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As for Nekomimi Mode, the one thing I will always remember from THAT opening is the short clip with Hazuki as a sea turtle and eggs popping out of her...well...posterior (which was quietly removed from the opening after the first or second episode).

For me, the best of that year has to be Identity by Sacra from the anime Shura no Toki. It's still for me one of my all-time favorites and definitely the most underrated.

And speaking of Beet the Vandel Buster, I really liked its first OP too

2005 was a big year for several of my favourite anime TV series of the century, like Strawberry Marshmallow and Kamichu!. 2004 was, in comparison, fairly barren for the sorts of shows I'm into but one show that stands out for me is the recently-licensed Windy Tales, one of the most healing of all the iyashikei anime, so, quite obviously, it needs a calming, sedate, nostalgic opening song and "Kaze no Shi -Windy Tales-" by Yuu is just what the iyashikei doctor prescribed.

Last edited by omiya on Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

Lord Geo wrote:

There are some OPs that, I feel, easily match up with the ones Hope listed, though:

All of Angela's songs from Fafner are brilliant - Shangri La, Proof, Separation, Peace of Mind, Fly Me To The Sky, 果て無きモノローグ, ... haven't bought the CD's of the Fafner Exodus songs yet.

Quote:

"Voyage" from Fantastic Children

This lead me to the ending theme 水のまどろみ by Origa (gone far too soon): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epmzDxsS4kc

Quote:

"Samurai Crew" from Samurai Gun

The insert song from Samurai Gun "ずっと...一緒/負けない～一途バージョン～" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSys95NenCI was the first CD single release by Minori Chihara.

Quote:

Ring ni Kakero 1

...which lead me to the ED "Take My Soul Forever" by Psychic Lover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iMgFsKixFU

Angela, Minori Chihara and Psychic Lover continue to a big part of anime music since then.

Thanks for those tracks!

Great Set List this week. The best part was that without a list I couldn't name series specifically from 2004, so each entry was a surprise.
I prefer the first opening to GitS:SAC to the second, but it's still a great song. Excellent choice for number one.
I didn't have any problems with the player this week. Looking forward to next week Smile

I know it was wasn't a popular show, but I always enjoyed the Windy Tales opening, it's an underrated gem and it had an awesome opening theme song.

^ I submitted (and voted for) "Windy Tales" to the poll as "Other" but it doesn't seem to be the sort of poll where user additions show up as options.

The Set List is a very cool feature that I didn't even know existed until this thread. Look forward to future eppies.

(And yes, spoiler[Paranoia Agent] OP is indisputable at No. 1.)

Tenchi wrote:

^ I submitted (and voted for) "Windy Tales" to the poll as "Other" but it doesn't seem to be the sort of poll where user additions show up as options.

Yeah, they don't automatically show up on the poll because then I would have to keep pruning off doubles, things that don't qualify, troll answers, etc. Ain't nobody got time for that. But the vote counts, and will be tallied along with everything else and even ranked if a specific Other option gets a lot of write-ins.

Dream Island Obsessional Park, as an anime opening theme, is the best of all time. As a Hirasawa soundtrack song, it's the spiritual sequel to Forces. While with that song Hirasawa remade a song that was then 3 years old, with Dream Island Obsessional Park he picked one of his "standards", 1986's Zebra, redone in its most blatant incarnation. Hirasawa's albums (especially the OSTs) are, to varying extents, remixes/rearrangements of concepts & stray bits of music/lyrics from his past.

One connection I didn't make until Hope pointed it out is that for Dream Island Obsessional Park Hirasawa used various bits of his late 80s work (all of which commonplace in his albums to this day): The structure of Zebra, the yodeling from No Workshop (poor Hirasawa can't measure up there), the bird chirping from Call Up Here (the video unfortunately cuts most of the bird chirping out) and the march beat from Cyborg (Hirasawa loves march beats BTW, I doubt Shiro Sagisu could make one as good as the Forces one). There's also the mix of symphonic melodies with electronic beats which, while he started out with in '86, its been "default Hirasawa" since 1998.

One of my great marks of shame as an otaku is that I've never finished Paranoia Agent (the other big stigma is that Penguindrum was too thick for me to grasp*). When a show hits a big dramatic moment, I tend to stop and give myself some time before continuing. I don't know why, but after episode 7 (the one that ends with spoiler[Shonen Slugger murdered in his cell]) I never picked Paranoia Agent back up (I do have vague memories of watching episode 8; I first saw the series by myself in subbed Japanese, and later on Hope livestreamed some episodes of the English dub, so I might have seen at least some of episode 8 through either one of these ways).

When it comes to Hirasawa's OSTs, I have a soft spot towards Paranoia Agent. That's mostly due to it being halfway rearrangement of 2003's obligatory-2000s-album-about-the-Iraq-War Blue Limbo and 2004's Vistoron, Hirasawa's return to more electronic fare (which he only got back to in 2013). In a nice bit of synergy with Satoshi Kon, Vistoron is Hirasawa's critique of mass media in Japan (too bad there aren't translated lyrics of any of the songs out there).

Satoshi Kon was a personal favorite of mine, his death is one of the greatest anime-related tragedies that have come out of Japan's overall culture (work ethic & disease stigma). Dreaming Machine is most likely never going to leave Limbo, and that deeply saddens me.

*My personal pie-in-the-sky is that one day Ikuni will team up with Hirasawa (AFAIK the only "queer" creators that have worked with anime), even tough they probably would never go well with one another, Ikuni is very hands-on while Hirasawa only works if he gets freedom to do his thing.

P.S. Just remembered that Hirasawa was born on April Fools Day (he turns 61 BTW), his childhood birthdays must've been something.

^Just wanted to add that the chorus for the parade song in Paprika sounds very similar to the chorus in Paranoia Agent's theme. Didn't realize all the interconnections between Hirasawa's songs though.

Waffitti wrote:

Dream Island Obsessional Park, as an anime opening theme, is the best of all time.

Unfortunately neither the parent article nor the talkback so far gave the full title / artist / anime together, and the ANN Encyclopedia only gave the Japanese title, but I think that you mean:

"Dream Island Obsessional Park" (夢の島思念公園 Yume no Shima Shinen Kōen) by Susumu Hirasawa, opening theme for Paranoia Agent.

I have Paranoia Agent (haven't finished it) and Paprika and hear the similarities in the music, but hadn't looked up Susumu Hirasawa until today.

omiya wrote:

Unfortunately neither the parent article nor the talkback so far gave the full title / artist / anime together, and the ANN Encyclopedia only gave the Japanese title, but I think that you mean:

"Dream Island Obsessional Park" (夢の島思念公園 Yume no Shima Shinen Kōen) by Susumu Hirasawa, opening theme for Paranoia Agent.

Yes, that's what I meant. The opening's credit roll (in both Japanese & American releases) don't have the standard opening theme credit, so it's expectable. Dream Island Obsessional Park is the translation given on Hirasawa's online shop & all Japanese materials (the Geneon & RightStuf listings are typo'd, both cut the "Dream" out, but I think the US release's packaging doesn't).

kevinx59 wrote:

the chorus for the parade song in Paprika sounds very similar to the chorus in Paranoia Agent's theme.

Funny you say that, to make the chorus of Parade Hirasawa sampled himself - you can also hear at the end of the song a faint sample of 1987's Monster A Go Go, a song from a scrapped album that only got properly released in 2002 (possibly the dorkiest way to convey that the Parade is an all-consuming entity of madness) - not to mention that is essentially a reworking of Haldyn Hotel.

kevinx59 wrote:

Didn't realize all the interconnections between Hirasawa's songs though.

Susumu Hirasawa's entire body of work (all the ~80 albums!) is a rabbit hole of never ending interconnections & cross-referencing. His main quality is taking a set of musical/thematic archetypes, put them through whatever direction he wants to go, mutating them into different forms (if I wasn't stuck to the late 80s manifestations of yodeling & chirping I would've picked Grid & The Garden Where The Solutions are Found to represent them since these archetypes changed a lot in the time inbetween).

omiya wrote:

I have Paranoia Agent (haven't finished it) and Paprika and hear the similarities in the music, but hadn't looked up Susumu Hirasawa until today.

2004 was the year Hirasawa turned 50 & decided he'd just stop adding new archetypes to his toolbox & just reinvent the ones he already had with minor variations. Besides the musical archetypes, his work in Paranoia Agent (& Vistoron to an extent) set up the ground for the "vocal cut-up" stylings that were a chief component of Byakkoya/Paprika* (BTW those 2 albums are the only things in music where a Vocaloid and a Commodore Amiga were used in their productions). The "cut-up" thing can be linked as far back as 1981 (also the 1st yodeling song!).

*I can't stress this enough, if you loved the Paprika OST, go get Byakkoya - White Tiger Field. Both sound the same, it has Parade, the title track is The Girl in Byakkoya with different lyrics (& with an actual Vietnamese person speaking Vietnamese in place of a Vocaloid) and it has more "song" material instead of the ambiance of Paprika's OST.

ETA: Been meaning to mention thisbut haven't gotten a good connecting point: Hirasawa's vocals on Cultivation, the tensioned backing of the episode previews of Paranoia Agent (I think it's also used outside of those segments?), got reused later that year on Vistoron for Cruise Psyclaon, one of the most addictive "oriental" (listen to it and you'll understand) technopop songs of all time.

Wow, I had NO idea so many famous anime came out in 2004 O_O (Oh my god, I can't believe School Rumble is 10 years old).

Put most of these shows in my "Anime I Haven't Seen, But Need to Watch" list.

Kannazuki no Miko, Elfen Lied and School Rumble are probably my favorites... that I can remember (You can count Kannazuki no Miko and Elfen Lied in the long list of "Really Horrible Anime With Awesome OPs"). There are probably other 2004 anime out there that I've seen with OPs that I've liked, but I can't think of any other ones at the moment.

WELL HERE IS MY OPINION.

I DOUBT ANYONE IS READING THIS, BUT HERE GOES

10. "Kaisei Joushou Hallelujah" by JINDOU (Yugioh GX OP1)
This song might be my greatest guilty pleasure, but it was a nice change of pace after the original show became too serious for its own good. I only wish the song was longer, but it's a great blast even for as little as it lasts.

9. "Rewrite" by ASIAN KUNG FU GENERATION (FMA OP4)
THE FULL VERSION OF THIS SONG IS BAD. The final bridge is really bad. I hate it. But if I judge it solely on the 1:30 tv cut, this song is amazing. Would've been my favorite anime song from the band had it not been for a certain BLEACH song.

8. "Akatsuki no Sora wo Kakeru by Hiromi Sato (Grenadier OP2)
This song was never in the actual series, but it was part of the DVD and it was animated so therefore it count. It fits the anime better for being a carefree adventure anime with a nice dosage of fanservice. Honestly the anime is in my top 5, and I am fully aware of how ridiculous it can get, but it is such a fun ride with lots of passion, characterization and action behind it. The song is the exact same.

7. "Seishun Kyosukyoku" by Sambomaster (Naruto OP5)
Despite how big of a fan I am of FLOW, and I am big time, I can't deny that sambomaster's song is better in any way. The jazzy intro, the great guitar work, the singer's energy. It's a fantastic song.

6. "Kokoro e" by ROAD OF MAJOR (MAJOR OP1)
This song is now known to be THE theme of the Major anime altogether, and rightfully so. Getting the band RoM to do the song was a brilliant move as they were one of the most bands of their time. This song was later covered by TRIPLANE, who did perhaps the best ending of One Piece, but even them can't recreate the passion behind the original. Nice try though.

5. "ZEN" by Attack Haus (Otogizushi)
Anyone remembers this anime? No? Me neither. It was kind of an odd mishmash of ideas. Having the first season take part in feudal Japan and the second in modern day Japan. Odd idea that was split into two themes. The calmer second opening is good on its own right, but ZEN, despite the name, is hard hitting rock tune that doesn't let up. And I wouldn't like it any other way, albeit it sets a misleading tone a-la Samurai Flamenco.

4. "Rashinban" by AUDIO RULEZ (Zipang)
I only discovered this song a year back and I already consider it a classic. It starts off slow, but the chorus really drives the song home for me. The lyrics are strong, the instrumentation is great. Honestly it's one of the most underrated songs of all time.

3. "Taiyou ni Akogarete" by Harebare (SD Gundam OP3)
Yes, the anime is bad. But the songs were the best part of it. This is by far my favorite, by a band I wish stuck along for longer (like The Babystars). It has a lot of shounen conventions taking about yearning for the sun and aiming for the highest level, but honestly, thanks to the quality of the singing and music, I don't care if it's cheesy, it delivers more than it should.

2. "Gekkouka" by Janne Da Arc (Black Jack OP4)
This is where things get REALLY GOOD. Janne Da Arc's lead singer Yasu has such a recognizable voice, probably only rivaled by Hyde from L'arc~en~ciel, and this is perhaps the song that best exemplifies his capabilities. The song is very dark and melancholic, even depressing in tone, but for some reason there is a silver lining in it as well. It's wonderful.

1. "Houkigumo" by RHYTHM (Yakitate Japan!! OP1)
OK, I ADMIT IT! This song is cute, fuzzy, warm! I can't help it. I love it with a passion. This and the ending are perhaps the best duo of songs to ever debut an anime for me.

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The Set List - Top 10 OPs of 2004