10 hot anime songs to liven up the first summer in 2025! Hiroyuki Deguchi's "Just Shut Up and Listen to Anime Songs! in 2019 Summer"!

Hello to the 10 million anime song fans in Japan. I am Hiroyuki Deguchi, a wandering bassist and DJ. I'm going to recommend 10 songs based on my own subjective selection after listening to all the theme songs of the new season's anime. Here it is, the Summer 2019 issue of "Just Shut Up and Listen to Anime Songs!

This is the third summer since I started this column, and after three editions, I feel that it has become more and more documented. In fact, this column has been surprisingly useful for me when I am asked "What anime was playing at that time? After three years or so, my memory is sharpened and there is a clear distinction between "what I remember" and "what I don't remember," but after a year or two, my memory becomes muddled because I vaguely remember the entirety of the anime. In such a case, a column like this would be very useful! I realized this. By myself.

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The trend that I saw in the past two years of summer anime songs was that there were always songs that were easily recognizable as summer songs. 2017's "Aho Girl" OP "Zenryoku☆Summer! There were other songs and works that I thought were summer songs. These two songs in particular are high-tension songs that are typical of the summer season, and I am sure that many of you will remember them.

Compared to other seasons, the summer season is more thematic than other seasons because the impression of the season does not change depending on the region. Summer is hot, which is the same throughout Japan, but the cold and harshness of winter inevitably differs between heavy snowfall areas and Okinawa. For this reason, there are many summer-themed works and music especially in summer.

From this point of view, I had the impression that there were not many songs with a strong sense of seasonality or "summer" as a predominant theme this season. There are a few, but they are not as strong as "Look, it's summer! It's summer, summer! Hyahaha!" I don't feel that kind of aggressiveness. I thought it was more natural, a normal part of summer, and that kind of casualness is what made this season so summery.

Here are the 10 songs I selected for the 2019 summer anime songs!

The World's Strongest by a Commonplace Occupation

OP] FLARE/Void_Chords feat.

I 'm a brave girl, I might even be able to defeat the Demon King for my daughter's sake.

[ED] This is brave, but sorry! /Dale (CV. Okamoto Nobuhiko)

To the beasts that were once gods.

ED] HHOOWWLL/Gero×ARAKI

Cop craft

OP] Rakuen Toshi / OISIMASAYOSHI

The waste of a high school girl.

Nozomi Tanaka (CV: Chinatsu Akasaki), Akane Kikuchi (CV: Haruka Tomatsu), Shiori Sagimiya (CV: Aki Toyosaki)

It would be wrong to ask for encounters in a dungeon II.

ED] A small festival / sora tob sakana

Do you like the mother whose normal attack is a total attack and attacks twice?

[OP] Iyayo iyayomosuki no uchi! /spiras pika

A Certain Scientific One-way Street

[ED] Parole / sajou no hana

Dr. STONE

ED] LIFE/Rude-alpha

Yami Shiba (7th season)

ED] Kessanai/betcover!

This time, my intuition was so clear that I selected 10 songs almost without hesitation. However, when I look at the list calmly, it is quite an interesting lineup, and I am proud to say that it is a very good selection.

First of all, "For the sake of my daughter, I might even be able to defeat the Demon King. ED "This is brave, but sorry! (The song is a song about the "brave" and "sorry!").

One of the strongest songs that has been the motif of many anime songs over the past few years without limiting the season is "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, and in a broad sense, this song is also a lineage of the Jackson family. However, what is interesting here is that it is not directly descended from the Jackson family (so-called "old school funk"), but rather it is derived from the Shibuya-kei of the 1990s, which is very current. The term "Shibuya-kei" has become too abstract and unintelligible, so to put it in a very limited way, it is not Flipper's Guitar, but Kenji Ozawa-style play. While the song itself is a fairly sophisticated pop song, it is intentionally sung in a way that is just on the edge of "not singing well," and the gap between the two functions well as the heart of the song, which I feel is very Ozawa Kenji-like.

It is a sharp song that has the body of a recent royal road anime song, but actually hides nuances that catch your heart.

The song that seems ordinary at first listen, but has a mysterious hook upon closer inspection is "Sasayaka na Shukusai," the ED of "Dungeon ni Metsumo wo Motomete wo Motomeru wa Misakana Shukusaika II" (It's Wrong to Ask to Meet in a Dungeon II).

It seems like a normal, cute song, but doesn't it seem a little strange? It's like it's not quite right at the edges of the song, or maybe it's just weird. As a whole, it is a very pop idol song. However, there are a few strange sounds here and there. This is where the secret of the song's addictiveness lies. There is what is called dissonance in this song. The scale of the instruments in charge of decorative sounds called "uwamono," such as chimes, is intentionally misplaced in tone. We do not know to what extent the composer intentionally hazed them, but we can see from the ensemble that the sounds are constructed with quite precise calculations. The madness behind the surface cuteness is the essence of the fun of "sora tob sakana" and the way to listen to this song.

The worldview of the song "FLARE," the OP of "Commonplace Occupation, World's Strongest," is the densest of the season, in my opinion.

Many of you may know Void_Chords as the creators of many edgy songs, including the music for "Princess Principal," which aired in 2017. The songs are constructed with advanced music theory with an electro and drum'n'bass underpinning, English lyrics, and arrangements that are a mass of individuality that deviate from the format of recent anime songs. The mannerisms are clearly different from those of a typical uplifting song, which may confuse you at first, but once your ears get used to it and you know what you are listening to, it is profound. Interesting gothic stringed instruments overlap with electro music. In a sense, the world view of the song is so prominent that the opening image of the anime feels like a different world.

The ED "HHOOWWLLL" from"To the Beasts Who Were Once Gods" strongly pulls you into its aesthetic worldview in a sense.

It is a requiem-like song that combines tenderness and solemnity, as if to forgive all. It is also in tune with the worldview of the animated work, so the worldview is felt more deeply. What is interesting is that although the overall arrangement is gothic and Western, the main melody and ornamental scale are Japanese melodies, so you suddenly feel as if you are hearing a Japanese children's song from within the orchestra. It is a sense of statelessness, or perhaps a sense of daydreaming. It is a wonderfully beautiful and fragile song.

Next is "Rakuen Toshi, " the OP of "Copcraft, " and I would like to focus on the peculiarity of this song.

It is a song by Oishi Masayoshi, who is now at the forefront of the anime song world and is not an exaggeration to say that he is a leader. However, this song does not have the so-called "OISIMA SAYOSHI style. One of the characteristics of his recent songs is a pattern of descending chords on a chromatic scale, but this is completely absent.

It has an adult atmosphere, which is the complete opposite of the strangely pop music he has been working on. It is also quite interesting that the chorus has a Showa-esque, "mundane" melody while also showing a glimpse of respect for Yuji Ohno, who worked on the music for Lupin the Third. It is a song that has enough impact to let us know the breadth of the artist Oishi Masayoshi and the depth of his talent.

The song I found most interesting this season was "Ring! Moon! dass! cry!", the OP of "The Waste of a High School Girl".

Recently, there have been a lot of rap songs in both kids' and late-night anime. However, this song is not one of those "songs born from generalized benefits," but can be read as a genealogy of 90s rap.

The fun of this song lies in the so-called "excessive groove peculiar to kyara-songs. It would be too blunt to say that it is a one-shot flirtation, but while it uses rap, which is suitable for carrying messages, thoughts, and beliefs, there is no meaning or thought in the song. There is no meaning, but there is meaning. There is no meaning, but there is meaning. It sounds like a Zen question, but this is also a characteristic of "interesting rap" such as EAST END x YURI and Schadaraparr. The opening animation also has a whiff of 90s subculture, so it would be an overstatement to say that the song is an intentional expression of 90s meaningless rap, something like a one-shot rap song.

Anyway, this song reminds us that the sense of invincibility of high school girls is always strange and funny.

There are many different types of songs this season, but the one that I can safely listen to as a standard anime song is "Do you like your mother who usually attacks twice with a total attack? The OP of "Iyayo Iyayomosukinochi!" is a standard song that can be listened to safely.

Standard and safe to listen to, but that does not mean it is uninteresting. The cute melody and tight rhythm are a perfect match, and the edgy synth riffs are memorable, with many casual gimmicks to keep the listener entertained. Above all, the chorus has a strong destructive power. The unexpectedness of the modulation at a daring point, which seems to be a straight progression, is addictive. This skill of incorporating it into the song casually, without making it sound like a gimmick, can be said to be a characteristic of recent anime songs as a whole.

The choreography in the chorus, which may or may not be cute or weird, is also very good. I actually like this kind of thing.

In terms of recent trends, "Parole," the ED of "Toaru Kagaku no One-way Street," is an example of how recent anime songs have adopted a band sound.

The overall sound is a don-shari sound with the midrange missing, and the bass marks the delicious part around the missing midrange. The electro elements are only a subtle addition to the overall sound, but the effect is outstanding. The break position and length are just right so that the chorus can run as fast as it can go. To sum it up in one word, "recent," would be too rough, but to put it bluntly, this song contains all the material that "everyone wants to put in so much nowadays, but only one or so can be put in". Normally, this song would be out of order if I included this much material, but for some reason, it is not out of order at all. This is an extraordinary thing. Let's tremble at the high level of arranging ability on a different dimension.

Whenever a new work is broadcast, this column always selects "Yami Shiba. This season's ED is "Kessetsu ", another great song this season.

I am amazed at how Yakishibai always manages to use such exceptional talent. There is a strange and intoxicating feeling that seems to grab you but doesn't grab you, that seems to say something about the essence of what is going on but is being left in the dark. This is a bit of a shock. Perhaps dub is more accurate than post-rock. I can feel a kind of "quiet madness" that I have felt from Fishmans and Yimmering Empire, boiling over. I wonder if most people in the world are still unaware of it, or if there is no official Youtube page at all. I think they are going to be the "eyes" of the Japanese music industry in a sense, so it's time to start paying attention, music freaks.

Lastly, my favorite song of the season is "LIFE," the ED of "Dr. Stone.

Wow, it's cool! It's so cool! Everything is cool!

I've got a vocabulary bug from so much, but it's really cool (how many times do I have to say it?).

The popularity, the precision of the rapping, the strength of the voice, it's all amazing, and most amazing of all is the sound. You can hear all the instruments properly. It seems obvious, but this is very difficult to do. In the case of an animation song, the most important part is the song. In the extreme, it is sometimes possible to suppress the sound of the surrounding instruments for the sake of the song as a method of arrangement. Such a technique is common in Japanese music, and since our ears are accustomed to such a balance and familiar with it, our ears unconsciously try to hear the song.

Therefore, "all the instruments can be heard in full" as in this song surpasses other anime songs and Japanese music (many songs nowadays have a balance in which all can be heard) in terms of the density of the amount of information.

So it's cool! Really, very cool!

If you can, I recommend buying the CD and listening to it with big speakers or slightly better headphones or earphones.

These are my 10 song selections for this season!

Did you find any of your favorite works or songs?

Following this spring, I had the impression that the overall trend of anime songs has been changing a little bit this summer. I am now looking forward to seeing what kind of changes will happen next in the fall.

See you next time!

(Text by Hiroyuki Deguchi)