Please bear with me and my little surprise… Chara-ani.com posted a pre-order of the Macross F opening theme song entitled “Triangular”, with a footnote about the work being a collaboration between Yoko Kanno and Maaya Sakamoto. Too good to be true? Well wow if it’s true!

Details:

Price: ￥1,050 (approx. $9.84 USD)
Date of Sale: April 23, 2008
Pre-sales: February 29 - March 18, 2008

There are also details in the same site about the Macross F ending theme song, sang by Sheryl Nome. The title is still undecided. Why don’t they put May’n as the singer if she is really the singer? It’s also at a higher price than the opening theme song, and is released two weeks after.

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The Tokyo Anime Fair 2008’s blog details the winners of this year’s awards. Yoko Kanno has been given the award for best music for her work in the Auquarion movie. She has previously won this award in the years 2003 and 2004, making this her third time to win the award.

The Tokyo Anime Fair awards ceremonies will be held on March 29, 2008 at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center’s East Hall.

The full list of winners are as follows:

Anime of the Year:
Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0

TV Anime of the Year:
Gurren-Lagann and Dennou Coil

Movie of the Year:
Summer Vacation with Coo the Kappa
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Another set of rather old news. Yoko Kanno’s “Little Black Book” from the Napple Tale OST 1 was included in the soundtrack of the German film Hanami - Kirschblueten . The film premiered last February 11, 2008 at the Berlinale Palast, and the OST was released on February 15, 2008.

Listen to parts of the Hanami - Kirschblueten OST here. The credits to each track could be viewed on jpc.de. The CD could be purchased through Amazon for 16.95 Euros (approx. 25.12 USD).

Sources: YKDB Forum, Hanami - Kirschblueten Official Website

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Following the success of the online release of CMYoko, HMV.com reports its re-release in an album that contains a bonus of two new songs. One of which is the 2006 Microsoft CM with the theme “Living in Future”, and the 2004 AGC CM with the theme “Glass Shoes”. HMV also marks the album as “Remastered”.

The best part is, it’s going to be a real CD this time around.

Details:

Price: Y2100 (approx. $19.46 USD)
Release Date: April 25, 2008
Catalog Number: GTCA12
Label: GrandTrax
Format: CD

sources: coma, HMV.com, CD Japan

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May Nakabayashi also known May’n, is said to have provided Sheryl Nome’s singing voice. This piece of news is not yet finalized as I have yet to see an official Macross publication that credits her for the vocals. Even her official website doesn’t have any news about her involvement in this recording, but then again, it’s not been updated in a while.

You may listen to samples of her voice at listen.jp. At first listen to those samples, it seems to me that May Nakabayashi has a timbre better than that which we have heard on Don’t be Late, which is rather thin and throaty.

sources: http://tieba.baidu.com , Macross World.com

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