Nagato Yuki's CD

This is probably old news for you if you are a Nagato Yuki fan. However, I am going to review her splendid character album anyway. It is Vol. 2 of the Suzumiya Haruhi character song singles and apparently sold the best out of all of them. I bought it because:

1. I love Hare Hare Yukai, which is one of the songs on her album
2. Nagato Yuki is my favorite character
3. I was going on a trip and I wanted a CD to listen to.

Since it really wasn't that much money, it was really an easy choice to make. Before ordering CDs, I do not listen to the songs on youtube because I want it to spoil my surprise. When I got my CD (after a terrible wait of 3 weeks from Yes Asia because I didn't want the domestic version and I ordered some Japanese language manga in the same order) I was ready to listen to it on my CD player. The CD art is very simple, with a blue theme and a simple 4-page booklet with lyrics (no pics of Yuki). However, this CD's music blew me away. When I first listened to "Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite" I was in shock at the first part, where there is an incredible harmony (which is repeated several times during the song). Its really hard to explain, but it was one of the coolest (and still is) parts of a song ever. I know it sounds weird that I say that and it is just a seiyuu singing, but this song really is incredible. To make it even better, there are a few parts where Yuki has a monologue with lines from the anime. The lyrics fit her perfectly; I am glad that I understand Japanese well enough to appreciate the message that Yuki passionately expresses through this song. It seems like it would be impossible to sing and still sound like the quiet, always-monotone Yuki. However, I feel that Chihara Minori (Yuki's seiyuu) accomplished this task very well, and it is easy to picture Yuki through this song. It is re enforced though the spectacular monologues that bring lots of Yuki into the song. The background music is great and is fast paced and sounds very electronic/dance (i suppose?) with lots of violin.

The next song is a slower song, called "SELECT?" I do not listen to this song as much as the others, merely because it is quite slow and not HYPER. However it is quite lovely, and the lyrics fit her quite perfectly: "In a small, small room/widening infinite pages/I walked into a novel" (oh and my translation might not be right so don't quote me on that) Anyway, its great but its kind of easy to forget that the silent Yuki is singing this.

The last the song is Hare Hare Yukai, the ending to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, only it is Yuki's version. I think that I prefer Yuki's version over the original, but I can't say for sure. It has the same background version as the original, but with Yuki's solo.

As for the three instrumental tracks, I love them as well. Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite's instrumental is still great on its own without vocals. I love to listen to it. SELECT?'s instrumental is not great to listen to on its own, because you might fall asleep, but its great to sing to (or imagine yourself singing it brilliantly in your head). Hare Hare Yukai's instrumental is great, because it includes the harmony vocals. It is a great alternate to the original.

You are still reading this!?!?! I'm impressed and flattered. If you want to follow my advice, buy this CD. The domestic version (the one marketed for Westerners which usually includes English translations romanji in the lyrics and romanji song names) is a mere $10 on Amazon and the Japanese version is about $15. If you aren't obsessed with all of your CD's having all Japanese text, then I would recommend buying the domestic version because the music is the same. Another site worth trying is Yesasia.com, where the Japanese version is just $10. Wow! I'm impressed at how much I wrote about 3 songs: ) I hope that was helpful or amusing.

In honor of Nagato Yuki, here is one of the best AMVs/MADs ever (I didn't make it):