Team Dragon from AKB48 – Kokoro no Hane (Team Dragon Version) (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)

1. 心の羽根
2. 世界中の雨
3. 心の羽根 off vocal ver.
4. 世界中の雨off vocal ver.

DVD INFO: 16:9 LB, Region 2, Duration: 27:28

1. 心の羽根 music clip
2. 世界中の雨 live
3. ドラゴンボール改アフレコ体験!!?アフレコ現場にチームドラゴン from AKB48がやって来た!? (★チームドラゴン from AKB48 ver.)

With nearly a month before AKB48 releases their 17th CD single “Heavy Rotation”, for those who have been waiting for more AKB48, don’t have to wait too long as the group will be releasing a special CD single one-shot under the name “Team Dragon from AKB48”.

Their latest song “Kokoro no Hane” is the ending theme for the anime series “Dragon Ball Z Kai”.  I would imagine the reason why the group is unable to use their full AKB48 name is because the CD single is published through Columbia Music Entertainment and AKB48 is typically published through King Records.

With this single, hardcore AKB48 fans may want to prepare to shell out quite a bit of money because there are eleven different versions of the CD single.  Each of the eleven have the same CD and the first two DVD tracks but feature a collector’s character card of Minami Takahashi, Atsuko Maeda, Yuko Oshima, Tomomi Itano, Mayu Watanabe, Haru Kojima or Yuki Kashiwagi, plus a version featuring the entire group, versions featuring the Dragon Ball Z characters and also for those who don’t want a version with the DVD, there is a regular edition as well.

As for the DVD, the third track features each members (or the entire group) experience visiting the anime studio during the production of “Dragon Ball Z Kai” and having the opportunity to be voice actors for the anime series and learning from the experience.  I don’t have the other ten versions for review, so I am not too sure if the featurette focuses on one Team Dragon member or not, but I will review the Team Dragon version which features all seven members getting a chance to voice act.

The version I am reviewing is the Team Dragon version which comes with a character card featuring all characters (which features the same image shown on the front of the single insert cover).  Insert is a bi-fold which contains the lyrics and a special code for a website.

The single begins with “Kokoro no Hane” (which translates to “Wings of the Mind”) and is a pretty catchy, upbeat pop track.  The lyrics are pretty upbeat about being positive and not to think about failure and enjoy life and for one to flap their wings and keep trying in order to fly high and ride the wings of courage.

The coupling single is “Sekaiju no Ame” (which translates to “Rain Around the World” and is another song that has the AKB48 inspirational song trait  and is a track about people getting involved in quarrels, getting hurt and drowning in the sea of sadness and how people keep repeating that pain.  People should love each other and hope that rain will fall and quench the flames of the Earth.

Both are solid tracks and the final two tracks on the CD single are the instrumental off-vocal versions of the first two tracks.

As for the DVD, it’s important to note that this is a region 2 DVD and will not play on a region 1 player (unless you have a non-region DVD player) but can be played on a MAC or PC using free video playing software such as VLC or Daum PotPlayer.

The music video for “Kokoro no Hane” (directed by Takashi Komatsu) takes place sometime in the 21st Century in a futuristic world where members of Team Dragon work in industrial computerized jobs inputting data.  One day while working, the young ladies (which feature Atsuko Maeda as Akana, Minami Takahashi as Miu, Mayu Watanabe as Mandi, Yuko Oshima as Ylava, Tomomi Itano as Tabya, Haruna Kojima as Hasana and Yuki Kashiwagi as Yuhi) receive a message and join up together wearing their skysuits and leap off the tower to be free and fly.

The music video is mixed with images of the young ladies dancing and the overall look is quite futuristic/steampunk.  The video is cool but for a one-shot, it’s probably their most simplistic choreography for a song, but considering this is not an official AKB48 release, I can understand.  Also, their flight suits seem more like flying squirrels outfit and the green/blue screen image of the group flying in teh air doesn’t seem to realistic.

But overall, it’s a good video.  Ten other AKB48 members are in the video but you really can’t see their faces.

The second video is a live performance by Team Dragon from AKB48 at JCB HALL (from June 9, 2010).

The third music video is a 20-minute featurette of “DRAGON BALL KAI AFUREKO TAIKEN!!-AFUREKO GENBA NI TEAM DRAGON FROM AKB48 GA YATTEKITA!-” which features AKB48 visiting the live voice acting recording of voice actress Masako Nozawa (who does the voice of Goku and Gohan) and Ryo Horikawa (voice of Vegeta) and the excited members talking with the two voice talent.  And each member getting a chance to become voice talent and learn how to voice act for an anime series.

This is a pretty cool feature as AKB48 get to meet two legendary voice actors and you can tell how excited they are of meeting them and getting the opportunity to voice act and get feedback of their performance from both Masako and Ryo.

Overall, “Kokoro no Hane” is actually a pretty good single and both tracks are positive and are upbeat, catchy pop tracks.  Because this is not an AKB48 release, I don’t know if this is a song that will be seen in many of their concert performances but for AKB48 fans, it’s an interesting collectible.  As an anime fan, especially an AKB48 and “Dragon Ball Z” fan, the 20-minute featurette alone makes the CD+DVD worth buying.  Rarely do you get to see Masako Nozawa and Ryo Horikawa doing their voices for “Dragon Ball Z” and to see AKB48 and these seiyuu legends together and seeing AKB48 learning how to voice act for an anime from these legends is pretty awesome!

If anything, Just be careful and look which version you are getting because all the covers are the same.

Team Dragon from AKB48’s “Kokoro no Hane” (Team Dragon Version) CD+DVD single is highly recommended!

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