There are plenty of talented artists in Japan but who among them deserves to make a theme song for our favourite shows?
Hey everyone, I’m Danno, and because of tokusatsu, I’d say I’m generally a lot more open to listening to songs in foreign languages. This includes, of course, the Japanese bands who I’ll be focusing on in this opinion piece. I’m here to present three bands that I believe would make great artists for tokusatsu theme songs. There will be way more than three but, for this piece, I’m just taking a look at three bands/artists that I enjoy immensely and pairing them up with one of the specific big three tokus: Kamen Rider, Ultraman and Super Sentai.
Also, if it isn’t clear at this point, yes this is me just suggesting bands. I have no intention into breaking into Toei or Tsubaraya’s headquarters and demanding they hire these bands. I’m not gonna be too hurt if they never work with these bands. I’m just gonna be just sad.
Now, let’s take a look first at…
ALI (or Alien Liberty International), paired up with Kamen Rider!
ALI is a band made up of mostly multi cultural people, having roots mostly in Japan, but also America, Europe, Africa and other parts of Asia. Based in Tokyo, the band is fairly popular for already doing some openings and endings for anime. Namely the opening to Beastars’ first season “Wild Side” and the first ending for Jujutsu Kaisen, “Lost in Paradise.” So, why do I think this band is perfect for Kamen Rider? Well, the band is able to perfectly capture the themes of being a Rider with their song “Teenage City Riot.” This is the version from their live performance at THE FIRST TAKE.
“Teenage city riot
Don’t let me down
I’m just castaway
Roaming like a stray
But now I stand alone”
That sounds perfectly like the everyday strife of being a Rider. While in the modern Reiwa era there seems to be at least ten Riders per show, we don’t need to go back very long to be in an era where Riders stood alone in their fights. Maybe having one or two ally Riders by their side, at most. Even then, it took time for said allies to fully come together as a team. There was almost a bleak sadness in their efforts. Even so, they still kept fighting which I think is beautiful, in a way. I’m not saying Teenage City Riot is the perfect Rider theme song but the song is already very much on the cusp of making one. If we could give ALI the chance to do something like that, I think we could have something very special in our hands.
Then we have a band I think could shake up things a lot…
Bradio, paired up with Super Sentai!
Bradio is a funky rock band formed all the way back in 2010 … which makes me feel old, thinking back on it. Yeesh. Notably, they haven’t done a lot of music for anime, only doing the opening for Death Parade- “Flyers”- and Peeping Life TV’s opening, “Hotel Alien.” Even though “Flyers” is arguably their most well known song and from an anime that’s pretty well-liked by the anime community, I see them as a very underrated band despite that. Recently, though, they did a theme song for the current season of Yu-Gi-Oh so maybe people are seeing their talent and, because of that, I feel their style could shake up Sentai theme songs. This is “Take Me Higher,” from their “Diamond Pops” EP.
While there’s nothing too special to this, I have a statement to make that might upset some people: Toku as a whole doesn’t have enough Jazz. Now you may be thinking: “Danno, that’s ridiculous. We have Kamen Rider W and Geats airing currently, both of which have super jazzy battle themes. On top of that, LuPat’s whole OST is Jazz.” WELL IT AIN’T GOOD ENOUGH. I HAVE A DESIRE FOR FUNK AND IT CAN NEVER BE SATIATED. In all seriousness, Bradio provides a level of funk that hasn’t really been seen a lot in Sentai that I feel could elevate the season, depending on the season’s chosen aesthetics.
Next we have my final pick…
BAND-MAID paired up with Ultraman!
Band-Maid is a J-Rock band made up of … maids. That’s it. That’s their entire gimmick and, let me tell you, a lot of American rock fans hate that, for some reason. They’re another very talented band made up of women who rock it out in maid costumes. Though I haven’t heard a lot of them in anime, they deserve the big spotlight. Here’s their song “GLORY” from their “Conquest” album.
Ultraman I feel could use another rock song for an opening. While there has been rock songs recently, namely Ultraman Z’s opening, I feel the show could benefit by taking a break on their techno stuff that Trigger and Decker has been doing. While said openings to both shows are good, they can be better. Not to say techno/EDM is a bad genre of music, I just want another rockin’ banger of a song and I feel Band-Maid can provide an Ultraman rock song that could even rival Ultraman Z’s opening. The funny thing is that this isn’t even necessarily their best song. Band-Maid goes hard.
What do you guys think?
This is a far cry from some of the objective reviews and such from this website but I wanted to do something a lil’ different. A little quirky, some might say. I wanted to spark a bit of a conversation. What are some bands that you’d like to see in toku? It doesn’t even necessarily have to be the ‘big three’ at all. I just used them as examples. Maybe there are some American bands that’d be great for Power Rangers some people would like to recommend? Maybe bands outside of the U.S. and Japan that’d be great for any toku? Bands from America that’d make good songs for Sentai, Rider or Ultra? Or the inverse, Japanese artists that’d make good songs for Power Rangers?
The point is, we’re fans and we only have little in control of the production of our favorite shows so why don’t we have some fun and discuss the musical side of things?
