Forum - View topicDo songs help you understand the basic story?
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ChronoBall X
 Posts: 389 |
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This is a question I've been curiouse to ask,as some of you probully know,unlike american dub theme songs (which have little to know to anything do with the basic depth of the story),some japanese songs help explaine the basic focus of a character and the basic setup story to an anime like for example "Kokoro no Tamago" the opening first theme song to Shugo Chara did it pretty well to tell the basic plot on how Amu Hinamori uses Shugo chara's to try to find her true personality,so my question is,do japanese theme song also help you get the idea behind the basic story before watching the first episode?
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Eruanna
 Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
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Rarely, if ever.
Shugo Chara! is I think one of the exceptions, to have a themesong thats actually about the show. Its my understanding that usually they use a the opening slot to "showcase" an artist, and the song generally has nothing to do with the plot. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Maybe not the story but they can definitely set the right kind of mood. Take the odd discordant and genuinely creepy theme to When They Cry for instance.
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BDK
Posts: 18 |
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Basically what Eruanna said. Rarely if ever do they unless the theme is actually about the show.
Unless we want to talk about some 4kid's dub openings. but lets just keep that hush, hush. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Yes, the theme to When They Cry puts you right in the mood to get ready to watch it. I also think this is the same case with the theme music to Paranoia Agent and Paprika. And also "Tank!", the theme to Cowboy Bebop, is the perfect song to get the mood going for the anime. Yoko Kano is a master mind at directing the music in order to get you in the right mood for the story. The same Can be said for Samurai Champloo as well and Ergo Proxy. But I can also think of a few times when the theme songs can help you understand the anime. My first example would be the second ending to Death Note ("Zetsubou Billy" by Maximum the Hormone), the song is actually about Death Note. That's about as good as you get into explaining the series. Another example that comes to mind is the theme music from Fooly Cooly (the pillows). I think allot of the times the music was used to portray what was occurring at that time and help the viewer get to understand the situation. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7360 |
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For me as well, Paranoia Agent and Paprika and also Tokyo Godfather set the mood quite nicely for me viewing (although I haven't finished Paranoia Agent though, grrr!)
But for me, Cromartie High School sets the mood so well for me that I actually watch it each episode (and I've seen the series a ridiculous amount of times). And at the beginning, Kamiya's little warning of "The guys that appear in this anime are delinquints. Please, do not under any circumstance imitate anything they do" makes me laugh every time, because the more you watch, the more you realise it's because they're incredibly stupid and not because they actually do anything dangerous. The music itself is rather mellow, but all the weird things that happen in the background for no apparant reason describe the show perfectly for me. Not a lot of flashing lights and "Ka-Me-Ha-Me-HA!" screams, just a bunch of idiots hanging out at school or in the woods or the cafe doing weird things and having odd conversations that remind me of the "therefore she's a witch" scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (and some other hilarious scenes, and they both involve "badass bunnies"). In the case of Revolutionary Girl Utena, the images, but not really the song, helped me quite a bit in understanding the basics of the series (don't spoil it! I'm only to episode 21!) I definatly think that some openers set the mood better than others, but I haven't seen too many related to the story. The closest thing I've seen to that is almost any given song in Katamari Damacy, which are all hilariously egotistical to the game itself, with most of the songs involving the word "katamari" or "rolling", or "prince" or some game related details. Those can kinda tell you what the game is about there. |
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Shawn Shaolin
 Posts: 111 Location: New Jersey |
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it depends on the song. For example the closing theme for Ergo Proxy was Radiohead's Paranoid Android. That song had nothing to do with the anime.
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Kruszer
Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Well, Ergo Proxy did have androids and sometimes they were paranoid.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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The actual lyrics are far removed from the themes of the show, though. There's always an exceptionally rare song that actually fits in with the anime's themes/story -- Wolf's Rain, Texhnolyze, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Bebop come to mind, and I think arguments can be made for the opening themes for Evangelion and Paranoia Agent -- but most of the time they're useless J-pop/rock fluff. |
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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I don't find it rare, actually. I think in most cases, but particularly in instances of anime that have unusual premises, the OP or ED can leak hints about what the story is really about, at its guts. I have actually seen few cases where this wasn't true. Even in the most generically written cases, aka listen to all the FMA OPs, there's a correlation between the lyrics and, say, the attitude of the main character. Something.
Could be more obvious to me because I watch veeeewwy few fansubs. Most that I've seen were shoved in my eye sockets by friends. Most of the stuff I prefer to see is out on DVD. So I watch the show for a long time without ever looking at the lyrics, I turn the subs off. Later, when I youtube an OP or ED for some reason, there's usually subs on it, and I see the lyrics for the first time after having seen the entire show. I'm able to pick out a lot of lyrics that had a double meaning or just go "Oh, it's almost like the main character is singing it." Someone mentioned Death Note, which has a good example in its first OP and ED of sounding like the lead is singing it. Still, few shows have real "secrets about the plot" in their theme songs. HellKorn mentioned Wolf's Rain and Paranoia Agent, though, both of which give secrets about the plot in their songs...kind of. Maybe the theme. I need to wrap up thoughts on the Wolf's Rain thread. Well, when I get my computer fixed. I'm using the folks' now. |
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Mushi-Man
Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Well, I was referring more to the opening (although I love the fact that they used a Radiohead song, one of the best bands ever). Just looking at the lyrics for Kiri and you can see that there are a few parallels between the song and the anime. |
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ryokoalways
Posts: 562 |
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After Story OP basically gives the story away, the main point at least.
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Mistypearl
 Posts: 517 |
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Well gosh darn it. All of the shows I was going to mention were already taked about
 Except for one! (yay me!) Though it doesn't say the plot line, the music in Princess Tutu IS the show, the plot, and a great reason for watching. Though itself it sets the mood, looking closer, you'll see that a certain episode dedicated to a certain ballet, such as Giselle, has a similar plot line, and the same music from the actual ballet. It gives it real dimension I feel and really carries the show.
Shugo Chara is also one of the first songs that basically described the plot in the OP LOL. I love it when the music is corny background music and really gets you involved |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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That show really made me wish I was familiar with the ballets that the ballet-based episodes were based on. I do like it when the OP theme is specifically about the show, but as other posters already pointed out that's mostly the exception. One of my favorites is the POPOTAN theme, a wacky song about talking to flowers that only makes sense when connected to that show. Another good one is the NANAKA 6/17 theme--there's a certain bittersweet edge to the last lines(which translates as something like "Even when the magic goes away, I'll still love you") when you see what happens at the end of the show. |
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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Do the songs have anything to DO with the story? No...not usually. They're just meant to sound cool, more than anything. The intros for almost all of the anime I've seen had songs that told me very, very little about the show or its themes...
But opening SEQUENCES? Heh, you don't know it the first time you see the very first episode, but NGE's opening sequence images contain MASSIVE spoilers for the show that you don't even KNOW are spoilers yet. Which was awesome.
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