Few songs have had such an impact on me as suddenly and without apparent reason as this one.
Zankyou no Terror, the anime this song belongs to, was one that I dropped after the first episode. Somehow it just didn't get me hooked when it came out. After a couple reviews talking about how well directed it was I decided to pick it up again, and with a matured mindset I watched it from beginning to end, every single episode.
The first episode ends and you're left with this song Dare Ka Umi Wo, or "Someone Give Me The Sea" according to a random translation I found. The episode itself didn't have great impact on me, but as soon as the song hit I felt like I myself was hit by a block of concrete. Never before had a song brought me back such deep feelings of depression. I'm not depressed, I'm doing just fine, but this song somehow had awaken these old feelings with a simple melody and great writing.
The first episode ends and you're left with this song Dare Ka Umi Wo, or "Someone Give Me The Sea" according to a random translation I found. The episode itself didn't have great impact on me, but as soon as the song hit I felt like I myself was hit by a block of concrete. Never before had a song brought me back such deep feelings of depression. I'm not depressed, I'm doing just fine, but this song somehow had awaken these old feelings with a simple melody and great writing.
So what happened there? Yoko Kanno happened, that's what!
The greatest OST genius to ever bless this earth, Yoko motherfucking Kanno.
If you're unfamiliar, you heretic, with her work, you should remember Cowboy Bepop's brilliant OST and how ..yeah you know it, FUNKY it was! If you don't, do yourself a favor and go listen to it right now.
Now you may ask, what makes her work brilliant?
Let's dissect Zankyou no Terror's ending track and figure it out!
The greatest OST genius to ever bless this earth, Yoko motherfucking Kanno.
If you're unfamiliar, you heretic, with her work, you should remember Cowboy Bepop's brilliant OST and how ..yeah you know it, FUNKY it was! If you don't, do yourself a favor and go listen to it right now.
Now you may ask, what makes her work brilliant?
Let's dissect Zankyou no Terror's ending track and figure it out!
Analysis
Not only the song starts with just piano and vocals straight away, it steadily grows darker in tone.
"Won't someone sprinkle the ocean
over my head
I want to be bathed in
sinking fish and sunlight
The vivid unknown
The magic that disappears when I stumble
The cracked sky visible beyond
the preparations"
Japanese is a great language for working melody since everything always has the same sound and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. Now notice just how well this woman can write, it's poetic but clear and leaves plenty of room for your imagination to create all the imagery. The sequence of "the"'s of course is not nearly the sin it is in english when you translate back to japanese, thus not hurting the song at all. In this second part the piano turns brighter and by the last line a wild violin appears (along with a few extra sounds that complement the song perfectly)
"On the rooftops of the ruins
Enclosing the whisperings of
struggling downy feathers
We are a song
On the grey earth
Clad in the roar
of the scattered light
We are a bouquet
Plucked wings"
This part is where the song hits a dramatic climax(hold your dirty thoughts, you hentai!). You may notice a common structure here where she defines a place "on the" than defines herself "we are", the the way she ties it all together is what makes it great, she mentions the feathers in the first paragraph and brings it back as a finish to the second. Whispering we are song, Clothed we are a bouquet.
I also enjoy how "Plucked wings" feels like an unfinished sentence along with the instrumental while leading with an arrangement of voices to the lowest part of the song right after this climax.
"Words
Blown backwards without breath
Scattering beautifully"
This is where the song finishes a loop to begin another just like the last. Except not exactly! The instrumental now gives you the feeling of dragging on, like when you're bored and if feels like it will never end, like the boredom itself weights on you.
This is as far as I'll take you.
It's enough to notice Yoko's BROKEN BRILLIANCE! (brother nero!) . Her greatest talent is how she works with the diverse layers of sounds to create one same feeling, making her a great OST composer. Of course we can't ignore her talent to capture those feelings in the first place so that she may translate it into sound, these lyrics present the characters much better than the animuu ever will.
I've only just barely memorized hiragana so if anything about the japanese is wrong, that's why.
[edit]Lyrics were written by Aoba Ichiko, which doesn't take anything away from the brilliant arrangement, but credit where credit is due, the lyrics are fucking awesome.[/edit]
"Won't someone sprinkle the ocean
over my head
I want to be bathed in
sinking fish and sunlight
The vivid unknown
The magic that disappears when I stumble
The cracked sky visible beyond
the preparations"
Japanese is a great language for working melody since everything always has the same sound and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. Now notice just how well this woman can write, it's poetic but clear and leaves plenty of room for your imagination to create all the imagery. The sequence of "the"'s of course is not nearly the sin it is in english when you translate back to japanese, thus not hurting the song at all. In this second part the piano turns brighter and by the last line a wild violin appears (along with a few extra sounds that complement the song perfectly)
"On the rooftops of the ruins
Enclosing the whisperings of
struggling downy feathers
We are a song
On the grey earth
Clad in the roar
of the scattered light
We are a bouquet
Plucked wings"
This part is where the song hits a dramatic climax(hold your dirty thoughts, you hentai!). You may notice a common structure here where she defines a place "on the" than defines herself "we are", the the way she ties it all together is what makes it great, she mentions the feathers in the first paragraph and brings it back as a finish to the second. Whispering we are song, Clothed we are a bouquet.
I also enjoy how "Plucked wings" feels like an unfinished sentence along with the instrumental while leading with an arrangement of voices to the lowest part of the song right after this climax.
"Words
Blown backwards without breath
Scattering beautifully"
This is where the song finishes a loop to begin another just like the last. Except not exactly! The instrumental now gives you the feeling of dragging on, like when you're bored and if feels like it will never end, like the boredom itself weights on you.
This is as far as I'll take you.
It's enough to notice Yoko's BROKEN BRILLIANCE! (brother nero!) . Her greatest talent is how she works with the diverse layers of sounds to create one same feeling, making her a great OST composer. Of course we can't ignore her talent to capture those feelings in the first place so that she may translate it into sound, these lyrics present the characters much better than the animuu ever will.
I've only just barely memorized hiragana so if anything about the japanese is wrong, that's why.
[edit]Lyrics were written by Aoba Ichiko, which doesn't take anything away from the brilliant arrangement, but credit where credit is due, the lyrics are fucking awesome.[/edit]