The BEST Anime Songs of Spring 2023! It's not only "idols" you should listen to! Hiroyuki Deguchi and Ichirokuso Samejima (BANBANBAN) talk about anime songs! Talking about anime songs! Anime Songs" No.2]

With so many anime being broadcast each season, anime songs are also being released one after another. Musician and DJ Hiroyuki Deguchi and comedian and anime song DJ Ichirokuso Samejima (BANBANBAN) have selected their favorite anime songs from the countless anime songs that are created by stars!

They will present each other's best 3 anime songs from the spring anime of 2023, and talk about them! Anime Songs". If you read this, you will know what anime songs you should listen to now. ......

In addition, from this issue, we have started a podcast program on Spotify, where you can enjoy the talk and the songs together! Please enjoy it as well!

Exit: "Talking! Anison" is the most peaceful anison review in the world, in which Watakushi Deguchi and Samejima-san each choose three of their favorite anison songs of the season and talk about them!

Samejima: Yes, peace is the best!

Deguchi Right off the bat, what do you think of this season's anime?

Samejima There are so many interesting ones, and I'm having a great time every day. I can't keep up with them all!

Deguchi: It's always the same, but this season has a lot to offer.

Samejima It seems like a lot of big names have entered the anime song scene. It was cool, and it was hard to choose the songs.

Hiroyuki Deguchi

─ By the way, what is the situation in the anikura (a club event that plays mainly ani-song music) community?

Samejima: On May 8, the new coronavirus was classified as a type 5 virus, and aniclubs are becoming easier and easier to organize, and events and announcements are getting quite lively. Festivals are also returning to their pre-Corona levels, don't you think?

Deguchi: If the number of ani-song related events increases, I think the environment surrounding ani-song will also change. I think that the way of ani-song and the types of songs have changed a lot since Corona came along. If you can't hold an event, the audience is left with a one-on-one relationship where they just listen to ani-song on TV and that's it.

Samejima It is a place where people can experience ani-song. In such a situation, we are going to hold an ani-song club at Nakano Sunplaza on June 22! How can we fill 2,000 seats? That's all I can think about.

Deguchi: Shall we start with that meeting first?

Samejima We are planning to make it a DJ party where you can experience ani-song. Please come!

Deguchi So let's get started!

Mr. Ichirokusan Samejima (BANBANBAN)

Talking about "idols" that cannot be avoided

Deguchi The first song is "Guessing Child" OP "Idol"! This is troubling. If I come this far, I have no choice but to choose it. It's not that I like or dislike it, but I think it's already the best of this season. I think the topic, the song itself, and everything surrounding it are all dead on. I wanted to do something different because everyone is listening to it, but that would be going against the grain. It's one of those songs that shows that anime songs have gone to a scary place.

Samejima: I am the same way. The music is in line with the work, and the timing of the first episode was perfect. There was a meme that went viral on the Internet that "idol" turned into "Getter Robot. (*Editor's note: A MAD movie in which the chorus of "Idol" suddenly leads to "STORM," the theme song of "Shin Getter Robo," became a hot topic mainly on SNS.)

Deguchi: I have something to say about that too. I think it's a new internet meme, but the only people who are happy about it are old men and women. It's interesting and the idea is good, but I just can't get over it.

Samejima As an ani-song DJ, I have my own problems. When I play this song, there are two types of customers: those who are critical of the song and those who want the song to be played as it is.

Deguchi: Similarly, there are English versions of tokusatsu songs. When I play them as a DJ, some people say, "English this time? I don't know anything about that. I think that's why you don't get many customers. What you are doing is making the community shrink and shrink. I understand that there are young people who see this and think, "I don't want to go to anikura.

Samejima So when I play "idol," I try to connect it to "gettan" by Kamie Hirose (the phrase from the chorus of "promise") instead of "getter. Including that, I think this song became a toy for various people, which is something that hasn't happened very often recently. Speaking of the music, the way IKURA-san sings with a croaky voice is a style that hasn't been seen before, isn't it?

Deguchi: It's a very modern style. It incorporates the best parts of the various places that surround us. The creators must have a good sense of what is trending and what sticks. That is also frightening. As for the lyrics, the generation below us, those in their 20s and 30s, have the feeling that they are "not the leading role," or that "even singers are just supporting roles. It's like they have given up on the times, they don't care, they don't want to win, they don't want to fight in the first place, and that kind of temperature is very current.

Samejima I guess superstars like in "Captain Tsubasa" can no longer play the leading roles. It is a recent trend that a story about a weak boy with a complex who makes progress with the help of those around him is popular. What I like about "Idol" is that the Real Akiba Boys do the shouting in between the scenes. They are adding the chorus because they want to give the audience a sense of the scene and want the nerds' voices to properly enliven the idol. The Real Akiba Boys will be performing at Anison Disco on June 22, so please come and see them!

Exit You might even get to hear a live oui oui of "Idol!

Yusari no Kanon" shows the difference between a mediocre melody and a familiar one

Samejima My second song is "SALT&SUGER" by Yuma Uchida. It is the ending of "THE MARGINAL SERVICE. The high tone of the song is very smooth. He can sing such a stylish song. There are many big anime titles this season, but this is an original work without an original story, which makes me feel like I'm watching an anime. I love this kind of thing!" I mean, the over-exaggerated dialogue and the really manga-like setting are great. The opening song is by Mamoru Miyano, and it's good too, but "Salt & Sugar" neutralizes the strong dialogue in the main story in a good way. It's like drinking a cup of tea.

Deguchi: That doesn't ring a bell (laughs). Personally, I thought this song was dense too. The anime songs of this season are generally strong, so it sounds relatively refreshing, but if you listen to the song by itself, it's also strong (laughs).

Samejima The music video is very strong (laughs). I think it is a good example of anime songs for 2020 and beyond.

Deguchi The tune is mainly four beats, a bit old-fashioned, and easy to play for DJs. It's not the kind of song with a lot of development and fast BPM that is typical of today's ani-songs, but rather a song that moves along nicely, adding to its pleasant feeling.

Samejima: There were a lot of heavy songs this season, so maybe that's why it sounded relatively refreshing. It's a good song, isn't it? I might have thought I liked Yuma Uchida for the first time. I would like to play it as a DJ from now on. And how about you, Deguchi-san?

Deguchi: I'm going to play "Blue Orchestra" ED "Yusari no Kanon feat.

Samejima It's a song by Kohin-kun (Shimobori Akusei).

Deguchi: Amazing, he is so versatile. I couldn't find a theme for a long time when I was trying to select this season's ani-song, but I thought it might be this one: "I can see," as you said when you selected "Idol. I said, "I can see all kinds of elements that stick," and I think you can see that. He has a great ear, so he is the kind of person who can deconstruct the parts of a song that say, "This song is good," and see what is good and where it is good. He sees things like the structure and how things work, and he thinks about what to do there. Maybe that's how he sees comedy, too.

Samejima When I listen to the radio, he never misses a beat.

Deguchi The melodies of the songs you write are easy to understand. The "Yusari no Kanon" incorporates Pachelbel's "Kanon" that everyone knows, and the melody is easy to remember as well. Therefore, everyone can listen to it and feel at ease. Conversely, such melodies can be written by anyone, so they tend to be mediocre and boring. By shifting it just a little bit, we turn it into a melody that everyone likes and that is one step above easy to remember. The way you remove it and the way you create a melody that is one step above what is expected is what Mr. Koshina calls "egyo! as Mr. Saishin calls it.

Samejima The way you put the lyrics on top of the melody is also very good. I was thinking of including it until the end of "Yusari no Kanon" too.

Deguchi: This is because AI has become a problem in recent years, and if you tell AI to "write a song like this," it comes up with a bunch of songs, but it takes expertise to tell it what to do. If you give detailed instructions, it may be able to produce something like that, but just "cool music" is not enough to produce good music. So I don't think we are at the practical stage at all yet. After all, we are just integrating the data we have so far and coming up with an average, which is correct but no more than that. In that light, I don't think a machine can yet sublimate a melody like "Yusari no Kanon," which is easy to remember and classical, a so-called standard and simple melody, into a proper work of art, not something trivial.

Samejima Recently, gravure idols are also made by AI, but they are still too perfect to be intriguing. It would be more attractive if they were a little sloppy. I think "Yusari no Kanon" also has that kind of slackness.

Deguchi: I wonder if you can see that in the main character of "Skips and Loafers" as well as the problem of AI gravure idols being too neat. The sense of discomfort is exquisite: she is naive but very cute.

Samejima: They are very human. The kids around her are also somewhat unrefined.

The blurring of the anime song format

Deguchi The third song is "Knock Out" by Tetsu Okazaki from MASHLE. It is cool Tetsu Okazaki. Anyway, the lyrics have no meaning. The lyrics are "I want to tell you something, I want to tell you something, I want to tell you something. It is the quintessence of Tetsu Okazaki's style of Japanese that doesn't sound like Japanese. The words have meaning, but there is no clear intention behind them. It's amazing, and I can see it, or rather, I can see what kind of things will stick, what kind of things are fun, and that's what makes it so interesting. I wonder if this kind of decomposition and reconstruction is similar to the way Kohin-san and YOASOBI make their music.

Samejima The anime is also based on a gag manga, so I guess that's all right.

Deguchi: That's what gives me a lot of courage. Lately, I have the impression that there is a disease that requires some kind of expression, and it is necessary to put some kind of message, to think about something all the time, and to have the energy to always be angry about something, but the lyrics are completely different. The lyrics are very different from that. There is a rhythmic change in the latter half of the chorus, and the way it is inserted gives the feeling that everyone likes it, and I like it, too. Mr. Okazaki is also in charge of the theme song for the "Pokemon" series, and he has done many songs for male-oriented works, so it is amazing that he is going in all directions while keeping that male sensibility. I think that he is a rare artist who can aim at any demographic. When he first came out in the world, he was seen as something of a kiwamono, but in essence, he is an artist whose weapon is his sensitive songwriting ability to read current trends.

Samejima: You seem to know exactly how you want to be seen. I think he knows how to use his looks as a weapon and swing this way and that. My third song was "GOLD," "King's Ranking: Treasure Chest of Courage. There is a betrayal from the intro, and it grabs you there. The song changes subtly in two-eight-four-eight (the second and fourth bars of an eight-beat count), but there is a sense of unity to it. And above all, the anime OP video. The credits are not displayed when the song enters the chorus, and I like that trick. The development of the image from the chorus is cool, and I feel the production side's will to say, "Forget the names here, just look at the pictures that go with the song! I feel the production team's will to "Forget the name here, just look at the picture that goes with the song! Ousama Ranking" has always had good artwork from the previous works, and I thought it was a good ani-song that showed this from the OP.

Deguchi: Recently, there has been more freedom in the composition of anime, such as not including commercials until the end. The "must-do" style of production that used to be the norm is now disappearing. The fact that there are no credits in the OP may be a message that the power of the animation and artwork is there and that the viewer should watch it, and not skip to the end when watching it on TV.

Samejima I felt that. I felt that they believe in the power of animation.

Deguchi I also liked Aimer's ED "Ataranaku," a ballad that sounds like a band from the 1990s.

Samejima "Ousama Ranking" has good music. Tetsu Okazaki's sense of meaninglessness is also good, but this is a good ani-song.

Deguchi: I think the reason for this swing is that the template for what constitutes ani-song is rapidly disappearing. Not so long ago, there was a formula that said, "This is ani-song," but now there is no such formula at all.

Samejima: Have they ignored the template of ani-song, or is it the other way around? That is "Venus Line" from "BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls' Story-," isn't it? I didn't expect the second season to come with the same song. But I feel like that's okay, that this is the way it should be. Normally, they would change the song without changing Kamie Hirose, but I think it's right that they used the same song for the second season after the interval.

Deguchi: To be honest, when I was thinking of the three songs for this season, I was thinking of using "Venus Line" for one of them.

Samejima Me too. I was impressed by your attitude.

Deguchi In the same vein, "MIX" was also done by Sumika in its first season, and they are continuing with it in the second season.

Samejima In terms of taking on a great challenge, "Magical Destroyers" OP "MAGICAL DESTROYER" was created by MAD CAPS. It was created by Takeshi Ueda of MAD CAPSULE MARKETS, and I thought it was a challenging ani-song.

Deguchi: I really wanted to pick up many songs this season. The OP and ED of "Edomae Elf" were both good.

Samejima "Dr. Stone New World" OP "Wasuregataki" was also used in the scene where the members to board the ship were chosen, and the way it was used there was also great.

Deguchi If we go by big artists, it would be "Jigokuraku" by millennium parade and "W●RK" by Ringo Shiina.

Samejima That was sneaky! It's the best. It matches the world too well.

Deguchi The music video for this song pays homage to the music videos for Ringo's various works. It's amazing. The visuals of "Crime and Punishment" and other music videos appear as is. The car cut in half, the loudspeaker, and so on. It's not fair that they shot it in such a cool way! I thought. The reason I didn't include it this time is because it's not fair (laughs). (laughs). It's just so cool!

Samejima: That's why it was so difficult to fit it into the three songs this time, too.

What are your predictions for the anime song scene at After Corona?

Samejima: Following last year, I have the impression that we are getting J-POP singers who are neither voice actors nor ani-song singers. These singers don't make songs based on the formula for ani-songs. Among them, TrySail's OP "Hanairei Wan-Turn" from "Isekai Wan-Turn Kiru Sisan - Isekai Seikatsu Hajimetemashita" (Isekai Life with My Sister), hey, hey, hey! Yes, yes, yes! and they are doing an ani-song with a chorus. I want these kinds of people to continue to exist. I want them to keep mixing and mingling.

Deguchi: It's a mixed bag, or rather, it's a situation where it's impossible to narrow it down. It's an interesting time we live in. There are quite a lot of hip-hop-like songs. YOASOBI's "Idol" has a clear separation between the melody and the rap-like parts, and I think this sense of balance is the current standard. It's not a good or bad thing, but I think the future holds more and more segmentation. I think that in the future, when we will be able to hold more and more events, more and more different types of music will emerge, and I think that the talent of people who have gone unnoticed until now will be noticed by the public more and more. The artists who sang the theme songs for "Yami Shiba," a piece I used to select before Corona, were, for lack of a better word, not that well-known to the public, but they had exceptional talent, and they are still playing extraordinary performances at small live houses somewhere, unnoticed by people. Once Corona settles down and the number of events increases, I wonder if such people will appear again.

The sharp talent that has been trapped in Corona for the past two or three years and not connected to the outside world will grow in a very strange way and begin to appear in the world. I wonder what would happen if a boy who was stuck at home for three years between entering and graduating from high school were to start DTM. In the past, Hokkaido and other regional cities were like that, and there were many strange bands. So there were no external factors such as "this is what's popular now" or "this is great," so information was not updated, and it was like listening to the same songs you listened to in high school for a long time. That is why Hokkaido and the regional cities of a long time ago were not influenced by their surroundings, but rather their sensibilities were sharpened and new things that no one had ever seen before were formed. I feel that a situation similar to that is happening here in Corona. It is very fun to think that this will spill over into the world of ani-song.

Samejima I have a feeling that I want to promote more people like the super-student who sings "Space Cat Big Bang," the OP of "Kawaisugi Crisis. There are not many male anisong singers nowadays, so in what direction are you going?

Deguchi: If there are not many, on the contrary, I think there are many people who think that is cool. They think that there is too much competition, or that there are too many singers out there, even if they try their best, it is no good. I am sure that the time will come when they will be in demand. And you, Samejima-san?

Samejima Yes, I will be performing an ani-song disco at Nakano Sunplaza on June 22! We are going to destroy Nakano Sun Plaza! We are going to destroy Nakano Sunplaza, and we are looking forward to seeing you all there! ...... is the right way to close the event?

Event Information
Farewell Nakano Sun-plaza Music Festival: Anison Disco - The most exciting Nakano subculture super battle!

Date: Thursday, June 22
Doors open: 18:00 / Concert begins: 19:00
Venue: Nakano Sunplaza
Ticket price: 6,500 yen (regular advance sale), 10,500 yen (tax included) for Premium Seats (with exclusive not-for-sale goods)

<Features
Anison Disco Crew (BANBANBAN Samejima, BANBANBANBAN Yamamoto, Barbarian Tanigawa, Bird Fumiya, Fukui-chan, Niimaki Salmon Noboru, Kobayashi Hiroyuki, Battamon Kawai, Jun Kine, Shunsuke Mochizuki, Yuzuki Aoi and others)

<Acts
(Yuka Nishio, Haruka Mimura, Maiko Irie), REAL AKIBA BOYZ

＜Guest DJ/VJ
Ryuichi Sumikawa, SO-1 His Highness, Rizmani, ScreenSaver

URL: https://ameblo.jp/anisondisco/