Here’s a song from ReoNa, my second favourite singer. This Japanese rock and pop singer started out cosplaying Hatsume Miku, the aqua-coloured, twin-tailed singing character with a ‘01’ tattooed on her shoulder, not from an anime, but from the ‘Vocaloid’ software (which I know nothing else about). Anyway, she went from that to singing, and has had many of her songs licensed for anime series. This song in particular is the ending theme to the first season of Shadows House, which, I could not tell you what it’s about, and I’ve seen both seasons. It’s just really weird. Here’s the trailer for that. Just don’t expect it to answer any questions. It ends with the question “What is Shadows House?” so no, it doesn’t answer that. Also, it’s in Japanese, but the actual anime has been translated to English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7lGIJGAMm0
ReoNa has a lot more great songs (including the theme for the second season, Shall We Dance, and both appear on her HUMAN album. She also did a bunch of songs for Sword Art Online, including the Gun Gale Online spinoff, in which she plays the singing voice of a character who moonlights as a gamer from her career as a pop star. Kind of like Kpop Demon Hunters, except she’s kind of a demon…ish.
Most of ReoNa’s music is more bright and uplifting, at least in tone. I only know a few dozen words in Japanese, which is nowhere near enough to tell you what she’s talking about without a translation. It’s just that low sound she makes tends to lend her voice a darker sound, which gets her paired up with some darker anime.
She does have a few songs in English, but original songs by her in English are few and far between. Aside from her music career, she has a YouTube channel of her own (a personal one) where she posts intimate covers of western songs, where she’s just hanging out and singing these songs, all in English. One of them, the first one, I think, has an interesting story. The Japanese tend to love Take Me Home (Country Roads) by John Denver. The song was covered in the Studio Ghibli movie Whisper of the Heart, and the Japanese version of the song only sounds like the English version. They’re actually saying different things, but it’s worked so that the Japanese words almost sound like the English words. There is even a road that, if you drive exactly the speed given with your windows down, the sound your tyres make driving over the carefully placed ruts in the road are supposed to sound like the song. That’s some dedication to a song about the American state of West Virginia. I’m sure the Appalachian State would be proud, if they could read. I don’t mean to roast West Virginia too much; after all, the toothbrush was invented there. You know how I know? Anywhere else would have called it the teethbrush. Say what you will about West Virginia though, I hear families are real close there. Okay, okay, I’m done now. Hope you got a good laugh in on your Sunday. I’m joking about West Virginia. The rest, about the song — all true, at least as far as I know. And she did cover it. One last joke… the way she sings it. You should know that the Japanese pronounce Ls and Rs the same. So if you know how the chorus to Take Me Home (Country Roads) goes… I think you might be picking up what I’m putting down. (I mean, it’s right in the name.) She does get it right the last time, though. To Japanese it’s not funny, it’s just how they say it. In the west though, it sounds dirty. Moving on… she also covers Bob Dylan, Daniel Powter, Vanessa Carlton, Guns n’ Roses, the Eagles, and more. And honestly… Don Henley, Glen Frey, and Joe Walsh would be real proud of her Desperado cover. Given that she’s a mere kid to them, and from half a world away. They’d tell you she nailed it. Not bad for someone who barely speaks our language!