When I first heard from a friend that there will be a mook on Kajiura Yuki that will be released, I was pretty excited and decided that I will get it and so it went into pre-order ages ago. I did finally receive this along with the B-PASS with AAA on the cover that keeps getting sold out. I want that for Kalafina's column of course. :P. Well, I do like AAA. One of the few groups that sing dance music that I like but my favourite still remains Kajiura Yuki's music. :)
This Kajiura Yuki mook sold pretty well and was no.1 in sales for the "criticism" genre of magazines on Amazon Japan from the first day it was released and held that position for a couple of days. I haven't gone look to see if it's still there but still, I think it's a pretty good achievement since several anime music news sites highlighted that fact.
Now I'm not sure what everyone was expecting with this release but I was expecting a lot less picture heavy release than the Bessatsu Kadokawa Kalafina book but even I thought it would have more photos than what the actually release has. Eureka is a pretty academic type magazine so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise to those familiar with this magazine.
You really must have a good command of Japanese to get this release. My Japanese isn't that great yet but I can eventually make my way through the pages and pages of text with the help of a dictionary and tons of patience. So this will be a very slow read for me. :)
Here are photos of the magazine for those of you who are curious or who may want to pick up this issue.
This photo is to try and show you the dimensions of this release. It's not a very big magazine at all. It's just slightly bigger that the Lisani! magazine, I think. I didn't compare them but it's about that size. For size comparison, I used my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and my 3DS LL.
This is the content page. The WHOLE magazine isn't about Kajiura Yuki but A LOT of it is.
There are no colour photos throughout the magazine except for the cover. Even the advertisements are in black and white print. And there is A LOT of text. :).Kajiura Yuki has a pretty long interview in there and so does Kalafina. Kalafina's interview is a mail interview which should mean that they were emailed questions and they emailed their answers back, I think. It's a long interview too and they talk about Kajiura Yuki, their relationship & interaction with her and a bit about Kalafina's music etc. I kind of zipped through bits of the article and it was quite interesting. I started with their interview first because it was shorter than Kajiura Yuki's interview and the other articles look a lot harder to get through. :P
Okay, I need to go sleep. It's late and I'm quite tired. If you're interested in this release, you can pick it up on Amazon Japan. Or you can pick it up at CDJapn too, CLICK ME. :)
Good night. :)
Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteI've been eyeing that mook for a while now but I wasn't sure if I should get it, mostly because I was expecting it to be quite text heavy. Seems like I was right >_<
I had quite a lot of trouble with all the Kadokawa interviews, not sure I can handle THIS much text.
I am really interested in the Kalafina interview so I might still get it after all XD Right now I am in hardcore translation mode (been translating various interviews in the past few weeks :P) so I am itching to read it and see if there's anything interesting ^_^
btw, I have a random question, I hope you don't mind I am asking this here.
Do you happen to know if tickets for the Kalafina Anniversary Lives are transferable? I am sadly not a FJC member T_T But I'll already be in Japan on the 22nd and the 23rd and I'd REALLY LOVE to attend at least one of those concerts. Now I am wondering if there is any way to buy a ticket (like on Yahoo Auction or something). So far I haven't seen any on sale so I am assuming you can't transfer them?
Thanks in advance for the reply :-)
Hi!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty sure that most international fans won't be getting this release. It's really very text heavy and the photos are not spectacular or anything. I knew I wanted it from the very beginning and am happy that I got it. My Japanese is slowly improving but very slowly, however, I want to eventually read this with my own ability so I will work on reading all the articles slowly by myself. :P
You're translating a lot of articles? That's cool. I was in the middle of translating a Kalafina one but stopped about 3/4 through because I got too busy. I wish I had finished it though. It would have been a summary kind of translation though because getting it sentence accurate is still too hard for me. I should go take a look to see what you've done. If you've done that article, maybe I will just stop. I've read the whole article in Japanese so understand most of what they are saying to a large extent. Just translating is a different kind of difficult. :( Cool that you're doing it! Otsukare!!
I do find the Kalafina interview in this Eureka magazine interesting. It asks them many questions about their impression and interaction with Kajiura Yuki. To me, some of it seems new but I've not read or listened to every interview that Kalafina has given. I've collected quite a few of them and slowly work through theirs and Kajiura Yuki's when I have time. But it's very slow. :P Luckily, I'm generally more concern about the music so I'm not too concern that I'm not a bible of information about them. I know I'm not. :)
Re: random question
Unfortunately, these tickets are strictly for fanclub members only so they are non transferable. I've have yet to go to a FJC only live yet but will go for my first one in Jan because I managed to win the lottery for the Saturday live on the 23rd Jan. :) I'm super happy about that!! :)
I have friends who have been to the FJC only lives and they tell me that the ticket will have your name printed on it and you'll need some kind of photo identification to prove that you're that person. That name that is printed must match the name that you used for your FJC membership. So for us, our passport will suffice.
For the many, many years that I've been a fan and been going to the lives, I've never been able to go for the FJC only lives because I was not a member. My friend in Japan who helps me with the tickets is a member. This year, for the sake of the newsletters and the opportunity to go for the FJC lives, I signed up for the FJC membership at Yuki Kajiura Live vol.12 and am soooooooooooooooooooo happy that I'm going to the 8th Anniversary live in Japan too. :)
There MIGHT be a second round of draws so MAYBE you can try and get a membership before they hold that draw? Sometimes people don't pick up those tickets that they won etc so they MAY have another draw. BUT I really don't know.
Heya!
ReplyDeleteNot sure whether or not my Japanese is improving but I'd definitely love to read that Kalafina interview. I am always interested in those special feature interviews, I feel like we always find out new stuff. So yeah, I might still get it XD
Well, so far I've mostly translated some more texts from Kadokawa and some video interviews (MJTV for example). Right now I am working on the fotw interview from the recent FJC newsletter.
Don't think I've translated your particular article, that would be a funny coincidence :P
Hehehe, I think I am both about their music and about the girls themselves. I really enjoy reading all kinds of interviews that explain how they work, what they think and so on.
Re: random question
Oh noes, what a bummer, I thought as much. I got a little hopeful because one of my friends mentioned that she won a ticket and that there's apparently no specific name or number on it o.O I guess that made me believe it could have been transferable. Weird though that she is saying that. Maybe what she got is not the final ticket.
Also, congratulations on that ticket!!! :-)
There are two problems with that, sadly. First of all, I have no one in Japan. Feels like everyone has friends in Japan but I don't know anyone. If would have subscribed for a LONG time ago if I knew someone who would help me with that :P
Secondly, as far as I know, you must be a member for a certain period of time (about a few weeks/months) in order to apply for special lotteries like that (or so I have heard at least).
Anyways, thank you so much for that lengthy reply! :-)
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI really do think that if one has a pretty good command of Japanese, this Eureka mook release will make a very good buy. It's has A LOT of pages on Kajiura Yuki and what little that I managed to read of the Kalafina interview was interesting. I just don't have time to work through the articles now. :( I'm too busy with work and a ton of other stuff right now. :(
Ah... not, I think we're not working on the same articles. :) I don't know if I'll get around to finishing it up properly. Maybe I'll just write chunky summaries of each reply and put a giant disclaimer about possible mis-interpretations on my part. :P I always wanted to do more translations and did a few bits and pieces through out the blog, but I've got too many things to do.... hence.... :( So.... ganbatte ne!! It's awesome that you're doing some of them for folks who can't read Japanese. :)
Yeah, I do enjoy reading the interviews and finding more about them too. But I tend to put the music as my first priority. Hence, I'm happy to slowly work my way through the interviews. :P So lots of people probably know more about them then I do even though I'm a bit of a crazily devoted fan. :P
re: ticket
Thank you!! I'm so happy to get that ticket. :) It makes up a bit for me being unable to go to the HK lives, the Christmas lives and the FJC live in Mar next year. Luckily the 8th Anniversary live was close enough to the end of the fotw tour so I was able to squeeze it in. :) Excited about that. :)
My friend told me that they won't start issuing tickets till Jan next year. But we've paid for the ticket already and what we received was a payment slip to prove that we've paid for it. This payment slip has my name on it though. I think my friend keyed it in for me. So you friend is correct. What she received isn't a ticket. She won't get that till they start issuing them on 8th Jan. But I'm not sure why her's doesn't have her name etc on it.
I know that I'm incredibly lucky with this. My friend in Japan is really an AWESOME person. She's helped me with these tickets since 2010. :) Oh... hmmmmm.... yeah, I don't really know how long one has to be a member before you can apply for the lotteries. If I understand correctly, they only really start processing the new members once a month or something. So if you apply before the end of the month, you'll only become a member next month or something like that. But if you apply at the lives themselves, even though you're not yet in the database, you can use the member card that they issue you on the spot to pick up FJC goods at the live. :)
Good luck... maybe some how you can score yourself an 8th Anniversary live ticket and maybe we'll see each other in Jan. :)
cheers