Anime OP/ED Spring 2011

New season is on its way, and there are a few awesome opening and ending credit themes that I wanna share. I haven’t seen a lot of the premier episodes for most of these, so I’m gonna keep comments minimal.

Deadman Wonderland ED -SHINY SHINY

Credits are kind of boring, but if anybody remembers Eureka Seven, then you’ll recognize the featured artist NIRGILIS.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai OP- Aoi Shiori

Very cute song. I like the timing of the video with the rhythmic intro and outro.

Steins;Gate ED – Toki Tsukasadoru Juuni no Meiyaku

Kind of evanecense ish…

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control OP- Matryoshka

Opening is pretty badass with the animation for the first half, then it gets boring. Reminds me of Eden of the East though.

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control ED- RPG

Like the ending A LOT more compared to the opening. Again, there is that Eden of the East similarity in animation, and even the ending artist is the same

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko OP- Os-Uchuujin

Song is fucktarded…really weird. Animation video is great though. SUPA TRIPPY!

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko ED – Ruru

Wah! This is super cute >w<

A-Channel OP- Morning Arch

Animation video is cute, and the song is cute too. Makes me want to watch this anime, even though I find the art a little weird…

A-Channel ED- Humming Girl

This song is also really cute. I just…don’t like the chorus. There’s way too many people singing D:

Nichijou OP- Hyadain no Kakakata☆Kataomoi-C

SUPER UPBEAT OPENING! I like. I think Nichijou has the two bests themes this season. Gahhhhh!

Nichijou ED -Zzz

I say…BEST SONG OF THE SEASON, but I'm bias cause I really like this show :/ And look how cute the sun is teeheee!

Alright, so there are probably a bunch more anime openings out there I haven't heard yet. But I'm getting there…will post if they are acutally worth listening lol.

さよならメモリーズ

さよならメモリーズ

kotoba ja umaku ienai omoi wo kimi ni uchiakeru to shitara nante tsutaeyou?

Starry Sky

Starry Sky

I sing for you
I think of you
I remember when I lost my mind
Remember when you catch my heart

You know for you
You don’t be shy
I remember when I lost my mind
Remember when you catch my heart

Today Starry sky…
let me kiss you
Today is starry
Come to find me
Starry sky

Music Spam

Of course I start of with a music post.

風神少女

A remix of a touhou song by CleanTears. What’s there not to love about this song? Its ambience is perfect for repetition. Like one of the comments stated, the piano is main attraction to the remix, but the bass lines is truly deserving a mention. The beats are a wonderful addition. The theme is wonderfully developed by messing with textures and rhythms; thus, tastefully keeping the song fresh. Don’t forget the awesome background image used in the video!

reason

I don’t think I’m the only one when I say it’s been a long time since I’ve heard or seen Nami Tamaki, the artist who performs the song Reason. Back in the day when Gundam SEED was still around, she was pretty big! I remembered how much I enjoyed her variety of jpop and how ambitious she was to dance and sing at the same time. . Most of the time she wasn’t successful, not that I was shocked. Then this video came along. This is her live performance at the ANIMAX MUSIC FALL 2010 concert; it is amazing. Nami really has improved significantly since the last live video I saw of her. I’m also quite surprised that they had this song in the concert set list to begin with. Must have been really popular. But I’m glad cause this song is also one of my favourite songs from the Gundam SEED series.

perfect day

YAH! ANOTHER SUPERCELL SONG! It’s another ballad, following closely to the sound of Hero and Utakata Hanabi (their last two song releases.) Supercell is also releasing a new album called Today is a Beautiful Day on March 16, 2011. Very exciting! Back to perfect day, it is a great song. Good balance between instruments and progression. I like how the beginning starts with acoustic guitar before all the other instruments come in at the chorus. Nagi’s vocal transition from soft to powerful is very commendable. She has a great voice and I really enjoy listening to her. This song has an schematic animated PV (not too sure who it’s done by.) I’m assuming the plot behind it is that two friends are torn apart due to anxiety from their expected separation, but then make ammends in the end. Animation is well done, and the art style is pretty so I’m not going to complain about how overdone plot oriented PVs. At least it isn’t the band playing animated or live!

Chocolate Disco

Is that…perfume feat. tegomass?! I’m a little scared that they can sing that high, but it’s super awesome to hear this being actually sung instead of autotuned. I would have prefered if Home Made Kazoku actually participated more than just shouting words. The tegomass x AKB48 x Home Made Kazoku combination is still pretty epic. Overall, good acoustic arrangment of the song.

Magia

Clearly I need to post this song since I’m on a Madoka obsession. Kalafina’s impressive vocals really shine in this performance. Their strong points is the power that carries with their voice, and the execution of their individual parts to create great harmonies. It really brings out their unique sound. I will admit, this isn’t their best song. But it is still worth mentioning. What really strikes as interesting other than the obvious: the lyrics fit very well to the atmosphere of the anime (since this is the ending theme of Madoka.) Which is contrary to most animes that just throw animation to a pop song. I think that’s the difference when you get great composers like Yuki Kajiura to be incharge of the music.

Anyway, that’s all I have…FOR NOW! You never know, by the end of the day I might have 5 more songs I want to share D:

Indiscriminate Murder Is Counter-Productive

Indiscriminate Murder Is Counter-Productive

I know that I’m not meant to kill this indiscriminately,
but I get a bit bit carried away by the sounds of pain

What I may never know is the place of the maze
in which I would have erased some fucking fairies from space
I neglected to ask before I killed the last dairy farmer who knew
I wish I had waited for you
I wish I could invoke a better part of me
I know I’m s’posed to be all “the one”, but I have too much fun killing everyone
I came here to play, now could you come out and stay
so I can kill and away you to gods you pray to and never look back.

I know that all these NPCs don’t pose a threat to me
But I gotta kill kill something right now and this’ll have to do

What I may never know is the place of the maze
in which I would have erased some fucking fairies from space
I neglected to ask before I killed the last dairy farmer who knew
I wish I had waited for you
I wish I could invoke a better part of me
I know I’m s’posed to be all “the one”, but I have too much fun killing everyone
I came here to play, now could you come out and stay
so I can kill and away you to gods you pray to and never look back.

I know that I’m not meant to kill this indiscriminately,
But I gotta kill kill something right now and this’ll have to do

What I may never know is the place of the maze
in which I would have erased some fucking fairies from space
I neglected to ask before I killed the last dairy farmer who knew
I wish I had waited for you
I wish I could invoke a better part of me
I know I’m s’posed to be all “the one”, but I have too much fun killing everyone
I came here to play, now could you come out and stay
so I can kill and away you to gods you pray to and never look back.

Kill, Kill is right. I am really not in the mood to be dealing with long term constipation due to anal congestion. I don’t want imagine the number of d–sticks are lodging right now. I just know this song makes me happy. Kill kill happy! I just picture kill kill something and the carcuss after I kill kill. Red splattering…cranberry sauce, kill kill tasty; snapping…cracklers at new years, kill kill exciting!; fat squishing…presents under a tree.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt OST

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt OST

WARNING! NOT WORK SAFE! Clearly dealing with PSG.

Ok…the anime is wtf. It’s not even “why am I watching this?” Its more “why is this actually pretty good?” The music tracks that go with it are definitely amazing, except for the awkward orgy ones…very awkward. Plus the song titles are kind of…ahem, not work safe. But SERIOUS, there are a number of excellent house mixes. I am especially looking forward to the full version of the transformation sequence song. YES!

Anyway, those of you still debating on watching it, DO IT! Its one of those unique animes that clearly has more substance than it appears to have.

Fisherman’s Horizon

Fisherman’s Horizon

I am really in love with this song. Definitely reminded me of a Christmas carol with the cheery melody, fuller brass and woodwind sound, and the addition of the choir. I was especially happy that the clarinet got a lot of attention. I could go to sleep to this and float off into happiness. Almost makes me forget that I’m supposed to be a terribly bitter person. Har har.

The song is from Final Fantasy 8, if some of you have not played the game. I did not play it either so I vouche for it, but I’m sure it can’t be terrible. After attending Distant Worlds, I am now hellbent on actually playing all the games inbetween 7 and 10. I’ve played 7 and a watched my cousin play 9 but I’ve never actually played any of them all the way through. It’ll be a nice project to work on next semester I guess!

COOL & SOUL

COOL & SOUL

An incredible song by Arashi, mainly because of the high speed chase feel. The feeling was brought out with an accumulation of key characteristics. For one thing, the opening starts with a more precussive violin motif that is joined with the bass and drums. Then followed with entry of the cafe style piano melody, and a short chorus line. What really drives the pace is the rap. The song even has the trumpet chime in with the piano running back and forth across the notes. The saxophone interlude brought an air of jazz to it, slowing the pace down before the rap comes back in and climaxes with the introduction of the synth beats.

I really enjoy it because its an interesting use of rap, something I find the Japanese are fairly good at. In Western music, rap is very stereotypical and one of the most conventional genres of music there is. You have your beat, lyrics with topics on sex, drugs, and women, and a lot of swearing. There is not a lot going on in a rap song except for the odd inspiration lyrics here and there. But the Japanese managed to produce rap songs that somehow merge into pop and even classical opera (the epic song from Gurren Lagann, Libre me from Hell), which is not a bad combination.

It is unfortunate that half the songs produced by Arashi are probably borrowed songs from a band somewhere in Europe, but I can see why they have such a great collection of pop songs since anything is better than whatever is coming out of America.

Psalms

Symphony of Psalms: I

Fits well with the coming of Halloween. The bassoons lurking in the back while the oboe and choir haunting. The building of the climax kind of reminds me of one of those epic scenes in a video game, where something devastating occurs to the main character’s horror. The thought makes me realize that 20th century music had a lot of influence on Final Fantasy music especially. For example, Nobou Uematsu’s One Wing Angel is often associated with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring because of the rigid primitive rhythm in the opening. Perhaps it’s the unique emotions evoked from the expressionism of the music, since the music does help build the atmosphere in which the game environment is set.

This is a test…

I swear it’s a test! Does it work, does it work?!

Why yes, I am still blogging here. Ah, the life of the unemployed. An excuse to rant about this spiffy song/anime!

Brave Song

This is a really nice ballad, and I think is the perfect fit for the now finished Angel Beats! anime. I especially love the lyrics. Its slightly depressing, yet uplifting at the same time. Very slice of life indeed. I would DEFINITELY suggest this anime to anyone and everyone. It will make you laugh, and make you weep in one episode. The cast of characters are great and each of them have their own little quirks. The music is very neo-classical (I am still waiting for the OST!) and the animation is just top notch (as expected from kyoto animation studio.)