Here comes Part 4 of our ClariS Week Special!
As you may have noticed, ClariS has sung many songs that have made it as OP or ED themes in anime series and OVAs. But their vocal charm didn’t end there; their songs and illustrations have made it as themes to multiple games, print and other media. In this installment, we will look at how you may have seen or heard of the girls’ voices outside of anime.
The first instance of this was for “irony” which was used as a TV CM theme for the Sharp Galapagos Android tablet, which also featured Kotobuki Minako. This TV CM aired December 2010.
After the release of Connect, one of the songs in that single was used as the main theme for a PSP game called Akiba’s Trip, which was released on May 2011, three months after the single.
One of the tracks from Nexus, “アナタニFIT (Fit For You)”, was used as the theme song for Good Smile Company’s Nendoroid line of figures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDHSMHGqEuA&feature=player_embedded
This song was used again in the PSP RPG Nendoroid Generation as an OP theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHcqEQhPang
Their songs have also reached the realm of music games (namely Konami’s Bemani series and Sega’s Maimai), albeit some of these versions are only covers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPUXihqXxnw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlOZuwWxmdE
The news that the upcoming 3DS/Vita RPG Exstetra will use the song [with you] as its opening theme was confirmed even before Second Story was released.
ClariS was also involved with a special collaboration album giving tribute to the band ZONE; they performed a cover of their song “true blue”. Other notable artists in this album were SCANDAL, the seiyuu group Sphere, and Supercell (featuring Yanagi Nagi).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjVSx7zOTuo
Outside of games, ClariS also lent their voices to sing themes for special issues/releases of print media.
Their song “Don’t cry” from Nexus was used as the theme song for Aoharu Magazine’s issue 0.5.
And “Nexus” was used as the theme song for the ninth volume of the Oreimo light novel. Not only that, but the girls were actually part of the story for that volume (which was, unfortunately, taken out almost completely in the anime’s 2nd season. Want to know why? It may have involved a scene with a little accident that got the main character, Kyousuke, in trouble again).
And, as shown in the Limited Edition covers for “irony” and “reunion”, the Oreimo girls love ClariS’s style, too!
And merch-wise, because of their status as Nendoroid’s endorsers, the girls have their own line of Nendoroid Petit figures.
If idols have photo books, ClariS have an art book. Titled “collection”, it was released in September 14, 2012.
Drawn by various artists and each one depicting a specific ClariS song, here are some samples of the art.
The girls have also been made into themes for several cafes/dining events. The Good Smile Cafe had a ClariS theme for a certain time, and their menu featured dishes and drinks that matched the girls’ motifs and colors.
They have a current collaboration with ufotable, two events called ClariS Cafe and ClariS DINING held in ufotable’s Cafe and Dining establishments. The ClariS Cafe served light food and drinks, while ClariS DINING had the more elegant dishes.
With this collaboration, ufotable gave the girls a new image to delight customers.
Their songs and their charm are slowly reaching more places and in more ways, and that’s not a bad thing at all!
Next up: More about their early covers, and some of the best remixes done to their songs!
(Sources: ClariS Cafe, ClariS DINING, Aoharu, official Exstetra website, ClariS Twitter page, Baka-Tsuki)