So with April soon over, it’s time to acknowledge that Anime Instrumentality has passed its third year in existence, with all of the privileges that the milestone brings. For one, it puts us in a class alongside other blogs that somehow aren’t sensible enough to die at the commonly-observed two-year mark. Also, there are quite a few curmudgeony benefits that come with age that’ll explain a bit later.

But first, the reminiscing! That naturally leads into my attempts to come up with a series of posts that try to cover a wider topic so that they’ll bring some diversity to the steady stream of review after review after review. Last year’s focus was on all of the anime music, both BGM and OP/ED, from 2000-2009 (indexed here for your pleasure). That series was a whole lot of fun to write and people enjoyed the snippets that I put up. This year, as you can probably guess, the focus is on anime composers. In the interest of completeness, we’re finding that this series is actually very challenging to write about, mostly because listening to a composer’s entire discography is no small task. Still, we’re having fun with that and you can expect Taku Iwasaki’s profile to come out sometime in May.

A lot of other things happened too. The Aniblog Tourney brought us into the mainstream (and scaring away our hipster fanbase for good). I attended Anime Expo as a member of the press corps, albeit, for Original Sound Version (but still got an article about Megumi Nakajima and May’n as well as an abridged concert report out of it anyways). We also scored an interview with the jazz arranger, Rasmus Faber (and you really should check out his music!). Oh, and we also doubled our dedicated staff, adding Aftershok and Yu to the team, encouraged others to contribute guest posts, and through that, possibly discouraging anyone else from creating a site wholly devoted to anime music critiques/reviews. That last bit is kind of a shame, but what can you do?

I mentioned above that the three-year mark entitles me to certain benefits. Not to the point where I can pontificate like what Andy Rooney does every week (if Anime Instrumentality reaches the five-year mark, I’ll think about it then), but close. A few examples:

• When normal, average people take me out to karaoke, expecting me to join in and sing Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga songs with them, I’m allowed to be totally shameless in picking and singing anison while they look on, wide-eyed in shock, surprised that I can sing in Japanese (with the aid of Romanized lyrics written on a piece of paper). Besides, I’m not familiar with any Top40 song that’s come out in the last 20 years in the States anyways, so it’s a bit of a lost cause to expect me to know the tunes that everyone else knows.
• I can loudly proclaim that the music today is worse than the music from ten years ago, abetted by the idol phenomenon that prizes looks over ability and whose fans have the attention-span of a gnat as they move from idol to idol with no concept of loyalty. And then sheepishly admit that I don’t really listen to idol-pop. In all seriousness, the only issue I have with idols is their ubiquity. Sometimes, I wish they’d just go away, but most of the time, they’re pretty easy to ignore.
• Complain when shows with good music (I’m frowning at you, Cross Game) never get a soundtrack release. Complain when shows with good music only issue soundtrack releases bundled with the DVDs/Blu-rays. This latter issue is actually becoming more and more commonplace. While I can see why the bundling happens (I doubt soundtrack CDs sell all that well unless it’s for something like Macross Frontier), it absolutely drives me nuts all the same. Sometimes, we get lucky like we did with Working!! and Kara no Kyoukai’s soundtracks. Sometimes not. All I can say is that Madoka better have a standalone soundtrack release or I’ll quietly rage. Or find some more productive way of showing my displeasure.

So yes, Anime Instrumentality might be old, but it has not quite reached the point of being crotchety just yet. Either way, we look forwards to seeing faces old and new as we venture into our fourth year of existence!

Review: It’s no understatement to declare that Fall 2008′s most hilarious moments were heavily concentrated in the tenth episode of Kannagi. As you may recall, Nagi, Jin, the rest of the art club, Tsugumi, and Zange try to strengthen their friendship bonds by spending time at a karaoke box. By this time, the series has already set up the romantic polygons and the viewer is expected to be familiar with each character’s personality traits for this episode’s humor to shine. As such, half of the fun comes from watching these characters’ personalities bounce off of one another and the other half comes from hearing the characters struggle through having to sing karaoke (Takako’s the exception here).

So after over 3 months of waiting, we’re finally treated to the compilation CD of the karaoke episode. Here, the quality of the music is a bit higher than what we got from the episode itself and oddly enough, I see that as negative since flaws like Tsugumi’s shy delivery and Zange’s oblivious off-tune belting are part of what makes the karaoke attempt feel genuine and charming. Add to that the fact that the humor isn’t quite as strong without the accompanying character interactions and you’ve got an album that is only worth listening to if you’re either looking to experience a cleaned up karaoke episode or if you want to be able to enjoy listening to Kannagi’s VA’s performances.

The album starts out with a fairly generic, but enjoyable J-pop song titled “Ichiban Boushi” that is performed by Tsugumi’s VA, Miyuki Sawashiro. As I hinted above, this performance is far more polished than the one in the episode because Sawashiro’s delivery is devoid of Tsugumi’s shyness and mistakes that made the performance endearing in the first place. The same can be said for Jin’s song, “Amore Seishun” in that while it is unrefined and does go off tune a few times, his VA’s rendition on this CD is far too confident. I would have liked to hear all of the mistakes, including Jin stumbling a few times and shyly lowering his volume when the attendant comes in, to capture the genuine karaoke experience and his low-key personality.

Ichiban Boushi:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

If you recall watching that episode, Daitetsu, voiced by Takanori Hoshino, completely blows “I Believe You Forever” out of the water. Part of what makes his performance so compelling is in the way Hoshino’s voice comes out. The timbre is extremely warm, which makes for a good match with the song’s subject because his delivery is so comforting and confident. That Hoshino can switch tones from a friendly, oafish character to a wonderful pop singer was unexpected and I’d love to hear more of his work if they exist.

I Believe You Forever:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

After that, we come to Akiba’s song, and there’s really not much to say here other than the fact that he goes into full otaku mode by singing with a lot of passion, but not much else. Likewise, Zange’s performance on “Delicate ni Love・Me・Please” is fairly mundane once you remove all of her flourishes and mistakes as well as her personality because this song lacks her forceful attitude in trying to get Jin to come over to her side.

The character-based humor comes in through Nagi’s and Takako’s performances. Nagi’s 30-second ditty, “Hello Daizu no Uta,” is hilarious because the way Haruka Tomatsu sings feels like she’s having fun with the song in spite of its campiness. The segments where she stresses the “Mame kue, mame!” and “Souzetsu na…iroke” in a melodramatic fashion highlights the humor and absurdity of the whole karaoke experience rather well. Takako’s song is one that will make you laugh uncontrollably or give you nightmares depending on your initial reaction to her performance since her antics were absolutely unforgettable. “Jun♥Ai (Pure Love) Generation” parodies the generic magical girl anime themes with its sugary sweet melody and lyrics, but to reap the full benefit of this track, you need to remember that Takako is a high school senior and she doesn’t hold back in complementing that song with cutesy facial expressions and exaggerated poses all of it done disturbingly well. Those moves are fitting for a magical girl in say… elementary school, but to see them performed by a high school senior leads to a sort of horror where one has no choice but to laugh at the absurdity. Needless to say, I loved it!

Hello Daizu no Uta:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Jun♥Ai (Pure Love) Generation:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

After going through all of the characters, we finally reach the famed “Shirigeya no Theme” which is funny on its own because it provides a humorous take on the Japanese company structure which does everything from getting its employees to partake in morning exercises to teaching them a rousing company anthem to instill them with company spirit. It’s a strange concept for this Western viewer, which adds to the novelty factor since the the Shirige Tai are pretty enthusiastic about their supermarket chain to the point that it tickles my funny bone. The way the chorus section effusively sings the chorus part of the song combined with the marching band background music makes this song an uplifting, if hilarious way, to finish out the album.

Shirigeya no Theme:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

At the end of the day, this album isn’t really about listening to quality music as much as it’s about the levity borne from listening to the characters suffer through having to karaoke and picturing in your mind how the characters look while singing. As I mentioned, though the tracks are more polished than the raw karaoke version, the singing isn’t exactly stellar, but then again, issuing a high quality album of a karaoke episode isn’t the point here. So as you listen to this album, it’s obvious that this album caters to fans of the show. Still, those who enjoyed the episode’s silliness are better off just watching it because the music alone doesn’t carry the same comedic weight without the character interactions. Getting this album is an entirely optional affair though since the TV episode will give you a much more enjoyable experience overall.

Rating: So-so