Peppertones songs that remind me of Japanese anime soundtracks

In a 2012 interview, Peppertones talked about how they were formed, and also how they were influenced by the Japanese anime music that's light and cheerful.

A rough translation below:

(Chinese subtitled cut of Peppertones interview on 2012-07-28)

At 2:56 Jangwon talks about how both him and Jaepyung like to listen to music from animation (i.e. anime). At 3:00, Jaepyung adds that a lot of light and cheerful songs following the Shibuya music trend came out then, and they both really liked it. They wanted to do this type of music, and with this shared view, the two of them formed Peppertones in 2004.

//

If you listen to their music, I think the anime influence is there. Though I've not watched anime in years and am by no means and expert on anything anime or music related, here's a list of Peppertones songs that gives me anime soundtrack vibes ~

1. Ready, Get Set, Go!

Deb's vocals for this is partly what gives it an anime vibe I think, because it's less obvious when other vocalist do this songs. But the parts leading up to the chorus and the chorus itself also give me a sense of a protagonist going on an adventure. Sort of a mix between shoujo and shounen anime focused on adventure?

2. Superfantastic

This version with Juniel for vocals has a magical and hopeful vibe. Sits squarely in shoujo for me.

3. Ping-pong

This could literally be the opening song to a cute fun sports anime, and the music video definitely helps in giving that impression, right?

I realise the songs listed so far have female vocalists, but there are some sung by Jaepyung and Jangwon too~

4. 아시안게임 (Asian Games)

This sounds like something for a hot-blooded shounen anime, where the protagonist is full of drive and hot-blooded passion. Reminds me of something like Naruto or Bleach, or even sort of Haikyuu?

5. 21세기의 어떤 날 (Someday in the 21st Century)

This still has a bit of a shounen vibe but leans more towards the slice-of-life genre for me.

6. 공원여행 (Park trip)

Another song with a slice-of-life vibe. This one could work with an anime like Nichijou? Probably as an ending song. The music video's focus on the puppy also makes me think that it could be the daily life of a pet or something. A light and happy sort of episode-per-week anime. And in the background you have weird people (aka Peppertones) doing stuff that the puppy doesn't understand. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself lol.

//

Back on topic, here are some songs that almost made the list but not quite:

7. ABC

The vocalist for the original version of the song doesn't immediately make me think of anime soundtracks, but the version sang by Stella Jang does. While I know the vocalist is partly what influenced my decision in putting songs onto this list (see songs 1-3 above), the difference is that for Ready, Get Set, Go! and Superfantastic, they have been sung by other vocalists and still had the anime soundtrack vibes. But for ABC, it only made the list with a certain type of voice which means the rest of the instrumentals were not *key* in giving the anime vibes and so I decided not to include it.

8. 도망자 (The Fugitive)

This almost made the list but there is something that just makes it a bit different? I sort of imagine The Fugitive might work for detective or pyschological animes (Psycho Pass was what came to mind), but at the same time I think the energy of the song is a tad more mature and laidback compared to what I would imagine for anime, so that's why it didn't make the list. Fun fact, this song is often played with 아시안게임 (Asian Games) when Peppertones perform, and Asian Games did make my list, lol. But I guess there's still a slight difference in their vibe.

Anyway, that's all I have for now! If there's more that I missed out, let me know~