Otakuism

It’s that time of the week! Time to look at the many music releases of the week relevant to the otaku. This week includes a massive number of opening and ending releases to delight/annoy the ears. As usual I’m just looking at a few, mainly from shows I’m watching. And just a disclaimer I should not be thought of as a professional music reviewer in any sense at all.

Nummer Eins this week is the excellent OP of Pumpkin Scissors, Aoki Flamme by Takahashi Youko, along with the song Change included on the single. I just have to say Aoki Flamme is flat out sex for the ears. This is one of the best anime singles I’ve heard in awhile, beating out Death Note’s awesome the WORLD. Part of this is the excellent vocals of Takahashi Youko, who I realized also did the excellent first ending to Shakugan no Shana (highly recommended for downloading if you like this). She has a power and force in her singing unknown to the usual J-pop singers. This woman is a singer in the most professional sense of the word. Secondly Aoki Flamme is great for being a complex rock number, perfectly fitting the chaotic Pumpkin Scissors. Like I said single best OP of the season. The second track included, Change, I really don’t enjoy. It’s a slow moving acoustic guitar type ballad. Takahashi’s vocals are still good, but it just lacks the power of the former track I enjoy.

Tokimeki Memorial~Only Love~ has it’s OP release this week, Yokan and Anata no Tonari de, both by Makishima Yuki. Yokan’s not exactly the best J-pop song ever, but it’s hardly the worst. Instead of giving us something nauseatilingly sweet like most game adaptations we get a heartfelt song that feels like it’s sung with real emotions. This is probably owed to Makishima Yuki being a pretty good singer. Than again it hardly fits the insane antics I’ve come to associate with the series. Anata no Tonari de is similiar in the heart-felt singing way to Yokan. It follows the normal formula of being slower than Yokan, but it wasn’t exactly fast to begin with. Both songs are basically vocal rich J-pop that you can listen to with or without being familiar with tokimeki.

Why am I reviewing the marimite OVA ED if I’ve never even seen marimite? Because it’s by fucking KOTOKO! She is probably my favorite japanese artist and I always relish everything she does, even if it’s for an anime I’ll never watch. The two songs Chercher and Tsukiyo no Butoukai are for the Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA, Chercher being the ED song. Chercher is one of her more ballad like songs, unlike her totally awesome rock songs. It could probably be said I enjoy KOTOKO’s slower songs the least, which is true, but still it’s pretty good stuff, mainly because she’s just a great singer. Tsukiyo no Butoukai has a deceptive opening with church bells, but then it’s just a normal song, similiar in style to Chercher. I guess the producers didn’t want something like Re-sublimity. Rock tracks just don’t work with marimite. Anyways even though I think it’s a forgettable KOTOKO song it’s still pretty good, and both are a nice listen for KOTOKO fans, or Jpop fans in general.

There is only one Ali-project song, remixed a thousand times and given new lyrics. I’m serious. The Code Geass ED Yuukyou Seishunkan sounds like a slower version of the first Rozen Maiden OP. Crazy. And of course the RZ Op was amazingly fast paced and awesome, making a slower ver. of it massive fail. I liked the second song, Chinkon Shiyou, because I couldn’t immediatly place what Ali-project song it came from and, as a piano-focused ballad, is pretty nice and fits that kind of gothic theme (I think) Ali-project has. Probably listen to this if you like Ali-project, though I am finding the second song deceptively addicting. Maybe check it out just for that.

Remember those nausiatingly cute jpop songs I was talking about earlier? The mamoru OP is one of them. Though as far as sweet jpop songs go it isn’t that bad. It’s enjoyable just because it is a fast paced sugary sweet song. Reminds me of the Tsuyokiss OP for some reason. Very similiar I think. Vocals could stand some work though. Kind of amateurish, or maybe just trying to sound sweet too hard. Actually it’s kind of addictive in a weird way. Konayuki Maifuru Kouen de is another jpop ballad. Similiarly it’s not really bad, just forgettable. It really hurts these ballad type songs that I can’t understand their lyrics. Oh well good music is good music.

Other releases this week are:

Asatte no Houkou. OP
BLACK BLOOD BROTHERS OP + ED
BLOOD+ COMPLETE BEST
Bokura ga Ita ED
Galaxy Angelu~n OP
Garasu no Kantai OST
Gift eternal rainbow OP
Gundam SEED DESTINY Special Edition 3 ED
Hapiness! OP + ED
Innocent Venus OST
Kujibiki Unbalance OP
NHK ni Youkoso! ED2
Otome wa Oneesama ni Koishiteru OP + ED
Shounen Onmyouji OP
Teikoku Rikugun Jouhoubu Dai 3 Ka OP
Utawarerumono OST
Sumomo mo Momo mo OP
Galaxy Angel 2 Character CD Vol. 3
Chocotto Sister Anchoko 3 Satsume

As usual all this and more can be gotten the excellent site Nipponsei.