Seriously I forgot what season it is, Winter 2018 probably right? I’ve been neglecting my seasonal Top 5 OP/ED lately so I guess I need to revive it now, I badly need to write something anyway. Oh yeah, there are more than 5 songs on the list but I decided to cut em off, also I’m not watching all of the shows that are airing, please mind that. Also don’t forget this is just my own biased list.
ne! ne! ne! - STARTails☆ (Slow Start)
Watashi no Tame no Monogatari ~My Uncompleted Story~ - fhana (marchen madchen)
aventure bleu - Uchida Maaya (takunomi)
Flashback - MIYAVI vs KenKen (Kokkoku)
Sincerely - TRUE (Violet Evergarden)
long review starts here
We start with STARTails’ ne! ne! ne! from Slow Start, the song is really catchy and for a cute girls doing cute things show it fits quite nicely. The song is being sung by the main seiyuus including Itou Ayasa (Bang Dream’s Arisa) and Kondou Reina (upcoming Imas Shiny Colors’ Hiori) and being arranged and composed by Fujisawa Yoshiaki who maybe best known as Love Live’s anime BGM composer. The song is something I really look for an upbeat, catchy theme, it’s quite different from any similar shows’ theme. Oh yeah, the song has an incredible guitar riffs and solos as well as fine bassline. Fav part probably the ringing bell from the intro? it’s such an interesting addition. Oh yeah some of the OP sequence were animated by Shuu Sugita who also worked on New Game!’s OP, you probably realize if you’re attentive to sakugas.
Next up is fhana’s Watashi no Tame no Monogatari ~My Uncompleted Story~ from Marchen Madchen, you can say i’m not actually watching the show, but I’m still DLed it for the OP, ED and the endcards. fhana for me is a mainstay on this kind of list, they are JUST THAT GOOD. The song is composed by Satou Junichi the keys guy, but it’s weird that the one thing that comes in mind while listening to this is the guitar is dominating the entire song, which means shouldn’t it be Yuxuki Waga’s? oh well. This is a different kind of fhana and I liked it a lot, they can be so boring but good sometimes, this time they nailed it.
Third is Uchida Maaya’s aventure bleu from another obscure show this season, I know that almost none of you guys are watching Marchen Madchen and Takunomi, or are you? well if you’re missing out fhana’s then don’t miss out on aventure bleu from Uchida Maaya. First time listening to the song I already know this is Rasmus Faber, his signature style is everywhere in this song AND I LIKE IT. I actually don’t know what I want to write, really. It’s just well if you like upbeat, cheerful, digital based (uh, I mean beat samples thingy) music, with a few acoustic (and electric solo) guitar in between well you should try it. Seriously can’t stress enough how you guys should listen to this song.
Fourth is Flashback by MIYAVI vs KenKen from Kokkoku. IT’S MIYAVI OKAY JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO THE SONG, THE GUITAR AND THE BASS IS INCREDIBLE. AND FUK THIS SONG IS CREEPY AND CATCHY AT THE SAME TIME.
Last is TRUE’s Sincerely from the grossly overrated Violet Evergarden, okay not saying it’s bad, but well there’s like only 1 good episode so far, also I shouldn’t nag here but yeah it’s just an ok show, let’s move to the song. I actually have a few songs to put here, but Sincerely wins on the need of different kind of music, we have too many upbeat songs, so I need more to the ballad (but powerful) ones, and TRUE’s Sincerely not only fits that, but also good, I just love TRUE, her voice is beautiful and she’s a talented lyricist as well. This song is composed by Horie Shota and arranged by him and Evan Call (ex Elements Garden) oh man this song is just beautiful, probably even better if you’re watching the OP sequence. I really think that this song is OVERKILL, either Horie Shota alone or Evan Call alone should be enough, but dang props to them. I can see myself in tears probably if they make a piano ver of this song and put it on the climax part later in the show.
i’ll break the rules and pick 6 since I kinda don’t want to left out once of these songs, also i’ll just pick 4 for the ED so it rounds to 10 in the end.
The Other Side of the Wall - Void_Chords feat.MARU (Princess Principal)
Aimai Moko - Minase Inori (Tsurezure Children)
Caste Room - ZAQ (Youzitsu)
I open this with Frederic’s Kanashii Ureshii from Koi to Uso which is probably one of the most shocking ‘a band that I know from their indie days but then suddenly picked into anime’ it was Man With A Mission and Brian the Sun before. To be honest this doesn’t feel like an anime song at all, it still have the unique style of Frederic, the chorus is GODLY, it charms me like mad. Lets sing this along and jump like crazy I don’t care, this song is madly charming, the beautiful guitar solo in the end is surprising, man I love this song.
Gamers! from the seiyuu of the same anime actually one of the reason why I wait to write this, since there’s no full version available until 23 aug, so it’s kinda weird to do it based on short / anime version, but i’ll make do and tell why it’s good. First I love Kanemoto Hisako’s voice, either it’s for talking or singing, second it’s mafumafu that compose/arrange this song, I was very excited when I hear the intro from the 2nd episode, i was so sure this is Fujisaki Mafuyu’s until mafumafu basically give it away by using his real name on the credits. The OP sequence of this anime is crazy random, lol. I’m looking forward to more Iwami Manaka singing, New Game S2 character image song maybe ?
We have Deal with the devil from Tia (and supercell’s ryo) next, another one that hasn’t been released, same as Gamers! on the 23rd later. I don’t want to go long for this one, but ryo should do song like this more, jazz (?) like this or like the old supercell like nagi with Feel so good, which is my favourite supercell song. Supercell since then has been stale, EGOIST been hit or miss since doing more orchestral, ew. This is a fresh breath from ryo, please more of these. ryo with Tia has been really good so far, i knew he’s keeping each group he produced differently music wise, but Tia is good.
Princess Principal’s The Other Side of the Wall is REALLY REALLY GOOD, I thought it was nano first, but it was MARU instead. Void_Chords or more widely known as Takahashi Ryo, or if you like me, who likes doujin music probably know him as Maurits’Zen’Cornelis from the group FELT. I can’t say more about this except that this song is awesome. MARU’s powerful voice fits perfectly with the music. I wish this isn’t a one off thing.
Minase Inori’s Aimaimoko from Tsurezure Children feels really summer, or is it spring ? like the romance in Tsurezure Children ? oh well. Inorin or Inosuke as Ayaneru calls her has been a pleasant addition to the seiyuu that can sing, her voice can be somewhat powerful as you can hear from this song for the bridge, or soft like her usual. Aimaimoko is nice and I think feels different from all the songs I picked.
Last up we have ZAQ’s Caste Room from Youzitsu, maybe the song that i’ve been waiting for since I listened to it the first time, from the anime trailer / PV. Man the intro of this song is just too cool, ZAQ’s never fail to impress. The guitar x bass part from the intro is cool as heck. A-bee’s additional arrangement probably the one that makes this song different than any other ZAQ’s one.
