I’ve been searching through You Tube recently, looking for my favorite anime songs. I don’t know if this is a nostalgia trip or – as I suspect – an opening up to embrace music again, which was a big part of my life a long time ago.
I’m currently writing my seventh book in The Queendoms Series. It’s the final book in the series and I’m preparing to compose two pieces of music for it.
So I have an inner drive now to listen to music that provoked feelings in me, and I’m not surprised that a lot of it comes from anime. In the same way that anime has been my main entertainment source since 2005, my favorite music has also come from anime.
The following You Tube links are, as always, subject to being taken down by "Uncle Google" at any time, so I’ve included the song title and band/composer so you can look them up elsewhere if you want.
I’ve written before about Mirage of Blaze, one of the series that brought me into anime. Mirage of Blaze was a great anime for me to discover right at the beginning. It hit a lot of my buttons: adult story, m/m romance, paranormal, Japanese history. Some sixteen years later, I still love it.
Takaya Ougi is a troubled teen with an attitude. Little does he know that he’s the reincarnation of Kagetora Uesugi of the Uesugi clan from Japan’s Warring States era four hundred years ago. He’s also a “soul possessor,” meaning his Kagetora soul ousts the owner of a baby’s body at birth, taking it over so that he can live again. The purpose of being a soul possessor is to fight the Feudal Underworld, an army of samurai spirits who seek to overthrow modern-day Japan.
Another soul possessor, Nobutsuna Naoe, also lived during the Warring States era, belonging to a different clan. He’s now reincarnated into the body of a handsome middle-aged man. Oh, and – he’s been in love with Kagetora for four hundred years.
The music is by Koichiro Kameyama. This is the main theme, a slow elegiac melody that captures the loneliness and isolation of being a soul possessor, and the angst of Naoe’s unrequited feelings for Kagetora.
Song: Harukanaru Zanshou – Sengoku Zan’ei
Composer: Koichiro Kameyama
Yuki Kajiura is a well-known composer for anime series such as Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Sword Art Online, and others. I saw her in concert at Anime Expo years ago. She speaks surprisingly great English (she explained at the concert that she practiced a lot with a friend). I love all of her anime music, but my favorites are “Will” and “Confidence” from Pandora Hearts.
Song: Confidence
Composer: Yuki Kajiura
I feel like I’m always referencing Full Metal Alchemist when it comes to “best of” or “my favorite” posts, but this ending theme from the original FMA series has such a lovely melody that it’s become one of my favorite pieces of music, period.
Song: Tobira no Mukou e
Band: Yellow Generation
In my last post, I talked about the phenomenon of “character songs” and how even the supporting characters in an anime often get their own songs.
Here’s an example from an older title. Angelique began as a video game in 1995, which then was produced as an anime starting in 2006. It’s an early reverse harem story in which a teenage girl is transported to a magic land where she competes to become the new Queen, while being assisted by nine handsome guardians.
So here is a beautiful character song from Angelique sung by seiyuu Nobuo Tobita, one of my favorite Japanese voice actors. He played the character of guardian Lumiale.
Song: Gekkou Yoku
Vocal Artist: Nobuo Tobita
Not to belabor the point, but again – this is a character song for a supporting character in an ancient anime series, and it’s a beautiful song. How many songs like this are buried deep in the enormous catalog of anime-related music that I’ll never hear? Somebody threw this up on You Tube twelve years ago – that’s the only reason I ever found it.
The next song is from an anime series with around 900 episodes about a bunch of pirates (lol). I don’t watch One Piece mainly because the character designs squick my eye (I’ve said before that I’m picky about character designs), and also because it feels like it’s too late to start in on it. It’s a little daunting to consider catching up on 900 episodes.
If I’m in a certain mood, tears will come up listening to this.
Song: Memories
Vocal Artist: Maki Otsuki
And here’s another, newer example of an anime song featuring supporting characters in an anime series.
I know I seem obsessed with K, also known as K Project. It’s just a great series, one of my go-to series to rewatch. The K anime canon consists of the first season, a movie called K: Missing Kings, a second season, and a post-series series called K: Seven Stories.
K: Seven Stories is a collection of six one-hour anime episodes based on side stories from the manga and light novels. In addition, there’s a separate disc of short episodes set in an alternative universe where the K characters are singing idols, which comprises the seventh story in K: Seven Stories.
Each of the six episodes focuses on some of the most memorable characters from K, including the Red King and Blue King and their first meeting, and the pre-teen Sukuna Gojo and how he joins the Green clan.
The two most popular characters in the K universe are actually supporting characters: Misaki Yata from the Red clan and Saruhiko Fushimi who was formerly with the Red clan, but then later defects to the Blue clan. At the beginning of K’s first season, the two have a love-hate relationship based on Misaki resenting Saruhiko for leaving the Reds for the Blues.
The fourth episode of K: Seven Stories is about Misaki and Saruhiko. It’s a flashback to their early days when they were young teenagers before they joined the Red clan. They had a very deep friendship back then, with the cheerful Misaki bringing light into the life of Saruhiko who came from a rich family, but whose father was creepy and psychologically abusive.
The music for K is - like K itself - a little different. A single band did the opening and closing themes for the whole series, a band called angela (the band doesn’t capitalize their name).
Misaki and Saruhiko’s episode is called “Lost Small World.” I like to think the title refers to that moment in time when the two only had each other, living in a small safe world unto itself, a world now lost to time.
Song: Lost Small World
Band: angela
Finally, the last song doesn’t have anything to do with anime, although the band, Ikimono Gakari, is known for the Naruto anime theme song “Blue Bird.”
Song: Sakura
Band: Ikimono Gakari
The Japanese seem to instinctively get what entertainment – films, TV series, novels, music – is all about. It’s to make you feel things. I’ve read the translated lyrics for "Sakura" and it’s a lost love story as you might expect from watching the two actors in the music video.
But you don’t need to know what the song is about to feel it, do you? I can’t remember when I first heard "Sakura," but songs like this are timeless.
Excuse me, but I think I'm in the mood for some You Tube videos now. ;-)
