More than a little late now I know. I saw all the seasonal anime awards being given out all across the blogosphere, and then noticed that I haven’t posted an anisong for awhile. So I thought hey, why not :)
Personally I thought fall had been a season of really good music. A decent number of OP’s and ED’s captured me quickly and sufficiently so that I sat through them every week instead of skipping them. On top of that a couple of insert songs too were surprisingly good. There was plenty of competition for my favorite track of the season, but in the end I chose Only my Railgun for its upbeat and ringing sounds, its really great tune-lyric synchrony, and its simple, sheer electricity.
I suspect I’m gonna need a good bit of that electricity to survive the coming semester :(
Anyway, here it is. I make an exception to my ‘only post soothing, background-music-ish tunes’ rule to give you the Anisong of the Season. In case you don’t actually know, Only my Railgun is the OP to To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Because the TV-size version of this song just isn’t awesome enough, I have posted the full-length version :)
Hit the jump for pic, lyrics and translations. Then hit F8 to play the song. Enjoy :)
Lyrics
Hanate!
Kokoro ni kizanda yume o mirai sae okizari ni shite
Genkai nado shiranai imi nai
Kono chikara ga hikari chirasu sono saki ni haruka na omoi oAruite kita kono michi o furikaeru koto shika
Dekinai nara ima koko de subete o kowaseruKurayami ni ochiru machinami hito wa doko made tachimukaeru no
Kasoku suru sono itami kara dareka o kitto mamoreru yoLooking!
The blitz loop this planet to search way.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it. ima sugu
Karadajuu o hikari no hayasa de
Kakemegutta tashika na yokanTsukame!
Nozomu mono nara nokosazu kagayakeru jibun rashisa de
Shinjiteru yo ano hi no chikai o
Kono hitomi ni hikaru namida sore sae mo tsuyosa ni naru karaTachidomaru to sukoshi dake kanjiru setsunasa ni
Tomadou koto nai nante uso wa tsukanai yoSora ni mau koin ga egaku houbutsusen ga kimeru unmei
Uchidashita kotae ga kyou mo watashi no mune o kakemeguruSparkling!
The shining lights awake true desire.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it. kanarazu
Tsuranuiteku tomadou koto naku
Kizutsuite mo hashiritsuzukeruNerae!
Rin to kirameku shisen wa kuruinaku yami o kirisaku
Mayoi nante fukitobaseba ii
Kono kokoro ga sakebu kagiri dare hitori jama nado sasenaiHakanaku mau musuu no negai wa
Kono ryoute ni tsumotte yuku
Kirisaku yami ni miete kuru no wa
Omoku fukaku setsunai kiokuIroaseteku genjitsu ni yureru
Zetsubou ni wa maketaku nai
Watashi ga ima watashi de aru koto
Mune o hatte subete hokoreruLooking!
The blitz loop this planet to search way.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it. ima sugu
Karadajuu o hikari no hayasa de
Kakemegutta tashika na yokanHanate!
kokoro ni kizanda yume o mirai sae okizari ni shite
Genkai nado shiranai imi nai
Kono chikara ga hikari chirasu sono saki ni haruka na omoi o
Translations
Release it!
The dream engraved in your heart, leave even the future behind!
It knows no limits, they have no meaning
This power blazes with light, and I lay my distant dreams before itThis path that I had walked, if looking back on it
is all I can do, here and now I will take everything downOn a street falling into darkness, how far can people stand and face it?
Surely, you can protect someone from that accelerating sufferingLooking!
The blitz loop this planet to search way.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it. Right now.
Within my body, at the speed of light
A certain premonition runsTake it!
If it is something you desire, don’t leave it. Shine as yourself.
I believe in the vow made on that day
Even the shining tears in these eyes, they become my strengthI won’t lie that I’ve never been confused
By the fainlty felt pain of standing still.Dancing through the air, the coin traces a parabola that decides my fate
Today as always the answer it yields rushes within my chestSparkling!
The shining lights awaken true desire.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it without fail.
I continue through; I’m not lost.
Even when I’m hurt, I keep on running.Aim!
My cold, glittering gaze cuts the unchaotic darkness.
Hesitation, I’ll just blast it away
My heart shouts as loudly as it can. I won’t let anyone get in my way.Fluttering fleetingly, these countless wishes
Gather upon these arms
What I came to see in the shredded darkness
is heavy, deep, painful memories.I tremble in the faded reality.
I don’t want to be defeated by despair.
I will stand tall for the fact that I am here now as myself
I take pride in it all!Looking!
The blitz loop this planet to search way.
Only my RAILGUN can shoot it. Right now.
Within my body, at the speed of light
A certain premonition runsRelease it!
The dream engraved in your heart, leave even the future behind!
It knows no limits, they have no meaning
This power blazes with light, and I lay my distant dreams before it
Whew! That was longer and tougher than I expected :) I know some of the engrish parts make no sense. It’s pretty hard to tell what exactly is being sung there, so I just took the transcription I saw most often.
Lyrics from Gendou’s Anime Music.
Translation by me referencing Gendou’s Anime Music and subs by Ayako and Mazui.
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dai1313
yea, second semester has been eating away at my soul too. If I don’t find some way to refresh my HP soon, I might loose the will to battle…
Actually, I liked the index OPs beter than the railgun OPs. It’s still all kickass though.
Btw, have you heard railgun OP2 yet?
Jason "moofang"
Eh? I haven’t. I don’t think it’s out in the latest eps yet is it?
Haha, anyway all the best to you for school too! Fight-o! We are stronger than we think we are! Release the dream engraved in your heart!
*rattles on semi-intelligibly after being influenced by the song*
azw
Haha. Yeah. For once we see eye to eye. Btw, ur borrogu looks great now! Love the new one compared with the old. Guess the server crashing was a blessing in disguise. :P
Jason "moofang"
No shit. ‘For once’ is the keyword here :) And thanks about the ‘borrogu’. I was kind of fond of the old blog-look actually, but maybe it’s just sentimental or something.
And the server didn’t crash, I was just mercilessly purged from it :(
Dustin
Good job with the translation! I must admit I’m not sure how I feel about the JC Staff OP’s. I guess this opening feels just like the Shana OP and Index OP and thus it is hard for me to give it a fair assessment as I feel like I’ve heard it before. I like some of the animation in it, but… well I’ve already said all there is to say :p.
I bet it was really hard to do the translating though so good job.
Keiri
Both the new OP and ED for Railgun are out on video sharing sites. Just search for “Judgelight” and “Real Force Elisa” in NicoNico or Youtube. They’re only snippets/TV version length though. The full versions may be streamed online some time in the near future.
And yes, “only my railgun” is WIN. The song itself isn’t very original as far as fripSide’s style of music is concerned, but nonetheless, it IS addictive. :)
Jason "moofang"
@ Dustin: Eh? Lol I should probably clarify here that I don’t usually do a direct translation – for most songs that’s still too hard for my meager moonspeak capabilities. I usually take an existing translation as reference and compare it with the Japanese lyrics line by line. The thing is that I find most available translations out there inadequate – most of them aren’t really thoughtful with their word choices and tend to skim over details and are sometimes not-so-accurate. So I end up almost completely rewriting them. I don’t know how much better mine actually are, but they are at least a version I could personally like :) I suppose it’s also a sort of practice for my moonspeaking.
I cannot remember Index’s OP, but I know that at least Shana (S1)’s OP didn’t do anything for me. Somehow Only my Railgun is able to stir my blood. And I think it complements Dear My Friend, the ED, in a way few other OP’s complement their ED’s to bring out the overall feel of the series. Sorry you didn’t really like it though.
@ Keiri: Oh? Cool thanks for the heads up! And yeah, I’m not sure if I can lay my finger on exactly why, but Only my Railgun has really been dominating my playlist last season. Come to think of it, just like how Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (Bakemonogatari) did the season before. Wonder what do we have in store for us for winter…