Kalafina ~ Japan Expo, Paris / Music Energy 2014

Hmmmmm.... looks like it's official.  The Japan Expo website has added Kalafina as one of the guests at the 5 day event. :)  CLICK ME to go to the Kalafina webpage on the Japan Expo site.

SMEJ and Kalafina's official webiste haven't made that announce yet but it's pretty much confirmed, in my opinion.

source

Today, Kalafina's website did announce one other thing.  They'll be one of the artist at the Music Energy 2014 lives.  If I remember correctly, this would make it the third year that they have participated in this event.  This will be on the 23rd September. :)

And lastly, don't forget to pre-order their soon to be released THE BEST albums if you have the money to do so. :)

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "REd" / "Blue" album - pocket message 2 / tokuten announce

Today's the 26th May which means that the second Pocket Message will start streaming off CLIP on your smart phones.

I checked it out today but my network must be unstable because it kept stuttering and I could not make out what they were saying.  The only thing I know for sure is that we will get a new message on the 13th June. :)

I like the way they did the new message by the way. :)  In the previous message, it was just a rectangle floating box with them in it.  This time, it looks way more like augmented reality because they keyed out the background and gave them a shadow at the bottom, so they look more like they are popping out from your monitor.  It's kinda cool. :)

For those who have not yet tried out CLIP and can't figure out how to, I wrote up a guide of how to do it in a previous post.  CLICK ME.

Also, SMEJ and Kalafina have announced via the various official websites and twitter accounts what the tokutens will be.  A few days ago, they announced what they were giving out special tokutens.  But I didn't pay too much attention because overseas fans can't get them anyway. :(  This involves sending in the coupon that comes with your purchase of the albums to try and win a towel or a mug.

Happily, today's tokuten announce is something overseas fans can get. :)  Once again, they are giving out postcards but this time it's not to everyone.  There are different postcards to collect from places like HMV, Tsutaya, Animate etc.  Customers who buy the albums through Rakuten Books will get something different from everyone else, they'll get an alternate jacket cover for the albums.  I wouldn't mind getting that but it'll be troublesome for me to order via Rakuten Books so no alternate jacket cover for me. :( As for those of us who purchase online from CDJapan, we'll be getting a mouse pad as our first press bonus present.  To read the actual announce from SMEJ, CLICK ME.

I've already pre-ordered mine.  For those of you who want the mouse pads, you can order them from CDJapan too.  Here are the direct product page links.

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

My usual line... please do purchase them if you can afford them. :)

Music Matters Live with HP 2014

My major interest at Music Matters is Japanese music of course but there are lots of other bands which are really good and interesting.  I forgot that they stream the lives live on youtube.  Anyway, for those of you who are interested in catching the rest of the lives on youtube.  Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/user/musicmatterstome/featured

They may upload the videos of the lives at a later date. They have flumpool and SID from last year's live on youtube.  I hope they do because I wasn't standing in the best of positions so it would be nice to watch a video of the live I attended so that I can actually see most of the stage and the artists. :)

For those of you who want to read about my experience at Japan Night in Music Matters, you can click this link.  CLICK ME.  I wrote up a quick post on the train home last night... it's accompanied by crappy photos shot on my Samsung S2.... I think I need a proper camera or a new phone. :)

I leave you with a few songs from the live yesterday of songs that were sung at last nights live.

From Cream, one of the two songs that I quite like from them.  We were singing along during the chorus and the couple in front of me was really dancing along with Cream.  I was just jumping and bobbing along since I'm a terrible dancer. :P



From The Oral Cigarettes...  We were singing the 参上 (sanjou) part of the song along with them.  Fun stuff.  :)  I really like their music, my kind of thing. :)



And finally from the last performer last night Naota Inti Raymi who sang the Japanese version of the song he's singing for the World Cup.  This song below. It's quite a fun song to hear at a live. He had a few backup dancers and they were good at both dancing and getting the crowd going.  Of course we were all tasked with singing the "oh oh oh oh oh ~" part in the chorus and everyone did sing very loudly too. :)



I'm totalling looking forward to next year's Japan Night in Music Matters!! :)

Okay... off to get ready for work. :)

Japan Night in Music Matters 2014 was fun!!!

(Picture of Cream on stage)

I am on my way home after watching 3 bands at a free live at Clarke Quay today. SO FUN!! I was dancing and punching the air the whole night even though I knew very little about these bands.

I also attended last year's live but I knew flumpool by then and had gone to the live for flumpool and it was fun too. SID was great too and I was happy that I heard them live last year too. Because I had such a good time last year I decided that I had to go down to Clarke Quay for this year's live and I don't regret it.

Cream opened the night and although I don't usually like hip hop... I really enjoyed their live and really liked their song Shooting Star and Wonderland.



Next up was The Oral Cigarettes which suits my music taste the best of all three acts tonight. Although I don't know the title of the songs just yet, i know i will be googling about them tonight. Awesome stuff! I was really jumping and singing and pumping the air.



Last one up for the night was Naoto Inti Raymi. I have no idea what genre of music his music belongs to but it is fun singable stuff. He really got the crowd going at times. And his World Cup song was very fun and everyone around me was singing etc

Fun fun fun!! More Japan Night in Music Matters please!! :)

Okay... it is almost my stop.. bye. :)

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[Lyric Video] Perfume「Hold Your Hand」（short ver.）

I can't claim to be a Perfume fan since I don't yet own any of their CDs but I do like them some of their songs. :)  I did attend their live in Singapore though and I really enjoyed it.  Funnily, I didn't know anything about Perfume till the night before the live.  I spent some time listening to some of their songs on youtube and did like some of them and liked their MVs.

They do know how to put up a show and the live was loads of fun and ever since them, I've always paid attention to Perfume.

Yesterday, Perfume released a short version of the MV of their song "Hold Your Hand" which is the theme song for the currently airing NHK dorama "Silent Poor".  I've seen the first episode of "Silent Poor" and thought it wasn't bad.  I think the lyrics of this song, is quite an appropriate song for "Silent Poor" which is a dorama of the poor and those in need in Japan and the social workers who try and help them.

Anyway, for some reason, I really quite like this song and I think the MV is quite cute.  Today, CDJapan listened the soon to be released Maxi CD from Perfume.  There will be 4 new songs on that CD and one of them is "Hold Your Hand".  The Limited Edition has the MV on DVD for this song.  Soooooo tempting!!!

Anyway, this should be the cover art, I think.  At least that is what CDJapan has up on their website. :)

For those who want to get it, first press bonus is a poster.

And it comes in two flavours, both LEs

Cling Cling [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]
Cling Cling [w/ DVD, Limited Edition/Box Packaging]

I'm not sure if I'm going to get it just yet because I already ordered the Rekishi Hiwa Historia OST3 CD which has already shipped and I also pre-ordered the Hanako to Anne CD as well as the Kalafina THE BEST "Red" LE and "Blue" LE albums.  I'll probably end up ordering Ieiri Leo's 3rd Live Tour BD and delay the Yuki Kajiura vol.11 Live ~ FictionJunction Yuuka BD till another month.  Gonna be so broke!!! :P

Ieiri Leo ~ a boy - 3rd Live Tour (cover art & setlst)

Okay... gonna steal time from lunch and try and do this real quick.

CDJapan's already listed this release with the cover art as well.

So first up... cover art. :)



This is the BD cover art which I got from CDJapan.  The direct product page link is here... CLICK ME.



This is the DVD cover art which I got from CDJapan.  The direct product page link for this is here... CLICK ME.

The full setlist from HMV Japan is here, 24 songs in total:

カーニバル
太陽の女神
イジワルな神様
Time after Time
君に届け
Hello
Shine
チョコレート
キミだけ
Too many
Free
Who's that
Bless You
Lay it down
Fake Love
Kiss Me
Linda
Papa & Mama
サブリナ
希望の地球
ミスター
Message
a boy
Say Goodbye

It's suppose to come with bonus footage which should be this, unless they change it later:

Document of 3rd ワンマン Tour ～a boy～

These are very decently priced releases.  It's just 4600yen for the BD and 4000yen for the DVD.

This particular live was aired on WOWOW earlier in the year BUT this is a different edit and contains songs that was not included in the WOWOW broadcast.  This is similar to the Kalafina 5th Anniversary WOWOW special too where a full setlist was not broadcast.

The WOWOW setlist for the Ieiri Leo live is this:

Setlist
01. Carnival (カーニバル)
02. Taiyou no Megami (太陽の女神)
03. Ijiwaru na Kamisama (イジワルな神様)
04. Time after Time
05. Kimi ni Todoke (君に届け)
06. Hello
07. Shine
08. Chocolate (チョコレート)
09. Kimi Dake (キミだけ)
10. Bless You
11. Lay it down
12. Fake Love
13. Kiss Me
14. Linda
15. Papa&Mama
16. Sabrina (サブリナ)
17. Kibou no Hoshi (希望の地球)
18. Message
19. a boy

So you'll be getting 5 more songs plus the bonus footage and most likely a better mix.

Okay... if you're an Ieiri Leo fan... do buy these releases to support her.  I'll most likely pick up the BD.

Here are the links again:

Ieiri Leo ~ a boy 3rd Live Tour (BD)
Ieiri Leo ~ a boy 3rd Live Tour (DVD)

Okay, got to go... no time to proof read etc... will do that later... time to eat a really quick lunch!! :)

Bye

Ieiri Leo ~ "a boy ~ 3rd Live Tour~" BD & DVD announce

【更新情報】レオレポ『ライブ Blu-ray&DVD 「a boy 〜3rd Live Tour〜」発売決定!!』http://t.co/89LNeMwOUJ
— 家入レオ モバイルFC (@leoieirifc) May 20, 2014

I have to run... got to go to work but first this... YAY!!!  Ieiri Leo's live bd / dvd will be released.  Details later... I haven't even read them yet....

oh...... my poor wallet !!!! :P

bye!!! :)

Kalafina's message on CDJapan / Hikaru's blog post / Machi Asobi cafe etc

screen capture fr CDJapan video

Ah... it looks like there is another version of Kalafina's message that's being streamed online and it's not locked to Japan-only.  It looks similar to the Kalafina Pocket Message and it conveys essential the same message although it isn't exactly the same.

If you want to view this clip, you can view it by scrolling to the bottom of any of these product pages on CDJapan and play the clip.

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

By the way, the Kalafina Pocket Message will change on the 26th May so for those of you who have already tried playing the message, don't forget to check back on the 26th May.  My guess is that they'll be wearing their blue outfits for that video. :)

Also... I was wrong again. I thought that they had only created a special page for THE BEST albums but actually they also changed their official webpage. This has been up for a while, I just didn't realise it till I went to the website to go read the blog updates which I will get to in a bit. :)

source

Also, they updated the look of their app too.  So I update the app and made a few screen captures and you can view them below.

  

They seem to be favouring the red outfits for now... I wonder if they'll change everything later on to favour the blue outfits.

Anyway... finally, here's a bit about the blog post from Hikaru that was posted on the 17th May.  I usually don't write much about these blog updates on the website because I'm too busy to but this one I felt like writing about because it contained many photos of Kalafina at the Machi Asobi Cafe opening at Kitakyushu which also featured a Fate/Zero + Fate/Stay Night theme and a Kara no Kyoukai art exhibition and I'm a  pretty big fan of ufotable's work. :)

I'm not sure if ufotable is involved in the running of the cafe itself since it isn't a ufotable cafe but a Machi Asobi Cafe which is associated with the annual Machi Asobi anime event held in Tokushima.  There is already a ufotable cafe in Tokushima and ufotable has always been a big feature at the Machi Asobi event.  I don't know enough about ufotable the company or the Machi Asobi event to know if there is a link but what I do know is, according to Hikaru's blog post, the Machi Asobi Cafe is at the very least partially, if not wholly, financially supported by Tokushima itself.

First up... photos... lot's of them and all rather nice :) The source for all these are from Hikaru's post on Kalafina's blog.  CLICK ME.

     

I've known about Kalafina's schedule appearance at the opening of ufotable's latest cafe because I follow ufotable on twitter but I was kind of lazy to blog about it till now. :P   BTW, according to Hikaru's blog post, in that 2nd photo in the set above, Keiko is pointing at her favourite illustration at the exhibition.

Here are the photos from ufotable's twitter about the Machi Asobi Cafe.

    

Kalafina was the opening guest at the opening of the cafe which also featured a Fate/Zero + Fate/Stay Night theme and a Kara no Kyoukai art exhibition.  I would LOVE to have been able to be there.  But to date, I've only been to the ufotable cafe in Tokyo.

Check out that stack of televisions. Any Kara no Kyoukai fan would recognise that in a heart beat. :)  Soooo cool.  And also check out those sofas the one in the second picture in the set above and the one which Wakana is sitting on.  I would LOVE to have those in my room.  God... I am such an otaku!! :P

According to Hikaru's blog post, aside from the ribbon cutting, Kalafina a performed songs from Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero, as well as, Alleluia from KnK: Mirai Fukuin which is to be expected since the opening theme at the cafe included Fate/Zero and there was a KnK exhibition at the cafe.  She also wrote a bit about how Kalafina's music cannot be categorized easily into any genre and wrote a bit about how that was due to Kajiura Yuki's amazing music etc

There is one more piece of information in Hikaru's post which I found interesting.

She wrote this:
今回は
皆さんと過ごした大切な時間の中から
THE BEST "Red"には
「Kalafina 5th Anniversary LIVE “oblivious”」
THE BEST "Blue"には
「リスアニ! LIVE-4」
での６曲の模様を初収録します。

So from here, it looks like it may really be the full Kalafina 5th Anniversay Live that will be included in THE BEST "Red" LE's Blu-ray.  If it is the full live, I would be VERY HAPPY of course but still... I don't want to get my hopes too high because the WHOLE live.... really?!?!?  What is confirmed though is that all 6 songs  that were performed at the Lisani! Live-4 live will be included in the Blu-ray for THE BEST "Blue" LE album.  This has made me very happy.  :)  I knew that they sang 6 songs at that live but I think only two of those songs were ever released.  Now we'll have all the songs. :)  For the cover art, track list, set list etc info on these albums, please read this post... CLICK ME.

Alrighty... that's it for now... I need to sleep now... I have a busy day tomorrow. :P

Oyasumi. :)

Radwimps in Singapore, Japan Music Festival

I really like this Radwimps song. As they've done for the past few years, they've released a song on the 11th March in memory of the terrible earthquake and tsunami disaster that struck the Tohoku region in Japan in 2011.

This is a really lovely song and it's because of this song that I want to see Radwimps live in Singapore on the 7th June.  They are one of the bands / vocalists / performers that are being brought in by Japan Music Festival.  They are the same people who brought in May'n for the Singapore and Jarkarta leg of her solo world tour.  Those two lives were just completed a few days ago, I think.  They will also be bringing in Kyary Pamyu Pamyu at the end of June.  I didn't go to May'n's live.  I know that Kalafina and her are friends but I'm not a big fan of her music and as much as I would love to support Japanese music in Singapore, my pockets dont't run deep enough for me to pay good money to go to the live of a performer I'm not really interested in.

Radwimps, however, does interest me.  They sing a brand of Japanese pop / rock which I do enjoy and I really like this song in the youtube video above.  BTW, the title of that song is Kaiko.

Anyway, I thought I would a bit of free promo for JMF, Radwimps and Japanese music in Singapore because I really want more solo acts to come. :)  I don't want them to just show up for Music Matters or the Anime Festival Asia and I also want bigger names to come to the a-nation live. Although I know it's very unlikely but still I can hope that one day I will be able to see Kajiura Yuki / FictionJunction / Front Band Members, Kalafina and Ieiri Leo solo lives and also another angela solo live in Singapore.

Anyway, here is the link for JMF page for the Radwimps live with all the ticket info etc. CLICK ME.  BTW, the price of the ticket is a flat rate of SGD78 which is pretty cheap, in my opinion.  They are a pretty well known band in Japan even though I think most Singaporeans have never heard of them.  If they get more exposure in Singapore, we might never have the opportunity to see them at this price again.  So I am super tempted to go but I have to think really hard because I also want to go to the flumpool live and tickets for those go on sale on the 24th May.... maybe I'll write a post about that in a bit... but maybe not today because I think I want to write one about Kalafina before I go to bed.  I actually want to write one about a relatively unknown Japanese band which I really like... they're called Karasu... not sure how many people know who they are but I really like their music.  Maybe I'll write that tomorrow night, if I have time and remember to do it. :P  For now, I'm off to work on a Kalafina post before I go to bed. :)

Kalafina ~ 2014 Calendar 50% off on CDJapan

For fans of Kalafina who have not yet bought their 2014 calendar and still want it, CDJapan is clearing their stock of calendars at 50% off.  CLICK ME. So we're not talking about Kalafina's calendar alone, all calenders should be going for half off.  So if you want to get any other calendars e.g. One Piece calendars or Totoro calendars etc, now might be a good time to check CDJapan out. CLICK ME for CDJapan's calendar sale. :)

I got mine at Kotobukiya when I was in Japan last year.  If you want to see those photos, CLICK ME. There aren't many but you are welcome to check them out. :)

Japan Night in Music Matters 2014

Actually, I've known about this event for some time but never got around to writing about it.  Since the 22nd May will be next Thursday, I thought I should write up a short post about it. :)

This has nothing to do with my usual obsessions :P  This is for Japanese music fans in Singapore.  It's a night of free live music performances by some pretty well known bands in Japan.  Music Matters is an event that brings music from various countries to perform live in Singapore.  I actually don't know much about the entire event itself since the only night that I'm really interested in is Japan Night.  I went to last year's Music Matter's Japan Night which was called "Music Matters Live with HP `J-ROCK Matters presented by BARKS' featuring flumpool, SID".  Yup quite a mouthful. :)  It was actually really fun and my second time seeing flumpool live.  And SID was really fun too. :)

 

The above are my not fantastic photos of the event shot on my S2 cellphone. I wasn't that close to the stage but we weren't that far either.  It was pretty crowded but the crowd was very good and we had a good time. :)

Video of the lives at Clarke Quay are still available on line.  For those who did not attend, you can check them out here.





Because of my very positive experience last year, I intend to attend next week's event even though I know very little about the three acts that will be performing that night.

This year they have Oral Cigarettes, Cream and Naoto Inti Raymi.  I've watched some of their music videos on youtube and I think the one that suits my music taste the most is probably Oral Cigarettes.  Still, I will go watch all of them until the last train runs at least because I don't want to take a cab home. :P

Here is one of Oral Cigarettes' music video.



Check out the Music Matters Japan Night FB page for more music videos.  You can also check out the Music Matters main webpage for the full line-up of performers on all 4 nights.

If you like Japanese music, go check out the free lives at Clarke Quay next week on the 22nd May. :)

Aniplex+ Akuma Homura on display at Madoka Magica exhibition

Check out @aniplex_plus's Tweet: https://twitter.com/aniplex_plus/status/467468117270990848

The fully coloured prototype of this 1/8 scale figure is now on display at the Madoka Magica exhibition in Osaka. I hope to see more photos of the details but for now, we have these photos that were tweeted by Aniplex+ themselves. Enjoy. :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Tokyo Kyoudai (Japanese film) / ost by Kajiura Yuki - listed

Ahhhh... something interesting popped up on CDJapan today.  They just listed Tokyo Kyoudai DVD for sale.  This is a 1995 film that Kajiura Yuki scored.  Hmmmm.... It's an award winning film too....I'm interested to watch it now.  Unfortunately, no English subs. :(

For those who are interested in the listing.... CLICK ME.

a-nation music live in SINGAPORE ?!? wow!!! :)

source

I was about to go to bed after I take one last look at twitter to see if there was any more Kajiura Yuki and/or Kalafina news when this popped up on twitter.  BTW, this has absolutely nothing to to with Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina.  :P

It looks like a-nation will have a Taiwan and SINGAPORE leg this year!!!!  This could be very exciting for fans of Japanese music in Singapore.  a-nation is the name of a series of huge summer lives held in various cities in Japan every year for the last 13 years.  It usually features very popular Avex artists since the festival is organised by them.

While I may seem like an obsessive Kajiura Yuki, FictionJunction and Kalafina fan... I do listen to other vocalists, vocal units and bands etc from Japan. :)  This time, I'm hoping this means that I'll have the chance to see AAA live in Singapore.  I don't mind it if Shōnan no Kaze shows up too. Since this is organised by Avex and should feature some of their biggest artists, I don't think it'll be cheap to go to the live.... time to put money aside. :)

OH... and PLEASE NO Korean bands... we get enough of them here in Singapore already and I would prefer it if they use the limited time at the live for Japanese artists since we don't get many of them and certain not the really big stars. :(

Here is the link to the a-nation website.  CLICK ME.  Direct link to the page about the Singapore leg.  CLICK ME.

That's all folks... am off to bed.  Oyasumi. :)

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red"/"Blue" - bigger cover art & other related stuff

It's a good thing that I am on leave from work this week. :)  Although, I am still pretty busy because I have a lot of stuff that I need to do, I'm still able to squeeze time out to write about the new releases. :)  I wasn't able to read the articles about the album release properly till now... finally a really quiet moment for me to try and work through all the information. :)

First up, I managed to find bigger versions of the cover art for these albums.  So here you go. :)

 

The above are the larger versions of the cover art for the Regular Editions.

 

The above are the larger versions of the cover art for the Limited Editions.

I've also read through some of the news articles etc.

The LE of both the Red and Blue albums will ship with a 60 page deluxe booklet as well as the BD.  I'm thinking that we're looking at probably a box-set here rather than a slip case.  Perhaps something along the lines of the Kalafina 5th Anniversary Live Selection release.  CLICK ME for my un-boxing post.  That came with a 60 page deluxe booklet as well.

The LEs of both the Red and Blue album will ship with footage from different lives.

The Red LE will ship with footage from the 5th Anniversay Live from Jan 2013.  They didn't say more than that so I'm not sure if it'll be the full Live, portions of the Live with only the songs that are featured in THE BEST albums or the WOWOW special.  I'm hoping it isn't the WOWOW Special since most fans would have viewed it by now and I also thought that that wasn't particularly well mixed.  It tended to highlight one of the vocalists voice more when they should have balanced it out to accentuate the harmony but that maybe just me.  I've a feeling this won't be the full live.  If I had to guess, then I think they will be the songs featured in both the Red and Blue album that matches with what was sung at that live.

The Blue LE will ship with footage from the Lisani! Live-4.  If they give us all the songs that were sung at that live, fingers crossed, we'll get the following:

source
1.misterioso
2.Kimi no Gin no Niwa
3.seventh heaven
4.sprinter
5.Ongaku
6.Alleluia

I think Lisani! tv only broadcast two of the songs and someone kindly uploaded it onto youtube.  View it soon because who knows how long this video will remain on youtube.  The clip contains only two songs, "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" and "Ongaku".  Let's hope that the BD will give us more than just these two songs.



This is the first time I've heard them sing "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" live and I must say, they did a pretty good job with it.  Lovely!!! :)  And there's Ongaku too.  To be perfectly honest, I don't think that Kalafina has ever sung this song perfectly at any of the lives I've attended or watched on video but I still love listening and watching them sing this at their lives because they seem to really enjoy performing this song and it really gets the crowd going and I love it for those reasons. :)

I've also read through the axive.jp article and there are a few points of interests.

"2014年5月30日・31日には、香港での単独ライブ2days（チケットは10分で即完）、7月2日からフランス、パリ・ノールヴィルバントで行わる ヨーロッパ最大の日本文化とエンターテイメントの祭典“JAPAN EXPO 2014”への参加も決定している（総来場者数20万人超）。パッケージリリースに関しては、アルバム、シングル、映像商品が世界14カ国で販売されてお り、配信リリースは、iTunesを中心にヨーロッパ、北米、アジアなど、世界39カ国もの国々で展開。"


It seems that Kalafina's live in Hong Kong sold REALLY well.  They are scheduled to perform in HK for two nights on the 30th & 31st.  The tickets sold out in 10 mins.  WOW!!! Even if the concert hall isn't the biggest in HK but selling out in 10 mins is quite a feat. :)  Well done Kalafina!! Well done fans who are going to this live. :)

Also, it seems that Kalafina will be making an appearance at the Japan Expo 2014 in Paris France in July.  That's really cool because the Japan Expo is a pretty big event. :)  While the Japan Expo 2014 site hasn't made an official announce yet and neither has Kalafina or SMEJ, this news is in more than just the axive.jp article, it's in a few other online articles as well, so I think the chances of this being true is pretty high.  I'm sure French fans, European fans and all fans who attend this event will be happy to have this come true.  I'm still waiting and waiting for them to come back to Singapore.... sigh.....

It seems like the albums will be sold in 14 countries round the world, in Europe, N. America and Asia but there's no mention of which countries.  The album will also be available on iTunes in 39 countries.

Also, in case some of you haven't yet realised.... there will be two yet to be released songs on these albums.  One will be the theme song for the Urobuchi Gen scripted anime Aldnoah.Zero.  That song is called "Heavenly Blue" and is the last song listed in the Blue album's track list.  I was actually expecting a singles release with probably these versions RE, LE+DVD, LE+BD and Anime LE but so far... no news.

The other is a yet to be titled or announced new song in the Red album.  That's no.1 on the track list.  I like to think it'll be one of the theme songs for the ufotable version of Fate/Stay Night. :P  They have yet to announce who will do the music for  FSN and I'm still holding out hope that it will be Kajiura Yuki and that Kalafina will provide one of the songs for this anime.  I mean, Kajiura Yuki and ufotable... so far it's been a good collaboration, right? :)  Well..... that's just my hope.... I really have no idea what this song will be. :)

Well.... that should be it for now.... I'm off to order the Rekishi Hiwa Historia OST3 and two copies of the RED and BLUE LE albums for my friend an I. :)

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

If you can afford them too, please do buy them. :)

 Maybe I'll go watch that Kalafina Pocket Message now before I go do the stuff I'm suppose to do... I haven't had time to watch it properly yet. :P Good night!! :)

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" - Pocket Message

I'm suppose to do a quick shower and get out soon but I think I'll post this up because it's something I did find interesting and different on the website.

If you go to this page (CLICK ME) on the special Kalafina website for the release of their new THE BEST albums, you will be greeted with these instructions.

If you've never done this before, like me, and if you can't read Japanese or was too impatient to read the Japanese instructions like me, you might not know what to do and what this is about.  I was definitely confused for a while.

If you don't already have CLIP installed on your phone, go install the app.  you can search for the app using the search words provided on the page. Search for "clipcc" in the AppStore or GooglePlay

After you have installed "clip", go back to the page above or to this link:

「 Kalafina Pocket Message 」
https://clip.cc/c/534344dac3480

You must first use the app, to shoot the QR codes provided at the Kalafina page OR on the link created from Clip... using either page is fine.

When you start up CLIP, you'll see this:

The small boxy squares should be familiar to most of us but for those who don't know, that's looking for a QR code to scan.

Go to the provided QR code and place those boxy squares on the QR code and the app will do the rest for you.

The app will download something from somewhere and you will see a progress bar.  After it's downloading, you'll see this:

Well, you won't exactly see this... you won't see Madoka in the background.  That's just my deskmat. :P  You will however see a blinking picture of Kalafina.  It was here that got me confused for a bit.  What do I do next???

Turns out Clip is an AR program.  So what it's asking you to do is to point to the picture of Kalafina which matches that thumbnail picture.  So go back to the Pocket Message page.  And point it at the matching picture of Kalafina and it'll play the message from the trio. :)

You don't have to go back to that page if you don't want to.  Any photo of them that looks like that will do.

You can go to this page

「 Kalafina Pocket Message 」
https://clip.cc/c/534344dac3480

...and point it at that picture and it will work too. :)

Even pointing at this picture here should work.

The message will playback like how it looks in the screen capture of my phone's screen below. :)  This is off my Samsung S2... when I have time I'll try it on my Nexus 7 tablet.

There is a camera button at the bottom.  You can press that to shoot a still photo of the video and upload it to your favourite social media site.

It will look like this:

Don't forget... if you can afford it... buy the albums to support not just Kalafina but also Kajiura Yuki and the Japanese music industry.

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

Okay.... I really have to go... if there are any mistakes... I'll correct them later.... cheers~~~~ :)

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" special site is now live / CDs are listed

The site special site is now live!!  CLICK ME.

Everyone can go check it out but that movie clip is still region locked. :(  To view this video on Nico Nico, CLICK ME.

CDJapan also has the albums listed.  My usual line, if you can afford it, please buy to show your support. :)

Here are the direct product page links for your convenience. :)

THE BEST "Red" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Limited Edition

THE BEST "Red" Regular Edition

THE BEST "Blue" Regular Edition

For details of what's in the editions and the cover art, track list etc... CLICK ME

I will definitely be ordering the Limited Editions for both the "Red" and "Blue" albums.  I don't think I'll get the REs because my pockets really don't run that deep, unfortunately.  Will do the un-boxing as usual.  I'll probably also order the Rekishi Hiwa Historia OST3 cd today.  Will do that un-boxing too but that'll probably be a very bare bones release.

I'm in a bit of a rush right now because I need to be somewhere soon and need to prepare for that.  I won't have time to check out the special site till later tonight... maybe I will blog about it if I find it interesting enough or if I have time. :)

For now... cheers and have a good day. :)

Kalafina ~ THE BEST "Red" / "Blue" ~ view the promo video on Nico Nico

I found it!!!!!!  I decided to make a separate post for this after all.  This is a 5 1/2 min promo video for Kalafina's upcoming THE BEST: Red and THE BEST: Blue album releases.  This clip is titled  『Kalafinaヒストリームービー』which translates into "Kalafina History Movie".

The clip uploaded by SMEJapan is region-locked to Japan only which REALLY sucks. :(

But Nico Nico has this very same clip up and is streaming it on their website.  You will need an a Nico Nico account to view it though but it's free, so take some time to sign up if you don't already have an account.  This way, you can also view the other upcoming Kalafina streams in July.

The link to view this video is here:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm23539945

For more info about this release and the Nico Nico Kalafina programs that'll screen in July, CLICK ME. :)