Japanese Anime Drove Me To Discover Awesome Jazz, Punk and Pop Songs
I have eclectic taste in music, without borders and language. Anime really drove me to go on a rabbit hole of discovery.
It started off with a sudden blaring of trumpets and a sax hidden in the lower layers. Immediately followed by shakers and guitars trumping out an African beat and the bass line picking off. Jazzy and Upbeat! The epic opening soundtrack for the anime TV series Cowboy Bebop: Tank! Arranged by legendary Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts. My schoolboy self was mind-blown. 🤯
I can safely say that it was just not the snazzy and rollercoaster storyline, characters and setting but also the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop that pulled me into Japanese Anime at such a young age.
I am no anime critic, but allow me to express the few little magical moments about anime and music.
After discovering anime and getting hooked via Cowboy Bebop, I devoured anything interesting that came my way. Some I liked, others not so much. One such anime that attracted my attention was Nana. It was definitely not my usual pick but there was something beautiful about the first episode that I just kept watching it. Nana introduced me to Japanese Punk music. I loved it. Black Rose by Anna Tsuchiya which was for the most part the opening OST got my younger self head banging and rocking. Which was very strange, coz I have listened to British Punk and never found it as appealing.
It was not just the fast-paced punk songs like “Lucy”, but also the more soulful songs throughout the Nana anime like “Kuroi Namida” with an amazing rift accompanying a soulful voice, that I enjoyed. The OST was epic as well.
Yet, there is one little piece of magic that eclipsed them all and made me fall in love with performed songs in Anime. Strangely enough, it was not from Nana. It was from the anime “Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”! As soon as the sequence started for the performance of “God Knows” I was hooked! Both by the animation sequence and the music! I couldn't but help notice the amazing detail of the music and animation. I still rewatch this scene rather frequently! 😅 The music of “God Knows” is anything but epic. It is for me yet the feel-good, upbeat, amazing, awesome inspiring piece of music and animation to date.
This was of course repeated by many many more anime that were influenced by this. Another amazing little anime so full of music I loved was Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope). Especially the wonderful Medley you will find in episode 7 again set in a school festival.
Now many many years later I discovered something very interesting, that led me down to a serendipitous discovery. Now I know those who fanatically follow anime and Japanese culture would know this titbit as basic knowledge. But, I did not know about “Linda Linda Linda” the movie.
It started off while I was watching “Mushibugyō”. I never really finished that anime. However, in the first few episodes, the opening theme was “Tomoyo” by Gagaga SP. I loved it and it rekindled my Japanese Punk interest. So I went onto YouTube to look for the original song. There while enjoying the crazy fast-paced and fun video, on the recommendations list was “Linda Linda Linda”. Curious I launched it and behold.. Another amazing punk song. It was just so fun. However, what caught my eye was the amazing similarity between the movie shots and the animated sequence for “God Knows” in “Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”. Later some digging showed me that the animation sequence was inspired by this final scene of the movie. Yet, the best part of it was not even that.
It was the discovery of Blue Hearts! The Japanese punk band that originally did “Linda Linda Linda”!
There are many many more amazing moments for me in anime. So many amazing songs. It just keeps getting better. I would like to mention one more anime before winding this up. That's none other than Angel Beats. I will not go into the anime plot itself, but the music! It was just one amazing hit after the other. There are so many. I would only ask you all to go and search for the soundtrack of this amazing anime. I am thankful for it, because it is what led me to discover one of the amazing voices behind this anime music and so many other animes. None other than Lisa.
Well, here I am an almost 40-year-old adult speaking about some of the fun anime and music discovered. I love the fact, that anime became so much fun for me and I stuck by watching them. I discovered so much, and learned so much.
