As I have mentioned in the past, I am a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.  I enjoy watching the anime and playing the collectible card game (though its only on rare occasions now).  I have been watching the latest series in the franchise, 5D’s and have been pretty much hooked.  The concept of riding duels as well as the cast of characters make the show enjoyable to me.

Recently, the full version of the latest opening (OP 5) was released on CD.  The song is “Believe in Nexus” sung by Masaaki Endoh.  I will admit I was disappointed that there was less Aki in this opening, but the song was upbeat enough for me to like the opening.  Fitting song for the world of speed that exist in 5Ds.

Well I decided to pick up the CD.  Have to say, I really enjoy listening to this song – especially while driving.  You can hear the song below.

You can download the song via iTunes.  Be sure that you set the iTunes Store country to Japan and have a iTunes account for Japanese store.  If you need credits to make the purchase, Japanese iTunes cards are available at Jlist.

You can also order the CD via Amazon JP (includes the insert song “Clear Mind” as well as instrumental version of both songs).

BTW, “Clear Mind” is the song played when Yusei uses Accel Sychro for the first time to summon Shooting Star Dragon.  You can hear the song below.

Thought I would share one of the songs that manages to pop into my head a lot these days, MAGNET.  Seen a lot of versions of this song out there, but the Miku x Luka pairing is my preferred version.  Has a very nice melody to it and like the ‘forbidden love’ message in the lyrics.  Included a few versions of the duet for your listening pleasure.  Enjoy.

First version I heard

My favorite version

Interesting sounding version ^^

Time to share another song from my playlist with everyone.  Today its XTC by Psychic Lover.  This song is the opening theme for the Witchblade anime series.  The anime is actually a completely different story then the Witchblade comics, but it is considered canon by Top Cow.  I have the say that I rather enjoyed Witchblade for the obvious reasons (sure you know what those reasons were), but it also had other qualities about it that I enjoyed.  Maybe I’ll talk about those another time.

For now, enjoy the song.  One of my favorites.

Goes without saying I am a fan of the Fate / franchise.  Interesting story, memorable characters, and good music.  Recently got a copy of the Fate / Recapture OST and been listening to the song “Hollow” quite a bit.  ”Hollow” is the opening theme for the Fate / Hollow ataraxia game.  The song is just so good that I have to listen to it.  The soundtrack has the original track as well as a remix.

You can hear the original track below.

You can pick up Fate / Recapture at Amazon JP or Play-Asia.

While looking for this video, I came across another remix version of the Hollow song from the Mariage -tribute to fate- OST.  This song is just as enjoyable as the original and other remix.  More soothing sound to it.

If you can also pick up Mariage -tribute to fate- at Amazon JP or Play-Asia.

Image from Anime Paper

Last month I mentioned that I liked the new opening to Kamen Rider W (Double).  Well, the promotional video (PV) has appeared online.  Which means I finally got to hear the full song.  It is a good song, Kamen Rider does a good with having good opening tracks.

Just some info on the song before we get to video (as taken from Wikipedia):

• Song title:  W-B-X ~W Boiled Extreme~
• Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
• Composition: Shuhei Naruse
• Arrangement: TAKUYA, Shuhei Naruse
• Artist: Aya Kamiki w TAKUYA

Wolf’s Rain is up there as one of my favorite animes.  For starters, it was made by BONES so I was going to check it out anyway after seeing the good job they did on RahXephon and the Cowboy Bebop movie. The story was original and kept me interested, the characters were memorable, and the music was great; which isn’t hard when Yoko Kanno produced and arranged the soundtrack.

This is one of my favorite tracks from the series, because it has such a good message behind it.  Again the arrangement is very good and I love the vocals provided by Steve Conte.  He has worked with Ms. Kanno on several songs, including two others featured in Wolf’s Rain.  ”Could you bite the hand?” is my second favorite Wolf’s Rain song, I’ll share my number one another time.  Sure you can guess what which song holds that spot. ^^

I’m a fan of Anime Music Videos or AMVs.  Some are good, some not so good; but the really exceptional ones do a good job mixing the right music with the right scenes to make a video that truly tells a great story.  This little video, in my opinion, does a good job doing just that.  I will say that I wasn’t a fan of Tenacious D when they first came on the scene, but after being exposed to more and more of their sound they grew on me.  And this song, Tribute, certainly seems to do a good job of paying tribute to captains Ukitake and Shunsui from the hit anime Bleach.

Check out the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_z0qNAoG08

Music sharing time!  Also time for the introduction of a new series of posts – uiTunes.  Basically its a play of Apple’s iEverything we have all grown to love and my site’s name.  But its pretty fitting because I am basically sharing the music I enjoy with you ^^

For me, it doesn’t matter if I understand the lyrics or not.  If the music is good, I’ll jam to it…even if I don’t get what I am jamming too =D  I believe that music is the language of the world, because everyone enjoys good music!

With that being said, want to start of the series with a song that I absolute love:  Masquerade by Kosaka Yumiko.  I first heard this song years and years ago when I saw the final battle between Blade and Evil in the anime series Tekkaman Blade.  For me, the song seem to make the sequence even more epic / enjoyable.

Check it out below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbc0Z8Oea9s

And for those that want to hear the song without dialogue or sound effects over it, you can check out this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmr0G6ygxXc

I have to actually give my sister a lot of credit for finding me a copy of this song, because I searched for it for the longest time with no luck.  I love this song so much I had to add it to my “driving mix” playlist ^o^

I’ll be sharing more of my fav songs from my various playlists, so stay tuned ^^

A bit of a followup to Journey Through the Decade.  Just as Gackt provided the opening theme for the Kamen Rider Decade, he will once again be providing music for the Decade series.  This time for the All Riders vs. Daishocker movie!  But that’s not all, it also appears that he will be playing the role of Jōji Yūki (aka Riderman)!!

Anyway, being the Gackt fan that I am I had to check out the new song.  Have to say I like it.  You can see the PV for it below.

Also, if you are unfamilar with who Riderman is; then check out this video.

Obviously Gackt’s version of Riderman has a more dangerous arm ^^;

So I have been following Kamen Rider Decade now for ten weeks. Show is pretty awesome, in that this new kamen rider has the ability to change his form and utilize the powers of the nine kamen riders that have come before him. Now I will admit that it wasn’t until last season’s Kamen Rider Kiva that I decided to get back into the KR series. I recall the old Masked Rider series that Saban brought to the US and I wasn’t impressed, and the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (US name for Ryuki) has not been very impressive so far either. Probably because of the square-jawed, meat-head looking riders in the series. Or the fact that instead of saying the trademark kamen rider “Henshin” they say “Kamen Rider.”

But Decade is certainly awesome. And I was sold since I saw the opening sequence with Gackt’s Journey Through the Decade used as the series theme. So needless to say I was quite excited when the promotional video (PV) for the single was released. Especially because it featured complete song and Gackt is actually performing in the video. I honestly was not expecting him to actually appear in the video, so I was even more excited by the video. Anyway, check it out below.

Rumor is that the song will be available on iTunes soon. Hopefully it will also be on the US store, since they are carrying other Gackt songs. If not, I’ll probably have to buy the import or try to get it from the Japan iTunes store.