SPECIALZ - Jujutsu Kaisen S2 OP2 [Piano] /King Gnu
29,662U R MY SPECIAL.
This is my piano arrangement of SPECIALZ by King Gnu, the 2nd OP of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Shibuya Incident Arc was really peak anime in 2023 – and I absolutely enjoyed the crazy ride.
SPECIALZ is a very dark piece and the aggressive hammering beat is essentially creating an atmosphere of a “death march” for all the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen. I tried my best to translate the “hammering” of the original song as good as possible on the piano, but I also added a few additional melody layers in 0:35, 1:56 and 2:28 to contrast the peaceful side of the music.
① Iguchi-san vs Tsuneta-san (the two vocalists of King Gnu)
I decided to use different voice ranges for the main melody because each range has a different voice characteristic. The voice of Iguchi-san has been assigned to the higher range (0:50) while Tsuneta-san is covering the lower range (0:54). I kept the voice splitting fairly consistent for both the verse and the chorus to create a duet between these voices on the piano. It’s also more interesting to play too.
② Cursed by a Hammer
If you have watched the Music Video of SPECIALZ you’d probably notice many scenes featuring people doing a hammering motion in a monotone rhythm. I tried to do the same for the piano and the constant left hand jumping in the verse (0:19) and in the chorus (0:50) is basically mirroring the hammering beats of the music. There are also a few times, where I have to use unusual hand splitting to continue the hammering beats such as in 2:36.
③ The mystery bass
When arranging this piece, I was not sure if the chord progression in 1:48 is D7–A7–D7 or D7-F#m-E . But I decided to keep the A7 chord for this arrangement after all because it’s more similar to the chord progressions in classical music.
I also did a “Shibuya Crossing” (aka Hand Crossing) on the piano in 0:35 and 2:36. And after the Shibuya incident, not only Shibuya but whole Tokyo is in a great danger now. I really hope that MAPPA will start producing Season 3 soon!
Alright, that would be everything!
Thank you so much for your support in the year 2023! All of you are very special(z) to me.
And thanks to the active anime piano community, I will continue doing my best!
Please look forward to the new projects I will be working on in the year 2024.
See you again in my next video!
WE R SPECIAL.
Animenz
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Sheet music download link:
https://mymusic.st/animenzzz/141409
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Original Song: SPECIALZ
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
Published by: Sony Music LAbels Inc. (2023)
Composed by: Daiki Tsuneta
Performed by: King Gnu
Piano arrangement by Animenz
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Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Animenzzz
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/animenz_official/
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Official Website:
https://www.animenzpiano.com/
Animenz Sheet Music Book
https://animenz-shop.com/
Digital Sheet Music:
https://www.mymusicsheet.com/animenzzz/
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#jjk #jujutsukaisen #kinggnu #specialz