Kaiju No. 8, Naoya Matsumoto’s masterpiece has been adapted into the anime series and is scheduled to release on April 13, 2024. The series has created a lot of buzz among the fans of the Kaiju No. 8 manga series who eagerly await the anime series created by Production I.G. Additionally, the series will be the first ever anime to be live-streamed on X(Formerly Twitter).
Recently the creators of the series revealed that the famous pop rock band, One Republic will perform the ending theme of the series, while the opening theme will be created by British singer Yungblud, featuring Imagine Dragons. The revelation came as an unexpected shock to the fans of the series.
While most of the fans were happy to see the collaboration between them, others expressed disappointment and believed that One Republic and Yungblud wouldn’t be able to do justice to the series. The major opinion around the news was that the artists might disrupt the essence of the series. However, this is not the first time an anime series has featured Western Music.
Kaiju No. 8’s Opening And Ending Theme Will Be Performed by Western Artists
Prior to its April 13 debut, the anime Kaiju No. 8 unveiled a new trailer that included the “Abyss” opening theme from Yungblud. While OneRepublic performed the concluding theme, “Nobody.” Although Western musicians have worked on anime dubbing in the past, they are rarely employed for opening and closing themes of anime movies and series.
Initially, anime opening and ending theme songs were ignored by fans as they directly moved on to the storyline of the series. However, as these theme songs started to get more entertaining and catchy, fans started noticing them and now they have become a big part of any popular anime series.
Production I.G is animating, with Tomomi Kamiya and Shigeyuki Miya serving as directors. Ichiro Okuchi has been placed responsible for the series’ composition. Character designs are created by Tetsuya Nishio, while creature designs are approved by Mahiro Maeda and Khara Studio.
Kaiju No. 8 Does Not Deserve The Hate For Employing Western Music
Since the announcement of Kaiju No. 8 using Western music as a part of their series has gone viral, fans have expressed disappointment and even hate for this decision. However Western music has been influencing the anime industry for a long time. The use of Western music in anime started with the series Neon Genesis Evangelion and its “Fly Me to the Moon” ending theme.
According to Tokyo Otaku Mode, Claire Littley contributed some vocals to the iconic Evangelion ending tune. Also, when the series was in production in the early 1990s, music director Hideaki Anno and composer Shiro Sagisu recorded 26 different versions of “Fly Me to the Moon.” The popular song was first sung by American actress, comedian, and singer Kaye Ballard in 1954, but it is best remembered for Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version.
Therefore, the hate that fans have expressed for Kaiju No. 8 using Yungblud and One Republic for their opening and ending theme is unjustified, as Western music being used in anime series generally has worked in the favor of the series and a similar response is expected from Kaiju No. 8 too.
Kaiju No. 8 will be live-streamed on April 13, 2024, on Crunchyroll and X.
