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The album was recorded over a period of just over three months, just me and my Yamaha guitar and my laptop (with Audacity). Originally the concept was to pick the best of 2009’s anime songs, record them and release the results with my year-end review post – but the plan sort of got knocked sideways when I jokingly started writing a song for Chihara Minori sometime in September. Then I started expanding to songs from before 2009 and in the end I just thought ‘What the heck, I’ll just make it a general anisong album thing’ and set 18th November, my birthday, as the deadline.

Limited Chords Works was a title I had chosen right from the start – I shall be modest and truthful and say that I find it incredibly tough to sing and play guitar at the same time, which is why the arrangements are kept as simple as possible.

Honestly, I didn’t spend a lot of time with each track – the process went something like this:

1. Pick any random track from my 5000+ over anime songs.
2. Figure out the chords for the song, transpose it to a key I’m comfortable singing in (usually C, Em or G)
3. Try to find romaji lyrics and if it fails, kanji lyrics will do fine
4. Do about 2-3 takes of the song and pick the least awful one

It took on average, 20-30 minutes to do each song – some were nailed first take, others took me absolute ages to get in even a half-decent attempt of – in total I recorded around 60-70 songs.

Notes on the individual songs follow.

1. HERUPPPU MIIII.
Original: S.O.S. by Pink Lady, covered by Watanabe Miki & Yamamoto Maria for KareKano insert [youtube]
Title: I thought S.O.S. sounded boring.
The original version is actually one of my fave Jpop songs ever so this should’ve been a cinch to do..in theory. Except the key I chose was a little too high and I swear my voicebox was about to seep out of my eyeballs by the time the ‘S.O.S!’ part of the chorus rolled around.

2. Banana de Fly (Tokyo no Juice)
Original: Pai no Pai no Pai (Tokyo Bushi) by Ito Kanae for Taishou Yakyuu Musume insert [youtube]
Title: Taken from alternate parts of the lyrics, although the original says ‘Tokyo no Chuusuu’ (the center of Tokyo) – the way Kanae sings it, it sounds like Juusuu (juice) instead.
This was one of the earliest songs I had recorded (sometime back in August?) but I ended up having to re-do it after the OST got released – I realised I had gotten the gibberish parts completely wrong. Very fun to do – the song’s melody/key flows easily and the lyrics were pretty funny too.

3. Piiman LOVES YOU YEAH!
Original: Ninjin Loves You Yeah! by Nakajima Megumi for Macross Frontier insert [youtube]
Title: Piiman is Japanese for pepper (kyuri is cucumber)
True story: I was originally going to sing all 4 verses of the song but midway through the second verse an itch developed on my nose and I really needed to scratch it so I killed the song after the third. The fourth verse’s replacement vegetable lyric was supposed to be ‘lettuce’ by the way.

4. Banana nanana nanana
Original: Banana Banana by Nakahara Mai for Kage Kara Mamoru! insert [youtube]
Title: More nananas sound better?
Somehow, there’s two songs about bananas included on the album – I swear it’s not deliberate! However, anyone who watched KKM! will probably remember just how hilarious it was to hear Mai’s character Yuna go up on stage and suddenly bust out a song about why bananas are yellow. I can’t remember how many verses her version was supposed to have, but just hearing one of them is enough to break most people’s brains.

5. Guide Post
Original: Michishirube (Hazumu version) by Ueda Kana for Kashimashi ~Girl meets Girl~ ED2 [youtube - Yuumao original]
Title: Guide Post is a direct translation from the Japanese title.
This was actually recorded as a guide track for further finetuning but I thought it was rather amusing how I totally misread the kanji for Yasashii as Kanashii, which warped the meaning of the song – so I decided to keep it.

6. White Light
Original: Byakuya~True Light~ by Miyamoto Shunichi for D.N.Angel OP [youtube]
Title: Byakuya means White Night, so I just mashed the first and last words of the title together.
I’ve always loved this song’s melancholic feel and I thought my version was a pretty straightforward cover. Personally, one of my favourites off the album.

7. Evening Face
Original: Yuugao by Noto Mamiko for School Rumble, Yakumo character song [youtube]
Title: 夕顔 actually means Moonflower but when you separate the kanji, 夕 means evening and 顔 means face so I ended up with a stupid sounding title. Yay me.
How I wished that it was not Noto Mamiko who sang this – on the original, you can hear how she struggles with her phrasing and breath control everytime she sings and it’s a real shame as Yuugao is such a pretty, pretty song. I’m not saying I can sing better than Mamiko though!

8. Futari ni Got BREAD
Original: God knows… by Hirano Aya for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu insert [youtube]
Title: Play on the lyrics in the chorus (Futari ni God bless…).
Honestly I hadn’t any plans to record this, but an acquaintance did a pretty good version so I took up the challenge of doing my own. This was take #2 (I messed up the chords 5 seconds into take #1), but I can tell you it’s fairly hard to try to read the lyrics and chords whilst playing and singing at the same time. The BLERRGGGHH in the bit before the chorus was cos I tripped over the B7 chord and again in the chorus, where I almost failed to stifle my laughter. Turned out to be quite a decent comedy track anyhow.

9. Interlude #1
Mayoi Snail! (refers to a Hachikuji line from Bakemonogatari)

10. RunRunRun
Original: Hana no Ko LunLun by Horie Mitsuko, Hana no Ko LunLun OP [youtube]
Title: …well it just goes Run Run Run a lot.
Can’t say I like the original 70s song that much myself, but Makoto from Genshiken used it as his ringtone which makes it uber-cool… or it would be, if it wasn’t about a flower girl called LunLun.

11. Suki sa
Original: Suki sa by Anzen Chitai for Maison Ikkoku OP3 [youtube]
The last of the songs included here to be recorded, and the only one that gets a full version without having any verses or choruses cut out. Old school 80s Jpop (one of my favourite genres) at its finest. I did have a little debate in my mind about whether to do this or Murashita Kozo’s Hidamari (also from Maison Ikkoku) and the dramatic, heartfelt Suki sa won out in the end.

12. Tsun Tsun Dere
Original: Sakura Shinmachi Chouka by Fukuen Misato for Yozakura Quartet insert [youtube]
Title: Er… self-explanatory?
I spent some time sourcing out the full studio version that was included on one of the drama CDs – in the anime, it just goes Tsun Tsun Dere over and over again. Then I found out that it was actually annoyingly repetitive so I just picked the first verse and chorus.

13. Powerful Miracle
Original: Kiss Kara Hajimaru Miracle by Steel Angels (Enomoto Atsuko, Tanaka Rie & Kurata Masayo) for Steel Angel Kurumi OP [youtube]
Title: I settled on the less cumbersome, more cutesy title in the end.
I guess the biggest problem with this was that I was putting maximum effort into not tripping up over the ridiculous lyrics that I forgot to sing it properly. Pawafuru mirakuru ima kuru, hajikeru majikaru wandafuru, ririkaru komikaru koi suru torokeru mirakurumi <---- crazy tongue twisters, man.

14. Kibina HIGH

Original: Kibina Koukou Kouka by Tanaka Rie for KimiKiss
Title: Truncating long title.
I hope you’ve heard the original, deliberately badly sung version by Rie which was on one of the KimiKiss CDs. I could never live up to her high standards, but I did try my best to reconstruct some of the parts which were mangled beyond recognition by her awesome singing.

15. Sakura Saorin no Theme
Original: Kaorin no Theme by Shiraishi Minoru for Lucky Star ED [youtube]
Title: Sakura Saori is one of the ave;new vocalists, I guess you could describe this as a love song to her?
Recorded on a whim – I didn’t watch Lucky Star so I had no real idea of how the song was supposed to sound beyond what I saw of it on Youtube. In fact I recorded it the same day I first heard it so that’s probably why I sound so shaky….

16. Kirari Heart
Original: Twinkle My Heart by Asano Masami for Spiral ~Suiri no Kizuna~ insert [youtube]
Title: Kirari means twinkly in Japanese…
Aka the reallllly annoying Hiyono song. I’m not sure too many people will remember Spiral though – it aired sometime at the start of the century?

17. Doushiteeeeee…?
Original: Doushite… by Hirano Aya for Himawari character song [youtube]
Title: It was originally titled WAIIIIIIIIIIIIII.
My favourite Hirano Aya song! Given the right material, I really don’t mind her singing at all – rather unfortunate that those type of songs rarely ever come along though. I managed to wing this on the first take with (only) a slight stumble on one of the lyrics.

18. Nomo no Ekaki Uta
Original: Nomo no Ekaki Uta by Shitaya Noriko for Cross Game insert [youtube]
I’m a huge Cross Game fan so Nomo’s drawing song seemed a natural choice to cover. Trying to match Shitaya’s Momiji for cuteness was impossible though, so I went for a slowed down, folky version. I thought it went OK, though some of the notes towards the end were way too high for me.

19. twinkle twinkle

Original: Twinkle Twinkle by Noto Mamiko & Tamura Yukari for Twin Angel OVA ED
I had had several ave;new songs in mind to attempt to cover (Ginmokusei was my first choice), but in the end I went for this tamer song that they written for the Twin Angel OVA. The bright sparkly arrangement of the song had to be reworked to make it…. less sparkly… I think you can hear my neighbour’s phone ringing in the background early on in the song :/

20. Pero~n
Original: Bikini wa Sugu ni Peron Peron by Horie Yui, Kanamemo insert [youtube]
Bikinis slip off, yay?

21. Ikiterundayo!
Original: Inochi Nan Dayo! by Takagaki Ayahi for CANAAN insert [youtube]
Nene’s songs were all so awesome it was hard for me to pick one. Very nearly chose China Kibun de High Tension!! instead, but I’m glad I didn’t. Still I had to chop off the bridge because it made the song way too long for its own good – in Takagaki’s version it doesn’t hit the chorus til the 1:45 mark, which is suicidal in radio-friendly pop land.

22. Interlude #2
Mayoi Snail!!

23. Watashi dake o Mitsumete
Original: Watashi dake o Mitsumete by Suara, Akai Ito c/w song [youtube]
There was no particular reason behind choosing this song other than I really really love it. Of course, picking a Suara song is just silly when she’s such a fantastic singer….

24. D=
Original: Perfect Smile by Mizuki Nana, ULTIMATE DIAMOND album track [youtube]
Title: If Nana’s is a ‘perfect smile’ like = D then mine is the opposite D =
This was never my first choice for a Nana cover, I really wanted to do Cherish, Nostalgia or You Have a Dream instead – I’d also made a few dozen aborted attempts at cranking out a cover of Shounen, but didn’t manage to work it out. The constant melody/key changes and the vocal gymnastics contained within Nana songs make them incredibly difficult for someone with a limited voice like me to tackle. In the end I had to settle for Perfect Smile, one of the least challenging and most generic songs in Nana’s back catalogue – even then I still struggled with how the melody went from low to high and back in the space of a couple of lines. Certainly made me appreciate just how bloody hard Nana-sama’s songs are to cover adequately, and somehow she makes everything sound so effortless.

25. Shimasho!
Original: Hajimete Shimasho by Kugimiya Rie for Rizelmine OP [youtube]
Title: Shortened? It’s the only lyric in the song anyone remembers anyway.
I just had to try out a Kugimiya Rie song somehow, and this seemed a perfect fit. Unfortunately, the Shimasho bits were the only part of the song that were memorable, which is why I ommited the verses.

26. Almost Human in the Rain
Original: Ningen Nante by Yoshida Takuro for Cromartie insert [youtube]
Title: Twisting the original title (What’s a Human?) around a bit, plus (Singing) in the Rain…
Anyone who’s watched Cromartie will instantly recognise this Hmmmm hmmmm hmmm tune. I wanted to hum it too but as you can hear, it was absolutely pouring the night I recorded the song and I thought whistling would make the melody stand out more.

27. Ichigo 100%
Original: Ichigo Complete by Ichigo Mashimaro Girls for Ichigo Mashimaro OP [youtube]
Title: Complete = 100%, plus I borrowed the title of another anime.
….Actually I can’t even remember why or when I recorded this, must have been when I had a few beers. I can’t see myself screaming YAY!! otherwise.

28. Chou Urusai Nova
Original: Super Noisy Nova by Sphere for Sora no Manimani OP [youtube]
Title: Direct translation from English to Japanese.
Actually, I really loathe this – probably because I spent so much time trying to get a decent version recorded. I think I must have re-recorded it more than 10 times and even then it still turned out pretty bad.

29. b4ub43
Original: Be For You, Be For Me by Ueda Yuji & Horie Yui for Love Hina Again ED [youtube]
Title: 3 can be read ‘mi’ in Japanese so that’s how I ended up with Be 4 U, Be 4 3 (Mi)
This was based on the lively duet version of the song and not Hocchan’s solo snoozefest. The only difficult part was handling both Ueda and Horie’s dualing vocal parts, but it was one of my favourites to work on.

30. Curry Yousei
Original: Curry no Uta by Ono Daisuke for Minami-ke: Okaeri insert [youtube]
Title: Curry Fairy.
If my memory serves me correctly, this was the first song I chose to do once I’d set my mind on the project. It wasn’t a very wise decision, since Ono Daisuke’s original can never ever be topped. I also think it sounds better accompanied by piano – not that I was ever going to try, I haven’t played the piano in over 10 years (I reached grade 5)!

31. Flying Pants no Uta
Original: Misaki Meguri by Yamamoto Kotaro & Weekend, covered by Mina for Sora no Otoshimono ED2 [yotutube]
Title: I trust you will understand why it’s so called if you’ve seen the anime’s ending video animation.
I must admit to having been a little mortified to hear this 70s J-folk classic having its legacy (in my mind) tainted by the mental image of flying underwear, thanks to SoraOto. I can’t ever listen to it in the same way again D:

32. trust
Original: Trust by Salia for Vandread OP [youtube]
Another song picked purely out of sentiment. However, some parts were too low for me so I had to play around with the melody line a bit so that it would fit within my range. trust and Futari ni Got BREAD were the only two songs where I didn’t work out the original chords on my own, there are readily available versions floating around on the internet.

33. Say Under
Original: Say Over by Tanaka Rie & Higasayama Tsugumi for Psychic Academy OP [youtube]
Title: Over/Under?
I think I chose too many duets for my own good – I kept ending up having to compromise on vocal parts to make things flow better. Also I distinctly remember I had trouble with the pronunciation of ‘triangle’ – the katakanized version is TORAIANGURU, but my tongue couldn’t wrap itself around the word and I ended up just singing plain old TRIANGLE. It is somewhat jarring as the next line contains the world BARANSU (balance), and I sang it in katakana….

34. Kaerimichi
Original: Kaerimichi by Kawasumi Ayako for Mahoromatic OP [youtube]
Picked because of the recent special episodes, which made me go back and rewatch the original Mahoromatic. Which made me wonder why I even liked it in the first place…. the songs were good, though a little horrible to listen to. Ayako’s singing hasn’t improved that much over the last 10 years, sadly.

35. Maze
Original: Douwa Meikyuu by Tamura Yukari for Otogi Jushi Akazukin OP [youtube]
Title: Douwa Meikyuu means Fairytale Maze in English.
I guess this is one of the few Yukarin songs I actually really like – Mero~n was NEVER an option.

36. Interlude #3
Mayoi Snail!!!

I hope that provided a bit of insight into the rather silly process of making a covers album, it was certainly a very fun and LOL-filled experience for me though not one I’m sure I’d like to repeat anytime soon. Guess it makes a decent change from hearing Utatte Mita karaoke tracks, eh? Thanks to omo and zzeroparticle for the pimping and review!

Some of the songs worked on/recorded that didn’t make the cut:
MARIA&JENNIFER – title is a play on Mizuki Nana’s MARIA&JOKER but the song itself is a take on the group musical piece from kure-nai. Maria & Jennifer are the names of the two lead females in the song…. I think.
HELLO BIG BEANS – a cover of Nagi’s Hello Daizu song from the Kannagi karaoke episode.
I Can’t Get Over Your Best Smile – cover of KOTOKO’s insert song from Onegai Teacher.
AirBed ga Taosenai – an acoustic take on Team NekoKan’s famous doujin piece Airman ga Taosenai (I can’t defeat Air Man).
Tsukurimasho – Chiyo-chan’s cooking song from Azumanga Daioh.
Utamaru no Ekaki Uta – I thought one drawing song was quite enough. Utamaru is the cat from Da Capo.
Refraction – cover of eufonius’ Reflectier from true tears.
Contact 14th – Cover of Chihara Minori’s Contact 13th
Onee-sama e no Ai – original song, written from the viewpoint of Liang Qi towards Alphard. It is very very cheesy.