The best opening of the summer season so far, in my opinion, is Akino Arai’s “Mitsu no Yoake” (Honeyed Dawn) for Spice and Wolf II. While I loved the show’s first season, I didn’t find its OP all that great. The second season, while maintaining the magic of the first season, has also done a great job upgrading the opening theme. Once I discovered Arai was performing the OP this season, I was excited. She did not disappoint.
Track List:
- Mitsu no Yoake
- Ekleipsis
- Monday, Tuesday
Background:
Akino Arai has been a staple of anime themes, with her earliest work that I found done for the Windaria movie in 1986. Since then she has done themes for Macross Plus, Noir, Record of Lodoss War, Gedo Senki, and many others. She is a fairly private person, but does do a lot of live performances in Japan and overseas. Her career has spanned from 1986 and is still going, as she just released a new album this year.
I’ve greatly admired her song in other shows like Noir and Outlaw Star. Arai’s songs tend to be calm and relaxing. I have to admit that I don’t take to most of her work since I find it a bit too slow for my tastes, but a few of her songs just blow me away.
Song Review (Note: I don’t identify instruments well.):
Mitsu no Yoake is more upbeat that Arai’s usual songs, but still maintains its deliberate pacing. It is a tranquil song, a perfect fit for the show. The song starts off slow with only an acoustic guitar, but the full orchestra eventually kicks in as the pace increases slightly. I like how it is a gradual build up, from guitar, to cymbols (?), and then the full violins, drums, etc. This song immediately brings to mind a journey, and the up and down pace (the song will vary from loud orchestra portions to quiet parts with only Arai’s voice) reminds me of the ups and downs that always occur in long journeys (directly applicable to Lawrence and Horo) There is even a grandness feeling I get when the full orchestra chimes in during the chorus. Arai’s vocals are surperb. They are consistent, yet she will push her voice higher as needed. The song is on par with some of her best work.
Ekleipsis seems to be a more typical Arai song, and I’m not a huge fan of it. The song starts off even slower than Mitsu no Yoake, with only piano in the background. It remains very slow and soft. Even Arai’s vocals reflect the muted quality of the song. I find it all a bit boring. The music gets a bit repetitive, especially since it is fairly minimal. However, the song showcases Arai’s voice, and it isn’t bad.
Monday, Tuesday starts off with a slow techno beat before it dives back into more guitar sounding stuff. Even though this song is fairly slow, I find it better than Ekleipsis. I like the consistent beat in the background. Arai wraps her vocals around the song; she has a lot of short pauses between her lyrics that correlate well with the beat. She also varies her voice more, going from soft to high and everything in between. I noticed an annoying reverberating sound, like a cricket’s chirp, throughout the song though. Nevertheless, I place this song below Mitsu no Yoake, yet above Ekleipsis in quality.
Anime Opening:
The animation that goes with the song is what really endeared Mitsu no Yoake to me. Production quality is top-notch. Spice and Wolf moves at a leisurely pace, and the song reflects this. The scenes from Lawrence’s and Horo’s travels also correlate to my impression that the song reflects a journey. Starting off with Horo meeting Lawrence and ending with them together, I believe the opening does a great job chronicling the two’s beginning and future. We see Horo walking alone at the beginning, before many scenes show the new characters and locales that the two will meet and visit. In the end, the two end up together, as they have always been throughout the show. The OP is just a great touch to a great song and show.
Overall Rating: 9.5 / 10 (Great)
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Topspin on 
Mitsu no Yoake has that very airy feeling fitting for this season, and also its “holy” background sounds. I really like it as well, but it has not managed to actually get into the top this year for me.
For me, the animation that goes along with the OP or ED make a major impression. The OP goes along perfectly with the animation in this case, which is why it is also one of my favorites.