One is All, All is one: FullMetal Alchemist

Hehe... funny how I'm as confident about posting a new album soon as to say "see you tomorrow", and then only show up three days later ! Minna Gomenasai ! :-S I swear I don't get how so many people out there can have a music blog and update it on a daily basis... sometimes twice a day !! Mad props to them... Me, well, I have too many things in my hands right now and the blog, unfortunately for me, is not a priority :-(. Anyway, for today's post I have chosen one of those Soundtrack CDs that actually compile the OP & EDs of a given series... in this case, I picked arguably the biggest anime hit of this century so far, in both Japan and the USA: the TV series of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Fullmetal Alchemist started as a manga in February 2002 and it's still ongoing, getting new fans left and right. Its original popularity was boosted when the 51-episode TV adaptation aired for the first time in Japan in 2003, and specially once it was exported worldwide. Such a frenzy over a series, to my knowledge, had not been seen since Cowboy Bebop times and, even if it finished relatively not long ago, it has already been named a classic in the fandom. And deservedly so ! In a recent poll in Japan, it was voted best liked TV series OF ALL TIME. How wicked is that ?! Well, thanks to outstanding animation, story and likeable characters, FMA managed such top honors in a short period of time.

Fullmetal Alchemist is the story of two brothers living in a parallel universe that looks like early 20th Century Earth, where alchemists are enrolled and trained by armies as powerful soldiers. Edward and Alphonse Elric were children living with their mother (their father, a renowned alchemist, had left them) when the latter died of illness. Desperate, the two siblings attempted to revive her using alchemy, but their inexperience caused something to go horribly wrong: in the process, Edward lost his right arm and a leg, and Alphonse lost his whole body, having to have his soul sealed in a metal armor in order not to be lost forever. Edward, in turn, gets prostethic metal limbs. Since then, they travel around looking for the Philosopher Stone (they should go have a look at Hogwart's ! :-P), which would allow them to remedy what happened to them. In their trip, of course, they cross paths with a lot of memorable characters and villains. This plot summary may look a bit lame, but believe me, the series is worth your time and money.

The CD I'm posting today groups some of the hottest acts in Jpop and Jrock, which have contributed songs for the TV series of Fullmetal Alchemist. The album kicks start with OP1"Melissa", by Porno Graffitti, a Jrock band that started putting out great music in 1999. Yes, that's the band responsible for "Hitori no Yoru", OP of Great Teacher Onizuka. First ED is catchy as hell, and was provided by newcomer Nana Kitade, who recently performed this song and material from her album "18" at last OTAKON expo in the US. OP2 is by a band that needs no introduction... these guys are bigger than huge: L'Arc~en~Ciel, a band that should get their own post as soon as possible, I know. The song, "Ready Steady Go" would become the most famous of this bunch and the symbol of the series. ED2 comes courtesy of female Jpop trio Yellow Generation, while COOL JOKE and Asian Kung Fu Generation -two other Jrock bands to recommend- are responsible for OP3 and OP4 respectively. Finally, ED3 and ED4 were performed by two very popular acts in JR&B: Crystal Kay and Sowelu. Inomarru had the brilliant idea of posting the clips to them all @ YouTube in a single 11-minute file, with English subtitles. He/She really made my life easy ! ^_^ Check out the 4 OPs and then the 4 EDs back to back and get the feel of the series here:

So basically you get four great rock songs, and four laid-back female pop/R&B tracks. Thus, "Fullmetal Alchemist Complete Best", the CD of today, was originally an 8 track release. I chose then to add as a bonus the c/w songs of the singles released by Nana Kitade, Sowelu, Yellow Generation and Crystal Kay. I hope you enjoy those songs as much as the rest of the album.

Now, obeying alchemy's principle of equivalent exchange, I want something of equal importance/value in return for this album : comments ! :-P Don't be lazy-asses and drop a line... It's nice to know you are there.

Current non-Jpop music: Indonesian rock band "Sheila on 7"... check them out !

Download "Sahabat Sejati" / Download "Sephia"

Re-Upload Galore

Hey guys... Until I make up my mind on what to post tomorrow, I have re-uploaded some of the albums whose links had expired for one reason or another... For this re-upload session, I selected B'z, Garnet crow and Hikaru Utada. I'm aware that the Escaflowne and Windaria soundtracks, and the Nanase Aikawa album are down as well. I'll replace those links soon too. Always remember to check the archives of this site for more music. Your downloading will prevent the links from being deleted by the servers. Enjoy these three albums by clicking on the following links that lead to the entries I wrote about those three acts. I'll be back tomorrow !

B'z
Hikaru Utada
Garnet Crow

Anime Music Brilliantine 2006 Part. I

That's right, leechers... shamelessly borrowing the concept of "Brilliantine" from the guys at OC, the following is my own personal selection of what I consider some of the best anime songs that have been gracing the airwaves in Japan during season 2006. Of course, with so much music produced each year, the list could go on and on, but it has to start at some point and I chose the following OPs & EDs because they're quality material and I felt like sharing some NEW music for a change ! Yeah, we'll leave the J-pop antropology for a future post ^_^ Shall we start with the songs, the clips and the brief descriptions of the series they are part of ? This way, please...

To begin with, behold the absolute brilliance of the OP song of the TV series of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni"... It's been a while since I last felt that a song could sum up in just a minute and a half the right atmosphere of a series. And this song does just that: it's creepy to the point of freaking you out, menacing, and the imagery chosen for the clip also hints to the madness of the characters and the sense of dread that pollutes the rural façade of the little town where the events take place. Think "Twin Peaks" gone horribly wrong. "Higurashi..." is based on the popular videogame of the same name, and its animated version premiered in Japan in April of this year. This series is AMAZING (and the score is composed by Kenji Kawai, so you know it's worth grabbing a copy of the soundtrack as well). Definitely not for everybody, though... violence, torture, murder, gore, INSANITY... it's all there in the hands of characters that look in their early teenage years, but the story is compelling, the murder mysteries are absorbing, and the psychological horror is addictive and masterfully executed !! Check it out, whether you have played the game before or not. Here is the OP clip, courtesy of ermitron2 @ YouTube. Again, to me, one of the best of this year:

The song is performed by Eiko Shimamiya, of I've fame (mental note: do a post about I've... maybe post the soundtrack to "Air" ^_^), who has a stunning voice that is distorted by the producers in the right places of the song for conveying a bizarre and eerie feeling to the song. The ED of the series is "Why, or Why Not", by Hiroyuki Oshima feat. Katakiri Rekka. It's a very nice song melodically and the animation of it is also beautiful in its own right, but the main problem that I have with that ED is that it is in English... and, well, let's admit it: none of these two can pronounce a single line in English correctly. Very soon you feel like you're hearing mumbling that could be Hungarian, Tehuelche or Korean ! I'm sorry, but if you're taking the time and effort to compose a song in English and you succeed in it being picked for a TV series, have the decency to have it sung by people who can actually pronounce the words as they should 'cause that song sounds like a mess to me... Still, if you don't let that bother you, it's a very nice song and the OP anyway more than compensates for the ED's weak points. Judge for yourselves.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
OP: "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" by Eiko Shimamiya
ED: "Why or Why Not" by Hiroyuki Oshima feat. Rekka Katakiri

Next we have ZEGAPAIN, one of the latest offerings in the giant mecha subcategory of anime (it premiered last April as well). ZEGAPAIN tells the story of yet another teenage guy forced to pilot yet another giant robot used by yet another secret organization that is fighting yet another alien race... Mmm... pretty standard, right ? Well, honestly I only watched episode 1 of the series and though it had above average production values, the story in the initial episode wasn't enough to hook me. If you saw it, feel free to warn me if I'm missing a classic ! ^_^ Anyway, this blog is not about the TV series themselves but about the music, and in that department ZEGAPAIN excels. The OP song, "Kimi he Mukau Hikari" is the latest single from one of my favorite artists of all time: Miss Akino Arai.

Here is the OP clip courtesy of songoku7777 @ YouTube. You've got to admit that the song is beautiful, though odd for what everybody is used to hear in a mecha series... The digital effects of the birds, butterflies and fish are really attractive, don't you think ?

The ED song, unlike the case of "Higurashi...", is another masterpiece to my ears. It's called "Little Goodbye" and it is performed by a pop act that goes by the name of ROCKY CHACK (?!) (Don't ask...). I won't deny that the reason I love this ED as well is because Mr. Hisaki Hogaari (Akino's long time collaborator and arranger) is also behind the song and you can perfectly picture it being sung by Akino herself instead ! But to be fair, the song sounds great enough with ROCKY CHACK on board. I wouldn't be surprised if Akino composed the song as well, because sometimes she likes to step down and write for other artists collaborating in the same projects as her.

ZEGAPAIN
OP: "Kimi he Mukau Hikari" by Akino Arai (I LOVE HER !!! ^_^)
ED: "Little Goodbye" by ROCKY CHACK

The turn now is to introduce you to another CLAMP creation and one of my favorite mangas right now: XXXholic. No, it doesn't have any connection with porn, so don't fret and go out googling searching for images of it !! :-P The manga is gorgeous, yet the animated adaptation has been criticized for not being on par with other animes of the CLAMP factory. I have to agree with the series not having a consistent quality but as for the character design it is also true that for this series CLAMP introduced a new drawing style that has the characters looking completely disproportioned (small heads, looooong arms, etc) so what may look like amateur animation may actually be a faithful adaptation of the source material... XXXholic tells the story of a young boy that meets a witch who can grant wishes. He's desperate to get rid of his ability to see spirits, so the witch makes him work for her until his labour equals the price of the services he's asking from her. As we meet Yuuko's customers, we explore the weaknesses that plague human nature. It's a nice story and reminds me a bit of Tokyo Babylon, a previous CLAMP creation.

Here is the OP clip, courtesy of Asuki88 @ YouTube. Another great combination of music and animation, even if the lyrics of the song (19sai by Suga Shikao) do not match AT ALL with the subject of the TV series... oh, well... :-P

The soundtrack composed by S.E.N.S. is outstanding, but today I'm offering to you just the OP and the two EDs released up to now. I'm not quite feeling the first one, but the second one, performed by rock band BUCK-TICK (again... don't ask...) is great. I've had a soft spot for them ever since they performed the great "Gessekai" as OP of the TV series "Nightwatcher" ^_^.

XXXholic
OP: "19sai" by Suga Shikao
ED1: "Reason" by FONOGENICO
ED2: "Kagerou" by BUCK-TICK

And finally we have the first OP & ED of "NANA", the story of two girls (both named Nana) that meet by chance on a train to Tokyo and end up sharing a flat and becoming great friends despite their many, many differences. Yes, you guessed it right. This is the adaptation from a shojo manga (comic with a young female target), but the author (Ai Yazawa) is not only an amazing artist but also a great storyteller and guys most probably won't feel embarassed giving it a try (and could probably learn a thing or two about female psychology in fact ^_^). It's not just the main characters trying to find love in a cheesy story. These are two strong character pursuing their dreams in the big town and trying to make it on their own. "Paradise Kiss", another one of Yazawa's most famous mangas, has a similar take on life and was recently adapted to animation as well, and you can check a glimpse of it in my previous Tommy February6 post of last June.

The last clip of today is thus the OP of the TV series NANA, which premiered... in April !! (Maybe I should've told you guys that the anime season starts in that month... :-P). Here you have it courtesy of UsagiTachi @ YouTube:

The song is "rose" by Anna Tsuchiya... who performed this song and appears in the video as one of the main characters (Nana Oosaki), the rock chick striving to make a name for herself in the punk world. The ED is a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL ballad sung by OLIVIA in the character of Reira, the leader of a band that is the rival of Nana's. Do yourselves a favor and check out these songs.

NANA
OP: "rose" by Anna Tsuchiya
ED: "A little pain" by OLIVIA

After the success of both singles, these singers put out a second OP and ED each, but I couldn't get my hands on them yet, so minna gomennasai ! :-P

As always, I hope you enjoy the music and let me know what you think. Keep watching this space for updates, even if there's only one each 5, 10 or 15 days... I appreciate your loyalty ! ^_^