What does all this have to do with MELL, though? Well, the I’ve Sound queen is making her return with none other than the Kazuya Takase-produced theme song to the Japanese port of HanBitSoft’s resurrected Hellgate. Called Start of the Strongest  ～我今、最下層にて～ (Waga ima, Saikasou ni te) Japanese players of the game can be treated to the sweet sounds of MELL as the game starts up – while, most likely, the North American servers are stuck with a generic bit of opening music like every other Korean MMO’s localized version has.

Allegedly you can read more at the HanBitSoft site, but the site would appear to be down for the moment. Those interested in the game itself would be well-served to check out the English site, and with any luck the Japanese page will be back up shortly.

While I’ve creator Kazuya Takase is still amongst the credited arrangers, the majority are of a new, trendier sort. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai artist and sometime trance producer Hanasoumen P, Touhou doujin-music circle Alstroemeria Records’ founder masayoshi minoshima, VOCALOID arranger DECO*27, Livetune’s kz and anime-music producer Shinya Saito round out the list of producers seen so far – it’s definitely an all-star lineup they’ve got, although a similarly stacked roster didn’t exactly help IKU’s album.

So… KOTOKO’s gone now. What’s going on with I’ve?

The title will simply be “Outer”, and the album will come bundled with a DVD containing a music video for Nekonade Distortion‘s profanely-titled theme song Bullshit!! Hard problem!! as well as an Outer T-shirt. Or maybe the T-shirt’s sold separately, the site isn’t terribly clear on this matter. As for the album’s tracklist, here it is (new songs in bold):

1. Ha!!!ppiness (Niizumi wa Mahou Shoujo OP)
2. Synthetic Organism (Hatsujou Carte ~Hiiro no Ryoujoku Niku Omocha~ image song)
3. BARE END (original song) – lyrics: KOTOKO, composition & arrangement: Kazuya Takase
4. L.A.M. -Laze and Meditation- (Korashime ~Kyouiku-teki Shidou~ ED)
5. Leave me hell alone (DEVOTE2 ~Ikenai Houkago~ OP)
6. Dirty Boots (Sonic Youth cover)
7. easy prey (original song) – lyrics: KOTOKO, composition: Kazuya Takase, arrangement: Takeshi Ozaki
8. Bullshit!! Hard problem!! (Nekonade Distortion OP)

The album will be released exclusively at Comiket 80, which will be taking place from August 12 to 14 of this year.

In KOTOKO news, it’s been announced that her blog, which had resided at her homepage for quite some time, will be moving to a new space on Japan’s Ameba service as of tomorrow. She’s yet to officially make the move, but there’s a profile set up for her as well as a lovely banner image that shows the I’ve star leaning on something of a completely indeterminable origin. Any guesses as to what the hell that is are welcome.

Finally, KOTOKO’s upcoming album remains untitled no longer – Hiraku Uchuu Pocket (ヒラく宇宙ポケット) is due to come out October 5, and whether or not this will be released on Lantis or Geneon Universal remains to be seen – however, Geneon seems more likely as KOTOKO has released a few singles since her last release on the label and it’s rather unlikely that they would want those songs to remain orphaned as single-only tracks. Either way, a new album from KOTOKO is a good thing no matter who’s putting it out, and I’m looking forward to this one.

Larval Stage Planning - 君＋謎＋私でJUMP!! (Kimi + Nazo + Watashi de JUMP!!) (2011, Lantis)

Tracklisting:

1. 君＋謎＋私でJUMP!!

2. Dreamroid

3. 君＋謎＋私でJUMP!! (Instrumental)

4. Dreamroid (Instrumental)

The review:

Since the formation of the 7-member I’ve Special Unit back in the mid-’00s, the I’ve Sound lineup had remained more or less solid – SHIHO and MOMO left, leaving 5 out of the 7 still with the group, yet for a good half-decade there were no new additions or subtractions to speak of. The fact that the group was so well-defined before is what has made the last two years so bizarre for I’ve fans; with founding member MELL dropping out for health reasons, the return of seemingly long-departed member MAKO, and the formation of an entirely new special unit in Larval Stage Planning, the once-solid roster seems to have become fluid again.

Making their debut with the third SHORT CIRCUIT album, the three girls of Larval Stage Planning – Airi Kirishima, Nami Maisaki and Rin Asami – have been finding a hard time carving out a niche for themselves, with the style of the songs they’ve been given invariably referencing the sounds of that famous compilation series. It might seem cruel to say, but finding distinct personalities in their music has proven quite difficult thus far; whether or not it’s intentional, Takase has made very little of a push to try and get LSP out of the shadow of their more well-known contemporaries.

In this way, KimiNazo represents a continuation of a trend. It’s a good song, as fun and catchy as anything on SHORT CIRCUIT, but if LSP’s main problem has been finding individual voices for themselves it can only be considered a lateral move. The Kazuya Takase production plays things safe, relying on the same kind of stylistic quirks he’s been using to mixed effect for the last decade, and the song sounds could have come from just about any point in his career as a consequence. It’s cute, certainly, and it’s hard not to hope for Larval Stage Planning to find their footing and break away from the KOTOKO mold just as KOTOKO’s SHORT CIRCUIT partner Kaori Utatsuki has done (to some degree, at least), but this is an area where they’ll need more support from their producer than they’re getting here.

B-side Dreamroid is no less generic, but at least finds Takase taking the girls outside of the SHORT CIRCUIT sound briefly. It’s something that would fit in well on just about any I’ve compilation release, and more like it in the future would be nice, but if the girls’ voices indeed do have any particularly unique charms they’re certainly not being used here. The singing on Dreamroid is distinctly passable, not enough to make much of a lasting impression but certainly not unpleasant to hear.

As a debut, KimiNazo is acceptable – after all, many of the I’ve girls got started out with less-than-impressive releases, yet if they’re going to truly be proven as worthwhile additions to the I’ve roster, Takase needs to stop playing things so damn safe. Here’s hoping that their next single takes a few more chances, and that this isn’t going to be indicative of the general direction for the Lantis era of I’ve’s history.

The content available to the public seems at the moment to be limited to a sample video of Takeshi Ozaki playing guitar and doing a rather awful job at it, profiles of each of the 4 main “I’ve Sound creators” (notably, evil witch Maiko Iuchi is nowhere to be found), and promises of access to exclusive download content and even CD releases that most assuredly won’t wind up on torrent sites shortly after their release. Not at all. In a related note, almost every word of this news post has been completely sarcastic.

In all seriousness, though, it is nice to see some attention paid to the men behind the music – the “I’ve Sound” has been their creation, after all, and credit where credit’s due. It just seems rather doubtful at this point that the content offered by this new fan club will be anything worth writing home about.

First order of business: etude soft, they of the also I’ve-supported eroge Soshite Asu no Sekai Yori (which gave the world the lovely Mami Kawada song “for our days”), has a new game coming out by the name of Nanatsu no Fushigi no Owaru Toki! To be called “NanaToki” by those who are less fond of using 6 words every time an eroge’s title comes up in conversation, which it most assuredly does. This new etude joint is set to be a fully-endorsed I’ve venture, with the incomparable Mami Kawada singing both its opening and ending theme songs, and background music handled by I’ve as well. Look for this one to come out on November 25 of this year, and for a blog post about the songs’ preview versions to presumably be posted about a week or two after they get put on the game’s website. I’m being realistic here.

Second bit of news, the upcoming Outer mini-album has been confirmed to include at least one new song! It’s actually worth buying now! KOTOKO also posted on her blog about shooting a PV for the album, so there’s a good chance that there will be a DVD bundled with the mini-album as well. You know, in case the Comiket exclusive nature didn’t make it expensive enough as-is.

Composition and arrangement, as with on the B-side, are both handled by the ever-capable Kazuya Takase, with a bit of a curveball coming in the form of the lyricist announcement. The lyrics for this one have been taken care of by none other than singer-songwriter Aki Hata - who has recorded songs for Lantis herself, although she’s arguably more famous for contributing BGM to games such as Soul Edge. That’s right, the one that wasn’t Soul Calibur.

The song is called Dreamroid, with arrangement and composition duties handled by the ever-talented Kazuya Takase. Lyrics will be written by LSP’s own Airi Kirishima, and as we all know the single comes out July 27th.

Edit – as a note to every member of the I’ve Sound Blog staff who isn’t me, thank you for your help with the blog and you’ve all helped to make this site what it is. You’re also all fired. Aibu’s back, everybody.