6/30/2008

Anime Tunes (I)

From a post over at Dannychoo:
What are your favorite anime theme songs?

I love the Ghost in the Shell songs. They make up some of my favorite openings out of all the anime I've seen (I love me some Yoko Kano).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BYbxCygS-PU (SAC's Inner Universe)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u8a-YSRv0ro (2nd gig, Rise)

Still going crazy over Still Doll, the closing theme for Vampire Knight. Wakeshima is just so adorable, and I love her voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rkqcx6KfAA

Really love the Nodame Cantabile opening and closing pieces. Can't wait for the second season.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0a-HV2wpeBw (OP, Allegro Cantabile)

Blood + also has some fantastic songs.

Inori - Lena Park's opening for the Romeo X Juliet anime probably makes for one of my favorite openings of all time. I get chills every time I watch it, and just that opening can sometimes bring me to tears (can't wait for FUNimation to make it available in the spring so I can finally buy it) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY7iXJyy1ys (anime opening)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px2n_LrTG_8 (Lena singing the song in English)

Tank! from Cowboy Bebop of course
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T6zDfxZ4NcE

This brilliant song, The Garden of Everything, from the Rahxephon movie (you can't go wrong with Yoko Kano AND Maaya Sakamoto):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PvHvxLBfhVw
Well...pretty much anything Yoko Kano's touched, honestly. And all the FLCL songs.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GfsV6oZyFds (FLCL ending, The Pillows' Ride on Shooting Star)

Cruel Angel Thesis from Evangelion of course....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XuqYeG3-M5k

Duvet from Serial Experiments Lain:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jDf4bNiPYuE

Opening and Ending for Gunslinger Girl:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xEMjq9VpBSE (Light Before We Land)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=p9JgMHDEKWE (dopo il sogno)

That's all I can think of right now, but that's plenty. :)
It's pretty much the only kind of music I listen to these days (along with show tunes). I don't understand anything they're saying, but I love the music and the way the language sounds.

20 comments:

xJAYMANx said...

Here's my comment on DannyChoo.

P.S. Ah yes, thanx for reminding me of Lain's OP. Another great one.

Kris said...

I saw. ^_^
I'm a huge fan of Yoko Kano. I've yet to hear anything that she's done that I just didn't like. A lot of her songs pull from the same clump of singers too, which is nice. Those Ghost in the Shell numbers may be my favorites; Rise in particular, as it's so darn catchy!

ArmoredFoe said...

dont forget Samurai Champloo for that new modern hip hop flavor. Very awsome sounds. I do agree with the Ghost in the Shell openings. I also like Brave King GaoGaiGar's opening theme, plus alot of old mecha songs. Legends of Getter and Legends of Mazinger.

Kris said...

I like the Samurai Champloo songs too, but they don't really pop out at me like some of those others do. Plus, I don't like rap. ^_^ So while I think it's excellent music, I don't always want to listen to it.

ArmoredFoe said...

I agree with you, Im not a big rap fan either, but I have to say the champloo style jazz/hip hop fuzion is the best Ive heard. Japanese Hip Hop isnt like crappy american top 40 rap. I do agree with you, rap sucks.

xJAYMANx said...

No arguments! But I guess u like her so much you spell "Kanno" with just one "n", lol! ^_^

xJAYMANx said...

P.S. Wow, just looked her up in Wikipedia. She shares the same birth month/day as both me and Bruce Willis! I'm in great company, hehe. ^_^

ArmoredFoe said...

when I get home, im going to have to watch those Youtube videos. Youtube is blocked here at work,lol.I recently lost my Dannychoo privelages also. Our IT crew categorized it as "porn" so its now blocked. So I spend my off time reading interesting blogs. XD

ArmoredFoe said...

wow im really diggin that gunslinger girls music and teh actual Anime as well. I never seen that before. Fantastic, Im going to have to check that out.

Kris said...

Jay:
Eh? Really? Never know how to spell those crazy Japanese names with all their extra letters. :)

Unit:
I will try to post more interesting things for you to read then!
Gunslinger Girl is quite excellent. It's very sweet, cute, melancholy.... It's very well animated and the story is great. FUNimation distributes it in the US, and they'll be putting out the second season at some point (which I didn't like as much as the first, but it covers more instances from the manga than the first anime did). If you decide to buy it, the 1st DVD + Box comes with a rather lovely little wall scroll, or it did when I bought it.

ArmoredFoe said...

Yeah you have a great blog, I like that you actually interact and comment back. Good stuff Kris :)

Kris said...

Really? Is that not normal? I'm grateful that anyone would want to read my ramblings. :) So of course I'd comment back! Thank you (and Jay of course) for sticking around and coming back.

ArmoredFoe said...

Im not really sure if its normal or not. I think its cool regardless...as I said in an earlier post as well, I dont know you or Jay, but we have things in common and we had a decent little conversation here and thats awsome to me. I always like talking to new people and seeing there displays and just any kind of recommendations on anime/music/figures.

xJAYMANx said...

LOL, crazy names? Maybe it's a visual-vs-audio memory thing. If u sound-it-out in memory, might not remember the visual spelling... ^_^;

I think I've been a girls-with-guns fan ever since the first Tomb Raider game came out, hmmm... And my Akiko carries the ongoing tradition! But damn, haven't had time to start watching my "Il Teatrino" downloads (plus a dozen other series), arghhhh...

Hmmm, commenting... I think I know what Unit means. Before Danny, it was sort of a random hit-or-miss thing. One comment, one reply, that's it. But when Danny expanded his blog with features like feed exchanges, took time to comment on others' blogs (like mine!), then recently launched his member news posts, I think more anime bloggers are seeing and visiting other anime bloggers more than ever before~ all within a couple years! Without a doubt, he's definitely altered the landscape of the otaku community....

Hmmm, and u can quote me if u submit this as DC member news, lol. ^_^

Kris said...

I'm actually pretty new to Danny's site. I saw a link on MegaTokyo for...something..... Some figure, I think. Before that I wasn't really aware. I poked around for a bit, looked at some articles, but then there was some news about censoring Soul Calibur images, and I decided to join in. I get pretty fired up about censorship. :) But I really like it as a community, though I think it would be served well with more forum aspects (like being able to PM members or something). The people there are very nice and open to other's opinions, and Danny I think is just great.

I will admit that he's part of the reason I started mine up, but I'd also really like to be a writer for magazines or something, and I was told by a friend that I should practice. So, this is me practicing. And it also gives me a physical place to direct people to.

I want it to be more than anime though, obviously, since I did do that little write up on the Tony Awards. I plan to do a book or two soon, and maybe some movies. Everything, really! But I do watch a ridiculous amount of anime and read a decent amount of manga, so there will be plenty of that too.

Please make suggestions, if you have any! :)

xJAYMANx said...

I agree. While I wrote in my LJ more in 2006, Danny was a big influence in hosting my own Wordpress-powered blog. I believe I first heard of his site via searches of figure photos. Which also influenced my plethora of photoshoots in 2007, lol.

As for writing and practicing, everyone's different... So should I give my two-cent suggestions as a tech writer, fanfic writer, or blogger? All?

(1) Hmmm, while technical writing can be dull or dry, there's usually a logical structure behind it, or should be. Not only the rules of grammar, but the rules behind the subject matter as well. I try to have fun not so much in the material, but in its presentation structure and layout design.

(2) Fan fiction is~ well, fun, lol. Not only in the creative process, but also in exploring fresh new ways to describe a scene or interaction. Also, while my fanfic tends to be more visual, metaphoric, and even lyrical or poetic, there are still the rules of grammar, as well as the not-so-defined rules of good storytelling.

(3) Ah, yes, blogging~ an English teacher's nightmare? The thorniest thorn for the *Grammar Police*? LOL, yup, no rules, except perhaps the barest semblance of the English language. Which is a nice change from tech writing or even fanfic composing. So while it can be the free-est, fun-est, most-structureless arena, at the same time, it can be the most difficult in which to find one's own style. To be yourself, right?

That's the biggest point of practicing, I think, in any of these fields. Rule-abiding or not, stylistic or not. To find one's own confident voice in an endless ocean of chattering voices. Emoticons included! ^_^;

P.S. If u *might* have any questions, I'm at: xjaymanx@gmail.com... We're no longer on topic, are we? ^_^;;

Kris said...

That's OK! I have a LJ too, which I'm saving for personal ramblings.

English was actually my favorite subject in HS, and I was pretty good at it. I also minored in English (lit) in college. So I know ~how~ to write (though whether or not I'm good at doing so is entirely different). And I'm a stickler for grammar. My vocabulary, unfortunately, is not what it used to be, but I read (a lot) and that helps. I do write a little fiction every now and then; mostly stories about my Dungeons and Dragons characters (shh, don't tell anyone!). I'm a huge nerd. I've only written one piece of fan fiction in my life, and only 3-4 people have ever seen it, I think, including my college Chaucer professor (I wanted his opinions on grammar, theme and structure for the story).

I think "blog" is sort of a silly word. I'd like to be taken seriously as a writer, and the term carries a bit of a stigma (to me at least). Unfortunately I'm not sure what else to call it. I will however admit to being a horrid snob. ^_^

I do think I have a particular style of writing, although it hasn't really shown here yet. It's very noticeable in my papers throughout college and in my fiction writing. I have a bit of an attitude. :) But I've been praised by even the strictest of teachers for unique and thoughtful papers, so I guess that counts for something, eh?

xJAYMANx said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
xJAYMANx said...

LOL, you remind me of a couple "sticklers" I know (Nancy and *Morgaine*), so I know the nerd-with-attitude mentality. Basically, louder (and rantier) on the page than in person, eh? ^_^ But don't worry, I'll raise my usual "over-analytical over-philosophical" shields, lol.

I have no opinion of the word "blog", but then again, I haven't assigned the word "serious" to my writing either, whether it's formal or not. Maybe I write best that way. In fact, I can probably attribute the origin of my "voice" to Isaac Asimov's concise practical "doesn't take himself too seriously" style (in high school), then later D.H. Lawrence's emotional metaphorical style (in college). Beyond that, who knows? Random bits from here and there...

For a huge sampling of my Matrix fanfics, try these RWFs in IE. Beware, the site only works in IE, sucks in FF; haven't yet transferred them to my current *Toybox* layout, argh.

P.S. Sorry, had to fix the link. ^_^;

Kris said...

I'm definitely louder and rantier on page than in person, though I can get pretty fired up then, too. :)

Being a huge grammar/literature/English language freak, things like blogs and what-not, that allow people to butcher the language to such a large degree.... That's what I mean when I said that I didn't really like the word "blog."

Matrix fan-fics? Please don't feel offended if I turn that down. ^_^ I was not much of a Matrix fan (I hated the final film, and wasn't too keen on the second either).

ps - Isaac Asimov rocks. :)