Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

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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Nana Mitani Golden Best -Vocalo Kyoku o Utatte Mita-
Artist: Nana Mitani
Release Date: 3/14/12
Price: 2190 yen

First album from Nana Mitani, most famous for her cover of “Luka Luka Night Fever.” The track list consists of lots of Vocaloid covers, including every “Night” song that samfree has ever done. That includes his latest song, “Ia Ia*Night of Desire.”

Okay, so technically that’s Kouhey’s version. Sorry, but I like it better 😛 Nana’s version is embedded after the jump.

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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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Exit Tunes presents Sekihan the Treasure
Artist: Sekihan
Release Date: 4/4/12
Price: 1905 yen

Another new Sekihan album. Bonuses include a rubber cell phone strap (1 of 3 designs), mouse pad (1 of 2 designs), clear file and poster.

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Haru Iro Portrait
Artist: Shamuon
Release Date: 3/21/12
Price: 1905 yen

First solo album from utaite, Shamuon. Also scheduled to feature duets with Soraru and Mi-chan. Bonuses include a cell phone strap (1 of 5 variations), mouse pad (1 of 6 variations), clear file, and poster.

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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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Nana Mitani Golden Best -Vocalo Kyoku o Utatte Mita-
Artist: Nana Mitani
Release Date: 3/14/12
Price: 2190 yen

First album from Nana Mitani, most famous for her cover of “Luka Luka Night Fever.” At the moment it’s scheduled to have 15 songs. I imagine most of them will be Vocaloid covers, but hopefully she’ll get some new material, too. Anyone else freaked out by that picture of Nana?

http://www.avexnet.or.jp/mitaninana/index.html

Pre-order at CDJapan.

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

Sigh, here comes “Zankoku” again. Almost all of the tracks announced so far have been covered by Akiba Koubou in the past. At the very least we’ll get some resings, but the description provided to retailers did mention house, techno and trance remixes in addition to the usual euro so perhaps we’ll get new arrangements as well. Announced utaite include Kouhey, Yuge, Yamadan and Usa.

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Koi Euro Best
Release Date: 3/21/12
Price: 1886 yen

Early list is out and it’s surprisingly not too horrible. There are two new Sunplaza Nakano Kun tracks planned, with one of them being a resing of “Resort Lovers.” It seems like there’ll be a number of new tracks from DJ Fukui’s Harofuku project, so this really will be like a continuation of Buchiage Trance/Parance. Let’s see if this lasts more than one release. 😀

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Koi Euro Best
Release Date: 3/21/12
Price: 1886 yen

Breaking news! We now interrupt this string of Akiba Koubou news to bring you… more Akiba Koubou news! Somehow DJ Yossy has convinced yet another label to release a Wa Euro Best clone. This time the label is Victor Japan, and the release will be titled Koi Euro Best (Love Euro Best). The announced artists so far imply that there’ll be a few Buchiage Trance repeats. They’ll also be inexplicably sourcing a few tracks from Dreamusic’s Nikonikouhaku release from a few years ago, so don’t be surprised if “Zankoku na Tenshi no These” appears. I’m going to guess this will have 60% repeats. Hopefully DJ Yossy proves me wrong.

The Wa Euro and Kiwami Euro series have been dormant for a while now, but I wonder how this will affect the Chou Euro Best series. And how long will it be before Universal comes out with Ai Euro Best? I’m starting to think DJ Yossy has compromising pictures of all the Japanese label executives.

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

It looks like EMI took a page from Tokuma’s book and will be releasing TWO AKBK CDs on the same day. I think we can officially declare March 7, 2012 as AKBK Day. For those keeping track, March 7 will see the release of 2 Utatte Mita CDs from EMI, 2 Geki Atsu! Drama Euro CDs from Tokuma, and Utatte Mita Best Selection from Full Moon.

Announced utaite include Kouhey, Yuge, Yamadan, Usa and Priko. This release’s theme is J-Pop covers, but I still wouldn’t be surprised if “Sousei” and “Zankoku” appear. So far it’s scheduled to be an 18-song non-stop mix.

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

I suppose this should be a bit surprising since they abandoned the Wa Euro Best series, but it seems even EMI can’t escape the Utatte Mita craze. It’s actually not yet confirmed that Akiba Koubou will be handling this release, but the description promises House, Euro, Techno and Trance remixes so it sounds right up AKBK’s alley. Announced utaite include Kouhey, Yuge, Yamadan and Usa. This release’s theme is anime song covers, so don’t be alarmed if “Sousei” and “Zankoku” appear. So far it’s scheduled to be an 18-song non-stop mix.

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A live performance of the song from an Akiba Koubou Festa event. Sunplaza Nakano Kun is joined on stage by Yamadan (on the right) and Kouhey (mostly out of frame on the left). Producers prkr and Re:nG are on the guitar and keyboards, respectively. Meanwhile, the established utaite, Korosuke, dances in the background along with the well-known odotte mita dancer, Ria Sion. It’s a fun performance, and almost makes me want to buy the Sunplaza Nakano Kun album. Almost.