TheRetroCritic

Ever wonder what the singers of some of your favourite anime themes actually look like? Well, here's a selection of classic intro songs sung live! First, Ichiro Mizuki singing the Mazinger Z theme and being awesome: Now, a truly energetic performance by Hironobu Kageyama singing "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" , the immortal intro theme to Dragon Ball Z : Let's get some Doraemon action going with Satoko Yamano singing her intro for the show (the one after Kumiko Osugi's original): Time to step things up a notch with Make-Up's classic Saint Seya theme : Another memorable one you might recall is Yoko Takahashi's theme for Neon Genesis Evangelion : And, to end things with a bang, here's Gundam Wing 's intro song "Just Communication" by Two-Mix: Any more to recommend or any specific ones you'd like me to post? Let us know in the comments below ;)

Here are a couple of Maison Ikkoku -related music videos for all you fans of the classic anime series starting with the popular Japanese song Kanashimi Yo Konnichiwa sung back in the day by Yuki Saito: Here's another live performance of the song, this time with... less flowers: You can check out those classic opening titles HERE . And finally, here's French singer Bernard Minet's own song for the show which, in France, was known as Juliette, Je T'Aime : The French opening titles for the show can be found HERE .

Growing up in France, I was exposed so several delicious things: croissants, the word "merde", American B-movies and Japanese anime. Every anime series was, of course, dubbed and entire new opening title sequences were designed to the sound of unique French tunes which usually had nothing to do with the original Japanese songs. Usually this was thanks to a TV show called Le Club Dorothée . Some are corny, some are hilarious, some are brilliant, some are just bad, some are combinations. Here are my personal favourites: 10 JULIETTE JE T'AIME (MAISON IKKOKU) Let's start with a guilty pleasure, shall we? Juliette Je T'Aime 's opening theme was nothing epic or particularly exciting but it was catchy and you'll find it hard to meet a French person who doesn't remember, at the very least, the chorus. Sung by French anime theme mastermind Bernard Minet, it's corny but it's cute and puts you in a good, cosy mood before the show, wha

Anyone who knows me knows I have worshipped Metric since their kickass breakout album Old World Underground (Where Are You Now?) .   Their unique blend of punk rock attitude and electro pop acting like a kind of best-of-music-I-like for me. Since that album, a few others followed, all good, so I had high hopes for Synthetica . The result? Well it is indeed good, about as strong as Grow Up And Blow Away  I would say. It opens with the very Metric "Artificial Nocturne" which never fully takes off the way "Help, I'm Alive" did, for example, but which nonetheless lures you hypnotically into the album. It has a great build-up. "Youth Without Youth" is next and adds a bit of Black Keys-style blues to the mix. Again, it doesn't have that extra level to it but it's still a cool tune. "Speed The Collapse" brings with it a darker tone and is all the better for it. One of the best songs on the album, definitely. The following song