A couple times a month, the Fandom Post community suggests and votes on a new top five list about something in anime, most often from the current season. It’s our way of highlighting something fun or interesting or strange—or even meaningful—about what’s airing now, or about anime in general.
Music is a passionate subject, but anime fans seem least agreeable about one aspect of it in particular: insert songs. Those songs appearing in the middle of an episode or movie, mostly separate of the opening and ending songs. Though they’re all often there for the same purpose, to promote the artists performing them, so that the music in single form can in turn promote the anime. (Okay, some are sincere pieces of the whole show or movie, and not marketing ploys. Until they are, anyway.) But how little are fans in agreement about them? We had 44 separate nominations for songs, from 38 different titles…and ended up, after two polls, with a two-way tie for first and a five-way tie for third. Crazy kids.
Kids, indeed: because we’re obviously not going to be able to adequately differentiate between all of these, let alone decide which one is, indeed, #1, we’ve decided to bring in our pair of senior music correspondents to break them down. Please welcome Sutadera-san and Warudorofu-san.
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#7: “Hateshinai Toiki” (Gunsmith Cats) – Aya Hisakawa, Michiko Neya & Kae Araki
“What does ‘Hateshinai Toiki’ mean?”
“Endless sigh.”
“That explains why I haven’t stopped sighing since I heard it.”
#6: “God Knows” (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
“God knows I can’t understand a thing this girl is singing.”
“I thought the Beach Boys did this.”
“That’s ‘God Only Knows’!”
“Well I can’t understand what they’re singing either.”
“Why is she dressed as a bunny? Did Hugh Hefner make this?”
“Is Hugh Hefner supposed to be god?”
#5: “Moon Revenge” (Sailor Moon R movie)
“Ah, ‘Moon River.’ Something I recognize, finally.”
“Since when was Audrey Hepburn a blonde?”
#4: “Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ 10 Years After” (Anohana Ep. 11) – Ai Kayano, Haruka Tomatsu, & Saori Hayami
“Secret base? I can’t talk about the secret base. They made me swear an oath during the War. Especially not what I did ten years later!”
“You old fool, there was no secret base.”
“What do you mean? I just listened to it.”
“No, not that base…oh, never mind.”
#3: “Rain” (Cowboy Bebop)
“This wasn’t bad, for a song about weather.”
“Made my knee ache though.”
#2: “Tenshi ni Fureta yo” (K-On!! ep. 24) – Hōkago Tea Time
“Alright. What does this one mean?”
“‘We Touched An Angel’ or something like that.”
“Is she the angel?”
“No, you old pervert. She must be the one who serves the tea!”
“Oh, of course.”
#1: “Barcarolle” (Aria the Animation ep. 11) – Eri Kawai
“I’ve heard of a barcalounger, but what’s a barcarolle?”
“I don’t know, but a baracalounger sounds good right about now. This is putting me to sleep.”
“Worse ways to be put to sleep, though, I have to admit.”
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Join us next time for…more singing. To have a say in what makes it on that list, and the next list after that, check out the forum thread, read up on the rules, and join the Fandom Post Anime List Project today!