Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Three Tune Tuesday post.
As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.
Today I have ... tell you what, let's just jump in and we'll go from there.
Platina Jazz - Devilman
This just showed up on my recommended music on my music account. It says it's an anime cover, but I'm not much of an anime fan, so I have no idea where it is from. Regardless, it's a fun tune, giving a classical swing feel to a silly song. The visuals add to the fun.
Reading the comments, it seems like they translated and adapted this themselves—well, if we are to trust a random comment. I looked it up, and here is the original.
Gee, both are great. But given my preference for jazz, I'd have to lean towards the cover.
And with that video, well, I just had to explore these guys more. It seems like doing jazz covers of anime songs is their thing. I do know some anime—English versions of anime that I grew up with long ago or more modern anime that my kids watch—so I could pick out a few names, but most of their songs are unknown to me. Nevertheless, the watched a lot. And as you might imagine, I gravitated to the few songs I knew. And that led to...
Cha-La Head Cha-La
This was the opening theme to Dragon ball Z. I was in university by the time Dragon ball Z came over to the US, so the few times I saw it, I thought it was dumb. But one of my good friends became completely addicted to it, so those times I was exposed to it kept increasing. At one point the official English translations slowed down, so he started getting bootleg copies from Japan somehow that had these terribly translated subtitles. It was there that I became acquainted with the Japanese version of the song.
Again these guys translated it and gave it a jazz twist. I dig the result.
Being that this is one I know, I have to say I prefer the original, but this cover still is a lot of fun. (Actually that link is another cover, but it is the original lyrics at least, and the singer does a really good job)
The Galaxy Express 999
This is one I have absolute no knowledge of. But I clicked on it anyway and enjoyed his singing. So... there we go. See if you think so too.
I guess now if I meet a Japanese student who likes this anime, I can now pretend I've seen it. So there we go.
Bonus: Fire Treasure
I add this as a bonus because I don't know if it fits in so well with the above three, but I dig it. This is from one of my kids' favorite movies: Lupin III: Castle Cagliostro. It was one of Miyazaki Hayao's first movies, so if you are a Ghibli fan, you may be familiar with it. My kids love watching the film, so I have heard this song many times and I enjoy it. I like the cover here.
If you want to know what she's singing, here is a translation (click on the #2 translation. The #1 one is more interpretive).
So what's your favorite?
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |