Thursday, 24 May 2018

Orange Caramel やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) - Single Review (CD+Photobook Edition)

One of my favourite music groups is Orange Caramel and I thought it was finally time to review one of their singles on Marzipan Wonderland. The group is the subunit from After School who I've reviewed a few J-Pop albums from. Unfortunately the group (and After School) has pretty much been abandoned by their company and hasn't released anything in a long time, so they are no longer active One member Lizzy (who is my favourite) left the company recently but there is no word on whether the group is technically disbanded. Anyway negative points aside, let's take a look at Orange Caramel's single やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil).



やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) is Orange Caramel's first Japanese single released in September 2012. The single is available in four editions: CD Only, CD+Photobook, CD+DVD (MV Edition) and CD+DVD (Live Edition). There also was an exclusive CD+Earphones set released in December 2012 with a special remix edition of the title track. The CD Only edition comes with bonus tracks, the MV Edition comes with a DVD of the music video and the Live Edition comes with three live performances from the group. I have the CD+Photobook edition which is the Taiwan edition which is the same as the Japanese one. The CD+Photobook edition of やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) comes with the following contents:
  • CD- 2 Track Album
  • Photobook - 32 Pages
  • Photocard - Random from 4 types
  • Taiwanese Lyrics Booklet
  • OBI Stripe
  • Plastic Sleeve

Single Front Cover in Plastic Sleeve

The single design of the CD+Photobook edition features this quirky candy land style landscape with the girls in cute devil outfits inspired by the song title. The single is about the size of the book and is quite thin. The single is mainly the photobook with the CD being placed in a slip sleeve cover slotted into the back cover. The CD has a cute dotted pattern and features the group logo.




The photobook is gorgeous and features stunning photos of Nana, Raina and Lizzy is various outfits. It was a tad difficult to take photos of this photobook as I didn't want to damage the spine of the book opening it too far. I love the purple skirt that the girls have on in the first few photos and on the album cover. I'd love to make one like that to wear! The photobook contains the Japanese lyrics for both tracks on the album as well as a section of behind the scenes photos from the music video shoot of the song. Here are some photo's of some pages from the photobook:










The edition I received of やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) was a First Press edition so it came with a photocard. I got Raina's photocard which is super adorable! You get a close up look of her outfit from the music video. It's unique looking definitely! The back of the photocard is amazing as usual as the groups (and After School's) photocards are always well designed.




Now for the songs on the single! This edition only comes with two tracks and is the debut Japanese single from Orange Caramel. The title track is やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) which is a cover of the 1970's song by Candies. It's a fun upbeat pop song with a catchy chorus. The B-side is the Japanese version of the group's debut Korean single Magic Girl and is titled as 魔法少女 Mahou Shoujo in Japan. Both these songs are available on Orange's Caramel full Japanese album as well. The CD Only edition comes with insturmentals of both songs plus the original Korean version of Magic Girl.

This single was the first photobook edition I brought of a Japanese single/album and I was pleased with how it looked. The photobook was high quality and had excellent pictures! I loved the behind the scenes photos from the music video shoot. I was a bit stunned to see the CD just slotted into the back, but it was held in place at least. I purchased my copy of やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) from YesAsia and I believe this edition is still available on there. The single is currently going out of print, so it's hard to come across brand new. I'm planning on picking up the other editions of the single sometime in the future for my collection and the extra content. Here are the covers of the other editions of the single. The CD Only edition features the same outfit whilst the two CD+DVD editions feature the other outfit from the MV.


Cd Only Cover

CD+DVD MV Edition Cover

CD+DVD Live Edition Cover

Here is the short version of the MV for やさしい悪魔 Yasashii Akuma (My Sweet Devil) from the official Avex channel.



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