CM alert - Kanno made the background music for the Meiji Chocolate CM, entitled “Album”. It’s a soft piano and violin piece, and the video is about a girl browsing through the photo album of her parents’ wedding, and her baby photos. The CM videos are at Meiji’s CM Gallery. You may also listen to the piece at GrandFunk.net. (more…)

For those who could read Japanese, an interview with Kanno pertaining to her CMYoko compilation is available at CDJournal.com . Translation submissions are more than welcome (more…)

There are two new CMs for the Pachinko toy that Aquarion franchise is promoting (details unclear on this one). A special section of the Aquarion Movie website features Hanako Takigawa who is the image model for the Aquarion CM, and photos from the making of the new CM. Some screenshots here:

The set

Takigawa on a harness

The finished 30 minute and 15 minute CMs are also available in the website. To navigate the website, go to the main page, choose CM Theater at the bottom menu, then choose the hexagon with the TV CM to view the CMs, and the Report to view the making.

The new version of Sousei no Aquarion is playing at the background. The new versions of the songs (more…)

There seems to be an abundance of Yoko Kanno covers recently. Another cover that flew under our radar is Nana Akiyama’s cover of Hashiru in her fourth single, “Onaji Hoshi” (roughly translates to “Twin Star“). The song was originally performed by Maaya Sakamoto in her second album entitled Dive.

Listen to song samples of Onaji Hoshi in Neowing. It sounds perkier than the original. I have yet to listen to the full version to make a proper review of the cover

Details:
Album Title: Onaji Hoshi
Catalog no: VICL-36339
Price: Y1200 (approx. $10.30)
Release Date: September 19, 2007

Tracklist:

1. Onaji Hoshi
2. Yawaraka na Itami
3. Hashiru
4. Onaji Hoshi Instrumental
5. Yawaraka na Itami Instrumental
6. Hashiru Instrumental

For those who are not familiar with the original version performed by Maaya, here is the promotional video of Maaya Sakamoto’s Hashiru: (more…)

UPDATE: Victor Japan has uploaded samples of the songs listed below. As a correction, the song Rena “sings” is Kouya no Heath, not Rena no Tampopo. It turned out a bit better than I expected. The previews in the Aquarion CMs were in terrible quality. I kinda miss AKINO’s belting though

Details:

Album Title: Sousei no Aquarion
Release Date: October 10, 2007
Price: Y600 (approx 5.10 USD)
Release Type: Download

Original post: It has been mentioned before that the song Sousei no Aquarion has a new version that sounds like a duet between the voice actors of Apollo and Silvia. Now it seems that there is more than one Aquarion song with a new version.

They are the following:

Sousei no Aquarion (Element Gattai* Ver.)
Vocals by:
Apollo (Takuma Terashima)
Silvia (Yumi Kakazu)
Reika (Sanae Kobayashi)

Go Tight! (Element Gattai* Ver.)
Vocals by:
Apollo (Takuma Terashima)
Silvia (Yumi Kakazu)
Reika (Sanae Kobayashi)

Kouya no Heath (Rena Rune Ver.)
Vocals by:
Rena (Hiromi Satou)

*”Gattai” means “Unite”.

Source: The Official Aquarion Blog

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