Review by Lightning

Coming with the Japanese versions of "After Like", "Love Dive", and "Take It", all brilliant songs in their own right, this first Japanese EP then adds two more amazing songs in the form of the Japanese originals, "Classic" and "WAVE", for a must-have purchase for any fan of IVE or anyone looking for a sampler of their music.

While their first three albums are not considered full albums (even though they are long enough to do so, especially with this repackage), Maid in Japan was BAND-Maid's first release, with two extra tracks from the 2018 reissue, and every track is blast to listen to, my favorites being EverGreen and KEY.

The lenticular design is nice and was well-packaged. The all-color photo booklet with the lyrics was well-designed. Although the discs themselves didn't have much to them, they still contained many of Utada's singles, several of which were either re-mixed and re-recorded, and three newer tracks for a really enjoyable listening experience across all of the past 25 years of her career.

Arrived on time and was well-packaged. The large folded poster included with the magazine was an unexpected bonus. Really affordable price.

A good way for fans or newcomers to PURPLE K!SS to listen to the Japanese version of the title/lead tracks from their first five mini-albums along with the beautiful-sounding Japanese original song "tonari".

Great album. Standouts for me are "Dance with Me" and "Cuteness Nemesis" Four of the tracks are actually from the first release, ALIVE: "spell" and "SEISEI SHIRO YO" are from the Bitter version and "ainohonnou" and "Life hack Killer-tune " are from the Sweet version, so its not quite an album of all-new tracks, but still very enjoyable.

The ladies of Nemophila have released an incredible album in the form of "Evolve." Listened to it non-stop the first week. In fact, it arrived a day earlier than estimated - so props to CDJapan and DHL for that.

Lots of pictures. Some news stories. Did not expect mini-insert booklet to be as difficult to remove.

Really affordable given the amount of content. A bit thicker than expected but a lot of comics to read (around 15-20) with some adverts to break things up. Very good. Also expected were the photos of Miss Kawata at the start (given the cover) but not expected were the small inserts at the end featuring two other Hinatazaka46 members (Hiyori Hamagishi and Rio Shimuzu) nor the sticker sheet containing one for each member. Good, but still unexpected.

Lots of pictures, some news stories. Understanding how to cut the mini-inserts improved the experience, given that there were two in this edition.

CD and poster arrived in excellent condition. I've listened to BAND-MAID for several years but never really had to opportunity to buy their music until this album (and Vol. 2!). Every song on it is great and although it is only 15 songs on both, one can hear the band's evolution given that each album contains one or two songs from almost all their releases

Like with Vol. 1, both the CD and poster arrived in excellent condition. Every song on Vol. 2 is amazing and I have to say I enjoy it as a whole just a little bit more than Vol. 1 (though that is a great compilation itself). Like Vol. 1, only 15 songs, but the evolution can be heard, with songs from "New Beginning" all the way to their latest release in "Unleash." Shame neither contains songs from "Maid in Japan" or "Band-Maiko," but choosing 30 songs out of over 100 and representing the different eras is not easy (and all great songs too!).