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ETERNAL BLAZE
MUKANJYO

MATCH 1

I enjoyed some of the other JJBA OPs I've heard like Bloody Stream and Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town more than Traitor's Requiem, and the same goes for the animation, but this one's good too.

I prefer the animation of Traitor's Requiem, but the song is definitely better with Eternal Blaze, and it's enough to get my vote here.

MATCH 2

I like metal, but What's Up People isn't really the kind of metal I enjoy. I'm much more into melody-driven metal songs than songs like this that stick to a lot of the same low string power chords without much of a melodic component to them. Though I do enjoy fast-paced stuff, so 1:06-1:13 was a pleasant surprise.

MUKANJYO isn't quite my style of metal either, but I definitely like it more than What's Up People. Me from like ~15 years ago probably would've liked this a lot though since I was pretty into metalcore around then. The stronger melody here is definitely more my thing, and I like the high notes. I think it's better animation-wise too, so it's the clear vote for me.

Flyers
Memories

Musically, Flyers and 99.9 were pretty close until the second half of Flyers kicked in. I like both the animations pretty equally.

Memories is the clear winner for me in match 2 based on the music, but I do like the animation for Flip Flap Flip Flap quite a bit. I still think Memories takes it here because the shot of Luffy and his friends staring out into the ocean in the sunset is pretty nice too.

Ks Rumba
Crossing field

MATCH 1

Kusou Rumba is pretty cool. I mainly like the drumming, but the contrast between the male and female vocals is pretty enjoyable as well. Some interesting themes going on in the animation, but I like how it just changes out of nowhere to a dance routine lol.

Sasageyo is cool too. Musically, its a pretty close match. I like this song more when its more bombastic in the brass, which is something thats more lacking here compared to Season 1s OP, which I wouldve 100% taken in this match. Animation-wise, Im not super interested in shonen action stuff, so Im less interested in whats going on in the animation for Sasageyo compared to Kusou Rumba, so that helps make the decision a little bit easier. Still a relatively close match, though.

MATCH 2

Crossing Field is amazing and is a song I totally wouldve considered nominating myself for this contest. Everything about this is great, and I cant complain about a single thing in this song. The burst of instruments after wakaranai never fails to pump me up, and the same goes for the chorus. Easily my favorite song in the bracket.

Dream Island Obsessional Park is an unfortunate matchup. I really like Susumu Hirasawas voice, especially when he does that aiiiiiyaaaa in the song. This is a pretty good song, and I wouldve taken this over both songs in match 1, but Crossing Field is way too good.

Idol
Unmei no Roulette Mawashite

How am I just now seeing this contest?! Wish I could've shared some of my favorites during nominations, but that's okay, at least I get to vote! Let's see how things have gone so far...Dango Daikazoku, Magia, and Only My Railgun winning is good to see. Ambiguous losing, not so much. Anyway, onto today's matches!

MATCH 1

YOASOBI's been one of my favorite artists to listen to as of late. Though, to be honest, Idol's far from my favorite song of theirs. I definitely would've preferred Monster being here instead. I don't know if this helps illustrate my music tastes at all, but for reference, my favorite YOASOBI songs are Racing into the Night and RGB. Back to Idol, though, I'm usually not the biggest fan of talk-singing, and the singing verse that comes after doesn't really do much for me either. But the chorus is where the song really shines for me! Animation-wise, I like the flashiness of how Ai's concert is portrayed and everything after that. I know Oshi no Ko's been very hyped, so I'm eager to check it out at some point, especially since being a vtuber fan, the themes of the show are probably at least somewhat adjacent to that.

Infinite Girl's not really resonating with me, unfortunately. Though, I like it more in the shine version part of the song, especially from 4:36 onwards. I live for emotional scenes, so seeing two characters share a heartfelt moment like that is a nice touch in the animation as well.

MATCH 2

Unmei no Roulette Mawashite and Get Wild are both songs that I'd say aren't really my thing. They're both fine songs, but I feel like they don't really stand out a whole lot to me. I like the former song noticeably more though. I like the shots of the detective kid getting teasing expressions from the other characters and of the characters singing karaoke to the song in Unmei no Roulette Mawashite. That's probably the slice of life fan in me coming out haha. I like the James Bond-style action shots in Get Wild too. Feels like I enjoy the animation equally here, which I feel like will be a recurring thing in this contest for me, since I usually don't focus on the animation when watching OPs/EDs and thus I feel like I tend not to have a strong opinion one way or the other on that.

I feel like these writeups look a bit negative for everything, so sorry about that! They're usually not like that.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter - The Last Specter's Theme

So this year's champion is unfortunately going to be the weakest of the 5 years of champions for me from the years I've participated, but given how much I liked those years' champions, that's not really that bad! Both songs are solidly in the 7/10 range, so while not what I would think of as champion-tier, it could be much worse.

DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois

Destiny Child - Ragna Breakers

DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois

Another match where I'm very happy with either song being the bracket champion. This one's pretty close with my rankings being #7 vs. #9 out of 64, and the closeness in rank is definitely reflective of how close it feels to me. After listening again, I'll be sticking with what the rankings show, but its opponent is definitely tempting.

Sonic R - Back in Time

Re: poll, I got the chance to play Sound Voltex for the first time some months back, and of the songs I got to play, Speed Star Kanade was my favorite song to play on Novice difficulty. As a beginner, it felt like a good challenge that wasn't too challenging.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter - The Last Specter's Theme

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Moonlight Concert

DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois
Iseki-jima to Nanatsu no Mahou - Banbard (Piano Version)

beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro / jubeat saucer - Rainbow after snow
Super Mario 64 - Staff Roll

Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?

Here's my full list of round 3 song rankings roughly tiered by numeric rankings out of 10, rounded down to the nearest whole number.

9/10
1. Banbard ~Piano ver~
2. Miss Conductor (Regret ver.)
3. Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX)

8/10
4. Rainbow after snow
5. Purple Town
6. Ring Ring Ring!
7. Un Deux Trois
8. nATALIE
9. To Far Away Times
10. The Sunleth Waterscape
11. Moonlight Concert
12. Can You Feel the Sunshine?

7/10
13. Astebreed ~ The Void
14. Ragna Breakers
15. Frozen Grounds
16. Desert-Duo
17. Suna Gin
18. Song of Mourning ~ The Eternal Wind
19. Banbard (Chroma Remix)
20. Apex of the World (Rain)
21. Remnants of Celestial
22. Me and My Little War
23. Dancing Mad
24. MNN+@0(Day)
25. Samsara
26. Millennium Spark
27. for you
28. Rampage
29. The Last Specter's Theme
30. We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)
31. Calling
32. Chain of Pain
33. Apollo
34. Dialga's Fight to the Finish!
35. World Ender
36. Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite
37. Tokyo
38. Back in Time
39. Crystal Caves
40. Subterranean Sunrise
41. Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever
42. KANNANSHINKU
43. GOLDEN RULE
44. SHININ' QUEEN
45. Azure Archipelago
46. Northeast Frost Street
47. Aria Math

6/10
48. An Empty Tome
49. K'Sante, the Pride of Nazumah
50. Wind Scene
51. Alabaster Icelands 1
52. Festival of Dionysus
53. Staff Roll
54. Unused Song 2
55. Blue Whitecaps
56. Beat the Diamonds
57. You Can Have Mine
58. {EDGE OF THE FUTURE}

5/10
59. Lost Forest
60. Portugal
61. Sight of Silence
62. Old L.A. 2040
63. Epicentre

4/10
64. PowerOne

Some thoughts about my rankings: This year, my rankings seemed to be more centered around the 7/10 mark than previous years, with 35 songs, more than half of the round 3 field, falling into that spot. Also, there were fewer 8's and 9's. Only three 9's compared to five in VGMC16 and eight in VGMC15, and nine 8's compared to ten in VGMC16 and twelve in VGMC15. So I guess the round 3 field this year was slightly weaker than the previous two years, but that's okay! Still a lot of good songs, and I liked most of what was there, as per usual.

Another interesting thing is seeing how the rankings of returning songs have changed year-by-year. Take, for instance, Apex of the World, which I ranked #32 in VGMC15, #29 in VGMC16, and #20 this year. Almost every returning song had gone up in rank this year compared to the year(s) it was previously in my rankings, with the sole exception of PowerOne, which was my #64 both this year and last year.

Looking back on my rankings compared to how I felt about the songs at the start of the contest, I definitely underrated several songs that took a little bit of time to grow more on me. Had I filled out my favorites bracket now, I definitely would've taken nATALIE over Koi Yume for the C4 retiree. In fact, nATALIE was initially placed at #11, but I had to move it up a few spots when listening to everything after I was finished. Me and My Little War and for you are two other songs that I felt more lukewarm about early on but felt more positively about later on. I don't think I would've changed my votes for A4 where for you was, but I feel like I might've flipped on Me and My Little War vs. Shutoko round 2 and picked the former had the match been re-run today (though I say this without listening to Shutoko again, so I don't know). Wouldn't have changed the outcome, but still interesting to think about.

As for the retirees this year, I'm very happy with most of them! I went 10-6 on my votes for round 4, and exactly half of my top 16 for round 3 songs retired, five of those songs being in my top 10, including my top-ranked song, Banbard (Piano Version)! This is compared to having 6/16 of my top 16 retiring in VGMC16 and 5/16 in VGMC15. So overall, while the round 3 field might have been a little weaker this year compared to the past two years, the retiree field is stronger than previous years' retirees, so I'll take it!

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Moonlight Concert
Destiny Child - Ragna Breakers

Iseki-jima to Nanatsu no Mahou - Banbard (Piano Version)
Chrono Trigger - To Far Away Times

Banbard (Piano Version) (1/64)
To Far Away Times (9/64)
Desert-Duo (16/64)
Old L.A. 2040 (62/64)

Chain of Pain (32/64)
Dialga's Fight to the Finish (34/64)
GOLDEN RULE (43/64)
{EDGE OF THE FUTURE} (58/64)

The best was truly yet to come. First match of the final day of the retirement round has the biggest difference in song rankings out of any of the retirement matches, so I'm really praying for Banbard! It's managed to stick around as my only remaining champion this year since round 2, and seeing it retire here would be an amazing outcome. I'm happy with either song in match 2 retiring.

DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois
Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad

Un Deux Trois (7/64)
Song of Mourning ~ The Eternal Wind (18/64)
Dancing Mad (23/64)
An Empty Tome (48/64)

Millennium Spark (Firestorm BT Mix) (26/64)
Calling (31/64)
Unused Song 2 (54/64)
Sight of Silence (61/64)

Round 1 is another match where both of my preferred songs reached round 4, so I'll be happy with the results either way here as well! :)

Astebreed (PS4) - Astebreed ~ The Void
Nirvana Pilot Yume - Rampage

Astebreed ~ The Void (12/64)
Rampage (28/64)
Staff Roll (53/64)
PowerOne (64/64)

Miss Conductor (Regret ver.) (2/64)
nATALIE (8/64)
K'Sante, the Pride of Nazumah (49/64)
You Can Have Mine (57/64)

Definitely should have made nATALIE retire in my favorites bracket over Koi Yume, but at least I got it right up to round 4. I liked nATALIE a lot from the beginning, but I guess it grew on me even more over time.

beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro / jubeat saucer - Rainbow after snow
Blue Reflection - Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX)

Lots of strong songs up today! I'm very pleased with the choices for C1 retirees and will be happy no matter what wins (though I do very much want Rainbow after snow). Although my preferred song for C1 retiree, Until, got knocked out round 1, Frozen Grounds was in my round 4 spot in my favorites bracket, and Rainbow after snow would've taken the retiree spot for me if Until wasn't there, so this is a great outcome nonetheless. In addition, Sayonara reaching round 4 is now the farthest a nomination of mine has ever gone and the first time one of them has made it to the retirement round! I feel like it being a Blue Reflection song that did fairly well the previous time it was in kind of cheapens that a little, but who cares, I'm still excited about that! Really crossing my fingers on match 2.

Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX) (3/64)
Rainbow after snow (4/64)
Frozen Grounds (15/64)
Back in Time (38/64)

World Ender (35/64)
Alabaster Icelands 1 (51/64)
Festival of Dionysus (52/64)
Portugal (60/64)

Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?
Professor Layton and the Last Specter - The Last Specter's Theme

Can You Feel the Sunshine? (12/64)
The Last Specter's Theme (29/64)
Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (36/64)
Aria Math (47/64)

Ring Ring Ring! (6/64)
Remnants of Celestial (21/64)
Apollo (33/64)
Blue Whitecaps (55/64)

Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
[-Aka-] - Suna Gin

The Sunleth Waterscape (10/64)
Suna Gin (17/64)
Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever (41/64)
Epicentre (63/64)

Banbard Chroma Remix (19/64)
Apex of the World (Rain) (20/64)
Me and My Little War (22/64)
Tokyo (37/64)

Destiny Child - Ragna Breakers
Rogue Legacy 2 - Subterranean Sunrise

Rankings are done! I'll post the rankings for the round 4 songs followed by their round 3 opponents.

Ragna Breakers (14/64)
Subterranean Sunrise (40/64)
SHININ' QUEEN (44/64)
Lost Forest (59/64)

for you (27/64)
Crystal Caves (39/64)
KANNANSHINKU (42/64)
Beat the Diamonds (56/64)

And here's my rankings for yesterday's songs + round 3 opponents (excluding To Far Away Times and Dialga's Fight to the Finish).

Purple Town (5/64)
Moonlight Concert (11/64)
Azure Archipelago (45/64)
Northeast Frost Street (46/64)

MNN+@0 Day (24/64)
Samsara (25/64)
We Are Burning Rangers (30/64)
Wind Scene (50/64)

Chrono Trigger - To Far Away Times
Border Down - Purple Town
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Moonlight Concert

Very strong preferences for the retirement matches, so I'm hoping round 4 goes off to a good start for me!

Was hoping to post my rankings starting today, but I only just started continuing my progress on rankings earlier today lol. As of posting, I'm at 55/64 songs ranked that were in as of round 3, and I hope to finish that later tonight, re-listen to everything tomorrow to see if the list needs any adjustment, and then start posting my rankings in tomorrow's thread. As a preview, today's retirement matches with my current progress are 5/55 (Purple Town) vs. 40/55 (Northeast Frost Street) and 10/55 (Moonlight Concert) vs. 39/55 (Azure Archipelago).

beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD CS - Chain of Pain
Iseki-jima to Nanatsu no Mahou - Banbard (Piano Version)
[-Aka-] - Desert-Duo

Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis - Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
30XX - Millennium Spark (Firestorm BT MIX)
Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad

Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 - Frozen Grounds
beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro / jubeat saucer - Rainbow after snow
Sonic R - Back in Time

Little Busters! - Ring Ring Ring!
Professor Layton and the Last Specter - The Last Specter's Theme
Ex-Zodiac - Remnants of Celestial (Stage 3)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
ChainBeeT - Banbard (Chroma Remix)

Destiny Child - Ragna Breakers
Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Granblue Fantasy - for you

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince - Moonlight Concert
Burning Rangers - We Are Burning Rangers (English Version)
Dariusburst: Second Prologue - KANNANSHINKU

Xenoblade Chronicles X - MNN+@0(Day)
Border Down - Purple Town
Iseki-jima to Nanatsu no Mahou - Banbard (Piano Version)

Round 3 rankings from me are partially complete, but I've been really busy with things lately and didn't have the chance to finish them, so no rankings until after the 26th. I will definitely be posting them though.

[-Aka-] - Desert-Duo
Touhou 8: Imperishable Night - Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke
Chrono Trigger - To Far Away Times

Contrary to what one might expect from me, match 1 is actually pretty close. Got more raves has grown a lot on me, but I think Desert-Duo's more consistent.

Iseki-jima to Nanatsu no Mahou - Banbard (Piano Version)
Sonic Adventure 2 - Fly In The Freedom Theme of ROUGE
CHUNITHM PLUS - GOLDEN RULE (Long Version)

Both songs in match 3 have things I like and dislike about them, which makes it tough for me to decide which one I like more, especially since I like them just about the same anyway. I guess maybe Golden Rule is better on average right now? Tough call though.

The World Ends with You - Calling
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Rock Club
beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD CS - Chain of Pain

Clannad - Town, Flow of Time, People
Final Fantasy VI - Dancing Mad
DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois

Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis - Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
The Smurfs' Nightmare - Another World
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - X-Naut Fortress

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Panic In The Sky!
The Flintstones (SNES) - Unused Song 2
DEEMO II - Un Deux Trois

Nirvana Pilot Yume - Rampage
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker - Close in the Distance
Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade version B - nATALIE

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter - PowerOne
Lobotomy Corporation - Second Warning
Astebreed (PS4) - Astebreed ~ The Void

You Can Have Mine has gotten better in my mind since its round 1 match, so match 2 is pretty close actually. Match 3's fairly close as well. We should just switch one of the match 2 and match 3 songs so that Astebreed and Megaraph can both advance.

Arcaea - World Ender
The Caligula Effect 2 - Miss Conductor (Regret ver.)
FutureGrind - noisemaker

Match 2 is a legit post-retirement level match for me in terms of the strength of both songs. It's a shame one of them has to go here, but at least I can't really lose on this match!

Sonic R - Back in Time
Mario Kart 8 - Dolphin Shoals
Blue Reflection - Sayonara (ALL PHASE MIX)

Not super enthused about match 2. Both songs have things I like and don't like about them. I really wish the whole of Dionysus was as good as the first minute or so of the song, but I don't like the middle part as much. Dolphin Shoals is a bit similar in terms of me liking the beginning part of the song the most. I guess Dolphin Shoals feels better on average right now, but it's kind of a toss-up honestly. Other matches today are very easy, but I do like Azure Sword, so tough matchup for that. Rooting for the winner of match 3 to retire.

Pokmon Legends: Arceus - Alabaster Icelands 1
beatmania IIDX 20 tricoro / jubeat saucer - Rainbow after snow
FutureGrind - noisemaker

Alabaster Icelands sounds noticeably less good to me today than before, but I still think it's probably the pick here. Rainbow after snow by far and away the best song up today, so I'm really hoping it wins.

REFLEC BEAT groovin'!! - DADADADADADADADADADA (Long Version)
GITADORA EXCHAIN - Trajectory of the Kiyarora Satellite (Long Version)
Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 - Frozen Grounds

Since I didn't get the chance to talk about Frozen Grounds during its round 1 match, I'll discuss it here. It's a really good arrangement with its instrumentation! There's a very rich use of harmony in here that I really like, especially during my favorite parts of the song from 1:41-2:35 and 2:58-3:34. With 1:41, I like the part that came before it, but I think this part is even better with the guitar accompaniment playing out arpeggios for the chords. There's also some really cool modulation and/or chord changes at parts like 1:59 and 2:58-3:15. I temporarily had it on my list of support considerations before removing it when whittling it down, but regardless, I'm happy this made it in (and won its first match)!

Great Sluggers - Full Base
DuckTales: Remastered - The Amazon
Pokmon Scarlet/Violet - Battle! (Zero Lab)

Tough match 2. I like both songs there.

Sonic R - Can You Feel the Sunshine?
Control - My Dark Disquiet
Little Busters! - Ring Ring Ring!

Tekken 7: Fated Retribution - INARI 1st
[-Aka-] - Suna Gin
7th Dragon 2020-II - Shutoko - Spiral Maze

I put Epicentre over INARI 1st in my rankings on the day of their round 1 matches, but I'm feeling Inari more today. I think it's just that my enjoyment of Inari has gone up slightly since then. Epicentre's good in the beginning, but it still has that feeling to me that it drags on a lot, mainly due to the middle part of the song.

Both songs in matches 2 and 3 are pretty good, so I wouldn't mind the opponents of the songs I vote for winning, even though I'd like to keep my favorites bracket retiree, Suna Gin.

Final Fantasy XIII - The Sunleth Waterscape
Cladun: This is an RPG - Knight of a Foreign Country
ChainBeeT - Banbard (Chroma Remix)

Fire Wire's grown on me a bit since the contest started, which makes match 3 a lot closer than it was when I filled out my favorites bracket, but I still think Banbard's the pick here. Would be cool with either song winning there. Strong preferences on the other two matches though.

Granblue Fantasy - for you
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The Apex of the World (Rain)
Octopath Traveler II - Battle on the Sea

Cleopatra Fortune - SHININ' QUEEN
Rogue Legacy 2 - Subterranean Sunrise
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim - Windslash Steps

Tough match 1.