Blog cover art by @ThirteenthAngel.ink
Channels mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@StudioYuraki https://www.youtube.com/@SamIsNotDead
On October 14th 2017, a legend was born.
A small YouTube channel called Studio Yuraki released a cover of a little song you may or may not have heard of, Bad Apple.
Now, I don't remember exactly which of Yuraki's videos or what year I discovered them were, but I THINK it was their cover of Colors of the Heart in 2018. If not, then it was somewhere around that time and one of their other covers.
Now that I think about it, this Colors of the Heart cover ties in to the earliest days of my writing! For some reason, I heavily associated this cover in particular (not even the original Uverworld song) with a story I was writing at the time, which for the life of me I could NEVER come up with a name for, but the two main characters were called Shirin and Hichikai.
It was heavily inspired by Bleach and took place in this world that was a completely white void with no foreseeable atmosphere or underground, everything was just suspended in this void like a flat minecraft world. There was nature and civilization but everything up and down was an endless white void.
The plot had something to do with Shirin and Hichikai being twins who were around the age of seven or eight waking up in the middle of a beautiful valley surrounded on all sides by pink cherry blossom trees. (I keep returning to this visual of valleys surrounded by trees in my stories for some reason)
They eventually run into a military commander of the humans of this world and are raised by him, and many years later when they're around seventeen, Hichikai is kidnapped by the "Beast Men" (very creative name) and Shirin had to hrough a Shonen-type character arc of unlocking abilities and finding confidence and yada yada.
That tangent aside, this song is probably the earliest example of me listening to music and closing my eyes to visualize the world and characters I was writing about in action.
Since then, I've done this weird thing where some songs make me imagine anime openings of the stories I'm writing. 😆
Many of the songs in my Hidden Fangs playlist make me imagine such things for that story:
Around the same time in I think 2018, I enjoyed their other covers such as Go Cry Go, My Hero, Hitorigoto (IT'S A GOOD SONG OKAY), One Reason, and more.
Also around this time, I was turning eighteen, and felt pressured by others and myself to get a job.
I wanted something easy where I wouldn't have to deal with co-workers and customers. Something where I could do some honest work, keep to myself, make my money, then go back home and listen to Studio Yuraki covers (that wasn't all I did, but for the sake of this post it's more fun just to mention that).
With that, I applied for a job at a car wash where I was under the impression that all I had to do was dry off cars coming out of the tunnel. It was minimum wage, but it was something.
Sounds easy! I thought, and went in expecting a nice lowkey job with little to no human interaction.
Unfortunately, reality doesn't always go the way you expect.
Upon walking up to the property for either my first shift or orientation (can't remember), I was immediately reminded of how much of a hard time I have with integrating myself into groups. I could already tell this was a job where I'd have to at least be frequently involved with my co-workers... yay.
I would come to find out that I would be quite involved with the customers as well, which I especially came to dread. Some people didn't know how to put their car in neutral so the tunnel's track could push them along as the vehicle was washed, some people drove through the tunnel and broke shit, some wanted to talk politics with me as I prepped their car that was MOVING. Some stopped and held up a LONG line that went down the street... Thinking back, it was far from the hardest job I would end up working, but back then it was all new to me and very stressful.
This probably sounds pathetic, but for as long as I can remember I've never been normal. I can't just do what everyone else is doing and be calm and collected.
I get overstimulated easy, and so at the age of 18 working my first real job I was overwhelmed.
I ended up having to do way more than I signed up for. But over the years I came to realize that's any job LOL, no escaping that.
I learned real quick that bosses do NOT like seeing you stand around when work is slow. I was actually rather motivated to work, and I always saw slackers in a particularly sour way, I was just surprised that I had to do things that weren't on the job posting.
That, combined with having a rough time connecting with my co-workers, I wasn't having a great time at the job and began to feel depressed working there.
I even yelled at a co-worker once which I NEVER do. I just got pushed to my limit at that job sometimes.
There were brief points of some days when we weren't busy where I was asked to do extra tasks such as mowing the grass on the property, or cleaning windows and signs. This extra stuff eventually turned into my favorite part of the day because I usually did them alone and got to be in my own head and process the things that had happened prior that day.
When I can't have a quiet mind, I don't feel like myself and I get overwhelmed.
During these "me-time"s, I got to zone out to music and---to stay on topic for this post---I of course listened to Studio Yuraki covers.
I remember while working this car wash job I listened to their Kiss of Death cover A LOT. That song was so beautifu, t got me through a particularly rough time mentally. I didn't even feel anything about anyone romantically at that time in my life, I just really loved the composition of the song and the blending of the two vocalists.
I haven't mentioned them yet because I knew as soon as I did I would end up going on a tangent about them, but the channel's primary vocalists Sam Luff (he also mixed the tracks) and Kelly Mahoney are among my favorite singers of all time.
And that's saying a LOT because I listen to all kinds of artists across a variety of genres. Just look at my massive primary Spotify playlist.
(my post bugged out and I lost like 5 minutes of writing around this point 😢 I did my best to remember what I typed but FUCK)
Sam Luff's instrumental and vocal works are SO GOOD. He somehow finds a way to sound as close to the songs he covers as possible, while also integrating his own unique voice into the songs. Not to mention translating the songs to english on top of that!
Kelly Mahoney too! Her vocals are so groovy and she has so much range that her singing has been in my head for YEARS. I've been listening to these covers since I was 17, I'm 25 now.
emote by @KoiThunder
These two are amazing. If I was more musically inclined, I would get into the science behind why their singing is so good, but all I can tell you is how happy they make me. 😊
I think a big part of why these covers are so special is because I get to hear already wonderful songs in a language I fully comprehend, and thus can relate to the lyrics more.
Kelly's cover of God Knows is ICONIC.
The variety of styles Sam and Kelly can so naturally adapt to is INSANE. I feel like words alone can't do it justice (I'm definitely not just bad at using words) so here's some more covers they've done that showcase just how skilled and talented they are across all kinds of genres.
This display of pure musical flexibility is something you hardly see from some of the most popular musicians out there, so it's really impressive and inspiring to see from Sam, Kelly, Angela, and all the other vocalists that have been featured on Studio Yuraki.
But nothing lasts forever 😢.
On May 29th 2022, Studio Yuraki released their final cover.
Two years. Two long years. That's how long it took us to get Sam Luff english anime covers back...
(leave a comment if you know what game I just referenced there)
Throughout the years of releasing covers, Yuraki teased other projects such as their original visual novels, and 2D anime-style animations. I was about just as interested in these projects as I was the covers, and I was excited to see what their plans were with these other pursuits of theirs.
However, as far as I knew there wasn't much public information about thse things, so I just waited around for whatever they uploaded to the YT channel.
Eventually, it would appear that their focus was shifting away from covers and more towards animations.
In the present, they do work for VTubers from Nijisanji EN such as Scarle Yonaguni, Aster Arcadia, and Uki Violeta.
sourced from an official announcement in the Studio Yuraki Discord community server.
And as such, their anime opening/ending covers needed to take a backseat.
Ask anyone in the live chat for the new 24/7 Anime Cover Radio by Studio Yuraki (more on that in a bit), and they'll tell you they were just as sad as I was to no longer be getting covers produced by Sam.
For that two year drought period where the Studio Yuraki channel posted no new videos, no community post updates, nothing, all us fans had were to continue playing their almost two-hundred covers on loop to fill the deep void in our hearts.
My young adult years have been filled with pain, loss, growth, enlightenment, and everything else that can happen in any person's life. And through it all, I had Studio Yuraki covers to help me process and cope with my experiences.
This gif was created in collaboration by my friends faevirr and SatoriSaucey
Turns out that the folks of the studio didn't just get Thanos-snapped from existence, they all of course have their own lives and the team have been COOKING in the background! As previously mentioned, they had been working with VTubers to provide super impressive, industry-level animations for their clients.
You can check out some of their portfolio and reach out to them here!
These animations are amazing! But for me personally, these VTubers were ones I wasn't particularly invested in, and their visual novel works had been cancelled, so I personally had nothing to look forward to from the Studio. Still, I wished for success and further opportunities for them because GOD do they deserve it.
And then, it happened...
On August 3rd 2024, Studio Yuraki made their first post in over two years... a live stream.
The idea of a STUDIO YURAKI 24/7 radio is something I never knew I wanted, but now that it exists I've come to realize that I've been NEEDING THIS.
The first day of the stream, their chat was full of people who were just as passionate about their music as I had been all these years!
I'd read comments on their videos before and seen people talking about how much they loved the covers, but I never really came to comprehend just how much others love these songs.
This live chat has been a fun place to discuss the covers---among other things---and meet very interesting, like-minded people (we talk about Black Clover A LOT in that chat).
But within minutes of discovering this stream, I saw something in the video description that was somehow even more earth-shattering.
"Sam Luff's channel: SamIsNotDead"
Wait, this can't be... I thought. There's no way... THE Sam Luff has a Youtube channel?
Reading this, I had to do a double- no, a TRIPLE take, just to be sure what I was reading was reality.
See, with the drought of Studio Yuraki content, that also meant no more vocal performances from Sam and Kelly. I figured I'd heard the last of their voices for the rest of my life.
But just like mowing the lawn, and selling tires to people at my various jobs despite those things not being on the job postings, reality does not always go as expected...
Sure enough, the man himself, one of my favorite vocalists of all time, had been posting covers to his OWN channel for three months prior to the debut of the Yuraki radio!
I cursed myself for not having discovered this sooner! I looked up Sam and Kelly over the years (definitely not psychotic behavior) to see if they had been posting anything.
(I did find Kelly who does live performances now and then!)
It turned out that the other reason for the Yuraki channel ceasing production of covers was because Sam had to step away from making music in order to focus on life and work (relatable).
Sourced from community posts and comments from the SamIsNotDead channel.
But on April 14 2024, he posted his first anime cover in over two years.
What a fitting channel name SamIsNotDead is...
Reading the comments on his videos and community posts, I discovered more folks who missed him just as much as I did. It's been really cool to see.
So yeah, this music is incredibly close to my heart and I just wanted to make a post talking about how important it is to me.
I'm so glad to see Sam is back to putting out music, even if he has stated he won't be working for Studio Yuraki exclusively anymore. (However he has stated that he's still in contact with Yuraki's creator Edward Kloss and future collabs are not off the table).
Studio Yuraki has stated how they're planning to revive the YouTube channel, and even if it's not music related, I'm excited to see what they have planned!
It's just really cool that these creators have started doing stuff again. It's made me think back on all I've been through over the years, and how these anime covers have helped me through it all.
Thanks for reading! I'm still new to this whole blog post thing and I don't really know how to end it properly, but please go check out Studio Yuraki and SamIsNotDead!
The Rise, Success, Disappearance, and Return of the BEST Anime Opening Cover Artists