This Week in Anime

It's the Anime Rap Battle of the Century!!

Nicky
Music has always been an important aspect of pop culture. With many genres of music spreading and growing popular worldwide, the American-born rap and hip-hop genres frequently top the charts among their pop brethren. While music culture varies from country to country, none are entirely immune to foreign musical crazes or the fashion cultures that follow them. Anime is another reflection of that, often featuring songs from popular artists for openings, ending themes, and soundtracks. But as anime continues to reflect modern trends, it was inevitable we'd end up seeing the influence of these music genres on anime storylines as well.

It's a situation that might perplex music fans inundated with anime trends. Both HypMic and Paradox Live are rapping variants of animated idol groups and are demographically aimed towards young women. They have a lot more in common with other anime idol series like Love Live, Idolish 7, and fellow "women's media" (joseimusuke) than they do with real-life musicians. They sell themselves more on the characters, merchandise, and voice casts than the quality of the music. Which, in a way, isn't that dissimilar to some real-life up-and-coming idol boy or girl groups that sell more heavily on their "personality" and large numbers.

There are quite a few voice actors who can sing well, but there's been more than a few music anime where the notes fall pretty flat. Normally I'd consider this a huge downgrade, but HypMic makes up for it by being SO damn campy and sincere in its lyrics and premise that I really can't help but laugh and enjoy myself.

I admit that I am probably the last person who should be determining which beats are sick and which beats are decidedly healthy. I am no doctor of music, so I don't try. It's also challenging for me to judge rhymes in a foreign language that had to undergo a lot of accommodations to adopt rap stylings into its form of lingo, making Japanese rap a completely different animal from its English counterpart, which then has to be hastily translated for simulcast with the rest of the episode. I do not envy the translators who have to work on these franchises! On top of that, there is an attempt to blend English loan words and American culture in there, so as an American, such an anime trend is extremely alien in a way I can only describe as novel. There's a certain whiplash every time Paradox Live's main group announces themselves as BAE.

They also have strong influences from other musical genres outside of rap. I found Paradox Live to be rather pop-ish and taking strong influence from dance EDM pop, K-pop, and soul, resulting in something flashy, unlike more humble underground acts. As both these anime are ultimately just a bigger piece of larger multimedia corporate strategies, it's pretty understandable that you might get the feeling that these are inauthentic "How do you do fellow kids?" attempts at being trendy, and yeah, you're probably right. Yet, that doesn't seem to bother its main audience as HypMic songs continue to rack views and sales.

At the time of writing, the above video had 1.7 million views, most of which were gained within a week of uploading.

I would enjoy Paradox Live's music more if it had any of the stories to back it up. It has a decidedly more grounded premise but still feels superficial regarding the characters. I can't take much of the melodrama seriously. The visuals and presentation are good, but it doesn't quite inspire me to jump out of my seat and make some noise. The CG dance performances are superb for what they are, but they lack a real "WOW" factor that keeps them reaching their full potential as animated sequences.

The comparison to real-life drug usage is also not pretty and falls back on stereotypes of musicians in a way I found unpleasant. But the fact that the stage performances don't have a high element of fantasy compared to real ones didn't impress me either. It's got better production values than HypMic, but other 2D series have done better to push the impact of their songs with less budget.

While I know from the Preview Guide you were not hyped on HypMic's second season premiere, I've warmed up on the show even more than season 1 as it's transitioned from being a little more than just a marketing vehicle and more embodying the same space of Zombie Land Saga in that it's more of an episodic musical sitcom than anything else. While I'd call my initial enjoyment somewhat ironic, I can genuinely say there are some great gags. The entirety of episode 2 is just yakuza gags. Though, maybe that's the lingering fondness for Akiba Maid War in me.

I can see that, after all, all HypMic characters have various gimmicks and jokes surrounding them. One of the new characters is even a fast-talking comedian and features a whole tragic subplot about breaking up a manzai duo. Yet, I can't help but read it as heartfelt, no matter how silly it gets. Part of this is its designation as women's media, as young women get easily discouraged when encountering cynicism directed toward things they like.

It's hard to imagine an overlap between anime and music fandom. Still, the same young women these anime target are also the leaders in the fashion and music trends that are being emulated. While rap was struggling to gain acceptance in Japan as a genre of music, it was the fashion trends that paved the way into mainstream culture.

There's also a considerable discussion about how these trends are rooted in Black culture and are ultimately being taken out of the context of the struggle of African Americans that inspired it. This is one we can't have because that's something many music and culture scholars hotly debate about as cultures continue to be globalized, and we are neither of those.

I count myself lucky that the anime depictions of rap are so tame compared to the use of more thoughtless images of blackface, guns, and drug imagery. It's discussed briefly in this article. Yet, even if some of them are used as a joke or gag, there's still a hint of respect. Kaguya-sama is a gag series, but Shinigami waxing poetic about the intellectual attributes of rap also feels sincere, even if it's followed by how his rapping is even worse than his already infamous singing.

Bonus: They let Chika swear.

The song "My Nonfiction," sung by the voice actors but arranged by Parkgolf, is a genuine delight.

Speaking of delights, there are few anime that brought me more delight than Ya Boy Kongming, which in a similar vein seems silly on the surface, introducing the legendary Chinese strategist Kongming to the modern-era club scene, but is deeply reverent towards its world of EDM.

Not only does he rap, he does it by using old-school spoken word poetry and referencing things he knows in a way that makes sense to his character as a literary and historical figure. I was also genuinely touched by this arc to get the character of Kabetaijin out of his wordless funk, which goes back to what I was saying that the story around the songs lends a lot to the presentation of them regardless of whether you vibe with the music itself.

Anime has also long contributed to the globalization of Japan's genre innovation. I'm grateful for the countless unique artists I've found via anime songs, and when it comes to rap and hip-hop one of the most influential anime is probably Shinichiro Watanabe's Samurai Champloo. Champloo featured a soundtrack by the late Nujabes, who would now be considered one of the cult founders of chill and instrumental mixes long before SoundCloud was ever a thing.

The feeling can sometimes be mutual or go the other way. While today we talk about how anime chases trends in Western culture, there's undoubtedly a demographic of Western artists and fans who aren't afraid to combine their loves of music, fashion, and anime. One of the most outspoken celebrity proclaimers of anime fandom has been Megan Thee Stallion, who has been sporting cosplay, anime-inspired nail art, and even got Boondocks producer and animator Carl Jones to create anime-inspired visualizers for her album Traumazine.

Jones cites that Megan's love for anime is entirely genuine and that a lot of effort was put into creating the 18 total visualizers. The Boondocks was also animated by several studios, including Madhouse (uncredited). Though as shallow as HypMic is in comparison to some of the real deals, it still comforts me as a series where cute boys do cute things, like making Doppo take a vacation so he doesn't tarnish the reputation of the company that regularly overworks him. Or seeing the members of Fling Posse take a commemorative photo as Dice floats down the river after once again losing everything in a gamble.