Otakuism

Another week, more music. I continue my look at J-pop this week with two OP’s to this seasons hottest (in more ways than one) shows, Negima?! and Code Geass.

First is Code Geass’s awesome opening, COLORS by FLOW. The song really catches you at the beginning with a jazzy start-up and rocks on throughout the rest of the song. Especially like the parts where all the lyrics start rhyming with eachother (in japanese of course). Vocals are strong throughout, and if I didn’t mention it it’s a male rock band, if that means anything. COLORS kind of reminds me of one of the Eureka 7 Op’s, but that’s probably wrong as I saw ten episodes max of that. Dreadfully boring show. Just an awesome J-rock song all the way, and one of the best OP’s of the season( though there seems to be a ton of those). Also included on the release are the tracks Astro Slider and Love Dub. Astro Slider is another great rock song, more rock than jazz though. Also the refrain keeps sounding like supercallifragalistic, which is just me being weird. Love Dub is another J-pop type ballad. Like I’ve said before those kind of things are boring to me, but it’s not too bad in the long run. Also included are the vocalless mix and tv size versions of COLORS, which are also pretty nice.

Now for the awesomely unorthodox Negima?! OP 1000% SPARKING by Satou Rina, Kanda Akemi, Nonoka Ai, and Kobayashi Yu (Negi, Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna respectively). Now the tv size version is unique for most of the song just being spoken lines. The actual song isn’t quite like that though. The spoken parts are still there, but their in the middle, and the rest is sung like normal. 1000% is a really fast-paced and addictive, vaguely electronica song. Something about a bunch of girls singing in unison is really catchy. There’s also a remix version included, which isn’t as great I think, cause it’s just a slowed down version with a bunch of random noises in the background. There’s also the ED song A-LY-YA! by the same people. Pretty catchy actually. It’s like most of the paniponi dash ED’s, so it’s sugary sweet, catchy, and vaguely messed up.

Other releases this week are:

Asatte no Houkou ED Single - Sweet Home Song [Yumao]
Kujibiki Unbalance ED Single - Harmonies [Nonoka Ai &Koshimizu Ami]
Red Garden OP Single - Jolly Jolly [JiLL-Decoy Association]
Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~ ED Single - Kiseki no Kakera [Various]
Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na Crescent Love OP Single - Prelue - We are not alone[Ootou Fumi]

All of this can be gotten at Nipponsei.

Now please let there be a second season, and let it be like this.

Somehow I missed this, but earlier this week Media Blaster apparently mentioned they’ve licensed Muteki Kanban Musume aka. Noodle Fighter Miki. Also mentioned was Kashimashi and High School Girls. I kind of want to question the validity of this, as these statements were made in a press release concerning the second season of Oh my Goddess, but seeing how it’s a company spokesman it’s probably true. And here I always pegged Miki as an unlicenable show. Maybe if it’s popular enough someone will buy the damn manga from ADV and there can be more than one volume. Press release here on anime on dvd forums.

Oh, and just to get it out of the way there’s a second season of Haruhi next fall. Whoop de doo.