◯「トップコート20thスターオーディション」でwith賞を受賞し芸能界デビュー。ラジオ番組『MUSIClock with THE FIRST TIMES』(interfm、毎週月〜木曜 7:00〜8:50)でメインDJを務め、雑誌『with』の専属モデルとしても活動するなど、多方面にわたって活躍中。1st写真集『Cantabile』(ワニブックス)が発売中。
Hi there! I was looking through certain episode title cards and was wondering: If the Vocal Android AU had a theme song, what would it be?
I got way too excited seeing this question haha
Well, I'm going to be honest and say I'm a weeb that likes the "multiple theme songs" formula of animes, so I'll give you a couple, no particular order:
Openings:
"MusiClock" by lumo
"Redial" by kz
"Catch the Wave" by kz
"Highlight" by KIRA
"Brand New Day" by irucaice
"Colorful Tag Team" by halyosy
Endings:
"Sound" by baker
"Far Away" by kz
"Sorry for Being an Ordinary Magical Girl." by Mikito-P
As soon as I saw this headline, I wondered if it would mention BBC’s Moriarty, and so it does:
Moriarty does not steal because he needs the cash.... What drives [him] is an innate hunger to consume and conquer, an insatiable greed that exists outside the acceptable bounds of even the most cutthroat capitalist society. Power is the goal, and money is only the means. But such ravenous ambition must be hidden under a respectable mask—a mask provided by classical music.
Overall, the essay makes a pretty compelling argument tracing the source of this undeniably common trope, and the reason why it resonates with audiences. Put briefly, we suspect that wealthy and sophisticated elites are eating away at our society -- that “the shiny trappings of high society—galas, gowns, orchestras—exist to disguise the brutal source of its wealth.”
But I did wonder if Moriarty fits very well into his argument, or if he might be a bit of an outlier. Two things immediately stand out to me:
1) Within BBC-verse, Moriarty isn’t alone in his love of classical music. The whole context of the Sherlock/Jim tea scene is that the hero and the villain *share* this interest. In that case, can the message really be, “classical music is evil”? I’d say rather that it’s meant to emphasize how much Sherlock and Jim have in common -- they see the world in largely the same terms, but one of them works toward justice and the other works toward chaos. If anything, the point is how modest the difference is between those two outcomes.
But then, it’s fair to point out that Sherlock isn’t a typical hero. Especially in the earlier series, there’s meant to be something a bit terrifying about his single-mindedness, his emotional remove, his attitude of amorality, etc. So maybe that actually supports this author’s argument that classical music is connected in the popular imagination with antisocial tendencies.
So, on to my second observation:
2) This Moriarty isn’t just into classical music -- he also loves soul, rock, and even disco. I wonder how that complicates the author’s argument. Is Moriarty really the representative of elitist sophistication, if he also has a Bee Gees ring tone? But then, what *are* we to make of Moriarty?
Maybe we’re meant to read something a little untrustworthy and even dangerous in Moriarty’s eclectic tastes: maybe a “normal” person would choose a team -- pop, rock, classical -- and stay there. It does seem to play into Moriarty’s anarchic, chaotic nature that he takes pleasure in every musical genre.
That, also, is another way that he gives us a window into the person Sherlock *could* be. Sherlock keeps himself tightly under control -- he sedately plays his violin to express his roiling emotions, but we know that he secretly yearns to dance, if only he could find an excuse for it. (Moriarty needs no excuse.)
So in that sense, Moriarty’s musical tastes could be both a bit sinister and also a symbol of liberation.
I guess, while I agree that the show is indulging in a well-worn trope by setting Moriarty’s heist to The Theiving Magpie, I do think there is a bit more going on than the standard “aesthetic sophistication = evil” cliche. Or am I just reading into it because I love Sherlock?
210627 | Yuta’s comment will appear on InterFM897 「MUSIClock」 from June 28th to July 1st. Yuta’s appearance will be from 8:00AM JST/KST in Today's Morning K-POP section.
How about a playlist of songs that would describe the VA verse as perfectly as possible? Idk I thought it'd be a cool and interesting challenge to see you try lol (yEET this is prolly too speceific for u XP)
Psh, who do you think you're talking to? Easy!
"Let's Play With Hatsune Miku!!" by cosMo feat. Hatsune Miku
"Mikunologie" by X-Plorez feat. Hatsune Miku
"Unfragment" by Hanasoumen feat. Hatsune Miku
"MusiClock" by lumo feat. Hatsune Miku
"Music Like Magic!" by OSTER Project feat. Hatsune Miku
"Sorry for Being an Ordinary Magical Girl" by Mikito feat. Hatsune Miku Append
"Nice to Meet You, Mr. Earthling!" by Pinocchio-P feat. Hatsune Miku
"Lucky☆Orb" by emon feat. Hatsune Miku
I have more but here's a good selection. Since Vocal Android is a high-energy, toony series, I tend to associate it with high-energy, toony music (with a few serious songs to balance it out). Hope you enjoy!