Disc 3

Here we have Sakura playing the ingenue Masae Yukawa and singing a patriotic cheering on/love song for her hero boy wonder Shounen Red. Like "Shounen Red Shudaika" it's supposed to sound like something out of those old 1930-40's radio shows, so it has that same melodramatic sound as well. It's a pretty good song; I like it until she starts going "Red... Red... Red Shounen Red."

Oogami's only solo in Sakura Taisen history. Most of you probably remember this song from the first OAV; it was played while Oogami was still in the navy cleaning the deck (which is pretty much what he is singing about.) I believe the name is supposed to be a word play that the Japanese are so fond of; fura fura can also be translated as "hula-hula" since the song has a mellow Hawaiian sound complete with a steel guitar. It has a really dreamy sounding and Oogami's soft voices adds to it; he's a not a bad singer though he can use some work.

I absolutely LOVE this; 12 minutes of a fully orchestrated musical version of Shakespeare. I believe this a mix of King Lear and Midsummer Night's Dream. Kanna plays King Lear and she is using her classical voice and hitting some really high notes. And those maniacal laughs are crazy. Sakura also has a leading role (singing in her crazy boy voice) as well as Maria who sounds great. The rest of the girls have a few small solos but mostly they're singing the chorus. What's nice is throughout the song there are diferent sections of different sounding background music each invoking a diferent emotion. Meanwhile there is dialogue mixed in. I like how the end closes off in a typical Hanagumi girl group type sound. This is really really good and the only reason I listen to this cd.

This is the second version of this song and the only one not featuring all of the girls. It's ok since these three sound really good together. This version has a more modern R&B complete with a gospel choir. This is probably my least favorite of the three version, I do like the feel of the song although I can only truly enjoy this during Christmas-time.

Here's all of the happy Hanagumi girls singing a very upbeat Christmas theme and just like the above song also features a gospel choir. It's fun song but once again I can only really appreciate it at Christmas time.

This is the only Kanna solo I really really like. I originally heard this when Sumire spoofed during the Shinshun Kayou Show and I wonder how it would sound with Kanna. To my surprise, I instantly liked it, which is strange considering it's Kanna. It's a fun fast-paced mix of soul and Japanese instrumental about fighting . And it's really fast which Kanna pulls off very well. This is such a fun song!

Dandy-dan toujou! Here marks the first appearance of that wanna be gangster/Hanagumi fanboy Dandy Boss and his flunkies (apparently there were originally three flunkies) Dandy Boss, who has an amazing voice, sings this low-down Westside Story-esque (complete with snapping) James Bond type song about the life of a gangster. It's usually a trademark for him to sing a snippet of the song whenever he and his gang appears but this is the only time he sings the whole thing. Since he's not technically a canon character, there's no studio version of this but this version is pretty cool to listen to.

Here the two are singing as the siblings Tytyl and Mytyl respectively. It took me awhile to grow to like this song, mainly because of Iris but after I saw it performed live, I started to appreciate it more. Most of the song is very melancholy with really sad lyrics then it picks towards the end and turns into a light march with Reni singing beautiful harmony in the background; that's my favorite part and usually fast-forward until it gets to that section. This is one of three Reni/Iris solo, including a remake of this song in the kayou show "Shin Aoi Tori" (which is really beautiful and so much better than this version.)

This version is kinda bleh. It's just weird because there are three Latin based solos (cha-cha, mambo and rumba) and then Maria comes in with rhythm and blues. The extended version is much better because it's more diverse and has all of the Hanagumi singing. I usually skip this song when I listen to cd.

This is my favorite version background music-wise; this is the full version they use mostly at the end of the kayou shows. I don't care for the Koulan/Iris/Kanna combo although Kanna's solo sounds really good and surprisingly Iris' too (I like the way she whispers "otome"). It would've been better if all of the Hanagumi sang; I guess since Sakura, Sumire and Maria sang in the last revision, these girls needed their chance too. All in all, nothing exciting, I usually don't listen to it.

One of Maria's better solos; and all of her solos are always good. The song has a nice mellow jazz sound and she gets to do a lot of fun jazzy things with her voice. This is the kind of jazzy number that Maria specializes in. Maria is always gets the cool songs and she always sounds great.

I LOVE this song. I'm a little biased cuz I LOVE Orihime. It has a cool disco queen feel to it and at certain parts of the song there are Italian guitar solos that sorta remind you that she's from Italy. The background music sounded better in the live version with some added funky instrumental ad libs. Her voice sounds great (not so much in the musical) and she gets to do a lot of cool things vocally; she even gets to sing in Italian which is a first (and last) Personally, this is my favorite Orihime solo.

Everywhere I went online sites that reviewed this cd said this song was scary and I wondered why. When I first started listening to it, I thought it sounded cute in an Iris sort of way. As I continued listening to it, it started getter scarier. It gets scarier at the end of the song when it gets faster. The scene in the musical with her singing this for Sumire with Oogami dancing along is really terrifying. If you're an Iris fan, you'll like this song but if you're like me, you'll probably skip it.

I love this song, it's so awesome. First of all, it's a Sakura and Dandy Boss duet; they are both excellent singers, especially Dandy Boss, and this is the only duet with these two singing together ever. There's a lot of mentioning of food with a lot of food puns in this song; suteki and suteiki(steak) and sou da and soda. The song itself has a jazzy Broadway feel with a small hint of gospel. There's a cool acapella part where the female chorus sing the chorus, then Sakura adds on some verses and then Dandy Boss adds in more and hits a nice high note at the end. Sakura and Dandy Boss sound great together, both sound their absolute best. This is definitely one of the best songs on this soundtrack.