These days when I drive people places, I have to sheepishly admit that most of what I listen to these days is music that I don’t understand the lyrics of and just mumble-sing along with. This is mostly due to my inability to stop playing Project Sekai, but this summer a new contender has arisen: anime songs. To see how I got here, I decided to chronicle my slow descent into undeniable weeb territory by looking through what songs I could not stop listening to on YouTube, often put on as I idled in Discord or puttered around my kitchen.

Chappell Roan’s Tiny Desk Concert

Though I would have been quicker to the party if I had heeded Kate’s message earlier, I too got caught up in the Chappell Roan fanclub this summer. This Tiny Desk carried me through the last half of month of school, leading to me belting “My Kink is Karma” and “Good Luck Babe” on the New York Thruway on my annual summer pilgrimage and to my father playing “HOT TO GO,” bobbing his head to the beat in the kitchen. His next goal was to get his other sixty-year-old friends who listen primarily to 80s music hooked; jury’s still out if he’s had any success.

Hyperdrive (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Opening)

Sometimes when I’m home with my siblings, we fall into old habits—chiding each other to go to bed on time, playing co-op games on our not-as-ancient PlayStation 3, fighting about why no one has refilled the water container and now my brother has to drink lukewarm water (the infinite horrors). This trip, my sister and I fell into rewatching Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s episodes. They are pretty cringe as most children’s media from the 2000s are, and the Crunchyroll subtitles are egregious (it’s a fifty-fifty shot if they get the main character’s name—Yusei—correct or completely miss the mark—You say, U.S.A, etc.), but every crime is forgiven once I hear the first line of this opening. My sister’s doodle from when she had to go back to work at L.L. Bean summed up how we both felt that week where all we did was watch this cartoon.

Heat Abnormal — KAITO Cover (Earthy X6)

No one is doing it like Earthy X6.

Admittedly, I’m not that far into vocaloid producers, let alone prolific vocaloid cover tuners, but KAITO is a difficult voicebank to tune nicely and Earthy consistently does him justice.

Massachusetts, Jensen McRae

This song wins the award of “Most Likely to Select If I See it in my Recommendations.” I stumbled across McRae through an editor using her song “Machines.” Intrigued, I clicked into her artist page, and there was no way I wasn’t going to listen to a song named after my home state. 

The song is simple, and the lyrics remind me of myself, in terms of someone who writes very specific things to their life and hopes that others will make some meaning out of it. I’m a sucker for this song. I will click on it every time YouTube brings it up in the sidebar. They got me! McRae got me.

FLY HIGH!!, BURNOUT SYNDROMES (Haikyu!! Opening 4)

Three years ago, I listened to this song on a recommendation from a student, and it immediately went onto my heavy rotation playlist (and stayed there for a solid year or two). Six months ago, I watched the first season of Haikyu!! after much cajoling from friends. Last month, having gotten myself into the habit of watching television but depriving myself of a Netflix subscription, I started watching Haikyu!! again. 

I watched the remaining two and a half seasons in approximately two weeks. 

I am a bit embarrassed. But it did mean that I finally listened to this opening in context and wow; I thought I enjoyed this just as a piece of music, but after watching the full anime and seeing the opening in context, it burns even brighter.

(other Haikyu!! openings I enjoyed: the first [more after finishing the series], third [underrated], and sixth [BURNOUT SYNDROMES really knows how to nail the first ten seconds of a song])

Climber, Galileo Galilei (Haikyu!! Ending 3)

Anime endings get less fanfare than openings, usually because they aren’t as upbeat or intense, and personally they don’t stick in my mind as deeply. I try to watch them, give them a little of the limelight, but eventually after five or so episodes I do skip them. This ending, however, did not suffer the same fate. Maybe it was the crow imagery that got me; maybe it was the slow building beat. Regardless, I always watched this ending the full way through.

Kessen Spirit, CHiCO with Honeyworks (Haikyu!! Ending 6)

The actual ending itself is sweet, focusing on side characters from the anime, but for this song I’m linking to the full version because it captured me, heart and soul, immediately. Finally a female group for an opening/ending, and another song with a kicking beat and guitar riff. An immediate addition to my Spotify playlist.

Kizuna no Kiseki, MAN WITH A MISSION×milet (Demon Slayer Opening 3)

I intentionally finished Haikyu!! before school kicked into high gear, as it was increasingly clear that I could not watch the show responsibly. But the start of school was still so far away, and I found myself with time on my hands, and Crunchyroll had me yet again in its clutches. I turned my attention to Demon Slayer, yet another anime I had watched one season of (interestingly, again due to a student request) but had not had the time to continue.

While not as all consuming as Haikyu!!, I nevertheless burned through all the remaining seasons of Demon Slayer as well. This opening particularly stood out to me with all the different feelings and modes of the song and the meld of the two lead singers’ voices. 

(Looping to this opening on YouTube also brought me back to the first opening, which is also worth a listen.)

No More Bugs, CelloBear

Although I have been aware of March Caprice, most likely the biggest annual online Kingdom Hearts celebration, I somehow missed this collection of all the songs that spawned from it this year. While Project Destati will always have my heart, I was taken with this string setting of a theme from my favorite, extremely underappreciated Kingdom Hearts game.

Down to You, Marianas Trench

I’m embarrassed to admit that I am so out of the music scene these days that I only found out Marianas Trench was dropping a new album via the same way I discovered them: through video game edits (you may have heard of them via Gwyneth, a much more respectable source). Regardless of how I got here, even after listening to their full new album Haven, “Down to You” easily sweeps the rest of the song. The strings are phenomenal, and it’s catchy as hell. Plus, it’s one more song that I can actually wholeheartedly sing in my car.