Anamanaguchi - Endless Fantasy
Like many, my first experience with Anamanaguchi was with the Scott Pilgrim vs The World game soundtrack. I didn't have the cultural context to know how much they were ripping off foundational easycore as much as they were Nintendo soundtracks. I didn't even know which Nintendo soundtracks they were ripping off (Mega Man and Kirby, mostly). I thought they were the coolest thing in the world for a few months and then promptly forgot all about them until I saw Anthony Fantano's glowing review of [USA] in 2019. I'll review that album in full another time, but safe to say, I was shocked at how much they sounded like a completely different band. They'd grown beyond a strictly instrumental NES & Gameboy aesthetic with minimal live drums and guitars, turning towards psychedelic bubblegum pop, progressive house, and even vocaloid, almost obscuring their initial chiptune sound entirely. "Where did this change come from," I asked myself?
Endless Fantasy represents that turning point in Anamanaguchi's sound that lead them to become the band that made [USA], and eventually its near opposite, Anyway. The songs here all tick the same major key, positive energy boxes. Some are almost Andrew W.K.-ish in a way, others content to be mid-tempo pop songs that lean on their melodies for vitality. Anamanaguchi introduce vocal features on a handful of tracks (who are, as far as I can tell, all real singers who are imitating vocaloid rather than actual vocaloid programs). Those songs that do stand out most to me are the ones that really nail the fundamentals. "Planet" is a great pop plodder with a killer synth lead. "Viridian Genesis" adds bitcrushed vocal chops to their sound and has an unexpected prog rock bridge. I hear the pop punk influence on tracks like "John Hughes" (Motion City Soundtrack), "SPF420" (A Day To Remember), and "Space Wax America" (Weezer). "Canal Paradise" sounds like a forgotten Rick Astley track. "Prom Night" is straight from the Dr. Luke playbook.
Endless Fantasy is still based in rock song structures and motifs, even as it frees itself from rock's limited sonic palette. The chord changes and turnarounds are universally smooth. When you have to chart out your song on a tracker on a Game Boy's 5cm square screen, you have to make everything you write count. This is a very well-arranged record. It's also a great listen while doing HIIT. However, it's not so great a listen on the couch in front of your CD player. A maximalist 76 minutes, barely fitting onto a single disc, songs on Endless Fantasy can tend to blur together for me, especially towards the end of the record. Also, when Anamanaguchi try to be funny with titles like "STILL SPLODIN THO" and "SPF420", when meesh giggles "drop the bass" on "Japan Air" and the gang makes a cheap cat keyboard rap on "Meow", the jokes don't quite land. Are they interpolating Eric Satie in "Interlude (Gymnopedie No 1)" because it's unexpected, because they genuinely think it'll bring some sophistication to the album, or because they think it'd be funny if we thought they were doing it to seem smart?
Collectively, Anamanaguchi reveal themselves to be total weeaboos on this record. Song titles like "Bosozoku GF", "Japan Air", and "Akira" make that obvious enough, but they're also borrowing from J-rock and J-pop with their heavy focus on lead melody. And, of course, where did Nintendo's game soundtracks come from if not Japanese musicians? Video game music shares a lot of DNA with Japanese pop music and jazz fusion, and Anamanaguchi leans much more towards the former than the latter with their sugary, major-key melodies and tightly-woven arrangements. Drawing from this tradition and referencing it is all well and good, but the sonics and aesthetics of this album are very Web 2.0. Opening the interior booklet to see the otakus themselves in harsh lighting is a bit like seeing your own double chin in the reflection of the perfectly mirrored CD. It's awkward. It's embarrassing. I can see why they pivoted away from this aesthetic later on. The tribute to legendary record producer Don DeVito is nice, at least.
While not their most high-concept record, and perhaps overly cute, it's fun. It has more bangers than it does duds. The problem is there's just too much album. I like a lot of the songs individually, but you could cut half of them and end up with a more muscular, attention-grabbing end product.