2014 Review

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The yeah or pretty much over so I wanted to make a thread to discuss Kajiura's performance this past year. For criteria, I'm looking at all projects and performances. This includes Hanako to Anne, SAO 2, kalafina, and the live vol 11. If you can think of anything else feel free to discuss it.

I'll start by saying that this year was excellent for me. Kalafina may have disappointed but Hanako and Anne was amazing. SAO has also been much better ever since the new arc started. The lives were also good. I still need to watch YK live but Yuuka was good.
 
Improved, still needs further improvement: Flying Dog's blu-ray menus (YK Live vol. #11 BD has a pop-up menu but it doesn't indicate the currently playing track).

Yet to show any promise: Flying Dog's lack of responsiveness to customer/retailer queries about same.
 
Oh that's right. I guess I didn't count them because the movies came out last year.
 
don't know what we're reviewing here - Kajiura's works (as in songs and lives) or overall (that includes merchandise etc and pop-up BD menu). i guess I'll just do all the things that I remember.

So far Kalafina new songs (heavenly blue and believe) are disappointing. May change when I listen for the 2 B-sides in believe (it's only 10 days until the release~). Really can't wait.

I agree with sora, Hanako to Anne is really great and her works for SAO improves (it seems that she's finally showing some interest in this show). Does RHH OST 3 really come out this year? i totally forget about it. Not as good as OST 1, but better than OST 2 imo. I'm still so-so about Remi. I need moar Hanae songs. KnK Mirai Fukuin OST is also okay. Madoka Rebellion OST is also really good, I love lots of songs from that OST.

I don't like live FJ live vol.11 elemental tour (that pretty much showed in my review of that BD). This BD my least favorite FJ live video release. Yuuka BD is somewhat better but I still don't like Kyoichi Sato's drumming and the Yuuka BD makes my preference for Nozaki increases even more.

Kalafina Calendar 2015 that's released this year is also an improvement than last year's calendar. me approves.

The Kalafina girls live performance ability is also improved I think - I still have some issues with Wakana and Hikaru, though.

FBM - I don't really like Korenaga's improvisation in some of their live performances, still don't really like Sato as usual, Jr. is okay, I think due to his age Konno's getting sloppy with his violin performance.

Hope for 2015 : I know I'm really evil but I hope something happens to Sato so that Nozaki could play for FJ/Kalafina again and we get to see that performance released.
 
^oh my god, that sato hate. anyway, i wanted to discuss Yuki's work this year but merchandise is fine too. i think 2014 has been one of kajiura's better years. probably her best since 2009.
 
I don't necessarily hope for something bad to happen to Sato, though. He could get a contract with better pay for another band/artist, for example. :XD:
 
ritardando said:
I don't necessarily hope for something bad to happen to Sato, though. He could get a contract with better pay for another band/artist, for example. :XD:
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Unfortunately for you, I believe he is the one with the longest ties to yuki, iirc. He even wears his FBM t-shirt proudly. I think the chance of him leaving by choice is pretty low. I disliked the drums at Lisani for seventh heaven, but I believe that he doesn't always play it like that so I don't really mind as much. No performance stays the same forever. We'll see what happens at budokan next year, assuming they don't do an acoustic version.
 
Yes, I know that fact. He already worked with Kajiura since her early see-saw days. I do respect him. The problem is that for me, like I've always pointed before, Sato didn't know how to read the mood/emotion of a song. He plays the drum for the sake of playing it, only to upkeep the tempo of a song - and that really disturbs me because I can't enjoy the song as whole.

About the drums for seventh heaven, since he played it like that in the Type-Moon Fes in 2012 and because the LisAni live is in 2014, I assume that he always played it like that. Same thing could be said for Hikari no Senritsu in Red Moon Live DVD (2010) and Consolation Special Final DVD (2013).

Please excuse my another Sato rambling :bow:
 
^hmm. I don't recall the drums being played like that for all the live versions. It has been some time since I listened to the type moon Fes version but I don't remember disliking it. At least, I'm satisfied with the live album ver. I understand preferring nozaki at times.
Like how I preferred some past performances, band wise, versus vol. 11, but mine is mostly because I've gotten used to the song being played that way.
 
Iirc so far we've got 4 live versions of seventh heaven, 1 from Type Moon Fes, 1 fros LisAni live, 1 acoustic live from Alleluia single and 1 from the 5th anniv. live selection album. The one from 5th anniv. live selection album has Nozaki on drums. The drumming in Type Moon Fes and LisAni live are the same. Maybe it feels kinda different because of the different level of mixing. The LisAni live mixing for the drum volume is way too loud imo, I think that's why we notice the mood-killer drumming on LisAni live more.
 
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We still havent got SAO's II both soundtrack's Kalafina's believe and FSN's arrangements, wihch all belong to 2014 composition-wise, so doing the 2014 review in April would be more appropriate :)
 
From an artistic and qualitative point of view it wasn't the best year for Kalafina, for sure. Though I like HB and believe I'm kind of disappointed with them (still hoping b-sides will make me change my mind). But I think this was a great year in terms of increase in popularity thanks to the best-albums, which permitted new fans to get introduced into Kala's music, and to the collaboration of two famous titles such as Aldnoah and Fate Stay Night. I also have to mention the appearences at TV shows, for example at Utage. Regarding lives, I can say I'm pretty satisfied with all of them except for the first time HB which was pretty awful.

On FJ side there isn't much to say. I quite enjoyed vol.11 though the lack of energy from the utahimes and I haven't watched Yuuka's live, so I can't judge.
 
^kalafina has definitely gotten more exposure. Unfortunately, it seems as though the songs they are getting popular for are going to become the new standard for the group. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I do prefer the type of music they sang during the early days.
 
Kalafina's vocals and and ability to perform live seem to have improved a lot this year. Music-wise I can't completely judge yet, but so far, it's been one of their weakest. 2012 was still their worst year though (weak Wakana vocals, two disappointing singles). This year was more of a resting year for their music since they're focusing on getting more exposure first. Their BEST album nationwide promotion must have been extremely tiring for them, but their popularity has increased by a large margin if compared on a year-to-year basis. They have to get ready for Budokan, after all.

I'm now just patiently awaiting the B-sides from Believe. And I'm calling it now - they'll announce their next album at Budokan or sometime after that.

I gave up on SAO, and I haven't listened to the Hanako to Anne OST, so I can't comment on them. I'm personally more interested in Kajiura's action/battle tracks more than anything.

We can't forget FictionJunction too. When the Elemental album came out at the beginning of this year, the title track blew me away. In my opinion, it's one of her best songs in a very long time. Shame that the rest of the new songs were meh, but then, the live BD came out, and my impression changed from 'meh' to 'hmm, it's actually pretty good' once I see it performed live. I loved the BD, even if their energy was somewhat lacking (and Yuriko too).

And there's FJ Yuuka. To be honest, I dismissed her as Kajiura's weakest project and weakest vocalist until I saw the FJY vol. 11 BD. I never realized how good her songs were and how only she could handle those songs with her type of voice, unsuited for harmonies, but perfect for solo performances. It blew me away, and I now love that BD to death.

I'll give an overall conclusive review once the B-sides come out, but at least for now, it's been a good year. Not the best, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
 
It's been a few weeks since Believe was released and I am very happy to say that it was great. Since we're probably not getting anything new for the rest of the year, I 'm going to say that 2014 is probably as good as last year. At least for Kalafina. In fact, the quality of their output this year is very similar to last year's. They released one original tie-in song that was decent. (HB/Alleluia) Then they released a great single with two songs that I loved and one that grew on me. (INE&lapis/KNGNN&Tsuioku + Believe/Misterioso)
 
Kirito said:
And there's FJ Yuuka. To be honest, I dismissed her as Kajiura's weakest project and weakest vocalist until I saw the FJY vol. 11 BD. I never realized how good her songs were and how only she could handle those songs with her type of voice, unsuited for harmonies, but perfect for solo performances. It blew me away, and I now love that BD to death.
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It's nice to see people change their minds on YUUKA and her songs. (Even if I didn't like how sterile this 2days live BD seemed myself.)
 
I couldn't really enjoy any Kalafina A-side song since moonfesta, even live they've all been horrible to listen too... in every nothing and having them come to Europe balanced it all out for me though.
Fiction Junction on the other hand rocked this year by releasing and singing live storm and gaika :love: :hero: :hearts:
Didn't get the chance to listen to any OSTs yet though...
 
Well, it's pretty much guaranteed that nothing else will be happening this year, so it seems viable to do a check on this year's releases.

I haven't really paid that much attention to FictionJunction thus far (god knows why) so after recently picking up Elemental, I'm really quite happy with it. Of course, only a few of those tracks are actually new in 2014, but that includes Gaika, which I absolutely love. Overall it's a really nice album and I'm happy I got it.

Then there's the YK and FJY lives which I haven't actually seen, so can't comment there.

As for Kalafina releases... it's not a good year. The Best releases were cool I guess, but nothing particularly special and frankly the track lists don't interest me at all, they're missing numerous songs that I'd consider 'best' and including a few songs I really wouldn't. The cover arts are nice, but that's all I'm really giving them. I haven't seen the bonus material yet either so can't comment there.

Heavenly Blue is terrible.

Believe itself is terrible. I do really like IEN and lapis though, so that's a good sign. Even more so, it was reassuring to know that they can still release good songs after having two in a row that sucked. Also, Believe's dresses are really pretty :love:.

There's also been a few good live performances this year, but also a few which really weren't very good around the time of their Best releases. Mixed bag, really.

On the other hand, I've finally seen them sing live and that performance was absolutely perfect :plz:. Maybe would've switched a few songs out, but that's the only complaint I have, at all.

I still haven't listened to HtA either :@_@:. I'm so behind.

As an aside, some of their merchandise this year has also been welcome. The KnGnN special live postcards and shirt are great and I'm really looking forward to picking up the KnGnN live and 2014 live tour photobooks too, plus the new calendar has some lovely pictures.

Here's hoping that 2015 will bring us something new and shiny, and less shitty single a-sides. Overall 2014 is weaker than 2013 overall I'd say, simply because I really enjoyed Consolation and the Kimi no Gin no Niwa single and they're both far better than any Kalafina releases this year.
 
I totally forgot that consolation released last year. In that case, this year really was a step down from last. Oh well, at least there's always next year.
 
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