Probably no real surprise that I listen to J-pop and J-rock 'cause that's one part of my weeb stage I haven't broke because the music's actually not all that bad. But more often than not, I prefer listening to soundtracks to my favorite (or even not-so-favorite) anime. I also still have a soft spot for character image songs since listening to the Digimon soundtrack in high school kept me further motivated for two years of Japanese. Singing the songs are honestly the only times I ever "speak" Japanese anymore.
About a couple of years ago, though, I found myself looking up Japanese covers (or versions, anyway) of English songs 'cause I was just curious as to how it was done to reach a wider foreign audience. It's quite fascinating given Western music has a different tone to Eastern music (and the songs are
written as such), so though it sounds a little weird, I'm honestly impressed they can make it work. Currently, after a good few years of knowing about it but never coming across it 'til now, I'm listening to the original Japanese cast of
Phantom of the Opera. It's really surreal, but I love it.
Partially because as a Mewtwo fan I'm listening to it for Masachika Ichimura (who is just
heavenly as the Phantom, it's so hard for me to
not fangirl over it), but Ryoko Nomura as Christine is great. She's, dare I say, better than Sarah Brightman. There's other language recordings of
PotO, but I haven't taken a listen to them yet. "Prima Donna" and "Il Muto" are fun to listen to in general, and hearing them in another language is pretty whimsical.
Have the playlist if you wanna take a further listen. It's sadly not as complete as the London recording, but I don't know if the official album's like that.
