Listening to anime music is so relaxing. There are a lot of good songs out there and, by listening to them, it’s kind of like you get to re-experience a part of the show itself. While the originals are often great, I also love it when artists take these well-known songs and give them their own twists. It started with wanting to see if people had dubbed these songs to English, and now I am listening to anime covers in languages I don’t even speak and genres I didn’t even know about.
I think everybody knows the big musicians already. Jonathan Young, Caleb Hyles, Lee and Lie, these have millions of viewers a piece already. Today I wanted to shine a light on some interesting artists that you may not have heard about yet.
I already referenced him in this week’s article, but I am a big fan of FalKKonE. He uses a style called intense symphonic metal. I am going to assume he developed this style himself, since all the Google results point back to him. Intense really is the right word for it: it’s loud, it’s high-pace, and yet never loses that symphonic element.
FalKKonE has admittedly done more than just anime. He’s applied his style to video game themes, national anthems, and even classical music. He can take the most random bullshit and turn it into a intense metal song that’ll blast you away. In the realm of anime, some of my favorites of his are the covers for Berserk‘s Aria, Nui Harime’s theme, and the OP for Mirai Nikki. Also, while it’s technically not an anime song, I love his Girls und Panzer-inspired take on Säkkijärven polkka.
There are quite a few artists out there who do anime covers in odd genres. Turbo, for example, has taken a number of anime songs and given them a eurobeat make-over. Obviously inspired by Initial D, but with a unique sound of their own. I recommend checking out their covers of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis and Platinum Disco. As an honorable mention, there is also Astrophysics for all your synthwave needs. They mostly focus on original music, but do have some anime covers. My favorites being Magia and Duvet. They also have a lot of Jojo stuff, but I know nothing about that series.
My favorite, however, has to be Platina Jazz. For almost a decade now they have been adapting songs to jazz, mainly focusing on retro anime with the occasional newer show mixed in. I don’t have a particular fondness for the genre, but I love the work that Platina Jazz has done. It’s almost criminal that in 9 years and with such a vast library of work, they are still this small.
I especially adore the songs for which they made entire music videos. Their cover of Moonlight Densetsu tells a story about a childish lead singer sabotaging an audition. As different talent takes the stage one after the other, he becomes increasingly rude and abusive towards them. It’s a fun video, but the song is gripping even without it. It’s so passionate and bombastic that it shattered my (wrong) assumptions of what jazz sounds like.
There is also Devilman; a cover of the 1973 opening of the Go Nagai classic dubbed into English. Rather than reference the actual anime, Platina Jazz uses the song to tell a different story entirely. It’s a spy thriller with a neat silhouette artstyle and fancy editing.
For more normal performances, check out Eternal Blaze, Inner Universe, and Cha-La Head Cha-La.
These anime covers are all pretty out there, however. Perhaps you just wanted to hear a song you like in a different language, without it being turned into something else entirely. Don’t worry, I got something for you.
Like Platina Jazz, Sapphire has been around for a decade now. She has covered a wealth of different anime and her lyrics I’ve sometimes seen crop up in covers from other channels. She has an amazing voice, with which she has handled everything from 90s classics to the latest hypetrain anime. Though they are years old now, I still regularly listen to her covers for Cutie Honey, Re:Re, and Megumi Hayashibara’s Give A Reason. More recently, she has put out amazing covers of Just Communication and Promare.
Finally, there are the German anime covers by Selphius. Her work really took off in the wake of Saga of Tanya the Evil, as I and 15 million others really wanted to hear Los Los Los done in German. Though she has covered the song 3 different times now, her repertoire has also expanded a lot. She now has covers for a variety of mostly-mainstream anime, which all sound surprisingly great in German. Not a language that you’d think ideal for tender songs like Silky Heart or My Soul, Your Beats, but Selphius nails them perfectly.
Her range is nothing short of impressive. Softer songs like those above and Styx Helix feature alongside covers of Myth & Roid singles like Voracity and LLL. My favorite is a real guilty pleasure though: Passionate Squall from Seikon no Qwaser.
That’s all for me today though. If you have recommendations of your own, share them in the comments or pass me a message. It’s always nice to discover new artists I didn’t know about yet.
