In all honesty, the Winter 2013 anime season was a pretty disappointing one for me; I didn't truly love any of the shows I watched (apart from the carryovers from the previous season), and ended up dropping a number of the new shows. One show I did stick with, however, was Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, a SHAFT show with very SHAFT characteristics. I won't try to describe the show here, because it rather defies description, but suffice it to say I found it fairly entertaining, and definitely better than the other Winter '13 shows I watched. And admittedly, I did appreciate their choice of voice actresses for the Yagami sisters. :P
Translation: Welcome to your doom. (not really)
Sasami-san had a pretty unique running gag with its closing credits: different characters took turns attempting to sing the ED (badly), but we didn't get to hear the full song in all its glory (and correctness) until the last episode of the show. It was worth the wait, though; I really enjoyed the catchy, upbeat piece full of neat modulations and applied chords. I decided to start this new season off with a cover of this song, "Osmotic Pressure Symphony." Enjoy!
Osmotic Pressure Symphony (Sasami-san): Piano Cover
Artist: Kana Asumi
Date Completed: 2013-04-07
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: 20ish
Instrumentation: Piano
New anime season is underway, so look forward to some more covers coming soon!
Okay, this post is nearly two months late, but better late than never, right? Right...?
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, a comedy/parody show which aired roughly this time last year, is one of my favorite guilty-pleasure animes. Actually, I don't feel all that guilty about it; despite the silly premise (it stars a number of Lovecraftian monsters who happen to take the form of cute girls) and occasional fanservice, it still made me laugh harder than many other comedies I've watched. And that's with me not even understanding nearly all of the references. The sequel's slated to air very soon, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.
Warning: Lovecraftian monsters are not actually this cute in real life.
My "Zutto Be With You" cover came into being because I was looking for something "romantic" to cover for Valentine's Day, much like my "Vidro Moyou" cover. While Nyaruko-san's OP might have more personality, I really liked the sweet, catchy melody of the ED. Plus, the singer might have one of the cutest voices I've heard in anime music, for serious.
Anyway, here's the cover!
Zutto Be With You (Haiyore! Nyaruko-san): Piano Cover
Artist: RAMM
Date Completed: 2013-02-11
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: Yeeeaaahhh...
Instrumentation: Piano
Not much more to say here, but hope you enjoy this cover, despite it not being particularly current. The new season of anime's coming out very soon, so expect to hear more from me very soon! And yes, one of the songs from Nyaruko v2 is bound to be high on my list. :)
First post of 2013! :) I like to put together a new piano cover for each season of airing anime, but honestly, I had trouble finding a show that really speaks to me this fine Winter 2013. A few carryovers from last season (namely, Psycho-Pass and Shinsekai Yori) are still going strong, but I've been somewhat unimpressed with the shows I've seen this season. Nevertheless, there's still plenty of great music in the shows this time around, and I decided to pick a song from the new sci-fi/action show, Vividred Operation.
You wouldn't believe how long it took me to find a VO image that did not involve butts.
I actually haven't watched to much of Vividred Operation; I did check out the first episode or two, but the fanservice (mostly in the form of constant butt-shots) was a little off-putting for me. Still, I really liked the ED that played at the end of episode 2, "We Are One." The song has a somewhat typical feel to it, but spices things up with some neat harmonies and uses of applied chords here and there. And you know how I feel about applied chords. XD Here's my cover!
We Are One! (Vividred Operation): Piano Cover
Artist: Ayane Sakura & Rie Murakawa
Date Completed: 2013-02-03
Software: Audacity, Movie Maker, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: ~20
Instrumentation: Piano
I don't really have much more to say here, so thanks for stopping by! And happy Year of the Snake! :)
Roughly this time last year, I started watching a show called Mirai Nikki (Future Diary), which is probably the best show about a motley collection of serial killers, psychopaths, terrorists, vigilantes and cult members I've ever watched. Apart from revolutionizing the world of yanderes through its character Gasai Yuno, it also had several opening/closing themes that I really enjoyed. Which is, of course, what this blog post is about.
This image is a fairly accurate representation of most of Mirai Nikki.
I've been thinking of putting together another collaborative piece for a while now, and my friend mdoppelganger and I decided to try a cover of "Kuusou Mesorogiwi," Mirai Nikki's first opening theme. Since we'd both attended Animazement 2012 not too long ago and still had our Mirai Nikki costumes, we figured why not try doing a cosplay cover? Many takes later, here's our result, starring mdoppelganger as Minene "Ninth" Uryuu and me as Takao "Third" Hiyama.
Kuusou Mesorogiwi (Mirai Nikki): Piano & Voice Cover
Artist: Yousei Teikoku
Date Completed: 2012-11-20
Software: Audacity, Movie Maker, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: I don't remember
Instrumentation: Piano, voice
Hope you enjoyed watching us make a fool of ourselves. :P As far as technical stuff goes, I feel the need to confess that we didn't record the audio and video simultaneously. Rather, we first recorded the audio, and then filmed ourselves pretending to play and lip-syncing to our own music (which made us feel even sillier than just dressing up in costume and playing music). Pretending (convincingly) to play piano: easier said than done. Also, I don't particularly recommend trying to learn piano in leather gloves and a paintball mask.
Many thanks to the wonderful mdoppelganger for her help in this project; she's an incredibly talented vocalist, and I had a lot of fun working on this collaboration. Please show her some support by dropping by her blog or YouTube channel!
Anyway, this will probably be my last post before I sign out for the rest of 2012, so happy winter holidays! May your new year be filled with peace, love, and music. :)
First of all, let me just mention how unbelievably frustrating it is to look up anything about an anime that's just named "K." I needed to get that off of my chest.
Anyhoo, the Fall 2012 anime season started not too long ago, and I've been quite happy with the selection of shows I've chosen to follow this time around. One of these, of course, is the frustratingly-named K, whose content is just as confusing and nondescript as the title. Even four episodes in, I still can't really figure out what the hell is going on, apart from a bunch of bishonen dudes all trying to kill the main character and a catgirl who is naked as often as they can get away with it.
In any case, that may all sound like pretty harsh criticism, but I'm actually enjoying the show a lot. The art is pretty, the characters are likable enough, the show doesn't take itself too seriously, and perversely enough, the fact that I can't figure out the show is actually drawing me back. (Also, awww cute kitty. :D)
Of course, I'm not going to talk about a show without talking about its music, so I'd like to note that the K ED is one of the prettiest anime themes I've heard, ever. It might not be as gets-stuck-in-your-head-catchy as the Tari Tari or Tsuritama EDs, but in terms of sheer beauty it's definitely got 'em beat, right up there with the Dantalian no Shoka OP. If you've read this far, you probably know that I'm about to show off my piano cover of this song, so here it is!
Tsumetai, Heya Hitori (K-Project): Piano Cover
Artist: Mikako Komatsu
Date Completed: 2012-10-25
Software: Audacity, Movie Maker, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: Urgh
Instrumentation: Piano
Oops, should have said sorry (or you're welcome?) in advance for the fanservicey anime clip; I looked for alternatives (really, I did), but this ED clip worked so well for the music that I couldn't turn it down. As for the actual arrangement, I always thought this ED would make a really pretty solo piano piece, and I think I was right. Was pretty conservative with this arrangement, and tried to keep all the low and high points as they were in the original song. I'd also like to note that the first chord progression in the song is probably my favorite chord progression ever. SO PRETTY. I, for one, can't wait to hear the full version of this ED when it's finally released.
EDIT: Due to popular demand, I've uploaded the sheet music here, and an mp3 here. Enjoy! :)
How'd I do? Let me know in the comments! And happy almost-Halloween!
Hi again! You might notice that this is my second post about the same song: Kokoro no Senritsu from Tari Tari. It's not like me to post twice about the same song, but since the show finished up recently and the full choir version was released, I couldn't help revisiting the song. It's just so damn catchy, and the performance by the Makuhari Sogo High School Chorus Club was fantastic. Check out some more of their stuff here, by the way.
Here, have a picture of Mahiru and mini-Wakana! They're awesome.
This transcription, with full three-part voice and piano lines, was a lot of fun to work on. The harmonies were all fairly straightforward, with perhaps a few bars of exception. The voice parts were enjoyable to figure out as well, and it was cool to see myself unconsciously calling upon a lot of the rules I learned in my music theory classes. Putting together the Synthesia tutorial after the transcription, however, was less fun because uncooperative software was uncooperative. Still, what's done is done, and here's the video for your viewing/learning pleasure!
Composer: Shiro Hamaguchi
Date Completed: 2012-10-20
Software: Finale 2008, Fraps, Synthesia, SynthFont, Movie Maker
Instrumentation: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Piano
Those interested in the sheet music can find it here, and for those interested in giving the piano part a shot in Synthesia (it was pretty hard for me =X), the MIDI's here. Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy!
Also, watch Tari Tari. It's a really cute little feel-good show. :)
I'm a recent graduate with majors in the shockingly unrelated fields of music and biomedical engineering. As likely evident from my writing, I'm quite the fan of music, video games, and anime, and enjoy writing and arranging related music. My blog "Eternal Sonate" centers loosely on the topic of music in these forms of media.
