Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Song of the Day #142 - STAR☆ANIS - ヒラリ/ヒトリ/キラリ

A lone star burns bright tonight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGHiRv16-KU

Okay I just finished watching the first season of Aikatsu and WOW OH MY GOD. I dunno at first I thought I would do a big thing talking about how good this show is, and trying to convince people to try it... I mean, if you don't like idol anime, or if you're expecting something that wouldn't show up in a show for 10 year old girls, you probably won't like it, but seriously: if they were gonna make a show for that demographic, and with this premise, this is about as good as it could possibly get, and that's probably like twenty times as good as you're expecting.

It's a sort of... why not make it good sorta thing, y'know? Like, if you're gonna have all these characters, why not make them cute and endearing? Why not have genuinely dramatic and funny and sad and happy scenes? Little kids can experience that, too! Or, to the point: if you're gonna have all this music, you might as well make it good, right? It's not like children don't like good music.

This song has it all for me... The intensity, the feeling of longing, the wonderful lyrical message of friendship and self-betterment... Everyone puts on a wonderful performance, and there's a great blend where you can hear individual voices if you look for them, but also a great unified voice that's more than the sum of its parts. There's an exciting mix of vocal styles, from very delicate "distanced" singing, to full-throttle forte, to borderline-denpa shouting. This is mixed to addictive effect with a similar mix of backing - fast string rushes, grinding electric guitar, cool chiming percussion... It really feels like all the individual talents of STAR☆ANIS are shining through!! It's the sort of song that could only really exist in such a medium/genre/demographic, perhaps even requiring the "mode" of an ED. It really speaks to the love and care that was put into the series, and the perspective of the show being an opportunity to make something great, rather than a obligatory link between merchandise and buying said merchandise.

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