Oooooh, welcome to this new pre-review!

After 2 years, a physical Comiket is finally happening, and BUTAOTOME is going to release their smallest album ever. An Hifuu-only album consisting of two new songs and two new versions of old tracks. This C99 is gonna have some very good Hifuu stuff, with a new ZUN CD and also the upcoming Diao ye zong and Aftergrow albums, I’m glad. But needs more Sumireko

The subtheme of 100mannin no Heikou Hifuu is “parallel worlds”. According to its official description, it will explore various concepts for Renko and Merry, such as an Hifuu Club who never met or an Hifuu Club from a distant planet. Before the album announcement, Ane posted various arts that turned out were teasers: [1 / 2 / 3] Let’s take a look at them.

These two images represent an Hifuu Club that was never formed. Instead of meeting on that fateful day, Renko and Merry decide to ignore and forget each other, as generic passerbies.

The final night of the Hifuu Club. A more cynical representation of the duo, where perhaps they only see each other as fellow club members. No more Hifuu, no more ties between them.

Various Hifuu Clubs from other universes, where they are cosmic abominations.

Now, time to talk about the music!

BUTAOTOME is continuing their undisclosed quest of creating vocal arrangements of every single ZUN’s Music Collection original (at least those related to the Hifuu Club). I wonder if they’ll eventually arrange Nanatsuishi no Ookami, Kumo wo Tori ni Kakeru from the upcoming ZUN disc. It’s a PR track for a small village, but ZUN said it’s fine to treat it as a Touhou song and make derivative works about it. So it should be okay to do an arrangement, without worrying about a third party wanting its own share of royalties :thonk:

Anyway, the two new tracks are arrangements of themes Comp already did as instrumental in sachlich: Bar Old Adam and Futsukayoi no Doushouimu, both Old Adam tracks. Both these arrangements sound pretty great, and I’m looking forward to the full versions! Can’t really talk about the lyrics as I’m having a hard time grasping them from the XFD + no subtitles in the video, so I won’t try to analyze them too much.
Bottling Souseiki (ボトリング創世記, bottling genesis) seems to be pretty much the “parallel world theme song”, but I have absolutely no idea for Watashi Shuugouron (わたし集合論, my set theory). I always thought Futsukayoi no Doushouimu would have been good for some kind of “Hifuu Club’s break up” song, so I hope it will be that, to tie with the Saigo-no-Hifuu Club pic above.

A while ago, Ranko posted two sachlich vocal songs on her Twitter. Turns out they were a teaser for this album, as we get Ranko versions of them! Sachlich’s songs are pretty much about how there is much more beyond our small reality, so they fit the concept of this EP.
I always thought Mystery wa Kichi no Soto would have been perfect for Ranko’s voice, and I also admit I prefer Mugen Tajuu Curtain over Anata ni wa Miete Watashi ni wa Mienai mono. So I’m extremely happy with these two songs! A shame there is no M no iru Heya as well… Also, we live in a world where we are getting Ranko versions of sachlich songs before Lost Word Chronicle Ranko version. #obligatorylostwordroasting

….but now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: this release is gonna be event-limited. Quoting Ane’s tweets: “we are not going to send this album to shops (Melonbooks, etc.), but we’ll sell the post-event stocks on BOOTH”. So either you go to Comiket 99 (or ask someone who will go there) or wait for the BOOTH update.
I’m gonna be blunt: event-limited things in 2021 are not a great move. In times of pandemic, circles really should take into consideration that not everyone wants to go to a place filled with crowds. I honestly don’t have a lot of respect for groups who still feel the need of making event-only stuff with no mailorder option, especially if it’s something with entirely new songs. I admit this kind of ruins my hype for 100mannin no Heikou Hifuu, so I hope BOOTH pre-orders with just the EP will start soon. This doesn’t seem to be the kind of release that will serve as demo/preview for a future full Hifuu work, and I assume it will be eventually made available on streaming services through Touhou Doujin Music Distribution, but I still want a physical copy for my collection, and for the lyrics. The goodies are cute, but they can be skipped. Buta, don’t disappoint me.

Anyway, as soon as I’ll get a copy of this album in some way, I’ll provide you with lyrics, romanization, and translations in both English and Italian for the two new songs! (omg, we are getting a short release, they are giving me more time to finish their discography, thank you) (also can’t believe it’s a Hifuu album, it feels like a prize for me finally managing to translate every single RenMerrySumi song in both languages! Maybe we’ll get a new original album once I’m done with the originals?!)

And that’s all for this pre-release commentary! What do you think of this new release? Let me know down in the comments :tea: