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 MangaLife Round-Table #1, PART TWO: Anime Music
Written by Park Cooper
This is the SECOND half of the first installment of a new occasional feature here at MangaLife-- the Round-Table. Essentially, we start off with a relevant topic, and our staffers sound off on it. And so, we now conclude our first topic: What anime music do you love?
Barbara Lien-Cooper:
--Dai-Guard (opening): When the Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba’s come onto the soundtrack, you’re almost forced to sing along. Big guitar, big horns…a big, happy rush of pure pop for manga people.
--Rurouni Kenshin (closing): The end theme sounds like a big power pop ballad from the American charts of the 1980s, except bigger and less boring. All slashing guitars and high octane goodness.
--FLCL (all): C’mon, it’s the Pillows! The 21st century, J-Pop, power pop answer to the Beatles! Insanely catchy work.
--Neon Genesis Evangeleon (various): It really depends on your tolerance for various versions of “Fly Me to the Moon”. Luckily, being a fan of the song (be it from Frank Sinatra to Astrid Gilberto), I find the ending versions of the song to be charming, not annoying. I wish I could say the same for the ending of this otherwise essential anime series.
Athena and Alethea Nibley:
--Kanau Nara (Ouran High School Host Club, Tamaki Suou image song): This is Tamaki’s “serious” image song, and it’s gorgeous. Not only does Mamoru Miyano (the voice of Tamaki) have a beautiful singing voice, but you can feel just how much he loves singing in every song he sings. Tamaki’s other song, Guilty Beauty Love, is also great in that it’s way too perfect for Tamaki, but that doesn’t quite come across without understanding the lyrics. (Even Bisco Hatori (creator of Host Club) proclaimed the lyricist a genius.)
Ysabet MacFarlane:
--Revolutionary Girl Utena (various): Utena just might have the most “love it or hate it” music ever. I like the opening theme and the second and third closing themes quite a bit, but there’s nothing really unusual about them. Then you get to J. A. Seazer’s contribution to the score. I think most people who’ve watched even a few episodes of Utena have some kind of reaction if you play even a few bars of “Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku” at them. Personally, I’m fine with the music (and with most of the individual duel songs, some of which I really like); I think it adds a ritual layer to the stock footage, and having completely different music in the dueling arena from everywhere else in the show helps to separate what happens in the arena from the characters’ “real lives”. But I also empathize with the people who get four episodes in and insist that you skip the ascension to the arena for the rest of the show, not because they get too bored watching, but because they can’t take another repetition of the song.
--X [TV] (“Sadame”, BGM): X has at least two or three soundtrack CDs, which always seems like a bit of overkill given that when you’re watching the show it seems like every single scene plays out over “Sadame”. I’m sure there are other things on the soundtrack beside the orchestral and piano versions of that piece and the opening and ending themes, but I have no idea what they might be. “Sadame” is just that ubiquitous. It’s a good piece, though, and by the time you get through the show you’re completely used to associating it with gory death—more than a little disconcerting if you happen to be, say, walking through a store and hear it come on the PA because an employee’s tuning into a soundtrack internet radio station. True story.
Joy Kim:
--Honey and Clover (various): According to Internet scuttlebutt, this manga series takes its name from two Jpop albums (Hachimitsu by Spitz and Clover by Suga Shikao). So perhaps it’s no surprise that the anime has such a memorable pop-oriented soundtrack, prominently featuring both of those artists. Spitz’s and Suga Shikao’s songs appear as insert songs during key scenes of certain episodes. Spitz’s sound is often compared to the Beatles, full of great melodies and chiming guitars; I especially like the use of their songs “Yoru wo Kakeru” and “Spica.” Suga Shikao’s a singer-songwriter with a somewhat wider range of influences, including jazz and funk. His song “Ougon no Tsuki” is particularly well used. Finally, I need to say something about the anime’s opening themes by YUKI and ending themes by Suneohair. The former (“Dramatic” and “Fugainaiya”) aren’t going to be for everyone; YUKI’s trademark screech tends to elicit a love-hate reaction. I rather love them; they convey the hope and energy of the characters’ college years. Meanwhile, the ending themes by singer-songwriter Suneohair (“Waltz” and “Split”) are melodic and bittersweet, fitting for a series that recognizes how quickly one’s college years pass. In fact, “Split” is currently the single-most played song in my iTunes. As I read the manga (currently being released by Viz), I can almost hear it playing in my head.
James Hanrahan said:
--Besides what I said last time, I also tend to just like themes from shows from the 1960s through the late 1970s most- Rose of Versailles, Ashita no Joe, Dokaben, various Ultramen, Arrow Emblem Grand Prix, Doraemon, Ace wo Nerae, Yattaman, La Seine no Hoshi, and too many more; that's my era. Those songs will always be my favorites and I just play them on shuffle all the time
Park Cooper:
--Azumanga Daioh. I prefer the anime to the manga, although the manga is also good. But as for music, the opening theme is fun and sort of catchy in a wacky way, and the closing theme is beautiful in a light pop Miyazaki-like way. The interior music, at first glance, sounds all of a piece, not a mix of moods like the two titles I talked about before see last week), but it’s used very well and is sometimes contemplative and beautiful in the way that it enhances the Miyazakiesque, pastoral looks at a slow-moving, communally-shared childhood that nonetheless seems, in hindsight, gone all too quickly.
--Kingdom Hearts. I’m naming a video game. I have tracks from these two games in my computer’s desktop library. Alternatively sweet and haunting, the choral bits really do a lot for the whole experience. The whole audio experience of the music stands out by itself to such a degree as seldom happens with this sort of thing (although certainly Princess Nine is no slouch).
Next time (whenever that is): Guilty Pleasures in Manga-Reading/Anime-Watching. Please, you readers send me yours, as well!
--P
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