Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Akiba Koubou presents Utatte Mita Collection Imaokasan, Bouto, Keitan
Artist: Imaokasan, Bouto, Keitan
Release Date: 3/4/12
Price: 952 yen

It’s Akiba Koubou week here at Dancemania EX! There have been a lot of new Akiba Koubou releases lately, so it’s time to catch up on them. This special single from Akiba Koubou features songs from the odotte mita trio, Imaokasan, Bouto and Keitan. Whereas utatte mita refers to amateur singing, odotte mita refers to amateur dancing. So apparently Imaokasan, Bouto, Keitan can sing too. o_O

The single is currently available exclusively at Akiba Koubou Festa tour stops.

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Geki Atsu! Drama Euro Chanbara Hen
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 2000 yen

The second of two Geki Atsu! CDs released yesterday. Tokuma releases for April and May have been revealed, and there are no Geki Atsu! CDs among them, so I’m hoping this won’t be the last pair of Geki Atsu! releases.

An outstanding set of arrangers has been gathered for this Samurai-themed release. Ovrar, Asahi, Beat Charger, Elementas and valle blanco return from previous releases in the Geki Atsu! series. And as with the Detective edition, this one will also feature M.Sugawara (Sugano), Dizzi Mystica and Y&Co. And if they weren’t already enough, this edition also features the debuts of katsu (Akiba Koubou), Yassie and uno (IOSYS). The only strike against this album is that it only has 14 tracks instead of the usual 15.

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Geki Atsu! Drama Euro Deka Hen
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 2000 yen

Just a reminder that the 3rd wave of Geki Atsu! releases comes out today.

DJ Command and 2bad…will not be on this compilation. Instead, you’ll just have to settle for Sugano(!), Dizzi Mystica(!!), and Y&Co.(!!!). Yup, Akiba Koubou went all out for this series, as evidenced by the latest group of guest arrangers that they’ve assembled. Sugano had mentioned on his website that he’d be doing some work with AKBK, and Dizzi Mystica collaborated with them a few times in the past, but the inclusion of Y&Co. is quite a surprise.

Elementas, Ovrar, Asahi, Sumijun, Tks, Beat Charger, and valle blanco round out the rest of the list, so you can expect plenty of variety. Vocalists include Satsy, Kei, Mi->Na, DJ Kazma, and Hiromi. There are also a number of instrumental tracks, including 3 tracks that were also covered on EMI’s Speed Deka. Kinda disappointed there’s no Rhythm & Police, though 🙁

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Akiba Koubou Festa presents Utatte Mita Best Selection
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 1905 yen

Official CD of the upcoming Akiba Koubou Festa Spring Tour 2012. Features an all-star lineup of utaite singing anime, J-Pop, and vocaloid classics. Many of the songs have already been done by AKBK, but will have newly recorded vocals. Every song has multiple vocalists, and “Team Minna” can only mean that ALL of the utaite will be singing on a song.

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Utattemita J-Pop
Release Date: 3/7/12 ? 3/21/12
Price: 1905 yen

Utaite take on J-Pop classics. The track list is mostly composed of songs taken from J-Pop Extra Beat Densetsu and the first two Geki Atsu! Drama Euro releases. I’m still hopeful that these will be new house/trance/euro arrangements, but I’m prepared for the worst. 🙁 Oh well, at least it can finally be confirmed that BB Storm = Bibi, KoRo-Girl = Korosuke, and Koko on Boku = Boku, though in hindsight I feel like an idiot since those should have been really, really obvious.

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Utattemita Anison
Release Date: 3/7/12 ? 3/21/12
Price: 1905 yen

Delayed a few weeks, but cover art and final list have been revealed. The good news is that they somehow managed to forget to put “Zankoku” and “Sousei” on this. The bad news is that most of these songs have been done by Akiba Koubou before. The good news is that the description for the album mentions house, techno and trance arrangements, so there’s a good chance that we’ll at least get some new arrangements. The bad news is that Akiba Koubou are very lazy, and there’s just as a good a chance that they’ll use the songs straight from Anim80s and other albums.

For those wondering, “Nazo no Jinbutsu K” is better known to Hime Trance fans as Kei. It’s just the pseudonym she uses for singing on Nico Nico.

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Luv Euro 2
Release Date: 2/22/12
Price: 1886 yen

The album is out today, physically on CD as well as digitally on iTunes Japan, where you can listen to samples. Damn, “Mister” and “Run ‘n’ Gun” sound sooooo good. It’s just a shame there are so many repeats, and even more unfortunate that the iTunes version is a non-stop mix just like the CD.

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Utatte Mita Best Selection
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 1905 yen

Wow, this album is going to be pretty insane. Many of the songs have already been done by AKBK, but will have newly recorded vocals. Every song has multiple vocalists, and “Team Minna” can only mean that ALL of the utaite will be singing on a song. Really makes me wish I could attend Akiba Koubou Festa so I could hear these live.

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Geki Atsu! Drama Euro Chanbara Hen
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 2000 yen

An outstanding set of arrangers has been gathered for this Samurai-themed release. Ovrar, Asahi, Beat Charger, Elementas and valle blanco return from previous releases in the Geki Atsu! series. And as with the Detective edition, this one will also feature M.Sugawara (Sugano), Dizzi Mystica and Y&Co. And if they weren’t already enough, this edition also features the debuts of katsu (Akiba Koubou), Yassie and uno (IOSYS). The only strike against this album is that it only has 14 tracks instead of the usual 15.

There are no Geki Atsu! releases planned for April, so Tokuma are either taking a break or waiting to see how these first few releases do first.

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Geki Atsu! Drama Euro Deka Hen
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 2000 yen

DJ Command and 2bad…will not be on this compilation. Instead, you’ll just have to settle for Sugano(!), Dizzi Mystica(!!), and Y&Co.(!!!). Yup, Akiba Koubou went all out for this series, as evidenced by the latest group of guest arrangers that they’ve assembled. Sugano had mentioned on his website that he’d be doing some work with AKBK, and Dizzi Mystica collaborated with them a few times in the past, but the inclusion of Y&Co. is quite a surprise.

Elementas, Ovrar, Asahi, Sumijun, Tks, Beat Charger, and valle blanco round out the rest of the list, so you can expect plenty of variety. Vocalists include Satsy, Kei, Mi->Na, DJ Kazma, and Hiromi. There are also a number of instrumental tracks, including 3 tracks that were also covered on EMI’s Speed Deka. Kinda disappointed there’s no Rhythm & Police, though 🙁

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Koi Euro Best
Release Date: 3/21/12
Price: 1900 yen

Final list and cover art are out. It honestly isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, especially compared to the lackluster Kiwami Euro Best. 7 repeats (or 12 if you include resings) isn’t too bad, and the fact that they stayed away from the usual Anime covers was a good choice. I really wish they had went with new Nagisa tracks instead of using songs from 3 years ago, though. Now that I think about it, lately Nagisa has been shut out of the latest Akiba Koubou releases. Hopefully she’s just busy working on a second album.

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Geki Atsu! Anime Euro Robot Hen
Release Date: 2/8/12
Price: 2000 yen

Unlike the Drama Euro releases, so far the Anime Euro songs are limited to the core Akiba Koubou producers. The scant new tracks here are from DJ Command, Sumijun, valle blanco, and Tks (Rayto).

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Geki Atsu! Anime Euro Gakuen Hen
Release Date: 2/8/12
Price: 2000 yen

Looks like Rayto (Tsukasa Baba) is being credited as “Tks” now. What’s odd is that some of the tracks credited to Sumijun were previously done by 2bad. Perhaps Sumijun = 2bad? Anyway, the new tracks are by DJ Command, Tks, and valle blanco. I was holding out hope that some of the repeats might be new arrangements, but the samples sound like the originals 🙁

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Luv Euro 2
Release Date: 2/22/12
Price: 1886 yen

Updated cover art and a likely final list have been revealed. The are 5 new songs out of 18 total. That’s absolutely awful. As much as I want to hear the new DJ Kazma and Kei songs, it’s just not worth treading through the same old repeats.

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Utatte Mita J-Pop
Release Date: 3/7/12
Price: 1905 yen

More repeats from Akiba Koubou. Again, there had better be new arrangements or this’ll be another waste of space. If you didn’t notice, “Ginga Tetsudou 999” is listed on this as well as the Anison album. Maybe they’ll do both “Ginga Tetsudou 999” as well as “The Galaxy Express 999.” Or maybe they’ll put the same song on two different albums. :{

Announced utaite include Kouhey, Yuge, Yamadan, Usa and Priko.

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