KARA 2nd Album Revolution - Album Review (Regular CD Edition)

Taking a trip back to the 2000's today with a classic album from KARA! This group is one of my all-time favourite K-Pop groups and I have so much of their stuff in my collection. There was a time once in my life when I was all "I'm going to collect every single KARA release out there" and we all know that was a wild dream. If only I could do that as I do love KARA and they have such a good discography that later K-Pop fans tend to pass by. Revolution was an important album from the group as it gave us the iconic dance with 미스터 Mister.

Revolution is the second album from Korean girl group and was released on 30th of July 2009. It came out in two versions: Regular CD Only and a Limited Okinawa Special Edition CD+DVD. The Okinawa version was limited to 5,000 copies and contained a 60 page photobook. I brought my copy second hand on Yahoo Auctions as part of the KARA Special Premium Box for Japan. This Premium Box was a boxed set of the groups Korean albums along with a bonus CD and DVD. Actually the DVD included with the Premium Box is the DVD included in the Okinawa version of Revolution! I'll post about that set another day and it was a steal to find as it can be hard to find complete. The album I got is the Regular CD Only edition and it came with the following:

• CD - 10 track album
• Photobook

Mega Zenmarket Haul!

So I brought a few things off Zenmarket recently. Well more than a few actually. I swear this site will drown me in CD's eventually. Managed to tick a large number of releases off my wishlist with this order. All these items came from Yahoo Auctions, Bookoff and Tower Records. Some are brand new and others are used. Here's all the CD's I brought in this order which boy was an effort to ship here. Never going to ship this many CD's ever again as the shipping wasn't the cheapest thing. It always reminds me of that joke from the Australia episode of the Simpsons where the guy goes '900 Hundred dollary doos?!?' That's my thought whenever I see shipping costs to Australia haha. There was so many CD's I had trouble trying to get them all into frame. But I did save a lot of money buying these CD's as some were quite rare and expensive when they first came out. I'll list all the titles in later paragraphs because the list is quite long.

First off is the albums from KARA who I'm trying to complete my collection of. These are all new additions to my collection apart from The First Bloooooming which I already own. Finally got my hands on the Type B of Fantastic Girls which was something I was after last year. And got a copy of the Japan Tour Special Edition of Super Girl which I didn't have! It doesn't have a super amount of new content compared to the first editions of the album but the cover is pink! Here's the list of the KARA albums:

• The First Bloooooming
• 1st Mini Album
• Super Girl Japan Tour Special Edition - CD+DVD
• Girls Forever - CD+DVD
• Girls Forever - CD Only First Press
• Girls Forever - CD+PHOTOBOOK
• Fantastic Girls - Type B CD+DVD

Next is the KARA singles because they wouldn't all fit in the same photo as the albums. I've always loved the single designs of KARA's Japanese singles and I quite like how they are all standard jewel case releases so I can store them all together. Electric Boy would have to be my favourite design out of the bunch. A few doubles here with the singles which I'll just sell for cheap. I already got three of these last year off Zenmarket. A nice surprised was from the seller I brought the next set from included Ji Young's version of French Kiss which I wasn't expecting. I was over the moon to see if included with the set as I was planning on collecting it and it was brand new too. Here's the list of the KARA singles:

• Electric Boy - Limited Edition A CD+DVD
• Electric Boy - Limited Edition B CD+PHOTOBOOK
• Electric Boy - Limited Edition C CD Only First Press
• Speed Up/Girls Power - Type A CD+DVD
• Speed Up/Girls Power - Type B CD+DVD
• Speed Up/Girls Power - Type C CD Only First Press
• Bye Bye Happy Days! - Type A CD+DVD
• Bye Bye Happy Days! - Type B CD+DVD
• Bye Bye Happy Days! - Type C CD Only First Press
• Thank You Summer Love - Limited CD+DVD
• Thank You Summer Love - CD Only First Press
• French Kiss - Limited CD+DVD
• French Kiss - Limited CD+DVD Ji Young Version

February Favourites

Going to give myself a gold star as I spelt February correctly in the title on the first try! Seriously, I struggle to spell February every year when it rolls around. Anyway this month went so quick! I still feel like it's December though because it's just been so busy and I don't realise how quick the days are going. It's still pretty hot here, we're having a sudden heatwave. Normally I don't mind the heat but after the last heatwave in January when it was nearly 50 degrees, I'm a bit over it. Plus it's quite hot at my work then it's hot at night so you can't sleep then everyone is tired for work the next day. The endless circle! 

Gaming
Amazingly I didn't play much video games this month. A bit of Style Boutique here and there to update my Shopdo but I don't recall playing it much. All the posts on the blog this month were a back log of images I had from the game. I did however make some new outfits on teh Design Centre which I need to post on here. Here's a sneak peak at one of them!

Music
Big month music wise. I got a large order from Japan but it's not quite ready yet to post on here as some of the CD's absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke when I got them. So I've been using some techniques to make them smell better and I think there working so far. I did get some albums and singles in good condition or brand new. Picked up CLC's Japanese releases from Tower Records which I'm super happy about. I brought the two I didn't get from Tower Records second hand the other day so I'm excited to receive those soon. Here's some of the songs I've been listening to this month!

My K-Pop Collection 2018

The other week I posted my J-Pop Collection for 2018 so it's now time for my K-Pop Collection for 2018! I only brought a few new additions for my K-Pop collection this year as I was focusing more on Japanese releases. Most of the new K-Pop albums and singles I got this year were releases from 2018 and others were cheap ones I came across. Just like with my J-Pop collection post, I'll be listing everything at the end as well as any reviews I have posted of the albums and singles. So here's a picture of all my K-Pop albums and singles and boy was it a pain to get them to sit up for this. I think next time I'll have to find somewhere bigger for the photo or take separate ones as K-Pop releases are much larger than standard jewel cases.

First off is something I haven't posted about on Marzipan Wonderland yet. Last month I brought a Crayon Pop single that I had been wanting for ages. It's the groups 4th single Bar Bar Bar and it's hard to come by. Most copies I usually see were quite pricey however I got this one for 950JPY from Japan. So excited to add this to my Crayon Pop collection as they are one of my favourite groups. No other additions to my Korean Crayon Pop collection so here's a quick picture of all the releases together.

The one I.O.I release I was missing from my collection was re-issued earlier this year so I picked it up for my collection. The mini-album I got was Miss Me? which is the groups second physical release. I think Chrysalis still has my favourite packaging out of the three but it's the hardest to store for me. I always have it standing up because it's difficult to put in my bookshelf on it's side with other albums.

Added a new group to my collection this year and that was WJSN! I've always kinda been interested in the group but not on a serious level. I got the groups 1st Album Happy Moment as a random buy into town one day and the Dream Your Dream mini album was a purchase from Japan. I mainly picked it up as it was incredibly cheap and I was interested in collecting the groups releases. I've actually ordered their first mini album Would You Like? and it should be here next month.

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.

Zenmarket Haul - AOA, KARA & WJSN

Time for another Zenmarket haul! I received this package a few weeks ago so I thought it was finally time to share it. In this order, I got a bunch of AOA, KARA and WJSN albums and singles. When I was typing out the name of this post, the title made me laugh because all the groups are written in capitals. That rarely happens and this time it was just luck that all three groups I got CD's for had capitals in their group name. Anyway, here are the CD's I got from Zenmarket!

First off, here are the AOA singles I got! All these came in a set from the same seller I brought my AFTERSCHOOL set from. All the albums were in great condition like the last ones I received. The main reason I brought this set was because it contained four editions of the group's 胸キュン Mune Kyun singles and I have been after them for a long time. 胸キュン Mune Kyun is favourite AOA song and it is the Japanese version of Heart Attack. The editions of the single that I received were Sexy Version Type A CD+DVD and Type B CD+Photobook and Cutie Version Type A CD+DVD and Type B CD+Photobook. The original listing stated that there was 2 photocards included which were the group one. But when I opened up all the cases, there was an extra 3 photocards! So now I have 5 of the same photocard. The photobooks for 胸キュン Mune Kyun are a removable book nad I'm not sure what I think about this. I'm usually fine with this concept if the single/album comes in a box but 胸キュン Mune Kyun isn't that so the photobook just comes out. I do love the pastel colours of the photobook though, they're stunning!

胸キュン Mune Kyun - Sexy & Cutie Type A and Type B editions

胸キュン Mune Kyun photobooks for the Sexy and Cutie versions

The other AOA single I received was  愛をちょうだい Ai Wo Choudai (Give Me Love feat. TAKANORI NISHIKAWA (T.M.Revolution]) in the Type A CD+DVD Edition. This is another one of my favourite AOA releases and I did not yet have any edition of this in my collection. Love the concept of this single and looking forward to collecting the other editions of the single.

30 Day Cosplay Challenge Day 9 - サマー☆ジック/Sunshine Miracle/SUNNY DAYS by KARA

Now I wanted to do a cosplay of an outfit from the group KARA, but I had a hard time deciding on which one to choose. I just have so many favourite concepts and outfits from them, but I realised I would have trouble replicating a lot of the unique costumes. I decided to go with Hara's outfit from Summer☆gic サマー☆ジック/Sunshine Miracle/SUNNY DAYS single released in 2015. Hara is the one posing on the right side of the promotional image. I went with this outfit which she wears on the Type A CD+DVD+GOODS and Regular Edition CD Only cover.

I went with this outfit as I knew it would be fairly easy to replicate. The outfit ended up being a mixture of basic, girly and bold styles. Finally got a chance to use the gold chain stack style necklace as I never use them usually. I quite like the design of them in the game however I don't often create outfits that require necklaces.

KARA Jumping ジャンピン - Single Review (CD+DVD Edition)

It's about time I started doing some reviews of some KARA CD's since I have a whole stack of them to get through. KARA was the first group I got into when I became interested in K-Pop and J-Pop many years ago. I've made it one of my goals to collect all their releases and my collection grew a little bit recently with some purchases off Zenmarket. So I thought today we'd look at KARA's Japanese single Jumping ジャンピン.

Front cover of ジャンピン by KARA

Jumping ジャンピン is the second Japanese single released by Korean pop group KARA and was released in 2010. The single was released in four editions: CD+DVD, CD+Photobook, CD Only First Press & CD Only. I own the CD+DVD copy and I got my copy used from Zenmarket so it did not include an OBI strip. My used copy of Jumping ジャンピン came with the following contents:

• Jewel case
• Lyrics booklet
• Information leaflet
• CD - 3 track album
• DVD

Back cover of ジャンピン

The single design is pretty minimalist with the girls posing in black outfits on the front and back cover. Each edition of the single has a different cover and all of KARA's Japanese singles have similar designs. Inside the jewel case, there are two gorgeous discs and a lyrics booklet. The CD has a stunning magenta colour tone whilst the DVD has a violet tone. The case was in good condition for a used copy and the CD and DVD both played fine in a disc drive.

Front and back covers

YesAsia Haul - KARA, Pungdeng-E & スダンナユズユリー SudannaYuzuYully

Another order arrived from YesAsia this week and this order was kinda unexpected. I wasn't planning on making another order on YesAsia for a little while, but two items I was after were massively reduced in price so I snapped them up! So in this order I got a KARA concert DVD, Pungdeng-E's album from last year that I hadn't got yet and two スダンナユズユリー SudannaYuzuYully singles.

First off is Pungdeng-E's 4th Album Stay which was the main reason I placed this order. Now originally when this album came out last year, I wasn't planning on getting it as I already owned most of the tracks and the normal price for the album was $19.99USD. However I noticed recently that the price has been reduced to $4.99USD which confused me at first when I saw it on my wishlist. Turns out it was a great deals item like the Crayon Pop DVD I brought in my recent YesAsia Haul. Decided to grab a copy of the album since $4.99 USD was a great deal and just like the Crayon Pop item, the price went back up after I brought it. The album is quite nice and contains a photobook. The CD push part in my album was broken though but still holds the CD in place. No major issue though, this used to always happen with my jewel cases years and year ago, so I'm used to it. This album makes me laugh though as it's called '4nd Album', shouldn't that be 4th album grammar wise?

Brought my first KARA concert DVD. Wasn't something I was expecting to buy, but I'll pick anything up KARA related if it's cheap as they were my first group I got into for k-pop and j-pop. The DVD is the 3rd Japan Tour 2014 KARASIA and is the first Japanese tour of the group since the formation of the new four member line-up. The copy I purchased is the Limited Edition First Press Normal Version which was a steal for $9.99USD. Another great deals item and the price hasn't jumped up yet, so they still be trying to clear them for the sale. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but it contains two discs and a little leaflet inside about the girls and concert.

Lastly I finally got my hands on some スダンナユズユリー SudannaYuzuYully singles. They're a sub-unit of E-girls and my readers might know how much of a big E-girls fan I am. I brought the CD Only versions of OH BOY and CALL ME NOW. The latter is my favourite out of the two and contains three solid tracks. Planning on collecting the CD+DVD and One Coin versions of the single in the future. I wish the group would bring out a new single as I quite like their music as it's different from the usual E-girls and Happiness stuff. 

Packaging was your usual YesAsia quality with a box and the items wrapped in some bubble wrap. Shipping was great as the items arrived within a week which is new for YesAsia. I've never had one that quick from them and I didn't even get a notification that it had arrived in my city.

June Favourites

June was such a busy month and I've been insanely busy lately, so this month's favourites are a bit late. Managed to get a variety of posts up on Marzipan Wonderland this month which I'm proud of. I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks so posts might be spaced apart. I do have some exciting challenges for New Style Boutique 3 to post so look out for those! Now onto the favourites!

Gaming
Besides playing New Style Boutique 3 and Animal Crossing on the 3DS, I've been really into this game on Steam lately called Voodoo Garden. It's a clicker style game where you create a garden filled with different flora and animals. I got it ages ago during a sale but only really got into playing it this month. It's similar to Plantera which I've played previously and enjoyed.

Screenshot of my garden in Voodoo Garden

Music
Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to find KARA's debut Korean album in a second hand book shop. I was absolutely thrilled to see it and it was only $1.50! I didn't have this one for my collection yet and I just changed the case over to a new one to make it look all nice.

Been listening to a few songs this month. I've really been into SudannaYuzuYully スダンナユズユリー this month who are a sub-unit of E-girls. The group has one of my favourite E-girls members Yurino in it so it's nice to see her singing and rapping instead of just performing.

MOMOLAND released a new song which is just as good as BBoom BBoom. Their new title is called Baam and has a similar sound to their previous track. But I don't mind as it's still fun to listen to and has a dance which reminds me of T-ARA's Lovey Dovey. I have purchased their new mini album which should arrive in a few weeks along with two other exciting titles.

Zenmarket Haul - KARA & E-girls

Another one of my orders arrived yesterday. Like the last one, the tracking was acting weird so I wasn't expecting it at all. More on that later, so here's the singles I got in my Zenmarket order! I got five Japanese singles from KARA and 3 singles from E-girls.

My Zenmarket order!

I was super happy with this order as it had quite a few items in it that I wanted for my collection. The order was made up of two orders, the KARA one and the E-girls one. The order was consolidated into one package which is a feature you can do with Zenmarket. I have written a review of Zenmarket and it's services here if you would like to know more about the service. The singles and which versions they are I received are as follows:

• E-girls - Go! Go! Let's Go! (CD Only)
• E-girls - Pink Champagne (CD Only)
• E-girls - E.G. Summer RIDER (CD Only)
• KARA - Jumping (CD+DVD Version)
• KARA - Jet Coaster Love (CD Only First Press Version)
• KARA - Speed Up/Girls Power (CD+DVD Version B)
• KARA - Bye Bye Happy Days! (CD+DVD Version A)
• KARA - Thank You Summer Love (CD Only First Press Version)

The KARA set was an amazing deal! It had a variety of versions of the singles and I was excited to see that the CD Only versions were the First Press Versions! I wasn't sure when I saw the listings and was hoping they were those versions as you get the bonus track. So that was a surprise when I opened them up. The other ones are CD+DVD versions which are always fun to collect. Now I can add these to my KARA single collection which is only Mamma Mia so far. I wanting to collect the entire collection of their singles which is going to take a while haha.

Front covers

Back covers

My J-Pop Collection 2017

This year I added quite a few new albums and singles to my Japanese Pop collection. 2017 was the year I started getting into collecting albums from E-girls and Dream Ami. This month I finally got the last Dream Ami single I was missing to complete my singles collection! Besides those artists, I got a few new albums from some of my favourite groups such as After School and KARA. I got very lucky and managed to get a set of Girls Talk and two Super Girl albums extremely cheap from a seller in Japan. I was so happy when I found them as they are hard to come across, especially the limited edition ones. Here is a photo of my J-Pop collection at the end of 2017. These are all the physical single and albums I have, I have a lot of musically digitally as well.

The albums in my collection include:

• KARA - Girls Talk - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girls Forever - Type A CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• KARA - Best Girls - Type C 2CD's (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Mamma Mia! - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girl's Story - CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Bang! - Type C CD Only
• AFTERSCHOOL - Diva - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Heaven - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition
• AFTERSCHOOL - Dress To Kill - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - RaRiRuRe - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Dancing All Night - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Crayon Pop - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Pop!Pop!Pop! - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• AOA - Runway - Type C CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu  - PAMYUPAMYU Revolution (Hong Kong Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pika Pika Fantajin (Australian Edition)
• CocoSori - Itoshi no Mermaid - Type B
• Pungdeng-E - Pungdeng-E 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa
• Orange Caramel - Lipstick/Lum no Love Song - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Orange Caramel - ORANGE CARAMEL - CD+DVD (Hong Kong Edition)
• Orange Caramel - Yasashii Akuma - CD+Photobook (Taiwan Edition)
• E-girls - Lesson 1 - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan Limited Edition)
• E-girls - E.G. Time - CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• Dream Ami - Dress wo Nuida Cinderella - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Try Everything - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Lovefool - Sukidatte Itte - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Hayaku Aitai - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Kimi no Tonari - CD Only

Kara makes up the largest part of my collection and they were the first k-pop group I got into many years ago when I first started listening to the genre. I'm hoping to collect the last album I'm missing which is Fantastic Girls next year. I have a number of After School and Orange Caramel (After School's subunit) singles and albums, but I have some more in digital form and haven't got the physical ones yet. Dress To Kill was a great buy that I found this year. I brought the Taiwan edition which was about $40 cheaper than the Japan edition of the exact same CD+DVD+Photobook edition.

KARA Collection

AFTERSCHOOL Collection

Orange Caramel Collection

When buying J-Pop singles, I usually get the CD Only edition as it comes with the instrumentals and occasionally bonus tracks. Plus they are always the cheaper edition to buy. With albums, I try to get the DVD edition and occasionally the photobook as well if it comes in the same edition. However these editions often are extremely expensive or out of print. I often buy the Taiwan edition of albums as it is a cheaper price than the Japanese versions and comes with the same content (sometimes more!). I recently got the Taiwan edition of the E-girls album Lesson 1 and it was a good buy as it came with the CD plus a DVD of the music videos and a 64 page photobook. I also have the Taiwan edition of E.G. Time which came with the CD and DVD of the music videos. This year I managed to collect all the singles from Dream Ami who is my favourite solo artist. The covers of her singles are just gorgeous, I just can't pick which one is my number one favourite. I did not buy her recent album though as it was quite expensive for how many songs I didn't own (was only missing four which were new ones), so I just brought the seperate songs on iTunes. I'm hoping maybe one day to find the CD+DVD+Photobook edition cheap second hand if I ever go to Japan.