wait for this release. :)

And as always, my usual line... if you can afford it, please buy the dvd or the blu-ray.  Here are the links for your convenience. :)

Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" Blu-ray (NOTE: includes the "making of" video clip which will not be on the dvd edition)
Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#9 "Shibuko Special" DVD

Enjoy. :)
posted from Bloggeroid

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Yuki Kajiura vol.9 Shibuko Special ~ talk event

(source: http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/flyingdog/-/Information/A022369.html )

It looks like Kajiura Yuki will also be holding a "talk event" to celebrate the release of the vol.9 Shibuko Special dvd/blu-ray.

This event will be held on the 21st of April and interestingly, the guest list seems like it'll only be Kajiura Yuki and Korenaga Kouichi (/是永巧一).  As far as I can tell, the utahimes and the other musicians are not included in this talk event.  They may or may not add more guests but for now, it's just the two of them.

If I didn't read it wrong, it looks like it's a "free" event.  Well, more like you have to purchase the Vol.9 Shibuko Special dvd or blu-ray from the listed participating stores (e.g. HMV, Animate etc) and you'll get a postcard to apply to attend the event.  I think it's a first-come first-serve thing.

That's kind of cool for fans of both the composer and Korenaga Kouichi, who plays the guitar at their lives. I just found out that he was involved in the music for Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and while I'm not a huge fan of 2040, it was the original Bubblegum Crisis that made me fall head over heels in love with anime. :)

K... that's it for now... now I gotta dash again. :)

Kajiura Yuki / FictionJunction CDJapan sale


To commemorate the soon to be released Yuki Kajiura vol.9 Shibuko Special dvd /blu-ray. CDJapan will be holding a one week sale of past Kajiura Yuki / FictionJunction releases.

For those who are interested, there are 15 titles at 10% off.  Here is the link to the list.  Click Me.

I'm quite interested in getting the Pandora Hearts soundtracks, as well as the Madlax soundtracks.  I don't own those yet but do intend to buy them eventually.  I picked up the Blood - The Last Vampire soundtrack in one of the past sales and actually even shot photos of it but never did that unboxing...I think I put that on the back-burner since it's an old OST and I didn't think anyone would really be interested.

What's holding me back from getting the Pandora Hearts and Madlax cds is that I'm really interested in getting the Key Animation Art-book for the Mahou Shoujo Madoka movie as well.

Apparently, the book will come with a long poster too. I've really tempted since I already have the Production Note and all 6 volumes of the Key Animation Note. Decisions... decisions... need to decide soon.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka ~ Portable - huge discount

I've been meaning to write this for a while (thanks shangyou) but have been too busy.... CDJapan has been selling the Limited Edition Mahou Shoujo Madoka Portable set at a 60% discount for a while.  There are currently only 24 sets left.

Fans of the series may want to consider this set even if you don't read / understand Japanese.  The set does come with several freebies as well as the limited edition figma of Madoka in her school uniform.  To my knowledge, this figure is only available if you buy the set.

The game itself, is very talkie.  I played just the beginning portion but didn't have time to play through because I really have too many things to do.  I thought it was okay but then I am partly using these games to improve my Japanese and because I really am a huge fan of the series... so I think my views may be slightly coloured by that.

For those who are interested, you can view my unboxing post ... click me.

And for those who would like to purchase it at CDJapan... click me.

K.... I have to go... have Chinese New Year things I must do today.  :)

Kalafina History 5th ~ unboxing

Finally, I am getting down to working a little on the blog.  It's the Chinese New Year break in Singapore and I've been using the opportunity to rest as much as possible between doing my Japanese homework and the usual family stuff that one must do during this season.

Now that I've feeling a little rested, I thought it would be a good idea to get down to doing this unboxing before work begins again on Wednesday.  I'll go back to becoming very busy and will likely have to do more weekends again.  I'm still feeling the strain of 26 work days in a row, complete with OT on most of those days.  I'm not unhappy to do it because I'm working on a very challenging prep shot... well, at least it is challenging for my skill level... but I'm happy to do it.  I think I've learnt tons and am really grateful for the opportunity to be working on it... but let's leave it at that... I digress too much. :)  Back to the unboxing... it'll be picture heavy as usual... the whole point of my rambling paragraph about work was so that I would say that I would like to blast through this and then go to bed. :)

So here we go... I hope you enjoy it. :)


This is what the photobook looks like without the shrink wrapping.


I placed a blu-ray next to the book to give you a sense of the dimensions of the book.  It's pretty much the breath and length of a sheet of A4 size paper.  The binding is the standard binding.



This is what the book looks like striped of its dust cover which is a sheet of stiff paper with a wax like texture on one side.



The photobook opens with a short foreword by Kajiura Yuki.  After that it's page after page after page of awesome photos of Kalafina.  Some of them look familiar but I'm not sure if they are repeated photos form the concert pamphlets or if they're simply from the same studio shoot. I've not done a comparison with the concert pamphlets so I can't say for sure but what I'm sure of is that there are a ton of photos of them that I've not seen before.

The photos are very cool and quite a few of them are truly full page color photos which stretch from one edge of the page to the other edge.  When I first flipped through it, even I didn't expect it to be so breathtakingly awesome.  I was like... WOW!!!  That's a lot of really nice photos and unlike the Kalafina Record book, this is a true photobook.  There is really very, very little text in the book.  Aside from the foreword, epilogue and a few pages of interviews with each of the vocalist, setlist, credits etc, it's just photos of the trio.

Aside from the photos from the studio shoots, there are also photos at the lives and also photos of the trio at various events and when they have traveled overseas.  I've included a photo of the pages of them at the Kalafina Week in Shibuya and of them when they came to Singapore for the Anime Festival Asia. Singapore is my home country and a country I love hence, I have to include those photos. :)


Although there isn't a ton of text in this hefty 236 page book, there are still a few pages of text.  Aside from the foreword by Kajiura Yuki in one of the early photos above, each vocalist gets a 3 page interview.


The book also lists out Kalafina's Biography, Discography and Set List for the major lives that they've performed at.  The book then ends with a 2 page epilogue by Kajiura Yuki and one more photo and the credits.

Here are photos of the freebies that people who pre-ordered via the FJC Club link at the Spacecraft online shop got.


Itsuko, my good friend, helped me to order the book because I really wanted the clear file and this version of the postcard that comes with this release.  Sorry, the photo of the clear file isn't very good but it's quite hard to shoot photos of reflective things in my bedroom, it's all that overhead lighting and also because I'm shooting using a mobile phone, so the quality is always a bit lacking in all the unboxing photos.

If there was ever a time I felt that I should have taken unboxing photos with a proper DSLR, it was after I looked at the photos that I had shot of this unboxing.  I don't think any of them do the photobook justice.  The photobook's photos are really, really nice and I really cannot think of any reason why a big fan of Kalafina would not want to own this book and I also cannot think of any reason why any fan would be disappointed with the purchase.

If you're a fan and you can afford it, I really believe that this is a really good purchase.  It's not terribly expensive for a book packed with soooooo many nice photos of Kalafina.  If you wish to purchase it, you can use this link if you like.  Unfortuantely, it doesn't come with any freebies but the book is more than worth the asking price. :)

Kalafina History 5th product page

Okay, next up, it'll be the Type-Moon 10th Anniversary Festival unboxing.
link to my short review ~ click me

I've already shot the photos much earlier but decided that I rather do the Kalfina History 5th unboxing first.  If I don't get too busy or too tired tomorrow, I'll do that unboxing and maybe... maybe... maybe get to the final two volumes of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Key Animation artbooks. :)

For now... time for bed.... I hope you enjoyed this unboxing. :)  oyasumi :)