ChäoS;HEAd ED Single – First Sight – Review

Review: I’ve heard a gamut of reactions to ChäoS;HEAd’s ED ranging from “super special awesome without the awesome” to “campy” to flat-out “terrible” and I can’t disagree either. No matter how you slice it, the melody is a jarring transition from the “what on earth just happened” moments that the series seems to sprinkle around liberally and the engrish lyrics rival Spice and Wolf’s ED “Ringo Biyori ~The Wolf Whistling Song” in terms of sheer ridiculousness. But for all the badness that this track carries with it, I still can’t bring myself to totally pan it because of the sheer amusement value I derive out of listening to it as I ponder what was on the anime producers’ minds when they decided to select this track for the ED.

But before we get to “Super Special,” there’s still “First Sight” to go through and for an A-side track, I can’t say this song particularly inspires any confidence. “First Sight’s” mood is best described as being celebratory and you can certainly hear the Seira Kagami’s happiness channeled through the melody, but unfortunately, the delivery is overshadowed by the lyrics and the presentation. While it’s not a habit of mine to pay close attention to the lyrics, this song is one of the few instances where the engrish was so bad that there wasn’t a way I could not not pay attention to it. From what I could decipher of it, “First Sight” appears to be a love song about a woman who becomes infatuated with a man at first sight. While such a theme is fairly commonplace, the song itself feels silly and nonsensical due to several factors. The already campy melody is often overshadowed by an overly dominating beat and Ryouhei Yamamoto’s contributions to the song are reminiscent of a fading boy-band member’s performance. Finally, the backup singers really destroy any amount of seriousness that this song possesses, making it a song you’re better off skipping unless you enjoy intentionally listening to bad music.

As you proceed on to “Super Special,” the first thing that comes to mind when listening to it is how at odds this song is within the context of ChäoS;HEAd. For those of you who’ve seen the series, you’ll know that the atmosphere tends to be dark and mysterious with a touch of the deranged, which makes the pleasant-sounding melody just slightly jarring. Evaluated on its own, the song isn’t half bad because it does capture Takumi Nishijou’s need to be loved and soothed. However, the song does suffer from the heavy synth beat that’s slightly distracting and draws most of the attention away from Seira Kagami’s performance. Furthermore, the lyrics consist almost entirely of incoherent thoughts. Really, how are you supposed to explain the transition from:

Big sign of ”Love & Peace”
When there’s enough bombs to blow the earth.

to:

”all-A kids only”
Prioritize Money they own

Like the previous track, the lyrics are difficult to ignore because of how silly they are and you just can’t help but be amused by the mangling of the English language that seems to result from some Japanese lyricist watching a random MTV segment and snatching phrases at random. The effect is unintentionally humorous and, combined with the effects they shovel into the piece, has the effect of making the entire song feel kitschy. And unfortunately, we get to sit through close to six minutes of kitsch, which, given the song’s tendency towards repetitiveness, makes you wonder why anyone would intentionally make a song so long. It doesn’t help that the last 42 seconds of it (yes that long!) is nothing more than a repetitive synth harmony followed by a dull beat. While there are plenty of songs that end in this manner, the pointless display of fluff just takes the pain a bit too far.

In judging both songs, one can pretty much throw out a bevy of mocking internet slang and be pretty much spot-on. Objectively, these songs are terrible and there’s no good reason one should like them. But as Roger Ebert once wrote: “I cannot recommend the movie, but… why the hell can’t I? Just because it’s godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? godawful and boring, that would be a reason.” and that argument definitely flies for this album. The music is indeed godawful, but for those of you who can look at bad art and still derive a smidgen of enjoyment out of it (perverse or otherwise), should definitely give this album a shot.

Rating: Bad

Ending – Super Special