Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Nico Nico Kouhaku 2009 – Eurobeat Japan Best
Release Date: 12/9/09
Price: 2405 yen

Upcoming J-Euro release from Dreamusic, the label behind Super Anime Remix. After the success of Wa Euro Best, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that other labels are trying to capitalize on the genre’s renewed popularity. The artists listed below aren’t confirmed yet. I’m under the assumption that they’ll be using the existing remixes, but will have new vocalists from Nico Nico. Of course, it’s also possible that they’ll be cheap and use the existing vocals as well.

It’s not all repeats, however. There are at least three tracks that haven’t appeared on SAR.

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Super Euro Freak Vol. 2
Release Date: 10/09
Price: 9.99 USD

Super Euro Freak Vol. 2 is now available for download at iTunes and Hardbeat Digital. You can get it cheaper on iTunes (9.99 USD), but you can download it in a variety of formats, including FLAC, from Hardbeat Digital if you’re willing to shell out 20 USD.

If you click on the iTunes link, it may say it’s “not currently available in the US store.” If it does, then do a search for “super euro freak,” then click the Buy Album button and you should be able to get it anyway (it worked for me at least).

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Wa Euro Best 2
Release Date: 12/16/09
Price: 1886 yen

I’m not sure if it’ll still be promoted as “Natsu Monogatari presents” since it won’t actually be released during the summer. ^^; In any case, the success of Wa Euro Best — over 50,000 copies sold — means we’ll be getting a sequel in less than 5 months. And unlike the first Wa Euro Best, this one will mostly be new tracks; the early list only has 4 repeats!

In addition to the usual anime tracks, there’ll also be a number of classic J-Pop covers. I’m most excited by “Hana.” It’s a lovely song, so I can’t wait to see how it’ll translate to eurobeat. And out of all of Akiba Koubou’s vocalists, I think Shihori is the only one who could pull it off.

And yes, Rumi will be on the cover again.

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Super Euro Freak Vol. 2
Release Date: 10/09
Price: ???

Spotted this on the Eurobeat Prime forums earlier. It’s a compilation from Akyr that inclues full versions of their tracks from Natsu Monogatari 2009. Newfield mentions that it’ll be available on iTunes in various regions. It’s not up yet, but keep your eyes peeled for it in the near future.

In somewhat related news, Wa Euro Best is set to surpass the milestone of 50,000 units sold this week.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Order at CDJapan or HMV or Amazon.

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.

Around 40 Eurobeat -Download Selection-
Release Date: 8/12/09
Price: 1200-2700 yen

Wa Euro Best isn’t the only recent EMI release to receive the digital treatment. Around 40 Eurobeat also has a selection of tracks up for download. Once again, iTunes or Musico are pretty much the only choices for those outside of Japan.

Interestingly, Around 40 Eurobeat has been selling very well, with almost 20,000 copies sold after four weeks of release. And much like Wa Euro Best, it’s actually been selling more copies each week it’s out. Could Eurobeat be on the verge of a comeback?

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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.

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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!

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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.”

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Around 40 Eurobeat
Release Date: 7/22/09
Price: 2381 yen

The non-stop mix is confirmed to be by MST. I guess that explains the red cover. One would think that MST would have run out of ways to mix these songs into each other by now.

EMI also have the TV commercial up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsWom1lyso. Interesting that they do what appears to be a little ParaPara in it.

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Around 40 Eurobeat
Release Date: 7/22/09
Price: 2381 yen

Mostly the same as the early list, except with “Respectable” added. I *think* Mitsugu Matsumoto is the one doing the mixing.

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