English language theme songs are rare in anime, but it recently occurred to me that some of them rank among the best I’ve heard used in the medium. If there’s a tendency in the use of songs sung by native English speakers, especially those that appear on this list, it’s that they’re more somber and subdued, and appear in more serious anime. Whether this is a coincidence, or there’s a train of logic underlying this, I’m not sure, but there’s an admirable quality to the songs in this list, a level of sophistication well above the average anime tune. All of them are, in my opinion, underloved, and the type of which I’d have no complaint about hearing in anime more often. (Image found on oreno.imouto.org. Link mildly NSFW.)

English by birth, but French by ethnicity, Jean-Jacques Burnel wrote “We Were Lovers” as a song that tells a story, a song made specifically for the anime it opens, Gankutsuou. It pours the feelings of love, revenge and regret that make up the anime’s story into the open, leaving nothing concealed. Each time it threatens to build to something intense, it quickly dissipates into a trickle of tender romantic sentiments and a deluded sense of optimism with the lyrics “nothing can go wrong”.

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It’s a pity Scottish indie group The Delgados broke up, and after hearing Gunslinger Girl‘s OP song “The Light Before We Land”, you’ll probably agree. The song undergoes two very eclectic transitions right at the beginning, starting as an angelic hymn then exploding into a melody carried by violins and a heavily distorted bass before finally settling on an acoustic guitar riff with an off-kilter beat. Lead vocalist Emma Pollock’s singing is dreamlike and relaxing, but the lyrics are troubled at times, but also emphasize a sense of purpose.

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Ally Kerr, also Scottish, is known in anime circles for the determined song that blessed the brilliant Mushishi, “The Sore Feet Song”. Mushishi is an anime about a journey, so it’s fitting that this is also true of its OP. Ally Kerr’s wondering love-struck pariah who “stole ten thousand pounds, ten thousand pounds to see you” and “robbed convenient stores ‘cos I thought they’d make it easier” is a far cry from Mushishi‘s noble, but analytical Ginko, but the subdued tone of the song is the perfect opener for the sentimental and tender drama that appears in all of Mushishi‘s stories.

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English artist David Sylvian’s “For The Love Of Life” is an incredibly haunting song, which evolves into something disturbing and ironic when it complements Monster’s ED sequence and its images of a terrible creature who devours a kingdom. In many ways “For The Love Of Life” is a song about acceptance of one’s place in life, but it’s simultaneously anti-complacent, challenging its listeners with lines like “we could lose it all but we’ll go down fighting… And what of the children? Surely they can’t be blamed for our mistakes.” It’s a slow song, but it never meanders… every note and every lyric has a staid intensity.

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London is home of some of the best music makers in the world, and that’s true even when it comes to anime, with its residents, Boa, responsible for what I consider one of anime’s all-time best theme songs, Serial Experiments Lain’s OP song, “Duvet”. A much more sprightly song than the others on this list, Boa’s lead vocalist Jasmine Rodgers sings with an almost Celtic inflection. The song’s verses vindictively point outwards, but the choruses become noticeably introverted with lines like “I am hurting, I have lost it all, I am losing, help me to breathe”. At every moment, Rodger’s emotions permeate the right mood. Everything is carried by a delightfully melodic baseline, especially the uplifting guitar instrumental through the middle of the song.

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I don’t want to write too much about The Seatbelts’ triumphant song, “Blue” because I feel like every word I write could unwittingly demean it. What’s the right word to describe it? Sublime? Iconic? It is instantly evocative of and just as heavy as the unforgettable scene in Cowboy Bebop that it connects to. It’s a masterpiece song fitting of the masterpiece anime that it closes. The Seatbelts are a vastly different band from the others mentioned in this list. Lead by one of anime’s most accomplished musicians, Kanno Yoko, The Seatbelts was a vast composition of Japanese, New Yorker and Parisian jazz and blues musicians, including Yamane Mai, who, with her strong singing voice, provides the vocals for “Blue”.

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These songs are all amazing in their own way, and often accompany anime that tend to be more serious, more mature. The commonality between them kinda suggests that something underlies this trend. What that “something” is, I’ve got no idea, but I’m interested in hearing theories. There are plenty of other impressive English lyric songs that are most notable for their appearance in anime, and if you have some favourites I haven’t listed here, I’d like to know about them. If there’s one trait these songs share, it’s that they don’t get the love they deserve.

As I wrote in my Anime Expo itinerary, one of the events that I had been looking forwards to seeing was Alex Leavitt’s panel covering anime OPs and EDs since I was interested in listening what he had to say about the music and the animation behind that. Alex started things off by giving a bit of background information and how he had already given this talk over at Anime Boston. I didn’t recall a post discussing his talk in great detail from any of the Anime Boston goers, so I think I might as well throw my two cents into the mix. But before I go any further, let me say this: the panel was conducted really well and Alex definitely demonstrated a good amount of knowledge on the subject, especially the history behind the various OP/EDs as well as doing a good comparative analysis on how OP/EDs have evolved over time. The material managed to hit that sweet spot between breadth and depth given the audience makeup, and judging from the crowd reactions, most people were enthusiastic and enjoyed the talk a lot. The only issue was that it was too short (you could seriously make a semester-long lecture series seeing just how much material one can cover). So with that in mind, here were the thoughts that went through my head during that talk:

Alex started things off by talking about the OP to Astro Boy, which I thought matched the core ideas of the show by using a children’s chorus singing in a way that clearly lauds the title character and puts him on a heroic pedestal and showed how well-liked he was by the general populace. The animation itself mostly showed him doing heroic deeds which complemented the message of the music rather well. It definitely showed its age though and Alex talks about that later (and so will I).

Next up was the OP to Space Battleship Yamato, which used a song that brings to mind the image of a long odyssey. The use of a male chorus during this segment gave it a grand atmosphere, conveying a sort of boldness that channels that age-old mantra “where no man has gone before.” I don’t think the OP’s grandiosity is something that Yamato pioneered since people back then did view space as that final frontier to be explored by the brave and the ambitious and even though we’ve advanced pretty far since the 1970s, I could almost swear that modern shows like Tytania take its cue from Yamato, insofar as OPs are concerned.

Rounding out the OPs of older shows is none other than Mazinger Z which was technically the first super robot show to grace the TV screen. As is expected, the OP uses a heroic, glorifying theme and the accompanying animation shows the robot Mazinger Z (I can safely assume that’s the robot shown in the OP) doing what I’ll simplify into “cool stuff” like shooting its arm to do a long range punch, having the head unite with the torso, and so on. After taking us through this OP, Alex then went on to show the American version, which was nothing short of cheesy. The vocals were pretty bad, but what made the piece hilariously awful was that squeal/scream at the very end, which really took the cake. Sadly, this wouldn’t be the only OP that would be used as an example of how things fell apart when brought over to the States. More on that later.

The OP to The Big O left me a bit puzzled though since I wasn’t quite sure what the stated purpose of that particular OP was. I think it had to do with the fact that the OP animation gave us very little idea of what the series is about (I think I saw a robot here and there) and the music itself gives off that generic 1970s spy music except the lyrics served no purpose other than to hit the audience over the head by telling them that they were, indeed, watching The Big O. You know, just in case they thought they were watching a James Bond movie which, from my standpoint, seemed like what the OP animation was trying to emulate.

At this point, Alex begins talking about how OPs have begun to evolve. That is, they were no longer just music overlaid on the animation sequence; a concentrated effort was made to have the two complement each other. The first example he used to highlight that was the OP to Serial Experiments Lain and the whole mysterious vibe you get from the animation captures what the show was all about. As for the music, “Duvet” remains one of my favorite OP/EDs with its melancholy, lamenting feel. The match here between the music and the animation isn’t perfect, and the next example that he uses much better illustrates this.

The three iterations of Cutie Honey serves as his example, and the interesting thing to note about it is the way he uses the same piece in all three iterations even if the effect is a bit different in each one. The original Cutie Honey’s animation had that 1970s feel to it, both in the animation and the music, though the striking thing was the animation, which, for that time period, was pretty risque given all the fanservice elements they threw around. Cutie Honey Flash, which aired in 1997, was toned down a whole lot given its target audience. The music followed suit by delivering a performance that doesn’t have quite the energy of the original song (I guess the difference in the performers had something to do with that). Finally, with the Re: Cutie Honey OVA, we saw a return to the fanservice elements, appropriately aged to fit the mores of the twenty first century and though the music for this one had a more pop-ish flavor to it, you could still feel the old version of the song just lurking beneath the surface. Unlike most of the earlier samples he showed us, Cutie Honey’s animation and music meshed together really well and that one step effectively brings us closer to the OP/EDs of today.

This would be about the halfway point of his talk. Obviously, there’s more coming, but I figure that people might want to search these OPs out and digest them so to speak. There’s a lot of history to go through and I’d highly encourage exploring the examples that Alex used to get a feel for how things have changed since the 1970s. Anyhow, you can expect Part 2 sometime tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

Part 2 is up!

Voting Thread

Two back to back Piece of the Week posts due to a fairly busy week. At least that’s my excuse anyhow.

The pieces this week give off a different vibe that isn’t quite in-your-face or emotionally charged, making it really hard to evaluate them properly and dispense with the points. Most of the pieces did a good job of adhering to the theme though because of the theme, most of the tracks are fairly melancholy or downright despondent. While I had been hoping for more of the adventurous kind of lost-ness, the despairing mood largely prevailed, resulting in the following tracks nominated:

Kanon – Shoujo no Ori
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This piece evokes that whole feel of being lost in a winterscape, which, given the source of the song, makes it really appropriate. While it does carry an emotional charge for most of the way through, I thought the motive gets repetitive and the only part where this becomes more interesting is around 0:42 where the mood becomes really somber as it dispenses with the aforementioned emotional charge. Unfortunately, that doesn’t last long enough to receive any major development and transitions back to the repeating motive shortly after. For those who have access to the Kanon/Air Piano Arrange Album “Re-feel”, I’d give that one a listen since it’s a much better rendition. This version gets a pass from me seeing that there are far better tracks this week.

Hidamari Sketch x365 – Shinmiri
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“Shinmiri” has that lazy, drifting vibe that combines a sort of easygoing aimlessness as the subject is in a wonderful, dreamlike state. The introduction with the intonation brings out the aforementioned vibe, and if this piece were to consist entirely of that motive, it’d be plain boring. However, the solo violin around 0:35 marks a divergence that stands well on its own, and, when combined with the intonation and background instrumentation from the introduction, makes the piece a whole lot more enjoyable. This one deserves 1 point.

Pokemon Heroes – Search for the Girl
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Wow, this piece was certainly an eye-opener (ear-opener?) and though it may come from a somewhat maligned source, it still packs quite a punch through its mix of violin and accordion to create a sound that makes this piece stand apart from all of the other tracks in this week’s selection. There is an upbeatness that encourages the listener to seek out adventure and excitement in the beginning before transitioning into a flowing melody that brings forth more tension as the piece progresses. You can hear the atmosphere become more mournful as the feelings of loneliness and insecurity envelop the subject, but the way it keeps the listener engaged is what makes this piece truly shine, and listening to it felt like a shot of fresh air. Definitely deserving of 2 points.

Wolf’s Rain – Gravity
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I’m not all too surprised to see this track make an appearance because I do consider it Maaya Sakamoto at her very best. Her ability to convey that sense of longing is superb and the melody itself packs a pretty strong emotional punch as it draws you in and takes you for a melancholy ride. Enjoyable all the way through, this one gets 2 points from me. The only complaint that I have is why we haven’t heard tracks that are as high caliber as this from Sakamoto as of late (“Triangular” was terrible).

Zettai Shounen – Ho
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
This piece is probably the most despondent of the lot because of how strongly it emphasizes that feeling of loneliness, as though there’s a hole in your soul. While such moods can be very powerful, this track’s execution doesn’t quite hit the mark because of a lack of development in that despondent theme. It also doesn’t help that this piece is just too short for anything meaningful to come out of it. There’s potential for “Ho” to be much more, but we didn’t get it in this instance.

Soukyuu no Fafner -Dead Aggressor- – Doubt | Mayoi
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“Doubt” is fairly similar to “Ho,” but it’s slightly better because of how well it uses dissonance to whip up an unsettling atmosphere that is similar to the feeling one gets in a forest after dark with no light sources to guide you through. While this piece isn’t going to be getting any points from me, it’s certainly more enjoyable even if it’s not remarkable.

Serial Experiments Lain – Signal of Loneliness
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
I really like the melancholy vibe that you get from the guitar work in this song which, on the whole, gives this piece a nice, folksy feeling as though you’re listening to someone singing this song while around a campfire as the moon shines brightly. The singer’s tendency to go off-tune helps contribute to this overall mood by sounding genuinely folksy. A few minor gripes that I had was the repetitiveness, especially the “ahh nani wo” which could have had their iterations reduced by one so as to not draw things out for too long. Save for that (and it’s a very minor issue that doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyability), this song is solid and only slightly loses out to the next piece on this list.

Paprika – Shizuku Ippai no Kioku
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Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I disliked this piece. But that was back in the day when I had failed to appreciate the kind of vibe one gets out of the cacophony as chaos descends to reign supreme throughout this piece (and this movie for that matter). Having knowledge of the context in which this piece is heard helps a great deal because once you realize the nature of the parade, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a piece that more accurately describes the surreal atmosphere. The deluge of visuals and sound that the parade scene throws at you does an excellent job of conveying the confusion really well, and by succeeding at getting me to feel really lost as I watched that film, this piece definitely deserves 1 point.

Casshern Sins – Memory Past
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
This piece depicts the sense one gets from being lost by delivering it in a calm, quiet, and subtle track. The image I get while listening to this is that of a wanderer, a directionless soul who searches both within and without to find some sort of destination, but in spite of that effort, none materializes. It’s a poignant piece, but like a few tracks we’ve heard thus far, it feels too short. Had this been developed just a bit more, I could see it becoming a stellar track.

Bleach – Nothing Can Be Explained
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
This piece is yet another pleasant surprise and I particularly like the way it manages to make you feel as though you’re in an alien environment through that discordant opening bit followed by the voice work which drifts in and out, as though it were a disembodied spirit trying to drive you insane with its echoing, ephemeral chatter. “Nothing can be Explained” executes the feeling of being lost really well as the vocals leave you feeling uneasy, as though you’re trapped in a landscape that’s so strange you have no clue where to even begin going in search of an escape route. I especially liked the use of the round, which emphasizes the element of lost-ness, making this yet another solid track, even if it loses out on getting point nods from me.

So there you have it! My point distribution can be found below. I think the theme of lost was a bit more difficult to find good pieces for, but the good thing is that there were a lot of tracks that stood out as being interesting and made for a nice listen all in all. I think that Week 4′s legendary theme will be a bit better as far as track quality goes, so I’ll definitely be looking to see what people come up with.

(+2) Pokemon Heroes – Search for the Girl
(+2) Wolf’s Rain – Gravity
(+1) Hidamari Sketch x365 – Shinmiri
(+1) Paprika – Shizuku Ippai no Kioku