Yet another OP/ED themes post, this time for the Spring 2010 season. Please note that this is quite subjective list as it’s ranked according to my preference, followed by randomly listed titles as “special mention.”
~ Format :: “Song title” by band/artist (OP#/ED# – anime series title)
- My Top 5 OP/ED themes this Spring:
1. “Natsuzora” by Galileo Galilei (OP#1 – Ookiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai-hen~)
– watch: anime OP — music video
– Really nice song. Catchy beat too. The band’s sound is pretty good. I like the vocalist’s voice and I simply love the high notes~♫
I think I’ll check out and listen to their other songs sometime. ^^
2. “CALLING” by FLOW (ED#1 – HEROMAN)
– watch: anime ED — music video
– Nice song. Love the beat and the guitars, especially in the instrumental part of the song. I’ve heard several of FLOW’s songs and I do like most of them.
The PV has the boys jamming around in an empty warehouse. I found it fun to watch them jumping around, though.
3. “Shisou Densha” by CureaL 「 チュール」 (ED#1 – Ookiku Furikabutte ~Natsu no Taikai-hen~)
– watch: anime ED — music video
– Very nice melody and I just love the music~ particularly the guitar and bass phrases, which I thought meshed really well together (best heard in the intro and instrumental parts of the full song/music vid).
The band is a duo of Shigematsu Kenta (guitar) and Sakai Yurie (bass, vocals). Yurie has a cute voice, but I don’t think it’s annoyingly cutesy. I’ve only listened to one of their other songs (見てみてよ), but I’m liking their sound so far. ^^
4. “My Story ~Mada Minu Ashita e~” by THE CHERRY COKES (OP#1 – Giant Killing)
– watch: anime OP – music video
– I’m not familiar with this band until I heard this song and they reminded me a bit of a certain Irish band I like. ^_^ I thought the accordion, bodhran, harmonica, and tin whistle were a nice touch; makes the song stand out from the rest. I especially like the “Ohhhh~ United we stand! Fly a flag!…” part, which somehow makes me feel like cheering for the team too xD
5.1 “Sakasama Bridge” by Suneohair (ED#1 – Arakawa Under the Bridge)
– watch: anime ED — music video
– Tie for #5! First is this ending song from AUtB. I like the beat. It’s a pretty good song. I haven’t listened to much of Suneohair’s songs since the Honey and Clover days, so it’s nice to hear an ED theme from him again.
5.2 “Yokan” by heidi (ED#1 – Kaichou wa Maid-sama!)
– watch: anime ED — music video
– Tie for #5! Second is this ED from Maid-sama. Nice melody. I like the chorus and bridge part the most. The PV isn’t anything special. Just the guys jamming on a rooftop. I haven’t heard of this band before, so I had a certain visual image of them in my head when I listened to the song… and their image wasn’t what I thought it would be when I saw the PV. Haha~ I guess because I had more of a Uverworld preconceived image of them than a SID one. 8D
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These *almost* made my Top 5: (just click on the song title to watch & listen to the anime OP/ED, opens in a new window/tab)
- “Koinu to Ame no Bitou” by Asian Kung-Fu Generation (OP#1 – The Tatami Galaxy)
- “Roulette” by TETSUYA (OP#1 – HEROMAN)
- “Sign of Love” by immi (OP#1 – House of Five Leaves) – OP animation has beautiful background art.
- “Kazenagi (風なぎ)” by Suga Shikao (ED#1 – xxxHolic: Rou) – not exactly a new song by Suga-san, since it’s in his 2004 album “TIME.” It was also used as an insert song in Honey and Clover II episode 9. I’m not sure about the romaji of the title, though. The updates section of xxxHolic‘s site (scroll to 2010/1/18) says it’s “Kaza Nagi” 「風(かざ)なぎ」— I haven’t learned the kanji 風 in my Japanese class yet, so I dunno if the furigana is a typo or what. Although, I did check my Japanese dictionaries, wiki, and Google translate for 風 and they say it’s read as “kaze.” Either way, the song is still the same nice ballad, no matter how you read the title. :3 😛
- “Go to Heart Edge” by Fukuyama Jun, Ono Daisuke, Kamiya Hiroshi (ED#1 – Working!!)
- “Brave Soul” by Tada Aoi (ED#1 – Angel Beats!)
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Special Mention: (because they sounded quite nice too :D) – in random order –
- “Venus to Jesus” by Yakushimaru Etsuko (OP#1 – Arakawa Under the Bridge)
- “Get Tough!” by G.P.S. (ED #1 – Giant Killing)
- “Toumei Datta Sekai” by Hata Motohiro (OP#7 – Naruto Shippuden)
- “Change” by miwa (OP#12 – Bleach)
- “Stay Beautiful” by DIGGY-MO’ (ED#23 – Bleach)
- “Yakusoku” by MUCC (OP#1 – Senkou no Night Raid)
- “We’re not alone” by coldrain (OP#1 – Rainbow – Nisha no Rokubou no Shinchinin)
- “A FAR OFF DISTANCE” by Galneryus (ED#1 – Rainbow – Nisha Rokubou no Shinchinin)
- “Hello Mr.my Yesterday” by Hundred Percent Free (ED #35 – Detective Conan) – I included this again because I think it’s still this series’ ED song when the Spring 2010 season started, although they also used “Pray” by B’z in some episodes…
- “Till the World Without Betrayals” by Rayflower (OP#1 – Uragiri wa Bokuno Namae o Shitteiru)
- “Someone Else” by Asumi Kana, Fujita Saki, Kitamura Eri (OP#1 – Working!!) – Cute and fun song. I love the OP sequence. ^^
- “My Soul, Your Beats!” by Lia (OP#1 – Angel Beats!)
- “Listen!!” by Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana (ED#1 – K-ON!!)
- “Twilight Star” by Megamasso (ED#14 – Major)
- “Kokoro e” by TRIPLANE (OP#6 – Major)
- “Rain” by SID (OP#5 – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
- “RAY OF LIGHT” by Nakagawa Shoko (ED#5 – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
- “ft.” by FUNKIST (OP#3 – Fairy Tail)
- “Gomen ne. Watashi” by Nanba Shiho (ED#3 – Fairy Tail)
- “Kimi no Kioku” by mao (ED#1 – Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kitan)
- “Kami-sama no Iu Tori” by Sunahara Yoshinori (ED#1 – The Tatami Galaxy)
- “all I need is…” by Rake (ED#1 – House of Five Leaves)
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Most of the songs are from anime I’ve seen (or at least seen 1 episode of this season, or heard the OP/ED song somewhere, or was recommended to me by someone), so I might’ve missed some good songs from series I didn’t check out.
~ Which OP/ED songs made your “favorites” list this Spring 2010?
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*credit: image taken from this site
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You might also want to check out my other posts:
Excellent! I always look forward to your music posts 🙂 After a long week, it is nice to relax and listen to your selections, drinking green tea. Thank you for putting this together 🙂
From your top five ( decimals ftw 😛 ), I like “Shisou Densha” by CureaL 「 チュール」 and “Sakasama Bridge” by Suneohair the most 🙂
My favorite overall is “Kami-sama no Iu Tori” by Sunahara Yoshinori 🙂
Here are some others that I liked:
“Sign of Love” by immi. A somewhat unusual choice for that anime, given time period, but it turned out nicely.
“Someone Else” by Asumi Kana, Fujita Saki, Kitamura Eri. Very energetic song 🙂
I like but have not heard these before, so thank you for mentioning them 🙂
“Change” by miwa. Upbeat song with creative animation.
“Kazenagi (風なぎ)” by Suga Shikao. Nice guitar music.
“RAY OF LIGHT” by Nakagawa Shoko
“Go to Heart Edge” by Fukuyama Jun, Ono Daisuke, Kamiya Hiroshi. Fun song with some of my favorite seiyuu 🙂
“Gomen ne. Watashi” by Nanba Shiho. Cute 🙂
“My Soul, Your Beats!” by Lia is an interesting video with piano playing.
@ Kitsune: Thank you! 🙂 It’s my pleasure. I’m glad you found it enjoyable.
Haha, hurray for decimals! 😉 I’m not very much updated on the J-music scene, so the OP/ED themes are helpful for me to “discover” new music/artists to add in my playlist, like CureaL.
Suga Shikao is awesome on guitar. He usually plays funk-inspired stuff but his acoustic ballads are so easy on the ears [like this song]. “Go to Heart Edge” I have the same reason as you, and I love it’s rock n’ roll-ish sound. ^^
The Working OP is frightfully addictive. I’ve found myself wasting precious minutes on several replays before I can allow myself to proceed with the rest of the episode.
The song alone isn’t anything special – it’s the animated OP sequence as a whole, plus the song, that makes this a must-watch+listen for me.
@ Diego: Haha, same here, especially the “someone-one-one… someone else” ♫ part gets stuck in my head. The OP sequence is too enjoyable to pass up watching. ^_^
“Change” by miwa. Upbeat song with creative animation.“Kazenagi (風なぎ)” by Suga Shikao. Nice guitar music.“RAY OF LIGHT” by Nakagawa Shoko“Go to Heart Edge” by Fukuyama Jun, Ono Daisuke, Kamiya Hiroshi. Fun song with some of my favorite seiyuu “Gomen ne. Watashi” by Nanba Shiho. Cute “My Soul, Your Beats!” by Lia is an interesting video with piano playing.
+1