(I know I keep writing about this franchise, but honestly, I'm really obsessed with it, probably more than any other otome thing, so I always end up wanting to talk about it somewhere! Really, I know nothing about the series because I've only listened to a few of the CDs, played one game and watched the anime, but I don't really care. Anyway, I've been meaning to write this for about two weeks now, but I keep forgetting about doing it! )
Firstly, I'll just talk about the songs in general, then I'm going to list my top five favourites out of the lot. Hopefully, it won't read like a boring, uninspired WatchMojo video transcript. I don't really see much discussion about these songs online, so I wanted to create a little bit of documentation about them. Actually, about a day after I decided to make this post, I found that someone else had already made a post like this. Oops. I suppose you can't be original all the time.
I seem to be filling my posts with a lot of memes lately...
I've always been very interested in character songs. It's just nice to hear what some of my favourite otome/anime boys sound like when they're singing. You don't really expect them to sound that good, but then you listen, finding out that some actual effort was put into them. They're not just simple cover songs, someone actually took the time to compose something original for each character. It would be cool if they made stuff like this in the West. I suppose the closest thing we've got around here is the occasional cringe-filled musical episodes some American TV series have. (*cough* Riverdale *cough*)
Character songs seem to take up quite a huge chunk of the Diabolik Lovers franchise. They must sell well, because they keep making so many of them! They're not really what you would play at a party, of course, since about 99% of them have blood-sucking sounds placed about halfway through. Unless you have friends who are fans, playing these songs with others may result in a bit of awkward judging.
Rejet usually sells each song as a single CD, as well as digitally. Of course, they're only available in Japan, but usually you can find them on Amazon or eBay, sold by third parties. There are also official two-minute previews of each track on YouTube, as well as fan-uploads, which usually don't last long before they get taken down.
There are also compilation CDs of most of the tracks, which are sort of like "greatest hits" albums, I suppose. It's always a lot cheaper to buy these, but I don't think they have as nice cover art as the regular singles. I know, it's about the music, not the art, but I like my CD cases to look nice!
I've managed to group the songs into about three categories, even though there's really no reason to do so, but whatever. (I think I have too much free time...) The first group I like to call "Solo songs", which contains... you guessed it, solo songs. The next I called "Duet songs", which contains tracks that are classified by Rejet under the Versus series, like the drama CDs which give you two characters for the price of one. The final category is just where I put all of the game and anime openings and credits songs. Those are usually sung by more than one character.
The quality of each song is really good. All of the voice actors can actually sing. In general, Japanese seiyuus seem to be able to do more than Western VAs. Usually in Western animation, when a character sings they have to get someone else to do it, because the actor usually isn't trained for it. The only example I can think of right now is with My Little Pony, each character has their own singer as well as a voice actor, except some of the celebrity guests in the theatrical film that I had forgotten about until just now.
I also forgot to mention that they also use the dummy head mic for these songs. Every so often there'll be a break in the music, where the characters will say something or make blood-sucking sounds, but you can hear it right in your ears thanks to the special microphone! 90% of the time I just listen to the songs through regular speakers, but when I have my Earpods in, the songs do sound quite a bit better. Some speakers will still keep the dummy head mic surround-sound effects, but others, like my Google Home Mini, absolutely ruin it and make the voices sound really quiet and far away.
I've mostly been listening to these through YouTube, as I haven't had the chance to purchase an actual CD yet. So far, I haven't really come across any really bad tracks. Some have been forgotten, but there are none that I absolutely hate.
So now, I'm going to begin to discuss my top five favourite songs. It was incredibly difficult to pick favourites out of this lot. I already had an idea of what my number one was, but to decide the others took a lot of time! My most liked songs change quite often, but it doesn't really matter.
To be quite honest with you, I'm not very good at talking about music, but hopefully it looks like I've tried my best. When people talk about why they like a certain song they're like "The lyrics are so deep, they really speak to me, and I love how it talks about (insert heavy subject here)", but when I discuss music I'm just like "I liked the backing track, it sounded so cool, and the lyrics were so catchy!" Most of my favourite songs I like because they sound good, not because of the subject matter or how deep they are. Some tracks I appreciate what the meanings behind the words are, but I'm a bit shallow, so I usually just care about how it sounds.
Some of these Diabolik Lovers songs have really strange lyrics, but since my Japanese skills aren't that good, I don't pick up on any of it unless I look at someone's translation. Most of these songs I've mentioned down below I mainly like because they sound good, but I have made an effort to look at the lyrics for most of them...
Anyway, let's just get into the list, shall we? You can click the name of each song to listen to it on YouTube.
No. 5:
Kowaku no Parade
This song is just so catchy, even though I had no idea what the song was really about until just a few minutes ago. It sounds a bit different to most of the other more rock-sounding character songs, with a more upbeat and fast-paced backing track. Reiji and Kanato's voices go surprisingly well together, too.
My personal favourite part of the song is when Kanato screams "SUBETE GA HOSHIIN DESU YO!" (Attempted translation: "I want everything!") I'm pretty sure that when you listen to that bit with headphones, it sounds like he's shouting right into your ears.
No. 4:
Fanatic of Night
I know that this is an opening for a game I haven't played yet, but I can't remember which one. The run time is about six minutes, which is really long compared to most of what I hear, but for Diabolik Lovers, it's quite normal. This song is sung by all six of the Sakamaki brothers, and it feels like they're in some sort of boy band or something. Each one of them gets an equal amount of lines, I believe.
The lyrics are quite catchy, and I believe that they are addressing Yui/the listener. There are also a few spoken lines and blood-sucking sounds present, using the dummy head mic, of course.
My favourite bit in the song is when out of nowhere, Ayato sings "SLEEP IN MY CAGE!" It makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
No. 3:
Zettai Kando no Ribido
(Please note: I could not find an official upload of this on YouTube, so I had to link an unofficial re-upload. If the link is unavailable, it's probably been taken down.)
I have absolutely no idea what this song is about, but I love it. Shu and Reiji have really pleasant singing voices, so I end up listening to this particular track quite a lot. Something about it feels slightly nostalgic, but I have no idea why.
I don't think there are many spoken lines in this one, in fact, I don't think there are any at all. But it doesn't really matter to me really, because if I wanted that stuff, I would listen to the drama CDs.
Hmm... I don't really know what else to say, other than that this song is a work of art. I haven't written about music before, so it's quite difficult for me.
I literally cannot find any individual cover art for this track, because I think it was just included on a compilation album. Sorry!
No. 2:
Bloody Sabbath
I actually only discovered this song very recently, but it quickly became my all time second favourite DiaLovers song. A few hours ago I looked up the lyrics, and they were a lot more sexual than I had predicted. I don't really know what I expected, this is Laito after all!
Bloody Sabbath is one of those tunes that makes me feel cool when I listen to it. You know, the feeling when you're walking down the road, you have your earphones in, and a really great track comes on and you just feel really awesome, and you walk with a bit more swagger than usual? Yes, it's one of those songs.
This track is probably the best one for dummy head mic action. There are a few bits where Laito speaks to the listener with his lovely voice. Daisuke Hirakawa is such a great actor. I can usually recognise his voice, but he still manages to make all of his characters sound so different.
No. 1:
Q.E.D
This song is just absolutely beautiful! I love it so much, I want to buy it on CD and set it as my ringtone! The only complaint I really have with it is that whenever I listen to it, it always feels like it's a minute long, instead of four. Sometimes I listen to it multiple times in a row, in fact, I've heard it so much that twenty years in the future, I'm probably going to have so much nostalgia for it, if I'm not still bopping to it every day!
But this is my favourite Diabolik Lovers song. I highly doubt that I'll find anything better than this one, because it's absolute perfection. There's not really much more I can say except that Q.E.D is awesome and that you should listen to it!
I thought that I would be biased with this list, and the songs I liked the most would be those of my favourite characters, but it turns out to not be the case. My ears seem to really like Laito's voice, since his songs took up the top two spots. His personality isn't really one that appeals much to me, but I suppose his design and voice acting made me like him a lot more. I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with Laito though. Even if he wasn't really sadistic, I'd still be worried because he seems like the type to cheat on you.
Since there's a lot of other awesome songs I want to mention, here's a "Honourable Mentions" list! I'm going to try not to talk about all of them, even though I very much want to.
Gin no Bara
There's around seven versions of this song, one for each Sakamaki brother, as well as one with all of them together. You cannot actually buy any of them on CD, you can only find them included in Japanese DVDs of the first DiaLovers anime series.
Each version is pretty much the same, except for the character singing, a few of the words, and the spoken lines. My favourite is Subaru's, mainly because he's my favourite character. Reiji's variant is also quite pleasant to listen to. The only one I don't really care for is the one with all of them singing at once, I think they just got each separate version and meshed them all together, so it doesn't sound right. It also for some reason sounds like a choir singing it, since no character has any individual lines or nothing.
Mr. Sadistic Night
The title of this song always makes me laugh. This is the opening to the first series of the anime, and it's so good. When I binged watched the series, it got stuck in my head, as well as the opening for the second season. Why do anime opening songs always have to be so good?
Operation X/S.O.S
I'm just going to lump both of Carla and Shin's songs together, because they both sound quite similar. These songs are very pop-sounding, and extremely catchy. I find myself quoting the lyrics of them every so often when I'm alone.
Ai no Ori
This one very much almost made the list. The main reason why I love this track is because of the opening verse, it sounds so cool! Everything else in the song is quite good, but not as good as that first verse.
Parhelion Logic
This is the ending tune to Haunted Dark Bridal, sung by Ayato. It sounds a lot more serious than his other songs. When I was waiting at the cinema to see Avengers: Endgame, I listened to this on my PSP to drown out the noise of the other screens that were playing the film really loud, just so I didn't get spoiled. So now whenever I hear this song, I think of that one time.
Farewell Song
The first time I listened to this song, it sounded absolutely wonderful on my laptop's speakers. This is such a pretty song, which also would've almost made the list. It's a very long track, but it doesn't seem to drag on.
I'd also like to give a special mention to the instrumental soundtracks of the anime and games. Whoever they got to compose them are all quite talented! But this post is about character songs, not general soundtracks!
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I could talk about DiaLovers music all day, but it's best to conclude this post now, don't you think? I'm actually very unsure as to when the next character songs will be released. Rejet might have announced some, but I maybe just haven't noticed. The only things that are coming out soon are more drama CDs and games, according to the official website. I did see an advert for a music CD there, but it was just for the opening tune of Chaos Lineage. Oh well, even if they never made any more, there's quite a big library of tracks to satisfy me!
If you haven't checked any of these songs out yet, I would quite recommend it. Some people will probably say that these songs are just made to sell the franchise and aren't proper music, but who really cares?
This ends my post for today. I have no idea why I kept forgetting to write this, because I had a lot of fun with this one. If you're tired with Diabolik Lovers stuff, I'm very sorry, but they aren't going away any time soon! I have a drama CD coming in the post, and I'm planning to eventually buy more of the games. Right now is quite a slow period for me and games. All I'm currently playing is mobage, and often I procrastinate reading them each day.
But that's enough of that. I'll see you all again soon, hopefully. I'm seriously scared that Google might shut down Blogger one day. They said that they don't plan to anytime soon, but when did this service last get a proper update? I feel that the platform's days have been numbered for a long time now. Sorry. I should leave now. Goodbye!!
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