Nabari no Ou / PV

Anam & Maki – Aru ga Mama PV (Nabari no Ou ED2)

 

To coincide with the release of the single last week, I decided to post the PV for this song. Titled “Aru ga Mama” 「あるがまま」 (As It Is), this song sounds pretty mellow and laid back like I mentioned before. Out of the two Nabari no Ou ending themes, I probably like ELISA’s HIKARI a little bit more, but the guitar acoustics in this song have a really slow, kind of rough, yet pleasant melody to it. I have to admit that I haven’t heard of Anam & Maki prior to this song though. As for the PV itself, it has that home video kind of feel to it, which may seem kind of cheap, but I find it somewhat fitting given the tempo of this song.

For those of you following Nabari no Ou (either via my summaries or on your own in lieu of subs), you’re probably aware of the emphasis on the friendship between Miharu and Yoite. Given how the ending sequence for this song focuses entirely on those two in a very peaceful setting, it’s like a wishful conclusion to their actual ongoing struggle. As such, I think this song can turn out to be really hopeful or really depressing later on. In any case, feel free to watch the second ending below if you haven’t seen it already. (Click “Show Nabari no Ou ED2” to see the video.)

Show Nabari no Ou ED2 ▼

Miscellaneous / PV

AZU – Jikan yo Tomare feat. SEAMO PV (Itazura na Kiss ED2)

 

While Itazura na Kiss isn’t one of the series being covered on this site, I’ve been following it ever since it started airing back in April. Back then, I got a bit overambitious when I started blogging and tried to cover every series that I was watching and Omni wasn’t. When I had eight series under my wing, I stopped myself though, which just so happened to be on a Friday—the day that Itazura na Kiss airs. So for those wondering, this is the reason why continued coverage of this series, BLASSREITER, and Kamen no Maid Guy never saw the light of day back in spring.

In any case, being a romance comedy, I kind of figured Itazura na Kiss would be my kind of show back then and having Mizuki Nana starring in a series never hurts either. What surprised me though is that the series is relatively popular amongst current generation anime fans (which doesn’t include me since I’m kind of old school), despite the 1990’s style character designs. Anyway, I had to put this series on hold while I was on vacation in Japan and am still catching up when I can, but the second ending theme grew on me almost instantly when I heard it. Now before people start jumping on my case that this isn’t new anymore, I’ll make it clear now that I’m already aware of that fact. However, I only came across this PV somewhat recently when I was checking what came out during the past summer season, so I thought I’d share my findings for those who don’t actively look for anime-related PVs.

More after the jump…

CODE GEASS / PV

FLOW – WORLD END PV (CODE GEASS R2 OP2)

 

Some of you may recall how I was saying that FLOW should’ve been brought back to perform an opening song for CODE GEASS several months back. In addition, you may recall how I felt that their “WORD OF THE VOICE” song used in PERSONA -trinity soul- may have suited CODE GEASS just as well, as some MAD videos have shown us. Well lo and behold, as I’m sure everyone’s aware of by now, FLOW was brought back for the second opening with this song, “WORLD END”, and ALI PROJECT was similarly brought back for the ending theme, “Waga Routashi Aku no Hana” 「わが﨟たし悪の華」. Given how the series is going now (i.e. with the last 40+ episodes feeling kind of hogwash in light of the recent turn of events), I’m starting to find WORLD END’s lyrics a lot more befitting. The PV also does a good job portraying this too, with a barren desert being the most prominent image throughout. Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of this song much when I first heard it back in episode thirteen, but as with most anime songs, it grew on me over time thanks to the inevitable association of it to the series.

Macross / PV

Sakamoto Maaya – Triangular PV (Macross Frontier OP1)

 

For those familiar with Macross Plus, you’re probably aware that the ever-so-talented composer, Kanno Youko, has always been one of the reasons why its music has been so memorable. For a longtime Macross fan such as myself, I was extremely happy when I heard that she would be doing the music for Macross Frontier as well. Reading this, you might be wondering what any of it has to do with Sakamoto Maaya, who performs the first opening song to the series. Well, this actually dates back to Maaya’s debut as a seiyuu back in 1996, when she starred as Kanzaki Hitomi in Tenkuu no Escalfowne, better known in English as The Vision of Escaflowne, which led to her working together with Youko on “Yakusoku wa Iranai” 「約束はいらない」 (No Need for Promises), the opening theme for the series. After working together with Youko to release numerous singles and albums featuring songs for series such as Record of Lodoss War (TV series), Cardcaptor Sakura, RahXephon, and Wolf’s Rain, the two parted ways on Maaya’s fifth single release, Loop, the first ending theme to Tsubasa Chronicle. It’s been three years since then, and the two have reunited to work on Macross Frontier with this song—Triangular.

More after the jump…

Macross / PV

Ranka Lee starring Nakajima Megumi – Seikan Hikou Live

To commemorate Animax‘s ten year anniversary, they’ve been airing a weekly program throughout July about why anime is interesting. The theme of last night’s program happened to be music, and Nakajima Megumi made an appearance to sing Seikan Hikou from Macross Frontier. She does a pretty good job singing live, but I think it’s even more impressive when you compare how well her singing and dancing match up with the choreography video that was posted on the official site a while back. That must have taken a lot of practice. I’ve put them side-by-side above for easier viewing – it may require a small amount of manual syncing to get the two videos to line up perfectly, but I think it’s worth it because it’s a fun watch. This is arguably better than May’n’s live Diamond Crevasse performance.

Macross / PV

Sheryl Nome starring May’n Live R-Zero Appearance

For all you Macross Frontier and Japanese music fans out there, Nakabayashi May (Sheryl’s voice in all the songs) made an appearance last night on TBS’s Live R-Zero program and sang Diamond Crevasse in its entirety. Even after listening to her CD ad nauseum, I still really like the song, so it was cool to hear the live version. She did a fairly good job with it too – much better than I’ve heard some more popular artists do (SMAP and Ayumi come to mind) anyway. My main complaint is that the audience and host Izumiya Shigeru didn’t really seem all that into it, and that kind of took away from the atmosphere. Then again, this is an anime song appearing on a normal music program, so it might be somewhat understandable. Regardless, the video is definitely still worth a watch, if for just the song alone. Hopefully it’ll be able to hold me over until the first Macross Frontier soundtrack is released next Wednesday (June 4th).

CODE GEASS / PV

ORANGE RANGE – O2 PV (CODE GEASS R2 OP1)

 

While I was kind of looking forward to another FLOW OP song for CODE GEASS this season, what we got instead was ORANGE RANGE. At first, this song seemed a bit out of place to me, especially after hearing FLOW’s “WORD OF THE VOICE”, which is used as the second OP of PERSONA -trinity soul-. When I compared these two songs at the time, I couldn’t help but think how FLOW’s song seemed to fit CODE GEASS better (subjectively speaking), but that was undoubtedly because it was more reminiscent of “COLORS” used in season one’s OP.

Regardless, this song has grown on me after listening to it for a while, although I’m sure having it affiliated with CODE GEASS adds to its appeal. My first exposure to ORANGE RANGE’s music was probably the first OP of Bleach, titled “*~Asterisk”. Back then, their founding member, Kitao Kitahito (北尾 一人) a.k.a. “KATCHAN”, was still a part of the group. Kitahito was the drummer, but has since left due to supposed “creative differences”. History aside, the interesting thing about ORANGE RANGE is that the group features three vocalists, who provide the low, mid, and high range of vocals we hear in their various songs. “O2” in particular focuses on high range vocals, which are so high at times that I sometimes mistake Ganeko Yamato (我如古 大和) for a girl. o_O

More after the jump…

Miscellaneous / PV

RADWIMPS – Order Made PV

 

More likely than not, you’ve probably never heard of this group before. RADWIMPS is a rock band consisting of four musicians who are apparently all fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They got their unusual name when they combined the English words of rad and wimp – their official website even defines this as “excellent weakling” and “superlative coward”. In any case, they’ve been steadily growing in popularity, and this past week, they had their first Number 1 single on the Oricon charts, beating out even the release of Koda Kumi‘s latest single. And it’s for good reason too because Order Made is a great song. The lyrics (translation here) are about love and putting together the different parts of a person, and unlike some PVs, this one actually tells the lyrics like a story. Put together, I found it to be beautiful, and the part about tears even reminded me of the series true tears. I liked it so much that I’ve been scrambling to find more of RADWIMPS’ music, and Order Made has been on repeat on my playlist for several days now. Even if you don’t like J-Rock songs, I’d recommend at least listening to this one.

Gundam / PV

Stephanie – Friends PV (Gundam 00 ED2)

 

I just noticed that it’s been five whole months since the last time I blogged a PV (not counting the melonpan song). Now is as good a time as any to start up again since the new season brought several good new songs, and my favorite by far is the second ending theme to Gundam 00, Stephanie’s Friends. Like Angela Aki (who remains one of my favorite singers), Stephanie comes from a mixed background with an Armenian-American father and Japanese mother, and she’s got a pretty powerful voice.

Friends is my first exposure to her singing – she also sang the ending themes to the Kissdum anime from last year – and I absolutely loved the song. I’d been waiting to see the PV for it, and it finally turned up on M-ON’s KissXKiss program yesterday. The PV itself doesn’t turn out to be too special since it just involves Stephanie standing in an industrial-style room singing into the microphones hanging around her, but it’s thanks to the PV that I’ve been able to listen to the full version of this song on repeat for the past many hours. If this is any indicator of how her music will be, I look forward to hearing more of it.