Otaku Review

At the end of the month, there will be an album released featuring six popular seiyuu covering twelve classic punk and grunge songs. Among the artists listed on the album are many familiar names such s Yuko Goto who will be covering Nirvana and The Clash and Halko Momoi covering The Exploited and Blondie plus more with perhaps the bravest of the six seiyuu on this album would be Rie Tanaka who will be covering both the Sex Pistols and Rancid.

Alright, here’s where I need to step in as both an anime fan and a music fan. Please don’t do this. I am all for these six seiyuu getting together and putting together an album of collaborations and covers. I would gladly buy and listen to that album actually. But please don’t cover punk and grunge songs. I’m originally from Seattle so to be honest; Nirvana was a fairly large presence in my early teen years. I remember Kurt Cobain and I just can’t imagine Yuko Goto doing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ any good. Love her as Mikuru and am pretty convinced that she will do a wonderful job in the upcoming ‘Tears to Tiara’ but am very frightened at the idea of hearing her do Cobain.

Despite having the same very real and tangible fear of what it will actually sound like when it’s finished, one has to give props to Mai Kadowaki (Kodomo no Jikan, Negima) and Rie Tanaka (Air Gear, DNAngel, Azumanga Daioh) for the songs they’ve chosen to cover. Kadowaki didn’t exactly get easy songs to do well with ‘Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)’ from the Offspring and then ‘Search and Destroy’ by Iggy & the Stooges. Tanaka has dug herself into a similarly interesting situation by covering ‘Anarchy in the UK’ from the Sex Pistols and ‘Ruby Soho’ by Rancid. Both songs that many people would have trouble with. I’ll admit though, Tanaka doing the rough chorus of ‘Ruby Soho’ might be worth seeking out.

I believe that I’ve made my case here, this is a bad idea. Six very popular Japanese seiyuu, twelve punk covers, one album; no good can come from this. Then again, I’ve been proven wrong before.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS