shingeki

Sekai no Owari is one of the most popular groups in Japan right now. The clown-faced, top hat-wearing rock band is managing to thrive in a Japanese music industry saturated with seemingly endless three-letter-48-style girl groups.

So what better to combine with one of the most popular music groups than one of the most popular manga/anime, Attack on Titan? It was just recently announced that the upcoming live-action Attack on Titan movies will feature two original Sekai no Owari songs produced specially as theme songs for the films.

As you may already know, the upcoming Attack on Titan film is actually two films: the first, to be released on August 1, is titled simply Attack on Titan. The second part, to be released on September 19, is titled Attack on Titan: End of the World. Is it a coincidence that Sekai no Owari also means “end of the world” when translated into English? The conspiracy theory-loving part of my brain would like to think so.

Also, if you have no idea who Sekai no Owari is, then I think this picture of the four members should clear up a lot of things.

▼ See? Now you understand everything about them and have absolutely no more questions.

sekai no owariFlickr (Dick Thomas Johnson)

All of the group’s members have said that they are big fans of the original Attack on Titan manga and anime, and they’re showing it through their dedication to the project. They not only created two completely new songs for the films, but they also chose to sing them entirely in English, to help support the international releases.

The theme song for the first film is titled “ANTI-HERO.” It was recorded with Dan the Automator, known for his work with Gorillaz and KASABIAN. Fukase, the Sekai no Owari member typically seen with red hair, said this about writing the lyrics:

“It’s a love song for a villain. I wrote it based on the feelings of wanting to protect someone close to you, not wanting to hesitate, and not caring what the eyes of the world see when they look at you.”

The theme song for the second film is titled “SOS”, and is produced by Ken Thomas, the same producer for Sigur Ros. Saori, the usually-blonde female member of the group, said this about writing the lyrics:

“I saw the film with its theme of fighting, and I wrote the lyrics with the idea of ‘Protecting someone else is the same as protecting yourself.’ I hope you enjoy listening to the song at the end of the film.”

If you’re a fan of Sekai no Owari’s music and are expecting something similar to their usual tracks, however, then you may want to take a seat. Haruma Miura, the actor who’s playing Eren, has said that the tracks aren’t entirely what fans of the group may be used to.

“Sekai no Owari created something with a very different worldview than anything else they have up until now. They managed to express the themes in Attack on Titan perfectly through the rhythms and melodies that they used. The more I listen to it, the more it seeps into me. It’s beautiful, almost poisonous, music.”

Others working on the project had this to say about Sekai no Owari’s newly penned theme songs:

“They are very different from the sound image that they’ve produced up until now. They’re very ambitious pieces, and there’s going to be lots of people who love them and hate them.”

Well we won’t know for sure until we’ve seen the movies for ourselves, but we’re just going to go out on a limb here and say that, with the passion Sekai no Owari has shown for creating their songs, it’s probably going to be great.

That said, if the movie’s producers really want to make sure, throwing in a clown-face or top hat-wearing titan or two certainly wouldn’t hurt…

Source: ORICON STYLE
Featured/top image: RocketNews24