KICK BACK (チェンソーマン OP)-米津玄師

The much anticipated anime of Chainsaw Man is finally airing this season! And it starts with a banger of a song: "KICK BACK" from Kenshi Yonezu - definitely one of the catchiest songs I have heard in a while.

Not only does "KICK BACK" has a crazy amount of key changes, it also has one of the most epic mood changes I have ever heard. The music in 1:41 suddenly changes from utterly "dark and chaotic" into extremely "bright and hopeful" and for a brief moment, I felt like I was walking in musical heaven. Amazing moment.

① Chainsaw and a fist... on the piano?

Did you notice the left hand glissando at the very beginning in 0:01? I actually tried to imitate the sound of a Chainsaw, similar to the original song. Likewise, this arrangement also ends with a glissando again in 3:08, bringing the song to a full circle.

I also used my fist in 2:06 for the first time to hammer down the chord for maximum dynamic power. But needless to say, you shouldn't overdo it or else the strings of the piano might break, haha.

② Chaos in the rhythm

The most difficult part to arrange was actually the "努力・未来・A BEAUTIFUL STAR" in the beginning, because there are multiple rhythms overlapping with each other. On top of that, I also used octaves in the left hand because I wanted to create a punchy bass line for this arrangement. I also used a lot of staccato during the chorus in 0:51 to further accentuate the chaotic atmosphere of the song.

③ The string orchestra appears!

As mentioned earlier above, the sudden musical contrast in 1:41 was simply brilliant and I am pretty sure the arranger of the original song - Tsuneta Daiki from King Gnu - had a huge influence here, since he loves to include beautiful string instruments in King Gnu's music.

I tried to mirror it on the piano as well by letting the right hand play an additional layer of melody in 1:41 to sound like strings from a orchestra. This is also one of the rare cases where the left hand is able to play both the melody and the bass at the same time (with only minimal help from the right hand), resulting in an almost "perfect" three hand technique.

"KICK BACK" is a really amazing song and no matter how often I repeat it, it simply never gets boring.

The fact that MAPPA makes different ED songs each week with top tier Japanese artists also shows their dedication to the Chainsaw Man anime. We truly live in the best timeline.

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🎹Piano arrangement by Animenz

Original Song: KICK BACK

Anime: Chainsaw Man / チェンソーマン

Published by: Sony Music Labels Inc.

Composed by: Kenshi Yonezu

Performed by: Kenshi Yonezu