As Animax puts it, behind every good anime is an awesome theme song!

And behind every anime theme song, there’s a human artist or a group of them singing it. They range from the extremely famous to just the voice actresses of the same anime. Some artists even have their fame skyrocketed because of the anime (Younha got famous thanks to Bleach, see below).

When on the subject, Sanyen once told me that it is so amazing how all the anime theme songs are well-sung (even if the genre doesn’t suit his taste), moreover when the singer is from dunno-where-land.

Whatever it is, here are the MTVs that I’ve found after digging deep into YouTube:

Note: To all you L’Arc En Ciel and Asian Kung-fu Generation fans, I’m sorry that I did not list them down here, coz they’re like soooo famous and their MTVs are included in soooo many other anime blogs. I’ve decided to include the more obscure artists.

(in random order)

Lovely Complex ED Theme
Tegomass – Kaerimichi no Love Song

This is a new spring season anime, a love story between a short boy and a tall girl, both of them having height complexes (Yea, it sucks being short!). What’s nice about this show is that its setting is in Osaka, so everyone speaks in Kansai dialect!

Tegomass is quite a new group. They look like posers a bit lah in the MTV, but they sing well together, so who am I to complain? Love the song.

Red Garden ED Theme
L.M.C – Oh my Juliet

Red Garden is a very unique anime. It’s trying its best to showcase Ameican culture, so its art direction is more to the realistic side. The characters even sing in every episode, just like those american Disney cartoons!

Whatever it is, Red Garden showcases a powerful storyline and strong characters. Recommended to anime lovers and non-anime lovers alike.

I quite like L.M.C’s style, which is to sing heavily in some parts of the song and then sing melodiously during the chorus. The MTV, though nothing much is happening, has a good direction to it.

Ouran High School Host Club OP Theme
Kawabe Chieko – Sakura Kiss

Ah, one of the best anime in 2006. A good balance of funny and serious parts, this anime is never boring! Even Michelle, not an avid anime lover, loves this anime a lot (must be the handsome guys). Adrian the homephobe is scared of this anime because of its “gay potential”. Keakea.

I assure you, Adrian, no gay scenes. All are just acted out for comedy purposes. None of the guys are gay!

There’s only one thing I wanna say about the MTV: a girl dressed in a frog suit dancing like a sorhai in the middle of the street is always a winner in my book :D

Honey and Clover OP Theme
Yuki – Dramatic

Honey and Clover, my 2nd favourite anime ever! Great art direction, superb narration, strong characters, funny and serious at the right times… all-in-all a very nice anime package! Slice-of-life animes have never been this good!

Yuki is no stranger to anime theme songs. She used to be the lead singer in Judy and Mary (before it got disbanded) and sang the all-time famous Sobakasu, the 1st opening theme song for Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X).

The above MTV doesn’t make much sense to me though. Oh well.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni OP Theme
Shimamiya Eiko – Hirugashi no Naku Koro ni

Another big highlight of 2006, this anime features a seemingly innocent plot that revolves around a guy and 4 girls at first, but later revealed itself for the monster that it is: the girls all have secrets (no, I’m not talking about the colour of their panties) and some of them have murderous intentions!

A horror flick that must not be under-estimated, in terms of both its, uh, horrorness and its plot. Hoshi-chan went through episodes 1 to 4 and almost had the courage to go to episode 5, but gave up after seeing the first few minutes of the episode. So yea, not for the weak at heart.

I love the theme song and how it suited the opening animation. But the MTV, eh, looked good at first but in the end you find out that it’s an MTV about NOTHING!

Naruto Shippuden ED Theme
Home Made Kazoku – Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~

Naruto and the gang have grown up, hence leaving the long string of filler episodes behind them! Well this anime doesn’t need an introduction, definitely.

The MTV is quite your typical anime theme song promotional video (PV). The funny thing is how the guy on the left is never singing or dancing, coz he’s the DJ of the song. At least let him scratch some discs la, for heaven’s sake.

Naruto ED Theme
Mass Missile – Ima Made Nandomo

My favourite ending theme song for Naruto! ‘Nuff said! :D

Ok lah, let’s talk about the MTV a bit. I just love how everyone of them, from the keyboardist to the drummer, are so enthusiastic about the song.

The MTV reminds me a little of the NDS game Ouendan, where you have to support people with problems via cheerleading. Of course, in this MTV, there’s no resolve, coz you just need to keep going, no matter how many times! (the main message of the song)

Hataraki Man ED Theme
Chatmonchy – Shangri-la

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjo7gaBe6I embedding disabled :(

This is one anime that turned out to be better than I expected, thanks to the lousy first episode.

An anime about the crazy working life (ah, that’s all too familiar…). Its storytelling was a little all over the place, but in the end there will be a good resolve, ending each episode in a satisfying manner.

But hey hey, let’s move on to the MTV. I had no idea that the whole band consists of girls! :P~ *droool* And the main singer is cute PLUS she has a cute voice! The song is superb, with nice drum beats that I shall one day practise! The MTV has that circular pattern all over it, so that’s very well-applied. It could do without that raincoat dance session though.

Tsubasa Chronicle ED Theme
Sakamoto Maaya – Loop

Tsubasa Chronicle is mainly for Clamp fans, especially since the anime showcases the well-supported couple of Card Captor Sakura: Sakura and Shaoran, now all grown up. Most of Clamp anime characters are here, but they only retain their names. Their roles, their background and even their voice actors have changed.

Sakamoto Maaya is one of Dzaid’s favourite artist, if not THE favourite. She doesn’t only sing but lends her speaking voice to the anime industry: She made her debut as the main character in the anime Escaflowne, an anime in my Top 10 list.

I, too, love her songs. The light-hearted feel combined with some cultural elements provided by Kanno Yoko, a super prolific composer in Japan (though in this song, Kanno Yoko is out of the picture).

The problem is the MTV though. The small Japanese lady walking in the forest has that, uh, tak-jadi effect. Seems amateurish as well.

Bleach ED Theme
Younha – Houkiboshi

I’ve never actually seen Bleach before (speaking of which, I’ve never seen all the episodes of Naruto either :P), so I don’t dare to comment on the anime. I’ve watched the openings and endings though :D.

Younha is a Korean girl who played piano since the age of 4. She’s super passionate about music, even climbed out of the window for an audition because her mom locked her in. She wanted so much to make her debut album in Japan that she traveled back and forth from Korea to attend auditions.

Just look at her talent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrO0cg2kH0A.

The MTV is light-hearted and simple. And she has that next door girl look as well. I like! ;)

School Rumble Nigakki OP Theme
Tokito Ami – Sentimental Generation

Yes, it’s the popular all-around funny school comedy, School Rumble. It’s a love comedy that’s quite suited for everyone, moreso than Azumanga Daioh, which has a weird sense of humour (I like weird sense of humour, btw). It has many funny moments and a really colourful cast of characters. It’s hard to hate anyone in that show.

The MTV is well-suited for the song and the anime, due to its stupid sense of humour (I meant it in a good way!). They even have the “manual bullet time” camera action, which gives it a humourous amateurish feel. Then in the end, all the gangsters come to class and dance to Tokito Ami’s victory of her getting the Yakisoba bread. Ah, classic stupidity :D

Nana OP Theme
Olivia inspi’ Reira (Trapnest) – Wish

Nana is a really nice anime, heart-warming and heart-wretching at different times. The theme of the anime is simple: the friendship between two female roommates. The direction of the show is about being very stylish and modern (in Japan, that means dressing goth). The only problem with this anime is that it has 52 episodes total, very long for a modern shoujo anime. And the manga is not even finished yet!

The main singer of this theme song is Olivia Lufkin, a beautiful result of an American father and a Japanese mother. Beautiful result meaning beautiful face and beautiful voice. If you don’t look at the MTV and just listen to the song, you can imagine that Siti Nurhaliza sang the first verse of the song!

The MTV fits Nana very well and is professionally done. Thumbs up!

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Alright that’s all! So let’s pay tribute to these artists, and let’s never forget that behind all that wonderfully nicely-timed animation are artists lending their beautiful talent to make the opening and ending themes memorable.