Akaihane

Undoubtly one of the most talked about things in the fansub circuit this week is the new, rather interesting intro and extro to the Death Note anime. The much heavier music and the humourous OP is certainly worth the attention, and not only freshens things up after 20 episodes but hints that we are coming very close to the momentous event of Volume 7 of the manga.

Watch the OP | ED on YouTube

I’ve never really warmed to Nightmare’s tracks, but that’s largely a statement on my own likes and dislikes in music; Visual Kei is one of the few forms of Japanese music I’ve never been able to get into, even though I tried listening to quite a bit of X Japan back in the day. However, Maximum the Hormone’s tracks are a bit more my style and I could easily see myself checking out a few more of their songs, so it’s pretty easy for me to prefer these over the first OP and ED. And now that I’ve listened to tracks a few times, I do feel they fit into Death Note’s style a little better, their music more demented and distressing to listen to rather than depressing, the same feelings I get from reading the manga and watching the anime.

Visually I prefer the OP as it is just clearly out there, uses a great colour palette, and really shows off Obata’s unique visual style and character designs, the primary element that attracted me to the series (I particulary love the 70s vibe of the Aizawa shot). It also really boasts as to how much fun the staff had putting the sequence together, though the comic instances of L spinning in the chair and Ryuk dancing with the apple easily make way for the more ominious mood towards the end, introducing the characters who will begin to appear in a few episodes time (including a few I’m not familar with as I’m only up-to-date with the Viz release, Volume 9, of the manga, though 10 should be here anyday). I even love the typography they’ve used, the way the occasional red letter strikes out of the screen. I also wonder about some of the imagery, too, such as the crows and roses, and the meaning behind them.

The ED animation focuses, as did the first, pretty much purely on Light, though of course this time on his adult persona rather than him as a teenager. It’s a little more basic in terms of direction, but still has some lovely animation (I do admit to being a MADHOUSE fan). Probably my favourite shot here would be that of the watch and the meaning behind this (from the start of Volume 7) ^_~

Musically, I prefer the ED, ‘Zetsubou Billy’ as it’s a little less shouty, but then I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of ‘What’s Up, People?’ yet. The music video to ‘Zetsubou Billy’ is definitely worth a view, the band having a laugh at other different genres of JPop/Rock.

I’ll always prefer the music used in first movie (I haven’t had the chance to listen to ‘The Last Name’ soundtrack yet), as I’m a big fan of both Red Hot Chili Peppers and Suga Shikao, and sometimes feel that classic, slightly depressing, rock suits the themes better, but I am really glad to see the change in OP and ED, not only as with a 37-episode series at the halfway mark, it needs something to keep it fresh, but as I can see myself sitting down and watching them each time a new episode is available rather than skipping past them as I’ve been doing so far.