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SteO153 t1_j856329 wrote

Cristina D'Avena has recorded almost 400 theme songs of animated series in Italy.

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konaya OP t1_j859d65 wrote

Yeah, I looked her up on Spotify when doing the research for this. I find it fascinating.

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Goleroth t1_j85c9dz wrote

Kind of the same thing for 'Bernard Minet' in France. This guy is a legend

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konaya OP t1_j85f2ro wrote

Yeah, I looked him up too on Spotify when researching. Maybe I should add the Spotify links to my top comment.

It's such a whiplash to go from the Italian one to the French one. Completely different vibes. I love it.

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ArvinaDystopia t1_j88l0uy wrote

Well, a "legend". Just because it's from our childhood doesn't mean we should disregard how terrible it was.
Bernard Minet's songs were ridiculously childish even for my 9 year old self!

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Goleroth t1_j88objs wrote

I never specified what 'legend' meant.

His songs are not to my taste. At least, he had his own style. That's something

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ArvinaDystopia t1_j895dpg wrote

Wouldn't say his style was that different from, say, Dorothée's. So, not even that.

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konaya OP t1_j89dq80 wrote

As someone who wasn't aware of his work until listening to the French intro right after the Italian one gave me a cultural whiplash, I wouldn't hesitate to call him a legend if this intro is representative of the rest of his work. Who knew Sailor Moon could be a sitcom?

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ArvinaDystopia t1_j8d4wag wrote

If you want to see him on the drums.
That's what we got instead of Cha-la head-cha-la.
Warning: that song is going to stay with you for decades, and not in a good way.

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konaya OP t1_j8dd4te wrote

Goodness! He does have a formula, doesn't he?

I dunno, I kinda dig how it's essentially the same song with the same lyric structure. It's so ridiculous I can't help but like it.

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r0dica t1_j8825zl wrote

I grew up watching anime on the Italian channels and had most of her songs memorized. I was about 20 and arguing with friends that anime were Italian :).. that was a rude awakening!

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DJKaito t1_j882jsh wrote

Same here with Andy Knote here in Germany. He and a hand full of people are responsible of every German song made in anime. They got even own sampler series. You can find them under "Anime Allstars"

some like Noel Pix got with Bands famous later.

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Patrick_Barababord t1_j884az6 wrote

Same with Bernard Minet in France. He made pretty much all the anime songs in the 90s. He's very famous now and even do some concerts.

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SteO153 t1_j884nwq wrote

Cristina D'Avena goes beyond just anime. What have Batman, the Smurfs, and One Piece in common? The theme song in Italian by Cristina D'Avena :-D

She also played the role of Licia/Yaeko in the live action of Love Me, My Knight/Rock ’n’ Roll Kids :-)

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Radical_Unicorn t1_j887er3 wrote

I’ve always wondered how she managed to produce that many, perhaps some of you folks from Italy can fill me in.

Was it because some studio executive wanted to be cheap with the localization and had one gal perform all those songs? Or was she just that talented and was able to knock out that many tracks in such a short time? Or….? I’ve just always found it odd (from an American perspective) that a large number of Italian dubs from that era seem to have only used one singer for their opening tracks.

Hopefully people won’t take it the wrong way. I’ve heard a number of her songs and even if I don’t know the language, she’s definitely made some real bangers.

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SteO153 t1_j889m8p wrote

Mediaset/Berlusconi. Berlusconi's TVs had a massive role in importing and popularise anime in Italy (and other European countries, like in Spain), and the company responsible for the recording of the songs was owned by Berlusconi as well. So she simply worked for a single company that distributed hundreds of animated series. Mediaset even produced several albums with the theme songs from animated series https://i.discogs.com/LyMJAWm9_zjQl_o97lOogZv2NG1CsMLN5nItCM6VHuY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:350/w:350/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU1NTY1/NzktMTM5NjQ2MTQ1/NC03OTAyLmpwZWc.jpeg

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Liuk7 t1_j888xhg wrote

I think it's because she was the one doing most of the openings for the biggest tv network in italy (mediaset) which also had the most stuff for kids/teenagers so she ended up doing so many anime.

Animes that were bought by other channels have different singers if they adapted the opening eg some of the most famous probably are fist of the north star and saint seiya.

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konaya OP t1_j888lzw wrote

And if they wanted to be cheap with the localisation, why create all these new songs from scratch instead of just karaokeing localised lyrics over the original tune, as seems to be the norm elsewhere?

I have to say I'm glad they did, whyever they did it, because they're bangers as you say.

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Radical_Unicorn t1_j88c13d wrote

Shrugs I just know that would be something along the lines dubbing studios here in the states have done. 4Kids instantly comes to mind.

Spend all their budget on dubbing all these projects and putting together new opening songs, only to save a few bucks by using the same pool of voice actors they already had on speed dial.

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