““Tears and smiles are amplified.”
I long stopped hearing this aphorism someone made up.”

Welcome back to our usual review corner!

This time my copy of the new album is stuck in America because wooo, shipments from Japan to Italy are blocked again. However, for the usual CD pic, I decided to ask people in TC’s Discord server to take their own pic of the EP. Maybe these are TC Crews from other worlds…

This is a vocal mini album where we think about all kind of girls, such as a Hifuu Club who has never met and Hifuu Clubs from distant planets, and includes Ranko versions of 2 songs from sachlich.

Concept

Hyakumannin no Heikou Hifuu is, as the title says, a Hifuu CD. A new entry of BUTAOTOME’s Merry and Renko saga, this time dealing with parallel worlds, infinite possibilities. It’s funny that there is another album released this Comiket that deals with Hifuu and other universes, maybe it’s a sign that I should write that post about the parallelism between BUTAOTOME and Diao ye zong’s works…

This time we have 4 songs: two new ones and two Ranko versions of tracks from the album sachlich, the album noted for being “the one with Ane singing”. Ranko wrote both new songs. The last time she wrote Hifuu lyrics was for FREAKS (in 2016), so she delved into the lore of Dateless Bar “Old Adam” and included several references to its story, such as the guy who claims to be Dr. Latency, or the hair worshipping cult.

Design

Hyakumannin no Heikou Hifuu features a lot of cute chibi arts of Renko and Merry, in all their different variants from other worlds: the girls who never met each other, the g-g-g-g-g-ghost Hifuus (which I especially love), other life forms, and so on… The universes are colliding, so they are somehow in the same place.

This EP was sold with a cute limited set that included a postcard, a bag, stickers, and a bookmark, but unfortunately, it seems they run out of stocks at Comiket. I still think the distribution could have been managed in a better way, in order to give people who can’t go to events (not necessarily overseas people, we are still in a pandemic) a chance.

Music

This is a very short release with only two new tracks, so there isn’t much to say generally speaking.

The 2 new tracks (Bottling Souseiki and Watashi Shuugouron) are pretty much good, standard Pig tracks, and they serve as the opening and ending themes for the Hifuu parallel world series. Bottling Souseiki has your usual lively sound, but I prefer Watashi Shuugouron mostly for the lyrics. There is something about the “Let’s go find the mountain where the rainbow is born” line that gets me. Also, I would love to hear a mellow/acoustic rearrange of this!

I think the sachlich tracks (Mystery wa Kichi no Soto and Mugen Tajuu Curtain) stand out more, and they sound amazing, Ranko’s voice gives them so much expression. I really love the dark and tragic atmosphere that permeates Mugen Tajuu Curtain, as well as its mechanical sounds, but Mystery wa Kichi no Soto is my personal favorite. Jazz!!! JAAAAAZZ!!! It’s Perfection! Also, I think M no iru Heya (the remaining sachlich track) wasn’t included because it fits more a Trojan Green Asteroid/Neo-traditionalism of Japan-based album (Folie à deux‘s lost track?), but I hope we will get it one day. (or maybe they lost the instrumental)

End Notes

100mannin no Heikou Hifuu is a very nice EP. It’s not bad by any means, but I can only recommend it if you are in a shortage of new BUTAOTOME stuff, you are a Hifuu lover, or you want to listen to those Ranko versions. But considering the current status of the doujin music scene, I’m still happy that The Pig provided us a new release with new music to end 2021!

You can buy it on BUTAOTOME’s BOOTH (no Melonbooks/other shops this time), or wait for the download/streaming release.

Now, the post-review trivia corner! Ranko wrote a behind-the-scenes post on… Bibibi. I don’t understand why she published this on the website where we usually expect her to spread the word of the Umeboshi Cult, but it’s still an interesting post that details how she works on stuff, so I recommend reading it. In case you are lazy, here is a summary of the relevant points:

• Comp named the two tracks. He often titles the songs written by Ranko because she is not good at that
• She tends to record stuff in a single shot, because the more she spends time on a recording, the more it gets worse. So she practices in order to give the best result possible on her first takes
• This EP was recorded in 2 days: the sachlich tracks on the first, the new songs on the second
• Kiatsu bad

“The angels watch over us as we idle our lives away
Thousands of fishbowls clang over and over”