Message is an odd song. Normally, the point of an anime opening is to grab the attention, to be catchy and remarkably prone to hum or sing along. Message does not do that. At all. I suspect that my interest in this song is secondary to the anime to which it's attached, Sōkō no Strain (or, as it was released in the US, Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry). The anime itself is highly watchable; Wikipedia lists it as being loosely based on the Little Princess novel, but I hadn't gained that impression from watching it, and I think the comparison is fairly meaningless when it comes to watching the series, which I would recommend. But this blog is not about anime I like. Yet.
So. The song is done by YoKo, who is probably more familiar to most listeners as Yoko Ueno. Under that name, she's probably most familiar as part of Oranges and Lemons, the group which did the opening and ending songs for Azumanga Daioh, and as a separate duet, the ending for Scrapped Princess. She has a very high voice, but in this case she avoids the pitfall of being so shrill that I just don't want to listen at all.
In any event, YoKo here lends her voice to give this a somewhat ethereal feel. The notion of a fairy very much comes to mind. There's actually an almost Arabian feel to the lilt of her music. Probably something to do with the scale used. In any event, the sing-song nature of the song lends an airy quality.
The instrumentals both help and harm the song. I think the drum and bass are a bit heavy, but happily they restrict themselves largely to the refrains. The main parts of the song are almost all synthesizer, and they, too, use light notes, but played almost in a mournful tone. That I approve of, since a large part of the series is the protagonist's rather estranged relationship with her brother.
Downsides to this track? It is, as I noted before, not especially catchy. It very easily can blend into the background, which is not what an anime opening should be. On its own, it's not a bad song, but as a hook for a series I have to say it fails utterly. That said, I still find it pleasant listening, and somewhat a change of pace from the usual, frenetic pace of an anison. Call it... three of five stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment