Chronicle of anime songs unraveled by ELISA - "ANICHRO" cover mini-album is now available!

ELISA, who has sung theme songs for numerous anime productions including the movie "Expelled from Paradise" and the TV anime "The Lesser Students of Magical High School," will release a mini album of anime song covers. As the title "ANICHRO" (AnicHRO) suggests, the album features one song from each decade, from the 1980s to the 2010s. The songs are arranged with ELISA's unique world view based on the concept of "progressive electro. This cover was a challenge even for ELISA. What is the interesting content of the song?

I thought that my voice is suited to electro music.

─ What made you decide to make the cover mini-album "ANICHRO"?

ELISA I have been doing an acoustic live show called "E'tone♪", and there was a corner where we covered anime songs. I had covered "Princess Mononoke" and "Ai Oboete Dareka" on my previous albums, but I had sung them faithfully to the originals. But in the cover section of "E'tone♪", I arranged up-tempo songs by male singers, which I usually don't sing, in ELISA's own way. That was also the reason why we decided to release a cover mini-album.

─ Indeed, one of the main features of "ANICHRO" is the bold arrangement of the original songs.

ELISA I wanted to give it an ELISA feel. The mix of pop and vocal soprano is the most distinctive feature of my singing, so I tried to select and arrange the songs to make the most of that. For this album, we are going in the direction of "progressive electro" arrangements. I wanted to make everyone curious about what "progressive electro" sounds like. I would be happy if you are interested in what "progressive electro" sounds like.

─ ─ What does "progressive electro" sound like to you?

ELISA: I have sung several songs with elements of blogressive rock with irregular time signatures before, so I could accept them this time without any sense of discomfort, but electro was a new challenge for me. There is a song called "AR" as a coupling to the single "EONIAN," and it was my first electro song. I had a lot of fun working on "AR," and I realized that my voice is suited to this kind of sound.

─ So both "progressive" and "electro" were genres that suited ELISA's voice and sensibility. How did you choose the four songs for the album?

ELISA The title "ANICHRO" stands for "Anime Chronicle. As the name suggests, I chose one song for each decade from the 1980s to the 2010s.

ELISA──For the 80's, it would be something like "Kimi wo nosetto" from "Laputa: Castle in the Sky"?

ELISA Yes, that's right. Following "Princess Mononoke," I chose "Kimi no onote" because I wanted to sing a song from a Ghibli film this time as well. I was looking forward to seeing how the "progressive electro" version of this song would change the atmosphere of the song.

─ ─ The arrangement was more up-tempo and lighthearted than I had imagined.

ELISA The original song is so perfect that I could say it was perfect, so I wanted to do something that would surprise everyone while aiming in a different direction from it. My voice is fluffy, so I thought that created a nice chemical reaction with the light sound. I was happy to hear comments such as "it's cool" and "I'm glad it has an ELISA-like feel" when I first unveiled the song at the album's launch event.

───The first limited edition includes a music video, and a short version of it has already been released on the Internet.

ELISA The cover photo is the same, but for "ANICHRO", I tried to be the narrator of the "Chronicle", a being that transcends time and space, and to use the sound of "Kuro", I wore a black dress for the first time as ELISA (laughs). (Laughs.) It is a fantasy-like costume, like a magician.

─ In the video, CG like magic circle and clock gears were used to emphasize the "Chronicle" feeling.

ELISA There is a cut where he is holding a part of an old wall clock in his hand. It was a large part, and the crew handed it to me out of the blue, so the director of photography and I both wondered, "What is this? But the director explained that it was a part of an old clock, and that it fit the concept of the music video, which is to transcend time and space, so it made a lot of sense to me. It was a little painful to hold (laughs).

─ ─ What is that? It certainly caught my attention.

ELISA I would like you to enjoy the mysterious world view. The second half of the music video, which is not included in the short version, is also a highlight.

The second half of the music video is also a highlight.