Note: Bracket I Polls 1-4 close in exactly 24 hours.
Vote for one of the following tracks:
Track 1: Serial Experiments Lain – Duvet
Track 2: Date a Live – Date a Live
Vote for one of the following tracks:
Track 1: Gin-iro no Kami no Agito – Ai no Melody
Track 2: Umineko no Naku Koro ni – la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~
Vote for one of the following tracks:
Track 1: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Eternal Blaze
Track 2: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG – Torukia
Vote for one of the following tracks:
Track 1: Cowboy Bebop – Blue
Track 2: Denpa Onna To Seishun Otoko – OS-Uchuujin
The Anime Music Tournament 
I can understand if the middle two polls go either way (even if I have clear preferences for those). But if Duvet or Blue lose it will be a travesty.
I mean seriously. The vocals to OS-Uchuujin are both annoying and technically unpolished, the song itself is structurally simplistic and shallow… and yet people are voting for it? I’m hoping this is just because I’m early to the polls, and that Blue will pull ahead soon enough.
Listening to OS-Uchuujin is actually hilarious. It’s sooo baaad. My respect to whoever nominated this.
I find OS-Uchuujin far more enjoyable to listen to than Blue. Any other Cowboy Bebop song though and I’d have voted in their favor, but Blue does nothing for me.
While it’s perfectly okay to dislike that song, if you don’t see where the merits of that song lies then your opinion on that sort of thing is probably worthless to everyone else? Just pointing out the obvious here.
Here’s a hint look up denpa song. Not that I really agree with them but in a good example of a denpa song many of the things you listed are considered virtues of the genre. OS-Uchuujin is a pretty good example of a denpa song. Still you would think on a reasonable level that Blue will easily walk away with this one just based on how polls have gone. This is not one of the b-side Cowboy Bebop songs. This is one of the ones that strikes at the core of the series and has some pretty transcendent vocals to boot. This is not going up against a veritable classic like Akatsuki no Kuruma or Kiseki no Umi; it’s going up against a relatively new song from a relatively new genre that not everyone has grown to appreciate much less like.
Os-uchuujin can be classified as denpa, but I’d say it’s hardly a typical example of the genre (for that, check Mikomiko-nurse, or for something actually good, some of momo-i’s or MOSAIC.WAV’s works), and more of an interesting cultural mashup. Shinsei kamattechan is pretty far removed from anything resembling denpa culture usually (except perhaps niconico douga), but they (mostly Noko) strike a pretty great balance here between their usual dissonant, off-kilter and depressed style, the “addictively cutesy” aspects of moe-kei denpa, and a simple pop-rock ballad.
So here goes another vote for them. The lyrics alone are way more interesting than those in Blue, and they go really well with both the nice, if simple, E-flat minor piano line and Ogame’s impressive vocal performance (really hard to replicate, I tried!).
Sure, but being representative of a genre still doesn’t make something good. A harem anime could be considered an exemplary harem anime because of a perfectly inoffensive male lead, lovingly animated fanservice and ‘characters’ composed solely of moe traits, without that making it ‘good’.
Though I suppose I’m answering my original question with that analogy; non-genre-breaking harem anime still have their fans, so I suppose something like OS-Uchuujin would too.
(Also, for what it’s worth, at the point when I commented the polls were pretty even. They’re still not that far apart now. Yes, I would expect Blue to win given both the song’s merits and its background, which is precisely why I was startled enough by the lack of a gap to make the above comment.)
Did you just say it’s representative of a genre when it really isn’t…? I don’t know, I think at a live show, OS is closer to punk than denpa. And the vocal is actually quite good given what it came out of!
Voting Denpa Onna just because I rebel against Cowboy Bebop and OS-Uchuujin is a perfect opportunity to do so.
Kind of defeats the point of the tournament, does it not? It should be about the songs themselves in the context of the series, not the show itself.
I don’t even like the song that much, so.
There are only maybe two songs in this whole group OS-Uchuujin should beat. Blue is not one of them.
OH, do I have a DESIRE to see la divina tragedia make it to the next round. No, seriously, that song owns.
Probably the easiest round of voting ever. Hardest one would be the Ai no Melody vs Tragedia (like that song is quite the pace-setter and loving those vocals!). But voted Ai no Melody since I got the shivers when I heard it this morning. You should be proud of me, boss!
And listening to OS-Uchuujin… and regardless of whether it’s a denpa song on not, just because it’s being intentionally bad and catchy, doesn’t mean it’s gonna be good and catchy. If that makes any amount of sense -__-
Ooh, is that Jimang I hear in la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~? As a SanHora fan I feel ashamed I haven’t heard it yet. Ended up voting for KOKIA though, lol.
It is Jimang! And much as I love KOKIA I had to vote for La Divina Tragedia. There’s plenty more KOKIA in this tournament anyway.
Duvet is average though it somewhat reminds me of Dido’s songs. Date a Live has a great start, loses steam but still sounds ok though vocals need work.
Ai no Melody sounds like KOKIA and a check confirms it. Not incredible but ok. Makyoku has an abrupt start and the vocalist is deliberately overdoing it or rather over hamming it.
Eternal Blaze sound generic, nothing special about it but Torukia is neither here nor there as a BGM or as a song as the vocal component is just an instrument in the melody but is of significant amount. Probably flip a coin for this one
Despite being a song older than a decade (15 years?), Blue still sounds ageless, something not many songs can do. The singer’s voice was chosen just right. Too young sounding and you won’t feel the weight of years and experience especially with that boys choir doing the backing. The only nitpick is there’s too much “ahhh ahhh”s and “yeahh yeahhh”s but then just purely depending on the boy’s choir for that long won’t work either
OS-Uchuujin has a good start until the vocals come on. The forced cutesy voice just does not work with the melody. The song would sound good if they got an actual vocalist or let the vocalist stop acting cutesy. Between the vocalist slaughtering the song and Blue, there’s no competition
I assure you Ogame isn’t “acting cutesy” because that is how she sounds like on a normal day.
I went and checked up on the vocalist on animenewsnetwork.
Compare to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1h04kavQs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=790Da3Qda8c , especially the latter (which is actually not a bad tune, both vocals need work though)
From her animenewsnetwork profile, both are her. Compare to OS-Uchuujin and she’s really acting cutesy. I get what they are going for and on an abstract level, its interesting. But as a song objectively, no.
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