So, I am taking this opportunity in between arcs of Higurashi to bring you this fascinating look into what kind of crap I’ve been listening to. Those of you who have Macs will almost certainly be using iTunes as your main music player of choice and will probably own an iPod. iTunes keeps track of how often you play a given track and also does this when it syncs up with your iPod, allowing for a decent representation of your listening habits. One of the default iTunes smart playlists is the Top 25 Most Played. That’s right. We’re going to examine the top 25 most played songs on my computer that I’ve still kept ever since I’ve gotten this computer. WALL OF TEXT, BEGIN.

At the bottom of the list, we have Keikenchi Joushouchuu, the opening for the first season of Minami-ke. I can’t explain it, but it probably has something to do with how well it fit Minami-ke and the random shouting by the various characters.

Coming in at 24th, is Utada Hikaru’s Hikari, the theme for Kingdom Hearts. This is the song that brought Utada Hikaru to the gaming world outside of Japan. It’s the first of her songs that I’d heard and is probably the song that sold me on the whole games with vocal themes thing that Squaresoft was trying to push. She also takes 23rd, inexplicably with Nichiyo no Asa, a random track from her ULTRA BLUE album.

Tied at 21 and 22 are Utada Hikaru’s SAKURA DROPS and Hirano Aya’s Bouken Desho Desho?. SAKURA DROPS is an awesome song with a stunning PV. Bouken Desho Desho? is special because it’s the OP for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, an anime which broadened my perspective on the medium. Spots 19 and 20 are taken by Lia’s Toki wo Kizamu Uta and eufonius’ Megumeru ~cuckool mix 2007~. Both of these songs were OPs for CLANNAD, another anime, coincidentally also produced by Kyoto Animation, that’s introduced me to another genre of anime.

In 18th, we have Deep River by Utada Hikaru, an album track from her album of the same name. After that is Unnamed World by Hirano Aya, which is the ED for The Daughter of Twenty Faces, an anime that had a promising start featuring thievery and heists, but descended upon a road filled with disappointment and crappy science. Also notable for having an ED that I liked better than the OP.

Spots 12-16 are taken by Utada Hikaru and various tracks from her ULTRA BLUE album. These are BLUE, the third track; COLORS, one of her singles, again with a pretty PV; This is Love, the first track that had a pretty cool electronic sort of feel; Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro, the theme for the CASSHERN movie; and Keep Tryin’, another one of her singles.

Numbers 9-11 are another tie. The first is Allegro Cantabile by SUEMISTU & THE SUEMITH. It’s the OP for Nodame Cantabile, an anime that follows two music students and how they go about their lives at the conservatory. The piano is in the spotlight for this piece, which is fairly fitting. After that is WORLD END by FLOW, the second OP for Code Geass R2. I thought it was a good song, but that’s likely because I am attracted to songs that feature violin. Rounding the set out is the brilliant green’s Ash Like Snow, the second OP for Gundam 00. Ash Like Snow was fairly different from what I’d come to expect in a Gundam song, but it definitely fits the mood that they were trying to create for Gundam 00.

Eighth and seventh place are tied by Hirano Aya’s God knows… and ORANGE RANGE’s O2. O2 was the first OP for Geass R2 and isn’t a song that I really, really like, but I guess it’s alright. I’m surprised it made it this high. God knows… on the other hand, is a song that is awesome. Its status is enhanced by the fact that it was part of one of the best scenes in anime I have ever watched, the concert scene in episode 12 of Haruhi.

Sixth place is taken by HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR’s Ichirin no Hana, the third OP for Bleach, back when it was still in Soul Society and not in Hueco Mondo: really, this isn’t Soul Society again, we swear! It gets points for going really well with the OP animation and for fitting with the events of that arc, and definitely for not being a garbage arc.

Fifth place is taken up by T.M. Revolution’s resonance, the first OP for SOUL EATER. SOUL EATER was one of the first anime I picked up when I was looking to get back into anime after I stopped raiding in WoW and after Gundam 00 finished its first season. The OP animation introduced me to a world where Gundam 00 wasn’t the only anime in 720p. Not only that, but I would learn later that the actual lyrics of resonance was eerily relevant to the world of SOUL EATER. It also helps that SOUL EATER is one of my favourite shounen series now.

Utada Hikaru’s Beautiful World takes the fourth spot. This song was the theme song for Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone. This song had that different feel slow, but ethereal quality that some of her other songs had, like Passion or HEART STATION. Of course, I haven’t seen Evangelion, so I don’t really care about that.

Third place is taken by COLORS, by FLOW. This is the first OP for Code Geass, which was, in retrospect, a pretty interesting mecha anime. I don’t think I could have expected what R2 would bring when I first heard this song. I’ll always see Japan in the crosshairs when I hear the opening drumroll.

L’Arc~en~Ciel grabs the second spot with DAYBREAK’S BELL. I wasn’t a fan of READY STEADY GO, the second OP for Fullmetal Alchemist. But this! This song was different and persuaded me to reevaluate what I thought about L’Arc~en~Ciel. Combining this song with the visual of green sparklies coming out of a Gundam in 720p was something special. This song was definitely representative of what kind of change they wanted to bring to Gundam.

The top spot goes to a song which was the theme for a game that I’d never played. When I’d heard that Kingdom Hearts II wouldn’t be using Hikari as its theme, I thought that it was a waste. In my mind, Hikari and Kingdom Hearts were inseparable. And then I watched the PV for Utada Hikaru’s Passion. It was strange, because it definitely felt like Kingdom Hearts, but it felt like it had matured. And it sounded very different from her previous songs, but sounded exactly like her style. All I know is that this song deserves to continue to stay at the top of the list.

Tags: Music

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.