I managed to catch up to the open polls again thanks to a 3-day weekend. The polls for Bracket Guts can be found below:
http://animusictourney.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/bracket-guts-round-1-polls-1-4/http://animusictourney.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/bracket-guts-round-1-polls-5-8/Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 1"Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono (10 years after version)" [main ED of "Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai" (2011)] vs "FLY" [ED of "Samurai Champloo" episode 23 (2004)]
The AnoHana ED is one of those songs that aren't just solid anime themes, but have broad enough appeal to have the potential to do well in the general music charts, which isn't something can be said for most anime music, in my opinion. "Secret Base etc." is a simple but effective track that, while I don't think is top 10 seeding material as a standalone song, does complement the anime it's from very well. I can see why a lot of people love the track, and had I bought in to the melodrama of AnoHana, I would probably be more fond of the song than I am. As for "Fly", I'm impressed it managed to make it this far after being used as the ED theme of a single episode. It's curiously soothing, and doesn't put me off as most rap songs do, but I still find it a bit meh.
Rating for "Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono (10 years after verseion)" :)
Rating for "Fly" :|
My pick"Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono (10 years after version)". As I was writing this post, I got so fed up of typing the long-ass name of the AnoHana song along with the long-ass name of the anime it's from that it nearly made me wish I'd voted for the other song. I'm not relishing the thought of having to type them all over again in subsequent rounds. And the song is solid enough that, combined with the popularity of the anime it's from, I could see myself experiencing this pain quite a few more times before the tourney is done.
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 2"Beautiful World" [ED of "Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0" (2007)] vs "Oblivious" [ED of "Garden of Sinners" episode 1 (2007)]
Ok, this is just cheating. It's the 2nd time this "Beautiful World" song has appeared. I personally think that the votes for various versions of the same song should be pooled together and the most popular version picked out as its representative instead of them all taking up a space of their own in the tourney. "Oblivious" sounds to me like a 2nd rate Yuki Kajiura song, which is still better than most other songs of course, but in a competition with so many other Kajiura/Kalafina tracks, this one really doesn't stand out.
Rating for "Beautiful World" :)
Rating for "Oblivious" :)
My pick"Beautiful World". On one hand, I really want to eliminate one of these bloody "Beautiful World" songs. On the other hand, "Oblivious" couldn't be any more of a Kajiura song if it tried, and I'm desperately in need of a breath of fresh air.
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 3"Lion" [ED 3 of "Macross Frontier" (2007)] vs "Rain" [ED of "Garden of Words" (2013)]
While the last "Macross Frontier" song I came across in this tourney managed to go some way towards establishing its own identity, "Lion" doesn't really do that. It's one of those songs which is heavily reliant on the catchy hook in the chorus. That said, I still find myself hooked and reeled in by it, even if I do forget about the song pretty soon afterwards. When I saw that the second song is from "Garden of Words", I immediately assumed it's in the competition due to recency bias. And it is - although I do like the song, I doubt many will remember it 5 years from now. "Rain" is the opposite of "Lion" in many ways. "Lion" has a lot of energy and "Rain" is very laid back; "Lion" saves its best for the chorus like most songs, while "Rain" actually has its strength in its verse. The verse section in "Rain" is very listenable: it uses nice sequences and continuously develops its melody, so it never repeats itself within a verse. Things starts going wrong when it gets to the chorus section. First of all the transition into the chorus section is very jarring, and then the chorus itself turns out to be full of repeated musical phrases that barely holds up for one iteration, let alone two or three, at which point the song loses all the charms it had before.
Rating for "Lion" :)
Rating for "Rain" :)
My pick"Rain".
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 4"Puzzle" [OP of "Welcome to the NHK" (2007)] vs "Juuni Genmukyouku" [OP of "12 Kingdoms" (2002 - 2003)]
I'm not sure what it is that people hear in "Puzzle". About the only thing that stood out for me are the brass sections, but they weren't used all that prominently (though more prominently in the full version, which makes it the better version). The rest of it may as well be called Generic Anime Song #183 or something. "Juuni Genmukyouku" is like an oriental symphony: it's grand on the scale of a full blown orchestra, but is flavoured with sounds of eastern instruments, a lot of which I don't know the name of in English. And while modern music tend to be quite consistent in its tone within a piece of music, "Juuni Genmukyouku" is more like a journey, going to several different places and exploring a variety of different emotions. Some sections feels a particularly like a soundtrack, and not always the kind I listen to as standalone music, and listening to the full version for the first time made me realise what a good bit of editing they did for the anime OP, as they put together what was arguably the most listenable sections at the beginning and end of the piece and cut out all of the middle, which meandered a bit even if it did have its moments.
Rating for "Puzzle" :|
Rating for "Juuni Genmukyouka" :) This might actually be more deserving of the ":|" rating, but I hate the thought of putting it on the same level as "Puzzle", as "Juuni Genmukyouka" is at least doing something different.
My pick"Juuni Genmukyouku". "Puzzle" seems bafflingly popular while "Juuni Genmukyouku" is far from being a top tier anime instrumental, so I was fully expecting this match lean in the favour of the former, but the match is actually very tightly balanced.
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 5"Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" [OP of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" (2006)] vs "Prologue"/"Twlight"* [music of DAICON IV opening animation (1983)]
I could write about the Higurashi song, but in all likelyhood it's sailing through to the next round and so I can write about it at a later date. The DAICON IV music is actually a lot more interesting to write about, and not entirely because of the song itself. But let's talk about the music first. It starts with some lovely 80s synth ... then a freaking robot started talking over the track and I nearly fell off my chair laughing. By the time I've picked myself off the floor and wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes, I found more glorious 80s goodness blasting out of my speakers. Admittedly, the song could have fit together a bit better: the changes of pace and bit where the pitch suddenly nose-dived are some of the weakest links in the song, and the robot speaking half turned the song into a joke; but the good parts - such as the plentiful falsettos, the sensor-overload of electronic sounds, the ludicrously catchy hooks - give me such a lift that I find myself listening to it over and over. But what's really interesting is the source of this music. Before I did my research for this post, I thought "DAICON IV" is the name of some super robot show like "Combattler V" (ok you can stop laughing at my ignorance now, thank you very much), but it's not. DAICON is actually the nickname given to a Japanese Sci-fi convention held in Osaka. For DAICON IV, a group of amateur animators that went on to form GAINAX (you may have heard of them before) made the opening animation (and later heavily referenced it in their loosely-autobiographical anime "Otaku no Video"), and set to it the music of the first two tracks from Electric Light Orchestra's "Time" album. And of course those same two tracks forms DAICON IV's entry for the Anime Music Tourney. Even though these songs are the product of 80s western culture through and through, they played a small part in an important piece of anime history.
Rating for "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" :)
Rating for "Prologue"/"Twilight" :)
My pick"Prologue"/"Twilight". The Higurashi song is neither bad nor generic, but I feel compelled to go for the ELO songs. Despite listening to a lot of 70s/80s music, I'm not that familiar with ELO. I'm thankful for the tourney for reminding me to go check out their stuff the next time I'm in HMV.
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 6"Innocent Starter"* [OP of "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" (2004)] vs "Anna ni Isshou Datta no ni" [ED 1 of "Gundam Seed" (2002 - 2003)]
I know that Nana Mizuki, the singer behind "Innocent Starter", has a big reputation in the anime music world, but I don't think I've come across many of the themes she's sung. Not many that's caught my attention anyway. If she singers a lot of songs like "Innocent Starter", it might explain why I've not really taken much notice of her. While I can't find much to complain about in her vocals, I find the song to be a bland one. For a song from an anime that's nearly 10 years old though, it's doing rather well, so I'm wondering whether it has some sort of appeal that's just lost on me. "Anna ni Isshou Datta no ni" represents yet another one of Yuki Kajiura's projects - her 3rd one if I counted correctly. It doesn't sound that much like a Yuki Kajiura song, for the most part, except for the wailing violins and that mostly-instrumental section in the middle. The most ear catching thing about the "Gundam Seed" song is Chiaki Ishikawa's vocals: I'm not exactly a fan, but it certainly has a unique quality to it that I don't quite know how to describe.
Rating for "Innocent Starter" :|
Rating for "Anna ni Isshou Datta no ni" :)
My pick"Anna ni Isshou Datta no ni".
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 7"Renai Circulation"* [ED of "Bakemonogatari" episode 10 (2009)] vs "Akai Coat" [ED 1 of "Arakawa Under the Bridge x Brige" (2010)]
"Renai Circulation" is yet another offering from the overpowered "Bakemonogatari" series. This song has gotta be one of the most saccharine ones in the tournament, but after listening to it several times, I find, much to my horror, that it's growing on me. There's something especially charming about that tuba part, despite its simplicity. There's also something about the vocals that sounds familiar to me. Turns out it's HanaKana bringing her super-moe A-game to the table. I must admit I quite like her voice and maybe that's why I don't hate this song. "Akai Circulation" doesn't sound too remarkable to me, though I don't dislike it either. The most interesting part about it is probably how most of the song is built up around one single hook. Large sections of the guitar, verse and chorus are just the chords, melodic variations and pitch changes of the same musical phrase. But despite this, the song doesn't bore me, even if it doesn't excite me either.
Rating for "Renai Circulation" :|
Rating for "Akai Coat" :|
My pick"Akai Coat". The number of "Bakemonogatari" songs in this tourney needs culling.
Bracket Guts Round 1 Poll 8"One More Time, One More Chance" [ED of "5cm per Second" (2007)] vs "Shangri-La" [OP of "Fafner" (2004)]
"One More Time, One More Chance" is a nice song, but it's forever tainted in my memory because of how it was used in the anime, where it kicked in at the end straight from chorus section, and was completely at odds with the quiet atmosphere of the film. And because the scene was doubled up as a story-telling montage that was at the same time the end of the film, the overall effect was very jarring and confusing. The thing is, had the song been used uncut, starting with the gentle, nostalgic twangs of the guitar and letting it build up to the out pouring of emotions at the height of chorus, it would have been far more effective. angela's songs often have the same kind of air about them - you may remember her from the "Stellvia" theme that was in my nominations - and "Shangri-La" certainly falls in line with the trend: the catchiness of melody is pretty much a given, and the song has an obsessively driven feel about it, characterised by the over sung vocals. Normally, the latter would be a bad thing, but for angela, it somehow works, especially when this particular song has such an overwrought feel about it.
Rating for "One More Time, One More Chance" :)
Rating for "Shangri-La" :)
My pick"Shangri-La".
↧