Let's post some of the worst anime songs we can remember of all time! Ranking is optional. We can comment on each others' terrible songs and broaden our lists, too.
Choose however you want, but I recommend including the following criteria:
how terrible the song sounds on its own musically
if the song is played too loud in the show
if the song is too different from other songs in the show
song is played too often and difficult to skip
With those criteria, anime openings are prime candidates (especially 2nd, 3rd openings, etc) as they often have different composers, and are difficult to skip when they don't play at the very beginning of each episode. Anime bgm and endings work, too. English dub alternate soundtracks of anime are allowed, and extending from that I think cartoons produced in any country are okay.
I think video game music should be excluded, unless maybe the game is really cartoonish, like hentai games. Part of the reason is that the way you play video games is different: the kind of songs that might be too loud and overused would occur at different situations. (A separate thread might be better if someone wants to post those).
Explanations of why some songs are bad might be helpful, and optionally multiple links (anime opening version, full version). For now, this is my incomplete list that I can think of:
Since there was a lot of this song in anime medleys maybe other people like it, but to me this is the legendary song of death that inspired this thread. It's neither particularly bad nor loud, yet it's played much too loud in the show and it doesn't match the rest of the music. I have to rush to turn down the volume every time it pops up.
Probably doesn't deserve to be this high, it's just the song I first heard recently that prompted the birth of this thread. Most of the other very many Gundam Seed and Destiny opening and ending songs are great, so when this came up it was a shocker. I'm also compelled to watch every time to see Cagalli.
#3
Can't forget about this one.
#4
Randomly remembered this, too. Now that I listen, sounds similar to the song above. Probably same artist.
#5 through #9 Too lazy to look up, can probably fill with Ali Project songs. I can generally survive their stuff, just sounds weird and tends to match poorly with show bgms.
I actually consider this an above average opening song. It's just not as good as the other Rayearth openings. It sounds different and shocking.
There seems to be a pattern in the songs I've selected, but it's hard to describe what it is. A certain kind of yelling female in songs of specific styles. Strange that there are no guy songs in my terrible list, considering I generally much prefer female singers. I also very much like some other types of songs with female singing styles that I consider to be close to yelling.
very rare. they are almost always 89 seconds long so just skip 89 seconds ahead. so are the ending themes.
QUOTE(BlueWaterSplash @ Nov 12 2024, 18:00)
fate op
that's, uhhh, a lot worse than I remember it to be. I guess I only listen to the medley version and forgot how the full song was like. though, it's old music so I can cut it some slack.
QUOTE(BlueWaterSplash @ Nov 12 2024, 18:00)
There seems to be a pattern in the songs I've selected, but it's hard to describe what it is.
bad belting technique makes shit sound force and unnatural. good belting makes you nut in your pants. speaking of good singing technique, it's mariah carey season.
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I listen to a lot of music and even though I extremely rarely rate anything very high, I also rarely rate anything in the "just fucking kill me, before I murder you" zone. That said, I do have a few songs in this category. Songs that make me think if it's worth my time looking them up to post the links here. But here they are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPU5bvFzZs Absolute dogshit in all aspects. Generic d'n'b beat with no creativity, repetitive rhythm that is literally copy pasted throughout the whole song. Generic production that sounds like 2 million other songs. Dog melody that has zero hooks. Retarded shit trap drop in verse 2 because that's what everyone does. Worst anime song I have ever listened to. 0/10, go back to the slave camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuRNbKRVV-Y Anything with this childish obnoxious composition style and singing voice. Fuck off to the edge of the universe. Unfortunately, this style seems to be popular with the kids because it's literal kid music. All songs by kafu or any similar vocal style also go into this bin. A few kafu songs are really good, but that squeaky vocal is an instant 8/10 point deduction on my scale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDV0w9uB1c4 Shitty cringe boy band music. I'm not a hater of boy band music, hell, I like a lot of them. But generic cringe ass boy band music? The door's over there. K-pop essence is difficult to capture.
A bit off topic since they are technically not anime music but still weeb music, and this concerns the lyrics and not the composition or performance or production. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olWvy0PiLfA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq8r1ZTma08 I loathe these pretentious songs. Yes everyone's life sucks, boo fucking hoo. Read the youtube comments to get your daily dose of brainrot.
This post has been edited by Ass Spanker: Nov 14 2024, 15:00
Yuck hehe. I think I could probably ignore most of those songs on their own, although I might get annoyed if I were forced to see them in the show. There are too many animes so songs these days sound uninteresting and I tend to forget them.
Assuming this is the intro animation, yeah being forced to listen to this could get pretty annoying. Song feels loud and too fast, while clips of the rest of the show look good. Ruining a good show would be a hallmark of a terrible opening.
Especially when looking at the visuals, I wonder if Carpe Diem is trying to copy Vanilla Salt. (note to others that we shouldn't consider visuals when finding terrible songs though)
One Room Adventure reminded me of this song from anime that I watched on blu-ray last year. Internet says no relation; except the composer of the second song did the BGM for the first anime.
I don't like most western singers no matter how skillful their singing technique is, including mariah carey. Her normal voice is too low and husky for me. I hate husky voice.
I would rather listen to this than mariah carey. (Danger: This contains some of the worst singing I have ever heard in my life)
That's a good song, although the real version seems to have bad audio quality and I don't like the singers, either. I like a lot of fan sung versions better; this is the best one I found so far.
I really like R.O.N but his music, especially under the SDF unit name, is very hit or miss. I hated this song so much that I ignored anything by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION for a decade straight, until last year when I learned R.O.N and SDF are the same guy. Man's got fireproduction for most of his songs.
This post has been edited by Ass Spanker: Nov 18 2024, 21:47
Many anime have music not to my taste. Not sure you'd say the music is bad, like Bleach, Eureka 7, Samurai Champloo, But the anime that stands out for having consistently the worst music is Lovely Complex.
At first I thought this was the least horrible Overlord song, but after a few listens it drove me crazy. I get that same feeling of it being played too loud in the show. I always turn off volume normalizer on principle. I don't trust sound quality with it on, plus it might not always fix my perceived loudness issues with these particular songs.
I noticed that, in retrospect, my worst songs #1 and #2 might sound very similar to each other. Also maybe this #9 song is similar, too. I can't really tell.
Watching Overlord now. All the openings and endings are terrible. Most of them I can ignore as just noisy noises.
Preach. I hate most OxT and MYTH & ROID songs with a passion. Which is unfortunate since the 3 people (or 4 I guess) involved in these units make some good music when solo. The deliberately autotuned to pitchy vocal sounds very obnoxious and ear piercing.
Music so highly subjective, this one of the few anime track I can tolerate because they get closer to Diablo Swing Orchestra. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
But the topic was about which ones are the worst? Well I totally hated Lv2 Cheat opening to the point of silencing it all the times, extremely obnoxious o me.
It's one of the better songs of the season, production-wise lol. I can get why you don't like the vocal style. It's the cringe cute kind of songs.
Ouch, well, no wonder the good times of Ghost in the Shell SAC soundtrack are buried and gone. I remain curious if it's an industry issue or a matter of consumers' taste, honestly. To my understanding this kind of production is bound to the "idol" stuff, that's know to produce lots of 'pop' stuff.
Ouch, well, no wonder the good times of Ghost in the Shell SAC soundtrack are buried and gone. I remain curious if it's an industry issue or a matter of consumers' taste, honestly. To my understanding this kind of production is bound to the "idol" stuff, that's know to produce lots of 'pop' stuff.
No, this kind of dated idol cutesy cringe music is very rare these days. The most popular shit is the tiktok kind of music with a hook that lasts for 3-5 seconds and that's it.
This post has been edited by Ass Spanker: Jan 16 2025, 14:22
Well I totally hated Lv2 Cheat opening to the point of silencing it all the times, extremely obnoxious to me.
To me that song is above average since I'm good at failing to recognize human speech, and tolerant of repeated words. The tune is decent enough for me to remember and I might even be able to remember the name as the "love love, love song."
Her boobs are beyond the maximum acceptable size for me, though. Also because of the way she moves her arms I can see that she is unable to block any incoming attacks, as her short arms can barely get around her chest.
Wait, this singer is Rie Kugimiya?! Why so big boob this character oh no.
I wonder what you think about this song? Hehehe. It's a classic and one of the very few import CD singles I bought in the 90's (back then it was difficult to find and purchase non-pirated Japanese media, I don't recall how I obtained it).
Her boobs are beyond the maximum acceptable size for me, though. Also because of the way she moves her arms I can see that she is unable to block any incoming attacks, as her short arms can barely get around her chest.
Well, I only speak because I did read the manga first, and then enjoyed the anime after: she's just one of those demon character that posses a "human form" for the sake of fanservice alone. I guess anything could go there as an opening theme, the whole story is not serious, buncing between some reasonable "slice of life" plot and extremely overpowered characters fighting.
QUOTE(BlueWaterSplash @ Jan 16 2025, 23:32)
I wonder what you think about this song? Hehehe. It's a classic and one of the very few import CD singles I bought in the 90's (back then it was difficult to find and purchase non-pirated Japanese media, I don't recall how I obtained it).
This quite boring but at least not "annoying", it features the classical "end of '80- half '90" era, good as a filler but rarely memorable... unless you exactly into it, of course (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)
Sadly at the time my only source of anime (TV) had the policy to re-theme or at least translate ALL the songs and content into the local language. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) I could post some of those here, even though the language barrier might dampen the embarrassing content.
Just more songs I like from prior singer, because these 90's ova series are convoluted so I always mix these up and can't find where they come from. I doubt anyone can hate these songs but who knows.
Now that I look these above songs up, I realize for the first time that some of these (Pretty Sammy songs) share composers. Not only that, but some songs share composers with (Alielle) songs from a different show that I'd been listening to recently, as well. I was watching the blu-ray and Pretty Sammy is even invaded into the other unrelated series' episodes, so I guess maybe they are from same studio or something.
I know not the difference between AI and Vocaloid singers, but since AI can plagiarize compose actual songs now and are getting sued for it, maybe chaos lies in our future.
QUOTE(BlueWaterSplash @ songs and bgm from foreign dubs are fine)
English dub alternate soundtracks of anime are allowed, and extending from that I think cartoons produced in any country are okay.
The scarier the better, let's see what monstrosities exist out there.
Despite never having heard of this show before, listening now, to me this is actually an A-Rank song (something worthy for me to look for and download to my hard drive). Parts of it also reminded me of something and triggered a memory search.
Wasn't able to immediately think of it, but had the following ideas somehow:
song is on my hard drive
have not listened to it for a long time, over 10 years
song is not necessarily older than above requirement
I didn't have to search my hard drive because I have a decent memory of what's in it. Some thinking and staring into space caused me to look up the following:
#100
Although not annoying to me, this is kind of a bad song. It sounds all weird and dissonant. Brief sections of it remind me of Gremlins music. The reason this is on my hard drive is that I like this other song. I can now tell these two songs have the same composer and singer. Internet check confirms.
Those weren't the similar song, not even close, so I tried these next. Another miss. Nice songs though. Visuals remind me of this and this from anime medley. Wait someone said this song is in English.
Although now that I listen, I'm not sure this is similar at all to Caramel Jam. Maybe the melody is slightly similar? Key or (exact) bpm match have triggered my sensor in the past so I checked bpm, 143 vs 148, not enough of a match to mean anything.
I guess my initial impression that I didn't like Yoasobi held up; now one made my bottom list. This was the first anime I saw that used a Yoasobi song though I'm sure there will be more later. Doesn't help that the opening animation isn't that good; they should have used the Yoasobi music video as the intro instead.
The original 90's opening songs were kinda wonky too. For me they didn't quite make the bottom 100. Perhaps I should reconsider that...
Singer is too out of tune for me. Last time I listened to this was in the 90's. Now that I've heard more songs, this might have some similarities to my #1 and #2 worst songs here?
Most terrible and annoying anime music, post and rank horrible songs
Nov 12 2024, 12:00
