victor_survive wrote:Did anyone had issues when registering the serial code?

I couldn't get in on the first try and now i've misplaced the ticket... oh well we'll see them live this summer at last

victor_survive wrote:I found out that the problem was the optional message for the band, I wrote it in english and it was less than 100 characters, so perhaps it's only allowing japanese messages?

Huh, that's interesting that it won't allow non-Japanese characters to be inputted. I'll change that in the guide.

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etwee wrote:I couldn't get in on the first try and now i've misplaced the ticket... oh well we'll see them live this summer at last

As I had posted before, you can always PM me with proof of purchase and I can send you the URL.

thanks TGE

The studio live just ended. Five songs were performed:

1. eternal
2. Ivory
3. Ai ni Naranakatta no sa
4. Ao no Naru Yoru no Sukima de
5. one more time

*They likely did not perform a lot of the 'newer' songs so that they can save them to be played on tour.


Again, here is a guide on how to sign up to watch the live if you've already purchased the album and received it. You have until Feb. 4 @ 6 pm JST to sign up. If yours will not be delivered to you on time, feel free to PM me about it - details here.

The stream is archived for playback until Sun. Feb. 6th @ 9 pm JST.

Also, I will be posting translations of their MCs after the archive period ends.

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Judging from the chat posts it doesn't seem like folks in the Americas were too keen to get up this early. It was pretty fun, like "Catch Up" with songs. "Ao no Naru Yoru no Sukima de", due to it's subject, is one I find difficult to listen to, and it looked like Haruna found it emotional to sing it.
I'm glad Mami aced her solo in "Ai ni Naranakatta no sa".
Some brighter footlights would have been more flattering, but the lights as they were created a nice atmosphere.
I also liked Haruna's "motherly" hair, ha ha.
It was nice of them to reward people with this gift. I'm thankful for their efforts.

hogradish wrote:It was pretty fun, like "Catch Up" with songs. 

Yes, I felt the same way! It was like live "Catch up" with video and songs! 

Short and sweet! The tracks sounded great, and the studio setup was nice. It was great to see them moving around and having fun during one more time. Watched it a couple times already

I set off to shoot around 4:30 am. I was kind of excited that the schedule was like the one I follow when I go fishing〜 (TOMOMI)

It was raining a bit during the performance scenes on the grass. When I kneeled, my knees got stained green and it wouldn't come off (HARUNA)

We shot this at a seaside studio, so the sound of the waves was really pleasant The fish we had for lunch was delicious (MAMI)

We shot the solo scenes while hiding the staff and band members in different spots so that they wouldn't show up in the mirrors🪞 We got really good at hidingʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ (RINA)

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I listened to the new album quite a few times now, and like so many others have stated, I am surprised how much I enjoy it.  I was not happy with the move towards dance-type songs on their last set of singles, but each of those songs sound much better in the context of the full album.  

Unlike KFTD which seemed like a compilation album, or two different EPs put together (one rocking; one not at all), MIRROR is well-sequenced.  It flows very well from song to song, and it is one of Scandal's most consistent sounding albums throughout.  

For me the best song I hadn't heard is "Ai no Shotai." I love the inclusion of horns and a choir, although when I first heard all those voices, I thought of U2.  

"One More Time" may be my favorite tune overall since it is the most energetic.  It is well-placed at the end of the album because once I hear it I want to listen to the album over again.  "Koisuru Universe" was the same way on HONEY.

"Ivory" is my least favorite song.  I agree with another poster that said that thankfully we heard this one early enough; didn't care for it; worried the upcoming album would be worse; and was pleasantly surprised it's actually the weakest song on the album.  

I am still not crazy about modern dance music.  It all sounds the same to me, and I'm not sure if this is a positive or a negative statement, but the only reason I will listen to this album is because it's by Scandal.  I do prefer a more rocking album like HELLO WORLD or HONEY.

I do enjoy Mami's clean tone and her rhythm work throughout MIRROR.  This is a highlight for me.

Lastly, I pre-ordered the digital album on iTunes and did not get a code for the streaming concert.  Were digital albums included in the pre-sale offer, or was it just for physical content?

Don Dio wrote:Lastly, I pre-ordered the digital album on iTunes and did not get a code for the streaming concert.  Were digital albums included in the pre-sale offer, or was it just for physical content?

It was only offered with the physical editions of the album. Each physical edition ordered came with a separate piece of paper that contained a code that you could register to watch it.

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:

Don Dio wrote:Lastly, I pre-ordered the digital album on iTunes and did not get a code for the streaming concert.  Were digital albums included in the pre-sale offer, or was it just for physical content?

It was only offered with the physical editions of the album. Each physical edition ordered came with a separate piece of paper that contained a code that you could register to watch it.

Thanks, @TGE.

I figured as much, and I'm okay with it.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is even though this album seems like a left turn from where Scandal has been, it is pretty bold of them to try a completely new sound and style for an entire album.  Years from now we may look back on this one in the context of a larger catalog and think of it as a treasure because it's so different.

Yo TGE I forgot, does Oricon count overseas sales?

etwee wrote:Yo TGE I forgot, does Oricon count overseas sales?

They do not. If they did count, I'm sure SCANDAL's numbers would be much higher.

CDJapan has a page saying that Oricon does not count the data of any products that are shipped overseas from any store. They only count if the order is shipped domestically within Japan.

One way that you could make your purchases count is to buy from a store that accepts foreign-issued credit cards (i.e. Tower Records, Amazon Japan) and have it shipped to a Tenso address in Japan, and then have Tenso ship it to you. Or, have a Japan-based shopping service purchase it for you and then have them ship it to you. These ways will cost a little more and take a little longer to get to you, though.

I think I read somewhere Oricon doesn't count multiple sales either, like if you buy 5 copies at once, they'd only count that as one purchase. I also am wondering if Zen Market works enough like Tenso for purchases to count? I think the ideal way to pump up the Oricon numbers would be to buy one copy from every store you can afford to. Is that correct?

hogradish wrote:I think I read somewhere Oricon doesn't count multiple sales either, like if you buy 5 copies at once, they'd only count that as one purchase.

I don't think that's correct. I also can't find anything online that supports that. But for example, if you wanted to buy all of the different editions of an album from one retailer, you wouldn't want to have to buy each edition separately, right? I don't think Oricon thinks people will be willing to do that, either. Perhaps what you're thinking of is releases that are considered "double albums"--despite there being 2 albums in one release, it will only count as one sale (like this BABYMETAL double album).

I also am wondering if Zen Market works enough like Tenso for purchases to count?

Yes, that's included in the "Japan-based shopping service" option that I mentioned. The CD gets shipped to them first in Japan, therefore Oricon counts it. I did that for one copy of MIRROR to get the Seven Net bonus.

I think the ideal way to pump up the Oricon numbers would be to buy one copy from every store you can afford to. Is that correct?

You could do that, but I don't think it's the ideal way since, as mentioned, I'm pretty sure Oricon counts multiple copies bought in one order/purchase. It's definitely the most expensive way, though lol

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:

MIRROR debuted at ＃5 on Oricon's "Weekly Album Ranking" chart for the week of Jan. 24-30 with approx. 9,654 copies sold and keeping the streak going of having every album of theirs so far rank in the top 5!

Whew! 31 copies to give them the edge!

Ten top 5 albums, that's an incredible milestone. Something that is almost impossible to repeat in the female band category.

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:

etwee wrote:Yo TGE I forgot, does Oricon count overseas sales?

They do not. If they did count, I'm sure SCANDAL's numbers would be much higher.

Is there any way to know these numbers? They're high on the CDJapan export report, probably on JPU too...

Thank you for the clarification. I think I got confused about the difference between multiple versions and multiple copies. Multiple versions count as sales of one basic album. Multiple copies all count, provided they go to an address in Japan.

One note I did noticed before when I did a large order of KFTD (with other fans) at Tower Records online before there was a cap of 4 copies per account (you could not bypass by doing a new order), so in the end I had to create another account for the pre-order bonus. (Of course I could have reserved/ordered at the store with separate orders by phone I guess)

This time I didn't order enough copies of Mirror to know it its in place or not, I think it was during payment it ends up saying you have exceeded the number of orders for an item. Its most likely in place to prevent resellers.

Talking a bit about the merchandising and bonuses:

I got the Mirror calendar from Amazon JP, last time I got the KFTD one too. I was comparing those and it seems they removed SCANDAL anniversary and the major debut? That's my guess since I don't know japanese but the dates seem accurate.

(sorry for the bad taken photos   )

KFTD calendar:

Mirror Calendar:

About the disks: I loved the mirror cd glassy look. 

My only "complain" (it's not a bid deal) it's the DVD box cover and art.

On KFTD, they created some artwork for both the Box case and the DVD itself, while all they did on Mirror artwork is pasting the promotional image for mirror and putting some boring looking fonts on the titles. I'm not a designer nor expert, but I think it could've been better, specially when the cost wasn't that low.

KFTD DVD Artwork:

Mirror DVD Artwork:

Also on the small booklet that contains they lyrics, I think they could've put a bit more of design, like some of the pages only have the lyrics, there's nothing else. The Kanojo wa Wave page has a cool detail with Rina's silhouette/shadows, while the rest of the pages are pretty much empty. KFTD at least had some small pictures and didn't look that empty.

Kanojo wa Wave page:

Ai no shoutai page:

And finally, on the album credits, on KFTD it used to say something in japanese including TEAM SCANDAL and now on mirror, that message is gone, and they're thanking us  . They might be doing it as well on the KFTD message, but tbh I can't tell.

KFTD special thanks:

Mirror special thanks:

victor_survive wrote:I got the Mirror calendar from Amazon JP, last time I got the KFTD one too. I was comparing those and it seems they removed SCANDAL anniversary and the major debut? That's my guess since I don't know japanese but the dates seem accurate.

Yes, those were the dates removed. However, the 2022 poster calendar still has those dates. Don't know why they're being inconsistent lol

And finally, on the album credits, on KFTD it used to say something in japanese including TEAM SCANDAL and now on mirror, that message is gone, and they're thanking us    They might be doing it as well on the KFTD message, but tbh I can't tell.

The KFTD credits say: "Everyone in Japan and around the world who loves SCANDAL, you're all part of TEAM SCANDAL!" So I guess it depends if you'd prefer feeling like you're part of their team (which I guess technically isn't a direct way of saying thanks) vs. getting an outright thank-you that feels more personal.

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Also, ICYMI, I'm starting to post complete translations of "her" Magazine Vol.3 here:

https://www.scandal-heaven.com/t15826-her-magazine-vol-3-translations

With all due respect, the DVD cover design for MIRROR strikes me as real classy. For my personal taste this is the best one yet—I usually don't do "best," but guess i like subtle colors and classic fonts. I also feel it fits nicely with the overall tone of the album. 
I worked for many years with graphic arts as a printer and on community papers but really, that kind of "expertise" doesn't matter, in the end it's different strokes for different folks

This album is great, I like it a lot. It really is an album made during this isolating and introspective time. A lot of people are pointing out that its a very different and bold direction and it is, but I feel like we’ve been getting little hints here and there on past albums that they had this type of direction they wanted to go to. I’m sure they will always go back to their more raw and rock sound, because they always do, but I’m glad they take breaks and make these types of songs. I’m happy they just play music that is true to their current selves. From all the interviews and documentaries they really underscore how covid hit them hard. This album really shows their journey through it.

I ordered a magazine edition from JPU which is indicated as "unfulfilled". Has anyone who ordered the same from JPU gotten theirs?

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Update: After posting this, I ordered from CDJapan and got it yesterday.

I did not order it because I don't believe in supporting them for several reasons, but unsurprisingly, it turns out they actually won't be shipping them out until late February. That's what SH user Electric Mami who contacted them earlier this week said they told them. So, it doesn't look like they'll be contacting purchasers en masse to tell them about the change. That reminds me of another trash UK-based company that SCANDAL associates with (*cough* LiveFrom *cough*).

I was going order the magazine edition from JPU, until I saw the price of it. I feel it a bit of a con, for the video Diary which you can see on youtube.