However “Learn Together” is an anime song I will always venture back to.
On the other hand, AIRI who provided the ending song “Learn Together” is an artist I am not that familiar with other than listening to the song’s album once ( Puzzle) and being unimpressed by it. It’s sugary sweet lyrics are the cherry on top. It’s high energy, overwhelming cute, and absolutely fitting to the bizarre, rom-com of the title. I argue that where she sounded her best when venturing into more poppy territory was with Kanon x Kanon, with “Koi no Doutei” being my absolute favourite. Kanon Wakeshima has always received a lot of criticism for her movement from gothic to pop, where her atmospheric and dark cello usage became pop princess after she stopped producing music with Malice Mizer’s Mana (a Visual-Kei icon) since her first album released. So of course their name came about quite easily I would imagine. It’s the equivalent to the West’s glam rock. Both genres are known for the artist’s unusual fashion, Oshare-Kei being the colorful side while Visual Kei is often dark but just as androgynous and flamboyant with the big hair and heavy makeup. They’re called Oshare-Kei for being the opposite of Visual Kei. Kanon x Kanon is the duo of Kanon Wakeshima of “still doll” fame from Vampire Knight’s first ending song, and An Cafe’s Kanon, an Oshare-Kei band. This very well may be the most unconventional choice on here. It hits the nail on the head to get you up and dancing, and props to the animators for doing such a grand job in the ending scene to reinforce this! 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku Both tracks of theirs are energetic, exciting and deserving of being opening tracks, despite how much of a banger “Hello, world!” is! “Sugar Song to Bitter Step” is one of the best happy tracks I’ve heard in recent years in anime. The only other time I’ve noticed and loved Unison Square Garden is with another anime tie-in of Tiger & Bunny, providing the incredibly repeatable track of “Orion wo Nazoru”. Before such attention however there was a noticeable blow up in the West with their opening for BBB.īBB uses Bump of Chicken’s “Hello, world!”, the very best single (in my humble opinion of course) in their album Butterflies, and the enjoyment of the anime overall is aided by Unison Square Garden’s “Sugar Song to Bitter Step”. With Bump of Chicken, they’ve been absolutely killing it what with collaborative campaigns from HUNGRY DAYS for the One Piece animated video with their song “Kinen Satsuei” and most recently Pokemon Gotcha! for their song “Acadia”.
I often compare the band to Radwimps for their vocalist and lyricist having the same incredible talent of creating emotionally charged songs through lyrics which are thankfully almost always translated. I put this mostly down to Fujiwara Motoo, the band’s vocalist, guitarist and lyricists for his often poetic and story like lyrics. Ever since 1999, Bump of Chicken have been releasing incredible albums non-stop.