Favorite Anime Songs #08 - School Rumble Ni Gakki - Kono Namida ga Aru Kara Tsugi no Ippo to Naru (by Ami Tokito)

The more I think about School Rumble and although this song may not be the one you think of immediately when you hear the words "School Rumble," it is probably the best OP/ED song of the series.  "Kono Namida ga Aru Kara Tsugi no Ippo to Naru" appeared as the first ED song of School Rumble Ni Gakki (School Rumble Second Semester) and is performed by Ami Tokito.  The translation of the song title equates to "because there are these tears, they will become my next step."  From my understanding, the song is about dreams being realized but one has to take that first step.

As for the series itself, I would recommend the first season over the second season.  Since this song appears in School Rumble Ni Gakki, I would say that the duration through which this song is used as the end theme is the better part of Ni Gakki.  I believe that Ni Gakki ended rather weakly with San Gakki (Third Semester) being worse since it's only two OAV episodes.  It's still a fun series to watch as it seems to form those groups of which ship (relationship) to support (i.e. Flag, Riceball, etc.)

"Kono Namida ga Aru Kara Tsugi no Ippo to Naru" English Lyrics

Favorite Anime Songs #07 - Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Sorairo Days (by Shouko Nakagawa)

"Sorairo Days" roughly translates to "sky blue days."  This song was performed by Shouko Nakagawa and was used at the opening theme to the best anime (in my opinion) of 2007 "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann."  The story of Gurren Lagann is that humanity is forced to live underground by the Spiral King.  Our two main protagonists, Simon and Kamina, form Team Gurren with the goal of achieving the goal of visiting the surface world above which is soon realized with the finding of the Gunmen (mecha) named Lagann.  The overview of the story makes "Sorairo Days" fit the anime appropriately as it gives our protagonists a goal to see the outside world and make it so humanity can do the same.  The song itself is about looking forward towards creating your own future and not looking back to the past.

Without going into further details about the anime itself, it truly is a thrill to watch.  It has its fair share of epic moments.  It is one of the few series that I actually go back to and watch from time to time.  It really is that damn good.  I recommend that you watch it if you haven't done so yet.

Sora Iro Days English Lyrics

Favorite Anime Songs #06: Bleach: Memories of Nobody - Sen no Yoru wo Koete (by Aqua Timez)

"Sen no Yoru wo Koete" is performed by Aqua Timez and the ending theme for the first Bleach movie entitled "Bleach: Memories of Nobody," which in my opinion is the best of the Bleach movies.  The song's title roughly translates to "Passing Over the Thousandth Night."  The lyrics of the song depict a person who is in love with someone, but is not sure if the person that that person loves feels the same way.  The love could be one-sided, but the person is fine with it as that love is cannot be changed by anyone else and that the feeling of loving someone is fine in itself.  It goes very well with the theme of Bleach: Memories of Nobody as without spoiling too much of the movie, it features a shinigami named Senna and stuff happens such that Ichigo has to go save her.  I guess you can see where this is going.  For anybody that has followed Bleach, Ichigo is one of main characters where he has accumulated a harem  somewhat without his knowledge.  For some reason, girls like him.  It's not an obvious harem like in other series like Negima, Love Hina, or The World God Only Knows, but a number of girls have taken a liking to Ichigo over the course of the series.  In any event, it's amazing that I picked this song over many of the OP/ED songs from the series itself as although the Bleach series hasn't been great of late, it did have great music.

Sen no Yoru wo Koete English Lyrics

Favorite Anime Songs #05 - Mahou Sensei Negima - Happy Material

This song is so good there are seven full versions of the song, a TV version with all 31 girls, an acoustic version, and it got played in the alternate retelling of the series Negima!?  The basic premise of the anime is a 10-year old boy magician becomes the English teacher of a middle school all-girls academy.  This boy, Negi Springfield, is in charge of 31 girls all older than he is.  As far as the anime goes, I personally found myself liking the first series than the Shaft retelling.  The second series can be great at times, but it's so much different from the canon in the manga.  The first series follows the manga more closely, but the deviates in the final 4+ episodes.  The way to go through this series is through the manga.  It felt awesome for about 300 chapters and is lumbering towards the finish line in the past 50+ chapters towards what many perceive (including myself) as a rushed ending.  (I'll address the flaws possibly next week when the series concludes.)  But as for the anime, the OP theme called "Happy Material" is one of the more catchier OP themes I've heard in recent years.  I stated that there are seven versions of it which features only a part of the class and each version is basically a remix of the original.  I'm bias and leaned towards the More Rock version because Shizuka Ito is in it.  For the sake of this post, I'm posting all seven since I don't hate any of them and are all brilliant in their own right.

Happy Material Lyrics

Happy Material - Original

Happy Material - More Rock Version

Happy Material - More Happy Version

Happy Material - More Beloved

Happy Material - Electric

Happy Material - Early Summer

Happy Material - Now and Oldies

Favorite Anime Songs #04 - 5 Centimeters Per Second: a chain of short stories about their distance - One More Time, One More Chance

This movie is probably my favorite of all anime movies I've seen.  The movie, "5 Centimeters Per Second," is about two childhood friends who develop a strong bond and fall in love with each other but as time passes, they drift further away due to circumstances beyond their control.  The movie is split into three parts as it shows the progression of which their drifting away has affected both of them, in particular, the boy, Takaki.  Normally, when one thinks Japanese anime movies, one thinks of Hayao Miyazaki, but I can't imagine any Miyazaki being better than this one.  I have yet to see all of them, but this movie really got to me.  Even though we form bonds with those around us, we do drift further away at "5 centimeters per second."  The ending song for this movie is done by Masayoshi Yamazaki entitled "One More Time, One More Chance."  It's a fitting title with the theme of this movie and with life in general as we always wish to have one more time and one more chance to reconnect with those around us.  It's aptly named and a great choice to put at the end.  I'd say to definitely watch this movie if you can.  Last time I checked, this movie was incredibly expensive to buy, but I would definitely want to get this movie if I can.

English lyrics to "One More Time, One More Chance"

Favorite Anime Songs #03 - Hayate no Gotoku!! - Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis/Cruel Angel's Thesis (by Shizuka Itō)

Shizuka Itō is quite possibly my voice actor at the moment.  It's to the point that I'm looking at what future anime series she's in and watching them based on her alone.  In "Hayate no Gotoku!!," she does the voice of my favorite character in the series, Hinagiku Katsura.  In one particular part of the anime, she gets to sing "Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis" which is most famously the theme song of "Neon Genesis Evangelion."  Surprisingly, she does a better version than the original and it is clearly my favorite version by far.  It's not like the original version is bad, it's just this version is SOOOOOOOOO much better.  I can't stop listening to this song enough and it is currently my most played songs on iTunes.  It's soooooo good!  So many things came together to make this song, my favorite voice actress and my favorite character from "Hayate no Gotoku!!," I can't praise this enough.