Awesome music video is an anime-style testament to the power of dreams, friendship, and probably potassium.
As big an anime fan as I am, there aren’t that many times when I find myself wishing my life was more like a Japanese cartoon. Giant robots are cool and all, but I have to admit that for everyday transportation, it’s a lot easier to get around using the trains of the Toyoko Line or my beloved Mazda. Harem of bubbly, doe-eyed beauties? Might have been nice in my younger days, but I’m now happy to be in a monogamous marriage with my lovely wife.
Yet there is one area in which I fully believe the real world can’t hold a candle to the Japanese animated one. In real life, unless you’re a super-industrious fisherman, odds are your day starts with a couple slaps of the snooze button before groggily shuffling through your morning routine and the first part of your school or workday. But in anime, waking up in the morning is awesome, as evidenced by the countless number of anime openings that kick off with the characters enthusiastically dashing out into the morning sunlight to the accompaniment accompanied by a rocking up-tempo anthem.
As proof of how energizing the time-tested traditions of anime openings are, Japanese Titter user @ARuFa_FARu decided to employ a selection of them in a video that seems like it could be the lead-in to a brand-new anime series, but with one key difference: instead of starring 2-D men and women, the on-screen characters are all bananas!
▼ “I didn’t have anything to do, so I made an anime-style opening for an imaginary series using only bananas.”
Staring with some powerful guitar strains, we see a bedroom with our protagonist still under the covers. Onscreen text informs us that this is based on the (fictitious) original manga Banana!, currently being serialized in the (also fictitious) monthly anthology Manga Lime Kirara.
The lead banana bursts out of bed, at which point the title appears: Banana! ～Seishun ha Subette Koronde Taihen da～, or Banana! ～My Difficult Youth Slipping and Falling Down～.
After the surreal scene of a banana brushing its teeth, taking a shower, and getting dressed (implied by its half-peeled appearance in front of a mirror) it’s time to head to school, with the credits continuing to flash in the corners of the screen. As with all youth-oriented fight songs, before building up to the jubilant chorus, the music takes a serious, introspective turn, where we see the banana leaning solemnly against a wall and gazing as its own reflection, as if asking, “Just who am I, really?”
But in keeping with anime’s common theme that friends are there to help one another in time of trouble, two of the banana’s pals show up. Since they can’t grab it by the hand, they instead link stems, and off they go!
The opening theme, “Any time,” composed by Hajime Ryuzaki, is actually a piece of free-to-use music composed two years ago.
@ARuFa_FARu’s video adheres to the 90-seconds-or-less norm for anime opening sequences, and as further homage to its inspiration, wraps up with the three characters striking a group pose, plus the reminder that this has been brought to us by the “BanaSube Production Committee.”
@ARuFa_FARu’s thoroughness in creating a fan nickname for the fictitious series is truly impressive. Now all he has to do is wait for the light novel and TV series adaptation offers to start rolling in.
Source: Twitter/@ARuFa_FARu
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s now got “Any time” stuck in his head.