CD review: “Maddy Candy” single

While the CD single for Sawako’s High School band Death Devil was among the last CD releases to come out of K-On!’s first season, the title track “Maddy Candy” was actually the anime’s first insert song.

Well, kind of. You only ever hear a fragment of the song in the series itself – specifically in episode 4 “Training Camp!”, when Mio plays it back from an old cassette tape (including of course the guitar solo that Yui imitates).

The B-side “Hell The World” isn’t heard in the anime per se, but Sawako’s trademark yell opens the track. Both songs are composed and arranged by K-On!’s music producer Shigeo Komori, with words by KANATA. The usual instrumental versions are also included.

Is the music any good? Honestly, I’m not qualified to give an informed opinion. This isn't the type of music I’d normally listen to, although I don’t find it too hard on the ears either. Still, I have a feeling that the type of music aficionado who would think “Death Devil” is an awesome name for a band rather than an over-the-top parody band name would probably not be too impressed.



Ah, that adorable K-On! charm...

The CD comes in a standard jewel case, one of those old-fashioned ones that don’t have a clear spine. The disc features a rather unique design involving a skull and a scythe, and the cover inlay consists of two four-page foldouts – one containing the credits (all in English) and one containing the song lyrics.

No, that is not a black & white photo.

Death Devil’s “Maddy Candy” is probably the least interesting K-On! CD for most fans, except of course for those whose taste in music happen to be closer to this kind of style. For the rest of us, this single is of interest primarily for completion purposes, or for some, I’m sure; not at all.

CD review: “Fuwa Fuwa Time” single

The first song written and performed by the Light Music Club, “Fuwa Fuwa Time” has become more or less the signature song of the band and to some extent the K-On! anime itself. With lyrics “by Mio”, taken directly from Kakifly’s manga (and expanded upon for the anime) and the music composition credited in the anime to Tsumugi Kotobuki (but really by Hiroyuki Maezawa, composer of “Don’t Say “Lazy””) the song can be considered the classic K-On! song.

This CD single includes a full-length version of the song, based on the performance in episode 6 “School Festival!” with Mio (Yoko Hikasa) doing lead vocals, but with a more polished sound and with Yui (Aki Toyosaki)’s background vocals done straight rather than with the husky voice (a full length version of the “Husky voiced Yui” mix exists, but that CD was never commercially released and can be a little tricky to come by).

The single’s B-side track is “Tsubasa wo Kudasai”. Not the short instrumental version played in the first anime episode (Remember that? Well, no, if you’ve only seen Bandai’s US version, you wouldn’t… Okay, okay, moving on!) but a full three minute version in an original K-On!-style “rock” arrangement with all four club members taking turns doing the vocals.

Following that is the usual instrumental mix of both songs, followed by four additional instrumental versions of “Fuwa Fuwa Time”, each one subtracting one of the main four instruments.

The CD single comes in a standard clear jewel case. The regular kind, not the thinner ones often used for singles.

The cover insert is a simple four-page booklet, with the song lyrics and the credits found inside. The lyrics are done in a hand written style. One may wonder whose hand writing this is supposed to be.

The CD itself is blank and shiny like CD’s tend to be, with no artwork aside from the cutesy “hand writing” style titles.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this, I guess. The CD doesn’t come with a whole lot of bells and whistles, but the content is what’s important here. It’s “Fuwa Fuwa Time”. That in itself should be enough information for any K-On! fan to decide if this CD is worth getting or not.

News: K-On! movie trailer and song titles released!

Broadcaster TBS’ official K-On! website has been updated with streaming video of the new trailer for the upcoming K-On! movie. Unlike the previous two teasers, this is a full-on trailer that shows actual footage from the film.

In addition, the website has revealed the titles of the new songs that are to appear in the film (and are briefly previewed in the trailer): An opening song named “Ichiban Ippai”, a theme song named “Unmei♪wa♪Endless!” and an ending song named “Singing!”. Tom-H@ck (“Cagayake!GIRLS”) composed the opening and theme songs, while Hiroyuki Maezawa (“Don’t Say “Lazy””) is responsible for the ending song. Shoko Omori wrote the lyrics for all three.

Three months to go…

Fan stuff! Drummer Girl!

Something you’ll find a lot of on YouTube is videos of people playing along to K-On! songs with their instruments – some successfully, others less so. One who has caught the attention of many K-On! fans is the (currently) 14 year old drummer Senri Kawaguchi, who has done numerous such recordings. Her K-On! covers aren’t necessarily her most impressive performance (check out this video from when she was nine years old!) but hey, this is a K-On! fan blog.

These three videos were all done back in 2009, not too long after the anime first started.

Upcoming releases

So, I figured it’s time to post an updated list of upcoming K-On! media. Only Japanese and English language versions listed.

September 13^th – “K-On! Vol. 3” anime DVD/Blu-Ray (US)

September 14^th – “K-On! Vol. 2” anime DVD/Blu-Ray (AUS)

September 27^th – “K-On! Anthology Comic Vol. 5” manga (JP)

November 14^th – “K-On! Vol. 2” anime DVD (UK)

November 16^th – “K-On! Vol. 3” anime DVD/Blu-Ray (AUS)

December 3^rd – “K-On!” movie theatrical release (JP)

December 5^th – “K-On! Vol. 3” anime DVD (UK)

December 13^th – “K-On! Vol. 4” manga (US)

January 9^th – “K-On! Vol. 4” anime DVD (UK)