That singer sure sounds like...

If you've ever had any doubts about my level of geekdom, let me put them to rest.

Last night, I fired up the first Bakuman anime ep. I quickly realized the opening song wasn't for the actual Bakuman anime, but was meant to be the opening song of the anime within the story. This anime within the story is based on the manga created by the uncle one of the main characters in Bakuman. This anime would have shown in Japan during the 80s, according to the canon timeline.

With amusement, I watched the simple art of the anime-within-the-story, and I couldn't help but notice how fitting the theme song was. The  source manga was a cheesy superhero comedy, and the song sounded just like all those superhero anime themes from the 80s and early 90s. Now, if you're wondering how I know what those themes sound like, no, I haven't watched them. I did, however, run an anime mp3 website years ago, and I collected any and all anime theme songs I could find. Including those old cheesy anime classics.

I couldn't help but notice how much the singer sounded like that one guy who sang so many of those old Dragonball Z themes. Really, the anime production staff did a great job finding this singer, because he really did sound like him. Then the song credits came up.

And it WAS him. Kageyama Hironobu himself. OMG!!!

I squeed, I flailed, I had a complete otaku fangasm. I did and still do dislike Dragonball Z, but the music??? That was something else entirely. ^^

So yes, I went into ecstatic spasms of joy about the singer for an anime theme song, whose voice I recognized even after several years of not listening to him once. A quick wiki of his name reveals he's been singing all this time, I just never watched the right anime or played the right games to come across his work again. While it would have been awesome if they'd managed to pull him out of retirement to sing this one anime-within-an-anime theme song, it's still pretty damn awesome he's continued to work for 20 years.

Kageyama Hironobu. Kyaaa! XD

This fangirl geekout post has been brought to you by the Bakuman anime, which as of this post's date is still unlicensed. The manga is being released by Viz, much to my delight. (Just try to ignore the misogynistic stupidity in chapter two/ep2.)