Song Title: Houki Boshi
Anime: Bleach
Artist: Younha
Watch the ED! ( Note: There are a bunch of different versions of this one. )

To celebrate the opening of Oretachi no Oto, I decided to kick things off with one of my favorite anime songs of all time, Houki Boshi. The song originally showed up as the third ending of the ever popular anime, Bleach. I can remember the first time I heard the song. After enjoying a tense episode that introduced the upcoming fight between Bleach protagonist Kurosaki Ichigo and (at the time) antagonist Ikkaku Madarame¹, I sat there slack jawed as the ending suddenly exploded into one of the most rockin’ ED songs I’ve ever heard.

The first thing I notice is the blood-pumping drum beat. I’m not saying the beat is going to make you explode with energy and jump out of your chair as you air-guitar rock your way around the room (not that I’ve done that or anything *cough*), but it’s definitely an upbeat, exciting song. Noticeable feature number two? The piano that comes in as the melody. As you’re soon to find out², the artist, Younha, doesn’t just sing, but also plays the piano, so it’s usually the centerpiece for her songs in terms of melody. Up until this point I hadn’t heard many pop-rock style songs that had piano as a main instrument, so Houki Boshi took me by surprise in a way that turned out to be absolutely enjoyable. As for the guitars, nothing too crazy to notice, other than the fact that they provide a solid backing to the piano melody and vocals.

Now, on to the singing. Wow. I’ve really come to love Younha’s voice. She’s got this voice that just sits well on the ears. It doesn’t get so high that your monitor screen shatters, she doesn’t have weird intonations or engrish thrown in…rock solid comes to mind when I think of how to describe it. In Houshi Boshi, she just sounds so uplifting. If you check out the video or read the lyrics, you’ll notice that the song has a lot to do with comets and falling stars. The stars are where Younha’s voice and Houki Boshi in general will take your mind if you give them the the chance to. I may be giving it too much credit, but I’d go so far as to say that the song will make you dream. “If maybe I’d been able to become a comet, I would run flying through the sky”.

Rock.

So what do you think? Dreaming yet?

¹ Ikkaku Madarame later goes on to become one of my favorite Bleach characters. But not until around episode 130ish.
² Next up on OTO – Artist Profile: Younha

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