My Gift

Top 10 Anime songs

Secret 

Santa 

Gift

 

Hello Mardot85!

Yes, my greeting is different because as the title says, this is a Christmas gift. Specifically this is your Christmas gift because I am your secret Santa! I had my amazing boyfriend do some investigation work because I am horrible at coming up with reasons to talk to random people, and he found out you like music. I happen to love music too so I figured why not review something. I just needed a genre, since that was a toss-up between J-pop and Jazz; I went with J-pop and came up with a top ten list of anime songs as well as some other songs.

Top Ten Anime Songs:

With some others

10.) Suirenka by Shonan no Kaze

Originally this song was going to be in the Honorable mentions portion of the list but I really do enjoy this song… however, the translation to English (when you don’t speak a word of Japanese and know better than to trust Google Translator) is near impossible, not for lack of trying though. I asked a friend who helped me in the past but with German songs (because he is German) and seems to have better luck with things than I do. We got something translated, but it didn’t make much sense. 

Backing up to the band history since I’ve completely gotten off topic, Shonan no Kaze is a four-member Japanese Reggae band known for their 2006 hit Junrenka. I’m going to guess their name comes from the name of a region along the coast of Sagami Bay in Central Japan. That’s where Red Rice and Han-kun first performed together and got into the hip-hop/reggae scene.

Now you might be wondering why I took this off the Honorable Mentions list and put it at the bottom of the Top Anime list? That reason is simple there are things that bring the song down a few slots, but there are some good things that bring it up and make it awesome as well. I shall start with the bad to get that out of the way. This might sound hypocritical considering I am a fan of VNV Nation and they have some long songs, but Suirenka is a song where the length of the song works against it. This might be due to the fact that the best part of the song is located in last three minutes; however, the rest of the song before the epic buildup that ends the song is okay. It has a nice beat and I really can’t comment on the lyrics because I don’t know what they are. With that said, the second thing that brings this song down is the epic fail that is the internet translators at translating this song. It’s hard to enjoy a song in another language when you have very limited sources to help you translate a language. You’d think Japanese is a language Google would know but Google is picky and it has to be in kanji, not in rōmaji. Even when the song is copied and pasted in Kanji it still doesn’t make sense, here’s the awesome part of the song translated with Google:

“We're out on a journey of life in Ah is no turning back
Like a water lily flower that one day I
Spring flowers in tears over the past
"The Quick chat with wet Mamma!"

Summer Season began also began to run in the nude or love?
Reason dating all the wrong intersection of the beach
Mamma desires are aligned Season Seriously now meet the eye care!
Crying crying laughing met
Crying crying laughing laughing

"The Quick chat with wet Mamma!"

See it doesn’t make any sense at all and that brings the song down but that verse that doesn’t make any sense when translated, is awesome. It brings the song out of the Honorable Mentions and onto the bottom of the Top 10 list.

In case anyone was curious, I heard it in an AMV most likely found on Animemusicvideos.org

9.) Shinryaku no Susume by ULTRA PRISM Ft. Kanemoto Hisako

The Squid Girl theme as I like to call it because I can’t remember it in Japanese, this song fits Squid girl perfectly. If you haven’t seen the anime, I suggest you do that as soon as possible because it is amazing. It’s adorable and fun with a touch of serious every so often. It’s about a Squid girl who goes to the surface with hopes of taking over the world. The band consists of Usagi Tsukimiya (vocals, lyrics, and costume design) and Masaya Koike (guitar, composition, and production.) I tried going to their website for information but the buttons wouldn’t load the right thing. I’d click on Biography and get tour date information… I spent an hour trying to figure it out but in the end, I couldn’t find a bio other than the few bits on animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia.  As for the music video, it is overflowing with cuteness… you’ve been warned.

8.) For You by Rie Fu

The closing theme to an anime called Wandering Son, the Japanese name for the anime is Hōrō Musuko but it’s easier to remember the English title. This is one of the three songs I have that are in Engrish meaning half Japanese with random English thrown in randomly Suirenka and Let It Out are the other two on the list that have random English in it. The song is a cute ending and easily relatable on some level… The anime is also great, I watched it on Cin Wicked’s stream a while ago but I got into it a little late so I have yet to see the episodes I missed. Now for a little bit about Rie Fu, her full name is Rie Funakoshi. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, moved to the USA (Maryland) for a few years and then finished her prime and secondary education in Japan from 1995 to 2003. Her inspirations are Sheryl Crow and 1970’s pop musicians like The Carpenters, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Yumi Matsutoya. Wandering son wasn’t the only anime to feature one of Rie Fu’s songs. Life is Like a Boat was featured in Bleach it also gained her widespread recognition. In 2005, she released her self-titled album, which featured a song called “I Wanna Go To A Place…” in an anime called Gundam Seed Destiny for its third ending theme. Rie Fu had more sings in other film media and had two label switches, and another random tidbit of information she is bilingual, obviously since she grew up in the United States and went to a college in England. Let it be noted this music video was rather easy to find. That doesn’t affect the ranking of the song but some of these songs were annoying to find their official videos. My only comment on it is this: Holy 70s and it is rather happy for having a chorus stating how they want to cry for someone. I figure that it would be depressing but no. The video couldn’t be any happier.

                            

7.) PSYCHEDELIC SOULJAM by Lotus Juice

this is not an opening nor is it a closing and it is not in Japanese. However, it is from the amazing anime called Soul Eater and that qualifies it to be on this list. The singer/rapper is Japanese which helps this oddball song. This song gave me a quote to apply in my daily life, it’s in one of the verses, and that lyric is: “if it ain't cool it ain't alive if it is fake, kiss it good bye...” I agree more so with “If it is fake, kiss it goodbye…” there are so many people in my real life that I would LOVE to throw out of my life, unfortunately due to school, I can’t. Lotus Juice is just one man known best for working with Shoji Meguro in the Shin Megami Tensi: Persona Series. He made his named when he starred in the Persona 3 album, rapping the main battle theme Mass Destruction and the monorail theme Deep Breath Deep Breath. Besides the Persona 3 series and PSYCHEDELIC SOULJAM, he composed lyrics for other songs in ~Trinity Soul~ (Persona 3) and other songs from Soul Eater (“STEP UP”, “BANG! BANG! BANG!” “Death the kid” and “Have A Nice Dream.”)

6.) Rain by SID

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5917997/sid_rain_pv_dvd_rip/

Another song from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood This song was fifth opening theme and sixth ending theme. I originally hated it but for some reason, I grew to love the song and I haven’t figured out the reasoning behind it either. I thought about keeping the amount of FMA brotherhood songs to only one opening and one closing, but I am warming up to Rain quite a lot so I have added it to the list. SID is a visual kei Japanese rock band by Mao and Aki, their vocalist and bassist. Once Mao and Aki were officially a band, the duo quickly became a quadruplet when they were joined by their guitarist (Shinji) and Drummer (Yuuya),  together they released the band’s first demo CD, Yoshigai Manabu 17-sai on a mini disk in August of 2003. Soon after the release of their demo, they were signed with Danger Cure Records. They had two songs in FMA: Brotherhood, this song and Uso, which was the first ending to the anime, overall they’ve contributed to the music of FMA: Brotherhood three times. I have watched the music video and am kicking myself for not seeing this sooner. The actual full-length song is amazing, not enough to bump it up to number 5 spot, but it’s still great. So much color and sparkles and the leading singer kind of looks like a girl. I am still shocked by how cool this song actually is when you listen to the full thing.

5.) Girl In Bakkoya: White Tiger Field by Hirasawa Susumu

This song is from the movie Paprika; it plays during the ending credits. I can say with honesty, if I’d seen this in theaters, I’d have stayed through the credits to hear the rest of the song. For a song that good, it holds the halfway position on the list that is because it has a random point where it seems to start over in the middle of the song. I thought there was something wrong with the song for quite a while then I realized that’s how the song was meant to be. In addition, the other songs that come after this are better in some regard (whether I know what it is or not.) This is a great song, and I can’t seem to find anything else wrong with it other than the random restart in the middle of the song. In fact, someone liked “Girl In Bakkoya” so much that there are also two different versions of this song, Drop filled With memories and Meditational Field both songs appear in the movie at some point in time. Meditational Field appears twice I believe, it opens the movie credits after the insanity that is the opening scene of the movie. It also shows up again when Paprika is skydiving I believe. Drop Filled With Memories plays for a brief moment when Paprika is talking with Dr. Atsuko Chiba as she’s waking down a hallway. Musician history time: I’m not sure how to officially type his name because I’ve seen it Hirasawa Susumu and this way, Susumu Hirasawa. I’m going with Hirasawa Susumu, and hoping it’s the right way. He is a Japanese electronic pop artist and (as mentioned before) composer active since 1972.  He started out a progressive rock group influenced by Yes and King Crimson called Mandrake. In 1979, he formed a New Wave synth-rock and techno-pop band called P-Model with two former members of Mandrake. The project continued throughout the 80’s until Hirasawa began getting involved in his solo work in the 90’s leading to the project’s end in 1999. In 2004, he started a solo continuation called Kaku P-Model. This guy is amazing, he has interactive live performances, which means that computer graphics merge with his music to tell interactive stories, he also relies heavily on computers. However, his voice is 100% pure in this song; (with the exception of when he sings with the vocaliod in the beginning) the computers are for instrumental and visual purposes only. He’s done about eleven soundtracks and has fifteen original albums. He also has an album called White Tiger Field, which may or may not be related to the song “Girl In Bakkoya: White Tiger Field.”

4.) What’s Up People by Maximum The Hormone 

This was the second opening to Death Note, that’s right, Death Note. One of the five-anime people have to see at some point in time because they’re amazing. FullMetal Alchemist and Brotherhood take up only one spot because technically they’re ‘the same’ however; Brotherhood is a reboot of the original series. This song is insane just like the anime is insane; seriously, the plot revolves around a genius who finds a book that kills people. I bet not many people think Japanese scream-o would be a good idea, but this song makes it good. It gets you pumped up with adrenaline even though you have no idea what they’re saying because this time the singer is actually singing in another language. This can be solved by knowing someone who speaks Japanese or having a trusted online translator, or if you yourself speak Japanese. Maximum The Hormone is a nu-Metal band from obviously Japan, created in 1998 by Daisuke Tsuda and Nao Kawakita. They played a bunch of regional shows leading to a contract with Sky Records, a Japanese rock label. ASA crew was their frist album release with that line up on the Sky Record label. At that time the songs were written in English (by Daisuke) and the band name was written in Latin Letters, that changed in 1999 due to the other two members of the band, Key and Sugi leaving and Nao’s younger brother Ryo joining the band. Daisuke and Ryo split up the lyrics, Daisuke taking care of the screaming and rapping while Ryo took the more melodic parts. Ue-chan joined as the bassist and the quartet was completed, they left Sky records and signed with Mimkajiru Records in 2002.  The band has another song in Death Note called Zetsubou Billy; it was the ending track for the anime. Their song Akagi is featured as the ending theme for Akagi. For some reason they felt the need to redo the song for the music video and I find that highly annoying at times. Bands don’t need to remake the song or film a music video for a completely different version of the song and then not release that version publicly so to make up for it, here’s the other version from Death Note. 

3.) Let it out by Miho Fukuhara from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood – This song is the second ending to Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and it is beautiful. I haven’t gotten around to bothering people to translate it and it doesn’t bother me, the music speaks for itself. What really sold the song to me was the ending scene in Episode 26, where Ed tells Alphonse’s soul that he’ll be back for him. This isn’t a spoiler because it is revealed in the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it as well as Full Metal Alchemist (the series before FMA: Brotherhood.)  The translation on http://www.jpopasia.com/play/23018/miho-fukuhara/let-it-out.html seems to be an accurate and trustworthy translation.

2.) Period by CHEMISTRY from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood takes second place. http://vbox7.com/play:9d4aa2e7

After nearly a week of deliberation and failed attempts at finding other people’s opinions, I have decided what song shall go at number two. It was the fourth opening for Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and I love this song. I love it so very much. I have a possible translation I hope it is accurate, but before I get to that, band history time! Yoshinkuni Dochin and Kaname Kawabata are the two members of the Japanese Pop/R&B band. They were the winners of a show similar to American Idol called Asayan audition in 2000 organized by Sony music Entertainment Japan. They’ve put out thirteen albums and had two songs placed in an anime. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, their song Wings of Words was used as the last opening for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY.

What put this song at number two? It’s a great song, I don’t really understand the lyrics yet because I haven’t memorized them in English but that’s my own fault. The opening sequence was worth watching I always paid attention to them and that’s sometimes rare for me so why not place it at number one. It fails in comparison to the song that will take the number one spot. This is my only complaint, I won’t say it doesn’t fit the anime, but it almost doesn’t fit the anime when it gets dramatic and depressing or intense. However, it fits the whole going on a long journey and battling through the hard times with the support of friends and family.  It is hard to compare the two songs once number one is revealed they’re completely different. With that stated, here’s the number one song of the Top 10 anime songs.

1.)  Magia By Kalafina from Puella Magi Madoka Magica or for short, Madoka. http://thestrayworld.com/2011/02/17/magia-pv-kalafina/

What is there to say about this song and the anime other than its epic is all I can say, and the anime is insane. Actually there’s some more to say about the song, I love the opening! I love tribal drums and this song starts with an epic tympani roll and then the guitars happen and it’s magic. The chanting in the background helps too. The thing that gives this song the advantage over Period is the first episode of Madoka. The slower version of the song plays during the dream sequence of the opening scene. I’m curious as to why the slower version was used for the opening scene and the normal version was used in the closing. Kalafina was formed by composer Yuki Kaijiura in 2007 to perform theme songs for the anime

anime Kara no Kyōkai they debuted in January 2008 with two original members of Yuki’s project FictionJunction, Wakana Ōtaki and Keiko Kubota. Two additional members were added after an audition of 30,000 participants was held by Sony Music Japan and Maya Toyoshima (She was the vocalist until she left the band in 2009. Hikaru Masai took her place on vocals) and now for Magia; it’s the ninth single from the group. It’s quite intense as I mentioned before, the image of the music video, their look, the sound of the song all complete the bubble of awesome this song floats in. I’m not too good with musical terms, so I’ll do my best to describe why I like this song and video. Visually, it’s very commanding especially with the opening drum roll and guitars that just scream LISTEN TO ME! It might also have to do with the fact it’s foreign but I find something in this video dramatic. Do I dare say there’s a slight gothic touch to it? I would assume it’s slightly safe to say… If their outfits aren’t gothic then I’m sorry if it offended anyone but I think the rooms they are in definitely have some gothic touch to them. The song and the music video have something Period doesn’t, but Period wasn’t meant to be dramatic and intense, despite Full Metal Alchemist having some dramatic and intense moments. Madoka because of the anime’s nature, this song fits it like a missing puzzle piece. I guess if you haven’t seen the anime, you must watch it to get the feeling of why I absolutely love this song slightly more than Period.  Magia’s lyrics also fit the anime but through the entire thing, every aspect of that anime works with this song and this is just the closing theme. Now I know Brotherhood lasted A LOT longer and having the same openings and closings would have gotten boring. Something inside me leans more for Magia than Period, that’s my decision and I’m sticking to it.

Happy Holidays Mardot85,

From: Your Secret Santa aka Pugsly.