Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Because I have my own needs!

I have done this a year ago at the boards of Naruto Fan so I figured, why won’t I post the awards here for this year? The rules are pretty simple, it has to be an song that is a part of an anime and its single has to be release this year. For example: The song “Velonica” by Aqua Timez may aired this year, but its single is yet to be released, so it’s not eligible. That being said, here are some of the smaller awards, leading up to the main awards.

Rookie Award:
- Shuhei Kita
- pigstar
- Inoue Joe
- Kana Nishino
- NICO TOUCHES THE WALLS

Winner:
- Inoue Joe: The reason why I gave the award to Inoue Joe because he is the very first artist I have heard that sang and English and actually made some sense, not to mention he has a great voice.

Best Double:
- Shuhei Kita
- FLOW
- UVERworld
- the brilliant green\tommy heavenly6
- ORANGE RANGE

Winner:
- FLOW: I bet Aniplex were thinking that since FLOW’s WORD OF THE VOICE wasn’t popular since Persona wasn’t a great success, they thought of putting their next song WORLD END as the second opening for the new season of Code Geass. Either way, FLOW has done great job compensating me for not having any anime songs last year with two great ones, that is the only reason why they topped UVERworld.

Best themes in one anime:
- Naruto Shippuuden
- Code Geass R2
- Soul Eater
- Gintama
- Gundam 00

Winner:
Gundam 00: When it came to overall quality, Gundam 00 had it. The best songs from the beginning of the year were easily “Ash Like Snow” by the brilliant green and “Friends” by Stephanie. Later, UVERworld did the opening for the second season which was stellar as well, and while Prototype was okay, I still found it easy reward this year.

Best songs:

20. Porno Graffitti – Koyoi Tsuki ga Miezu Tomo

Porno Graffitti have surprised me. They gave us GTO’s OP in 2000, Fullmetal Alchemist’s OP in 2003, Ayakashi Ayashi’s ED in 2006 so I would imagine a new song in 2009. BUT, we got one sooner, and it is an ending to a Bleach movie. Really? It was as surprising as L’arc~en~ciel doing a Naruto OP. The song is dark and it fits the mood of the movie well.

19. LM.C – 88

God tell me why this song is named 88? Maybe it’s the number of times one gets tired of it? Either way it’s a nice theme, but like many great songs I have on this list, it ends too quickly, even the vocals of the anime version are very limited. Either way, while not as great as “Boys and Girls”, LM.C’s other Reborn! theme, it’s still cool and definitely more serious.

18. Ikimono Gakari – Blue Bird

Aoi Aoi ano sora. You know a Japanese song is great if you memorize the words… in Japanese. Ikimonogakari have been around for a while and their Naruto theme song was definitely a change from the somewhat comical “distance” (although I like it). Its main flaw? Aired on a filler season.

17. the Brilliant Green – Ash Like Snow

I know I placed it quite low on the list, but it’s only because I burnt that song to death. It’s amazing how an opening that succeeded a L’arc~en~ciel opening is regarded as a superior one. To me, I prefer Daybreak’s Bell, but Ash Like Snow is great too.

16. surface – Sunao na Niji

Last year I gave surface’s Yume no Tsuzuki e the “song of the year” award. While Sunao na Niji is a soothing and serene song, it is not nearly as memorable as “Yume” was last year. It even aired on the most popular shounen show, Naruto Shippuuden, and yet if I try to reminisce about the theme songs, most people don’t remember it, which is sad, because it reminds me the 5th ED of the original show, Ima Made Nando mo. I just hope that surface would do an OP for a change and will get more fans, they deserve the recognition.

15. pigstar – Kimi=hana

Shounen-ai or not, the one thing that should be a consensus regarding Junjou Romantica is that the opening songs rock. Pigstar had two songs for the show, but the first one is the one that sticks with you. It is so popular that I see hundreds of fangirls on youtube covering it. As for me, I’d be fine with the mp3 and not watching bishies walk a flowers bloom from their footsteps.

14. KELUN – CHU-BURA

KELUN is a band I didn’t really count because I wasn’t the biggest fan of SIGNAL, their Gintama ED. However I started to like it and along came CHU-BURA, an upbeat opening for Bleach that pretty much skyrocketed the band’s popularity, and for a good reason. Same problem with Blue Bird though, the song aired on a filler season, and even worse is that all the episodes of the season were fillers unlike BB. At least unlike most openings this season, the song was actually longer than 4 minutes.

13. Inoue Joe – CLOSER

If the song was longer it’d probably make it higher, but as it is, CLOSER fits well with Shikamaru Shippuuden. The reason why he sings so well in English is because of his American origin, but that doesn’t stop him or the song to sound any less than epic.

12. Lil’B – Orange

Yes it sounds like a bar-mitzva music at the beginning and yes, the cover looks like it’s some washed-up hip hop, which may be half-way true. But Orange is a fun song to listen to and despite the fact it is 5 minutes, it’s hard even to notices its long, unlike Gallop by Pe’zmoku that is 5 minutes as well, but 3 of them are instrumentals.

11. Orange Range – Shiawase Neiro

I bet people expected me to put O2 there, and while that’s a great song, I liked Shiawase Neiro a little bit more. The irony is that the full version, despite the long instrumental segments, is superior to the TV version, but I still wished they had an extra verse there.

10. Kana Nishino – Style

After “I wanna be”, I can’t really imagine that song in Soul Eater, and quite frankly it doesn’t fit at all. But after listening more and watching Kana Nishino moving her hips in the PV makes it all the more adorable and much more playable than the song that preceded it.

9. FLOW – World End

I think the only reason why I haven’t been a fan of WORLD END as much as COLORS is because it’s far less powerful, especially the chorus. That being said, it doesn’t make it bad. I still finding myself remembering it more than I remember O2.

8. UVERworld – Hakanaku mo towa wo Kanashi

In a typical UVERworld tradition, I expected UVERworld to only release anime singles in the spring season, but they pulled a FLOW by releasing one a month ago. Hakanaku is more reminiscent of the older UVERworld songs that end for no explained reason, but this one fared better than either D-tecnolife and dare I say: Colors of the Heart.

7. Tommy Heavenly6 – PAPERMOON

It’s no secret I didn’t like resonance. It’s not bad, but it’s just traditional T.M. Revolution style. Tommy Heavenly, instead of doing something happy like “Pray” (from Gintama), did something a lot darker. The opening of Soul Eater itself is very enigmatic in its scenes, but that made the song even a bigger impact than before.

6. Diggy Mo – Bakusou Yume Uta

Oh Diggy Mo. Your voice and unintelligible rap sounds make you as likable as time passes by. I didn’t know what to expect when the ending theme aired, but maybe the fact the opening wasn’t ready by the time made the song more prominent in the mind of people. Whatever reason, this is my favorite song that came from Soul Eater.

5. UVERworld – Gekidou

Another UVERworld entry. The reason why this one is rated higher than Hakanaku is because it actually ends with a normal chorus and it’s longer than most of UVERworld songs. The only problem is the 45 second build up that doesn’t contribute anything, but thankfully with the help of an audio program I managed to overcome this problem. This is definitely my favorite anime opening that UVERworld has ever done, and I know it’s a very bold statement, but the energy of the song and the fact the rap segment actually fits perfectly makes it a winner in my book.

4. NICO TOUCHES THE WALLS – Broken Youth

I have to say that this is THE ending theme song of the year. For one, it had the best animation in an ending theme, fitting perfectly with the song and the whole samurai theme of Naruto and Sasuke. Two, the song itself is just great. If I had any complaints it may be against the band’s name… Nico Touches the Walls? Isn’t it a little odd they showed up right after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV?

3. Knotlamp – Last Train

I know I have been saying that I hate Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s compared to the other adaptations, and while it gotten a bit better, it is still a bad show. That being said, I did mention the opening song, Kizuna by Kra, was the only bright spot. The song was good, but Last Train is excellent. It so good it has two version: English and Japanese. The English version isn’t very intelligible but because of the fast and catchy melody, you don’t even mind that. While the anime is stuck in a rut, at least this song make it shine if only this time.

2. DOES – Donten

Up until that point, Gintama’s theme songs, openings and endings, were pretty much upbeat and happy. Donten just throws all that away, and like Shura before that, it’s dark, gritty and easily the most bad-ass song of the year. However, like After Dark last year, it ends too soon, and I really wish it’d be longer than just 3 minutes. Either way, do yourself a favor and at least see the opening animation to Gintama and dare to tell me the song isn’t cool. It’s impossible.

1. FLOW – Word of the Voice

Is a FLOW song winning song of the year? How preposterous is that?! I have to say that unlike COLORS two years ago, which seemed like an obvious choice for everyone, WORD OF THE VOICE isn’t like that. In fact, I bet most people would thing I’d go with WORLD END. The reason why WORD won is the fact it is darker, the verses and chorus fit perfectly and even the animation they used in persona was cool to watch, albeit not the best one. You know a song is great if I put it as a ringtone on my cell phone for 8 months and not getting tired of it until this day. Congratiulations FLOW, you have done it again! Can’t wait for your new album next month!