Sambomaster!

I don't remember where I last talked about Sambomaster or if I ever mentioned it at some point (which would be quite odd if I didn't). I probably did mention Naruto many times. The opening for Naruto that features Sambomaster's song is called Seishun Kyosokyouku, which got me hooked right away. If you watch the video, try imagining the face of the singer.

Now, here's the music video with the song in its entirety.

I still love this song. Rock on, japanese care bear!

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Lots of anime use songs from j-rock and j-pop bands for openings and endings. It's actually quite common for them to change the songs every season, and often in the middle of seasons. (Perhaps to boost the ratings, since it involves making new animations for the songs as well.) This applies to Inu Yasha, Naruto, Bleach, and other popular action series.

On the other hand, (short-running) romance anime use voice actors from the shows to sing their theme songs, if they're talented enough. So the anime in question will often scramble for leading voice actors that are proven to sing well and have great talent. For example, Love Hina and Chobits.

Anyway, the point is that there's a lot of money and time spent on making these openings and endings original, catchy and entertaining. So why would an american company license an anime and completely throw out the original opening to vomit up an abomination of a "song" like this opening for dubbed Naruto? (Don't tell me it's because they don't want to change the songs for an english audience, because they've pretty much left Inu Yasha as is due to the possibility of insane old geezer otaku backlash.)

Ok, I admit there have been weird things in the original as well. But really, generic rock riffs do not make a satisfactory substitution to this. (Or FURRIES and UNDERAGE GIRLS IN SWIMSUITS.)