Durarara!! / Random Musings

Hanazawawawa!! (Durarara!! ED1 Parody)

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Nico Nico Douga users never fail to impress by creating amazing fan-made videos. There’s been a sort of a craze going on at Japan’s popular video sharing site in recent months over creating seiyuu-based parody videos of Durarara‘s first ending sequence, featuring “Trust Me” by Matsushita Yuuya. It’s likely due to how the sequence itself is fairly straightforward with a vertical scrolling of characters, but when you see it with an interesting assortment that are all played by one seiyuu of the Durarara series, it’s still pretty cool to see.

Some are particularly well done, but I find this “Hanazawawawa” one featuring Sonohara Anri‘s seiyuu — the always moe Hanazawa Kana — to be one of the nicer ones. It’s Hanazawa Kana all the time here and I love how this version lists credits for each of the characters to make it look like an ending sequence as well, all played by Kana of course. Some characters that most people will recognize in addition to Anri are Tenshi from Angel Beats, Nadeko from Bakemonogatari, Suou from Darker than BLACK, Zange-chan from Kannagi, and Kobato from Kobato. For a full-list of the characters in the order they appear, see below. Enjoy!

Show Full Cast List ▼

First Impressions / Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – 62

「凄絶なる反撃」 (Seizetsu Naru Hangeki)
“The Violent Counterattack”

It was no holds barred with everyone unleashing everything they had to whittle away Father’s remaining souls and make him reach the breaking point, but they had to first survive a huge blast that took out a huge chunk of Central headquarters.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! / PV

Mizuno Saaya – My Secret PV (Kaichou wa Maid-sama! OP)

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Rikkyo University history major Mizuno Saaya makes her major music debut with the opening theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama, “My Secret”. She actually qualified in a vocal audition held by Smile Company back in 2004 and has appeared in magazines as a “reader model” (a normal reader who gets featured in issues for being exceptionally pretty), but only now is she really taking center stage with a record label from Geneon Universal Entertainment. While simple, the PV for this song pretty much speaks for itself on why 20-year-old Saaya has graced the pages of various magazines. However, I’m just as impressed by her singing ever since I first heard this song as the opening theme of the anime. Admittedly, I had absolutely no idea who she was then, which given how this is her major debut explains why that is. As a member of Smile Company, she’s in the same agency as ELISA, whom is equally dazzling with her angelic-like voice. Having listened to Saaya’s first single for a while now, I find her voice really pleasant on the ears and am quite fond of the second track “Good Day”. Anyway, be sure to check out her official site for a really adorable picture of her. The single “My Secret” was released back on May 26th and like most limited editions, included the PV above with it.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! / PV

heidi. – Yokan PV (Kaichou wa Maid-sama! ED)

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I wouldn’t have known that the ending theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama was performed by a visual kei rock band had I not seen this PV, so that sort of goes to show how much an artist’s appearance really matters to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not into the visual kei look whatsoever despite how the flamboyant fad caught on since the 1980s, but that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying heidi‘s seventh single and major debut release “Yokan” either. When I first heard this song three months ago with the badass Usui Takumi-centered ending sequence, the lead in to the first verse immediately caught my attention. (Well that, and the shirtless Usui that came with it.) I still didn’t think much of the song after that, but it gradually grew on me more and more over the weeks. What I found most impressive was their vocalist Yoshihiko’s range, which you can sort of get a feel for in this song before he starts singing his lungs out. One of the other two songs on this single, “Kodama”, gives off a better impression of his singing ability when he’s not doing that, which to me sounds a lot better in comparison. In any case, this single was released back on May 26th and along with the limited edition is the PV you see above. Enjoy.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou / PV

Asou Natsuko – Everyday sunshine line! PV (Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou ED)

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With Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou concluded, I figured I’d better post about the PV of its ending theme now if I’m going to do it at all. So without further ado, here’s actress/singer Asou Natsuko‘s latest single, “Everyday sunshine line!”, which was been available ever since May 12th. For this bubbly song that Daimaou viewers are surely familiar with now, the music video with Natsuko riding through the city with a bunch of balloons is befitting, though not all that interesting either. Regardless, Natsuko is a fairly new and young 19-year-old artist whose singing career only really started around this time last year. This is only her fourth single, but she’s sort of made a mark on the anime scene by having her second one, “Programming for non-fiction”, featured as the opening theme to Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou and third one, “Perfect-area complete!”, as the same for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. Those familiar with either of those two series should recognize her voice fairly easily, but I was actually surprised to find out that I knew of her well before her major music debut.

… More after the jump, including a second Negima-related video.

Final Impressions / First Impressions / Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – 12 (END)

「おしまいは完璧？」 (Oshimai wa Kanpeki?)
“The Ending is Complete?”

For a series finale, things sure went out with a bang when Akuto took his fight directly to the Gods and Peterhausen showed just how faithful he is to the very end, but I found myself constantly trying to accept explanations on the law of identity and how the entire system works faster than I could even comprehend them.