Flashback Friday! ✩ School Days
Oh my god, this single just brings back so many memories. Prior to becoming a J-pop fan, I actually loved the anime Shugo Chara! a lot. I loved a lot of the opening and ending themes. This single was one of my most favorites. Oh, the childhood memories.
Today, I shall be reviewing 'School Days' by Guardians 4. From my observations, there hasn't been that many reviews about the group. There's only a handful that I know of. Thus, I'm pretty happy that I took the time to review this single today! Now let's move on with the entry~
For those who don't know who Guardians 4 are-- let me take a brief moment to properly introduce them. Hello! Project has created three units to sing the opening and ending themes to the anime, Shugo Chara! -- Buono! was the most popular unit of the three. Guardians 4 was one of the three units created. Its members were Mitsui Aika (from Morning Musume), Nakajima Saki (from ºC-ute), Sugaya Risako and Kumai Yurina (from Berryz Koubou). Fun fact; for each release, the colors of the outfits changed which also corresponds to Amu's guardians characters' colors and the order of when they first appeared.
And now, let's start talking about the A-side. 'School Days' was the sixth opening to Shugo Chara! and this was also Guardians 4's second release. When I first heard the song, I was immediately in love with it. It has become one of my favorite openings from the anime. Back then, when I watched the music video, I had no idea what I was thinking. All I remember back then was that I loved everything about it. Looking back at it again today, I'm actually not too crazy about the music video at all. However, I am still in love with the song.
The music video was rather extremely random, in my opinion. It felt like an awkward mess with the changing settings. The music video starts out with the girls entering a large maze and scrambling about. In the maze, they went to three different areas where they had tea and snacks (they had a Japanese tea ceremony, they went to a Chinese restaurant, they went to an area that slightly resembles the Royal Garden). I can understand the concept of the tea... since in the anime, the Guardians often drank so much tea. However, the different settings... It really felt random. I just don't really like it that much now.
Aside from the changing settings, I believe that everything else about the music video was fine. The outfits were really nice and I've always loved how they wore Seiya Academy's uniform. In this release, the uniform was blue. In my opinion, I think the blue looks really nice on them. Saki and Risako really stood out to me. But don't misunderstand, I think everyone looked cute. As for the dance, I really liked the dance. I find it to be fairly easy to learn. It's not too difficult. The difference dance moves incorporated in this song really follows the beat of the song extremely well. It's a pretty memorable dance.
Overall, the music video was rather decent. I'm not too crazy about it. But hey, it could've been much worse. Nonetheless, let's move onto the song~ Aside from the very obvious song titles, I feel like this is truly a school song. The instrumentals incorporated a few bell songs that resembles the school bells (obviously). The song won't necessarily overwhelm you. It's rather easy on the ears and have a nice tempo. I want to say that the pace of the song is Andante (a walking pace).
What I love about Guardians 4 is that they show more of Aika and Saki. Here, they can actually show off their vocal skills- as they are promoted as much in their respective main groups. Aika has always been a very decent vocalists. However, in this particular song, she sounded a bit too squeaky for me. She still sounds great, just a bit too squeaky - a little bit too happy-go-lucky at times. Saki-- Saki's great. She's perfect just the way she is. It's these types of songs that show off her vocals the best, in my opinion. She sounded amazing in the B-side, which I will go into later in the entry~
There really isn't anything else I could say about this song. I just like it. I can't really find anything wrong with it. I think that it's a really great opening theme for the anime. I won't be talking about the Shugo Chara Egg! version of the song. One reason is that I'm too lazy to do so. /whacked; Now, let's start talking about the B-side! The glorious B-side which should be promoted more, by the way.
'Itsuka Dokoka de' is one of my most favorite songs from Hello! Project of all time. It's one of my most ultimate favorite song! I am utterly surprised at how almost no one knows that this song existed. This song is a hidden gem. I'll admit that at first, I had no idea this song existed. Don't blame me.. I had no idea how to download singles, I was so new to J-pop music, etc. When I first listened to this song, I was just- Ohmygod, this is just an amazing song. Yes, it may not be as cool and epic like 'Brainstorming' or 'Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe' -- But it's still a pretty damn good song! I absolutely love it.
The song is rather simple. It has a very pretty instrumental. It's not super-duper pretty compared to Yuugure wa Ameagari-- but it's still very pretty. I find it to be very easy on the ears; you won't be overwhelmed. It's naturally cheerful song in my opinion. Listening to the song makes me a bit more happier, in a better mood. There was pretty equal line distribution for 'Itsuka Dokoka de.' All four of the girls delivered very nice vocals for this particular song, especially Saki. For once, Saki gets to shine a bit in this song. She sounded amazing.
Another thing that I love about this song is how it incorporates fairy-tales into the lyrics. If you haven't known by now, I'm actually a huge fan of fantasy. I love fairy-tales. But not only that, the lyrics actually make sense. I can actually understand the message of the song. "I'm not gonna get a happy ending like in the fairytales with magic and such. However, one day, I know for sure that I will get my happy ending." That's how I interpreted the song. Oh my god... I just love this song. I really, really do. I'm surprised that they never really performed this song live. They only performed it once and that was it. This is a really nice song. And it doesn't have to be the original members. Other Hello! Project members like Oda Sakura or Fukuda Kanon can sing it.
Well, that's it for this Flashback Friday! review~ I'm sorry if this review seemed rushed and random. /whacked; Also, please note that I originally intended to post this earlier this summer. But due to bad internet connection abroad, I wasn't able to do so. I'm sooooooorry.
MUSIC; シンシアの光 / 藍井エイル
MOOD; In a Working Mood ___φ(・ω・｀ )
Today, I shall be reviewing 'School Days' by Guardians 4. From my observations, there hasn't been that many reviews about the group. There's only a handful that I know of. Thus, I'm pretty happy that I took the time to review this single today! Now let's move on with the entry~
♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
.♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
.♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
- - 01. School Days - -
For those who don't know who Guardians 4 are-- let me take a brief moment to properly introduce them. Hello! Project has created three units to sing the opening and ending themes to the anime, Shugo Chara! -- Buono! was the most popular unit of the three. Guardians 4 was one of the three units created. Its members were Mitsui Aika (from Morning Musume), Nakajima Saki (from ºC-ute), Sugaya Risako and Kumai Yurina (from Berryz Koubou). Fun fact; for each release, the colors of the outfits changed which also corresponds to Amu's guardians characters' colors and the order of when they first appeared.
And now, let's start talking about the A-side. 'School Days' was the sixth opening to Shugo Chara! and this was also Guardians 4's second release. When I first heard the song, I was immediately in love with it. It has become one of my favorite openings from the anime. Back then, when I watched the music video, I had no idea what I was thinking. All I remember back then was that I loved everything about it. Looking back at it again today, I'm actually not too crazy about the music video at all. However, I am still in love with the song.
The music video was rather extremely random, in my opinion. It felt like an awkward mess with the changing settings. The music video starts out with the girls entering a large maze and scrambling about. In the maze, they went to three different areas where they had tea and snacks (they had a Japanese tea ceremony, they went to a Chinese restaurant, they went to an area that slightly resembles the Royal Garden). I can understand the concept of the tea... since in the anime, the Guardians often drank so much tea. However, the different settings... It really felt random. I just don't really like it that much now.
Aside from the changing settings, I believe that everything else about the music video was fine. The outfits were really nice and I've always loved how they wore Seiya Academy's uniform. In this release, the uniform was blue. In my opinion, I think the blue looks really nice on them. Saki and Risako really stood out to me. But don't misunderstand, I think everyone looked cute. As for the dance, I really liked the dance. I find it to be fairly easy to learn. It's not too difficult. The difference dance moves incorporated in this song really follows the beat of the song extremely well. It's a pretty memorable dance.
Overall, the music video was rather decent. I'm not too crazy about it. But hey, it could've been much worse. Nonetheless, let's move onto the song~ Aside from the very obvious song titles, I feel like this is truly a school song. The instrumentals incorporated a few bell songs that resembles the school bells (obviously). The song won't necessarily overwhelm you. It's rather easy on the ears and have a nice tempo. I want to say that the pace of the song is Andante (a walking pace).
What I love about Guardians 4 is that they show more of Aika and Saki. Here, they can actually show off their vocal skills- as they are promoted as much in their respective main groups. Aika has always been a very decent vocalists. However, in this particular song, she sounded a bit too squeaky for me. She still sounds great, just a bit too squeaky - a little bit too happy-go-lucky at times. Saki-- Saki's great. She's perfect just the way she is. It's these types of songs that show off her vocals the best, in my opinion. She sounded amazing in the B-side, which I will go into later in the entry~
There really isn't anything else I could say about this song. I just like it. I can't really find anything wrong with it. I think that it's a really great opening theme for the anime. I won't be talking about the Shugo Chara Egg! version of the song. One reason is that I'm too lazy to do so. /whacked; Now, let's start talking about the B-side! The glorious B-side which should be promoted more, by the way.
- - 02. いつかどこかで。 - -
'Itsuka Dokoka de' is one of my most favorite songs from Hello! Project of all time. It's one of my most ultimate favorite song! I am utterly surprised at how almost no one knows that this song existed. This song is a hidden gem. I'll admit that at first, I had no idea this song existed. Don't blame me.. I had no idea how to download singles, I was so new to J-pop music, etc. When I first listened to this song, I was just- Ohmygod, this is just an amazing song. Yes, it may not be as cool and epic like 'Brainstorming' or 'Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe' -- But it's still a pretty damn good song! I absolutely love it.
The song is rather simple. It has a very pretty instrumental. It's not super-duper pretty compared to Yuugure wa Ameagari-- but it's still very pretty. I find it to be very easy on the ears; you won't be overwhelmed. It's naturally cheerful song in my opinion. Listening to the song makes me a bit more happier, in a better mood. There was pretty equal line distribution for 'Itsuka Dokoka de.' All four of the girls delivered very nice vocals for this particular song, especially Saki. For once, Saki gets to shine a bit in this song. She sounded amazing.
Another thing that I love about this song is how it incorporates fairy-tales into the lyrics. If you haven't known by now, I'm actually a huge fan of fantasy. I love fairy-tales. But not only that, the lyrics actually make sense. I can actually understand the message of the song. "I'm not gonna get a happy ending like in the fairytales with magic and such. However, one day, I know for sure that I will get my happy ending." That's how I interpreted the song. Oh my god... I just love this song. I really, really do. I'm surprised that they never really performed this song live. They only performed it once and that was it. This is a really nice song. And it doesn't have to be the original members. Other Hello! Project members like Oda Sakura or Fukuda Kanon can sing it.
♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
.♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
.♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫
Well, that's it for this Flashback Friday! review~ I'm sorry if this review seemed rushed and random. /whacked; Also, please note that I originally intended to post this earlier this summer. But due to bad internet connection abroad, I wasn't able to do so. I'm sooooooorry.
MUSIC; シンシアの光 / 藍井エイル
MOOD; In a Working Mood ___φ(・ω・｀ )
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