Kajiura Yuki ~ Sword Art Online Music Collection - unboxing

AMEND: 18:30pm
Huh....after I posted this very long post which included a bit about me moping about Keiko not at vol.13....the FJC sent out an email and it seems Keiko is not well. She's suffering from mild bronchitis and will take some time off to concentrate on her treatment.  It seems though that it shouldn't affect her apperances at the Kalafina lives.  Just that, I think that's why she won't be at the Yuki Kajiura vol.13 lives.
Ah.... at least I understand why she won't be there now.  It doesn't make me less disappointed.  But I really rather she take time off to heal.  GET WELL SOON KEIKO!!!!!! お大事に!!!

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As a big Kajiura Yuki fan and someone who's a bit of a completist, I just had to also pick up this OST boxset simply because the music is composed by Kajiura Yuki.  To be completely honest, SAO isn't my favourite anime.  Actually, to be brutally honest, I don't even like the anime at all. :(  I couldn't even finish the first season even though I was maybe only three episodes away from the end. I only enjoyed the first arc and thought the second arc was horrible and only endured as much as I could just for Kajiura sensei's music.  Then I gave up and never even attempted Season 2 or Extra Edition etc. :(

But since this is written by the only composer / music producer that I've ever be so enamoured with that I would travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to watch perform live, it wouldn't do to not pick this up.  And because it is Kajiura Yuki, I even went through the trouble of ordering the Aniplex+ version that came with a special Kajiura sensei related tokuten.  If you pick it up from the Aniplex+ store, it comes with a specially printed 12 page B6 size liner notes.  It's all in Japanese of course, so if you can't read Japanese, it might not be so useful and Aniplex+ doesn't ship outside of Japan so getting it maybe a bit tricky unless you use a proxy buyer.  I think the tokuten is still available so if you do want it by the time you finish reading this unboxing post, you can try and see if you can still pick it up from Aniplex+.  CLICK ME.

Okay, let's get to the photos first. I'll do the special Aniplex+ tokuten first because I was just talking about it in the paragraph above. :)

   

These photos were taken in the hotel room in Japan, so there is a slight yellowish cast to the images because of the color temperature of the light in the room.  The auto white balance was balancing that out well enough and I don't really feel like fixing them in photoshop.  :P

These are sample pages of course and as usual, I only included a few sample photos. Except for the first two page spread, all the subsequent two page spreads come with an illustration printed on the left page, like the layout in the last photo above.  There are four illustrations for the four CDs included in this release and these four illustrations are also the same four that are printed on the digipak that holds the discs.  You can see the illustrations in the picture below, courtesy of  Aniplex USA.

source

Kajiura Yuki gives us short foreword and then talks about the music in each of the four CDs before rounding of with a short conclusion in the 12 page liner notes booklet.  It's a lot of Japanese for me too and although I am slowly and painfully getting better at the language, I'm still far from skilled, it will take me a while to work through all that text too so I won't be giving any translations or summaries here.  Sorry.  I wish I was skilled enough but that'll probably take quite a while more, ganbarimasu!!

Anyway, next up.  Photos of the actual boxset.  Naturally, I picked up the Limited Edition because I wanted the BD that comes with it. :)

         

These are photos of the 5 disc tray digipak.  There disc themselves are relatively plain.  Just really shiny with text printed on it.  The BD is the only disc that's not shiny.

You might be wondering what that shirt is doing there. :P  When I started shooting the unboxing photos, I thought I'll use an old black t-shirt as the background to cut out some of the glare / reflection that I will probably get from the overhead light on the titled floor.  But the digipak is pretty long and longer than the shirt so the wide shots don't quite work too well and I was too lazy to remove the shirt, so yeah.... they look a little strange but I think it serves it's purpose so I'm not too bothered about it. =D

   

The above are some sample photos of the insert booklet that comes inserted into the digipak.  There is a very short foreword from Kajiura Yuki and then there are pages with illustrations and track lists.

If you get the Limited Edition, it comes with the BD of Kajiura Yuki's performance at a SAO concert in 2015.  Since I like live performances, this was one BD that I definitely would like to get. Moreover, this BD includes footage on not just Kajiura Yuki, the FBM and Akagi Rie etc, it also contains footage of all four of the vocalists in FictionJunction.  Which means it includes Keiko too. :P Since Keiko is my favourite vocalist in the YK family, this really sweetened the deal for me. :P

  

Of this does make me a little sad that Keiko's name isn't included in the flyer that advertises the Yuki Kajiura Vol.13 Sword Art Online lives. :'(

As I explained from the very start that I'm not a big fan of the SAO anime.  Hence, I am also not very familiar with the OST except for songs like Luminous Sword etc that have been performed at some of the Yuki Kajiura lives that I have attended.  The choral songs at the lives were performed with all four vocalists of FJ in attendance and Remi as a guest vocalist.  This flyer doesn't list FictionJunction as the vocal group but instead lists the individual vocalists that are scheduled to be at the Vol.13 lives.  So we have Remi, Kaori, Wakana, Yuriko Kaida and others.  And NO Keiko. :'(

As I write this post, I do what I usually do and that is listen to the CD that I'm writing an unboxing posts of.  What I've come to realise is that a lot of SAO's OST is purely instrumental and there are not that many songs that have vocals.  In the original OST, the vocal sections were performed by Remi and Tokyo Konsei Gashodan, which is a chorus group that Kajiura sensei uses very often in her OST music.  Live adaptations are then usually performed by the four main FJ vocalists and guest vocals.  Having listened to the majority of Disc 1 Aincrad, it struck me just how few choral sections there were.  I guess maybe Keiko couldn't make it or they didn't need her since there aren't that many vocal sections and they have one alto in Kaori to fill out the bass?  Still, it's odd to me, because in several of the vocal sections, the soprano is obviously the main (hence, the presence of Remi) but there are also male vocals.  Even though Kaori will do a fine job as alto, still wouldn't it be better to have Keiko who can go lower deal with the "male" parts or have both Kaori and Keiko in epic crescendo sections to give the bass more of  power?

I know, and have always known, that Kajiura Yuki's music tends to favour the sopranos.  And as someone who has always preferred the alto voices, it would seem odd that I would become so enamoured with her non purely instrumental songs.  But I've also always felt that even though her music favours the sopranos, she also uses the alto voice very well.  Keiko has many moments in both the Kalafina and FictionJunction songs where she isn't merely singing in support.  Even when she's not in the lead, she has many moments where she adds a certain punctuation to the song.  And it's those moments that made me sit up all the time to pay attention when I first started to listen to Kalafina.  Keiko's voice and those moments are quite possibly the biggest reason why I became so interested in Kalafina that I returned to listening to anime music and returned to listening to Kajiura Yuki's music.  So my feelings for Kajiura Yuki's music is somehow inextricably and complexly tied to my love for the vocalists in Kalafina.

To say that I'm not hugely disappointed that Keiko doesn't look likely to be performing in the vol.13 lives is to lie.  I am scheduled to attend a wedding in Okinawa in April and I extended my trip to accommodate the Yuki Kajiura Vol.13 in Osaka on the 27th March.  I had really hoped to see all the FictionJunction vocalists in action.  So yeah, I'm massively disappointed especially since SAO isn't my favourite Kajiura Yuki OST and given that I generally am not as fond of sopranos, I wasn't exactly as excited about attending this live as I was for her other lives.  And now that it looks like my favourite YK vocalist, Keiko, won't be there, I would be lying if I said that my enthusiasm for this live isn't further dampened by the news. :(

Now that I'm listening to it, the OST is growing on me. But I'm an old school Kajiura Yuki fan mostly.  Which means that the first OST that made me notice her was Noir and the OST that I cemented my love for her OSTs was Kara no Kyoukai.  So yes, I tend to prefer old school Kajiura Yuki OSTs.  My favourites are still from the KnK, Mai Hime, Pandora Hearts, Tsubasa Chronicles etc era where there is a lot of vocals and a lot of these were performed soooooooo beautifully live with all four FJ vocalists.

It's likely that I'm a little bias against the SAO soundtrack because I really disliked this anime and if it wasn't for the sake of seeing Kajiura Yuki, FBM, Akagi Rie and the FJ vocalists, I would not have tried to accommodate vol.13 at all.

This OST collection has made me feel a lot better about the lives.  I'm quite liking the purely instrumental songs.  They are pretty good OST songs in my opinion.  They aren't quite as in-your-face or as good at being stand alone tracks like quite a few KnK. Noir, Pandora Hearts, MadoMagi etc songs but from a cinematic point of view, I can totally see these songs working visually.  Just listening to the OST conjures up an emotional and visual response from me.  So, yes, I'm beginning to move more and more favourably to this OST.  A little reluctantly, perhaps, because of my dislike for this anime but it's slowly and surely moving further and further and further up the positive ladder.  Seriously, Kajiura sensei...how do you do that???  I disliked the Tsubasa Chronicles anime too, with less venom than I dislike SAO but I still disliked it, yet I ended up really loving the OST for that anime.  This isn't the first time that Kajiura Yuki has written an OST for an anime I disliked or didn't care for that I've ended up enjoying quite a bit.  She's amazing!!

So, yes, this OST collection has made me feel better about the vol.13 live in March.  Now I feel a lot more happy about being able to go to the live on the 27th in Osaka.  Although, the absence of Keiko will still make me a little sad.  That's, unfortunately, unavoidable. :(

I was just talking to a friend two nights about about this.  I told her that I felt a little guilty for feeling this way about the vol. 13 lives.  Kalafina exist because Kajiura Yuki created them.  Keiko's only as awesome as she has become because Kajiura Yuki managed to utilise her voice so beautifully, so magically and so memorably. Practically all of  Kalafina's songs till this day are written and produced by her.  For a very long time, I said that I was first and foremost a Kajiura Yuki fan.  And for a very long time, I thought I was too.  But these days, my feelings about this issue has become quite a bit more complexed.  I still LOVE Kajiura Yuki's music.  I still LOVE most of her OSTs and I still totally respect her as a composer, song writer and music producer.  But these days I find myself no longer being able to say that I am first and foremost a Kajiura Yuki fan without reservation.  I think that I feel that since I became a Kalafina fan at the end of 2009 and started attending their lives at the end of 2010, I almost feel like I've grown together with the trio and my love for Kajiura Yuki's music has also become strongly tied to the way these three vocalists perform them for her.  And now, Kalafina's standing in my heart has become a lot bigger than it was in 2010.  It's almost like, if Kajiura Yuki has a new song, I would like it to be a song that Kalafina sings, if that isn't the case, then I rather FJ sings it.  But it's like I have less interest in the other vocalists except Kajiura Yuki's core vocalists with the trio from Kalafina being my favourite of the core group.  Kalafina's the only group of vocalists from the YK family that I would not mind hearing cover or sing songs that aren't written by her.  Half of FJ is 2/3 of Kalafina which is how I usually see it.... it's really hard to explain, maybe I don't even understand it fully yet myself which is why I cannot seem to explain it properly. :(

So yes.... I do feel guilty for feeling so desperately disappointed that Keiko isn't likely to be at the Vol.13 lives.  As a Kajiura Yuki fan, I shouldn't be so bugged by the fact that one of her vocalists won't be at a Kajiura Yuki live.  It almost feels like I'm betraying Kajiura Yuki by being so disappointed about it.  So yes, I ended up writing so much, because I probably felt that I had to confess and talk about my complicated feelings with regard to Kajiura Yuki, Kalafina and Keiko.  And I guess it's been cathartic for me to write so much about it.  It's like I feel relief that I've said it.  LOL!!! :P

Good thing, the SAO soundtrack turned out to be a lot better than I remembered.  I guess being able to listen to the music without having to watch an anime that I dislike at the same time really does help.  Yes, I do look forward to the vol.13 live a lot more now.  And yes, I will still feel disappointment that Keiko won't be there to sing Luminous Sword etc.  But, at the very least, I'm likely to enjoy a lot of those instrumental songs too so it's looking pretty good indeed!! :)

Ah.... once again, I've gone and written soooooooo much more than I intended to in the beginnin. :P  Sorry, it was probably a bit of a tedious read for some of you.  Unfortunately, I do like writing a blog and I can be very verbose. :P  If you made it this far.... then otsukaresamadeshita!! :)

Finally!!!!  I will only say now that if you can afford to pick up this collection and you like the music then please do consider supporting the work of those who brought this music to you by purchasing the product.  There are many places that offer this release.  I often get mine from CDJapan and I will leave you the link for the direct product pages here.  I've said this before but just in case any of you don't know, I'll say it again. I do use affiliate links for CDJapan on this site because it helps me to offset the cost of my numerous music purchases.  So if you do not wish to click through the links, you are not obligated to.  But if you do use the links, then I thank you very much. :)

Sword Art Online Music Collection [w/ Blu-ray, Limited Edition]
Sword Art Online Music Collection [Regular Edition]

Samples of all the audio tracks can be found on the CDJapan website.  They probably can also be found at some other webstores like Amazon JP too.  So if you would like to hear the samples of what these tracks sound like, do go check those pages out.

cheers!! :)
p.s.  I will do my Kalafina "Live Tour 2014" sales post after this.... maybe not immediately because today is the first day of Chinese New Year so we will have visitors coming over soon.  But the post should be up later today or at the very latest sometime tomorrow. :)

p.p.s Also, I do a sucky job of proof reading because I'm slightly dyslexic and I tend to write without too much planning, like really Virginia Woolf streams of consciousness style.... so it is very likely that there will be quite a few spelling and grammatical errors and possibly some not terribly well explained leaps in logic as well. I will probably end up trying to correct them over a period of time but it's unlikely that I will be able to catch them all. So if there are any grammar nazis out there...too bad. :P

p.p.p.s Finally, a very Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate it. :)  I wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous Year of the Monkey. :)