Compared to the animation and the plot, the music seems to be inconsequential in watching an anime. I realized, however, how big a ‘little thing’ music is when I viewed the final scene of the final episode of the first season of Honey and Clover with the subtle playing of Waltz compared with the exact same scene but without the music in the first episode of the second season. I was moved to tears for most of the time whenever I heard the love ballad of Waltz playing as Takemoto finally discovered himself and what he was looking for. Somehow, without that love ballad, it simply became just another scene. That’s what I noticed with most good shows. They have great music. Honey and Clover isn’t excellent simply because it has an excellent plot and good animation – it also has very wonderful music. The combination of music from Suga Shikao, Suneo Hair and SPITZ often works for the enhancement of a scene, or a cascade of scenes. How Mayama forcefully and desperately took Rika to a cup of coffee in the rain just to show how much he loves her was certainly made better with the fast pace of Yoru wo Kakeru. (It was very fitting, too – the lyrics were a perfect fit with the scene.) To add another, more recent scene, take for example the call scene between Nomiya and Yamada near the midpoint of the third episode of H&C’s second season. Without the melancholic yet positive tone of Suga Shikao’s Koko no Iru Koto, I doubt it would have pulled that scene off. The music that plaintively plays in the background simply reflects the sheer loneliness of two characters reaching for unrequited loves. Even now, thinking about it, it was (and still is) extremely jarring.

Aside from that, music isn’t a little thing with shows one doesn’t like much. For example, I think Haruhi Suzumiya’s good but overrated to many, but although the greatness of the show is a moot point to many, I think many would agree with its great music with songs like Bouken Desho Desho?, Hare Hare Yukai, God Knows, etc. I wouldn’t have had liked Haruhi at all if it didn’t have great music like that. That would be the same with NHK ni Youkoso!. Although I was very negative about its first episode, I have nothing but praise for its OP – it’s a fresh yet very ironic and paradoxical introduction to the anime itself (tone-wise and rhythm-wise) that it’s also a very good plot device to startle the audience with the plot of the anime (who would expect having anime with such bubbly and positive music like that to be a very dark comedy about recluses?). That music has also sold me to at least watching five episodes of that series despite my caustic comments about it (that generated some discussion, lol).

When you think about it, although music isn’t the be-all and the end-all of an anime show (the plot is), that little thing isn’t so little after all, right?

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In case you guys wonder why I haven’t been updating recently, as I’ve said in my other posts (disjointedly and irrationally), I just failed an important exam, and I have another coming up tomorrow. If you could pray for me, I’d be really thankful. That’s the main reason why I haven’t been updating my Ergo Proxy posts. Writing the situational summary, taking the screenshots and then posting them over at ImageShack takes three hours of my time that I don’t really have right now. Writing opinions about different stuff doesn’t take as much time, but since I’ve thought of something like this right now, I just felt I had to write it. I hope you guys understand. :)