BOY - Ousama Ranking OP1 [Piano] / King Gnu

Ousama Ranking was one of my favorite anime series in 2021 and the Opening Song BOY from King Gnu was simply a perfect song to capture the cheery mood from our favorite Prince Bojji. I was really inspired by Bojji’s never-ending optimism and his courage could literally move mountains. I really hope we will see a second season very soon because I already miss Bojji and his trusted friend Kage already.

To be honest, arranging this song was outside of my comfort zone again, because I couldn’t make full use of my usual orchestral arrangement style with its many layers of sound. Instead, I thought a more minimalistic approach is more suitable for an upbeat song like BOY and this arrangement should be played as light-hearted as possible with only minimum pedal use.

Having said that, I still "sneaked" in some secondary melodies into the arrangement. Just imagine Kage is secretly following Bojji who is playing the main melody (笑). A good example would be the upper voice in the right hand in 0:39 or the fast middle voice in 1:12 and 1:22. Aside from that, I also included a few techniques I rarely use nowadays, for example the “octave sniping” in 3:29 or the chromatic octave run in 4:06.

But my favorite part was actually playing the key change in 3:32 because this is the moment where I was finally “released” from the C-major key. I don’t know whether other pianists would agree with me but playing only white keys (aka C-major) feels really “unnatural” to me. I literally couldn’t wait to play all the black keys again and the key change to Db-major felt like heaven to me. Maybe it’s just me, who loves playing on black keys, haha.

Well, that’s it everyone! Thank you for listening to my piano arrangement of BOY!
My next arrangement is going to be from King Gnu again and it’s a theme song from an Anime movie.

See you next time again!
Animenz
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🎹Piano arrangement by Animenz

Original Song: BOY
Anime: Ousama Ranking / 王様ランキング
Published by: Sony Music Labels Inc. (2021)
Composed by: Daiki Tsuneta / 常田 大希
Performed by: King Gnu
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#ousamaranking #boy #kinggnu #rankingofkings

[Rui.Pandromeda]

To offer up tribute for the King of Anime music :D

[fruitanimeonpiano]

His piano skills would put him at rank #1.

[Simon-Jih]

Review of this great arrangement

The little downward apregios at 0:15 is a nice touch (also at 1:22 and 2:29), and especially when it appears again at 3:46, that really add certain brilliance to the sound.

The first verse has main melody in the middle and the top decoration line really stand out at 0:45.

0:48 has a dry sound, but 0:50 sounds like half pedal? really like that texture variation

1:10 you drop the pedal to cease the other sound but the E note is still held so the melody line isn’t cut abruptly, very nice detail.

1:27 love that left hand, the same chord with broken one first and then the complete one (sorry, I can’t find better word, haha)

And then the second verse is kinda the same to the first one?

2:34 introduce a groovy melody, love that you somehow find a way to use only two hand to keep that melody in the background(e.g. 2:46 look at that busy left hand, haha), this section kinda give me the same vibe as your Giorno's Theme arrangement.

2:59 love this kind of ‘echo’ of high note

3:07 we have a calm moment before the storm, not only does the volume drop, but you use very little note to give a ‘’clean’’ sound, that’s one of the reason your arrangement are not just random popular song arrangement, the dramatic dynamic range change in both volume and note quantity is just breath taking.

The chromatic high note in 3:30 is one note lower than the middle chromatic scale, this section along with that left hand in 3:32 is my favorite part of the song

3:32 the left hand with that pedal control is just it just sounds crisp!!!!

That long phrase start from 3:56 to 4:00 is beautiful!!!

4:06 that dotted octave is also my favorite part, brilliant !!!!

✌️

[vadrr-animeonpiano]

Finally a premiere that I actually made it to despite my time zone! This cover was amazing but Animenz probably gets so many of those to not care anymore so I’ll let my actions speak louder than my words. *starts dancing*

[aow]

Thanks for this wonderful arrangement!

[bern]

No cap this anime made me cry every time. And now I am crying too much because of this cover no cap, I just want to appreciate every disabled person who is going thru such hard times in their lives I also hope that this anime serves to be a helping hand that not every disabled person has been stripped out of rights to live instead let them enjoy their lives to the fullest.


Such a great anime that it pierced my heart within absolutely

[NowellPiano]

Man that left hand is so groovy, it's as if it's dodging attacks like Bojji

[boredPianoAdv]

"But my favorite part was actually playing the key change in 3:32 because this is the moment where I was finally “released” from the C-major key."

You can tell, he literally comes to life! Headbanging increases 3x

[Diya.B.]

YESSSS A KING GNU SONG!!! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT.

[PianoLifeM]

I can see how happy animenz was playing
And the Last move at the end 😂 4:10

[Saimiri]

The moment I heard the intro, I knew it has to be King Gnu their style is just so original. Amazing you make a piano version of it now!

[Zezemint]

BOY I love that octave sniping @ 3:29 !

I'm imagining that this groovy arrangement being played at a party with friends circling around and bouncing to the rhythm of the piano ~

[lancebarreto]

This is so good!!! Can't wait for you to play OP 2 of ousama rankings

[canadepiano]

The performance has a fast pace and is very comfortable to listen to!

[gleesinnpiano]

This was definitely my favorite opening of 2021. I tried to cover this one myself but I wanted to wait until Animenz arranged it so I could learn to play the best version possible

[maka]

I really liked both ops but the second one hits me right in my soul, music and drawings. I hope a cover is in the works. This one was perfect, you are awesome.

[zengarang]

what a groovy addition to the Animenz library! If i were to pick one word to sum up the jazzy runs and groovy rhythm of this arrangement, it would be "slick". The parallel RH melodies in the first verse are seamless and balanced. Every trill and run, especially in the bridge and final chorus, is perfectly even, as well as the large jumps just prior to the final chorus. So effortless!

[firesbain]

I’ve loved this song from the moment I started watching Ranking of Kings. When I saw the premiere for it, I legitimately sat there shocked for a couple seconds I was so excited. As always, a stunning arrangement from animenz, I wish my piano made those noises~

[bobbuilder]

Man, you gotta appreciate the gorgeous sound of that Steinway piano, too. What a beautiful instrument.

[lexilang]

king gnu's songs always have somewhat of a jazzy sound and i absolutely love it