Japan gets all kinds of crazy bonuses with "first pressings" of CD's. Designed to entice you into buying on day one and driving chart position, these extras can be anything from trading cards to special packaging to full-length live DVD's or any combination thereof. PUFFY are no exception to this. They've done picture discs in the past, they've done trading cards, and now with honeycreeper, they've gone and changed the cover art. Above you see the first pressing on the left, second pressing on the right. Far superior photo on the left, don't you think? But wait, that's not all!It's not just the front, but the back too:
There, I actually think the second pressing comes out slightly ahead, although both girls are cut off a bit.The CD's themselves look exactly the same (and are), though the jewel case itself is slightly different (check the nub in the middle):
Probably no significance to this, though. It's not like Splurge, where the first pressing felt noticeably chunkier and better quality than the second.With the different back cover art comes a different obi. The first press obi is a bit bigger:
Let's take a look at the insert. The first pressing included a special 26 page insert chock full of photos (it was advertised as 28 pages, but that apparently included the front and back cover). I wasn't sure what to expect from the second pressing, but while it did lose a few photos in the process of being cut down to 14 pages, they managed to squeeze in more than I would have expected. And the quality is, again, exactly the same.Pages 1 and 2 (first pressing on top, second on bottom):
The photo there in the second pressing appears later on pages 5 and 6 of the first pressing. But in order to fit in the titles above, they had to do a pretty weird crop of it - what is Yumi looking at?Pages 3 and 4:
Pages 5 and 6:
There's the photo from page 1 and 2 of the second pressing. This crop looks a lot more natural; Yumi's looking at a magazine.Pages 7 and 8:
Pages 9 and 10:
Ah, here we have the first shot that the second pressing's going to lose. That shot of Yumi above is only in the first pressing booklet.Pages 11 and 12:
Ditto for this shot of Ami.Pages 13 and 14:
And here's where the second pressing booklet ends.Pages 15 and 16:
Pages 17 and 18:
Pages 19 and 20:
Another shot cut from the second pressing.Pages 21 and 22:
And another.Pages 23 and 24:
And another.Pages 25 and 26:
Back cover:
The back cover of the inserts are slightly different because it's just a continuation of the front cover artwork.If you buy honeycreeper today, you're going to get a second pressing CD. It's the second pressing that was sold at their concerts in North America; I know because that's where mine came from. So, all you collectors out there, be on the lookout on the used market. This one's easy to spot because the front and back cover are so clearly different. I doubt first pressings of this disc will ever be really rare, although some may want to hold onto them because of those great photos.
No word yet on which cover or insert the 2008 US release will use. There are good arguments either way from a marketing standpoint. It's worth mentioning that most US PUFFY releases have had completely different (usually worse) inserts than their Japanese counterparts, though, with fewer pages and less color. Even 14 pages is a lot for a US CD release. Don't even count on the same cover artwork theme; it could change completely. (Don't count on them getting the same treatment as Tofu gave them.)
