So here’s rounding up what’s best and worst of this year’s shopping spree.

Things that Worth Every Cent.
Mostly top three of each category.

SEIYUU.

Single: Mizuki Nana. Trickster.

1. For all the very obvious reasons. It brings out the best of Nana’s vocal range and prompted me to work more so I can see her goes chu-chu-ru-chu-ru in nurse-like costume very soon <3
2. Chihara Minori. Paradise Lost.
3. Mizuki Nana. Starcamp EP.

Album: Chihara Minori. Parade.

1. Very hard decision.. -_-; unless I can group Kuribayashi Minami under seiyuu, but that’s not her day-job. I still can’t forgive Parade for raep-ing Paradise Lost, but overall it’s the best seiyuu album my CD rack could offer. Aoi Kotou is <3
2. Tamura Yukari. Izayoi no Tsuki Canaria no Koi.
3. Wavering between Horie Yui’s Darling and Sakakibara Yui’s JOKER. Decided on the latter Yui because her songs are much better composed.

Live: Mizuki Nana. Live Fighter -Blue x Red Side-

Definitely biased since they just came two days ago and I have done nothing until now except blasting my speakers for Dancing in the velvet moon. But then my second choice is Live Formula. Well, nobody in the seiyuu world could come close to Nana’s concerts. That’s why I made the category below.

Non-Nana Live: Tamura Yukari. Love Live Chelsea Girl.

1. She’s just amazing. Congrats Yukarin for being only the 3rd seiyuu (after Shiina Hekiru and you-know-who) to perform in Budokan! ..which I just noticed has a very small arena floor, not even 40 rows, for a building that is supposed to have the capacity of 14k people. :-/
2. Horie Yui. Yui ga Santa ni Kigaetara
3. Chihara Minori. 1st Live Tour 2008 Contact.

ANISON.

Single: Animelo 2008. Yells ~It’s a beautiful life~

1. Is this the correct category? ^^; Well, I don’t buy many anison singles.. from my very few choices, this deserves the top rank.
2. Kuribayashi Minami. Love Jump. Finally a fast-paced Minami song that I really like, also c/w track is a really nice ballad.
3. Okui Masami. Melted Snow.

Album: Kuribayashi Minami. dream link.

1. Many songs that I like. Namida no Riyuu still breaks my heart every time I listen to it. ..though the CD feels more like a best-of album.
2. Suara. Taiyou to Tsuki. Wasurenaide is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year.
3. Misato Aki. here I am.

Live: JAM Project. No Border.

1. Oh God no Animelo release this year. In that case, JAM Project obviously wins by a far mile. Hot-blooded and full of spirit, truly a supergroup. Also will be a live to remember because Matsumoto Rica “took some time off” after the world tour finished. Will she ever come back, or will they recruit Misato Aki? She seems to get along well with the uncles.
2. Kuribayashi Minami. 1st Live Tour Fantastic Arrow.

ANIME.

Single: Macross F. Nakajima Megumi. Seikan Hikou.

1. Nakajima Megumi’s voice is really pure. One of my fave version of Ai Oboeteimasuka.
2. Shugo Crap. Mizuki Nana. Meikyuu Butterfly.
3. Macross F. Sheryl Nome starring May’n. Diamond Crevasse.

Album: Ga-Rei Zero. Various Artists. Yuri-mu Croquette.

1. Just as good as what I had expected. Misato Aki and yozuca are <3
2-3. Mm, I hardly buy anime album, especially soundtracks which hardly beats vocal songs for me. I can’t even name a handful of the CD’s track list. ^^;

MISC.

Cover Album: Tribute to Masami Okui ~Buddy~

1. Suitable song choices and awesome arrangements, if you ignore Minorin’s.
2-3. Momoi and Endoh cover albums are ties, since I’m too lazy to find out how to start comparing them.

Merchandise: Aria Pokoteng Plushie.

Only on this occasion punyu~ can beat kappuchu~.

Figurines: Alter. 1/8 Fate Testarossa.

1. Very lucky to get a hold of Fate in her re-release issue this year. Easily beats all PVC I bought this year since I sort of stop buying those expensive things that takes too much space in my cramped room.
2. Good Smile Company. Nendoroid Pastel Ink. Too cute, merooon~
3. Alter. 1/8 Enma Ai.

..I Want My Money Back.

In order of haet, of course.

ALI PROJECT. Gekko Soiree (Limited Edition).
For ALIPRO there is only love or hate, no in-between. I actually like their weird music and Alika’s screeches, but this Live DVD is utter crap. It was organized like an orchestra, including the song arrangements AND the audiences, who sit down all time with no penlight. How could you call this an anison live? I still keep the limited bonuses so hopefully I can resell this later. -_-;

The Idolm@ster Master Box I & II Encore.
Promoted as the ultimate CD collection that “includes all 16 songs from the game, sung by each character (all 10 girls) plus karaoke tracks.” Add up to 176 songs which sounds like a very good deal especially for me who don’t have the means to play the game. BUT those songs are too faithful to the game, they keep the in-game song quality.. equals crap. And I can’t believe I paid to hear Nakamura Eriko sings.

marble. Niji-iro Humming.
Okay, so I quite liked what they did to Hidamari Sketch ED.. and I think micco sings very well, as they performed live for free in Comiket 74, AND giving out autographs. Those reasons somehow deluded me into buying their album.. which was so boring I couldn’t listen for the second time. I should have used the money to get more Nana stuff better food.

Macross F. Nyan Tama.
May have the best value if I don’t have all possible Macross F CD already. -_-; .. and I haven’t even finished watching the damn anime.

..so that concludes the year of 2008~ Thought of doing a ¥ calculations to shock some people, but I don’t want to shock myself too. ^^;

And, uh, Happy New Year 2009!
In case I’m too drunk to make a NY post.

Endoh Masaaki. Enson2. 2857 yen.

This album exceeded my expectations. Endoh deserves his nickname as the “Young Lion of Anison” (アニソン界の若獅子), which fits in more than one way, since his appearance also resembles a lion (though a bit off on the young part lmao).

The cover art is genius.

Tracklist.
1．ETERNAL BLAZE (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s / Mizuki Nana)
2．Uninstall (Bokurano / Ishikawa Chiaki)
3．Sorairo Days (Gurren Lagann / Nakagawa Shoko)
4．Yuzurenai Negai (Mahou Kishi Rayearth / Tamura Naomi)
5．Tori no Uta (AIR / Lia)
6．Kinnikuman Go Fight! (Kinnikuman / Kushida Akira)
7．Go Tight! (Sousei no Aquarion / AKINO from bless4)
8．Yatsura no Ashioto no Ballad (Hajime Ningen Gyatoruz / Sono Hajime)
9．God knows… (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu / Hirano Aya)
10．Ultra Seven no Uta (Ultra Seven / The Echoes)
11．Sketch Switch (Hidamari Sketch)
12．Ginga Tetsudou 999 (Galaxy Express 999 / Isao Sasaki)
13．Good-bye to Yesterday (Masou Kishin Cybuster / Endoh Masaaki)

Find the odd one!

- Fave track is obviously Sorairo Days. Shoko-tan’s version was alright, but Endoh’s hot-blooded version suits the GARness more.
- God Knows… had Misato Aki in the background.
- Expectedly good: Yuzurenai Negai, Go Tight!
- Surprisingly good: Uninstall, Sketch Switch, Ginga Tetsudou 999.
- ETERNAL BLAZE wasn’t as good as I had imagined, the song needs a high pitch.
- Slower songs weren’t bad but boring: Tori no Uta, his self-cover song (bonus track featuring Kageyama Hironobu).

Tamura Yukari. Tomorrow. 1600 yen.

Always love Yukarin’s package.

Again no anime tie-in, but it managed to debut at #5 in Oricon chart. It was a lame week anyway, putting Hamasaki Ayumi aside, almost all 12/17 releases were kicked out of top 10 very soon (like in two days).

Songs

- I love Tomorrow. Don’t know why but I just do. Liking Yukarin means I don’t have to explain myself with much logic, lol.

- Koi no Love Machine (恋のタイムマシン) is her typical cutesy song that I’m also fond of. Composer Ota Masumoto (all three Nanoha ED, Douwa Meikyu) really knows what’s best for Yukarin.

- Don’t wake me☆Up sounds a tad stupid. I never really like her radio themes, say, Jelly Fish? Love Parade? Traveling with a sheep? Maybe almost everything I’ve heard including this song.. I did like YOURS EVER though.

DVD Highlights

First, the PV itself was dead boring (at some point scary). If you’re looking for something that has more Yukarin all over your screen and actually looked cute, see Bambino Bambina instead.

Interesting note that the PV setting clearly resembles Okui Masami’s single cover art. Subtle differences (like the window and left side) but it looks pretty much like the same building to me.

And here’s the actual highlight: Making of Tomorrow. Needless to say it was hilarious. They should have aired this footage rather than the actual PV, lol.

Stealing sweets.

Being on crack.

Playing golf.

Playing golf while on crack.

Tangled her skirt.

Spinning around makes @_@

More spinning around?

Kimochi warui..

Tomatsu Haruka. motto☆hade ni ne!
1. motto☆派手にね! (motto☆hade ni ne!)
2. シアワセサガシ (Shiawase Sagashi)

I’d say it again: The ero-oyaji inside me I love the PV. And the songs, actually. It has catchy tunes that anisong retards like me will love in the first try. And for a split second she resembles Inoue Marina (only in glasses).. maybe the cheek and the :O mouth.. no?

Scans

Mizuki Nana. Rosario+Vampire Capu2 Character Song Vol. 1 Akashiya Moka
1. あなたにカプッchu! (Anata ni Kapuchu!)
2. DESIRE -情熱-

Apparently I’m not that biased towards Nana because I honestly don’t like this CD. :-/ Well, I knew I shouldn’t expect much seeing the first song’s title, but indeed it’s stupid. Akai Jounetsu on the previous CD was silly too, but better.
I was more intrigued with the second track. Like before, it’s a cover of an old song. I liked the idea of Nana singing a Nakamori Akina song, both has powerful vocal. But Nana’s ‘good cover’ matches the original song too well.. and since I hate the song (get up get up burning love #!$!@#) I can’t come to like her version too.

Scans

Okui Masami. Melted Snow
1. Melted Snow
2. Shape of myself

It’s a ballad! Makkun rarely produces slow songs, especially for singles (can’t remember the last time she did.. dare yori mo zutto? That was like when I was five), which is why I think people are missing a lot if they don’t get her albums. I really like Nemurenai Yoru ga Kureta Mono (眠れない夜がくれたもの) from crossroad, Sanctuary (サンクチュアリ) from angel’s voice, and Wasuregusa (ワスレグサ) almost made me cry when I first heard it on Masami Life. Have no idea on the game tie-in, but I really like the song.. Second track is her usual rock-ish, pretty good too.

Scans

Chihara Minori. Paradise Lost
1. Paradise Lost
2. 勇気の鼓動 (Yuuki no Kodou)

First time I heard Paradise Lost last month, I thought Voyager Train is better. I’m swallowing my own words now, orz. Paradise Lost is my song of this month! Being a fast-paced, Minorin-ish song, I better be off to work without coffee than not listening to it.. And Yuuki no Kodou, while being completely opposite to Paradise Lost, is damn good too, it might as well replace Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru as Ga-rei ED, lol.
Can’t wait for Parade album too.. CD release means many good things to come, this month Seigura already has her in the front cover (for the first time!) or better: Pick-up Voice 13!! XD expect scans 3 days after it gets out, lol, how I wish Japan-Australia shipping is overnight.

Scans

Oricon Ranks
-LMAO Tomatsu Haruka (#29) finally outranked Sakamoto Maaya (#31). So I guess j1m0ne was right on anime tie-in factor, lol.
-Kapuchu made it to top 30 as well in the first days (now sinking to wherever) thanks to the Nana factor, blind buyers ftw?
-Totally forgot to check Paradise Lost Oricon rank on the release day, but the weekly rank has come out. It sold 10754 copies in its first week and charting at #15. Pretty good actually, and GJ for beating CHEMISTRY (I hate them).
-Melted Snow is nowhere to be seen, lol. I wonder how many people (esp outside Japan) are still faithfully following Makkun’s career.. I believe she still has many fans in Japan, with her solo concert every year, and I saw some wearing her live shirts to Animelo.
-Argh, the boyband hype is killing me. I choked when I saw Arashi latest single has sold 351860. Just how many do their fangirls buy?? God.

Umm, I got seven items in total.. cheapest was Makkun’s Do-Can, most pricey was Live Rocket book, and most overpriced was the (supposedly free) Seiyuu Datafile. On to the full list and details~ (in random order)

(Book) Nana Mizuki Live Rocket 2005 ~summer~ Pamphlet

Only a peek for now. Oh how I’m addicted to collect these. I’m planning to eventually scan all Nana’s live books I have. And since I started with Fighter, I will go backwards (may take forever seeing my future workload). So yeah, expect to see more of this is on the fourth batch or so.

(Book) Seiyuu Datafile 2008

It contains sets of questionnaires answered by 80 of your favorite seiyuu.. hand-written! With autographs! My kanji recognition is already bad and most of their handwriting are worse than my 4-year-old nephew’s, so it will take forever (literally) to translate them. The two pics above are the most amusing kinds.

Maybe I’d assemble an in-depth (lol) research on how seiyuu’s handwriting reflects their personality.. or just list pointless facts like:

- Tomatsu Haruka’s favorite body part is her own navel (LEGS, dammit)
- ..while Itou Shizuka answered “Liver (thank you always)” ^^;;
- If Horie Yui is not a seiyuu, she’d like to be a detective
- Yukarin just writes にゃ (nya~) on questions she doesn’t feel like answering

Hum.

(CD) Tamura Yukari - MELOOOOON mon cheri (unopened)

The minute I saw this godly performance on Chelsea Girl DVD.. I know I MUST have this and go mero~n every 5 minutes for the rest of my life. BUT this damn thing was only sold in that Budokan live. THIS is the item I’m blaming for all the Yahoo! Auction nightmare (explained later).

(CD) Natsuiro no Sunadokei Sound Collection (unopened)

Track 1 - Drive Away Dream by Serizawa Kaho (CV: Mizuki Nana) in lossless format, ’nuff said. UNDER17’s Hajimete no Natsu is pretty good too, but I already have it in their BEST 3. The rest of the CD suck.

(CD) Masami Okui. Do-Can (unopened)

Very important, because now I can proudly say I own every single Makkun CD album recordings (sadly, about 10% are second-hand, oh well).

(DVD) Masami Okui. B-Day (used)

Makkun’s PV collection, contains 5 PV and 2 making-of. Not really what I want to have (anyone know where I can get Kujikenaikara PV?) More like I bought it just for collection purposes, but the more interesting item is ..

(DVD) Masami Okui. V-mode ~10th Anniversary~ (used)

I’ve been looking for this EVERYWHERE, every time I entered a used-CD/DVD shop in Japan. Jewel case is not in top notch condition anymore, but there is no scratch at all in the discs, so it’s cool. Transmigration live is just WOW. xD

..

That’s all. Most (I dare to say all) of them can’t be bought in normal manners anymore, so I’m happy with these purchases.

On a separate note, I want to share my um, experience, on Yahoo! Auction. Skip this if you’re not interested, since it’s more like an incoherent rant.

After desperately wanting Yukarin’s melonpan, I bought a Y!A premium account via Yamato Touch, a deputy service that gives you an individual account for your convenience in bidding wars. Their job is to pay the sellers and ship the goods to your door. Commission rate is heck cheap, compared to the likes of Rinkya etc.

So, I decided to try them out with my so-called masterplan “get one item first” (which failed impressively since I end up winning seven in two weeks). Updates were quick.. (here comes the drama) THEN it starts to slow down.. 2-3 weeks without any reply.. I kinda started panicking.

To make matters worse, a member mass-mailed everyone in frightened tone, asking if any of us ever get our things (he won a somewhat-rare PS game for 45,000yen) and mentioned about the empty forum, regardless of hundreds number of threads/posts written there. He kept me informed of what other members said, like “no news for 2 months” or “they are teh sux0rs”. I was like, .. fuck. I got pwned.

I think I’ve spammed their mailbox or what, because then YT finally mailed me, reasoned that they lost a member blabla, hence the delay. They quickly got back to me on my item progress and promised to ship everything once they got all goods. Up until now I still don’t understand the forum issues, but what matters is everything came safe and sound. I probably use them again in the future. Maybe.

As for the ++ thing.. it’s Mizuki Nana Shinjuku Koma event official goods~~!

I only can afford this B2-sized poster and (totally useless) sticker set. Tempted for the curry beans, but meh. Quickly framed it just now~ then couldn’t take proper shot because it now reflects lights.. This was not via auction, btw.

Finality blue

Kuribayashi Minami
October 21, 2008
1500 yen
OVA My-HiME 0~S.ifr theme song collection
1. Finality blue
2. Heart All Green
3. ここにあったね (Koko ni Atta ne)

Usual Minami stuff, which means nice. Too bad no MILFnami pics this time.. the latest two singles didn’t disappoint me. Listening to these reminds me to finish up My-Otome, it’s been ‘on-hold’ for a long time, maybe when I have extra time later or stop looping shoujo sect.

VANiLLA SALT

Horie Yui
October 21, 2008
1890 yen (w/ DVD)
TV anime Toradora! ED
1. バニラソルト (VANiLLA SALT)
2. I my me

As usual, nice special case means sucky scan quality.
....
Front / Side / Back

Insides (awful scan quality).

VANiLLA SALT is well, an overly sweet song from your favorite oba-chan. Her songs have been a hit or miss to me.. and to be honest the first time I heard she screeched “AMAIIIIII~~” in Toradora!, I was like, WTF have I ordered. Then I remember getting a bonus PV so who cares about the music (which turned out to be the correct decision).

Second song is.. can’t really remember except I My I My I My I My I My I My I My I My I My repeat to infinity. *_* ..and I actually like this song because of that, lol.

PV

Now for the best part (that pays off the 1890yen), we got 3 Hocchan doing er, cute things ..or what normal people will call “bizarre hand movement”, whatever. Funny how the song actually sounds better if you listen to it while watching the PV.

Here’s the main dance loop (..which I’ve memorized by the 2-minute mark):

Also you can see Hocchan:

Talking to her hands.

Look younger.

Look older. (..notice the cheekbone!)

Uhm, better run off before her angry fans turn me to BBQ pork for my last comment. So here’s link to PV, someone just uploaded it an hour ago or so, while I still can’t figure out what’s wrong with my DVD converter orz.

..and don’t forget to call 1800-LOLI-OBACHAN.

Scans and rants after the jump.

Misato Aki. here I am

3rd album from Misato Aki.. like her previous two albums, I had a good time enjoying her somewhat, uhm, sexy voice (in an innocent/dreamy way).
Fave tracks: Shoujo Meiro de Tsukamaete (now I miss StoPani), Blood Queen, Sayonara no Mukougawa de. And I kinda like sad rain’s album ver more, with its piano inserts.

I knew I had a bad feeling when I first saw the cover, but..

..wondering why she agreed to wear a bundle of colorful rags as a skirt?

Sakakibara Yui. Joker

Yui-nyan’s 4th album (and actually, the first that I bought, but I never really listened to her). Album has pretty wide range, but nothing rly outstanding for me. JOKER has nice tunes, but I will slit my wrists if Nana ever does a similar PV like that.
Fave tracks: Believe (original), Ready Go!! (Fate/Tiger Colloseum), Till I can see you again (ChuXChu!)

..with this many fanservice in her booklet, who cares about the lyrics?

Guess the body part?

Guess the body part? Pt. 2

On to the buy-list…

October
Mizuki Nana. Trickster. No-brainer for me.
Kuribayashi Minami. My Otome 0.
Horie Yui. Tora Dora!. I don’t need titles if [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] is written there.

November
Okui Masami. Akasha. Birthday concert footage! I hope only either INSANITY or TOTAL ECLIPSE is included.. otherwise the single is a waste
Okui Masami. Melted Snow.
Chihara Minori. Untitled.

December
Momoi Halko. momo-I quality 2 self-cover AND anison-cover.
Why the heck she always releases 2 things together? Last time it was the super-expensive live DVDs, now the two albums. If she plans to starve the poor (like, me?), she succeeded. >_>
No tracklist yet, but at least the anison-cover is a must-buy. I might not need the self-cover of Under17 songs which all I already have (note-to-self: do not get tempted with poster/sticker).

I’m not going to write a lot (LOL) since there are those who already did much better reviews (and pretty much similar to my opinion), but well, just thought I’d post the poster and rant a bit before I start drooling over Minorin’s Live DVD. On to the track list..

01. TRUST (Kuribayashi Minami)
Couldn’t think of any better song that suits Minami more than TRUST. One of my favorite in this album.

02. Rinbu Revolution (Chihara Minori)
Call me trolling, but I’ve hated this song since I first heard it in Minorin’s radio last week. It’s so bland I couldn’t believe this is my favorite Makkun song. I guess it’s the weird arrangement or my expectation was too high, but I wouldn’t replace Shimokawa Mikuni’s cover in my Ipod for this.

03. Jounetsu (Misato Aki)
I feel alive again hearing this right after Minorin’s Rinbu Revolution. Loved the original, and while Misato took the song differently, I like her version too.

04. INTRODUCTION (Endoh Masaaki)
All hail the rocker, I want zero-G- from him!

05. Olive (Ishida Yoko)
I have to agree that this song sounds very weak. Maybe I should stop comparing, but it’s really a pity since I actually like Ishida’s sweet voice. She should have done something like, er, My Jolly Days?

06. Iiwake (Suara)
Hands down to the best track of this album. I was tempted to download the flac yesterday for this song, but my patience paid off the minute I heard Suara’s pure voice. m(_ _)m

07. Otomegokoro Mugen (Ohmi Tomoe)
It wasn’t bad, but nothing outstanding too.. a bit unlucky heh, positioned between heavenly Iiwake and awesome Koishimasho Nebarimasho.

08. Koishimasho Nebarimasho (Momoi Halko)
Momoi is always awesome in doing cover songs. Her version of Yuzurenai Negai is the best I’ve heard, and Hirano Aya should be ashamed if she ever listened to Momoi’s rendition of God Knows. Following her trend, this track was really good, I even forgot this was a Makkun song. #2 best track after Iiwake.

09. Wasuregusa (Kageyama Hironobu)
A sentimental song that easily became one of my favorite in Masami Life, and while I think Kageyama is a fine singer, I didn’t really like his version of Wasuregusa.. maybe because I’m a bit attached to this song (i.e. looping it too many times) so I can only accept Makkun’s voice.. oh well.

10. HAPPY PLACE (Yonekura Chihiro)
She sounds like Makkun the most from everyone in this album, in a good way, too. And oh, in the end I didn’t buy Ever After, it got too many of her own songs for a cover album.

…and that was quite a lot of ramblings. ^^; Anyway, I wish there were more tracks in this CD.. 3150yen for 10 songs is a bit pricey –heck it was worthy– but extra songs from Mizuki Nana, Hayashibara Megumi, or Shimokawa Mikuni won’t hurt.