Sakana Zukan (Book of Fishes) Sakanaction Best 2007-2018
Years back I stumbled upon the limited edition small fish in Japan 2nd hand, was a very good find though the CD has weird stains and a crack on it, but luckily it still can be played. And unfortunately this year I found a good deal on mercari and ended up getting the premium box, its condition is darn good. So while I figure out what to do with the big and small fish heres a post showcasing their contents and comparison.
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| Left is the Limited Edition version (aka small fish), and the right is the Premium edition (aka big fish). |
The limited edition is small, very portable and the clear case makes it a good display piece, but the premium edition comes in a huge box, and theres so much space the CD and book will shake inside the box. imo not very display friendly.
However content wise the premium box is superior, containing 3 CDs of songs and a big encyclopaedia with information about every song in the album. The limited edition booklet only documents songs from the first 2 CDs. When I got the premium box, it also included a mini white folder with the fish diagram illustration.
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| Sakana Zukan Limited Edition |
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| Sakana Zukan Premium Box |
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| Premium and Limited edition contents |
Each CD is named based on water depth (Epipelagic, Mesopelagic, Abyssopelagic). The CD shade also gets darker which is really interesting.
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| Left: Premium edition 3CDs, Right: Limited edition 2CDs |
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| Top: Limited Edition, Bottom: Premium Edition |
The booklet 'Fish Encyclopedia' is designed... like a fish encyclopedia. But with song information and random pictures from the band pasted over them. The limited edition and live archive versions are called 'Fish Encyclopedia' (魚図鑑) while the Premium box is called 'Great Fish Encyclopedia' (魚大図鑑).
Whats funny is the front cover of both books says ' 236 species with 377 illustrations', even though the premium edition obviously has more pages.
The insane amount of details they have about each song, from where it was recorded, how long it took to write the lyrics, the original name of the song and also comments about the song's meaning and stuff. If you ever want to know what the silence in the song "Years" represent, or the significance of 'Shin Takarajima' to the band, you should read the book.
Below are pictures from the Great Fish Encyclopedia.
Not to mention the songs also have fish characteristics, which is also why the disks are named based on water depth. The fish chart you see on the album case and the diagram in the booklet is tagged with a song number.
Its a really good album for Sakanaction fans, probably my favourite within my album collection, which is why I now have trouble letting go of the small limited edition which was my original intention when splurging on the big fish.
From what I know this album is no longer in production, so you can only obtain them second hand. But from what I heard, joining the Sakanaction fan club gives you access to articles about the details of the songs as well, including the newly written songs. As of writing this I am not a fanclub member yet so I won't be able to confirm if this is true. But joining their fanclub is another way of supporting the band, also also gives you access to member only merch!
