Rio: Rainbow Gate ED Single – Miracle Chance
| Album Title: | Miracle Chance |
|---|---|
| Anime Title: | Rio: Rainbow Gate |
| Artist: | ULTRA-PRISM |
| Catalog Number: | LHCM-1088 |
| Release Type: | OP/ED Single |
| Release Date: | January 26, 2011 |
| Purchase at: | CDJapan |
| Track Title | Artist | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Miracle Chance | ULTRA-PRISM | 4:44 |
| 2. Pinkish ~Fortune Heart~ | ULTRA-PRISM | 4:36 |
| 3. Miracle Chance (Instrumental) | 4:44 | |
| 4. Pinkish ~Fortune Heart~ (Instrumental) | 4:36 |
Review: Denpa music has recently surged in popularity in the past few years. The well-known examples of denpa are songs like the Lucky Star OP and the works of artists like MOSAIC.WAV. In a way, denpa conveys the feeling of moe through cute and happy songs with lyrics that probably won’t make any sense.
Last year, a denpa group called ULTRA-PRISM made their debut in anison with “Shinryaku no Susume,” the opening for Shinryaku! Ika Musume. The song was good and well-received and made me wonder if this success would carry over to “Miracle Chance.” Unfortunately, it does not since this single lacks energy, so much that it felt dull to the point where it almost put me to sleep.
Real-life casinos exhibit a competitive environment with high stakes games and some exploitation. “Miracle Chance” strays far from that kind of atmosphere and depicts gambling as a happy, fluffy experience. While it’s a pretty catchy song, this song pales in comparison to their last single in terms of excitement, which is odd because if there’s anything that could make gambling compelling, it’d be excitement. It was not until 0:57-1:30 and 2:22-2:54 that there is enough energy to make it slightly enjoyable. Though “Miracle Chance” is a mixed bag and just a decent song at best, this single really takes a turn for the worse once the B-side rolled around.
Sadly, “Pinkish ~Fortune Heart~” is the most disappointing song out of the entire single and its emotionless delivery easily makes it the worst ULTRA-PRISM song yet. The song starts off with some electronic beeps before the guitars and drums enter after the singer says “Pinkish.” Around 0:28, the singer enters and performs in a monotonous tone, which can put anyone to sleep or stop their music players in frustration. The problem I see with this song is the horrible choice of instrumentals, which sucks any happiness from those listening to this song with the rather bland bass. While denpa isn’t really known for the singing, the instrumentals are very important to make the song at least enjoyable and “Pinkish ~Fortune Heart~” fails at that, making it not worth listening to.
It’s a shame that the songs in “Miracle Chance” aren’t as compelling as they should be. ULTRA-PRISM had potential after their debut with their first anime-related single, but all of their efforts here are wasted. The composers are to blame for the songs’ mediocrity; they effectively slapped notes on the score and then called it quits without editing their work to make it more compelling. That’s unfortunately not out of line with the quality Rio: Rainbow Gate has exhibited thus far, and so, expectations have been extremely low. That makes the music in this show a slight step up from being outright horrible to just absolutely mediocre.
Rating: So-so
Rio: Rainbow Gate ED – Miracle Chance
So, you soulfully sought solace through the sonic sound waves of a sonorous second grader. Seems, sir, said schoolgirl’s singing sounds strangely synthetic, substandard, so to say.
This spurious sister speciously substitutes skill for stupid sexiness and suavity. Surely, sir, you shan’t be swayed so simply by the sultry salacious sluttiness she shows.
Ones with such scheming savvy should stay soft-spoken. Savor something more sophisticated, sir!
Soothingly, you saw such sub-par scrap as so-so, a sensible score for this stinking stack of smarmy, sickening, sycophantic slobber. Seconded!
@Aftershok
I wouldn’t be surprised if the singer sounds different in real life compared to these songs. A good amount of songs besides the singers that can actually sing use technology to alter their vocals to make it sound good. How good it sounds is a completely different story and up to the listener.
As for high pitch Japanese singers without the use of technology, they exist… Toyosaki Aki, despite being an ok singer. But sounding like a second grader, maybe not.
As for the show, it’s really bad. It’s like watching a woman being forced by the owner to wear skimpy clothing with lolis in the casino, clumsy girls, completely random characters and tournaments that make absolutely no sense… To be honest, I dropped the show after two episodes since I couldn’t tolerate the randomness and the horribleness.
As for the next review, maybe I should review a good single for once!
I’m usually OK with denpa tunes. Of course, the first time I was exposed to the genre, I didn’t know what the name was and someone suggested it could also be labeled as akiba-kei too, but the ones that I did enjoy, including Tsukiyomi Moon Phase’s “Nekomimi Mode” was charming. Same can be said for a lot of Pani Poni Dash’s songs, which fit into the mold quite well.
As Ika Musume’s OP demonstrates, I’m not a fan of the stuff ULTRA-PRISM’s put out, mostly because the high-pitched screeching doesn’t lend themselves to any kind of charm that I can easily gravitate towards. The same can be said here, and even when taking into account how terrible of a show Rio is, this song never really gets any better beyond the blarghhhh it generates.
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@zzeroparticle
I really need to check out the better denpa groups… But yeah, the Ika OP was decent, but nothing too special.
Songs like these give a bad impression to the genre, especially this is like the third song I heard out of the genre… I may not be looking in the right area I guess.
Wow, that was annoying. Rushed Piece is Rushed.
Are you ready? No, I’m not. Boring was putting it nicely. 😛
It’s not the denpa nature of this song that makes puts me off. I’d say it’s more the overwhelmingly generic feeling that’s exuded throughout the entire minute and a half. The only thing I can remember is the “Are you ready!?”, and I swear I’ve heard other songs use the same Engrish before…
Just goes to show, everything Rio:Rainbow Gate related should be avoided like the plague.
@Rhythmroo
Tell me about it… There is no effort put into these songs, which makes it pretty disgusting.
@Yu
Come to think of it, I couldn’t make out the engrish part since it’s said so messy. It’s only when you point it out that I found that it’s that… and yes, I’m not freakin ready for this…
I agree with avoiding Rio: Rainbow Gate and it’s related materials… nobody… I mean nobody had said anything good about the show in the blogosphere. Sure theres those who like it on Anime Suki, but yeah. I should really review something that is good, not mediocre or horrible stuff, but thats the job of the critic/reviewer.
This music kind of reflects the show in general, in that it isn’t that good.
@glothelegend
While a few bad anime have good music, but Sturgeon’s Law still applies, thus this single is in the 90% of mediocre and bad songs.
This isn’t exactly my type of music. Didn’t like it that much at all.
@Yi
It depends… I don’t mind denpa, but it’s not one of my favorite genres. I mostly prefer J-pop and J-trance… you know, the good ones…