Anime music 2

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

I've already written in this blog about how much I love anime music. But this time I really want to tell you about the songs that just get stuck in your head. Like REALLY stuck. You find yourself humming them at a completely random moment and the weirdest things remind you of them.
First comes from Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. Whoever has seen it knows what I'm talking about. The silly nursery rhyme that will keep looping in your head. And does it help that the handsome Sebastian Michaelis sings it with his blooming voice? No. The answer is no. Unless you need help remembering it <.< 'Cause his face will really be rotating in your head. Kin to gin de tsukure, tsukure, tsukure, Kin to gin de tsukure, my fair lady...

I quite recently watched Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki or Wolf Children which is basically an anime about a wolf-mans children and it was pretty good. I didn't actually rate it 10 points at first but the story kept coming back to me and I decided that it was actually worth it. But another thing that keeps coming back to me is the ending song and even though I only heard it once, it just... seriously it...aahhh... mmm.. you'll need to listen to it yourself. And trust me - even if you don't listen to the entire thing, it will still be stuck in your head by the end of the day.

Uuu-uuu-uuu, donna kao shiteru kana? Uuu-uuu-uuu, donna koe o shiteru no?
Dammit >.< 

Okay, and here comes the worst of them all: the Dango song. As I've already said many times, I didn't really like Clannad, except for the season 2 main story.  But obviously, once you hear this damn bugger, you just can't get it out of your head - even if all you can sing along is the 'dango, dango, dango' part. My boyfriend hasn't even seen Clannad and yet he sometimes hums this song to himself. Though seriously - who markets all the random gadgets that become popular in Japan? Like who thought of that damn dog-bean Mameshiba thing?? Or even Kimmidolls? Or, in this case, who thought of drawing two eyes on the dango and made a song for them??? *shrug*
Anyway, here's my favourite version of dangos :x

 
I'm pretty sure there has been more, but these three are the ones that keep looping in my head. So in the end, all I hear is: "Uuu-uuu-uu, dango, My Fair Lady".

Do you know any other anime songs that get stuck in your head easily?

Anime music

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

I love anime music. Most of my playlists these days consist of anime music only. Sure, once in a while I don't mind listening to "normal people music", but in general having to spend time in a group where they listen to dubstep or whatever music is hip these days, is a total nightmare. Of course, if I decide to play my music in that group everyone gets really uncomfortable - "What is this BS?" 
BS?? BS??! It's just regular pop music - merely in Japanese. How can you not like that? Alright... okay... well I guess I wouldn't want to listen to Indian pop music either...
Anyway, whenever I watch an anime, I check out the opening and ending themes during the first episode and if they happen to change half way through, I listen to those too. Mostly I can't be bothered to listen to them all the time though, especially when there are lost of episodes to watch still. Actually, it even irritates me a bit if I am forced to watch the entire opening due to slow loading. But I also have to admit that for some animes, watching the opening and/or ending adds a lot of value.

First of all, if it's a weekly show that I follow, I'm way more likely to listen to the opening. Mainly because I like having a sneak peek at what's still to come and which characters I have already seen. Like Fairy Tail for me. Although this far Fairy Tail has had the best openings for a long anime - all of them were pretty catchy and listening to them kind of gives exciting expectations. My favourite - at least tune wise - is opening number 6, which you can see below. Though I have to admit that number 10 that shows the end of the Tenroujima arc has some pretty epic scenes - like that one scene where Laxus opens his eyes, omg omg!
 

But in some cases I really think listening to the opening and the ending kind of entwines into the topic and helps you dive into the world shown in the anime and emerge afterwards. I've seen people say that about Clannad, for example, but if I'd have to choose one, it would definitely be Ano Hana. It's a pretty serious anime with a deep topic that really hits home. If you let it. And yet it doesn't really come off as depressive. 

But had I not listened to the ending theme all along, the finale of the anime would've been only half as epic. The sadness and joy were entwined and the song playing as the background gave it so much more depth - especially if you thought about the words. It's as if the tunes were amplifying the thought behind the scenes. I'll add it here too.

 

Out of the very few openings I've listened to just because it's awesome, this next one is the latest and so far the catchiest. Also, I really like what they've done with the opening - half way through you can see a review of the previous episodes, which is really good especially considering that the first half of Durarara! shows very different characters each episode. Although for some reason I could not find the original opening video in the Blogger posting options, I still think this one gives a nice idea why one would wish to listen to it at the beginning of each episode.

 

Naturally there are loads of others that I really like and I could even list you my entire playlist here, but that would be kind of out of place, wouldn't it :P

Which openings/endings do you think fit the anime extremely well?

See you next week!

Real life topic anime

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

I haven't seen a lot of anime that could be classified as 'themed'. What I mean by that is - I don't really watch anything that doesn't have something mystical in it. Obviously these animes could also be referred to as 'themed' - mostly themed for boys because of the battles and abilities - but what I envision when I use that word is something like sport or music or art or culture. I think the very first anime about sport that I saw was Attack No. 1 - or maybe Captain Tsubasa. But little difference which one of them was the first because I hated both of them. I admit that I did watch Attack No. 1, or Mila Superstar as it was called in German on the RTL2 channel where I watched it, but only because it was just before Sailor Moon for some time. Mostly I was the fastest remote control clicker in the world when it came to any of the sports animes. Not sure if I saw any music animes back then - but if I did, I probably switched the channel just the same.

Chihayafuru

So having a vague memory of not thinking anything of these shows, it will not surprise you that I avoided watching any 'themed' animes for a very long time. The very first thing that sparked my interest years later was Chihayafuru - and I only started watching that one because of Uta Koi and the beautiful poetry. But to be fair, Chihaya and her friends were more engaged in Karuta as a sport rather than a noticing the rich history and context of the 100 poems. Still, even though every one of them had a special ability or angle for approaching the sport, I had no idea that was actually what captures the viewer when it comes to sports animes. So when Chihaya came out with her epic hearing, Taichi with his memorization skills and Arata just being OP and having a long history, I thought it was all some kind of new way of displaying action. Little did I know that that's exactly what you look for in these kinds of shows.

When it was then suggested I watch Kuroko's Basketball or Kuroko no Basuke, I was still clueless about what it was going to be and, frankly, also very skeptical. That changed within the first episode. When I realized that every single one of the characters was going to have a special power - very similar to supernatural or mystical powers that the characters in my usual animes have - I was all over that show. No joke. Did I think that some of those abilities were ridiculous? Of course. Would it really be possible for someone to have so little presence that he gets away with all kinds of sneaky tricks - surely not. Especially when he generally sucks at basketball. But is that an awesome idea to portray and make possible in an anime - definitely yes. Not to mention that epic copy-ninja style of Kise, Kagami's jumps, Midorima's long range shots and the monstrous Aomine. Can't say that the only girls in the show have any less worthy abilities. If Riko's special power is somewhat logical and might be possible in reality - even if not to that extent - then Momoi's power is just mental. And awesome. And OP. But when playing against it, it makes winning that much more desirable. All in all, I had no idea basketball could be shown with so much feeling and action. I watched one episode at my college the other day and a basketball player sitting next to me commented on how dramatic the show looked. He was right - and that's what makes it epic!

Very recently, however, I watched Nodame Cantabile. I admit that I chose it because it was on a rather high spot in the ANN top 50. I knew it was going to be an anime about music and even though my sister had actually suggested I watch Angel Beats or something of that name, I had never watched anything remotely related to music before. At least not on purpose. So as I started it, I had no idea what to expect. When the show evolved though, I realized that it was kind of in the same style as the sports animes. Most of the time they just pointed out how great musicians the main characters were, how much better than other players, but here and there they added effects like: "When he conducts, people start seeing flower petals" or "When she plays, it feels like we are all in a fairy tail". Sure, that might not qualify as a special power exactly, but I know enough about music to know how people talk about the pieces they just heard - at least in my own country. And mostly these talks do not involve flower petals - or black feathers and princes, which were also present, by the way. So hearing what was right and what was wrong with their technique or approach was pretty much like improving oneself on the battlefield - this time the battlefield was the competitive musical world.

Nodame Cantabile

And I loved it! The show was amazing, even with the sometimes overextended music and the nonexistent animation. Seriously - not too much fun to watch a conductor just stand in place, doing nothing. Still, it had humor and some extra relationship topics and most of all the growing of their personal skills and ambitions.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - if it ever comes to watching these themed shows, don't be too conservative like I was. They might be more epic than you know.

See you next week!