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egg ~Get Wild & Be Sexy~
Release Date: 9/30/09
Price: 2800 yen
CD+DVD release from Avex. egg is a Japanese magazine focusing on overly tanned girls and their respective fashions. Mostly eurobeat, but some trance managed to sneak its way in. Notable for having Tsukasa’s latest single, “Shuuketsu no Sono e,” as well as Tsukasa’s awesome cover of “Ginga Tetsudou 999.” Also includes a DVD with ParaPara routines.
Buchiage Parance 10*Special (CD+DVD)
Release Date: 9/23/09
Price: 2848 yen
The good news is that they changed the title to something a little more intelligible. The bad news is that the track list is mostly licenses from Exit Trance and Super Anime Remix, along with some repeats from Speed Anime M@ster. There are no actual repeats from previous Buchiage releases or even Euro! Panic, yet the list still looks rather stale. It doesn’t even have a new Kei song 🙁
The DVD has a surprising number of tracks, though I don’t know how many of them are ParaPara routines.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
Yes, another Wa Euro Best post. Dancemania releases are so rare now that I can’t help but cover every single aspect of each release. 😉
Anyway, Densetsu13 previously mentioned in the comments that a video crew was present at the 9LoveJ release party, and now we know why. Someone has posted new promotional videos on YouTube (and Nico Video) with footage from the event. I’m still not entirely clear on when and where the videos are airing in Japan, or how Bulgarian user kkakbkb got a hold of them, but in any case it’s nice to see even more promotional push from EMI.
Videos 3 and 4 prominently feature gaijin which, again, I find ironic considering the album theme.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
Wa Euro Best continues to make news! EMI report that the 9LoveJ release party for Wa Euro Best was a huge success, focusing in particular on the presence of gaijin: http://www.emimusic.jp/dancemania/news/?rssno=28
The ones in the picture below are, from left to right, Jason, Heather, and Alex.
Meanwhile, Wa Euro Best sold another 7,500+ copies in its fourth week of release. That’s not a bad drop-off from last week. Total sales are somewhere above 30,000 copies, which is absolutely phenomenal. I really have no idea how EMI pulled it off.
Buchiage Parance #10th Best (CD+DVD)
Release Date: 9/23/09
Price: 2848 yen
The 10th release in the long-running Buchiage Parance/Trance series has a strangely perplexing title. Placing a # sign in front of an ordinal just strikes me as bizarrely redundant. Then again, this is the country that gave us Super Anime Remix Super Best. I really hope this isn’t another Best release, though, since they already released one shortly after Buchiage Trance #6. CDJapan’s description does mention that it’ll be a mix of best hits and new songs. Let’s just hope it’s more of the latter. #9 had mostly Akiba Koubou songs, and I’d expect this one to have those as well as Euro Panic! repeats.
The series has sold over 1,000,000 copies over the past few years, but sales have declined recently. With Wa Euro Best selling well, however, the appetite for Euro may be on the rise once again and we could see another surprise hit on our hands.
Pre-order at CDJapan. Amazon Japan also have it for only 2,452 yen.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best -download selection-
Release Date: 8/12/09
Price: 1200-2550 yen
Wa Euro Best -download selection- is now up for sale on most major Japanese download services. It includes full versions of most of the songs from the CD, with the exceptions of “Bacchikoi” and the two Pachislot songs.
For those outside of Japan, your best bet is either iTunes or Music Ocean. Unfortunately, EMI added Wa Euro Best as a “Partial Album” on iTunes, so you can only buy the individual tracks. If you want to buy all 17 tracks, it’ll be 2550 yen.
Music Ocean (Musico) does offer all 17 tracks as 320 kbps MP3s for only 1,200 yen. That may seem like a good deal, but I just had a horrible experience with them. In the past I’ve only downloaded single tracks from Musico and got ridiculously slow download speeds (5 kB/s). Luckily the downloads completed without cutting off. However, if you buy an album you get it as a freakishly large zip file, and you only get two chances to download it. Long story short: don’t buy full albums from Musico. You’re better off just getting the individual files that you really want.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
First, some corrections regarding the track list. Track 6 was previously listed as “Ginga Tetsudou 999,” but there was indeed a last-minute change and it’s been replaced by “Samishii Nettaigyo.” Also, “Sousei no Aquarion” had been listed as the Haruka version, but it’s actually the Nagisa version on the final release.
Also, EMI have put up the TV commercial on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsvWwuD9-VU
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the female dancer appeared as one of the competitors on the Natsu Monogatari 2009 DVD. A bit odd that EMI hired non-Japanese people to promote a release that’s specifically targeted at Japanese people, but maybe they were going for the irony.
As first reported at ParaParaStage, DJ Yossy/Yosshi/whatever claimed that his future in the business hedged on this release. Apparently the requirements were that Wa Euro Best either A) Sold 10,000 copies or B) Placed in the Oricon Top 100. Well, I’m happy — and quite frankly, shocked — to report that it has accomplished not one, but BOTH of those goals.
In its first week out, Wa Euro Best reached number 23 on the weekly Oricon Top 100, selling a little over 5,000 units. That’s an amazing feat for a dance compilation these days. What’s ever crazier is that in its second week it sold even better, with another 6,000+ copies sold. Keep in mind that Oricon don’t track sales from all retailers, so in all Wa Euro Best has probably sold somewhere around 15,000 copies. Hopefully that’s enough for EMI to release a 2010 edition of Natsu Monogatari, and perhaps even an Italo-Euro Best.
Update (8/26): In its third week of release Wa Euro Best sold a further 8,000 copies! That means a total of around 20,000, which is a phenomenal number.
Thanks to everyone who supported the release!
My Jewel
Artist: Nagisa
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 952 yen
Formerly known as “Nagisa Desu*,” the title has since changed to “My Jewel.” The J-Euro queen’s first mini-album will feature her most popular songs as well as her newest hit, “Step, U darling.”
Super Anime Remix Super Best
Release Date: 7/22/09
Price: 2857 yen
First of all, that title is ridiculously redundant. Second, the font looks exactly like the font EMI used to use for their Dancemania “Super Best” releases.
Although it looks like there are a lot of repeats, a few of the songs seem to have new vocalists. It’s unclear of the tracks will be remixed as well, but it’s doubtful. After all, when Akiba Koubou did a Nagisa version of “Sousei no Aquarion” it was just the Haruka version with Nagisa’s vocals instead. 🙁
By the way, it seems that Dreamusic will be hosting a ParaPara competition of their own. Details at the SAR Official Site.
egg ParaPara Compilation
Release Date: 9/30/09
Price: 2800 yen
CD+DVD release from Avex. egg is a Japanese magazine focusing on overly tanned girls and their respective fashions. No preliminary tracklist yet, but expect eurobeat and lots of it.
Pre-order at CDJapan.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
The official Dancemania website has been updated with info on Wa Euro Best. The track list they have up has “Samishii Nettaigyo,” which appeared on Natsu Monogatari 2008, in place of “Ginga Tetsudou 999.” However, I think that’s a typo, as HMV lists “Ginga Tetsudou 999.” Other than that, not much new info, except for the announcement that the release will come with a lyrics booklet.
Actually, there is one bit of surprising news: DIGITAL DOWNLOADS! A Wa Euro Best “Download Selection” will be available shortly after the CD release. Judging by the title, not all of the tracks will be available, but this will still be the first time that EMI have digitally offered full versions of Dancemania tracks. No word yet on which tracks will be available for download. It’s just a shame EMI didn’t start doing this with Natsu Monogatari 2009 or Hime Trance Anime Mix.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
Somehow the final list looks even worse than the preliminary one. We’re only getting six new tracks. In fact, it’s really only 5 since the “Red Monster Hyper Mix” of “Banzai” is essentially the same as the Mocchi edit. Another one of the “new” tracks is an existing eurobeat remix of Nagisa’s “Come On.” There are three new anime covers that haven’t appeared anywhere else, though, plus the new Rumi Itabashi song.
There are only 20 tracks in all, so we should get fairly lengthy edits of each. A shame Misa’s “Natsu Monogatari” didn’t make it onto the final list. It would’ve been nice to hear the full second verse of the Eurobeat version.
The cover is looking pretty good, though they probably should’ve had a cartoon “Hime” version of Rumi on the cover to trick people into thinking it was part of the Hime Trance series. Heck, why not just call it Hime Euro?
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen
Interesting discussion going on at ParaParaStage. It seems that DJ Yosshi, the producer of the Natsu Monogatari series, may be forced to retire if Wa Euro Best doesn’t sell well. Seeing as how Natsu Monogatari is basically the only thing keeping the Dancemania brand alive, this is very dire news. If DJ Yosshi goes, then we can say goodbye to Natsu Monogatari 2010 and effectively to Dancemania as well.
According to the thread, Wa Euro Best either has to A) Sell 10,000 copies or B) Place in the Oricon Top 100. The first thing is pretty unlikely, especially if it’s true that he wants it to sell that much in a week. As for placing in the Top 100, let’s take a look at the history of Summer Story’s highest chart placements:
Natsu Monogatari 2007 – 82
Natsu Monogatari 2008 – 162
Natsu Monogatari 2009 – 215
Yeah, not looking all that great. Super Eurobeat hasn’t even broken the top 100 since SEB 190, and the last eurobeat FARM compilation to do well was VIP Hybrid (139th place). The latest Love Para didn’t even break the top 300. 🙁
What sales are necessary to get into the Top 100? Well, it varies. Last week, the 100th album sold a little under 1,500 copies. However, a few weeks ago #100 only sold 1,000 copies. So, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 copies is the bare minimum for Wa Euro Best to reach the Top 100.
Remember, CDJapan has a coupon for 500 yen off a 3,000 yen order. If you have any interest in seeing Dancemania continue, please consider buying Wa Euro Best.
Buchiage Parance #9 (Haishin Gentei Mix)
Release Date: 7/8/09
Price: 1905 yen
Victor Japan aren’t usually known for putting their albums up for download, so this comes as a bit of a surprise. The track list is mostly the same as the physical release, except with 5 tracks omitted (Caramelldansen and a few Zipang tracks, so no big loss). It’s unknown if the downloads will be of full versions or if it’ll be another non-stop mix. I’m crossing my fingers for full versions; the 2 bad techno mix of “Iteza” is 2 good.
Edit: It looks like the digital release has been canceled. 🙁
Speed Anime M@ster ~Anison Master~*
Release Date: 6/24/09
Price: 1900 yen
This came out a few days ago, but for those still on the fence, someone has uploaded an album medley to YouTube. A different brand of euro than usual, but there’s some mighty fine hyper techno near the end. All of the art you see in the video is included in the booklet, by the way.
The list above below isn’t quite complete, as it turns out. Apparently there are three secret bonus tracks.
DanceMaster | 
09 25th, 2009| 
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