November 28th, 2021

Hello, this month has been pretty boring.

I decided to bite the bullet and buy some CDs. I forget how fast FedEx shipping is, it only took three days.

I bought pop'n music sunny park original soundtrack volume 2. Volume 1 had only the inital song list and a few songs from the events up until it's release. Volume 2, which was released 3 months before the next pop'n music game came out, contained the rest of the songs that appeared since volume 1.

Like my volume 1 copy, this is also the Konamistyle edition. The Konamistyle edition came with a special card and a code card. As usual, the code no longer works as the game went offline. The code unlocks alternate character colors. Curiously, the code expires months after the e-amusement service went down for the game.

I also got a limited edition copy of よくある話 ~喪服の女編~. I absolutely love this song. The limited edition came with an additional DVD with the music video for the title single. The music video is avaliable on YouTube by Universal Music themselves, but it's in pretty bad quality. The DVD is in better quality. I guess the bad video quality is a reason why you'd want to buy the limited edition.

It also came with a lottery ticket to win a ticket to Kou Shibasaki Live Tour 2008 ~1st~. The lottery ended 13 years ago. There is a table on the ticket listing locations where the tour had been held. Zepp Sendai and Shibuya-AX were listed there, both of which are now closed. Zepp Fukuoka is listed, which had also closed in 2016, but relocated in 2018. So there's that.

Along with that is I got is AKB48's latest single, Nemohamo Rumor. It's their first single in a year and a half! It's sealed and only costed $2USD. The OBI strip said it originally costed ¥1100. Why did they resell a new single for so cheap? I personally think it was bought only for the bonus photos and stuff.

I bought the theater edition since it had a bonus song I liked that was not avaliable in the limited editions. The limited editions came with a DVD containing the music video to Nemohamo Rumor and an additional music video depending on the type you buy. It's kinda odd though, the music videos is avaliable online for free and in better quality than the DVD.

I bought this B'z album that I love. The listing said that it's a dropped rental, it used to be a rental CD but the shop has stopped using it. It had a lot of rental stickers and security tab on the case and disc, I'm a little surprised it still retains the OBI strip.

Getting the rental stickers off are simple enough, but cleaning them up was an annoying process. The sticker on the CDs were the easiest to get off, but the case stickers left so much residue behind. The security tab on the back left so much. I used WD-40 to get all of it off.

I also a bought a B'z single. It was from a Surugaya store, so it has a sticker too. Thankfully, it came off with no issue or residue. It comes with a music video DVD since it's the only one I could find. Not much to say except that the DVD said it was a Region 2 disc, yet it played on everything I had without issue.

Outside of the things I bought in Yahoo Auctions, I went to Goodwill earlier in the week. As per usual, I didn't find anything interesting. I did find this jazz album that was looked to be a Japanese release. It retains the OBI strip and everything. The CD itself has some pretty worrying scratches, but it ripped to my PC just fine.

There was also some other jazz albums there. Jazz for a Lazy Day and Open Road. I just listened to Jazz for a Lazy Day and I enjoyed it. I'll listen to Jazz for the Open Road later.

The collection grows...

The spineless CD there is the Mad Rat Dead soundtrack. It doesn't have one for some reason.

I recently subscribed to pop'n music Lively. If there are no cabinets near me, the subscription is the next best thing. The subscription is only $14USD a month. I was all over the place trying to subscribe to the course though.

I had an American Konami ID, which means I wouldn't be able to subscribe. I thought I'd only miss out on PASELI, but no, I couldn't do anything involving payment. I had to create a Japanese account and transfer my e-amusement card. It's only then when I was able to finally subscribe.

On my first day, I got a full combo! It's extremely exciting, I got it on video too!

I got another the day after!

I got a few more full combo videos along with other videos on my pop'n music page. Please check them out!

Outside of that, the game is alright. The songlist is pretty lacking after pop'n music 14, which was the last pop'n music game to have a home release. Getting new songs requires either increasing your pop'n rank, obtaining the monthly bonus songs, doing daily challenges, or paying for song packs.

There was a recent addition to the game called Lively Tickets. So far, Lively Tickets are a way to purchase monthly songs that were missed or to boost your Pop'n Quest progress. You can either buy them for ¥110 each or somehow obtain them for free. The songs I want from the monthly bonuses aren't for sale yet, so I'll hold off on buying any.

I bought the Sengoku Retsuden song pack, which comes with 30 new songs from the 18th installment. I'm most familar with music from here since I listened to a good chunk of them before. Another bonus is that all the songs seem to be around my level.

You can have a video of a pretty mediocre play of Ensamble Forecast 3/28.

It's cool seeing how much I improved from the previous time I posted a video of me playing pop'n music on here.

That's basically everything noteworthy that happened. I'll play pop'n music way more often now.