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Incredible Bass Playing In Anime

My love for Band Maid is already well established. The fact that they did an anime opening is just icing on the cake. This particular season bombed, which is unfortunate, but the song is still awesome. MISA is the stuff.


Man, Band Maid is ridiculous! They sound super awesome. Japan uses a lot of overdriven bass and they make it work.

Official 髭男dism (Official Higedan-dism) is a recent band that sounds quite pop-y but blends various genres. The singer/composer’s harmonies are advanced and the bassist’s lines are super involved. He wrote the theme to the anime “Tokyo Revengers”:

I did a light harmonic analysis of this song if any of you are interested in it.

And although not anime, the same band does movie themes as well. This is from a recent movie with a cool bass line. The bass line which reminds of some indie/post-punk bands, which reflects the title. The song is about the system of society of how we are work endless hours even though there’s no worth in it. This one is me doing a cover of the song if you guys don’t mind:
 
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This band turned to being mostly a metal act a few years after writing this track, but in their early days they had a sound more like groups like L'arc en ciel. I spent way too much time learning this bass line and bass solo when I was starting. More of that very tight, mid-heavy bass tone that is just *chef's kiss*
 
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If you spend enough time around anime, LNs, and Manga you realize that it is written to a lower standard. I'm a very literate guy, so I can pick apart things and pin point the projected audience age.
I don't think the streamlining brought into the style of many shonen and shojo is linked to age. The production process of these styles implies reaching a very wide audience, or else your series won't last long because publishers constantly track reviews and make polls toward readers. Simplifying the style doesn't mean simplifying the story or meaning.

I also find there's an equal part of comedic, crazy stories and more serious ones in all genres and it doesn't imply lower quality. To make a parallel with Hollywood, Tex Avery isn't inferior to Capra or B. De Mille. It's just a different style for a different moment.

As for storytelling, inventivity and background, there are run of the mill stories and some other very deep that set very high standards. The level of intricacy is nowhere to be found in Hollywood. These days you can only find such refined plots in series. Movies for the most part became shallow.

Say Elfen Lied, Parasyte (not to be confused with the Korean movie), Assassination Classroom or Komi can't communicate are jewels with several layers of stories and deep meaning.
 
I don't think the streamlining brought into the style of many shonen and shojo is linked to age. The production process of these styles implies reaching a very wide audience, or else your series won't last long because publishers constantly track reviews and make polls toward readers. Simplifying the style doesn't mean simplifying the story or meaning.

I also find there's an equal part of comedic, crazy stories and more serious ones in all genres and it doesn't imply lower quality. To make a parallel with Hollywood, Tex Avery isn't inferior to Capra or B. De Mille. It's just a different style for a different moment.

As for storytelling, inventivity and background, there are run of the mill stories and some other very deep that set very high standards. The level of intricacy is nowhere to be found in Hollywood. These days you can only find such refined plots in series. Movies for the most part became shallow.

Say Elfen Lied, Parasyte (not to be confused with the Korean movie), Assassination Classroom or Komi can't communicate are jewels with several layers of stories and deep meaning.
To use the US movie analogy, we know DC/Marvell movies are garbage. Let's not pretend they are high art. But they are fine for what they are. They have their target audience and they are mindless fun. Star Wars is similar. Sci Fi and action doesn't have to be low brow, as movies like Dune or Enders Game show us, but that's because the source material is a little more complex.
The same can be said about anime, most of which is based on LNs or manga, which are written to be quickly and easily consumed. That is their stated purpose, that isn't a judgment. Along those lines, look at the subject matter that most, but admittedly not all, have. Young protagonists in their teens or early twenties. Mostly high school or college students. Maybe younger. A good portion are about an unremarkable male lead that somehow ends up being surrounded by female characters that adore him. Adult supervision is almost completely absent. The heroes focus on clearly defined ideas of good and bad. Despite being teens or young adults rarely engage in typical behaviors for those ages (drug use, sex, or any antisocial behaviors. ) It is all carefully constructed to tell a certain type of story to a certain audience. Just enough titillation, violence, wish fulfillment, and depth to get people interested, but not enough (by Japanese standards) to rock the boat.
This isn't a condemnation, merely an acceptance of what something is. I can accept this as a guilty pleasure that I DO NOT want to have to explain to my wife.
 
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Necro reply, but gosh, I could talk at length about this. I was sort of into anime when I was in middle school, but then dropped it until I was in my early-mid 20s. I got a CR subscription and started watching a lot of anime during lockdown. Anime soundtracks (and other Japanese music, like city pop and J-fusion) have served as a major inspiration for my bass playing, and I'll frequently just learn that kind of stuff as exercise.


I quite like the 2nd OP to Frieren. Great example of pop rock bass playing. It's not overly flashy, yet still has its own voice. I particularly like the stop/break that happens in the early bars of the 2nd and 3rd choruses.
 

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