Weekly ED: Passionate Squall

So, yeah. Only two weeks in, and I'm already switching to an ED. Sue me, if you like, but you can't bleed a turnip.

Anyway. This song has been stuck in my head a bit, and no opening songs really stuck out for doing a post on. So I figured I'd handle this one, in particular. Seikon no Qwaser is not a good anime. I wish to get that out of the way right from the beginning. Its chief attractions are almost overwhelming amounts of T&A, along with catering to such deep, nuanced fetishes as lolicon, maid cafes, and hadaka apron. And that's just going off memory. Since these are things I enjoy, I watched the series, or at least some of it; nowadays I find myself waiting for proper BD rips, or maybe even a US appearance, though I can onlyt hink it would be redacted like Dance in the Vampire Bund. I digress, though. This is a music post, not an anime post.

Passionate Squall is the first of two ending songs for the series. It's an impressive little ditty, sung by the five principal seiyuu of the series: Ayumi Fujimora, Minori Chihara, Aki Toyasaki, Aya Hirano, and Yoko Hisaka. An impressive list, to be certain, even if not all have the best voices. Which is fine, as it's the music that mostly carries the song. Mostly, I say, because with all five seiyuu getting a little solo, it becomes hard at times to tell who's singing when. It's a little bit like Moon Revenge in that way, only I don't have years of listening to the voices to pick them apart.

It starts out rather strangely, with school bells and the growling of demons, before it launches into the chorus. The bass line is a lot more interesting than most ending songs, actually, which is why it interested me. Sort of a driving, somewhat sultry beat. It definitely isn't typical fluffy anison either. It doesn't quite tip over into jrock, but it's very close. An engaging little twist to this song is the synthesizer; it adds a sort of a high string-like effect in places.

One of the nicer things about the song, I find, is how it alternates; there are very heavy instrumental passages, almost an industrial rock feel, and then there are passages where the seiyuu's voices carry with just a single guitar accompanying. It's an interesting feel, and I'm not completely sure it works all the time, but it is, as I say, interesting. The guitar solor in the bridge is... a bit pedestrian, I think, but not too bad.

As for the lyrics themselves, the less said about them, the better. I don't speak Japanese, so I don't listen to Japanese music for the deep meaning. The meaning in this particular song is mostly about loving, even when alone and ignored. I mostly like the passion with which they sing. They don't sound like they're pining, they sound like they're angry. Which is good, because none of the characters are particularly pushovers. It's quite spirited.

Five out of five stars, for what is one of the best ending songs of the year.