Tag: anime

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Italian anime openings are probably the most underrated key aspect of Italian culture. Even people who study Italian language and culture at university don’t know anything about Italian anime openings. How do I explain to foreigners that very few things bring Italians together: food, the World Cup and Italian anime openings.

This probably needs a better explanation: Italy is the Western country with the highest distribution of Japanese anime series, which have shaped the childhood of Italians since the 1970s. Italian anime openings are unique because they’re actually original songs purposefully composed for each anime that ever aired on television, and they used to be sung by the same two singers every single time. Sometimes they do concerts where they sing Italian anime openings, and you can find plenty of grown ass people who still remember the lyrics after all this time.

I’mma re-reblog this for an addendum: thanks to this proliferation of (sometimes ancient*) animes, lots of Italian have a oddly specific knowledge of little known (even in Japan) anime. Ask somebody in Japan about Ai Shite Knight; ask an Italian about Kiss Me Licia. Fettine panate.

While in the USA anime got suddendly popular in the 90s with Sailor Moon and Dragonball, we already were a nation of weebs. Oh, obviously Dragonball and Sailor Moon were really really popular also here (is Dragonball still airing?), but we were already masters in the art of the “cartoni giapponesi”. And we also imported American (and French, and…) animation, because we liked eveything.

Fact is, anime in Italy was a cheap investment, and for kids. As they were for kids, they were all dubbed, since the 70s (the sub scene will come much later). And you can’t have a dubbed anime without a nice freshly made Italian exclusive opening! And that’s when the craft of the opening was born. Most will remember Cristina D’Avena and Giorgio Vanni (because for a time they were the only ones still working); the ones with access to regional channels will probably add I Cavalieri del Re and Le Mele Verdi; the oldest… well, I really hope they’d say the Oliver Onions, because they were the best.

With the death of many regional channels, the dearth of anime on the more popular national channels, and the end of an era of taking risks on many inexpensive but odd cartoons, I think this culture around Italian openings is coming to a close. Too bad.

Also, we still don’t know who wrote and sang Urusei Yatsura’s opening. One of the greatest mysteries of all time.

* Ancient = when I was 7 years old in the ‘90s I watched an anime where the Beatles were still together.

I can 100% vouch for this, I was a kid in the 80′s and some of the anime I watched was from the 60′s (like Kimba The White Lion by Tezuka).

Also excuse me but if we’re going to bring up Oliver Onions we cannot overlook this masterpiece

(I cannot stand Giorgio Vanni either but I also think it’s because I was already too old to absorb his openings uncritically when he started working. This said, the old openings from non-Fininvest  anime were generally better imo, they had more oomph, possibly with the exception of some VERY early Cristina D’Avena like Nanà Supergirl or Creamy Mami)

Fun fact: The music for the German opening for Attack No.1 was the Italian opening for Mila e Shiro (Attacker YOU!) with a new text. That’s also where Kozue’s German name comes from. 

Even more obscure fun fact: in Malta, a tiny island nation just south of Italy, local television sucked so hard that most children watched Italian television instead (except for some of the more well-to-do/avant-garde who got cable TV in English ).

Hence, a significant chunk of Maltese children who grew up in the 80s and 90s, can not only speak Italian, but have a knowledge of Italian anime songs that competes with any Italian child of the same age. (Hence why I always listen to sigle on Youtube whenever I need a dose of childhood nostalgia).

Most Italian people I meet have no idea that a huge chunk of their childhood experience is shared with another country in this way. From my end, whenever somebody asks how on earth I speak fluent Italian, I usually just shrug and say ‘Dragonball’…..and that’s always super fun.

And this, kids, is the reason why there are so many Italians in the Detective Conan fandom.

1) that explains a lot

2) have you ever heard the inuyasha italian/english opening theme, it’s hilarious

Oh man. I know this is probably going to go unnoticed, but in addition to confirming all of the above is true, I want to talk about a specific anime called Mermaid Melody Pichi Pitch Pitch. It belongs squarely in the category of “Anime most Japanese otaku wouldn’t remember but lots of Italians know it” and here’s the real clincher: In the series, the protagonists fend off the antagonists by singing. The series has over 20 original songs (not including the OP and ED) and every single one of these was COMPLETELY redone for the Italian version. No subbing over Jp lyrics. No translating and dubbing the lyrics into a different language (as it was done for some other languages). Straight up every single song was recomposed and is 100% original.

And most are better than the Japanese, honestly.

An entire country full of weebs.
Christ.

You won’t pry “ciao sono Lucia e sono una sirena” from my cold dead hands.

Also Cristina D’Avena’s new album “Duets – Tutti Cantano Cristiana” (2017), which contains her best known sigle (anime openings), is an absolute banger.

Here’s a version of this post with some of the original songs.