Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Now that the summer season and lingering spring season shows have all but ended, it is time to hand off a few medals of music, cry tears of blood and joy, before moving onto what appears to be the sissiest season ever. Autumn is traditionally a month of melancholy and it is often the time for the more sentimental shows, compared to the blockbuster action of the Spring. But to me, a hard manly muscle chunk with 0 percent fat, sentimental is just a synonym for "that’s too gay to watch". I would like to give out awards for the whole range and not just music, but I have a mid term exam tomorrow and that is probably more important.

Without further Naruto-esque delay, we shall now commence the ceremony of testosterone.

Best Manly Opening
Shortlist:
Dramatic by Baseball Bear (Ookiku Furikabutte)
Toki wo Koete by Two-Mix Delta (Engage Planet Kissdum)
Giniro no Sora by Redballoon (Gintama), Uninstall by Ishikawa Chiaki (Bokurano)
Guns and Roses by Paradise Lunch (Baccano!)
Howling by Abingdon Boys School (Darker than Black)
endscape by Uverworld (Terra E)

The very first award goes to the opening that most exudes the spirit of  "burning", where you either have to feel a) passion, b) youth or c) violence/death. Dramatic is naturally the most youthful song of the few, and Oofuri is so youthful and manly that it may be misconstrued as being a bit yaoi. Toki wo Koete is by the really ancient Two-Mix, whose lead vocalist Takayama Minami voices lots of awesome characters and is also the wife of Aoyama Gosho the Meitantei Conan author. The song, along with the two endings (mentioned later) are the only reasons Kissdum was watched till the end, a painful 26 episodes. Giniro no Sora is the best opening for Gintama so far and possibly the world. Uninstall was hot for a while but I got bored. Howling is quite the opposite, in that I didn’t really like it or its successor Kakusei Heroism much until I put it in my mp3 player. Then it got awesome. Guns and Roses makes the cut for being so different and having a great OP sequence. Did you know that Paradise Lunch is a girl jazz band, whose members aren’t actually hot? Endscape is actually comparable to Giniro no Sora in terms of manly levels, one of the rare good songs of Uverworld.

Winner: Giniro no Sora. Nobody defeats Gintama.

Best Ending
Shortlist:
Shura by DOES (Gintama)
Hanafubuki by ACID (Tokyo Majin)
Minna no Peace by Afromania (Gurren Lagann)
1000 miles ~ Niji wo Koete by Santara (Oh! Edo Rocket)
Danzai no Hana by Kosaka Riyu (Claymore)
Kimi ga Iru Kagiri by Stephanie (Kissdum)

Endings do not have to be manly as the wife is behind the man. Hence endings can be sissy as long as they are good. This is actually the real reason why you always find one hard manly OP and a soft ED, rather than two hard songs. In some special cases, the hard song is placed at the back (like in Gurren Lagann) to give some respect to the rise of feminism.

Shura is quite awesome, it’s actually my alarm clock ringtone. I jump out of bed ready for battle when I hear it. Hanafubuki is sort of cheating, as it was the same ED used for the first season of Tokyo Majin,which they just didn’t bother to change. Excellent song nevertheless and has been on my playlist forever. Minna no Peace is an impossably catchy song. It’s to GL what Canvas was to Eureka seveN - the song that classy otakus worldwide can jump together and start singing our lungs out by heart. 1000 miles and Kimi ga Iru Kagiri are probably the best songs in terms of quality though. I rarely like slow girl songs but these really shine. Danzai no Hana sucks now, I’m bored of it.

Winner: Minna no Peace. Nothing beats an otaku anthem. Try it, sing it to your otaku friends, they will respond with mating calls.

I did wanted a category for best background music, but the only soundtrack I have is Darker than Black’s. I do recall several series having excellent BGMs. But my short term memory says its Kissdum followed by Gurren Lagann. But don’t trust me on this, my criteria is along the lines of "Most number of times the burning OP gets played during an action sequence".

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