Reminiscing over the Decade’s Anime Music – 2009
OP/ED
I don’t think many will disagree with Bakemonogatari having some of the best OP/ED combos for much of its run-time. “Staple Stable” was enthralling; it’s lyrics were catchy and conveys the heart of the ever-fascinating Hitagi Senjougahara while the visuals helped augment it further. Then there’s “Renai Circulation” to draw out Sengoku Nadeko’s cuteness with the catchiest song of the year. Amidst all that is supercell’s (ryo and nagi’s) first venture into anisong with the energetic “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” which seals the deal entirely. If you’re going to listen to any OP/EDs from 2009, definitely start with these.
[spoiler show=”Bakemonogatari OPs/EDs”]
staple stable
Renai Circulation
Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari
[/spoiler]
And then there’ll be people who’ll point to Eden of the East having the stronger pair of OP/EDs. From the moment that Oasis’s OP, “Falling Down” began playing, paired with the visuals that accompanied it, I knew I was in for something pretty special. What made it more so was how well the sentiments expressed in the opening matched up with the show’s main plot. The ED is no pushover either, and I really liked the sense of urgency you got from School Food Punishment’s “Futuristic Imagination” though the papercraft that accompanies it makes me want to listen to the song in conjunction with the animation more than to it alone.
[spoiler show=”EoE – Falling Down”]
Falling Down
[/spoiler]
[spoiler show=”EoE – Futuristic Imagination”]
Futuristic Imagination
[/spoiler]
Guin Saga comes up once more and though the opening carries a strong melody that makes no mistake about it being a fantasy-themed anime, it’s Kanon’s singing for the ED, titled “This is My Road” which manages to win me over. The Latin chorus making way for Kanon’s clear voice is wonderful to listen to as it reminds me somewhat of Elfen Lied’s opening.
[spoiler show=”Guin Saga – This is My Road”]
This is My Road
[/spoiler]
I can come up with a handful of J-pop artists who can deliver with the ethereal vocals. Hitomi is one. KOKIA is the other. In the OP to Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, titled “Karma,” KOKIA’s ethereal voice shapes it to deliver a haunting aura. Her ability to plumb the depths of the pain and regret that the song requires is absolutely stellar and in all likelihood captures the mood of the series. Well, if I’ve seen it that is…
[spoiler show=”Phantom – Karma”]
Karma
[/spoiler]
In what is the best sports anime I’ve seen to date, Cross Game brought us Kobukuro’s “Summer Rain” which carries a soothing tone set with an undercurrent of energy that brings out a sense of optimism. Still, there’s something about the first ending theme that does such a great job of turning up the waterworks. Anyone who’s seen the first episode should be able to figure out why since the close associations that we form to a certain character pairing are set to the first ED and its re-occurrences nail the emotional impact of the scene.
[spoiler show=”Cross Game – Summer Rain”]
Summer Rain
[/spoiler]
[spoiler show=”Cross Game – Heartfelt Dream”]
Heartfelt Dream
[/spoiler]
There really isn’t much to say about Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou that I haven’t said already, and the only thing to really highlight is the ED, “Aishiteiru” by Callin’. The sound of her voice is really wonderful, and though I haven’t listened to the other songs on her album, I do hope to experience more of the loving emotions that she packs into her singing since she does such a great job expressing it.
[spoiler show=”Z.NatsuYuujin – Aishiteiru”]
Aishiteiru
[/spoiler]
No matter how hard I tried, I could not identify with White Album’s hapless protagonist’s warped ability to find many many goddesses around him. In fact, he usually finds 7 in the span of a week! That nonsense prompted me to drop the show without really looking back except to see whether Aya Hirano or Nana Mizuki released any albums related to the franchise. Let’s start with Aya Hirano first. A lot of people have criticized her singing and that’s not without merit. As someone who has had to tolerate her live performance (and I do mean tolerate), there’s no question she’s awful. A lot of her other non-Haruhi anisongs are also pretty bad, but she does fire up a gem once in a great while. White Album is one of those rare occasions, but it’s certainly worth highlighting. I dare anyone to listen to her performance on “Koiiro Sora” and say that it sucks. If you can, expect to hear from me! :p
[spoiler show=”White Album – Koiiro Sora”]
Koiiro Sora
[/spoiler]
As for Nana Mizuki, do we even need to go in too deep? The opening theme for the first season, “Deep Love” was absolutely solid and I still continue to be floored by the effort that she delivers in “Glass Flower.” She’s consistent if nothing else.
[spoiler show=”White Album – Shin Ai”]
Deep Love
[/spoiler]
[spoiler show=”White Album – Glass Flower”]
Glass Flower
[/spoiler]
I’ve already talked a lot about Kara no Kyoukai in the soundtracks section. Looks like I’ll make one last gasp at talking about how much I like Kalafina’s work for the ending themes. Songs like “Oblivious” and “Fairytale” are going to be at the top of my list because the mystical aura that Kalafina brings to the table makes for a wonderful fit to the show. That said, I’m not the best person to talk to about that. You’ll want to pester Jen since she’s more knowledgeable than I.
[spoiler show=”KnK – oblivious”]
oblivious
[/spoiler]
[spoiler show=”KnK – Fairytale”]
Fairytale
[/spoiler]Finally, there is a reason I used a K-ON! image. The most memorable debates, for good or for ill, that I recall from 2009 revolved around this series. While I did not enjoy it to the level that many others did, I can profess to enjoying the music, moreso the insert songs than the opening or ending themes. The songs convey the sort of childhood innocence that you would expect from highschoolers of that particular ilk or demeanor and I found the melodies enjoyable. So to close it out, enjoy some stapler love as we end on a light and fluffy note!
[spoiler show=”K-ON! – My Love is a Stapler”]
My Love is a Stapler
[/spoiler]
[spoiler show=”K-ON! – Fuwa Fuwa Time”]
Light and Fluffy Time
[/spoiler]
Other notes:
This year appears to be the year of Masumi Ito. You’ll know her better as Hikaru Nanase since that’s the name she usually composes under and for 2009, worked on Canaan and Phantom, two shows that I managed to miss out on entirely. I also haven’t checked out the soundtrack and suspect that people will tell me that whatever faults the shows themselves suffered from, that the music is solid and that I should give them a shot.
For shoujo fans who also happen to love soundtracks, there’s S.E.N.S. Project’s work on Genji Monogatari Sennenki and of course, Hama’s work on Kobato. I know quite a few of you who’ve been clamoring for a Kobato soundtrack review, but when I’ll have the time to actually listen to the music… well, I don’t know. But it is on my queue of things to review and it’s just a question of when I finally get to it!
*Whew* that was quite the post. There’s one more afterthoughts post in store to wrap this all up, but for those who did, thanks for sticking with this series to the very end even if it took nearly a year to get it done. I don’t know what other columns will serve to bring some diversity between the music reviews that make up this blog’s mainstay, but rest assured that I’ll think of something (suggestions are welcome too). And of course, if you have any thoughts or pointers on stuff I’ve missed that you think people should check out, comment away!
I liked Aoi Hana’s music, including OP/ ED a lot. It’s like a perfect fit for the light melodrama. Kara no Kyoukai’s soundtrack is just awesome. One of those I went to get right away after watching. Nice include on M12+M13, which is probably my favorite track there. ^ ^
Kalafina’s amazing too. Sprinter’s another ED I really love from Kalafina.
Not a bad year.
Canaan? Well let’s see, the soundtrack is mostly ambience (of the battle and foreboding atmosphere variety), I’ll say that now. It’s a mix of synth and … well, not synth. However, there are a good number of tracks which impressed me. In my opinion, “Alphard” represents the best of the OST. It captures the atmosphere of the series perfectly (here’s a link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al03hq0nF1Y
Hirano Yoshihisa is half classical half I don’t know what. I would put him in the modernistic classical music category as his music is filled with all sorts of chaos typical of modern-age classical composers. I swear he gets more unconventional with every series he composes for. His flaw is a lack of character between his scores. They might sound good, but nothing really distinguishes them from the others to me. This could simply be because he’s sought out exactly for this style he’s so good at.
Muramatsu might not give us much apart from his usual, but I like the usual, so his consistency can be forgiven on my part.
And who would’ve expected Queen’s Blade to have a good soundtrack? I didn’t.
Too many good scores! I can’t say that often. I could comment on more of what I see here, but it’s just be a long litany of praise. 😛
Not a bad year at all. Bounen no Xam’d and Kara no Kyoukai’s ethereal soundtrack stood out for me, sent shivers down the spine in a good way.
Pleasantly surprised at Aya Hirano’s ‘Koiiro Sora’, she needs to do more of these ballads. To bad it seems she won’t be contributing much more to the anime industry. Kanon’s ‘This is My Road’ is surreal and just beautiful. Supercell’s ‘Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari’ is also amazing, though it seems to be, in my opinion their only hit since their later works hasn’t particularly impressed me. K-On’s insert songs are also surprisingly listenable despite their power pop leanings which I can’t seem to really appreciate when done by western artists.
I was looking for those Queen’s Blade tracks. To think they were called Main Theme.
Yuki is still the best.
@Yi
I’m not the first person to say this, but as near as I can tell, there hasn’t been a bad soundtrack to a yuri show yet and Aoi Hana is a good demonstration of pulling out a soft, melodramatic score that’s light yet powerful in drawing forth the emotions when needed.
With Kajiura at the helm, it’s not a surprise that KnK sounds good, especially when her compositions with Kalafina help to create a homogeneous aura with the score she wrote. I did find it odd that Sprinter is better than Aria though when I first got that single.
@Yu
Holy crap, an 8-minute track on an OST? Well, I’m listening to it right now and its tiny steps in the beginning do have that sneaky suspicious sound to it. The level of ominousness that it channels along with the heavier phrases matches up with typical Type-Moon settings all right.
As for Hirano, yeah, that’s a pretty good characterization though I will say that Ouran sounds a lot different from Death Note (one would hope so :p) so there’s certainly a divide between his lighter fare (I guess Strawberry Panic is close to Ouran’s style?) and the intense stuff you find in Death Note and Bantorra.
Muramatsu – you know what you’re gonna get, but the heart loves what it loves, right?
With Queen’s Blade, I actually found out about him from really liking the music to Arakawa and being curious as to whether the composer’s done any other work. When I saw Queen’s Blade on his resume, I decided to listen to the soundtrack on a whim and enjoyed that quite a bit.
Nothing wrong with litanies of praise (or criticism either)!
@mrwan
Xam’d is one of those series that I really need to get to. When I was working and my sister was watching the series, the music grabbed at my attention because it sounded like Ooshima and lo and behold, it was! KnK’s music does conjure up the movie really well and the scene where Shiki cuts through those phantoms comes alive with M13 thrown in.
Agreed with Aya Hirano and I think a large part of it comes down to finding the composer who can mesh well with her vocals. It doesn’t hurt that “Koiiro Sora’s” piano intro is entrancing either. Agreed with Kanon’s work on Guin Saga as well as supercell’s tendency to repeat their style of music though I thought the Naruto song they did was decent-ish. It’s never gotten to the point of being quite on par with “Kimi wo Shiranai Monogatari” though. And how could anyone hate the whimsical high school girly songs from K-ON!? :p
@Baka-Raptor
The only time that a song titled “Main Theme” isn’t the best song from an anime series is when that song is titled “Aerobatic Funk.”
And I do like how Kajiura’s style continues to evolve. I could start with Noir, transition to Tsubasa, then Mai-HiME, and on to later stuff like KnK and Pandora Hearts and be quite pleased with what she offers up. Moreso when you add Kalafina and Fiction Junction into the picture.
I haven’t heard of Kalafina until Sora no Woto in early 2010… I have taken a listen of their recent album “Red Moon,” and I liked what I have heard…
Also, enjoyed the K-ON! music from the first season…
Compared to this year, Fall 2009 was bleh compared to the 2010 Fall Season selection… and also the treaded Super Driver song… GAHHHHHH! There were a few good ones… but yeah…
@chikorita157
Also check out their Seventh Heaven album if you haven’t already since that’s the one that contains the entirety of their Kara no Kyoukai offerings. I’d say that about all but maybe 3 tracks are top notch.
Yeah, I somehow don’t recall 2009 on the whole being that stellar of a year in terms of the quality of the anime that got released, but I think the two years have been comparable if you’re talking about just the music.
@Jo
That’s something that’s always annoying: a piece that really grabs your attention during the course of the anime but somehow, they don’t include it on the actual soundtrack. I know that this happened with Sousei no Aquarion so it’s good to know that Canaan and Phantom includes everything. I’ve been through the sheer volume problem for soundtracks like the first Hidamari Sketch album, so I know what you mean when you note good soundtracks that just contain far too much stuff to consume all at once.
Thanks for the review.
For me, I found that both the Canaan and Phantom OST were enjoyable, but because of the sheer volume, made it difficult for repeated listening. But then, on the other hand, I’m glad they included everything. I hate it when you get a CD only to find they don’t have your favourite track on it.
=)
Great list! I have a few that I didn’t see mentioned that are worth checking out 🙂
First there is the music from Tytania. It was released in a short symphony form and also in a longer traditional anime soundtrack form. The anime itself was not for me. I tried watching it but couldnt get past the first few episodes. The OP is nice as well with an operatic piece that fits with the show’s scope.
Second there is Sasameki Koto – another yuri anime soundtrack that I enjoy as much or more than Aoi Hana. The music is composed by Hasumi Shigeomi. The opening and ending tracks for the show are great as well in a relaxing yuri sort of way. The show itself is wonderful and one of my favorite yuri shows that dabbles in romance but never shows anything.
Third, there are a couple of Kotaro Nakagawa scores from 2009 but primarily 07 Ghost is one of my favorites. it makes nice use of choir and splits the music across 3 discs (even if each one doesn’t have a full 75 minutes of music). The anime itself is quite strange and I couldn’t really get into it. The ED by Noria is quite nice relaxing female vocals.
Fourth, Hitoshi Sakimoto’s two soundtracks for the Tower of Druaga animes were great stuff. They were pack-ins with the dvds initially although recently they were released together in a 2 disc soundtrack form.
Fifth, Tamiya Terashima’s work for Sacred Blacksmith was well done and enjoyable. I tried to get into the show but it had a bit too much humor in what should have been a more serious series.
@Sirusjr
Oh yes! You’re right, Tytania did have an awesome opener seeing that I really enjoy the epic, operatic flavor that it served up. I haven’t given the soundtrack a listen though I should since I did like what I heard when I watched the series. Also, you made a good choice to drop it since one of the main heroes kept fucking around throughout it all and it got boring fast.
Also heard good things about Sasameki Koto and the description that you gave matches with what others have told me.
Someone told me that 07 Ghost isn’t that great of a show but Kotaro Nakagawa is pretty solid, even in some of his works that don’t have quite the profile of Code Geass or Planetes. I was listening to a bit from his work on Hayate no Gotoku and liked it a lot!
I did try to give Sakimoto’s Druaga score a try, and the snippets that I got (I didn’t sample many) had the feel of his work from Vagrant Story, except not quite as epic. Maybe it’s just the luck of the draw there and my hopes of getting another score on the scale of Romeo x Juliet is just unreasonable.
I take it you didn’t like the Agrias/Saber clone in Blacksmith :3
So many good songs for this year. The Bakemonogatari OP/EDs accounted for countless hours of my music listening. I loved how well “Falling Down” worked with Eden of the East’s OP too.
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So many good songs for this year. The Bakemonogatari OP/EDs accounted for countless hours of my music listening. I loved how well “Falling Down” worked with Eden of the East’s OP too.
@Sharron
If there’s anything that Satoru Kousaki shows through his compositions for those OP/EDs is that he’s perfectly capable of making serviceable pop music. Now only if he can apply that to some of his BGM and that would be perfect! Maybe that’ll come through with Star Driver’s OST?
And yeah, I know very few who weren’t riveted by that delicious combo of Oasis and IG’s animation for Eden.