Maaya Sakamoto Celebrates Her 25th Anniversary With Best Album!

Japanese veteram seiyuu and vocalist Maaya Sakamoto is celebrating her 25th anniversary in the industry with a new best album Single Collection+ Achikochi which will be released July 15! Single Collection+ Achikochi will be Maaya-san’s sixth best album overall and the fourth best album in her Single Collection series of releases. She is known for not just her music and collaborations with famous composer Yoko Kanno but also many of her notable seiyuu roles: Aura in the .hack//sign franchise, Lunamaria Hawke in Gundam SEED Destiny, Nino in Arakawa Under the Bridge, Leila Malcal in the Code Geass franchise, Mari in the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, Hitomi Kanz in the Escaflowne movie, and Akito Souma in Fruits Basket (2019), among more. Single Collection+ Achikochi comes hot on the heels of Maaya-san’s latest studio album Kyou Dake no Ongaku which was released last November.

Single Collection+ Achikochi will include singles released from 2013 to this year as well as unreleased songs and rare tracks on CD for the first time. There will be a total of 25 tracks such as her latest digital release “CLOVER”, used for the anime Arte; the Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Hen smart phone game and anime themes “Flash” and “CLEAR”; the insert songs that were used in the popular anime Wolf’s Rain “Cloud 9” and “tell me what the rain knows”; and a newly recorded version of “Watashie”. Also included will be several tracks featuring Maaya-san and several cover songs she participated in.

Single Collection+ Achikochi will be released in two editions: a 2-CD standard edition and a 2-CD + Blu-ray limited edition. The 2-CD track listing will remain the same for both editions. The Blu-ray included with the limited edition will come with the music videos that were released after 2013, live footage from Open Air Museum 2017 which was performed at Itsukushima Shrine, and footage of Maaya in 2019 Flying Dog 10th Anniversary live “Inu Fes” for a total of 2 hours and 30 mins of runtime footage! With all the extras included with this release, you don’t want to miss out. The pre-order links are below along with the track listing and Maaya-san’s latest music video!

Maaya Sakamoto/Single Collection+ Achikochi

2-CD standard edition

2-CD + Blu-ray limited edition

CD

DISC 1
01. はじまりの海
02. Be mine!
03. SAVED.
04. レプリカ
05. 幸せについて私が知っている5つの方法
06. 色彩
07. Million Clouds
08. CLEAR
09. ハロー、ハロー
10. 逆光
11. 空白
12. 宇宙の記憶

DISC 2
01. cloud 9
02. フラッシュ
03. あなたを保つもの / 坂本真綾 コーネリアス
04. セクレアール
05. 荒川小景 / 冨田ラボ feat. 坂本真綾
06. Lazy Line Painter Jane / 末光篤 feat. 坂本真綾
07. まだうごく / 坂本真綾 コーネリアス
08. Tell me what the rain knows
09. 三日月
10. 卒業写真
11. これから
12. クローバー
13. 私へ

Blu-ray

Music Video Collection
01. はじまりの海
02. Be mine!
03. レプリカ
04. 幸せについて私が知っている5つの方法
05. Million Clouds
06. CLEAR
07. ハロー、ハロー
08. 逆光
09. 宇宙の記憶
10. クローバー

第34回世界遺産劇場 -嚴島神社- 平清盛公生誕九百年 前年祭 坂本真綾 Open Air Museum 2017
01. オープニング
02. おかえりなさい
03. MC1
04. ループ
05. ロマーシカ
06. MC2
07. ダニエル
08. うちゅうひこうしのうた
09. 僕たちが恋をする理由
10. 奇跡の海
11. ヘミソフィア
12. MC3
13. Million Clouds
14. まきばアリス!
15. 光あれ
16. MC4
17. プラチナ
18. シンガーソングライター
19. MC5
20. ユニバース

Bonus Track
「フライングドッグ10周年記念LIVE『犬フェス!』ライブビューイング映像」
01. オープニング
02. 逆光
03. Be mine!
04. MC
05. プラチナ

Shota Aoi Drops New At Home Music Video

Singer and voice actor Shota Aoi released the stay-at-home music video for his song “Shake Shake! Together” which came out as a part of his “Bad End” single which came out on April 29. The music video is only two minutes long but pretty cool in how everything was synced up.  “Bad End” was released in two editions, a standard CD-only edition and a limited edition which came with a bonus DVD. The “Bad End” track is being used as the ending theme for the fantasy anime My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!. Order links will be posted below along with the video for “Shake Shake! Together”.

Standard edition

Limited edition

Music Corner Week 45: Macaroni Enpitsu

Macaroni Enpitsu is a four-member rock band out of Kanagawa that formed in 2012. All the members of the band went to and met at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music located in Kanagawa. In June of 2012, they performed their first live event at one of the university’s on-campus events and made the band official from that day forward. Lead by Runosuke Kono who goes by the nickname Hattori the group would go on with RECORDS BUDDY in 2015. The band would stay with RECORDS BUDDY until 2017 which then had switched to TALTO / Muffin Discs record label whom they are still with today.

Listeners can really hear these guys went to music school with a lot of their songs, performed expertly they aren’t afraid to experiment with new sounds, but still manage to find a middle ground that is also fun and enjoyable. They also have a wide amount of range and talent that they are able to execute really well. Hattori has a simple but elegant voice that really captures the listeners’, “hope” is a great example as it will strike a cord with first-time listeners. The composition at first sounds simple but there is a lot going on in the background that pulls the song together. Another track that I recommenced for listeners is “Blueberry Nights”. It piano introduction kick it off the song and holds it to a nice and upbeat composition before transitioning to a more intense chorus in which it’s guitar work is just superb. 

Hattori not only does the vocals but he also does the guitar for the band and writes all the music with the help of the base player Kenya Takano, who is also the group’s resident anime fan. Yoshiaki Tanabe is the other guitarist in the band and is responsible for the shredding guitar the listener sometimes hears. Lastly, the band’s keyboardist is Daiki Hasegawa. The original for the drummer left in 2017 and has never been replaced. Instead, the band has four people who they rotate out. The band’s Official Site posts all the latest news for the band along with their official Twitter page. They also just drop their second album titled hope so if you like what you hear be sure to give that a listen to.

Review: Polkadot Stingray JET

Taking off higher and higher!

“JET” Cover Art

Polkadot Stingray soared sky high with their mini-album Shinseiki EP and wanted to continue the momentum with the band’s first digital-only release “JET”. Were they able to land on the runway as planned or did they stumble on the way over?

“JET” was originally released on March 29, 2020 across all digital music streaming platforms and announced during the band’s YouTube livestream the day prior. This was Polkadot Stingray’s first digital track of 2020 and their latest release since their Shinseiki EP in January. This new number was used in collaboration with popular Australia based airline company Jetstar, hence its name. It was written by lead singer Shizuku with the rest of the band composing the track.

“JET” possesses a more whimsical and light composition compared to the alternative rock heavy tone the band is known for. This is in part due to their guest keyboardist MARI of the band Gesu no Kiwami Otome, who Polkadot Stingray asked for personally. Her presence is an impressionable one as her arrangement is crafted with a sense of wonderment in mind, which ends up making this track, unlike anything the band has made before. This wonderment paired with lead guitarist Harushi’s expertise leads to a delightfully breezy, lighthearted composition. Shizuku’s vocal style is also a first: it expresses a sort of childlike delight as she leads up to the chorus which features that give and take some pop-rock artists like to use to entice listeners. This is the next evolution, so to speak, of the band tackling this type of genre since their track “A Stinging Spica” months prior.

This lightheartedness is doubled in the track’s music video which is directed by Takuya Kurahashi from the music production team Quark Tokyo, and its scenario was brought to life by Shizuku herself. The video features Shizuku going through a day in her life and cutely doing a small dance number throughout the song’s chorus. Choreographed by dancer GENTA, this quirky take goes against Shizuku’s “girl with a gutter” persona she has constructed throughout the years. The final lead-up to the track’s end displays the band performing in an airport hangar and prominently features a Jetstar airplane behind them promising “All day, everyday low fares.”

“JET” boasted that not only are they able to continue their momentum from 2019, but they will also keep raising the bar higher and higher with each release. Currently, this track is available across all streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The music video is also available via the group’s official YouTube channel which you can check out below.

★★★★★

Ken’s rating: 5/5

Matsuri Nine Turns Up the Zest of Life With Upcoming Single!

Seven-member boy idol group Matsuri nine announced that they will release a brand new single, “BibibiTANGO”, June 10. This will be the latest release by the group since their chart topping hit “てっぺんニューデイズ” (“Teppen New Days”) back in March and will be their seventh single overall. As the title implies the song will be taking a festive feel as they will be holding a tango beat and rhythm.

The single will include two tracks and drop with four editions lovingly called Type-A, B, C, and D. Types A and B will be released with the same B-side track, with A including a behind-the-scenes making-of while Type-B will include the instrumentals for “BibibiTANGO” and the B-side track. Types C and D will have a different B-side track from A and B but, similar to Type-B, they will include the instrumentals for those two B-side tracks.

Pre-order all four editions of “BibibiTANGO” in the links below and watch the music video for their latest hit “Teppen New Days”.

Standard Edition Type A

Standard Edition Type B

Standard Edition Type C

Standard Edition Type D

Matsuri nine.「BibibiTANGO」

Type A

CD

01. ビビビTANGO

02. 新曲A

DVD

「ビビビTANGO」Jacket Making Behind the Scenes

Type B

CD

01. ビビビTANGO

02. 新曲A

03. ビビビTANGO -Instrumental-

04. 新曲A -Instrumental-

Type C

CD

01. ビビビTANGO

02. 新曲B

03. ビビビTANGO -Instrumental-

04. 新曲B -Instrumental-

Type D

CD

01. ビビビTANGO

02. 新曲C

03. ビビビTANGO -Instrumental-

04. 新曲C -Instrumental-