Review: The second season has come to an end, and the girls have finally graduated. It had some emotional scenes that involve Azusa breaking down at the end and the four girls performing a heartwarming “thank you” song at the end to cheer her up. In comparison to the first season, the second season brought some great insert music such as “Pure Pure Heart,” “Gohan ha Okazu,” “U&I,” and “Tenshi ni Furetayo.” Even though Toyosaki Aki may be the weakest out of the four girls at singing, she does rather well when she performs the insert songs (excluding “Pure Pure Heart”); it seems like the only time you can hear the imperfections in her singing is when she performs the opening themes “Go Go Maniac” and “Utauyo!! MIRACLE.”

“Oh My Gitah!” starts off with a strong, catchy intro. However, that is pretty much undone by Toyosaki Aki’s singing 20 seconds in. Compared to “Guitar ni Kubittake,” a song that also dedicated her “Gitah”, “Oh My Gitah!” feels weak because the former had slightly better singing and the instrumentals were exciting. Here, Toyosaki Aki’s performance lacked clarity and it sounded pretty flat. The flatness from her singing does not go well with the energy that the guitar produced, which leaves the impression that the energy was unused and wasted, causing the song to feel dull and boring. As a result, each subsequent listen is less enjoyable than the last until it becomes rather forgettable.

The second song, “Shiawase Hiyori” has the ability to be calm and catchy, yet Toyosaki Aki’s delivery is dull enough that it treads dangerously close to the point of putting me to sleep since her vocals lacked any energy and it did not feel like she was singing. Thirty five seconds into the song, there is a twenty second section where Toyosaki Aki goes slightly out of tune:

Fukufuku koinu fuwafuwa na kumo purantaa no hana ni mo ne
Egao ga koborechau yo doushite ka na?
Wakannai demo ne… ufufu

In a similar section with slightly different lyrics, it happens again at the two-minute mark and after the small monologue, but it is not nearly as noticeable as it was in the beginning. All in all, it’s more mediocre than terrible, mostly because it has some feeling put into it and not executed in an obnoxious fashion like in “KEEPING SMILE” from Anata Shika Mienai.

Lastly, we have Yui’s version of “Come with Me!!,” which is the second season’s version of “Let’s Go!.” Like its analog, the song is catchy and has good instrumentals, making it the best song out of the three on this single. If you noticed in “Let’s Go!”, the chorus in background says “Come with Me!” in the song and it resembles country music. I have to admit, this was probably the best performance from Toyosaki Aki from the whole single since it had energy. However, towards the end of the song (around 3:07), some of the phrases she was trying to sing are not clear. I am not sure if this is due to her singing or the composition, but hopefully it will not be an issue with the other versions of the song. That’s said, I am still pretty interested in seeing how the other characters will perform their version of “Come with Me!!” in their respective singles.

Overall, this album is a disappointment compared to Yui’s character album in the previous season. Besides “Come with Me!!,” the other two songs are either messy or sounded dull. Even though zzeroparicle finds Toyosaki Aki’s singing “sub-par,” I believe that she is a mixed bag. She can sing decently; her performance of the insert songs and the last character single attest to that. Here though, the greatness did not came and I was let down by her lack of effort. She really needs to put more energy and effort to make the song rise above the feeling of mediocrity it currently gives off.

Rating: So-So

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Track List:

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Review: For those of you who still subscribe to Time magazine, you may notice a column with a vertical arrow containing a spectrum of points covering news items that are “Shocking,” “Predictable,” and “Shockingly Predictable.” If one were to take this spectrum and place anime music spinoffs on there, Christmas Album ~La Vierge Marie Vous Regarde~ might not be “Shockingly Predictable,” but it’d be pretty close to that mark. After all, it does not require a big leap of logic to see the Marimite seiyuu cast, all of whom play Catholic schoolgirls, sing Christmas carols.

That said, it is hard to determine whether or not this is supposed to be a joke album. In a nutshell, imagine the cast of Marimite singing Christmas carols in engrish, and you will have succeeded in distilling this album down to its core element.

With names like Kana Ueda and Mamiko Noto making appearances, the renditions of these carols aren’t going to be spectacular. Noto, in particular, lacks that strong presence when she sings, making her performance in “Silent Night” feel just a bit too fluffy for my tastes. As for Ueda, she sings using her Yumi Fukuzawa voice decently, though she does inflict the most damage to the English language, but that could be because she sings two-thirds of the songs on this album. Other than that, the songs themselves are standard Christmas carols and would not raise too many eyebrows if it weren’t for the mispronunciation going on.

Joy to the World
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Silent Night
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
If there is any reason why people would pick up this album to begin with, it would be the engrish. Unfortunately, there’s only so much amusement value that one can derive from seiyuu proudly declaring that “Santa Craus is coming to town” before it gets old. At least the producers were kind enough to mix it up a bit in “Angels We Have Heard on High” by having the seiyuu massacre Latin. That’s a novel idea I’d like to see milked for what it’s worth.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Angels We Have Heard on High
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
In the end, the Marimite Christmas Album lacks staying power. Sure, it’s makes a great gag and a novelty item the first time through, but because there’s nothing truly outlandish, it’s hard to fathom why anyone would give this album a listen-to more than once a year, if even that. For those of you looking for a hilarious joke album, you’d best try your luck with Pun-colle (aff). Seiyuu singing punk rock? Now that’s real comedy!

Rating: So-so

Review: The overwhelming consensus from the comments received for last week’s review of Yuki Morikawa’s Character CD indicated that while there was some amount of enthusiasm for Aya Hirano’s performance as Yuki, most people were eagerly awaiting my take on this album for one reason and one reason only: Nana Mizuki. And who could blame them given 1) Nana Mizuki’s excellent reputation as a voice actress and singer and 2) the insert song that she sang in episode 3 of White Album which gave us a taste of what was to come. Even though the dialogue during that episode’s segment made it difficult to wholly concentrate on Mizuki’s singing, one could still tell that the song would be astoundingly beautiful.

In the past, I and a few others have commented on how Nana Mizuki tends to do well within a certain dynamic range which can result in some of her music sounding generic across the board, making it difficult to differentiate one song from the next. Here, we find that only “SOUND OF DESTINY” fits that case because once you listen to “Glass Flower,” you’ll find that Nana Mizuki becomes a lot more expressive and her delivery really shines in a way that makes the song nothing short of brilliant.

SOUND OF DESTINY:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

“SOUND OF DESTINY” was originally written for the White Album game and if you listen to the original version found on the game’s soundtrack, you’ll find that the Jpop feel that was present in the original is preserved in this album’s version. Although I’m not all too keen on the way the music sounds, when you throw in Nana Mizuki’s voice on top of the pop harmony, the song improves upon the original by leaps and bounds. The music opens up with a steady rhythm with a synth part to provide you with a standard pop backdrop. As I mentioned, it’s Nana Mizuki’s performance that makes this piece tolerable by making it come to life through the power of her delivery. Nevertheless, she can only do so much to enhance the generic pop and though this song doesn’t have any major flaws, it’ll end up being forgotten because there isn’t much about this track that particularly stands out aside from Mizuki’s competent performance.

Glass Flower:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

But where “SOUND OF DESTINY” does a passable job, “Glass Flower” just blows you out of the water. While I’d initially commented on lelangir’s blog that given Nana Mizuki’s enormous body of work, one can’t declare this song to be the best she’s ever done, after listening to it for a fair number of times, I’d have to conclude that it’s going to be pretty high up there. You know that when a song gets me to melt in my seat, that it’s a very good sign and “Glass Flower” has succeeded in doing just that.

“Glass Flower’s” opening is just soothing and crystal clear and I love the way Nana Mizuki integrates herself into the song. Here, her expressiveness can’t be emphasized enough since her delivery is that wonderful, especially when you get to the chorus section around 0:56. At that point, you can feel the emotion in her voice as she ponders over whether her feelings are requited while acknowledging that her tough exterior hides a fragile, glasslike interior and that she’s too afraid of the prospect of rejection to find out how her partner feels. The presentation is already stunningly beautiful, but the song continues to shine as it adds a saxophone part starting around 2:37 that plays all the way to the end. Its inclusion complements the atmosphere of the piece through and through and once the song finished, the only feeling I got was one of awe since it was magnificently executed.

“SOUND OF DESTINY” might be the competent piece that doesn’t stand out all too much, but it does whet our appetite for “Glass Flower” which effectively serves as the main course and the dessert all rolled into one. “Glass Flower’s” melody and Mizuki’s impeccable performance hits all of the right spots and through that single performance, Mizuki once again affirms why her reputation is as deserving as it is. “SOUND OF DESTINY” may be a hit or miss, but if “Glass Flower” doesn’t melt your heart away with Mizuki’s expressiveness, you may want to check and make sure you haven’t killed off your emotions or something.

Rating: Very Good

Review: I’ve already made a comment on lelangir’s music blog regarding Yuki’s song from White Album and now that her character’s CD has been released, we are finally able to focus all of our attention on her performance from episode 13. As lelangir points out, “WHITE ALBUM” is a cheesy song, but it does a decent job of bringing about a calming, soothing effect that leaves the listener feeling pretty mellow by the time it ends. Part of that is due to Aya Hirano’s performance using a non-Haruhi voice (as lelangir points out yet again) to fit in with this piece’s overall comforting mood. There’s no doubt that it is a nice change from her usual fare even if the final product isn’t all too remarkable.

WHITE ALBUM:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

When it comes down to actively reviewing “WHITE ALBUM,” the process of doing so is difficult in the same vein that it’s difficult reviewing Suara’s “Maiochiru Yuki no You ni.” That is, there’s actually very little to describe here that can’t be summed up by saying that this song is very comforting and mellow, and that people who gravitate towards such tracks will enjoy it quite a bit. The song starts up with a feel-good pop backdrop provided by the keyboards and a light rhythm section that makes way for Aya Hirano’s entrance. As she sings, her tone is different in that is a lot mellower, thereby allowing her to subtly convey her feelings of contentment as she remains calm in spite of the travails that she sings about. The parts where the saxophone plays during the brief interludes complement the mood through the instrument’s timbre and together with Hirano, reassures the listeners that in spite of all the difficulties that exist, things will turn out all right in the end.

Although I’m not totally enamored with “WHITE ALBUM,” I will concede that its soothing effect will get me to listen to it once in awhile when I feel the need to be comforted. And if you were to look at this song and compare it to Hirano’s other performances, I’d say that it’s significantly better than some of her works that I’ve listened to most recently (“Unnamed World” and “Namida Namida Namida” if you must know).

Tsuiteru ne Notteru ne:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Before I go into the second song on this album, let me disclose the fact that I have no personal experience with the 80s’ club scene. But in listening to “Tsuiteru ne Notteru ne,” I’d say that if I were to find myself in such a setting, I would expect to hear music that is in a similar vein to that song. “Tsuiteru ne Notteru ne” is a complete reversal of “WHITE ALBUM” in the way its tone and mood are presented. The opening lines come off as being more aggressive and dominating through its harsh dance beat that fits in with the club setting that I talked about earlier. Again, Aya Hirano’s voice complements the song by keeping pace with the beat and hitting the stresses as she sings the lyrics. The melody itself is also catchy in the way this song sticks in your mind, especially during the chorus section’s opening motive, making it a decent piece to listen to if you want a bit more variety out of listening to Aya Hirano.

Those of you who’ve talked to me know that I’ve dropped White Album for quite some time now, but if there’s anything this album did get me to do, it was to watch the segment in episode 13 in which Yuki (Aya Hirano) sings “WHITE ALBUM.” My thoughts on it remain unchanged in that it’s a pleasant, soothing pop melody with little substance to get in the way. The same can be said for “Tsuiteru ne Notteru ne.” I wasn’t initially particularly impressed with that track, but it did grow on me after awhile though not enough that I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. When it comes down to it, this album isn’t bad by any stretch. Its failing, if anything is that it’s just not particularly memorable through the long haul.

Rating: Decent

Review: It’s no understatement to declare that Fall 2008′s most hilarious moments were heavily concentrated in the tenth episode of Kannagi. As you may recall, Nagi, Jin, the rest of the art club, Tsugumi, and Zange try to strengthen their friendship bonds by spending time at a karaoke box. By this time, the series has already set up the romantic polygons and the viewer is expected to be familiar with each character’s personality traits for this episode’s humor to shine. As such, half of the fun comes from watching these characters’ personalities bounce off of one another and the other half comes from hearing the characters struggle through having to sing karaoke (Takako’s the exception here).

So after over 3 months of waiting, we’re finally treated to the compilation CD of the karaoke episode. Here, the quality of the music is a bit higher than what we got from the episode itself and oddly enough, I see that as negative since flaws like Tsugumi’s shy delivery and Zange’s oblivious off-tune belting are part of what makes the karaoke attempt feel genuine and charming. Add to that the fact that the humor isn’t quite as strong without the accompanying character interactions and you’ve got an album that is only worth listening to if you’re either looking to experience a cleaned up karaoke episode or if you want to be able to enjoy listening to Kannagi’s VA’s performances.

The album starts out with a fairly generic, but enjoyable J-pop song titled “Ichiban Boushi” that is performed by Tsugumi’s VA, Miyuki Sawashiro. As I hinted above, this performance is far more polished than the one in the episode because Sawashiro’s delivery is devoid of Tsugumi’s shyness and mistakes that made the performance endearing in the first place. The same can be said for Jin’s song, “Amore Seishun” in that while it is unrefined and does go off tune a few times, his VA’s rendition on this CD is far too confident. I would have liked to hear all of the mistakes, including Jin stumbling a few times and shyly lowering his volume when the attendant comes in, to capture the genuine karaoke experience and his low-key personality.

Ichiban Boushi:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

If you recall watching that episode, Daitetsu, voiced by Takanori Hoshino, completely blows “I Believe You Forever” out of the water. Part of what makes his performance so compelling is in the way Hoshino’s voice comes out. The timbre is extremely warm, which makes for a good match with the song’s subject because his delivery is so comforting and confident. That Hoshino can switch tones from a friendly, oafish character to a wonderful pop singer was unexpected and I’d love to hear more of his work if they exist.

I Believe You Forever:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

After that, we come to Akiba’s song, and there’s really not much to say here other than the fact that he goes into full otaku mode by singing with a lot of passion, but not much else. Likewise, Zange’s performance on “Delicate ni Love・Me・Please” is fairly mundane once you remove all of her flourishes and mistakes as well as her personality because this song lacks her forceful attitude in trying to get Jin to come over to her side.

The character-based humor comes in through Nagi’s and Takako’s performances. Nagi’s 30-second ditty, “Hello Daizu no Uta,” is hilarious because the way Haruka Tomatsu sings feels like she’s having fun with the song in spite of its campiness. The segments where she stresses the “Mame kue, mame!” and “Souzetsu na…iroke” in a melodramatic fashion highlights the humor and absurdity of the whole karaoke experience rather well. Takako’s song is one that will make you laugh uncontrollably or give you nightmares depending on your initial reaction to her performance since her antics were absolutely unforgettable. “Jun♥Ai (Pure Love) Generation” parodies the generic magical girl anime themes with its sugary sweet melody and lyrics, but to reap the full benefit of this track, you need to remember that Takako is a high school senior and she doesn’t hold back in complementing that song with cutesy facial expressions and exaggerated poses all of it done disturbingly well. Those moves are fitting for a magical girl in say… elementary school, but to see them performed by a high school senior leads to a sort of horror where one has no choice but to laugh at the absurdity. Needless to say, I loved it!

Hello Daizu no Uta:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Jun♥Ai (Pure Love) Generation:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

After going through all of the characters, we finally reach the famed “Shirigeya no Theme” which is funny on its own because it provides a humorous take on the Japanese company structure which does everything from getting its employees to partake in morning exercises to teaching them a rousing company anthem to instill them with company spirit. It’s a strange concept for this Western viewer, which adds to the novelty factor since the the Shirige Tai are pretty enthusiastic about their supermarket chain to the point that it tickles my funny bone. The way the chorus section effusively sings the chorus part of the song combined with the marching band background music makes this song an uplifting, if hilarious way, to finish out the album.

Shirigeya no Theme:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

At the end of the day, this album isn’t really about listening to quality music as much as it’s about the levity borne from listening to the characters suffer through having to karaoke and picturing in your mind how the characters look while singing. As I mentioned, though the tracks are more polished than the raw karaoke version, the singing isn’t exactly stellar, but then again, issuing a high quality album of a karaoke episode isn’t the point here. So as you listen to this album, it’s obvious that this album caters to fans of the show. Still, those who enjoyed the episode’s silliness are better off just watching it because the music alone doesn’t carry the same comedic weight without the character interactions. Getting this album is an entirely optional affair though since the TV episode will give you a much more enjoyable experience overall.

Rating: So-so