First character CD, featuring Maria and Jessica. Slowpoke, but since I reviewed the second one may as well do this one as well.
lol look at me posting a spoiler image B)
Maria – Happy Halloween for Maria
As the title suggests the song is very Halloween-esque. Yet I’m glad they didn’t zone in much on Maria’s creepiness, but rather mixed her occult fascination with her cute side as well. When the song began I was a bit worried of that happening, but soon enough my worries were dispelled. The lyrics are very cutesy and Horie does a wonderful job, as I truly can believe Maria is singing this song.
What I especially like is how the melody of the song itself sticks to a very Halloween theme (the entire Uu- thing mixed with the song itself in the background was very nicely done). Of course this song does have some light spoilers (when it came out Sakutaro was never mentioned beforehand) but it’s to be expected.
It had a good tune to it and kept your attention – the lyrics especially keep up well in accompaniment to the song itself. I can’t understand how Horie can sing so fast though I mean damn, some parts were just jumbled up. But I did especially like how part way in the song (when she started singing to Sakutaro) the song itself mixed in Sakutaro’s theme from the visual novel in a very smooth transition. Very nice catch.
Rating: 8/5/10
Jessica – Dokkyun Heart
Part of this song was featured back in Episode 6 of the anime, with the cultural festival. Now when I heard the song back then I wasn’t very impressed – it sounded like a highly generic fast paced J-Pop song and you could clearly hear some Higurashi references. After hearing the full version…I can’t say I was anymore impressed.
The song itself doesn’t have much substance other than Jessica screaming “Dokkyun Dokkyun” and talking about a princess dating a younger boy. Now that didn’t bother me (well it did somewhat) as much as the lyrics themselves. Part the song was literally referencing Higurashi (nipah nipah, au au, kana kana, usoda, then they mention footsteps following behind them). Like they couldn’t think of anything else to write for Jessica’s lyrics so they just said ‘hey let’s fanservice Higurashi and throw in some catch phrases!’ I mean really?
The character songs are suppose to basically speak about what kind of personality the character has in song – through lyrics and melody. Jessica’s song just made me think she was loud, annoying and thought of herself as a ‘lol princess with forbidden loves’. Honestly it just didn’t catch me and makes me think of her more as a one-dimensional character, who is just…generally annoying. The entire repetitiveness of it didn’t help either. Certainly not one of the best songs – it sounds like something just thrown together to be honest.
Rating: 4/10
Overall CD Rating: 12.5/20 which isn’t even a passing D-. Then again Jessica’s song mostly brought it down for me, Maria’s song obviously shined far more in terms of overall.
Analyzing Umineko no Naku koro Ni 