Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose Original Soundtrack 1 – Review
| Album Title: | Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose Original Soundtrack 1 |
|---|---|
| Anime Title: | Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose |
| Artist: | KURi-ZiLL; BuRiO; Hikaru Nakayama; Bouquet de rose |
| Catalog Number: | PICA-0721 |
| Release Type: | Soundtrack |
| Release Date: | December 28, 2002 |
| Track Title | Artist | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sleeping Flora | KURi-ZiLL; BuRiO | 0:49 |
| 2. Renaissance | Hikaru Nakayama | 4:57 |
| 3. City of Desire | KURi-ZiLL | 1:53 |
| 4. Rose Erection! | Bouquet de rose | 0:45 |
| 5. At a Hotel in the Squalid Outskirts | KURi-ZiLL | 0:56 |
| 6. Little Evil | KURi-ZiLL | 3:06 |
| 7. Margarette Erection! | KURi-ZiLL | 0:24 |
| 8. Lily Erection! | KURi-ZiLL | 0:23 |
| 9. Violet Erection! | KURi-ZiLL | 0:23 |
| 10. Blossoming Flowerbud | KURi-ZiLL | 1:52 |
| 11. Attention! | KURi-ZiLL | 0:10 |
| 12. Priere of the Rose | Hikaru Nakayama | 3:59 |
| 13. Crazy for You | Mahiru Sonoda | 4:07 |
| 14. Dynasty | KURi-ZiLL | 1:55 |
| 15. Daria Awakens | KURi-ZiLL | 1:48 |
| 16. Preface ~ Rosetta | KURi-ZiLL | 0:26 |
| 17. Rosetta | Bouquet de rose | 4:05 |
| 18. Everlasting Love | Bouquet de rose | 4:56 |
| 19. Night Raid | KURi-ZiLL | 1:02 |
| 20. Night of Debauchery | KURi-ZiLL | 1:22 |
| 21. To the Scattering Ones | KURi-ZiLL | 1:55 |
| 22. Prayer of the Blessed Girls | KURi-ZiLL | 3:08 |
| 23. Memories | Mahiru Sonoda | 4:21 |
| 24. Renaissance (Karaoke) | KURi-ZiLL | 4:57 |
| 25. Rosetta (Karaoke) | KURi-ZiLL | 5:04 |
| 26. Famicom Edition Papillon Rose BGM | KURi-ZiLL | 1:32 |
Review: It’s rare that I review a soundtrack without watching the series since I believe context to be an important part of analyzing the music. In this instance though, I’ll happily pass up the chance to watch Lingerie Soldier Papillon Rose, partly because the title of the OVA suggests a mindless boobfest and partly because some of the reactions this series has garnered over at a certain corner of the internet have been amusingly negative. Of course, that’s not to say that the soundtrack doesn’t have some warning signals as well. When four tracks have the word “erection” in them, it’s not unreasonable to expect a boatload of sleazy porn music. So here’s the good news: on the whole, this soundtrack succeeds in being fairly inoffensive and won’t violate anyone’s sensibilities. The bad news is that in the end, it’s still bad and people looking for good music should seek it elsewhere.
To be fair, listening to this album isn’t wholly an exercise in dealing with tedium. The instrumental pieces aren’t particularly noteworthy, but they’re not terrible either. Most of them serve the purpose of conveying the mood of any given scene, even if they don’t stand out on their own too well. For example, “City of Desire” does have the atmosphere of an ominous, sin-filled city, but it sounds so generic that it could have been lifted from any movie or TV series with such a setting. “Little Evil” has an air of silliness about it as though it were describing a bumbling thief more than a malevolent figure with its uninspiring ditty and “Night Raid” is a bit too harsh and chaotic with its electronica to suit my tastes and I found myself annoyed more often than not.
The first track that even shows a hint of promise is “At a Hotel in the Squalid Outskirts” which delivers a piano lounge-y atmosphere, but because it clocks in at a long-winded 56 seconds, there’s hardly any time for the melody to develop into something more compelling. Better executed is “To the Scattering Ones” which offers a genuine amount of emotion through its piano melody. There’s a hint of melancholy throughout the track and though it’s not the best piano melody out there, given the tracks that preceded it, I’m willing to take what I can get.
Before I move on to the vocal tracks, I’d like to add that the tracks with “erection” in their titles sound like they could have been taken from any generic magical girl transformation sequence with barely a hint of the erotic. Yes, that’s hardly anything to get excited over and I’d understand why anyone who was hoping for some music suitable for some hanky-panky might be a tad disappointed that the melodies aren’t more risqué.
So while the instrumental tracks are generally mediocre, what ultimately ends up bringing this album down are the vocal tracks sung by Hikaru Nakayama. As you listen to her songs, the first thing that becomes apparent is that she’s not a very good singer because her performances are devoid of emotion. Her voice isn’t particularly dominant throughout any of the songs and this failing, combined with a lack of expressiveness, contribute to an underwhelming listen. When a song created using Hatsune Miku’s voice manages to be more expressive than Nakayama’s, who I presume isn’t a character from the J-pop Vocaloid program, then something’s clearly amiss with regards to Nakayama’s singing ability. Whatever it is, the result still stands: her singing is amateurish from start to finish and you’d do yourself a favor by skipping her tracks entirely.
Finally, after trudging through those forgettable instrumental tracks and terrible songs, we get to “Famicom Edition Papillon Rose BGM” which is easily the best track on the entire album. Its synthesizer melody does an excellent job of capturing the feel of a NES game, making it a really enjoyable track because through some way or another, it has a vibrant feel that makes it seem animated compared to the lethargic quality from the preceding tracks. With all the soporific melodies scattered throughout this soundtrack, remixing all of the music and playing the arrangement through an NES synthesizer would have made this soundtrack much better. Alas, that’s an opportunity that we may never see, but it makes for an intriguing possibility all the same.
Aside from “Famicom Edition Papillon Rose BGM,” all of the instrumental tracks are merely mediocre to promising, but the inclusion of Hikaru Nakayama’s songs is really what makes this album bad in every sense of the word. Thankfully, it’s a forgettable sort of badness, which means that once you’ve given this soundtrack any attention at all, it’s not too difficult to forget the melodies altogether and move on to better music. That said, you’d almost have to wonder what possessed you to waste an hour of your time to listen to this album in the first place.
Rating: Bad
Music Sampler
| Track 2 | [audio:02 PapillonR1.mp3] |
|---|---|
| Track 5 | [audio:05 PapillonR1.mp3] |
| Track 9 | [audio:09 PapillonR1.mp3] |
| Track 21 | [audio:21 PapillonR1.mp3] |
| Track 26 | [audio:26 PapillonR1.mp3] |
So, here’s my question now: Are you going to watch the anime? Or did the soundtrack just turn you off even more?
Well, the soundtrack is of the boring variety, so while it wasn’t offensive in any way, it certainly doesn’t do the anime any favors.
Besides, the one of the reactions to this series included comments regarding a scene that’s so terrible that I don’t think I want to see it. The lurid details are an immediate turn-off and seeing as how I was unable to stand finishing the School Days Magical Heart OVA (turned it off 10 minutes into the OVA in disgust), I don’t think my mind can handle Papillon Rose. (If you want to know what details I’m referring to, PM me on NHRV.)
I’m slowly building up my tolerance, I think… Once I can withstand Magical Heart Kokoro-chan, I think that’s when I’m ready for Papillon Rose. And if that day should ever come to pass, woe be me for I have sunk pretty darn low. :p
I think if you saw the OVA that you’d be interested in the series, I’ve been searching for it since I found it by accident.
If you are a Sailor Moon lover you may be offended by it because of how it parodies the series, talking cat and all, basically Papillon Rose is Sailor Moon, Papillon Lily is like Sailor Venus and Papillon Margurette is like Sailor Mercury, I still haven’t figured out Papillon Dahlia, but she starts off as a villan if that helps, and Papillon Adonis looks almost exactly like Sailor Uranus! but with all the sexual innuendos in the series I’d enjoyed watching it because it kept me laughing the whole time.
Yeah, I realize that it’s a spoof of the Sailor Moon style of magical girl series, but still, I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to watching it. It might be one of those “so stupid it’s funny and entertaining,” but a certain part of me is flashing warning signs. It’s why I still haven’t watched the first School Days OVA completely because I get disgusted and feel the urge to shower about halfway through.
Hmm, it’s interesting to see someone actually reviewed this soundtrack. I can understand how Hikaru’s singing might turn you off, but I think it should be considered that she may have just been starting out in her singing career at that time (this -is- a very obscure soundtrack which was only sold in a small number of places, after all).
There’s a couple of mistakes on the track information you have here. Mahiru Sonoda sang ‘Crazy for You’ and ‘Memories’, and Buquet du Rose sang ‘Everlasting Love’ and ‘Rosetta’, at least that’s what’s listed in the booklet.
As for watching the series, well, the OVA was the harshest bit of all… and there’s only one episode of that. The TV series (Papillon Rose New Season) had to be toned down because it was on television, but it still hints back at some things from the OVA. A completely different group of people did the music for the TV series, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that as much.
Everything else is just still pictures and text.
Anyway, I do agree with your about some of the BGM tracks, I always did find ‘Night Raid’ kind of ear shattering. I usually like KURi-ZiLL’s music when it has vocals because it has to be a little more settled down so you can hear the voices. The second soundtrack might be a bit better for you to listen to, it only has one Hikaru Nakayama song. It contains the OVA versions of ‘Rosetta’ and ‘Memories’ (sung by some of the voice actresses) and two songs by Yui Sakakibara, who I personally find to be a very talented singer.
@Tsubomi Koneko
Wow, hadn’t expected someone with your level of knowledge to drop by. Made the changes per your comment regarding the artists.
I figured that it was one of her earlier works, except I can’t say much more than that since I haven’t listened to any other works that she may have performed. Same thing with KURi-ZiLL; this is the only work of his that I’ve listened to and I don’t know whether he’s composed any other music besides this (one would assume he has). If you do catch this comment, let me know of other works of Hikaru’s and KURi-ZiLL’s that you think might be up my alley. I’d love to give them a shot.
And finally, you’re not the first person to tell me that the other Papillon soundtrack is better because of Yui Sakakibara. Having her performing on a CD makes almost any series better (it certainly did for Chaos Head).
Hehe, it’s nice to see you’re a fan of Yui’s too. I got into her because the first thing of hers I heard was the two songs on the second Papillon Rose soundtrack… and then she suddenly started popping up everywhere (mostly because the video games she’d done voices for were getting turned into anime with high frequency around that time).
Sadly I can’t really suggest much of KURi-ZiLL’s work outside of the Papillon Rose soundtracks because there isn’t a lot, and I don’t know about much other work by Hikaru Nakayama either. The only other actual CD I can find by KURi-ZiLL is called ‘Happy Hardcore to You’, which seems to only be sold by one website.
Sorry I can’t really help much in that category, I guess it’s just what happens when an artist doesn’t do very much or get too much exposure. It’s possible that Hikaru Nakayama works under another name (much like Yui Sakakibara has in the past), which is actually how I found your review… I was searching for some sign that the description of “Hikaru Nakayama = Rita” on the soundtrack that is currently up on Yahoo! Japan Auctions was true or not. Haven’t found any evidence to really support it.
@Tsubomi Koneko
My exposure to Yui was also broadened once I started delving to game soundtracks and like you said, she’s done a fair number of those that would get an anime adaptation (yes, my love for game soundtracks does include visual novels and eroge :p).
Probably won’t end up checking out KURi-ZiLL then :\ I will say thought that if he were to do a Famicom version of his music, I think that could be pretty awesome. I might not be too impressed with the Papillon main theme, but it does sound pretty good when converted to an NES chiptune.
I’ve watched the anime, and i thought it’s just ok..but the music is definitely worth the piece.
I want rosetta full…where I can get it