Unboxing the Kessoku Band CD Album

While I did know it was coming thanks to the ever-so-reliable sakuga community hyping it up, I couldn't expect just how great Bocchi the Rock! would be. There are many aspects that aided its rise to the top of my - and many others' - top 10 list of last year, and one of them was its music. The anime's in-universe Kessoku Band played many memorable songs throughout the series, in addition to the excellent OP & EDs, so when Aniplex released all of them, in addition to a few completely new songs, on a limited-time CD with some extras, I just had to get it. Amazon Japan didn't want to ship it overseas, but luckily CDJapan was there to save the day. They didn't have any store bonus available, not even the general one, so I did miss out on that, but I'm not too bothered by that. I could also use a 500 yen off coupon since it was my first time ordering from them, which essentially got me free tracking&insurance and a little off the base shipping cost too. Japan Post worked fast despite it being the middle of holiday season, and it took just one weekend for the package to travel over an entire continent. 

This limited edition release contains the full album on an Audio CD, as well as a bonus Blu-ray disc, stored in a digipack instead of a jewelcase. In addition, there's a sticker with a "backstage pass" design featuring the title of episode 1, and of course a booklet with lyrics and credits. And since this is a Japanese CD release, there's an obi, although unusually on the right side of the front cover rather than left, containing the barcode and technical specification - the usual stuff. (A more verbose version with every possible instruction for people who don't know what a CD is is included as a separate paper. No idea what that's about. One of those "only in Japan" kinds of things I guess.) Since the packaging is a digipack instead of a jewelcase, the booklet, sticker and other papers were inside the digipack between the discs, which is... one way to do it, I suppose. 

The CD contains 14 tracks, for a total length of 54 minutes. You can find the tracklist on VGMdb. The Blu-ray disc contains the creditless opening and endings 1-3. No other content on the BD (if you don't count the usual anti-piracy warnings and Aniplex's intro), although the menu does give the option to watch the videos separately or all in a row. In terms of video and audio, it's the usual high Aniplex quality - these are the highest-fidelity versions of the songs one can possibly get anywhere. 






This is the first Japanese CD release in my collection, and I don't expect it to be the last. All-around nice product, not sure if worth the 4070 yen price tag in normal circumstances but the exchange rate happens to be quite good at the moment, has been for a few months, so now if ever is a good time to import from Japan. Worth mentioning that this CD+BD release is indeed limited-time and will only be manufactured until December 27, 2023. After that, I expect Aniplex will release a cheaper CD-only edition like they did with the Madoka Ultimate Best album a few years ago. 

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