It’s time to announce the results of the 2nd of 8 groups in Round 3 – Group B (so creative, I know).

The songs which advanced to the Fourth Round are in bold. I’m also now entering artist/anime information into the next round match-ups on the bracket as they’re determined:

“Happy Material” by Yuri Shiratori – Negima! vs.
“The Starry Sky” by HAL – Angelic Layer

“Last Regrets” by Ayana – Kanon vs.
“Motteke Sailor Fuku” by Aya Hirano, et. al. – Lucky Star

“Minami Kaze” by Mikuni Shimokawa – Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid vs.
“It’s” by Kinya – Tsubasa Chronicle

“Tenshi no Yubikiri” by Fukuda Mai – His and Her Circumstances vs.
“Zankoku yo Kibou to Nare” by Aira Yuki – Idolmaster Xenoglossia

“Asu e no Brilliant Road” by Angela – Stellvia vs.
“Michishirube” by Yuumao – Kashimashi

“Loop” by Maaya Sakamoto – Tsubasa Chronicle vs.
“Yakusoku no basho e” by Chihiro Yonekura – Kaleido Star

“Daiya no Hana” by Yoriko – Black Cat vs.
“Sou da, Zettai” by Masami Okui – Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko

“Fruits Candy” by Megumi Kojima – Cardcaptor Sakura vs.
“Kioku” by See-Saw – .hack//Luminality

Boy, this round had some toughies. One of the hardest was “Last Regrests” vs. “Motteke Sailor Fuku.” I went into this one fully expecting to make the theme from Lucky Star have a not so lucky round. But, after listening to the two songs in a row, you know, I just dig the Sailor Fuku.

Another tough one was “Asu e no Brilliant Road” vs. “Michishirube.” I like both of these songs, and it’d been nice if they had met later. Alas, fate has them meeting early. In the end I chose “Michishirube” just because – I guess obviously – I just thought it was the better made song.

This week we have another double participant – this time the anime series Tsubasa Chronicle. Just like last week, the double participant goes 0-2 showing that there is no such thing as “strength in numbers” in this competition.

Group C match-ups for next week are listed after the jump…

Continue reading →

Edit: Correction to an artist made, and added comment

The first group of Round 3 has been completed, so here are the results. The songs which advanced to the Fourth Round are in bold. I’m also now entering artist/anime information into the next round match-ups on the bracket as they’re determined:

“Shissou” by Last Alliance – Ouran High School Host Club vs.
“Sakasama No Chou” by SNoW – Jigoku Shoujo

“Deep in Your Heart” by Koichi Domoto – Jyu Oh Sei vs.
“The Light Before We Land” by The Delgados – Gunslinger Girl

“Makka na Chikai” by Yoshiki Fukuyama – Busou Renkin vs.
“A Flower Without a Name” by The Indigo – Ai Yori Aoshi

“Being” by Kotoko – Shakugan no Shana vs.
“Pure Snow” by Yuko Sasaki – Legend of Himiko

“Hayate no Gotoku” by Kotoko – Hayate No Gotoku! vs.
“Motherland” by Crystal Kay – Fullmetal Alchemist

“Tsuki no Curse” by Reika Okina – Loveless vs.
“Waltz” by Kanako Itou – School Days

“Obsession” by See-Saw – .hack//Sign vs.
“Koi Suru Kokoro” by eufonius – Kashimashi

“Daichi no la-li-la” by Oranges & Lemons – Scrapped Princess vs.
“Starless Night” by Olivia – NANA

In the first two rounds that I did on my own, I weeded out all the “bad” and “bad-mediocre” songs. This round, we weed out a lot of mediocre songs (though there are still a lot of mediocre vs. mediocre match-ups) leaving mostly only “good” and “great” songs.

Probably the hardest match-up this week was “Being” vs. “Pure Snow” because I really like both of these songs, and it’s a shame that they had to face each other so early (I randomly made the bracket).

I wouldn’t say there were any “easy” choices this time, but some where easier than others. “Motherland” over “Hayate no Gotoku” was probably the least hard. I like Kotoko in general, but “Hayate” isn’t really my favorite of her songs, and it had the unfortunate assignment of facing off against one of my favorite themes from Fullmetal Alchemist (4 are in this round). Amazingly, Kotoko was the artist which had the most songs in this round with 5, and she quickly goes down 0-2.

Group B match-ups for next week are listed after the jump…

Continue reading →

Well, it didn’t take me as long as I thought to go through the 2nd round of 256 songs, and thus I am finally down to 128 anime opening and closing themes. Once again I’ll list anime series and singers which have multiple songs in the listings, as well as list my first set of song vs. song matchups. If you want the full list of songs, click on “read more”

Anime with 4 songs
Ai Yori Aoshi/Enishi
Full Metal Panic franchise
Fullmetal Alchemist

Anime with 3 songs
Cardcaptor Sakura + movies
School Days
Shakugan no Shana
Tsubasa Chronicle

Anime with 2 songs
Air
Angelic Layer
Ghost in the Shell franchise
Girls Bravo
Great Teacher Onizuka
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
His and Her Circumstances
Idolmaster Xenoglossia
Kaleido Star
Kannaduki no Miko
Kanon
Kashimashi
Kiba
Kurau: Phantom Memory
Last Exile
Oh! My Goddess
Please Twins
Scrapped Princess
Seto no Hanayome
Someday’s Dreamers

Artist with 5 songs
Kotoko

Artist with 4 songs
Mikuni Shimokawa
Minami Kuribayashi
The Indigo
Artist with 2 songs
Aya Hirano
Ayana
Eiko Shimamiya
Goddess Family Club
L’Arc~en~Ciel
Lia
Mami Kawada
Mell
Oranges & Lemons
Savage Genius
See-Saw
Yoko Takahashi
Yui Horie
Yuko Sasaki

See the full bracket

Group A Matchups – 9/23/2007

All matchups were determined randomly.

Matchup 1
“Shissou” by Last Alliance – Ouran High School Host Club
vs.
“Sakasama No Chou” by SNoW – Jigoku Shoujo

Matchup 2
“Deep in Your Heart” by Koichi Domoto – Jyu Oh Sei
vs.
“The Light Before We Land” by The Delgados – Gunslinger Girl

Matchup 3
“Makka na Chikai” by Yoshiki Fukuyama – Busou Renkin
vs.
“A Flower Without a Name” by The Indigo – Ai Yori Aoshi

Matchup 4
“Being” by Kotoko – Shakugan no Shana
vs.
“Pure Snow” by Yuko Sasaki – Legend of Himiko

Matchup 5
“Hayate no Gotoku” by Kotoko – Hayate No Gotoku!
vs.
“Motherland” by Crystal Kay – Fullmetal Alchemist

Matchup 6
“Tsuki no Curse” by Reika Okina – Loveless
vs.
“Waltz” by Kanako Itou – School Days

Matchup 7
“Obsession” by See-Saw – .hack//Sign
vs.
“Koi Suru Kokoro” by eufonius – Kashimashi

Matchup 8
“Daichi no la-li-la” by Oranges & Lemons – Scrapped Princess
vs.
“Starless Night” by Olivia – NANA
Continue reading →

One thing that I’ve been in the process of doing has been trying to decide what my favorite anime themes of all time are. This is a pretty daunting task since I have a library of over 500 themes stored away (mostly for my podcast), and so in the first round, I narrowed down the list to 512 songs, eliminating those which were instrumental only, and capping the number of songs coming from any given series (I think Naruto had the most at 11).

I then went through and listened to songs in groups of 8, picking out my favorite 4 songs in each group, thus advancing 256 songs to the Second Round.

While I won’t list out all the songs that advance to the second round here (that’d be one huge list), I’ll list out anime series and performers which did well in advancing songs from the first round.

Series with 8 songs
Fullmetal Alchemist – 8

Series with 6 songs
Ai Yori Aoshi/Enishi – 6
Cardcaptor Sakura + movies – 6
School Days – 6

Series with 5 songs
Ah! My Goddess (TV) – 5

Series with 4 songs
Bleach – 4
Blood+ – 4
Full Metal Panic/Fumoffu/The Second Raid – 4
.hack//Whatever – 4
Kiba – 4
Shakuga no Shana – 4

Series with 3 songs
Chobits – 3
D. Gray Man – 3
Eureka Seven – 3
Girls Bravo – 3
Great Teacher Onizuka – 3
NANA – 3
Project ARMS – 3
Seto no Hanayome – 3
Shuffle/Memories – 3
Tsubasa Chronicles – 3

Series with 2 songs
A hell of a lot

Ok, how did individual artists do?

Artists with 7 songs
Minami Kuribayashi
Yoko Ishida

Artists with 6 songs
Kotoko

Artists with 4 songs
The Indigo
L’Arc~en~Ciel
Mikuni Shimokawa
Miyuki Hashimoto

Artists with 3 songs
Maaya Sakamoto
Nami Tamaki
Oranges & Lemons
Origa
Rie Tanaka
Saeko Chiba
See-Saw
Yoko Takahashi
Yozuca
Yui Horie
Yuria

I’ll post the results from the 2nd round whenever I get done listening to all 256 songs. Once again I’ll do the “listen to 8 and pick 4) thing. I’m not sure whether I’ll start a bracket after 128 or 64 songs, but I will pretty soon.