Dream Ami トライ・エヴリシング Try Everything - Single Review (CD Only)

Another beautiful single release from Dream Ami for today's music review. Her singles always have the most gorgeous designs to them and the colour palette of this one is to die for. Loving all the pastels and touch of the green on the cover. The focus for this review is トライ・エヴリシング Try Everything and as usual I will be reviewing the CD Only edition as that is the edition I always collect.

トライ・エヴリシング Try Everything is the second single from Japanese solo artist Dream Ami. It was released on April 20th 2016 with the digital version being released a few days earlier on the 15th. The single came in three editions: Limited CD+DVD, CD Only and One Coin CD Only. The One Coin edition was only available through selected online shops and has a lovely close-up photo of Ami on it. トライ・エヴリシング Try Everything is the Japanese version of the song with the same name from the Zootopia movie. The original was sung by Shakira and it actually had a few translated versions around the world. Of course I got the CD Only edition and I brought it from YesAsia. It came with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track single
• Jewel case
• Outer sleeve box
• Lyrics booklet
• Promotional flyers

Dream Ami はやく逢いたい Hayaku Aitai - Single Review (CD Only)

Onto another Dream Ami CD review today and this time it is her single はやく逢いたい Hayaku Aitai. All her singles and albums had stunning designs and I love the pastel tones. The singles look perfect next to each other especially the earlier ones that had similar colour schemes. This post will look at the CD Only edition of the はやく逢いたい Hayaku Aitai single.

はやく逢いたい Hayaku Aitai is the fourth single released by Japanese singer Dream Ami. It was released on March 22nd 2017 and came in three editions: CD+DVD, CD Only and One Coin CD. Dream Ami's physical releases always had such beautiful colour schemes and aesthetics. That was one of the main reasons I would collect them. I brought my copy from YesAsia and the plastic sleeve has a nice promotional sticker detailing the single. The back cover of the jewel case has a different photo to the cardboard sleeve which is a nice surprise. There is a repeat of the back cover image though on the lyrics booklet.

Dream Ami ドレスを脱いだシンデレラ Dress wo Nuida Cinderella - Single Review (CD Only)

It has been forever since I reviewed one of Dream Ami's singles and I forgot how beautiful these releases were. The singles come in these gorgeous cardboard sleeves and have a nice matte feel to them. Makes them look so elegant on the shelf and I've even kept the original plastic sleeves on them. Dream Ami is one of those artists where I always ordered her new singles when they came out and I have all eight physical singles she released in the CD Only editions.

ドレスを脱いだシンデレラ Dress wo Nuida Cinderella is Dream Ami's debut single and it was released on July 29th 2015. Ami was still a member of Dream and E-girls at the time of this release hence the inspiration for Dream in her artist title. The single came in four editions: Limited CD+DVD, CD+DVD, CD Only and One Coin CD. I brought mine from YesAsia as that was where I brought most of my J-Pop years ago. Purchased the CD Only edition as that is the usual one I tend to pick up due to the price point and extra tracks. This edition comes with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track single
• Cardboard sleeve
• Jewel case
• Lyrics booklet
• Promotion flyers

September Favourites

Last day of September today so that means another round of monthly favourites. I feel this month went super quick but I'm glad October is finally here as that means the weather will warm up a little bit and we'll be into summer weather in no time!

Gaming
My 100 Outfit Challenge in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star will be finishing up in the next few days and I've done stacks of posts of outfits this month for the challenge. You can find them all on the Challenge Page if you want to catch up on the challenge. It's been a great opportunity to try out looks I normally wouldn't do like this gorgeous girly/feminine inspired outfit based around my favourite colour pink and least favourite colour red.

October's Shopdo updates will be all about Halloween outfits and I've posted my first round yesterday! I am thinking of changing the posting schedule of Shopdo after October due to my personal schedule becoming a lot busier towards Christmas. I might go to monthly updates for Shopdo as I've been struggling sometimes with coming up with outfits each week and it's difficult sometimes to get time to update each weekend. It's just something I've been thinking about for a little while and it might be time to switch it up a bit. I want to try and start posting a monthly Caprice Chalet update as well like I used to.

Music
Been listening to a variety of stuff this month as I just listen to whatever is on my current playlist in my car mostly. I've still been listening to Wink and FEMM non-stop which I posted about last month. Aitai-tai from Red Velvet's #CookieJar has been another favourite stuck in my head as has Black Widow from Pristin. At least Pledis finally announced their disbandment a little while back, now if only we could get an official confirmation on After School after all these years of nothing. Happiness has a new song out called Chao Chao which is amazing as usual and Dream Ami brought out a new digital single 恋のつぼみ Koi no Tsubomi. I was hoping for a new physical single or album as I wanted to get one from CDJapan for my birthday. But I'm guessing this song will be on her next release.

Dream Ami Good Goodbye - Single Review (CD Only Edition)

Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye is finally here so it's time for a review. I love reviewing her singles as they are always aesthetically beautiful and have great tracks and instrumentals. Good Goodbye is no different so let's take a look!

CD Only Edition of Good Goodbye

Good Goodbye is Dream Ami's eighth single and was released on January 30th 2019 as a digital single and on March 13th 2019 as a physical single. The single is available in two editions: CD+DVD edition and CD Only edition. This is the second Dream Ami release to only have two editions and I'm guessing it will be the standard from now on. Not sure if rhythm zone has dropped the One Coin editions as I haven't seen them for other E-girls releases either. I got the CD Only edition as it's the usual one I collect and it comes with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track single
• Lyrics booklet
• Jewel case
• External bonus from CDJapan - A3 sized poster

CD Only Edition of Good Goodbye

 The concept for this single is super fun and has Ami portraying six different images of her self in the MV and single photos. I loved this concept and the bright colours of the single design. I think yellow always looks great on releases and it matched well with the pink tones. Now to talk about the one thing that I hate about this release - the removal of the cardboard sleeve. All of Dream Ami's other CD Only editions have come with a cardboard sleeve which you will know about if you read my other reviews of her releases. This was my favourite part of the single design and it was great when it had a different image to the jewel case design. The sleeves were always had that beautiful matte feel and gave the singles an elegant look. Now without the cardboard sleeve, this single looks out of place with my other Dream Ami releases. I did some searching on Instagram and it seems the CD+DVD edition has the cardboard sleeve but not the CD Only one. Not sure why this is the case as both editions have always had the cardboard sleeve in the past. No clue why rhythm zone went with the removal of the sleeve but I feel they've been dropping the ball with the quality of her releases lately. Waiting to see what the editions of her next release are like and then maybe I can work out if rhythm zone is just cheaping out on releases now. Anyway here's some pictures of the back of the single showing the 6 tracks included on the CD Only edition.

The cute dots design continues on in the interior of the jewel case. The CD design is super adorable and is simple yet stylish. Underneath the CD is some production credits and a photo of the bench from the MV and promotional material. At least I got a OBI strip with this edition which makes up a little bit for the lack of cardboard sleeve as I do love me some OBI strips. I don't know what it is about them that I'm so crazy about, but I just find them so interesting and get excited whenever I buy a used CD and it includes the OBI strip.

CD Japan Review

Finally caved in and tried out CDJapan for the first time and let's just say I was impressed! The turning point for me to finally order something off the site was that you got a external bonus if you brought Dream Ami's new single from there. So that's what I brought along with a E-girls single I was missing from my collection.

CDJapan is a online store based in Japan that sells a variety of items from CD's, DVD's, gadgets, figures, etc. There's plenty of things to explore on the site and they even have services called Proxy Pickup where you can purchase concert goods. For example, you can currently place pre-orders for items from TWICE's Japan dome tour and most stuff was sold out so it seems to be popular. I only really collect CD's and DVD's so that's what this review will be about.

From the site, I brought Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye in the CD Only edition and E-girls first single Celebration! in the CD Only edition. If you purchase first press or place pre-orders on CDJapan, you will get a little bonus! For the Dream Ami single, I got a poster as an external bonus and another example is MOMOLAND's Japanese single I'm So Hot comes with a special photocard if you purchase it from CDJapan whilst the offer is available. CDJapan seems to be one of the only sites left with brand new copies of the earlier E-girls singles and I rarely see used copies of them on Zenmarket. So that's why I brought the Celebration! one from here and it was reasonably priced.

CDJapan has a great points system where you accumulate points when you purchase items or when certain events occur such as your birthday or coupons. The site offers some good deals during the year as well such as spend a certain amount and get a coupon for 200JPY off. I feel CDJapan has better deals than YesAsia as it encourages you to continue making purchases through the site. For example, I have quite a few points already which I can use to get savings off my next purchase. Or bonuses are always a great incentive! I'd rather spend a little bit more and get a fun item for my collection than buying Japanese releases off YesAsia.

Now for a quick look at the two CD's I brought! First off is E-girls first single Celebration! which is a trip back in time. All the members look so young and different! This single is one of my favourites as I love the songs Celebration! and Dreaming Girls. The later was meant to have a physical release for dream (the group that sings it) but it was cancelled and the song eventually ended up on here.

Next is Dream Ami's latest single Good Goodbye which is my favourite Dream Ami single ever now. Love the single design, love the songs and love the instrumentals. Everything is perfect with it except for one thing. Can you guess it? If you've seen all my other Dream Ami posts, you'll probably know whats missing and it's the one thing I love the most about her releases. It seems this edition comes without the cardboard sleeve!! No!!! I was so disappointed when I saw it and I was rather confused at why it was omitted. After some searching on Instagram, it seems only the CD+DVD edition comes with the cardboard sleeve. I feel rhythm zone has been dropping the ball with the last few of Ami's releases. First we get less versions (i.e. no One Coin anymore) and now the CD Only edition has no cover. It's not the biggest deal in the universe, I just loved the cardboard sleeves and it made all her singles look amazingly aesthetic on my shelf. Now this single looks out of place with the others. Well I'll just have to wait till her next release to see what the next design will be. Anyway, this single is amazing and I love all the songs!! I got a cute poster with the single which is the promo picture Ami was using to promote the single.

March Favourites

How on earth did we get to the end of March so quick? I was filling in some forms the other day and asked someone for the date which was the 28th. We were both shocked at how it was the 28th of the month already! Anyway here is my monthly favourites for March!

Gaming
Haven't played my 3DS for a while as I've kinda been burnt out on Style Boutique recently and not as passionate about playing it. Maybe a break will help and I'll get back into the game again. I'm just so let down by the post-main story line content as I literally cannot work at my boutique anymore as the only customers I ever get are the side story girls like Molly. Doesn't matter how far ahead I go int he game or how many times I complete their story lines, they are the only ones that ever appear. So frustrating and it has really put me off the game.

My workmate got me into Animal Crossing Pocket Camp recently and I've been playing it here and there. It's so adorable and the graphics are stunning. I don't take it too seriously and only really fulfil requests and catch stuff. The current event with growing flowers for Katie is quite cute and I've been enjoying that.

Music
Big month music wise as I have two packages on the way and received one order from Zenmarket this month. I'm waiting for Dream Ami's new Japanese single Good Goodbye and E-girls Celebration from CDJapan. This will be my first time trying out the site and I got a poster with the Dream Ami single so I'm excited to see it when it arrives. Also on the way should be Hong Jin Young's new album, MOMOLAND's 2nd Mini Album Freeze and myB's DdoDdo single. Waiting for the later one to come into stock on YesAsia so hopefully it ships soon. I did get some exciting releases from Zenmarket which I must post about. I finally completed my Japanese CLC collection which is great as it's something I've wanted for years.

Song wise I've been listening to quite a few tracks. MOMOLAND released a new song both in Korean and Japanese in recent weeks. Personally I hated the Korean one and much prefer the Japanese one. I held off getting the new Korean mini album for now and will just get one of the Japanese versions. I wasn't too interested in the other tracks on the mini album so I decided to buy Freeze instead which I was missing from my collection.

Dream Ami Wonderland - Single Review (CD Only Edition)

Since Dream Ami has just announced her eighth single Good Goodbye scheduled for release in March, I thought it was the perfect time to finally post a review of her last single Wonderland. I brought the CD Only edition of the single last year but have yet to post about it on Marzipan Wonderland. And talk about amazing, the single has the same word in it as my blog name. It was like fate brought us together ♥♥

CD Only Edition of Wonderland

Wonderland is Dream Ami's seventh single and was released in October 2018. The single is available in two editions: CD Only and CD+DVD. This is the first Dream Ami release to only have two editions and there is no One Coin editions like her previous singles. I got the CD Only edition as that is the usual edition I currently collected from Dream Ami. The single comes with the following contents:

• CD - 4 Track Album
• Lyrics Booklet
• Jewel Case
• Cardboard Sleeve
• Plastic Sleeve with promo sticker

Wonderland single in the plastic sleeve

This single brings a new colour scheme to Dream Ami's releases which is a beautiful lilac purple. All her previous releases have been in the tones of pinks, blues and reds. I just cannot choose my ultimate favourite single design as they are all so wonderful, but this one would definitely be tied for first. The aesthetics of the single still have her signature pastel tones and the cardboard sleeve has that elegant matte feel to it like all the other singles. Dream Ami has the best single/album designs out of all the artists I collect honestly. They always put so much care and thought into designing them and they are a billion times better than some of the awful E-girls covers she was in. The front cover of the cardboard sleeve and jewel case have different photos which is nice. Wonderland has the same photo on both back covers though unlike previous releases which had different ones. The photos included in the single are inspired by the miniature concept of the MV for Wonderland.

Front covers of the cardboard sleeve and jewel case

Front cover of the jewel case

Back covers of the cardboard sleeve and jewel case

January Favourites

First monthly favourites post of 2019! Actually did a fair amount of stuff this month so I'll have some things to report on. So let's get straight into it!

Gaming
I was super into New Style Boutique during the month of January and played it a fair amount. I'm talking about the 2nd game in the series, known as New Style Boutique in Europe and Australia. It's fun seeing a different style of game after playing the other instalments so much. Loving the Miss Ribbon brand as well and it's interesting to see how many items originally belonged to that brand. Here's a quick photo of my character I took at the photo studio!

Music
I haven't posted about them yet, but I got two new K-Pop albums off eBay recently. The albums were the 1st Mini Album Would You Like? from WJSN and the 2nd Single MAYDAY from April. The packaging of both albums is just gorgeous and the April one has my favourite packaging by far of all the albums I've recently collected. It also fits perfectly with my other April single Boing Boing. I have the WJSN mini album on another J-Pop/K-Pop shelf and it fits perfectly with my Nature and Orange Caramel singles. These shelves are where I keep my larger albums that aren't jewel case releases. Most of those are in some IKEA shelving that fits CD's and DVD's perfectly and I have more in IKEA boxes because my CD collection is too big for the space I have shelf wise.

My J-Pop Collection 2018

Last year I posted a round-up of my Japanese Pop collection so it was only natural to do another round-up post for 2018. And boy did I get a lot of new additions to my J-Pop collection this year. 2018 was the first year I got into seriously collecting Japanese releases and managed to pick up quite a few items that were on the top of my wishlist. I'll be listing all the titles in my collection at the end of the post as that list is quite long and I want to get straight into the photos rather than text. I'm just posting photos of new additions to my collection and you can check out photos of items that aren't posted in the J-Pop Collection 2017 post. I'll also link all the reviews for J-Pop releases I've posted at the end. So here is my collection all together and my collection has grown quite a lot since last years photo.

The biggest haul for this year would have to be my Afterschool haul from Zenmarket. I picked up this amazing CD set from a seller in Japan of a bunch of Afterschool Japanese and Korean releases. With this set, I was able to complete the set of Bang!, Diva and Lady Luck/Dilly Dally. Plus I was able to get my hands on the Heaven Mu-Mo set which is quite rare. Here are all my Afterschool J-Pop singles and albums, not quite a complete collection yet but hopefully I'll get all their releases in the future.

Next is my favourite solo artist Dream Ami who released two new singles this year, Amaharu and Wonderland. Wonderland has my favourite design by far but I still love all her single and album designs. Considering how bad most E-girls designs were, Ami seems to get beautiful designs for her releases. Ami will be releasing a new single next year so looking forward to a new addition to the collection and I still need to pick up a copy of her album RE: Dream but I'm waiting to find one for a good price.

MOMOLAND was a group I got into this year and have quite a few releases from them both Korean and Japanese. So far the group has released two Japanese singles BBoom BBoom and BAAM and both have been amazing. For their Japanese releases, I have the First Press Limited Edition B CD+Photobook edition of BBoom BBoom and the First Press regular CD edition of BAAM. Hoping the group brings out more Japanese releases in 2019 and hopefully a full album.

Found a copy of Pungdeng-E's 1st Japanese single 側にいて Stay in Type B a few months back and it was a lucky find. I am yet to find the Type A edition yet which is understandable considering how long it took to find the Type B edition. Here are my two Japanese releases from the group and even though the group performs a lot in Japan, they haven't brought out any new releases for a long time. Which is a shame, I'd love to see some new content from the girls.

YesAsia Haul - MOMOLAND, Dream Ami & NATURE

Received a new order from YesAsia this week which contained two singles I've been waiting for. Those singles being MOMOLAND's recent Japanese release BAAM and Dream Ami's seventh single Wonderland. I also got a single from a new exciting rookie group called Nature which is just a stunning physical release.

Nature is a new group to the K-Pop scene and I just had to have their first release for the beautiful design. The release is titled 1st Single Album - 기분 좋아 and was release in August 2018. Plus the songs are amazing as well! I was surprised at how pretty the album is in real life and it's just the perfect. You get two photocards with it and I got Gaga who is super cute and a group card. The group has just released their second single which also has amazing packaging so I'll be picking that up one day in the future.

Finally got a copy of Dream Ami's recent release Wonderland that's been out since October. Got the CD Only version of course as I'm collecting those editions from her at the current moment. The single design of this release has to be one of my favourites from her releases as the purple tone is just stunning. Plus the sleeve and jewel case have different photos on the front! Yay! Dream Ami's releases go back and forth having same or different photos on the front covers, so I was excited to see this one was different.

I had a lot of trouble trying to decide which version of BAAM from MOMOLAND to get. Now I originally wanted to get one of the DVD versions, but they were just a bit out of my price range. So I settled on getting the Regular CD Edition first and collect the other ones later. Personally I would've preferred the image that's on the back of the single to be the front cover.

E-girls E.G. Crazy - Album Review (Limited Edition 2CD+3DVD+Photobook Edition)

Most people may have to think about what their favourite album of all time is. For me, it's an easy answer: E-girls 2015 double-album E.G. Crazy. It's by far the best album of all time for myself and all the tracks are perfect. A few months ago I got my hands on the 2CD+3DVD edition from Japan so I thought it was time for a review of the album and it's contents.

2CD+3DVD+Photobook Edition of E.G. Crazy

E.G. Crazy is the fourth album released by the Japanese girl group E-girls. It was released in 2015 and comes in five editions: 2CD+3Bluray, 2CD+3DVD, 2CD+Bluray, 2CD+DVD and 2CD. The 2CD+3Bluray &  2CD+3DVD editions come in a special package with a photobook containing photos from the E-girls LIVE TOUR 2016 ~E.G. SMILE~. I originally only owned the album via iTunes but purchased a used copy of the 2CD+3DVD edition from Zenmarket. This edition comes with the following contents:

• 2CD - 24 Track Album
• 3DVD - 9 MV's, E-girls LIVE TOUR 2016 ~E.G. SMILE~ & Documentary Movie
• 120-paged Photobook
• Special Box Packaging
• OBI
• Lyrics Booklet
• Information Leaflets

Special packaging for E.G. Crazy

The CD's and DVD's are split into two DVD cases with both having the same cover as the box packaging. The CD one contains the two discs of the album. The tracks are split into two discs by music style: E.G. POP and E.G. Cool. The POP disc contains fun tracks such as Anniversary, Merry x Merry Xmas and Party In The Sun whilst the COOL disc contains more dance style tracks such as  Bad Girls, Dance Dance Dance and Pink Champagne. You get a lyrics booklet containing all the lyrics and information about the disc contents. There was also some information leaflets in my copy of the album. The discs are held in place with your usual dual DVD case insert and they are held in place quite well. Sometimes this type of insert can be hit or miss, I often get broken ones in my DVD cases.

E.G. Crazy lyrics booklet

Track listing in the lyrics booklet

September Favourites

September is over and October is finally here. The shops are starting to fill up with Christmas stuff already and I'm going to be sick of it by November as usual. Halloween isn't big here in Australia so you don't see much of it in the shops, they go crazy with Christmas stuff instead. I'd rather see Halloween stuff because it's more fun and crazy. Anyway, here are my favourites for September 2018.

Gaming
This month, I took part in the 30 Day Cosplay Challenge in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star. The challenge finished up yesterday and I have to admit it was fun taking on the task of creating more challenging looks. I've created a round-up of all 30 outfits in the Challenge which you can find at the 30 Day Cosplay Challenge Page. Here's some of my favourite photos from the challenge:

Music
I did get a big Zenmarket haul the other day which I'll post on here soon as I got some exciting albums for my collection including multiple versions of AOA's 胸キュン Mune Kyun single. 

My favourite solo artist Dream Ami released her 7th single recently titled Wonderland. The song is just too perfect for her and the MV is quite creative. I love the single covers for the song as well as they finally have a new colour scheme for her releases in this beautiful lilac purple. The physical single isn't due out till late October unfortunately so shall need to wait to get hold of it.

Finally a new colour scheme for Dream Ami's releases!

Beauty
Last month, I mentioned the Kiss Therapy by Lipsmacker and how I was interested in finding more flavours of the lip balm. Well I managed to track down the Eucalyptus Mint one at Chemist Warehouse (different store to where I found the Superfruit one). Honestly the Eucalyptus Mint isn't as nice as the Superfruit one and feels a bit more heavy on the lips. It would be good for when you have a cold as you can smell the Eucalyptus scent in it. The texture of the Superfruit lip balm is smoother from my experience and I use this one more. Still trying to find the Grapefruit and Strawberry flavours. I'm not huge on Strawberry scented lip balms but hopefully it will be as smooth as the Superfruit. I'm excited for Grapefruit as I intriuged at what smell it will have. The products are difficult to track down as not many shops stock them. The first Chemist Warehouse I got the Superfruit one at doesn't sell Lipsmackers anymore and the second one where I found Eucalytpus Mint was sold out of Strawberry. Might try some different Chemist Warehouses if I do into town again as there are a few within 100 metres of each other. Sounds silly doesn't it, but there is legit three Chemist Warehouses in the mall then another a few blocks away. Priceline states they sell them, but I'm yet to see them in store. Same with Big W as I can never find them even at the big stores. It's not like shops don't stock Lip Smacker, the range is quite big in most chemists and department stores.

30 Day Cosplay Challenge Day 12 - Try Everything トライ・エヴリシング by Dream Ami

Back when I did my original 30 Day Outfit Challenge, I created an outfit based off Dream Ami's Lovefool ~Suki Datte Itte~ 好きだって言って single. For today's outfit, I decided to revisit this idea and recreate another outfit from Dream Ami. This time I went for the outfit Ami has on in the promotional material for Try Everything トライ・エヴリシング. The song is the Japanese version of the song from the movie Zootopia and was used as the theme song in Japan.

For the dress, I used a white dress I never realised was in the game. It comes in a variety of colours and I only noticed it in the dress section recently. It has a plunging neck line so I had to put an inner on underneath to give the dress a higher neck line. I loved how this outfit turned out! It's so simple and elegant! If only we could hold props in the photos so I could look just like Ami.