Kalafina 「into the world / Märchen」20th single (Release April 5, 2017)

God I'm just repeating what you guys said here but what's with the covers ? They look really bad, I even like Blaze covers better than this, oh well (I'm still using all of them in my music library who am I kidding) I'm still looking forward to listening to the two singles especially the B-Side since I'm sure it will turn out great, all of their B-Side always hold nice surprises.
 
It's probably really low budget. I doubt Zaregoto is that popular, and it's being released months after the first ova was released, and Into the world was first used in Historia early last year.
 
Even if their budget is low, I don't think that it excuses the covers being so damn crappy. It's not like we're asking them to travel to Rome and take a photoshoot on the Sixtine Chapel (it'd be cool, tho), but at least hire someone who knows how to delete those horrible shadows in PS. I bet even most of us can actually do that lol.
For me it feels like the problem it's lack of interest rather than lack of money. I mean, I doubt the budget was much lower than when they started. And by that time you could really tell there was a lot of effort and attention put in each cover or PV (I mean, PVs were always boring, but at least they were aesthetically pleasing to watch). As someone mentioned, SH cover is a true art masterpiece.
Nowadays Kalafina girls seems to have become cashcows, and as far as they keep making money, no one really cares about the quality of whatever they're releasing. I bet they'll continue to be pushed to make an insane amount of lives, which will end up ruining even more their voices, since it's what it gives the more benefits. And no one will give a f*ck.
Don't get me wrong, Kalafina is still my favourite band. It's actually because of how much I love them that this makes me so angry. They're really talented ladies and deserve better ♥
 
I wonder what the PVs will look like... the covers of them don't really have much to work from (granted that's the case for most Kala covers). I just hope they aren't as bad as the covers, even though the dresses are literally just RYB+FOTW (that's not a bad thing and the dresses look nice; it's just the style is a bit overused). I could see Märchen's PV having almost a steampunk style, though that's probably not going to happen
 
If they get the same (shitty) director:

Pretty sure the into the world one will be similar to the far on the water one

Marchen will be something between Magia and blaze on my most hopeful bet.
 
george1234 said:
If they get the same (shitty) director:

Pretty sure the into the world one will be similar to the far on the water one

Marchen will be something between Magia and blaze on my most hopeful bet.
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That's my bet too.
 
grunty said:
Zaregoto not popular? You are mistaken, dear Quing. It's made for the same nisioisin/Monogatari fanbase so... Yea...
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Forgot it was a Nisio anime, hue. I haven't seen much discussion about it, so I thought it was not that popular. .
 
Oh my.

To kick my little input moment off, it comes across as a personal shock to let myself say this, but . . .
ritardando is right. :cry: Those physical sales are definitely A.) A bringer of the 円/$ over there, and B.) Just so alarmingly quickly forgotten to western culture. Like, when "buying albums" had no other meaning than purchasing a tangible CD really was not as long ago as it feels now. . .
And I know I will near always argue in favor of the utahime when their vocal qualities and choices are put in question BUT if this is another three-tour year and we don't get an album? Honey . . . my opinions will change.

Regarding the covers, all I can say is . . . bless. :rain:
That Blu-Ray one combined with the hardcore indoor lighting was especially in need of prayer. I feel a lot of things and so will (unsuccessfully) try to keep this at least somewhat compact:

• This cover is firstly just not good for this specific combination of A-side songs. The versions of the sea overlay such as the one from the fanpage (imo the best overall pic) and the vinyl should at least include a touch of some mountains or an old boat or pier, and this would encourage the ideal of the journey aspect of ITW, but would further push away the entire aesthetic of Märchen.
• Likewise, they could have alluded more to Zaregoto for Märchen with nods to that desaturated neon color scheme or slightly to Kunagisa with black dresses in similar fabric, but neither of those possesses the welcome, embarking feel of ITW.
• Speaking of the dresses, I agree with A.) the sleeves coming across as unflattering; these are not the RYB dresses and so even at the risk of looking very "Group USA", the sleeves/lace parts should have been as formfitting as possible and B.) the mention of KEIKO's high collar not being fit for her (for this specific moment though) and I believe she should switch dresses with WAKANA.
• Weird POV but in my opinion they should all have done a shoulder or back to the camera because it compliments the sea zoomout, and only one of them should have looked at the camera.
Therefore in my perfect world, the final redux would be HIKARU's fanpage promo OR vinyl pose, KEIKO's Limited Edition A pose, and WAKANA's Limited Edition B pose but looking away, panned out to -- and with the superior light-to-shadow editing of -- the vinyl cover.

Excited for the release!!!! :w00t:

Aelarion said:
The budget doesn't excuse the shiny-faces either. Olive oil isn't free.
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:imdead:

george1234 said:
If they get the same (shitty) director:
Marchen will be something between Magia and blaze on my most hopeful bet.
Click to expand...
That is kind of a wide margin for success or error . . .
 
Kowz said:
Forgot it was a Nisio anime, hue. I haven't seen much discussion about it, so I thought it was not that popular. .
Click to expand...
I don't care for the show myself (or any nisioisin shows) and I don't know about non-JP/fansub community but it's pushing over 11k units on each volume. That's pretty darn successful.
 
Slightly off-topic, another in-depth about the album art.

Okay, so I think my post is no longer a true representation of how I feel about the covers. Although I still think to say "bless", that's coming from what could have been, in comparison to their other covers. I actually liked the idea behind these covers, but the execution was poor. It's not that the editing is truly "superior" in the other covers, but that this one is the simplest (and although the aesthetic of the setup comes off as "cheap" to everyone else, I disagree with that because cheaply made things can still be artistic). There's no smoke machines, no traditional art outside of the clothing, no props, fake or real plantlife, etc., just the wall.
What really took me into believing this could be salvageable as a legitimate cover was when I saved all the covers to my iPhone and applied the "chrome" filter, which adds more definition and a bit more saturation, but most importantly (in this case), another white layer.
This heavily improved:
1.) that horrible outer studio wall shadow,
2.) the shadows on the dresses, which I noticed were horribly tailored in the midsection at the time of photography -- I assume the ladies might sing live in them multiple times, and hopefully between now and then something will be done to save them, though as pieces the dresses are still gorgeous,
3.) the ladies skin color -- it lightens and puts less contrast onto the tone and so makes that "olive oil" highlight actually look somewhat appealing (in my mind it now looks more as if they walked out of the sea rather than out of the gym)
4.) their hair, as the shine of HIKARU's (oh my god in this picture I'm starting to want her hair more than Keiko's hair and that is a serious shock, but alas I'm bald) and KEIKO's especially is tinted more blue, accentuating the inclusion of the fading sea in an unexpectedly attractive way.

The only remaining hindering factor is their shadows on the wall (which is both why we all love the fanpage and vinyl pictures as they're actually edited out) but I have really grown to like them. I especially appreciate the one for Edition B more, especially because it's zoomed in enough to not even catch that "office wall" corner shadow. The primary reason I don't like it is because Keiko, who I thought I could always count on for an editorial moment, looks like she was caught inhaling at the wrong time and should have been more reclined, like Hikaru. That right arm, girl.

The filtered examples from my phone:
 

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I presume they further edited (AKA brightened lol) the covers on the blog? Still look like ass.
Code: 
https://obs.line-scdn.net/0hUrbCULBuCl1fOiSOJVN1ChFnDDImWRBVNUIdZypsAHMqVh1dN0AfaydqAzUtWlFbZjctRn9YEQoBTBQMCjc8SwhCLW4XAxNDNw4WPQBhVHFyD0QCYF9GOno_VGUgXUoCZV8AOn5tVWUmCRk
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Okay... I am thinking into the world=far on the water too, though I kind of liked the fotw PV. I think of the Hikari furu dresses when I see these, but I like the lace. Wakana has the same hair as fotw pretty much. Yeah... about their oily faces. I don't know, have they said anything about the covers yet? I doubt they have any say in the matter because they would not look this bad. And yeah, we've had horrible covers before (Red Moon... there was no background, and the trees are kind of placed weirdly). Maybe it was meant to seem like their faces were reflecting off the water? Or maybe that's the product of the photoshop? Hmm. I hope into the world is a little different though since I LOVED it live.

But yay for a b-side (c-side? lol since there's two a-sides... I would say a, b, c. But that's just me.). I am hoping for something like fairytale or serenato again, but one can hope, right? I will continue to remain hopeful since I am liking blaze a lot more than I did before and I already liked Natsu no Asa. I liked the covers for it too. Anyways... that's my 2 cents until the samples (I know we've already heard the a-sides, but still.)
 
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