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History is made.
We have a milestone in “Up to Snuff” this week – the first unanimous vote since we started the column last season. I kind of figured Dororo would regain the top spot this week (it and Mob Psycho 100 have been trading it back and forth all season), but it really says something about how broad Dororo‘s appeal is that it could get this group of writers to agree on anything.
This week’s “Ask the Writers” question comes courtesy of Zaiden, and it certainly elicited some surprising and interesting responses. I snuck in the anisong part just to keep us on topic, and those were especially revealing I thought. One day perhaps we’ll all meet up in RL and hold each other to their word…
Here are this week’s results:
Weekly Staff Poll
Dororo (2018) – 30 points, 6 first place votes
Mob Psycho 100 II – 18
Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. – 9
Boogiepop wa Warawanai – 9
Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai – 5
Ask The Writers
The RandomC team are meeting up in real life for karaoke. What song(s) do you choose to sing so as not to embarrass yourself? Caveat: choose 1 muggle song and one anime song.
- Enzo: I think the key to Zaiden’s question is “so as not to embarrass yourself”. As the old saying goes, I couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle, and vocally I have less range than pre-diet Kyle Schwarber in left field. But I learned early on when I moved to Japan (where one can’t avoid karaoke even if they want to) that Johnny Cash is in a register I can handle – so I’ll pick “Ring of Fire”. As for an ani-song, I was tempted to take “Koi no Hime Hime Pettanko” (Yowapeda) but that hardly meets the requirement so it stays in the shower for me. So I’ll go with Ally Kerr’s “Sore Feet Song”, the original Mushishi OP and still possibly my favorite anime opening song ever. However, it should be noted that I hold the view that embarrassing yourself is the whole point of karaoke, and the only mantra is “fake it till you make it” – hang on till everyone is drunk enough that you start to sound good.
- Choya: I love singing, but there are very few opportunities I have to take part in karaoke. From the times I’ve had the chance to do karaoke, I’m tempted to put down more amusing songs that are fun to do but aren’t exactly showcases of my voice. I would say “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie is a favorite of mine because of how fun it is to do a Bowie impersonation. For something safe though, I’d probably go with a boy band staple, Stevie Wonder, or Rod Stewart because I’m overly confident in my singing voice. Not sure which anime songs would show up in a karaoke machine, but it would be fun to go for an Asian Kung Fu Generation song. Particularly, “Haruka Kanata” from OG Naruto would be a great one. If I’m having several beers in the process, then “Hare Hare Yukai” will do.
- Zaiden: Actually, I’m pretty decent at karaoke, so impressing the other writers shouldn’t be an issue. I also have regular access to it too, with a relatively decent selection of anime songs. So I have a good idea of what I’d like to sing, and focus on having fun. For the anime side of things, I’d easily belt out one of ‘Butterfly’ from Digimon or ‘departure’ from Hunter x Hunter. Both are extremely energetic songs that comfortably fit in the male vocal range – a rarity for popular anime themes. Then let’s throw in ‘Nessun Dorma’ (Editor’s note: !!) by Puccini as my normie choice. I’m not very familiar with contemporary Western music, and a random bit of opera will be pretty funny.
- Stilts-nyan: Gods, I hate karaoke… Okay. If I had to do it—and, ideally, it was in a karaoke box situation, instead in the middle of a bar like it generally is here in the States, where my admittedly limited social anxiety flares up due to my general lack of interest in the musical realm—my non-anime song would be “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” from Mulan. Is a Disney song cheating? I don’t care, because I’m singing ALL the parts. Though if it is, I’d go for Denis Leary’s “Asshole” or something from Taylor Swift, for the lulz. As for my anime song, there are so many options, but whatever it is, I’m singing the lady’s part. I’m thinking “My Dearest” from Guilty Crown, AKA the only good thing about that series, because I can belt out them high notes with the best of ’em. What’s it matter that I’m a bass? Basses have incredible ranges. It just doesn’t always sound so great on the high end. You made me do karaoke, now you get to roll the dice. Will it be amazing, or will you suffer? Haha!
- Miss Simplice:I haven’t gone out for karaoke in a few years so this’d be a pretty exciting scenario for me. I do love to sing and play the guitar, so much it’s probably why my dog is never in the same room as me, but when I’m out at a karaoke bar, I prefer to have fun and not take things too seriously. So when I sing Prince’s ‘Kiss’, I hope a few of the RandomC crew will join in. And hopefully, when I sing (more like butcher) ‘A little pain’ from the Nana soundtrack, we can laugh together at my cracking voice. Although an all-time favourite, the song still remains a challenge years later!
- Stars: If we’re all being honest here, there’s probably no way I can sing karaoke without embarrassing myself. I’m one of those people who has all of the passion and none of the skill required to be the next Florence and the Machine. When I went out with friends, I used to sing Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” for a lark, but if I were going today, it’d probably either be “Right Hand Man” from Hamilton musical, or “Last Stardust” from Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade Works. Like I’ve said, I’m not a good singer. I’m going to embarrass myself. But whether I let that stop me from having a good time singing something I love? Well, I’d say that’s up to me.
- Passerby: Wait, karaoke and not embarrass oneself? Does not compute. But if we’re going entirely counter to the spirit of karaoke and avoiding shame is the goal, then we require a strategy. The main part of this strategy is recognising that I can’t sing in Japanese. At all. Therefore the anime song I’d choose would be the third OP of the Deltora Quest anime. An Australian pop song used in the adaptation of an Australian children’s classic? That’s too perfect. I’m representing my country here; anything less would be unacceptable. As for a muggle song, the correct play would be to choose something less known, maybe comedic, definitely slightly offensive, but not explicitly so. The idea is to make sure that I will never be the only one who feels uncomfortable. Mutually assured destruction is the safest option. So maybe I’d choose a Tom Lehrer song, probably I Hold Your Hand in Mine, as the song most likely to stop people from asking me to go karaoke again.
- Pankeeki: Pancakes and singing: if you witness it you’re lucky, because I cannot sing, and those who see it usually cannot remember after a few (read: numerous) drinks—thank god. If I must make a sacrifice for the humour of the crowd though then I shall recite Monoral’s Kiri, because Ergo Proxy is awesome, I might be able to pull it off, and that song, funnily enough, got me through some tough times. As for a “true” normie song it must be “We’re Number One” by Robbie Rotten because if you don’t find yourself singing along from the sheer mimetic catchiness you are a horrible person and should feel horrible. Well, that and my type of music isn’t featured in karaoke bars, but that’s a topic for another day 😛
God I hate Karaoke …
Even anime karaoke? :'(
Haruka Kanata is a great song that most people know, which is also a good tool to make every single person buy some drink afterwards. Also, anything from L’Arc en Ciel is great for Karaoke since they usually exists in any karaoke and I actually remembered plenty of them (played them in a Band years ago, albeit not as a vocalist)
As for normie songs, I know jack shit about modern western pop. Might as well pick something like Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. A wonderful song, great for giggles, and chill the atmosphere after some intense singing.
Great choice with Louis Armstrong. Problem at the karaokes I’ve been to is that the vibrant atmosphere usually drowns out the gentler songs. But it’s definitely one of the few non-anime songs that I’d be up for singing!
> What songs do you pick in order not to embarrass yourself?
Every JoJo ending songs, especially Roundabout.
If we ever meet up in real life, I’m going to definitely consider recording myself and Choya belting out some JoJo songs.
Any of the OPs that Coda has done would rank up there. There is also some fun variety with the JoJo EDs with prog rock like “Roundabout” being mixed in with dance-pop like “Walk Like an Egyptian”, R&B with “Freek’n You” and electronic boy band pop with “I Want You”. It’d be a good tracklist all around.
Gimme a shot or three and I’ll just tell you to pick any K-On song
I’d give K-On a pass. That said I have many friends who adore singing it at karaokes, so not a bad choice for sure.
I’d crush me some K-ON! songs. I’m taking Yui’s part. That will be the most ridiculous
What ever happened to Sword Art Online?
It snuck into the top 5 a time or two, didn’t it? The top 4 have been pretty consistent the past several weeks (Mob, Dororo, Boogiepop, Doukyonin) but the 5th spot has switched around a lot.
Writers can only vote for what they’ve seen, otherwise their vote would become disingenuous. From my understanding, most of the writers aren’t keeping up with SAO. So they can’t vote for it. And the ones that can might prefer other shows for their own subjective reasons. Personally, I think the recent developments have been fantastic enough to warrant it a spot among my own Top 5 votes for this week. However, other shows airing this season have been damn good. The competition has been fierce week-in and week-out. More often than not, SAO gets edged out.
I hope they decide to put it back on for the current series.
Wait, I misunderstood your question. Here’s the answer. Takaii has been on holiday in Japan and has been unable to cover SAO. Meanwhile I’m pretty much the only other writer who watches the show, but I’ve been really busy with writing a policy paper for my degree. Takaii will catch up when he returns. Hope that clears up any confusion!
This season of SAO has been a disappointment. I loved the 1st 3 seasons but this one I am just slogging thru it out of loyalty to the franchise.
Dororo’s OP and ED combo are the best 1-2 punch of songs this season. Both are perfect for their series.
I love the OP sequence but I gotta say, I can’t stand the song – it just feels like a total miss-fit to me. The ED song is great though.
What song(s) do you choose to sing so as not to embarrass yourself? Caveat: choose 1 muggle song and one anime song.
Anime song: if possible, the ending song from Ixion Saga DT: Let’s go ED! イケイケ go go…
Japanese songs that I would sing: Dress (Buck-Tick version or Abbingdon Boys School version), Union by Oxt, the ending song of Hinamatsuri (name escapes me), etc…
As I leant down I simultaneously thrust into her and kissed her, I whispered in her ear that I cannot believe she let them fuck and cum in her and demanded that she lick every trace of the two men off me. “What, no, no, no, not two, it was just Gary, what do you think . . .” Her sentence was cut short by me pushing her legs down back to the bed, making her thong stretch from side to side of her face gagging her. “JUST GARY” I said “you dirty fucking slut”, as I held her there in that position, I pistoned into her furiously, using my legs, hips and bodyweight, Stacey whimpered and muffled encouragement, after a couple of minutes she was shaking through an orgasm, before tapping me vigorously on my hip, I released her from being pinned. She immediately began talking “that was amazing, the best”. I hooked her legs over my shoulders and carried on driving into her, using my now free hands to squeeze her tits and pinch her nipples. “ I want YOUR cum” and “I’m sorry, I really am, I love you” I cut her off again, this time by pulling her panties off and gagging her with them. Wow they were wet, in hindsight I should have wrung them out over the dirty bitch.