I may have started blogging about this anime music tourney when the Bracket Alpha votes were still going, but sadly, by the time I've got around to blogging the bracket, it's already done. So let's review what happened. The polls and the music can be found here:
http://animusictourney.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/bracket-alpha-round-1-polls-1-4/http://animusictourney.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/bracket-alpha-round-1-polls-5-8/
To re-iterate, I'm using a * to indicate which songs I was unfamiliar with prior to the start of the tourney, and I'll be rating the entries with the following set of smileys:
>:( [hate]
:( [dislike]
:| [meh]
:) [like]
:D [love]
Note that anything I tag with :D would be a song I like so much that I'd have considered for my short list in the very least. Note also that in all cases (as far as I can see), the first song is the higher seeded one.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 1:"Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari"* [ED of "Bakamonogatari" (2009)] vs
"Rock Over Japan"* [insert song from "Penguindrum" (2011)]
I've already been through "Rock Over Japan" during the elimination game, so let's take a look at the other song. The first thing to note is that "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" is the #1 seed in the competition. That's right, it managed to beat even the likes of the legendary "Tank!" to the top seeding position, and it was ahead by quite a distance. Does it deserve it? It'll probably come as no surprise that I'm saying "no". I mean, it's a good song, and I'm especially weak to the kind of clear female vocals it features. But #1?! Seriously?! I knew the show was popular, but I didn't realise this song was from it *that* popular. Perhaps I'm just really, really out of touch.
Rating for "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari": :)
Rating for "Rock Over Japan": :)
My pick:
"Rock Over Japan". To be honest, I don't think there's much difference between the two songs. "Rock Over Japan" is a more interesting song, but "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" had the better vocals. Overall, things being roughly equal, I decided to vote for the underdog since I would love to see the hot favourite go out early; it would throw the competition wide open.
Winner:
"Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" comfortably with 71%. I was expecting more of a gap in a matchup involving the #1 seed though, so there may be hope for toppling this song after all, especially since there were quite a few others commentators on that poll who thought the song is nothing special.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 2:"The Everlasting Guilty Crown"* [OP2 of "Guilty Crown" (2011 - 2012)] vs
"Staple Staple"* [OP 1 of "Bakamonogatari" (2009)]
Woah, yet another "Bakamonogatari" song already? This anime really needs to be taken down a notch. I do like the vocals for the "Guilty Crown" song, but after the song caught my initial attention, it then turned into a rather generic sounding anime song with fast beats. The melody is serviceable, but the song just doesn't really stand out from the crowd. But then, neither does "Staple Staple". It does, however, have a nicer tune. Anime Instrumentality did an interesting blog recently detailing a chord progression frequently used in Asian pop (you can read it here:
http://blog.animeinstrumentality.net/2013/06/asias-favorite-chord-progression-a-look-inside/ ), and if I'm not mistaken, "Staple Staple" uses that classic chord towards the end of the chorus. That chord does seem to be everywhere.
Rating for "The Everlasting Guilty Crown": :|
Rating for "Staple Staple": :)
My pick:
"Staple Staple". There's enough difference between the two songs to pick "Staple Staple", despite my wish to get rid of some "Bakamonogatari" songs from the competition.
Winner:
"Staple Staple" with 63%. The difference was quite large considering the songs were seeded next to each other. I hope that's not down to the big popularity difference between the two shows.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 3:"Nippon Egao Hyakkei"* [ED of "Joshiraku" (2012)] vs
"Lonely in Gorgeous" [OP of "Paradise Kiss" (2005)]
The "Paradise Kiss" OP was in my nominations list, so obviously that's a favourite of mine. I was actually fairly confident it would do well even against the higher seeds, but unfortunately it went up against an exceedingly annoying gimmicky song with ultra moe vocals. I suppose the "Joshiraku" song does have a certain novelty appeal about it, the kind that sends songs like the one featuring Mr Blobby to #1 on the music charts, but still! This matchup was by far the most interesting in the first set of polls, as is shown by the amount of comments on it when the polls were running. A lot of people found the choice hard, as while the "Joshiraku" song was considered fun, they also acknowledged "Lonely In Gorgeous" as being the much more polished, accomplished track. The choice was easy for me, though.
Rating for "Nippon Egao Hyakkei": >:(
Rating for "Lonely in Gorgeous": :D
My pick:
"Lonely in Gorgeous". All. Day. Long.
Winner:
"Nippon Egao Hyakkei". After the first day of voting, it looked like "Lonely in Gorgeous" could pull off the first upset of the polls, and my faith in humanity was riding high on that first wave of votes... and then it slowly but surely fell behind as the higher seeded song came back strongly and finished up with 54% of the votes.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 4:"Futuristic Imagination" [ED of "Eden of the East" (2009)] vs
"One Winged Icarus"* [OP of "H2O ~ Footprints in the Sand" (2008)]
If you had asked me before what the "Eden of the East" sounded like, I wouldn't be able to tell you even though I've seen the damn show. Listening to it now, I remember why I forgot about it - the melody just sounds so bland to me that my attention simply switches off after a few seconds. The most interesting thing about "One Winged Icacrus" is that it has some nice celtic sounds in its instrumentation. The rest of the song isn't bad, but nor is it particularly interesting.
Rating for "Futuristic Imagination": :|
Rating for "One Winged Icarus": :)
My pick:
"One Winged Icarus".
Winner:
"Futuristic Imagination" with 72%, the biggest win margin in the first set of polls. Not too surprised that the song from the more popular anime won here, but I am surprised by how much it dominated.
Bracket Alpha Round 2 Poll 5: "Platinum Disco"* [OP 3 of "Nisemonogatari" (2012)] vs
"Go! Go! Maniac"* [OP 1 of "K-On!!" (2010)]
"Platinum Disco" starts with what sounds like a modern remix of a disco tune. The instrumentation then morphs into something that sounds so Chinese that it could be passed off as something performed for Chinese New Year. The rest of the song turns out to be ludicrously straight forward, though the melody is quite appealing. My main problem with it is the cutsy vocal performance, which is way too sugary for my liking. On the other hand, the "K-On!!" OP maybe musically more interesting, but it's melodically bland and vocally unbearable. So this match was an easy choice for me.
Rating for "Platinum Disco": :)
Rating: for "Go!Go! Maniac": >:(
My pick:
"Platinum Disco".
Winner:
"Platinum Disco" with a bracket high score of 78%. I hope this is due to its competitor being so weak rather than anything else.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 6:"Yume no Shima Shinen" [OP of "Paranoia Agent" (2004)] vs "World End"* [OP 2 of "Code Geass R2"(2008)]
I get the impression that the "Paranoia Agent" OP is high regarded. It's certainly ... different; I can't think of any other anime that has yodelling in it. But beyond that, I don't find the song appealing at all - it feels like a poor man's folk music to me. I didn't even like it that much within the context of the anime, and taken out of it, the song is kind of just odd. In the other corner, we have the "Code Geass R2" song, which feels incredibly generic in every way. I've listened to the song several times now and still cannot recall its melody to mind.
Rating for "Yume no Shima Shinen": :|
Rating for "World End": :|
My pick:
"Yume no Shima Shinen". It's much more interesting if nothing else, and I can at least remember what it sounds like.
Winner:
"Yume no Shima Shinen" edged it with 53%. Considering all the praise I've heard heaped on the the "Paranoia Agent" song, I'm surprised it struggled so much against a totally bland, lower seeded song.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 7: "Oath Sign"* [OP of "Fate/Zero" (2011)] vs
"Re-sublimity"* [OP of "Kannazuki no Miko" (2004)]
This was the most exciting match up between what I consider to be the two best songs in the second half of the bracket. Stylistically, they may not be all that distinctive, but they both have strong melodies. "Oath Sign" had the more distinctive vocals, with the singer going at her task with a lot intensity. I'm under the impression that LiSA, the artist behind it, is quite a big name in the anime music scene. "Re-sublimity" has a nice trance/dance feel to it. I think I've only seen the first episode of the anime it's from, and that was a long time ago, but it still sounds quite familiar to me. But this is probably because it sounds quite like the openings from "Onegai Teacher" and "Onegai Twins". And sure enough, they were all by the same artist KOTOKO.
Rating for "Oath Sign": :)
Rating for "Re-sublimity": :)
My pick:
"Re-sublimity". There weren't much to choose between them, but the "Fate/Zero" song is higher seeded, and the anime is by far the more popular and more recent anime, so I figured I would vote for the underdog to balance things out.
Winner:
"Oath Sign". Now THIS was a major shock to me, because I didn't think there was anything resembling a gulf between the two songs, so I thought the "Fate/Zero" song would go through comfortably, but it was "Re-sublimity" that led all the way, holding off a strong come back from the seeded song to scrape through with 51%. This was the first upset in the tourney. About time, too.
Bracket Alpha Round 1 Poll 8:"Resuscitated Hope"* [ED of "Gosick" (2011)] vs
"No Need for Promises" [OP of "Escaflowne" (1996)]
The "Gosick" song is quite attention catching at the start, but I've listened to it several times, and every time it lost my attention soon after. It does have a pretty good main melody overall, but some parts are rather forgettable, which makes the song quite hard to write about. "Escaflowne" is the opposite: its main melody is a bit bland, but everything else comes together to give the song a very accomplished feel. I'm not as big a fan of Yoko Kanno as a lot of people, but she's got a rare talent for writing sophisticated, fresh-sounding pop music. As often with those composition, the instrumentation and backing vocals supports the main vocals very well. The repeated piano notes at the beginning lends the song a sense of urgency, and later on in places, the backing vocals and the strings produces the sensation of soar through the sky, and there are even some bagpipes thrown in for good measure. Maaya Sakamoto's vocals plays a big part in my enjoyment of the song; her delicate, youthful voice has a charm that I find irresistible. I've recently discovered that she's responsible for a lot of the memorable anime music vocals that I've heard, including another "Platinum" from "Cardcaptor Sakura", which was another collaboration between her and Yoko Kanno. That song would have made my shortlist if I'd remembered it, so I sure hope it's in the final 256 somewhere...
Rating for "Resuscitated Hope": :)
Rating for "No Need for Promises": :)
My pick:
"No Need for Promises". The lack of a good main melody hurts it quite a lot, so in the end there wasn't too much to choose from between the two. I decided to vote for the "Escaflowne" song because I think the oldies need more love. And also because of Maaya Sakamoto, whose voice I've grown increasingly fond of of late.
Winner:
"Resuscitated Hope" with 61%. I'm surprised the difference was so big here.
Any problems? Don't hesitate to inform me ^^~
(Also I changed some names, because a few people changed their username. Want it changed back as memory? Inform me too~)
-> You can still find yourself with your username if I'm right!
Have fun with the cards~! >o< o)) I worked SO hard for them! xD (2 days)
SAVE AND REHOST AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...like... 14 days? Pft... Idk... something around that :P
1/2 tsp. Matcha Green Tea Mix
1/4 cup water
4-6 tsp. sugar (depending on how sweet you like drinks ^_~)
1/2 cup Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring Syrup
5-8 ice cubes (depending on how frothy you like it)
1-2 scoops vanilla ice cream (optional)
1. pour 1/4 cup water into a small bowl
2. add 1/2 tsp. Matcha Green Tea Mix to water
3. microwave for 15- 20 seconds
4. add 4-6 tsp. sugar to green tea mixture
5. add 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring syrup
6. add 1/2 cup milk
7. whisk until fully blended
8. pour mixture in blender
9. add 5-8 ice cubes in blender
10. add 1-2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in blender (optional)
11. blend until frothy and ice is fully crushed
12. enjoy! ;)