The music just disappeared….

The time has come again for another Megax March review! This time we’ll be looking at the two pieces of music to come from the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie!

On January 27th Lantis released the original soundtrack for the movie; a first for the series since the BGM was not released with a limited edition DVD. They followed that release on February 24th by releasing the theme song for the movie: Yasashii Bokyaku. I decided to purchase these two CDs through Yokatta Web, my middlewoman in Japan, and I was lucky to receive two postcards from Gamerz that they gave out to customers!

Toonleap already reviewed the OST in an earlier post, so I won’t go into more details about the set. It is a lovely collection of music and wonderfully performed by eminence. I cannot wait to hear it with the animation.

As for the theme song itself, Minori-san evokes strong emotions with her voice as Yuki. It is a touching song and more than fitting for the story it tells. I did some work translating the song and I did tear up during said translation due to the source material.

The CD itself comes in a sleeve with one side for Minori-san and the other for Yuki. This continues the trend of sleeve as Bouken Desho Desho? and Super Driver did come in sleeves as well.

The booklet has many pictures from the PV taken at the model school for the Haruhi series.

The single has four variations of the theme: the normal one heard in the PV, an a capella version used over the credits in the movie, a version played with piano accompaniment, and an instrumental version that has a different composition than the first track.

I’m a fan of the third track with the piano accompaniment over the original single. In my opinion it fits Minori-san’s voice moreso than the first two tracks.

I will now confess one guilty pleasure of mine: I am a sucker for posters, specifically B 2 size posters of shows I like. I have posters from Kamen Rider Kiva, Engine Sentai Go-Onger, Kamen Rider Den-O, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, and now…

On the side, I included a playing card (it was the closest thing I could think of) and the Endless Eight DVDs for reference on size. This poster is absolutely huge! I cannot state how much I love it.

Yokatta Web was able to order these CDs from one of the stores in Japan that was participating in a campaign that enabled you to get the poster with purchase of the CDs. I also took the chance to order the ENOZ CD and Gensou DVD at the same time (which is why those reviews were late).

Later this month, Kyoto Animation will be mailing out orders for another poster from the movie (it’s the art where the brigade is standing against the wall) and yes, Yokatta already has my order in. I’ll be posting pictures when I get it in April (something else I’m ordering ships in that month).

Overall, this was an absolutely great haul for me. A CD for each Hirano-san and Minori-san, and two orchestrated versions of BGM from the Haruhi series in addition to store goods (postcards and poster). I can’t say enough how grateful I am to Yokatta Web for getting those for me.

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Music to calm the savage beast that is Haruhi Suzumiya

Phillip Chu will help guide us along this review today

An Alien suddenly approaches!

Starling Inferno GET!

Today marks the fourth review for this month already. We started with the second DVD of Sigh and continued through the Disappearance Guidebook and the special ENOZ CD. We continue with the DVD for the Gensou (string concert) event held last year!

Kadokawa finally put out the DVD the same day that the Sigh DVD came out to limited success. It only sold around 2000 copies total that weekend to rank 20th on the Oricon rankings, but my copy is one of them!

The DVD itself comes with one double-layered disc and a 24 page booklet that details background information on the series as well as advertisements. It’s really nice and probably modeled after the programs from the show itself.

The main feature is of course the concert performed by the Toyko Philaharmonic Orchestra, but unlike the CD, the presenters come out and speak about the music as well. Minoru Shiraishi and Megumi Matsumoto reprise their roles from the Gekisou concert as hosts and a special guest comes along….Satoru Kousaki, the composer for the Haruhi BGM!

The music is well done and comes out amazingly in surround sound. The performances by Hirano-san and Chihara-san are wonderful (even if Minori’s costume defies all fashion sense) and every single instrument can be heard.

There is some more humor mixed in as Phillip has to move Minori to the singing spot just like Yuki in the Hare Hare Yukai ED.

Included on the disc is a backstage feature where they show Phillip meeting the Haruhi actors and the difficulties in speaking English versus Japanese. Phillip even has to get the special violinist to translate how to give a high five from Aya!

If you love classical music and the BGM from the Haruhi series, you’d be remiss if you didn’t pick up the Gensou concert on either CD or DVD. The DVD features are nice and it’s wonderful being able to see the music played, but it’s not for everyone. I really enjoyed the music and feel that it’s a well-put together DVD.

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ENOZ here, Ready to Rock!

The March Month of Megax Reviews continues into the second week! As you may have seen, the ENOZ CD featuring Aya Hirano-san singing came out on February 24th. I do apologize for the lateness of this review, but I won’t apologize for why it’s late as you’ll see next week.

To begin with, the CD “Imaginary ENOZ featuring Haruhi” has three new songs and three old songs by ENOZ. The old songs are the two insert songs featured on the Tsumeawase CD “God Knows….” and “Lost my music” as well as the final song on the SoundAround Drama CD “First Good-bye” which takes place chronologically following the Live A Live Concert.

So what’s new? Three songs entitled “Star Way to Heaven”, “Secret of Sensation”, and “When I was in Love.”

When I first heard the new songs, I didn’t think anything about them was special, but after listening a few times, I’ve noticed that the chorus beat in “When I was in Love” has a rhythm that I find rather catchy making it my favorite of the bunch (even over the old songs).

Hirano-san brings her best vocals to the job and makes this album sound much better than Super Driver or any of her character songs. She’s consistent in her vocals and doesn’t try to overdo any note. It’s a good mini-album.

The inserts are shots from the Live a Live show. Due to the small size, I cannot tell the quality to see if Kyoto Animation has made any touch-ups on the shots. The original footage was some of the higher quality animation from the 2006 episodes, so it still looks very nice.

The only negative I can really state about this CD is the cost. For the price of a real album, to only have three new songs on it is rather cheap of Lantis and Kadokawa. I don’t regret buying it as a Haruhist with a little bit of extra money, but others may (and have in Japan) vary against it. If you really like Aya Hirano and would like to support the Haruhi music, then get it. If not, there’s always Youtube when you have it stuck in your head.

Up later this weekend will be a review of the Gensou DVD and next week’s review features the music for the Disappearance movie and a surprise!

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Japanese Favorite Anime Movies for 2009!

Anime movies were pretty good last year and Japanese had the chance to vote for the ones They liked.

Dengeki conducted an online poll on the popularity of the anime movies shown in the fiscal 2009. Fans voted for the best anime movie they watched.

1, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
2, Summer Wars
3, Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~
4, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st
5, Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~
6, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
7, One Piece: Strong World
8, (Up by Disney)
9, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie: Lagann-hen
10, Kara no Kyoukai 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 2)

ref. the box office ranking of the anime movies in 2009.
Rank / box office/ screens/ weeks
*1, $48,192,309 194scr *7w One Piece: Strong World
*2, $40,631,237 366scr *5w Pokemon Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Arceus – Choukoku no Jikuu e
*3, $40,303,632 109scr 14w Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
*4, $35,292,488 303scr *8w Detective Conan Movie 13: The Raven Chaser
*5, $23,825,776 288scr *8w Doraemon: The New Record of Nobita – Spaceblazer
*6, $17,425,019 114scr 10w Summer Wars
*7, $11,004,517 311scr *6w Major: Yuujou no Ikkyuu
*8, $10,097,019 153scr *6w Crayon Shin-chan Movie 17
*9, $*9,099,022 146scr *5w Eiga Precure All-Stars DX: Minna Tomodachi – Kiseki no Zenin Daishuugou
10, $*8,341,362 148scr *6w Fresh Precure! Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!?
11, $*7,769,864 266scr *3w Naruto: Shippuuden Movie 3 – Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono
12, $*7,522,074 308scr *5w Penguin no Mondai Movie
13, $*6,112,698 311scr *5w Layton Kyouju to Eien no Uta Hime
14, $*6,074,952 *24scr *5w The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
15, $*4,839,216 *31scr *5w Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~
16, $*4,319,940 213scr *5w Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu-hen
17, $*4,010,476 255scr *3w Eiga! Tamagotchi Uchuu Ichi Happy na Monogatari!?
18, $*3,130,376 211scr *3w Hottarake no Shima ~Haruka to Mahou no Kagami~
19, $*2,444,050 *19scr *3w Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st
20, $*2,017,918 124scr *2w 10th Anniversary Gekijouban Yu-Gi-Oh! ~Chou Yuugou! Toki wo Koeta Kizuna~
21, $*1,853,535 149scr *4w Anpanman Movie 2009
22, $*1,630,434 *11scr *5w Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie: Lagann-hen
23, $*1,139,719 144scr *4w Keroro Gunsou Movie 4: Gekishin Dragon Warriors de Arimasu!
24, $**,941,610 *34scr *2w Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ 34screens 2weeks
25, $**,702,155 210scr *1w Yatterman 2008 Movie
26, $**,505,349 **7scr *2w Higashi no Eden – Movie I: The King of Eden
27, $**,400,773 *12scr *1w Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
28, $**,292,467 *29scr *2w Eagle Talon Movie 3
29, $**,215,163 **1scr *5w Kara no Kyoukai 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 2)

Sources: Dengeki, Box Office MOJO, Anime!Anime! via MAL

One note…Japan fiscal year ends in March so movies like Haruhi and Fate Stay Night that were released before that month are included.  Do you agree with the list? I agree with most of it…Now, I need to watch them…

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