MARMALADE FACE Apollon APCM-5057 2/21/1996 ¥3000 -- by Roderick "Agitator" Lee 1. Egao ni Aitai 4:18 Hamada Rie 2. Wagamama de Ikou! 4:38 Yukari 3. Yume no Ohanashi 5:30 Mizushima Yasuhiro 4. Angel 4:22 Tange "Suzu" Sakura 5. Mou ichido haru ga kuru mae ni 5:12 Kouda "Miki" Mariko 6. Happy End ha Owaranai 4:20 Yukari 7. Eien no Pavement 4:24 Yamazaki "Meiko" Wakana and Furuya "Namura" Touru 8. Soba ni itai 6:01 Inoue "anju" Kikuko 9. Anata ni Oyasumi(Godnight Darling) 3:10 Hamada Rie 10. Karebairo no Crescendo (Crescendo of Fall Color) 5:00 Mizushima Yasuhiro		Music is an essential part of a romance series; perhaps more important than in other genres. Marmalade Face, the fifth volume in a series of eight MARMALADE BOY discs and the second vocal collection, aptly demonstrates how great music can enhance a title. Ten series vocals from the "second season" are here, primarily comprising seiyuu tracks by the new characters. These seiyuu character tracks lend greater variety to this collection than the series' first vocal effort. Although MARMALADE BOY's "first season" has more than its share of diverse characters, its corresponding vocal collection does not reflect this variety in its selection of singers. Whereas Kouda Mariko, the voice of Miki, sings three tracks on the earlier disc, she has just one single contribution this time. With FACE, though, no vocalist appears more than twice. Thus, more character seiyuu can be featured. Mariko cashes in again with her one entry; the upbeat "Mou ichido haru ga kuru mae ni" proves to be another gem. In "Angel," Sakuma Suzu's Tange Sakura offers a song that is almost too cute for words, yet amazingly works. Inoue Kikuko beautifully renders Kitahara Anju's theme, "Soba ni itai," to rival her more popular Belldandy vocals. Rounding out the seiyuu tracks, Yamazaki "Meiko" Wakana and Furuya "Namura" Touru collaborate on a charming duet, "Eien no Pavement," whose only problem is that it does not sound like it is in character for either Meiko or Namura. The other six tracks offer up two moderate to fast tempo pieces by the singer Yukari and an interesting juxtaposition in the arrangement of tracks by the two OP and ED singers. As usual, Hamada Rie opens the disc with the perennial OP "Egao ni aitai" while her counterpart, Mizushima Yasuhiro, closes with the second ED "Karebairo no Crescendo," which shares the same melody as "Rain," the insert song that Yuu sings during the Toryo festival. Better yet, though, are their two second tracks, for they each perform a ballad. Hamada's "Anata ni Oyasumi" (Goodnight Darling) is from the female viewpoint, and Mizushima's "Yume no Ohanashi" is from the male angle. Since Kei is obliquely alluded to through the ED, all but three of the major characters that have appeared since about episode 40 are represented here. Unfortunately, Arimi is one of those three (Ginta and Satoshi are the other two) as it is always a loss to exclude any potential offering from Hisakawa Aya. But Arimi's role in the show is significantly reduced past episode 26, so there is no place for a second Arimi track in the series. This one omission aside, MARMALADE FACE's greater variety arguably makes this the best disc of the eight. Its skillful arrangement makes it an ideal romance vocal collection.