& Spring 2009 Anime Music

I've been meaning to write a post about the anime series I'm watching this season (though some I still haven't decided if I'm gonna watch all of yet), but thus far (up to and including now) I've been too lazy to actually do it.

Instead, I'll do something that's substantially less work for me: post some of the theme songs of series I'm watching with (very) brief comments.

The Asura Cryin' ending theme is really the one that made me decide to do this post. Which is to say I'm fond of it.


The music within the series also didn't seem too bad. I haven't heard enough to decide whether I think it's good, it's certainly superior to the typical mediocre anime music.

The opening isn't as good as the ending, but not bad, especially the first 20 seconds or so.


As I watched the Pandora Hearts opening theme, the short violin segment reminded me of Yuki Kajiura, one of my favorite composers, who is known especially for very pretty violin pieces. A quick look on Anime News Network confirmed that the series was indeed done by her. I wouldn't say the opening is her best work, but it's certainly not bad.


So that should mean the music for the series will be pretty good.

The ending isn't as good as the opening, but from a quick glance at the credits I don't think it was done by her (it's fairly common for the openings and/or endings to be done by different composers than the series music - often real bands). It also isn't bad.


K-ON! is a quirky series. It's amusing, but excessively cute. From what I've seen so far, the music is very mediocre, though the opening and ending aren't quite so much, though for different reasons.

About all I have to say about that is that I don't think I'll be listening to that opening apart from showing it to people with hangovers.

The ending is similarly loud, but substantially better; palatable, and even a bit catchy. I do really like the animation that goes along with the ending theme - parts of it are quite artistic, and look very sharp (such as the black and white ensemble).