Every season brings us a massive new amount of anime theme songs. Here are ten of the best from summer 2015.
Anime: The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Arslan Senki)
Song: “One Light”
Artist: Kalafina
Why I Love It: The ethereal voices of these two three singers and their use of counter-melodies makes this into a powerful pop ballad.
Anime: Durarara!!
Song: “Day You Laugh”
Artist: Toshiyuki Tononaga
Why I Love It: There are two things I really like about this Durarara opening. The first is the powerful, emotion-filled male vocals. The second is how every opening has clips of past episodes that are relevant to the episode you are watching—something more than a little helpful when the number of main characters is now in the dozens.
Anime: Eagle Talon DO (Himitsukessha Taka no Tsume DO)
Song: “WONDER ALONE”
Artist: Glim Spanky
Why I Love It: A decade here in Japan and I never knew there was such a thing as Japanese country music. I’m okay with this. (I’m also in love with the gravelly voice of the female singer.)
Anime: Fairy Tail
Song: “NEVER-END TALE”
Artist: Tatsuyuki Kobayashi and Konomi Suziki
Why I Love It: I’m a sucker for pretty much any J-rock theme song that is a duet between male and female singers.
Anime: Gatchaman Crowds
Song: “Insight”
Artist: WHITE ASH
Why I Love It: This is another strong J-rock track. But the coolest thing about this opening is the stop motion animation of the characters using life-size cardboard cut-outs in real world locations.
Anime: Gangsta.
Song: “Renegade”
Artist: STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION
Why I Love It: One half J-rock with the male vocals, one part techno. What’s not to like?
Anime: GATE
Song: “GATE: Sore Wa Akatsuki No You Ni”
Artist: Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets
Why I Love It: This song’s got a good, steady build-up to a strong chorus. And the way the visuals flash between the fantasy world and our real one is a nice touch.
Anime: God Eater
Song: “Feed A”
Artist: OLDCODEX
Why I Love It: Here’s the funny thing about this. I don’t particularly like the verses but the chorus is so good I sometimes set this one to repeat for hours.
Anime: Overlord
Song: “L.L.L.”
Artist: MYTH & ROID
Why I Love It: This one not only has beautiful art and a good melody but also is a song plainly displaying the inner (yandere) feelings of Albedo. So the song is character building as much as anything else.
Anime: Shimoneta
Song: “Inner Urge”
Artist: Sumire Uesaka
Why I Love It: Not gonna lie, I don’t particularly like this song (though I don’t really hate it either). However, no anime ending song has ever taught me how to make a sex toy before—not to mention doing so at Japan’s most infamous pool. So for that alone, I figure it deserves to be on this list.
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