Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 2000% - Idol Song Cecil Aijima CD review

Title: Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 2000% Idol Song Cecil Aijima
Artists: Cecil Aijima (Toriumi Kousuke)
Release date: 5 June 2013
Version: n/a

Packaging: Until I figured out the "trick" with the covers this cover bothered me with the fact that you could clearly see Cecil's face on the book he was holding up. Of course like the rest of the series it is meant to be an image with a crown that looks to be continuous from the character and once realizing that I have come to like it as much as the rest. Still love the style they chose for the covers for this single series and the muted greens work well. Outside of that it is basically the same packaging as the rest of the series and it rather standard.

Track listing:

1. 星のファンタジア (Hoshi no Fantasia)
A nice slow paced pop song that features the flute, Cecil’s character instrument, quite a bit. Toriumi's voice suits this kind of light and breezy song style well so it never gets to the point of sounding whiny. I love the instruments that weave in and out of the song, while the flute is one of the major ones there are also strings and a saxophone that come and go until the instrumental break that marks the move towards to the end of the song. Their flourish there feels like a natural cumulation and the perfect way to bring the song to its peak.

2. HAPPINESS
This song for me is rather skippable. Unlike the other track this one does not suit Toriumi’s voice at all, so it sounds off and does not have the force a song like this needs for it to really work. And I know they were probably going for cool with the spoken lines but it sounds more creepy than anything to me. There are other characters this song would have been a better fit for. So while the idea of having something different for Cecil was nice it probably needed to go in a different direction than where they went with this song.

3. 星のファンタジア (Hoshi no Fantasia) (instrumental)
4. HAPPINESS (instrumental)

Overall: This ended up being a mixed bag with the first song being a hit but the second a miss. It does make me wonder what the process is in selecting songs for characters as some of them in this single series do not seem to be good matches with them, with HAPPINESS being just one example of this.

Thankfully though Hoshi no Fantasia makes up for the weakness of the second song for being a solid song for Cecil.

Blogging Future

With recent changes in my life I have had to put off blogging for the most part in the past couple of months. My free time has declined so a part of it has been because of that. Another has been just a general feeling of burn out with everything I have been doing. So recently I have been taking it easy and getting into mobile games mostly as I try to keep things going but for the most part failing at it. This time has allowed me to rethink about all my projects that I keep juggling and how to move forward with them.

In the end my first priority is my fiction writing. I love writing and have put this on the back burner for too long. I want to get another book out to sell as an e-book to keep making some progress in living my dream as being able to make money off my writing. Of course I really want to get two out, as I have the next book of the series I already started and published the first novella for in the rewriting stage. The other will be a new series but I want to get the first two done before putting out the first so I can get the second one out in a timely fashion.

I definitely want to keep blogging. I enjoy it too much to completely stop but I do know there is going to have to be some changes with how I am doing it. Instead of having the three blogs I have spread myself across I want to go down to a single one. I will not stop blogging about what I have been, just it will all be mixed in as a general interest blog instead of having my idol blogs being their own separate things. So all new posts I would have made on those blogs are going to be moved over here, which for now is mostly CD reviews.

This was decided as I would rather have one blog that is somewhat active compared to three blogs that are mostly inactive. I want to try to see about bringing over all the entries in the other blogs to this one. But that will be whenever I have free time so it will be a slow process. Until I have done so though I will keep the other blogs up so people can view those older posts.

For my videos, I do plan on continuing to make them. I have not had the time to work on them to get what I have already filmed up so for a while it will be working to catch up with that. If I can get one out a week I will be happy. I know there are Kobushi Factory and Country Girls PVs I need to do reactions for and I want to finish with C-ute in the near future. And then there are several unboxing videos I have of CDJapan orders from the past few months that need to go up. But again I do not want to fret too much about it as it is not as much of a priority as my writing is.

With these changes I hope to achieve the balance I have been trying to attain for some time. I started all these hobbies out of my enjoyment of doing them and I have been so grateful for those who have enjoyed what I have produced. So I hope these changes help me continue on with them at a steady pace so people can keep enjoying them without the worry of a sudden unexplained stop, like what has happened.

Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 2000% - Idol Song Natsuki Shinomiya CD review

Title: Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 2000% Idol Song Natsuki Shinomiya
Artists: Shinomiya Natsuki (Taniyama Kisho)
Release date: 29 May 2013
Version: n/a

Packaging: It of course falls in line with the rest of this series of singles with its style. I do like this image of Natsuki more than the one for the first series of solo singles. I do not think I have mentioned it with the other reviews for but on the back cover of the CD the front cover art is used but with washed out colors minus the part of the image that reveals the crown.

Track listing:

1. シリウスへの誓い (Sirius e no Negai)
I love the start of this song, with the big focus on Taniyama's voice as he starts it off strong with it. The song has that rock vibe with it that Natsuki's solo songs tend to have. It does also mix in classical instruments and has an interesting flow to it with it moving from the softer sounds of those to the harder sounds of the rock instruments for the chorus. It really sets it apart from other Utapri songs and works quite well with Taniyama's vocals as he gets to show off his voice, especially his vibrato.

2. ☆YELL☆
A fast paced song that is more general pop that reminds me more of older anime songs, but in a good way. It does still work in a guitar solo though so it is not completely devoid of rock elements. This has good energy and I like the yells that are scattered without. I have the feeling that this is a pretty fun song to see performed live as it is bound to pump out an audience.

3. シリウスへの誓い (Sirius e no Negai) (instrumental)
4. ☆YELL☆ (instrumental)


Overall: Another of the stronger singles from this series. I have come to really like Taniyama's vocals and I am glad he continues to get some of the stronger songs to compliment them. The stand out song is the first track though, but YELL is hardly bad. But Sirius e no Negai just has more going for it and again it just stands out with the way it progresses throughout.

Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 2000% - Idol Song Ren Jinguji CD review

Title: Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 2000% Idol Song Ren Jinguji
Artists: Jinguji Ren (Suwabe Junichi)
Release date: 22 May 2013
Version: n/a

Packaging: It is the basic packaging that all the releases in this series of singles has. The image of Ren on the cover though does a great job of fitting the theme as well as capturing the personality of the character. I definitely missed though that the picture he is holding has the crown, as well as him wearing an ascot instead of the tie he actually is wearing. Now that I have noticed that element in the covers it is definitely a favorite checking those little differences out.

Track listing:

1. オレンジラプソディ (Orange Rhapsody)
I am a sucker for songs that start of a capella so there was a point in this song's favor right off the bat. The rest of the song is a fun jazzy pop song that I love. It is one of my favorite songs for Ren and it works in his character instrument, the saxophone, quite well. Suwabe sounds great in this song and it is a track I have no issue listening on repeat.

2. FREEDOM
I'm amazed at how well the saxophone solo in this song works considering this is a dance-pop tune. In fact most of the song sounds like an dance song then there is a surprise saxophone solo that just really works in giving the song that extra something to stand out. It is a strong song overall with a nice driving beat that moves it along.

3. オレンジラプソディ (Orange Rhapsody) (instrumental)
4. FREEDOM (instrumental)


Overall: A strong character single for Ren and one of my favorites for this series of singles for the anime. It really feels like Ren got some of the better songs from this single series and I like this one better than his single from the last single series.

There is really nothing that I dislike or even feel all that indifferent about for this single and I would recommend it as one of the singles to use to help showcase the music of the series.