With Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf (Spice and Wolf 2024) currently in its second cour… It’s long since past time for me to post an Anime Playlist entry with one of my favorites anime opening songs ever.
Tabi no Tochū
Natsumi Kiyoura
Full Version:
OP Version (w/ English subtitles):
In my not-so-humble opinion, quite possibly the most beautiful and haunting anime melodies in the history of ever. When I first started collecting anisong back in the mid teens, this was one of the first I sought out.
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Regular readers please take note: I am working on my Summer 2024 Week 3 post, and it will be out late this week or early next. I was lazy and didn’t get started until they’d all aired and it’s turned into a busy week.
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Visit the Anime Playlist Index (an ongoing work-in-progress) to see the entire playlist.
Also, be sure and check out the most recent posts in the Anime Playlist series:
Angel Beats!
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Spice and Wolf (2008)
Sword Art Online (franchise)
NANA
Laid Back Camp (franchise)
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Everything about that opening is perfect. It’s not just the melody; the arrangement does it all so well, starting out with a gentle staccato until it flows into that drive (with both female and male vocals). The mix hits the perfect balance, too.
On a side note, the anime scenes remind me that I much, much preferred the original series’ visuals. Not that the new one’s bad, but these visuals just hit me differently.
I don’t think I quantify why I think it’s so perfect beyond what I already said… “Haunting and melancholy”.
I don’t think I watched the 1st OP of the new anime, or I don’t remember it beyond it feeling pretty generic. The second has a couple of nice visuals, but overall it’s “meh” as well.
I don’t know if I ever talked about it, but music theory’s a hobby of mine. I’m even composing short stuff or fragments, not to have composed something but to try out how stuff sounds, or to figure out how stuff works. So I do sometimes notice stuff, or interpret stuff beyond the obvious; but the problem is that my “ear training” is bad – I usually need sheet music to be sure.
All of this is independent from just enjoying music; that sort of stuff just triggers when I talk about it. I think “haunting and melancholy” is spot on, but I doubt I’d ever have talked about it in these terms. Music and language tend to be separated in my mind to an extreme degree. Perhaps that’s why I like theory? A sort of bridge?
When I was still writing short stories, I’d go through what I used to call “word weariness”. It’s a period of time where even regular talking is an effort. I’d be particularly productive with music during those stretches. Thinking in music is quite different from thinking in words. And it’s easier when words don’t get in the way.
So whenever I talk about music, it’s usually the theoretical elements that come to mind – not because it’s that important, but because it’s most easily accessible via words. Not sure if that makes any sense. It feels weird, now that I type it out.
Yes, you’ve mentioned it before.. And I look forward to the comments you make on such things as you catch and express things I miss or can’t quantify.
That’s a nice composition. I always preferred the ED. Such a great piece of late 60’s-Early 70’s psychedelia.
https://youtu.be/B6JVjuo1u5Q?si=In7Cia3Q-3ywHCRb
A classic in it’s own right, just one that doesn’t resonate with me. :)