Seiyuu Music Spotlight – Itou Kanae

Arbitrarily chosen for my satisfaction.

It’s time to stop fooling around and impose my will upon you all. Today, you will witness a massive music post whose likes you’ve never seen before. Get ready, for I’ve prepared eighteen albums for everyone, all with a common feature: Itou Kanae. If you come to Metanorn to get music, then today is your lucky day!

As you probably know if you’ve ever talked to me like, once, I am a rabid fan of Itou Kanae. She’s been popping up here and there in a variety of series since 2007, she received the Best New Actress award at the Annual Seiyuu Awards in 2010 alongside her friend Toyosaki Aki, and, most importantly, she is around my age. Most of you should at least be familiar with her voice if not her name by now, as she played roles such as Saten Ruiko in Railgun, Elsie in Kaminomi, and most famously Amu in Shugo Chara. However, it’s not her acting that I go crazy over, it’s her singing. Her singing voice is simply remarkable. Since she never uses vibrato, I would guess that she wasn’t trained from a young age, but the character of her voice has a unique pull to it. In my opinion, the most attractive part of her singing is how it never sounds forced. She makes singing sound like the most natural thing in the world.

I’ve gone through and compiled almost every album featuring Itou Kanae that I could get a hold of. I excluded some group albums like the Kaminomi and Mayoi Neko Overrun EDs, as well as drama CDs that don’t include music. What remains is a glorious anthology of ED singles, character song albums, and drama CDs: over two hours of Itou Kanae.

Shugo Chara!! Character Song Collection

Artists: Itou Kanae, Toyosaki Aki, Asumi Kana, Katou Nanae, Mizuki Nana, Kugimiya Rie, Takagi Reiko, Yahagi Sayuri, Nakamura Tomoko, Chiba Saeko, Nakamura Yuuichi

Tracklists:

Shugo Chara!! Character Song Collection
1. Niji iro Chara Change!
2. Meikyuu Butterfly
3. Happy Xmas
4. Ii Koto Arisou
5. Kimi no Birthday
6. Blue Moon
7. BLACK DIAMOND
8. Saikyou LOVE POWER
9. Heartful Song
10. Yume no Tsubomi

Shugo Chara!! Character Song Collection 2
1. Colorful Heartbeat
2. Secret Princess
3. Chiisana Hoshi ~The Little Prince~
4. Itsuka wa Romansu
5. Ookiku Naare!
6. Hana Tegami
7. Tsukiyo no Marionetto
8. Taiyou ga Niau yo
9. Secret Princess (Amu Ver.)

Shugo Chara!! Character Song Collection 3
1. Aikotoba ha Open Heart
2. Hanbunko no Heart
3. Tamago Senshi Shugo Bomber
4. Akaneiro no Sora
5. Yume Oi RACER

Naturally, we’ll start with Itou Kanae’s first big series, Shugo Chara. I actually tried watching this, but it’s a really girly magical girl series. The concept isn’t that typical, but I still gave up around episode 4. A lot of these songs are really cutesy sounding to fit the characters, but Itou Kanae’s tracks are still great. Colorful Heartbeat is really peppy, but it has a great tune.

>>BUY it here, here, and here

Shinryaku! Ika Musume ED Single – Metamerism

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Metamerism
2. Kimi ga Ireba
3. Metamerism (off vocal)
4. Kimi ga Ireba (off vocal)

Last season’s squid comedy, this ED never got posted, but it’s here now! I love this CD, nothing much else to say about it besides that Kimi ga Ireba is my awesome ringtone.

>>BUY it here

Mayoi Neko Overrun! Character CD 1 – Fumino Serizawa

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Stripe wa Shima Shima
2. Happy New Nyaa (Ver. Fumino Serizawa)
3. Stripe wa Shima Shima (Ver. Inst.)
4. Monologue from Fumino

Not sure how many people watched this series, but it was a few seasons ago starring Itou Kanae in a tsundere role.

>>BUY it here

Motto To Love-Ru Character CD 3 – Nana and Momo

Artists: Itou Kanae and Toyosaki Aki

Tracklist:
1. Nana iro No Thank You!
2. Mo Mo I Ro Mi Go Ro
3. Nana iro No Thank You! (Karaoke)
4. Mo Mo I Ro Mi Go Ro (Karaoke)

Not really a fan of the anime, but Nana iro No Thank You! is catchy.

>>BUY it here

The World God Only Knows Character CD.0 Elsie

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Oh! My! GOD!!
2. Koi no Shirushi from Elsie
3. Oh! My! GOD!! (Instrumental)
4. Koi no Shirushi from Elsie (Instrumental)

This is reposted from the Kaminomi mega music post I made a while back. I still love Koi no Shirushi, and you should, too.

>>BUY it here

Asobi ni Iku yo! ED Single – Happy Sunshine

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Happy Sunshine
2. Wonderful na Sekai
3. Happy Sunshine (off vocal)
4. Wonderful na Sekai (off vocal)

I never got around to watching this series, but these songs are wonderfully cheerful.

>>BUY it here

Asobi ni Iko yo! Drama & Character Song CD

Artists: Itou Kanae, Tomatsu Haruka, and Hanazawa Kana

Tracklist:
1. Kowai Ohanashi
2. Ofuro de Pururun
3. Ichiraku Part One
4. Karaoke Shimasho
5. Wakasa to Obentou
6. Ichiraku Part Two
7. Kimodameshi de Dokkiri!
8. Attakai Senaka
9. Tsui ni Hakken!?
10. Anoko wa da Are?
11. Smile Peace

Tracks 1-10 are all drama tracks, so Smile Peace is the only song on the CD. It’s also a group song, but I still thought that this one song was good enough to warrant its own spot here. Plus, you get Hanazawa Kana as a bonus. It really is a good song, one of my favorites in this compilation.

>>BUY it here

Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu ED Single – Ijiwaru Na Koi

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Ijiwaru na Koi
2. Mirai Kinenbi
3. La li lu La la

I haven’t really heard much about this OVA, but shoujo romances don’t interest me anyway. Itou Kanae takes some simple, calm songs here and makes them worth listening to.

>>BUY it here

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi Character Song Album

Artists: Itou Kanae, Kugimiya Rie, Koyama Kimiko, Asanuma Shintarou, Toyosaki Aki, Horie Yui, Nojima Hirofumi, Kawasumi Ayako, Irino Mayu, Itou Shizuka

Tracklist:
1. Ookami Nanka Kowakunai
2. Mini Moni. Janken Pyon!
3. Rouge no Dengon
4. Ai wa Katsu
5. Machibuse
6. Arigatou
7. Ashita ga Aru sa
8. Tsubasa wo Kudasai
9. Sore ga Daiji
10. Akazukin-chan Goyoujin

Oh man, Itou Kanae is in this anime. SHE IS! She voices Ringo, that red-haired loli, which totally caught me off guard. Her track is the first one, and it’s pretty funny to listen to. So is the second one, oh that Kugimiya Rie. By the way, Akazukin-chan Goyoujin is a remixed version of the ED for Itou Shizuka.

>>BUY it here

Sora no Manimani Character Song and Insert Song – Starry Sky and Harmonia

Artists: Itou Kanae, CooRie, Hayami Saori, Tomatsu Haruka, Koshimizu Ami

Tracklist:
1. Hoshi no Shizuku
2. Spring: Haru no Seiza
3. Tokimeki za Ryuuseigun
4. Summer: Natsu no Seiza
5. Kimi to Mirai Kansoku
6. Hikari no Asa
7. Kirameki Harmonics
8. Autumn: Aki no Seiza
9. Dive to the sky
10. Winter: Fuyu no Seiza
11. Kimi ga Iru Monogatari
12. Omoide Planetarium

Sora no Manimani is a series about astronomy, in case you weren’t familiar with it. This is actually a repost, as kanzeon posted it a long time ago, which surprised me. There’s a bunch of drama tracks on this CD (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), but for some reason, even though I can’t understand them at all, they’re really calming to listen to. Maybe I just like believing that Itou Kanae is talking to me. ME!

>>BUY it here

Queen’s Blade Rurou no Senshi Character Song & Short Drama Airi Ver.

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. maid in
2. maid in (Original Karaoke)
3. Short Drama ~Airi Ver.~ “Maid no Ichinichi”

Only one song here, and it’s not particular outstanding, but maybe some of you will like the beat better than I did.

>>BUY it here

Taishou Yakyuu Musume ED Single – Yume Miru Kokoro

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. Yume Miru Kokoro
2. Setsuna Love Letter
3. Yuuwaku Marmalade
4. Yume Miru Kokoro (Instrumental)

Another anime I never got around to watching, but this one actually looks good. It’s set in 1925, and some girls try to overcome social barriers to play baseball during a time when they were expected to just stay at home and be housewives. The songs on this CD are some of the better ones in this compilation.

>>BUY it here

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Archives

Artists: Toyosaki Aki, Itou Kanae, Satou Rina, and Arai Satomi

Tracklists:

Railgun Archives 1
1. Audio Drama 1st part
2. Girly Days
3. Audio Drama 2nd part
4. Desu no! White & Black

Railgun Archives 2
1. Audio Drama 1st part
2. Ubu iro bloomy
3. Audio Drama 2nd part
4. Namida Gomen no Girls Beat

Railgun Archives 3
1. Audio Drama 1st part
2. Gira Gira Now!
3. Audio Drama 2nd part
4. Kanpeki Will

Oh yes, that’s right folks, it’s the Railgun girls. The first CD doesn’t actually feature Itou Kanae, but all the tracks are awesome so I included it anyway.

>>BUY it here, here, and here

hide and seek

Artist: Itou Kanae

Tracklist:
1. hide and seek
2. Saboten
3. Hoshi no Kan Batch
4. hide and seek (off vocal)
5. Saboten (off vocal)
6. Hoshi no Kan Batch (off vocal)

This is an album by Itou Kanae that isn’t related to any anime, so unless you actually follow her you won’t be familiar with it. The background tracks have a more traditional band composition (guitar, bass, drums) so the songs sound less anime-ish to me. Of course, even though this is more of an independent album, Itou Kanae isn’t actually a songwriter. The songs here were written by Atsumi Saori, and the music was provided by Watanabe Takuya, so the only thing Itou Kanae is contributing is her voice. Whatever the case, though, they’re some nice songs to listen to as they are definitely different from her anime songs.

>>BUY it here

And with that… it’s over! I hope you all become Kanae Crazies like me by the time you get through these, if you do decide to get and listen to every single CD here. I guess it’s okay if you don’t, but… we can’t be friends anymore if that’s the case.

Stay tuned for the next arbitrarily chosen Seiyuu Music Spotlight. I might take requests if there’s an overwhelming demand for someone specific, but if there’s too much music to go through I’ll probably just pick another seiyuu that I like.

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