I was incredibly skeptical about actually opening my Bakemonogatari LE BD boxset. But some of you that follow me on Twitter talked me into it and talked me into making a video of it as well. You asked, and you shall receive.

Day 3: Usny’s Top 5 Ending themes of 2012

Let me tell you all a story. A few weeks ago, it was discovered that a friend of mine had a paltry two gigabytes of music. I was taught that maintaining a healthy metabolism with such a small library of music is impossible past three years of age. Thus, and emergency music transfusion was arranged and several of us donated our libraries for the sake of our friend’s well being. Knowing that he would not care for some of my music, I pruned down the copy of my library I was giving him. That’s when I realized that I have a metric ass-ton of anime music.

I don’t consider this a bad thing, at least not until other people get into the elevator and I feel a compulsion to turn Super Affection down to near inaudible volumes. On the contrary, I love it when a series has a good opening and/or ending, as they make each episode all the more enjoyable. In these cases, I can’t wait for the singles to be released, even if the show’s OP or ED are the only enjoyable things about the show *cough*Moyashimon Returns*cough*. 2012 has definitely been a great year in terms of anime music and I’ve compiled my top five favorite ending themes after hours and hours of listening.

#5: DAYS of DASH - Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Aside from being one of the most underrated shows of the fall season, Sakurasou also has a great ending theme. I love DAYS of DASH, even despite its embarrassingly Engrish name. The rock elements and vocals give is this inspirational feel that always puts a spring in my step when I listen to it. It fits the series as a whole too because it reflects Sorata’s perseverance as he continues to push to become a game designer and not be crushed under the talent of his fellow housemates. That maid/waitress outfit that Nanami appears in also works wonders.

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Everyone has been blogging about episode 8 of Nisemonogatari since it aired last week. They’re writing about the tooth brushing, and the… well, there’s not much else to it. People are writing walls of text on why they hate it and how this is a sign of the end of the world later this year, or why they love it because it’s freaking awesome. Not many people, however, are writing about something else that happened earlier in the episode: the new opening.

(I don’t expect that video to last long because YouTube has been totally bullshit about having OP/ED’s)

I am a huge fan of the Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari opening themes, both the music and the animation. I believe that this franchise has the best collective set of OP’s ever. Every time a new arc begins, the thing I’m looking forward to the most is the new opening, and it invariably impresses me. “Marshmallow Justice”, the OP associated with “Karen Bee”, immediately sold Nisemonogatari to me, and now we get “Platinum Disco”, Tsukihi’s OP.

“Platinum Disco” took a few watches to really grow on me. Then intro that takes up the first 20 seconds of the song is an absolute earworm that I can listen to all day. The dance that Tsukihi does with her arms is also unbearably cute. This opening stresses cuteness, making it comparable to “Ren’ai Circulation”, Nadeko’s opening back in Bakemonogatari. The song is girly and childish, Iguchi Yuka’s specialty, while the animation depicts Tsukihi dancing along with a 2-step. kyaaaaa~

A striking motif in this opening is symmetry. Whether this is some kind of symbolism or purely an artistic decision remains to be seen, but it’s interesting enough. The song also has some traditional Japanese flavor to it, especially the bridge, which is a very familiar melody to anyone whose ever seen an anime with a shrine in it. The animation is presented with this washed out film grain effect, furthering the traditional, old-school flavor of the OP.

Notice the bird on the left. That motif should kinda of be self-explanatory.

“Platinum Disco” is yet another addition to X-monogatari‘s stellar collection of opening themes. At least all that money is being put towards a good cause.

Even better than the original, Aura Qualic proves once again that he is totally awesome.

Go to about 1:20 into the movie ( around 1/3 through).

This has been making its rounds around the internet when I saw it yesterday. 1.6 millions views already. I love this kid. He just totally rocks the song, shits on American Idol, and makes Chinese talent shows awesome again. Look at him work the mic a little towards the end. This is, undoubtedly, unquestionably be the most awesome things I’ve ever seen a guy with a bowl cut ever do.

If there’s one genre everyone knows about in anime, it’s magical girls. From Sailor Moon to Pretty Cure, magical girls are a genre that have come a long way (since 1966 actually). Everyone’s probably seen at least one or two of these shows, especially if you got Cartoon Network when you were a kid. Mahou shoujos all share some similar characteristics like cute revealing costumes, the fact that they are usually young girls, magical powers that always seem to be just good enough, and secret identities. Think of Superman, except a little girl and without that underwear outside the bodysuit.

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If there’s one thing that YouTube is is absolutely indispensable for, it’s the combo video. Combo videos are basically player made videos to kinda show off how good they are at a particular game. Occasionally they also are meant to teach something or show off a combo (hence the name) but often times it’s just showing off massive skill on the internet for people to gawk at. Obviously the people performing the stunts will have their names plastered, there will be random hardcore rock music as background music, and only the most flashy moves are shown. They are also usually Japanese, because their drinking water gives them added skill in everything they do. You know, kinda like this.

If you actually needed that last paragraph because you have never seen a combo video I suggest you come out from under that rock. There are of course a wide array of combo videos, ranging from the impressive to the rather inane yet still hilarious. Note how music is a defining characteristic in combo videos of all types.

However there is nothing as seemingly mundane yet delightfully entertaining, jaw-dropping, and downright hilarious as this one right here, which was posted in four years ago. Looks like I’m the one under the rock…

I mean, aside from hardcore J-rock that makes the video hilarious is the fact that these people who spin pens have aliases. Not just any aliases, AWESOME aliases like aaaa and T Å я O. Along with the downright unbelievable pen spinning tricks themselves, the slick transitions and text intro effects are just the right touch to make this video give off that strange feeling of finding something ridiculously funny, wildly entertaining, and impressive at the same time. Finally, the credits there they show who spun what kind of pen, is pure gold. I mean if I was a pro pen spinner, I logically imagine that it would be important what kind of pen to spin but nevertheless, the idea of a G-3 mod designed for optimal spinning is hilarious to me.

Ahhh you never know what you’ll find on the internet any given day.

Sora no Woto is a fun and interesting show that everyone is talking about this season. I particularly like the opening theme and the neat visuals that accompany. Sora no Woto is directed by painfully underrated director Kanbe Mamoru, who was also the director of Elfen Lied as well as episodes of Baccano!, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Ichigo Mashimaro, among others. His talent speaks for itself, as does his apparent love for the works of Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter who was part of the Symbolist movement. His works are very distinctive and like many other Symbolist paintings, often come off as fucking weird. One of his main subjects was the female body and sexuality. His paintings often feature women in rather erotic poses or situations as well as ample phallic imagery. I’m pretty sure he was pretty popular at 19th century Comiket. Kanbe based two of his shows’ opening themes off of Klimt’s works: Elfen Lied and Sora no Woto.

Well, lets take a look shall we? (You can click all images for full size)

'The Kiss' circa 1907

As you see here in a juxtaposition of a frame from, Elfen Lied‘s opening theme was clearly inspired by Klimt. One of Klimt’s most famous works, The Kiss, is shown here. Two people embracing is one of Klimt’s central themes and embracing couples appear in many of his later works. The Kiss is central to Klimt’s expression of power through liberation and intimacy. (more…)

This has been making its way around the internet recently. Someone took bits of 300 different anime songs (OPs, EDs, inserts, character songs, you name it) from the last couple of years and made a video that you can quiz yourself on! I just got a notepad and pen and kept tally while listening to this in the background surfing the web. If you have a random 30 minutes lying around, I recommend trying it out, it’s really fun. As the title implies, if you got more than 270, your life is over.

Of 300 songs, I got 96, which I guess is average. Of them, 41 were physically in my music library, the rest I’ve heard and can name either anime or title. The plethora of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei helped me a lot, but I’ve heard so many of the melodies for the ones I didn’t get I’ve just never seen the anime so I don’t know the title for most of them. Curse me for not watching enough anime. Well, knock yourself out, I’ll post again soon.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Ten epic trainwrecks
Nine blogs a’ burning
Eight endless stories
Seven orbs of light
Six pounds of doujin
Five ending themes
Four pretty maids
Three liquid kisses
Two mahjong tiles
and Mio saying ‘moe moe kyun’

So kevo’, what are you going to make fun of here on your tenth day of Christmas? Your Endless Eight post was a bit too tame, so you’re really going to lay into something now aren’t you? What’s it going to be? The hilariously baffling ending of Akikan? Maybe Kampfer? Queen’s Blade sounds like a pretty good bet, too, but isn’t that a tad too easy? No, my friends, I shall not be singling out those shows today. Sit down, my friends, as today I shall tell you a story of a piece of anime-related media that was released in 2009 that was so bad, so utterly, speechlessly terrible that the memories it left me with have been etched so deeply in my heart that I have to consider it one of my most memorable moments in 2009. Yes, my friends, that one.

Twelve Moments in Anime 2009 #3: Dragonball Evolution

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