Hello. Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Happy holidays to everyone out there. Hope you and your families are safe and doing your best to enjoy the holidays during these crazy times. It’s no secret that 2020 has been a disastrous year for everyone. The world as we knew it seemed to have come to a screeching halt because of this pandemic and many people were forced into self-quarantine. During self-quarantine I found myself listening to music and playing games to pass the time when all of a sudden I came across a song called Literary Nonsense, a song that I had never heard before but decided to check it out. What I discovered, was a very cool song that I really enjoyed. The lyrics were great, the animation for the song was well done and matched up with the perfectly, but the best part of all was the singer a man who went by the name of Eve. Once I heard this song I became interested in his work and wanted to see if he did any other songs. Thus began my journey down into the rabbit hole of Eve.
So, a little backstory about Eve. Eve is a Japanese singer and songwriter. He made his debut on Niconico as an indie guy. He made a name for himself as a Vocaloid producer before branching out and doing his own thing. Around 2016 he began making his own songs and music, the first being Demon Dance Tokyo which was a very good song and really stood out with the hand-drawn animation and meaningful lyrics (song here: https://youtu.be/BLgqyQMjd5s). Apparently, everyone else seemed to love it as well as the video has almost 16 million views on Youtube and only 1,000 dislikes. That’s pretty impressive for a video. After this, there was Sister which was a very sad song about a boy losing his sister and him learning to accept it and move on. Once again the lyrics, the animation, and symbolism are on point here and woven together perfectly. If you’ve ever lost someone close to you in your life, this song will definitely speak to you. Eve would continue to put out hit songs that everyone loved but he really made his mark with Dramaturgy (song here: https://youtu.be/jJzw1h5CR-I). When I first heard this song it blew my mind and if I wasn’t a fan of Eve before this song then I was now. From there, Eve would continue to release hit song after hit song both on Youtube and Niconico. Even releasing a few albums which actually ranked in the top 50 on Japan’s album charts. As the years went by Eve kept getting more recognition until his music was eventually featured in anime such as Dororo where he sang the second ending (song here: https://youtu.be/O8vi_D89weo) and currently he sang the opening for Jujustu Kaisen which is hands down the best opening from the fall season which gets more addicting to listen to every time I hear it (song here: https://youtu.be/1tk1pqwrOys).
If you haven’t figured it out by now, Eve’s songs are amazing and I highly recommend checking this guy out. He has a Youtube page where all of his songs have been uploaded and have English captions for you to see, so that handles the language barrier. But what I want to figure out is what makes his songs so good? What makes him stand out from other singers and bands I’ve listened to in the past? Out of all the Japanese singers and bands I’ve listened to, none have taken me like Eve has and I want to figure out why. Well after spending hours listening to his songs I think I’ve figured out the three key reasons as to why his songs are so good and stand out so much.
First off, passion, deep meaning, and love what he is doing can be felt in his songs. It’s hard to describe but you can just feel this sense of passion in his songs. He really does seem to know what he’s singing about in his songs and the way he describes them is both beautiful and symbolic. You can tell he took the time and hard work to think about the song he was working on and wanted to make it a success. Like he’s not writing a song just to write a song, he’s writing a song because this is how he really feels and thinks about something that he himself has either experienced or seen in his life. Hell, there will be times where he’ll make callbacks to his other songs in one song saying that if you like this song then check out this song I did. Stuff like that is clever and shows us how his songs have some kind of narrative to them or are in some way connected to each other.
Second, cool animation. A lot of the animation used in Eve’s videos are all hand-drawn animation and works well in hand with Eve’s songs. Hand-drawn animation takes a lot of time and effort to make and this matches up wonderfully with Eve’s songs because he puts a lot of time and effort into making them. In an interview, Eve said that working on the opening for Jujustu Kaisen was an emotional rollercoaster for him. Not because the studio was stressing him out but because he really wanted to make this song a success. Eve grew up reading Shonen Jump and is actually a fan of Jujustu Kaisen, so he was determined to get this song right. He knew in his heart that this song had to match up well with the anime’s story, themes, and ideas if people were going to get interested in this anime and he succeeded. That kind of dedication and effort into one song is amazing and something I respect greatly. Like I said before, the hand-drawn animation compliments Eve’s song wonderfully. While some of them do have a minimalistic style, it works wonderfully in Eve’s song and adds a picture to the story that Eve is singing about. While he has had a few songs with big budgets such as “We’re Still Underground” which was actually animated by Wit Studios and looked amazing that I feel like it make a great movie or anime (song here: https://youtu.be/nBteO-bU78Y. Actually, now that think about it, all of Eve’s videos would work out wonderfully as a short movie or anime/OVA, they’re that creative) I actually prefer the songs that have that minimalistic hand-drawn work put into it. There’s this hint of darkness and other worldly-ness to them that just makes them interesting to go back and watch.
Finally, fan theories. One of the things I enjoy the most about Eve’s videos is scrolling through the comment sections and listening to all the various interpretations everyone has about them and matching them up with my own. It’s cool to see what everyone has to say, see what they got out of the song, and how it matches up to what I got from the song. There are times when fans get the same interpretation, but on other times I actually see people go into full blown debates about what this particular song is about and I love it.
So those are the reasons I think Eve’s songs pulled me in more than previous singers and bands. Now you’re probably wondering what’s a good song to start with. Well if I’m being honest, I think any song from Eve is a good starting point to get you into Eve’s other songs, but if I had to give my recommendations I think you should check out: LEO (song here: https://youtu.be/J3K3V36mlLM), How To Eat Life (song here: https://youtu.be/U7L-3VXAkSA), Dramatugy, We’re Still Underground, raison d’etre (song here: https://youtu.be/ulfY8WQE_HE), The Secret About That Girl (song here: https://youtu.be/sgdPlDG1-8k) and my personal favorite, Last Dance (song here: https://youtu.be/CLdeykXCZX4). All of these songs and more are sure to get you hooked on Eve. When you get a chance definitely check out his channel. He’s worked hard and really deserves all the recognition and respect in the world (channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUXfRsEIJ9xO1DT7TbEWksw).
Well that’ll do it for this Otaku Mind. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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