#...did you find the katsuyuki konishi BL clips though?

[innerchorus]

Random sleepy question (hello I was napping and woke up to your post, what an evening): how well do you think the ArSen cast can sing? I've been thinking about one of my ArSen OCs and then my thoughts drifted to the canon cast. Would they like singing? Are they good at it? I've tried searching up stuff sung by the VAs (Katsuyuki Konishi was actually the first I looked, LOL) but all of the songs were... not very much to my taste. Why do VA songs tend to be very loud and shouty and stuff? Where are the quieter, softer songs? Am I just very bad at looking??? 🤣

Either way, please answer this only when you feel like it— and have a nice day!

Oh, I’ve got something good for you! There are actually a few Arslan Senki character songs, sung by the voice actors in-character! These were able to be unlocked in the Arslan Senki x Musou game, and were later released on a CD included with the sixth S1 Blu-ray/DVD release in Japan. You can listen to them here! The tracklist is as follows:

1.   Kazeshirube (風導 -kazeshirube- lit. Guided by Winds) by Arslan (CV: Yūsuke Kobayashi) 2.   Tatakai, Sore wa Kishi no Shinjitsu (戦い、それは騎士の真実 lit. Fighting, This is the Knight's Truth) by Daryun (CV: Yoshimasa Hosoya) 3.   Bigaku no Shōzō (美学の肖像 lit. A Portrait of Aesthetics) by Narsus (CV: Daisuke Namikawa) 4.   Namonaki Hoshi (名もなき星 lit. A Nameless Star) by Elam (CV: Natsuki Hanae) 5.   Koto no Hane Oto no Sora (言の羽 音の空 lit. Feathers of Words, The Sky of Sounds) by Gieve (CV: KENN)

...I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t looked for songs by Katsuyuki Konishi before. It’s been a while since I last listened to them but I remember quite liking Koran, if only because I amused myself by imagining salaryman Shapur from Corporate Warrior Arslan being persuaded to join the other Pars Corporation employees for karaoke and singing it (and of course he’d have to be drunk to do it, so drunk in fact that Kubard’s going to have to help him get home despite his protests that he’s fine). In terms of softer songs, you might like 祈念 (Kinen).

As far as canon characters go, I know of one canonically good singer (Manuchurh, he apparently had a very beautiful voice) and several bad ones (Kubard, Innocentis, Don Ricardo). There might be some others mentioned, those are just the ones I can remember. Singing is also part of Turanian culture! Burhan sings at one point and so does Jimsa. For the others, it’s not something I’ve really thought about before so I don’t have any headcanons about specific characters yet ...actually wait, I lied, I do headcanon that Gurgin has a pleasant singing voice, not that he tends to use it recreationally, or at all when he’s with Team Zahhak

I remember Farangis singing to lay the dead to rest in the anime (S1 E25). In the novel, it just says that she prays for the fallen. Perhaps melodic chanting / singing is incorporated into the work of priests and priestesses, too? I’m not sure about whether it’s directly mentioned somewhere else in the novels, but I like the idea.

Not directly related to what you’re asking, but it amuses me and I think you’ll enjoy it, too — some of Isfan’s heroic deeds later become the subject of a ballad (something like “Isfan and His Two Wolves, Protectors of the People”). I’m not sure at what stage it went from a story being recounted multiple times to being immortalised as a folk song, but on the offchance Gieve ever found out about it, I am 100% certain he sang it in Isfan’s hearing just to piss him off.