Shiina Ringo + PUFFY collaboration!
 

From mimu-net.net:

It says that on February 25th, PUFFY is releasing a new single called "Hiyori Hime", and the music/lyrics will be composed by our Ringo. It will be the opening to an anime called "Genji Monogatari Sennenki Genji", whose broadcast will start on January.

I think Ringo found a way to have lasting music career even when she isn't the star. She's like Burt Bacharach. :lol:

The single will sit next to my Rie Tomosaka and Tokio singles.

Isn't this great news? Puffy are one of the few good Japanese artists, I heard.

Yes, it's a great piece of news. I love PUFFY so I'll love this single especially :). If I liked Amagasa/Kachuu no Otoko by a boyband I used to hate...

wow, that's... kinda awesome...

ringo recently really chooses musicians and bands, I totally can relate to and liked way before that. I'm so looking forward to it!

Except the Tokio composition sounds too much like Killer Tune, while everything Shiina Ringo composed for Tomosaka Rie sounded a lot more original in comparison. Back then everything she involved herself with was more original on average. We didn't have compilation/arranged albums of material we had already heard from her before, remasters (except for Koufukuron), and Superstar v3.0 (more commonly known as "Shiseikatsu").

At this time of Shiina Ringo's career, I'm not optimistic about this single. The fact that it's being featured as an anime intro, makes me all-the-more cynical about it. It's not that I look down on anime just for being anime, but let's face it - not every anime project breaks the mold like Cowboy Bebop did, by featuring one great musician for the overall soundtrack, while the guest musicians get casually sprinkled throughout the middle, rather than rubbed in your face.

When an anime gets so long that it has to be broken up into seasons, and the opening/closing compositions have no connection to the other music between while producers cycle through one (usually overrated) musician after another... I can't take that kind of 'art' seriously - neither the music nor the anime. It wreaks of manufacturing and milking.

It's not an accomplishment that pe'zmoku recently got featured on Bleach, when the number one reason is because their vocals are just as annoying as all the other bands who have been included in that series.

That's what I'm afraid of about this PUFFY single. That it's being featured in an anime intro with no connection to the rest of the music because it somehow "fits the profile" of what the anime producers think the anime fans want to hear. The emphasis is on the music being acceptable more than the music actually being good.

Sorry to shit all over everyone's parade. You heard the gloomy forecast here first.

GENJI MONOGATARI ANIME!?

Its going to be Rurouni Kenshin all over again. except no Bonnie Pink and Judy and Mary this time.

I doesnt really bother me that the song has no connection to the content of the show, "Shuraba" was like that too. Strange song for a samurai drama.

She's doing it for the $$$, bless her soul.

Oh my, great news :o
Thanks Orenji!

And I think you are wrong Glath. Just because it will be used in a anime, doesn't mean it will have to stick to "anime standards". "Paranoid Android" was used as Ergo Proxy's ED. BôA's "Duvet" was used as Lain OP. Katteni Shiyagare's "Auver Blues" was used as Kemonozume OP. Are those bad songs? Or songs that could be better if they didn't have the "for anime" limitation?
Bleach and Naruto only represent one of the most popular genres, shounen. That doesn't mean all music used in animes is bad. Also, Tale of Genji will air on the Noitamina time-slot, which has featured some of the best anime series from the past 3 or 4 years, all of them with great OPs/EDs. And they are all for mature audiences, as well. And with only 11 episodes, I doubt Tale of Genji will have more than one OP and ED.

Let's just hope this colab merges the best from each artist :)

Sweet. Puffy is always fun to listen to, so this should be nice. ;)