Kalafina/FictionJunction ON FIRE! Vol. 2
This is basically the same feature as the former “Game On” project, but I decided to change the name. I never liked the name to begin with. We’ll see how long this one lasts.

I couldn’t decide which group to feature, so I decided to group them together.

Members: Ootaki Wakana, Kubota Keiko (both), Hikaru (Kalafina only), Nanri Yuuka, Kaida Yuriko, Oda Kaori, Kato Asuka (FJ only) + Kajiura Yuki
Latest Release: Parallel Hearts (FictionJunction); Seventh Heaven, Lacrimosa (Kalafina)
Recommended: Akatsuki no kuruma, Parallel Hearts, Kaze no machi e (FictionJunction) ; oblivious, ARIA, Lacrimosa (Kalafina)
Not Recommended: Some of the FictionJunction covers on “Everlasting Songs” are a bit iffy, but they’re lovely for the most part.
Sites: FictionJunction Official Site, FictionJunction YUUKA; Kalafina Official Site (all Japanese)

Kajiura Yuki is an acclaimed composer, who focuses mostly on anime and some video game projects. In her time, she has discovered many vocal talents, and her latest and most popular projects currently are FictionJunction and Kalafina. FictionJunction got its big break when Kajiura formed “FictionJunction YUUKA”, her first FJ project. Although getting off to a slow start, they created an insert song (Akatsuki no kuruma) for the very popular 2002-2003 anime, “Gundam SEED”. Initially only featured on a drama CD, the popularity of this song convinced them to release it as its own single, which went on to have a long chart life. Since then, they have become the first group to feature an anime character image song that has reached No. 1 on the ORICON daily charts, followed by two successful studio albums. From there on, Kajiura formed multiple other FJ projects with a handful of talented vocalists.

The extra boost in popularity to the FJ project could also be credited to Kalafina’s popularity. Formed under Sony, away from their home label of Victor Entertainment, they were signed nearly exclusively to sing for the “Kara no Kyoudai” project. Beginning with only Wakana and Keiko, Sony later held auditions to find two other vocalists to form a 4 member group. By the second single, new members Hikaru and Maya were recording with the two original. Maya decided to take leave before the release of their 3rd single and has recently officially left the group. This setback proved to be minor as Kalafina continued with much success, including a full length album in early 2009.

Megumi is the “Kajiura-ite” between the two of us, and she has even featured Kalafina sometime last year. Kajiura is an immensely talented composer and producer, consistently creating strong music for all projects she takes on. She has a very distinct style and sound that you can almost recognize anywhere. I love many of the vocalists she works with, particularly in these two projects. They are all very talented and often sing with experience beyond their years. A lot of musical groups nowadays don’t have vocalists that complement each other, or members with a minimal role, so it is refreshing to see groups that are truly strong. These two projects have members that support each other well. They are well-rehearsed and are able to take their performances to the next level because of their confidence in their own vocal roles.

Artist: Kalafina
Album: Seventh Heaven
Release Date: March 4, 2009

1. overture
The introduction is a lovely mix of ethereal sounds, including a little plucked string sound, some of the girls singing in the background. However, most of the sounds in this introduction has a rather distanced sound from it due to the slight echo added onto of everything. The introduction starts slowly, but does a lovely little crescendo as the track makes its way comfortably into one’s ears. The nice sounds of the waves coming in add a rather lovely calming effect to it all. The end of it darkens a little as a clock tower comes in, as do other strange sounds before it smoothly sails into the girls’ first single.

2. oblivious
“oblivious”, being the first single from the group, features only Wakana and Keiko. It, like the introduction, adds a bit of mystery in its gorgeous opening, starting with one of the girls (sounds like Wakana) singing with her gorgeous operatic tone, and Yuki adds small little guitar lines picking away at its strings as the song starts to pick up, as well as an infectious bass line, making the song much more upbeat sounding than before. The vocals continue to be smooth, but they are sung with intensity, grace and power, and are quite impressive. The song mostly features Wakana, with Keiko in the background vocals. However, she’s hardly heard until the bridge when they start doing their small call-and-response passage, and you get to hear Keiko’s lovely alto tone. I love the part after it where they start singing together, and Keiko has really awesome harmonies in this particular section. The melody itself is rather addictive, although sometimes, I would like Keiko to put a bit more emphasis on her singing for this track.

3. love come down
Track 3 is Kalafina’s first album track, and it’s absolutely fabulous. It continues the same kind of constant beat as the previous track, but it’s a bit louder and seems to take more control of this particular song. The accompaniment is a mix of guitars and some kind of weird sound that I can’t quite pin down. A pounding bass and percussion section that primarily drives this song forward. On top of the beats is the energetic singing of the girls, as well as some electric guitar playing aggressive phrases throughout the track. This is, for me, an excellent example of singers singing with energy and plenty of emphasis on the beats that they need to emphasize. The violin is a gorgeous addition to the song, and adds a bit of a mysterious tone to the overall song. The structure of the song rather straightforward, but the pure energy in this track brings the song forward in an interesting way without sacrificing my interest in the song.

4. 夏の林檎
The next track is undoubtedly my favourite new track on the album. If one knows of my obsession with the flute, one would understand within the first few seconds of the song. It starts off with a gorgeous flute line, which floats through various sections of this song in triple time (which isn’t a rare occurence for Kajiura). For some reason, the opening is somewhat reminiscent of a Naruto theme song that I can’t quite remember. In any case, I love the folk sound in this track, and the vocals for this track are done excellent. It also features, who I think is Hikaru, on the higher sections of the song, and she sounds especially fabulous there. The song itself is a rather calming, mid-tempo track that focuses mainly on the girls’ vocals and has a bit of acoustic guitar in the background. The girls are singing with a lot of spark and vibrance in their voice. One of my favourite parts in the song is when they start exchanging lines – this is around midway through the song. This is a beautiful track from the album, and definitely one of my favourites.

5. fairytale
We’re back to the singles from this album for the next track, which opens with soft singing from the girls. I really enjoy the minimalistic accompaniment here as the song goes on, and the immense focus on their voices throughout the track. Again, the girls demonstrate stellar control over their singing and immensely amount of musicality in their delivery of the words. Keiko, especially, sounds fabulous in the second verse with Hikaru singing the octave higher. Again, the call-and-response section is excellent between Keiko and Wakana and makes for an excellent bridge section as they sing with intensity. There’s not really much that goes on in the song, but this is one of those instances where a stellar vocal performance can carry an entire song.

6. ARIA
The opening for this next track is somewhat futuristic in its sound. Strangely enough, it gets rid of the sound altogether and comes with a rather echoey xylophone-esque background under who might be Hikaru’s voice that opens the track, with Wakana singing underneath her. I know Maya’s in this track somewhere, but she hasn’t had the time to do enough solos for me to identify her voice well enough (while Keiko’s voice is the easiest to identify since she’s the alto — although I did think at some point that Wakana was the alto until I saw the fairytale PV OOPS. Some people have said that Wakana sings this, but she seems to have a tenser voice here, which is something I’ve heard Hikaru do in “sprinter”). I don’t find her voice as resonant as the other two girls, but she sings well either way, although a bit too linear. The song does pick up in the bridge with the excellent electric guitar solo and some of the girls singing over it. After “fairytale” it feels like a more mechanical, less emotional ballad at first, but at least it develops well into a more eventful track.

7. また風が強くなった
The next track, amusingly, fits the title. It’s a rockish tune with strong, heavy accompaniment. I love how the group pulls off this track excellently. I really, really love Keiko in particular in this track. Her and Hikaru sound awesome at the beginning as they both sing with a lot of energy and accent the song really well. I really like the lovely, dissonant cello (?) comes into the song, and how Keiko takes over for the one line where she sings the title of the track before going back to the aforementioned structure of the rock song, while Wakana (probably?) has fun with the opera lines in between the verses and occasionally, some verses. I love the bridge section where the percussion becomes silent and all you hear is the bass line going on in the background with Keiko singing over it. Her crescendo on that one long note here is fantastic and she makes it transition perfectly back into the instrumentation for the conclusion of the track.

8. 傷跡
This is one of my favourite early tracks from Kalafina. Wakana is wonderful at the beginning, and features very lovely string and acoustic parts of the song. I love her and Keiko’s constant attention to detail as they accent slightly on the major beats of the song, while keeping their delivery smooth and musical. The strings are an excellent complement to their operatic background singing and one of the main reasons why I love this song so much. There’s a calming, fleeting feeling to this song, and the fantastic piano line in the bridge builds-up the song very nicely to the song. I find that the constant repetition of the verses a bit annoying at times, but the fantastic delivery from the two girls makes the track very enjoyable.

9. serenato
Every time I listen to this, it always amuses me that one of the girls went with the really nasal voice in the harmonization at the beginning. In any case, they sound fabulous at the beginning (really, these girls are stellar both technically and emotionally in performance). I love the slightly traditional sound they have at the beginning, and the minimal accompaniment (there’s only a little bit of a plucked string instrument here). Again, Wakana begins this song with some of the girls singing in the background. The song itself keeps the minimal accompaniment until later on, but most of what you hear reminds me of those background music for desert locations in video games (don’t ask xD — I don’t even know what video game I’m thinking of — Super Mario 64? XD). In any case, this track is fantastic and has a very mystical quality to it. The singing is excellent and makes the track soar by quickly even though it’s a little bit under 5 minutes long.

10. 音楽
Yuki Kajiura. Doing dance beats. I approve. Of course, she continues to add her usual flavour with the nasal vocalizing from the girls. Keiko opens the track under a bit of a voice filter before another one of the girls sings over her. Keiko is pretty much the focus of this track, and I approve, because she sounded fantastic in また風が強くなった. The other two girls sound immensely energetic as well and pull off the upbeat-ness of this track really well. It kind of amuses me that Keiko does a bit of a diphthong on the syllable “ku”, which ends up closer of “kiu”. Wakana’s operatic singing is spot-on as usual, and she sounds fantastic in the bridge when she’s doing it, and when she’s singing with Keiko with the two melodic lines intertwining together. This song makes me want to dance. A lot.

11. 明日の景色
Wakana, as usual, sounds fantasic against the orgel. Her excellent control over her voice is very evident here as she hits notes flawlessly and makes her singing sound effortless. The opening is really gorgeous with the added acoustic guitar that comes in a little bit later as well. The song picks up a bit with the snare drum (among other things) in the chorus. The differences between Wakana and Hikaru is more evident in this track as Hikaru seems to take the second verse with possibly Keiko as background vocalist (it’s hard to tell because Wakana can sing low as well, and I can’t hear Keiko’s vocal mannerisms as well here). The song is excellent, and I especially love the addition of the flute.

12. sprinter
“sprinter” is the first single that featured Hikaru very clearly, and while I don’t like her voice as much as Wakana’s voice, her sings very well, although a bit mechanical in delivery at times, and very clearly lacks more of a vibrato that might make her voice sound a little less tense. Either way, she’s still a very good vocalist. Again, Maya’s here somewhere, but I can never pin-point her without looking at the PV. One of the very strong features of this song is the vocal layering and echoing that goes on throughout this song. The song builds-up perfectly from Hikaru singing on top of the electric guitar into the really thick vocal arrangement that goes on around 2 minutes into the song between various singers (I think I hear Maya because there’s a slightly different voice in here!). The ending is gorgeous with there lovely singing over the strings.

13. 君が光に変えて行く
This next track is another minimalist slow track that opens with the piano playing two notes, then Wakana singing over it. Again, fantastic control from Wakana, and you can hear how she treats each note with detail with small crescendos and decrescendos. You can definitely tell this girl knows what she’s doing vocally. Keiko comes in later, and while, she’s not quite as detailed as Wakana is in her delivery, she’s still very good. The song drags on a bit at times, but it’s a nice track that I still enjoy to this date. The arrangement is a bit lacking at times, but at other times, it’s absolutely gorgeous. I especially love the strings in this track. However, at times, I find the tempo a bit too slow.

14. seventh heaven
Despite hearing this multiple times on my way to school and back, I can never remember this track that well. It brings back the echo sound of the opening, which does well to pull the album back together from beginning to end, but I don’t find the delivery as solid as some of the other tracks. whomever is at 1:50-ish in the song sound a bit unsure, and her voice isn’t as smooth nor as pleasant as it usually is, and kind of reminds me of Keiko makes her voice a bit too choppy for her own good (it’s obviously not her because the voice is higher, so that means either Hikaru or Wakana). Otherwise, the song is a lovely, dreamy ending for the album. Although it doesn’t tend to stand out much on this album, the girls generally sing well and blend with each other really well. The track ends with what the album started with and crescendos a half minute before the ending of it.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 夏の林檎
Kalafina’s debut album is Yuki Kajiura perfection! This is a fantastic album from the trio (quartet when/if Maya returns from her studies) and features a variety of sounds and generally fantastic singing from all the girls. In particular, Wakana consistently sings with excellent control, detail and passion on all her vocal parts in the songs. The style on this album is very Kajiura, while adding some new sounds to her usual repertoire, which was rather surprising to me. I could have used a bit less of the pretty, elegant, mid-tempo tracks that sound a bit too similar at times, but they still are solid tracks by themselves. This album is definitely recommended! Kajiura’s on a roll with this album, and her earlier self-cover/compilation album “Everlasting Songs”.

Artist: FictionJunction
Album: Everlasting Songs
Release Date: February 25, 2009

1. 星屑 (KEIKO and KAORI; Background vocalists: Keiko, Wakana, Yuriko and Yuki)
Little xylophone lines dance around at the beginning, as the girls sing the usual ad libbing one would expect to hear from a song composed by Yuki. In short, it’s an absolutely gorgeous opening. I especially like it when the strings come in with their various melodic lines and complement the song in an immensely emotional way. The song quickly changes a minute in as the strings become plucked as the piano plays in the background. The melody, in a similar style, is also done in the same marcato style. The two girls lightly harmonize with each other. I especially like the little crescendo on the words “Aitai” at the end of the chorus before it goes silent for a few seconds and comes back with the bouncy strings. As usual, the girls sound fantastic on this track. As an opening track, it’s a bit slower-paced than one would expect, but it is still a solid track.

2. 記憶の森 (YUUKA; Background vocalists: Kaori, Yuriko, Yuki)
This next track is a fantastic upbeat track to contrast the smooth, elegant sound of the previous track. It opens with some weird sound effects, and some nice operatic singing before it quickly turns into a quick-paced track that nearly makes me want to dance along to it. The build-up to the song takes nearly 40 seconds, and includes some high keyboard sounds. The song after that is fairly straightforward, but immensely catchy at the same time. I love the overlaying of the operatic singing with YUUKA’s lighter singing. I’m not a big fan of YUUka sometimes, as I find her voice a bit too tense and lacks support a lot of the time. Despite that setback, this song is still very enjoyable.

3. dream scape (KAORI; Background vocalists: Yuriko)
dream scape is one of the tracks that was already recorded prior to the making of this album and was found in the TRC soundtracks. Although KAORI is not quite as known as the other girls on this album, her singing is very pleasant and I was happy she got a lot of tracks on this album. This song is a soothing, but uplifting track. KAORI’s voice soars through this song with power and conviction. I love the background vocal lines, which include, as usual, the operatic, long notes in the background. The accompaniment is mostly acoustic guitar with a bit of organ in the background. This is a fantastic song from KAORI.

4. 銀の橋 (WAKANA, KEIKO AND KAOKI; Background vocalists: Yuriko)
The next track features three of the girls, including my favourite, Wakana. This is yet another upbeat song from them, with lovely vocal work between the three girls. The opening is rather typical of Yuki’s stuff as it has that rather majestic, mysterious feeling from it. The three girls sing with a lot of energy and bring a lot of energy into this song. In addition, they complement each other’s voices very well and the harmonies are spot on throughout the track. The melody here is immensely repetitive, however, and you hear them singing in circles a lot of the time in this song, which is a bit disappointing since they sound fantastic on this song.

5. 風の街へ (KEIKO; Background vocalists: Yuriko)
I’ve been a big fan of this song ever since I heard if off the TRC soundtracks. It’s an absolutely gorgeous song with soft piano and subtle singing from KEIKO. The dynamics in this song are wonderfully done with the gradual crescendos and decrescendos throughout the song. KEIKO’s smooth singing is perfect for this song and I love the timbre of her voice throughout. The musical bridge is definitely my favourite part of this song as it starts off with a bit of a choir song, then proceeds into a gorgeous viola (?) and violin duet with the piano accompanying in the background. Absolutely gorgeous and one of my favourite songs that was released prior to this album.

6. here we stand in the morning dew (YURIKO KAIDA; Background vocalists include Kaori, Keiko, Wakana)
For those who don’t know Yuriko Kaida, she’s the one responsible for the vocals on songs in Anime, most notably “Canta Per Me”, “Lullaby”, “Salva Nos” (I’m probably most familiar with Noir songs, which is why I listed them). In any case, this song opens with a rather awkward melody that shows that this girl’s voice has a rather harsh tones at time, which I don’t particularly like; however, she has good pitch. The song itself has a dance beat to it, but the song itself is smooth and bright-sounding. Do be honest, I don’t really care for this song, especially in comparison to the rest of the material on this album as it gets old fast and the song as a whole I feel sounds kind of bland at times. Still, this song is rather soothing despite being rather uneventful.

7. synchronicity (KEIKO; Background vocalists: Kaori, Yuki)
Lawl, Tsuki says the opening of this song sounds like Power Rangers. In any case, it does that have aggressive, dance sound to it, something one might hear in a kind of battle scene. I find it particularly catchy, though. I honestly didn’t care for Makino Yui’s singing in the original one when I heard it (I’ve only heard it about once), but I really enjoy KEIKO’s tone in comparison. The opening sound becomes a sort of theme throughout the song in the background, which I find particularly amusing. I enjoy this particular upbeat song as KEIKO sings quite well throughout. The arrangement is pretty typical of Yuki (although apparently it’s done by Koichi Korenaga, which is kind of odd because aside from the “Power Ranger” sounds, it sounds like something Yuki would do), but does have some nice xylophone work throughout. The bridge also features some interesting vocal styles that I hear a lot in Yuki work. It tends to sound like the singer’s singing through their nose.

8. 花守の丘 (KAORI; Background vocalists: Yuriko)
The light music box opening for this song is really pretty, and I like the strings that come in after that as well. This particular song is in triple time, and features pizzicato strings in the background as KAORI’s voice echoes beautifully in this song. Her interpretation of this song is spot-on, and I adore how she sings throughout this song. The accompaniment is rather minimalist throughout the song, but at the same time, it’s really pretty and well-crafted. I especially like the addition of the flute and the acoustic guitar in the background, and it is very well-done how Yuki keeps putting instruments in and taking them out to make sure the sound of the song keeps developing through subtle changes.

9. 水の証 (WAKANA)
I’ve always liked the original of this version, despite now being particularly fond of Tanaka Rie’s singing. WAKANA, who definitely has a much stronger singing skill, pulls off this song with skill and elegance. I adore this version. I’m a big fan of WAKANA’s vocals in the first place, so I was extremely excited to find out that she was the one who sings this version. Her vocals are just gorgeous throughout this track and she displays a strong control over her voice. The arrangement is immensely gorgeous with the piano and strings as well. The dynamics are extremely well done for both the instrumentalists and Wakana. This is a simple song, but Wakana’s version takes my breath away every time I listen to it. It is simply amazing.

10. cazador del amor (YUUKA; Background vocalists: Kaori Nishina [A different Kaori])
“Cazador del amor” opens with epic strings playing forceful notes that immediate catch my attention. YUUKA’s voice seems more suited for this song in comparison to the other track that featured her. Her voice sings out with desperation amongst the drama of this song and she sounds fantastic throughout the song. I have a particular love for the song itself as it features strings and heavy percussion use for most of the song, but about midway through the song, we get a softer section of the song, which sounds rather pretty. This is a fantastic song that YUUKA sings with so much conviction and power.

11. 秘密 (YURIKO KAIDA; Background vocalists: Kaori, Keiko, Yuki)
Yuriko sounds better in this track, although the slight airy singing ruins the flows of her singing a bit, as does the heavy vibrato at times, which is very evident in the very quiet portions of this song. However, I really don’t feel engaged with her voice that much at the beginning, and she fails to really catch my attention with her singing. The best part of this song is definitely when the fantastic flute comes in with the piano lines. It becomes immensely gorgeous from then on, and we get a bit of the chorus singing in the background and they sound fantastic in English. When Yuriko comes back in later on, her vocals seem to work a lot better with the thicker accompaniment and the general polyphonic structure of this song.

12. 宝石 (KEIKO; Background vocalists: Kaori, Wakana, Yuriko)
I don’t fine KEIKO’s vocals here flows as well as she could have done. They seem a bit disjuncted and the slight crescendos sound misplaced, and the breathing point right before the chorus can be rather distracting. The melody is quite nice in the chorus, and she does slightly better with it, but the song feels rather empty at times. I usually like KEIKO, but I really do not enjoy this track at all. The arrangement is nice, but there’s something really cold about it all, especially in Keiko’s performance. Her singing seems more one-dimensional than usual and there’s nothing that really grabs my attention throughout the track. The only thing that manages to catch my attention is the piano solo at the end of the song (which is well played and quite pretty), and normally I would have switched the track already.

13. ユメノツバサ (KAORI; Background vocalists: Keiko, Wakana, Yuriko)
ユメノツバサ is a slightly different arrangement of tsubasa from the TCR soundtrack and is also in Japanese, although it mostly keeps the same instruments, so the feel is the same throughout. This particular song is a bright, mid-tempo piano track. Her singing, as usual, is well-done and she presents the song in an interesting way without sounding bored. I much prefer her singing this song in Japanese since she seems more lively in this version. The song itself isn’t particularly eventful after awhile, and I get a bit bored of the repeated sections of the song. The eventually develops a bit as Yuki adds choir near the end, as Kaori strains a bit to belt near the end. This isn’t one of my favourite songs from Yuki, but it’s still a nice one.

14. みちゆき (KAORI; Background vocalists: Yuriko, Yuki)
Kaori continues her dominance over this album as she gets yet another solo song. She sounds fantastic at the beginning with the single piano accompanying her and the slight echo added over her voice. Her voice is full and full of emotion; she carries this song extremely well throughout. For the chorus, string is added to the mix and sounds lovely with Kaori’s voice. The song itself may be a bit too slow for a lot of listeners, but I think it’s perfect as is. The arrangement has a slight focus on the effects of echoes, whcih works really well around 3:55, where the strings end their section, and all your hear is a slight echo in the silence of the song. This effect repeats again on Kaori’s last note, which is subtle but beautiful.

15. everlasting song (ASUKA; Background vocalists: Yuriko)
I’ve never been a fan of this song, so I find it particularly amusing that this is the only song that ASUKA sings, and she doesn’t do it particularly well. The arrangement of this song is quite pretty, and I especially love the opening of this song with the soft guitar and ambient noises over a basic beat. It has a lovely soft, fleeting feeling to it, and Yuriko, as usual, is an excellent background vocalist (I must prefer her when she does the lovely ornamental vocal lines in the background, honestly). However, whenever I listen to ASUKA in this song, it’s just immensely underwhelming. While she reaches basic pitches decently, there’s more of a whine over a natural vibrancy to it. Throughout this entire song, ASUKA just sounds really unsure of what she’s doing, and she’s just lacking flow throughout this song with her constant, abrupt, pauses and changes of timbres, and occasional mis-pitching the notes. Her presentation is just really lacking in any semblance of emotion and musically, to the point where it is just distressing.

Overall –
Favourite Track: 水の証, cazador del amor
Despite a few tracks which I just downright did not like, Yuki makes a solid album with some of the FJ girls that she’s already worked with. As a Yuki fangirl, I’m bound to like just about anything this girl composes, honestly. Therefore, I more or less really liked the majority of these tracks. The vocalists Yuki worked with on this album are immensely good, with an exception of ASUKA, whom I’ve never really liked despite multiple listens of “everlasting song”. I personally don’t find that Yuriko works well with the pop melodies on this album as her voice doesn’t seem as comfortable singing them; however, she usually sounds fantastic with the operatic singing the background of the music. Yuuka, Keiko, Wakana and Kaori are all fantastic throughout the album, though (save for about one track for a few of them). I’m most of all surprised with Kaori’s work on this album, especially since prior to this, I’ve only heard two of her tracks (tsubasa and dream scape), so I’m really happy Yuki gave her a lot more solo tracks. All in all, if you’re a fan of Yuki Kajiura, you won’t be disappointed with this album! Yuki totally has to record a solo song for herself, though.

Artist: Various
Album/Single: Tsubasa Chronicles Best Vocal Collection
Release Date: December 20, 2006

1. BLAZE / キンヤ (KINYA)
There has always been something about this song that I never particularly liked, and I’ve never been to put my finger on it. I think it might be that KINYA opted to go for more of a pop sound than a rock sound, despite the obvious call to the rock side of this song. It doesn’t have enough kick to it to keep my interest for the entire song. The melody is just alright. It’s not bad, but also not good (although leaning towards the awkward side). I also can’t help but feel that KINYA sounds less-than-inspired when performing this song, so it’s pretty dull to listen to.

2. tsubasa / FictionJunction KAORI
Getting into one of the more recognizable songs of the actual series, we’re graced with a very “Kajiura Yuki” sound. The song is sung completely in English by KAORI, but her English isn’t that impressive, however, her singing is quite the opposite. She’s a little monotone, which is expected since she’s singing in a language she’s unfamiliar with, but she still carries through quite nicely. I really like the uplifting sound of the chorus, especially that first line. KAORI honestly sounds like she was made for Kajiura’s compositions because her interpretation and performance work well in this song. I wouldn’t say this is the best song I’ve heard, and certainly not by Kajiura Yuki, but it’s not bad either.

3. ループ (LOOP) / 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
Here we have no stranger to the anime world. This is yet another creation by the ever famous seiyuu-turned-singer, Sakamoto Maaya, and she delivers yet again. This would be the first song she released post-Kanno Yoko era, and she definitely managed to hit some success with it. h-wonder doesn’t necessarily create compositions that are as intricate as Kanno, but he certainly knows how to play to the artists strengths. I was quite surprised by his versatility, because I recognized his name from working with Koda Kumi, so I was very impressed by how he was able to adapt to Sakamoto’s style quite easily and create a song that suits her perfectly (and the strings add a nice touch too). Sakamoto is right there with him too, with great interpretation. I like how she carries through phrases fully, and not only that, she creates a nice full and strong sound here.

4. つきのしじま (tsuki no shijima) / 牧野由依 as サクラ (Makino Yui as SAKURA)
There’s something about Kajiura Yuki and adding in the choir to open a lot of Makino Yui’s callborations. It provides a huge contrast to Makino’s light, high pitched voice. For a relatively young artist, she’s alright (and it’s safe to say that she does improve massively later on). I’m not quite that impressed with her singing here, because it’s very light and slightly uncontrolled. The flow of this song isn’t as good as it probably could have been, with a lot of abrupt moments occurring throughout, especially with the starting and stopping of the programming. I find that most of the song is lost through Makino’s interpretation though. There’s a great line (the third one) in the chorus that I think Makino could have definitely done much better in terms of singing with emotion, but it came out a little bit mechanical. It sounded like she had the right idea, but didn’t quite commit to what she wanted to do and came up a bit short.

5. 風の街へ (kaze no machi e) / FictionJunction KEIKO
What can I say about this song? Everything about it is just absolutely stunning. KEIKO has a different timbre to her voice than the usual (Japanese) artists that Kajiura tends to work with, but what a wonderful vocalist she is. Her ense of the music is amazing, and I love the way she makes use of dynamics and how she phrases throughout this song. She definitely is a mixture of grace and power. The composition is top notch, and not without the usual chorus Kajiura likes to include, but it’s not out of place. It actually meshes in quite well with the rest of the song. The programming is simple and gives off a pure atmosphere. This against the strings just adds the final touch, with solos and countermelodies by the cello and violin. To top it all off, Kajiura incorporates a strong piano base to hold the song together. Nothing short of perfection.

6. 斬光 (Zankou) / 稲田徹 as 黒鋼 (Ineda Tooru as Kurogane)
Is it wrong that I totally thought of some random Street Fighter background music when I first heard the opening? XD Ineda is by no means the greatest vocalist, but he seems to have better control over his singing. He does struggle with some of those held notes, falling out of tune whenever he gets them, but he sounds pretty decent elsewhere. There’s something about the melody of this song that catches my attention. I find the programming terribly cheesy, but many parts of this song remind me of a regular Jpop song, which is good. In any case, if you’re a Tsubasa fan, and you’ve always wondered how Kurogane would sound if he sang, you can be rest assured that he’s not completely hopeless.

7. キズナ (KIZUNA) / 入野自由 as 小狼 (Irino Miyu as Syaoran)
Again, this isn’t as cheesy as it could be, so it sounds like a regular Jpop song, especially one that comes straight from a boyband (e.g. V6). Irino is probably the one that did the best singing job with his song out of the rest of the feature seiyuu. He has decent control, and a fair bit of power despite his higher register. I like the dramatic strings during the non-vocal parts of this song. The electric guitar also gives the song more of an edge, helping to carry it through. Amazingly, I think this tops Ineda’s “Zankou”.

8. IT’S / キンヤ (KINYA)
Finally, we’re back to a better sounding KINYA. This song moves much faster, but it has a lot more character to it than “BLAZE” did. I like the little variations (although slight) that KINYA decided to include in this song. He doesn’t sound as one-dimensional as he had in BLAZE, so it helps make the song much more interesting. I find this song has a better balance in style, not a rock song attempting to sound overly pop. Everything about this song fits together well, so it flows much better. There’s a great upbeat melody that keeps you pumped all the way through. KINYA also sounds more comfortable singing this song, so I feel more willing to listen to this all the way through.

9. dream scape / FictionJunction KAORI
I’m not sure what it is about this FictionJunction project, but I just simply don’t like the work that came from these two. This one though, is a much better turn out than “tsubasa”. As I suspected, KAORI singing in her native tongue allows her to phrase better and more naturally, so she definitely brings in a beauty factor to this performance. Even though I don’t particularly like this song all that much, I definitely like KAORI’s interpretation here. I feel she added character to the song, made it her own, and prevented it from being just any other Kajiura Yuki song.

10. ring your song / 梶浦由紀 feat. 伊東恵里 (Kajiura Yuki feat. Itou Eri)
I absolutely adore this main theme from Future Soundscape IV. The piano provides a strong accompaniment next to the majestic melody played by strings. Itou adds a bit more finesse to the song itself by providing it with her beautiful vocals. She sings with a very lovely and lilting voice. She doesn’t always hit her notes immediately, causing her to swoop into the right notes, and I find that kind of distracting at times, but when she’s on, she’s on. I love the quality of her voice and tone. Simply gorgeous.

11. smile / 浪川大輔 as ファイ(Namikawa Daisuke as FAI)
It hurts me to have to sit through this after such a lovely performance. I’m sorry Fai, but as cute of a character you are, your voice actor should stick to only acting you out. Namikawa can barely hold his own through this song. He obviously is not made for singing, evident by the lifeless, toneless performance here (though I am slightly impressed that he managed to hit the descending line in the chorus fairly accurately). The composition of the song isn’t very impressive either. It’s too cheesy for my liking, and believe me, I can handle quite a bit of cheese. It has a nice guitar solo but that’s about it.

12. you are my love / 梶浦由紀 feat. 伊東恵里 (Kajiura Yuki feat. Itou Eri)
My first impression is that Itou doesn’t capture my attention as easily as she had done with “ring my song”. For some reason, she’s singing a bit differently here, with a much lighter and unsupported tone. I’m also noticing that she’s singing in a breathier tone as well. She still manages to hit some beautiful notes, but she doesn’t carry through as well as she did previously. A big difference here is that she is only supported by the guitar, and it’s pretty scarce in the entire song run, drawing more focus to Itou’s singing. It’s a good song as a whole, and very cryptic, but I can’t help but feel that it could have been done much better.

13. 旅の途中で希望の歌を歌おう (tabi no tochuu de kibou no uta wo utaou) / 牧野由依 as モコナ (Kikuchi Mika as MOKONA)
I haven’t particularly liked any of the songs sung in character so far, and unfortunately, not even the cuteness of this little thing could change my opinion. I actually like the melody quite a bit, and this song is insanely cute to match MOKONA’s character personality, but there’s really nothing special about it, nor does it set itself apart from any other image character songs. I also don’t really like the slower moments of the song because I find them to be out of place, but the little jazzy instrumental interlude and drum solo really stand out. Kikuchi does a nice job portraying MOKONA here, but otherwise, I can’t say much about the song.

14. 風待ちジェット (Kazemachi JET) / 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
I understand the idea of finishing off this album with the 2nd closing theme, but it feels more like an album opener than closer. This song really pushed Sakamoto’s singing a bit more than what she usually does. I love those lines during the chorus. I think Sakamoto nailed them, and her singing for the verses was actually better than the chorus. I felt she did a nice job overall and gave the song a unique character to it, even though the song itself was unique to begin with. Her singing wasn’t always on though, and you can hear her struggling with the higher notes of the song. She lacks some flow in her vocal performance that she had with “LOOP”. What caught my attention the most though, was the programming and instruemntation. I liked how each instrument served an important to the song, and I definitely like the feel that the violin solos gave. My favourite part of the song was right as the end when Sakamoto finished with only the staccato piano accompaniment, immediately after all the big fanfare of the other instruments stopped. It was a very nice contrast.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Kaze no machi e
This album certainly gave me mixed feelings. I don’t think I could sit through it in full again, only because there were too many songs I didn’t like as much as I had hoped (especially those character image songs). Some of the seiyuu did surprise me by how good they turned out (while others equally surprised me by how badly they turned out). Looking past that, it’s a nice collection of opening and ending themes, and insert songs. Some of these songs are simply divine, and many others are very strong and quite enjoyable to listen to.