New Fans Guide
So you're a new Kalafina fan and you've somehow managed to stumble on this blog, and you want to know more about them? Well, welcome, and hopefully I can help you out!
If you have any questions or if you're confused about anything, leave a comment at the bottom and I'll try to help you out.
This guide is made up of five steps. Click on a name below to jump to that step.
Research
Recommendations
Exploration
Purchase
Keeping up
Research
Go on and find out more about Kalafina, because they're adorable and talented girls!
The Biography section of this blog has personal information about each member of Kalafina, plus pictures so you can get to know what each member looks like (and not confuse them). You can learn more about what each member was doing before they joined Kalafina, what their personalities are like, and some of their favorite things.
The History section gives a run-down of Kalafina's history, from their first release to what they're doing now. You can find out what overseas countries they've been too, the tours they've been on, and what their most famous releases have been.
While you're reading, go ahead and pick a favorite member if you want. (I started with Keiko, then switched to Wakana, and now it's Hikaru with a side order of "I love them all".)
Recommendations
Make sure to listen to their themes for the Kara no Kyoukai anime movies. It doesn't even matter what songs you've heard before (unless you discovered Kalafina through Kara no Kyoukai, of course) - those songs were mostly their first releases, and they're also really, really good.
I recommend listening to them in the order of the movies:
1. oblivious
2. kimi ga hikari ni kaete iku
3. kizuato
4. aria
5. sprinter
6. fairytale
7. seventh heaven
8. alleluia
9. dolce
After that, if you like any of the songs, go check out some similar ones. Kalafina uses a lot of musical styles, but some of their songs are really similar to each other, so this is a good place to start.
Here are my recommendations.
oblivious = lirica, kyrie, or magnolia
kimi ga hikari ni kaete iku = serenato, sandpiper, or door
kizuato = lacrimosa, kugatsu, or manten
aria = red moon, hoshi no utai, or obbligato
sprinter = adore, destination unknown, or consolation
fairytale = haru wa kogane no yume no naka, kagayaku sora no shijima ni wa, or kotonoha
seventh heaven = hikari furu (it's really the only song that's similar)
alleluia = I have a dream, mune no yukue, or symphonia
dolce = interlude 01, al fine, or yume no daichi
And, if you found Kalafina through their Madoka Magica themes, then don't worry, there are some similar songs you can listen to there too.
magia = mata kaze ga tsuyoku natta, signal or tsuioku
hikari furu = seventh heaven (...really!)
mirai = eden, in your eyes, or yume no daichi
kimi no gin no niwa = natsu no ringo, ashita no keshiki, or yane no mukou ni
misterioso = love come down, progressive, or fantasia
There. I think you're all set for recommendations now!
Exploration
Go crazy!
There are lots of live performances available - they have three live DVD/BR releases, and there are also recordings from the events they've participated in. I highly recommend watching as much lives as you can find, just to see how lovely their performances can be.
Also keep in mind that Kalafina has four albums and fourteen singles, and all of their songs have lots of different styles. Listen to everything! Even if there are songs you don't like, you're bound to find lots of songs that you do like.
You'll be able to find everything on some video streaming sites so you can do trial listens.
Purchase
Three of Kalafina's albums (no After Eden) are available on US iTunes, as well as two singles (Kagayaku sora no shijima ni wa and Magia). iTunes Japan has all of their releases, if you're able to buy from it. You can also buy basically all of their releases physically using CDJapan, YesAsia, PlayAsia or other sites like those. CDJapan has some Kalafina merchandise, like concert pamphlets and T-shirts - they've recently started selling ebook versions of a few photobooks too, and they're cheaper than the physical versions, so it's a great deal.
But! I don't recommend or advocate downloading any of Kalafina's releases. This is just my opinion and you're free to disagree, but Kalafina's a small group. They're signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan, sure, but they're not really famous. They've got fans, but they're not a hugely popular group. They don't sell a lot of copies of their singles unless they're related to popular anime. So seriously, if you like Kalafina and can afford to buy their music, go for it. Hopefully you'll be telling SME that Kalafina has lots of worldwide fans who'll buy their releases and go to their overseas performances!
Keeping up
Now that you've learned more about Kalafina, listened to a lot of (or all of) their music, and hopefully found your favorite member or your favorite songs, you're probably thinking about how you can keep up with news.
First of all, make sure to visit their official site, Kalafina.jp, often. Usually it has previews of their latest single, including the music video. You can also get to their official blog from there, and their blog is awesome - each of the members usually writes at least one or two posts each month, and there's almost always lots of pictures.
If you have a Twitter account, you can follow @Kalafina_Staff. They'll tweet the latest news and links to new blog entries.
The Kalafina tag on Tumblr isn't very active, but there are a lot of people who post pictures and scans, if you'd rather keep up with things there than check out Kalafina's blog or Twitter. The image site Minitokyo.net has over 200 very high-quality Kalafina scans, but you need an account to download them.
I'll try to keep up with things myself, and post blog translations and news on this blog. But there's always the really big chance I'll get behind, so I also recommend you check out Canta-Per-Me.net. They're a Yuki Kajiura fansite, so they also focus on Kajiura herself and her other projects, but they're always reporting Kalafina's latest news in English.
And when it comes to keeping up, I think that's about it! Kalafina isn't as active as the larger groups, so it's not that tough to keep up with the breaking news - seriously, if I can do it, then you definitely can. Have fun!
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