Fun Japanese Music for Listening Practice

Glad you like it. This song often cheers me up. Apart from the good vibes the “diction” is rather clear. So, I can follow along.

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same! her songs are fairly easy to follow too, even when she uses more flowery language. あなたに出会わなければ and ポラリス and 六等星の夜 all get me every time :pleading_face:

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Two big strong recs from me:

And also of the many covers of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis (there’s a marching band performance of the music I liked a lot).

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I love The First Take! I’ve discovered a few great things there. Gave me a whole new appreciation of Yaosobi to see her do those vocal gymnastics live. I will check out your other recs!

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Here are some random ones that I’ve either listened to a lot in the past or I’ve been listening to a lot recently.

From the anime Nana.

From the anime GochiUsa (since you liked at least one song that list called “cartoony”, so assuming that means “high pitched” / “moe voices” maybe you’ll like it).

From the original Love Live if you’re willing to risk getting addicted to idol music. :slight_smile:

From the latest Love Live series (meaning it’s a different group if you’re not familiar). Most of their songs are still pretty traditional j-pop, but this one is a bit different and definitely upbeat.

From the anime Symphogear:

Not from an anime for once! (not sure if this one is “upbeat” enough for your request, but I really like a lot of songs by Maiko Fujita and you might like some of her songs even if not this one)

Another not from an anime, though Fripside does do plenty of anime songs. Fripside does have a lot of good songs, though after a while they all start to sound the same.

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So awesome. I can’t wait to check these out. Thank you!

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Koi by Hoshino Gen!

This song always gets stuck in my head, it’s so catchy!

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I love this song! One of my favourites.

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Please listen to his other songs if you haven’t!

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:slight_smile: I like a bunch of his tracks but none as much as this one, I must admit.

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Just listened to Secret Base and really liked it (maybe because it reminds me of Anohana, which I enjoyed a lot); I’ll check out more by these two.

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you know i’ve never got unstuck from this one song, it just sticks. something about the video too, a bit je ne sais quoi. i can’t stop unloving this song. called けどハニカミ.

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Very cute!

was it supposed to be?

I’m usually looking for “acoustic jpop” on youtube and even if all compilations are amazing, this particular song has something that I can’t stop hearing it.

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No idea? But that is the impression it has left on me.

This is very pretty! Thank you.

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Here’s a few of my fav albums if you got Spotify. I’m constantly recognising parts of these songs as I learn more through WK!

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My turn, I guess. There are only two VTubers I follow almost every stream, so I’ll recommend some songs from each. However, one of them produces far more songs, and she’s been trying to cover a lot of genres, so each of her songs has a slightly different feel, and I think there’s a higher chance you’ll find something you like, so I’ll recommend that you take a look at her channel (which, incidentally, has just received ‘artist’ status on YouTube, which should make her music much easier to find). Note: some bits of these songs are in English, but they’re in Japanese for the most part.

First one: Takanashi Kiara
A. Hinotori (original song; the official title is in Latin letters, so I’m not sure exactly what it would be in kanji, but I think it’s 火の鳥=‘fire bird’, literally)

B. Heart Challenger (original song)

C. グッバイ宣言 (cover)

(The original is sung by a vocaloid, if I’m not wrong, but I’ve honestly preferred all the human covers I’ve heard so far.)


The second one: IRyS
A. Caesura of Despair (original song)

B. あかつきと花 (original song; 99% Japanese, the exception being a short voiceover)

C. 心臓が止まるまで (original song; 100% Japanese)

If you’d like a list of her music, there’s this YouTube playlist


Other songs that I’ve heard and liked, knowing that they were fairly ‘big’ at some point, but not necessarily mainstream (yes, still covered by VTubers):

A. KING (cover by Hoshimachi Suisei, whose voice is pretty great, I think)

B. おちゃめ機能 (cover by all 11 current members of Hololive English; the title literally means something like… ‘playful/mischievous faculty/function’, and I’m not sure how to translate it, honestly, because I haven’t learnt or analysed the lyrics yet)

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Sorry if it was already recommended but just in case you absolutely need to try out Zutomayo. Everything they do is gold, at least for me, I rarely find bands like that but this one is amazing !
One of the more recent tunes, but really it’s just the tip of the icerberg :

If anyone has recommendations to bands very similar to them, I’m all ears :slight_smile:

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