• The Lunar Goods Archive stocks all the info you'll ever need on Lunar CD's (as well as other Lunar merchandise, software, guides, books, novels, and those elusive manga tankoubons). Highly recommended.

• If you're interested in the music of Lunar - and speak Japanese and have a Japanese-capable browser - you might want to check out composer Noboyuki Iwadare's homepage. As far as I can tell (or, rather, as far as I've explored), it just has a listing of the soundtracks and CD's Iwadare has worked on and other miscellanea, but it might prove interesting nonetheless.

• Likewise, fans of Secret of Evermore's music might want to visit composer Jeremy Soule's homepage. Soule offers many of his original compositions in RealAudio and mp3 format (few, however, as good as the Evermore stuff, in my opinion - but, hey, if you make a living on your creations, do you give away your best work for free? I do recommend the "Classical Piano Samples" and "Ghost of the Underworld Tragedy", though, and "The One" isn't bad, either). In case you're interested, "Variations on a Castle Theme", "Temple Wind", and "Greek Temple" are tracks 2, 4, and 5 respectively on the Secret of Evermore OST.

• If you're using an early version of Navigator or Explorer or a browser made by an alternative company, the Shodouka service might prove useful in viewing Japanese pages such as the one above. Type in the URL, and Shodouka will present the Japanese text on the page with .gif's for browsers which cannot properly interpret the kana and kanji characters.

• The Opera House contains translations for almost all the Final Fantasy-related vocal songs out there, as well as MIDI and RealAudio sound files of the arrangements. A terrific site.

• Beej's Compleat Sailor Moon CD List is the closest dang thing on the net you'll get to what the title advertises - an astoundingly thorough compilation of cover pictures, tracklists, reviews, and otherwise of Japanese, American, Canadian, German, Italian, bootleg, and other Sailormoon CD's, with links to mp3's of the songs included in the discs overviewed.

• Want to know what the artists in those Sailormoon CD's are singing? Hop on over to Lyric Moon, a veritable Sailormoon song translation warehouse - it usually offers three or four lyric translations for each tune.

• Or are you searching for lyric translations to other anime tunes? Well, the estimable soldier of love and cholestrol, Sailor Bacon, has made it his personal mission to catalogue dang well near all the anime song lyric romanizations/translations (and quite a few game-related ones, too) available online. Stop by Sailor Bacon's Anime Song Lyrics Headquarters and browse through his vast collection.

• This is a total self-plug, but I do run another webpage in conjunction with this one - Capowski's RPG-Related Translation Junk Drawer (which has somehow taken on a Lunar bent as of late). All the translated tracklists, liner notes, and songs I've done are housed there, as well as a couple manga translations and other odd documents. (It ain't called a "junk drawer" for nothing.)

• The Universal Currency Converter is a useful tool when ordering from shops overseas - it'll tell you just how much your purchase will cost you in your own country's currency using up-to-date exchange rates.

• Soundtrack Central's game soundtrack, anime soundtrack, and marketplace forums are the places to converse with other fans about game and anime soundtracks. Though the boards attract their fair share of trolls and host a good number of folks who are completely gung-ho about FF8 at the moment (::rolls eyes::) - or think they know absolutely everything about Lunar just because they played one game in the series a couple weeks ago (::rolls eyes again::) - they're invaluable resources for game music fans. You can also access Soundtrack Central's reviews, chat room, and other features from here.

Recommended Stores:

• Game Music Online is a good basic game and anime music shop that mainly stocks the genres' bestsellers and greatest hits - and they're Falcom's official stateside CD retailer, to boot. They do occasionally sell the Son May (SM) bootlegs for some titles, but the substitute is clearly noted in the item description in those cases. Phone service (be nice) is excellent; e-mail service is acceptable. Their site also hosts a customer review feature (though the folks who take advantage of it tend to lend their words to CD's whose reputations already precede them). A good all-purpose store.

• The Place is an excellent anime shop with a wide selection of goods, including some of the more elusive and obscure music selections on the market (availability is spotty for some of the staple Ys and FF CD's, though). Prices for their CD's, which are never bootlegs, uniformly hover around the $25-$30 range ($30-$35, when you tack on shipping costs), but in-stock items are shipped quickly, and communication is generally superb. The Place also offers a special-order service (provided that you know the CD/ISBN number of the product you wish to purchase), but it's as slow as molasses - it's about four months turnover time from placing a request to the item's arrival - the price one pays, I suppose, for the luxury of such a service.

• Sasuga Books carries many of the Final Fantasy DoReMi piano books as well as a few other RPG-related publications (and even some CD's - to browse, use their the "Title (English)" blank of their "Search" function and keep in mind that they spell Phantasy Star with an "f"). The service I've received at Sasuga lately has greatly improved from my previous dealings with them (hmmm...I wonder if they received complaints?); responses to product inquiries have actually been prompt and friendly, and my orders have been filled quickly and efficiently, and I now have no qualms about wholeheartedly recommending Sasuga.

And be wary of these stores:

• Game Cave - Game Cave used to sell Son May CD copies for $60 a pop a while back (when game music was first finding an audience in the States, the Internet was relatively new, and commuincation between fans to warn each other of this rip-off was limited) and has maintained a reputation for rude clerks and horrible customer service ever since. Moreover, their stock still consists mostly (if not entirely) of SM's. Just avoid them.

• Sound City 2000 - I know of only one person who has ever been successful in obtaining one of the several rare CD's Sound City 2000 touts as being able to obtain and of several who have complained that the service doesn't work and that they had a heckuva time getting the charges incurred off of their credit cards. You see, a) Sound City 2000 does not have any of the CD's featured on their webpage actually in stock; their "inventory" consists only of CD's they "might" be able to order from other places, and b) the company requires that the customer prepay using a credit card, with the promise that the charge will be removed if the CD cannot be found within three months (as mentioned, though, Sound City doesn't exactly go to great lengths to make good on their guarantee). Their prices are severely inflated to boot; only try them if you spot something you cannot live without and can't find anywhere else - and don't get your hopes up.

• Tokyo Pop - For now, unfortunately. I previously listed Tokyo Pop as a recommended store, but as of late they've become so plagued with out-of-stock items - nigh nothing is in stock - and become so lax with their customer service - they won't return e-mail order inquiries at all - that it's simply not worth the hassle of trying to get something from them. Their current rash of incompetence makes the patronizing "KeVVl dUd3"-speak they favor on their site and mailing list even more annoying. Makes one wish for the good old days of UCI.

I've changed my mind; I wanna stay here.

Do I really need a disclaimer here? The stores are their proprietors', this site is mine. Blah.