A Quick Rundown of Nana Mizuki’s Songs in Shugo Chara!

After blabbing about BoA so much, I think it’s time to shift gears to Nana-chan a.k.a my other love in life. And no, this picture is not related in any way to the post. It’s just a nice pic :).

The funny thing about all this is that I dropped Shugo Chara!  two years ago at episode 10. But I still read the manga (when it’s in the local Borders or Barnes&Nobles) so while I’m familiar with the whole plotline and that jazz, I’ve never actually seen “Utau sing”. Talk about fail as a major Nana Mizuki fangirl right? *shoots myself*

Anyways, back on topic.  If you couldn’t tell by the post title, I’ll be reviewing only Nana Mizuki’s (Utau Hoshina’s) character songs from the Shugo Chara! Character Song Album Best. Why? The truth is that I don’t care about the other songs, sorry to say. Maybe the other songs are really good; maybe they really suck. I don’t really feel like finding out either way and the only reason why I’m bothering with this album is because of Nana, duh. Glad we got this cleared up and don’t nuke me if you don’t like it. Now I’m going to list the songs by the original track order of the CD.

2). Meikyuu Butterfly:

To be honest, I didn’t really care for this song when it first came out. It was “okay” for me but nothing really special. However, my view changed 360 degrees when I watched the live performance on blu-ray.  While I suspect a lot of it has to do with the sheer excellence of Nana’s live singing, I started to appreciate the arrangement of the song. The trance-beats are really nice, especially after repeated listens. The live version is still a lot superior though LOL.

6). Blue Moon:

I always forget about this song, for some reason. It’s a nice, pretty sounding ballad with a bit of a soft rock feel in the chorus with all the drums and electric guitar. It’s got the typical piano and orchestra line arrangement with a nice acoustic guitar-line thrown in the bridge. “Nice” really sounds up this song and while there’s nothing wrong it doesn’t feel too special because I’ve heard this done too many times. I do like the last transposed bridge though, Blue Moon might have been a lot better if the arrangement was in that key.

7). BLACK DIAMOND:

Best song out of all of them and way better than that horrible, banshee-like duet  between Namie Amuro and Double. I love the rock-pop feel of the songs and “Ikuto’s violin” adds a nice touch.  The explosive chorus is definitely the best part of the song-Nana’s vocals just soar and her enka vibrato really clicks with the song. Of course this makes me wonder how a 14 year old (or 16, I dunno) idol like Utau can have an enka vibrato like that but whatever. Let’s hope that Nana performs this during her LIVE DIAMOND concert this summer. And yes, I just realized that they both have DIAMONDs.

9). Heartful Song:

Wow at the cheese-factor of this song. It’s not a bad song, another ballad  that is much more happy and uplifting than Blue Moon. While I don’t really love this song,  I don’t hate it either. However, this song would be a lot better if it actually went somewhere and built up into a climax, but the bridge just fails. Pretty meh, overall.

10). Yume no Tsubomi:

Oh. My. God. Nana sounds fucking retarded here. Yeah, I know she’s trying to imitate a little kid but that doesn’t change that her child-like voice sounds irritating and unnatural. Fail. Epic Fail.

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Here’s the abridged version aka Read-This-If-You-Found-The-Other-Stuff-TL;DR:

EPIC WIN: BLACK DIAMOND

WIN: Meikyuu Butterfly

meh: Blue Moon, Heartful Song

FAIL: None

EPIC FAIL: Yume no Tsubomi

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Actually, this is pretty good for a character song album. I remember listening to other character song albums back when I watched anime and most of them consisted purely of EPIC FAILS. Putting that in perspective, Shugo Chara! is a pretty good effort (Nana’s side at least). Then again, I guess it helps that Nana’s songs are actually featured in the anime-it wouldn’t be good to have them completely suck.

Now I’m waiting for the WHITE ALBUM character songs, God knows when I’ll do Oricon Round-Ups again.