#Kalafina Challenge my sets

[hikaru9]

Kalafina Ruined My Life Challenge:

Keiko Songs & Live Performances: Yami no Uta (闇の唄) [1/3]

[putschki1969]

FictionJunction Station Express Railway Newsletter Vol.06 Scans

Here are my HQ scans of the latest FJS fan club magazine.

Vol.02 | Vol. 03 | Vol.04 | Vol.05

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Kajiura Yuki x KEIKO SPECIAL TALK English Translation

Note: This talk covers their entire history together so I thought it would be nice to provide a translation. They also mention Wakana a couple of times which is always a treat. It never fails to warm my heart to see them refer to Wakana as Wa-chan/WAKANA-chan. On a side note, I love how YK speaks so highly of Keiko, she definitely deserves all the praise! Without further ado, please enjoy!

As a member of FictionJunction and Kalafina, KEIKO has been singing Kajiura’s songs for a very long time, now they have finally come together for a dialogue. This talk will cover a long time span, starting from their first meeting up until this year’s Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#16. In addition to looking back on all lives until vol.#16, they will also discuss KEIKO's 2nd solo album "dew" which was released on December 8th.

ー I think the first time KEIKO sang one of Kajiura-san's songs was when she did the insert song "Kaze no Machi he" for the anime "Tsubasa Chronicle". When exactly did you two first meet?

Kajiura: Yes, our first meeting was around the time of "Kaze no Machi he" [※ ~2005]. That was an insert song, the character was singing it during a scene so I had to find a singer with a voice that would match the image of the character. I was looking for something husky, a deep alto but at that time, I knew no one that would fit this image. That’s when Mori-san introduced me to KEIKO-chan [※ Both Yuki and Kalafina used to be managed by Yasunori Mori under Space Craft]. KEIKO: At that time I had been doing various things on my own because I wanted to sing but really, I had zero experience so when I first heard about the opportunity to sing "Kaze no Machi he" I was honestly a little dumbfounded *laughs*. Kajiura: That's right *laughs*. That song was completely different from anything that KEIKO-chan was doing at that time as a member of Itokubo. KEIKO: Indeed! At that time, I was singing only punk and rock so it was a very fresh experience.

ー Was "Kaze no Machi he" a big challenge?

KEIKO: I didn't even have the awareness to consider it as a challenge, I was just super nervous. This sort of music was unknown to me so I had no idea how to sing it.

ー Do you remember the recording process?

KEIKO: I still remember that I wrongly assumed I would have to sing the chorus part with the coined words. However, I didn't get the score for the coined words so I desperately listened to the demo tape again and again, trying to make out the words and writing them down in katakana so I could bring them with me to the studio *laughs*. Then when I arrived at the studio YURIKO KAIDA-san was there and I suddenly remembered that she would be in charge of the chorus. I was so relieved! Kajiura: Oh really?? I'm so sorry about that misunderstanding! *laughs*

ー How was the recording itself, with a song that you were not familiar with?

Kajiura: It didn’t take too long, did it? KEIKO: On the contrary, there was so little that I could actually do back then. I remember Kajiura-san guiding me through a lot of the process and suggested to sing “in a natural manner”  Kajiura: The song was set to be sung in a small venue so it was meant to be rather quiet and intimate. Nothing too exciting or cheerful, it was perfect for the image. I still really love that song.

ー The song was pretty mature for KEIKO’s age at that time, wasn’t it?

KEIKO: It's true that the character’s age was much higher than my own but I didn't even think about it *laughs*. Perhaps because of my youth, I was more focused on listening and singing rather than thinking about stuff. To be honest, I feel like at that time I couldn't afford to think about anything, I just did it.

ー Kalafina came a few years later. How was it when there was first talk about the Kalafina project?

KEIKO: Once again I was rather taken aback *laughs*. Mori-san told me about the audition for "The Garden of Sinners", the theme songs were supposed to be sung by different vocalists. The thing is, there was this anime but I didn’t think about whether I liked it or not, I just decided to prepare for the audition. There were about 3 assigned songs for the audition but the only one I liked in the selection was “Hoseki” so I thought that going with that would be my best option. I still remember practicing and going to the audition [※ Fun fact: Hikaru also auditioned with “Hoseki”]. Kajiura: Kalafina was off to a bumpy start, wasn't it? I didn’t show my face to anyone at that time and we really didn’t have many chances to meet each other, none of the members were supposed to be permanent so it didn’t make any sense to meet up. Everything started from the premise that the project would inevitably end as soon as "The Garden of Sinners" series was finished so I don't think anyone involved experienced it as a pleasant situation, it felt wrong to think about it as a proper debut. I felt the same way, I didn't know how long I would be allowed to do it, I wanted to continue working with these talented vocalists but if I had been told to continue with someone else I would have had no choice but to do so. That's why I couldn't make any promises for the future to the three of them, even though we recorded and released CDs, it was honestly so intangible and didn’t feel like an accomplishment at all, I think everyone was a bit annoyed. It wasn’t until the release of their 1st album and the single “Lacrimosa” when it was officially decided to have the three of them as permanent members of the group.  KEIKO: Indeed, until then everything felt tenuous at best. Kajiura: Truth is, the original plan was to have seven vocalists for the seven movies of "The Garden of Sinners," they wanted seven newcomers to do it. For me personally it was more important to have good singers rather than a bunch of newcomers so that’s what I tried to tell the people in charge. But it was all pretty vague for a long time so it must have been extremely tough for the three of them, not knowing what would come next.

ー So the situation changed after that 1st album was released？

Kajiura: I mean, from the 2nd single onwards, all their names and faces were revealed but no one really knew the reason why that wasn’t the case for the first song *laughs* Perhaps it wasn’t until Kalafina started their live activities that they finally felt like a proper unit. Before that we would only meet briefly during recordings and we didn’t talk about anything. KEIKO: At the beginning it definitely felt like we were all on our own vs. Kajiura. There was no sense of togetherness.

ー When Kalafina started, did you have any issues with the extensive chorus work?

KEIKO: …Not particularly？ Kajiura: KEIKO-chan was participating in the Yuki Kajiura LIVES while she started her Kalafina activities. I think she felt like she was ready to record all these Kalafina songs because her skills had already improved considerably. KEIKO: It’s not like I didn’t worry about it but yeah, it was something along those lines. I mean, we even went to New York for some music production and I was singing together with experienced vocalists such as KAORI and Yuri-chan (YURIKO KAIDA), so it felt like a different dimension. I thought it was amazing to stand on the same stage as the person who sang the chorus of “Kaze no Machi he”, it truly was a great experience. Kajiura: I think your first experience with harmonising was when you performed as member of FictionJunction, right? KEIKO: The singing parts in the Yuki Kajura LIVES were very difficult. In the early days, most Kalafina songs had a pattern of “main vocal vs. other melody” but the FictionJunction songs had many difficult phrases rather than just plain harmonies. In the beginning I really couldn’t do a lot so I wasn’t of much use but slowly I saw my name appearing more and more frequently on the music sheets so I wonder if that might have been a reflection of my increasing skills.

ー Do you have any particular memories from the early days？

KEIKO: I remember every single live but I clearly recall the time when we had a Kalafina and a FJ performance two days in a row at JCB HALL [※ Kajiura Produce 3rd Anniversary LIVE TOUR]. Wa-chan and I were participating in both so this tour really improved our mental strength and memory. I feel like it was even harder than Kalafina's Nippon Budokan 2DAY LIVE which pretty much had two completely different set lists. Kajiura: Ah yes, it was at the time of Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#6 in 2010. We would have a 2DAY event for every venue, one day was dedicated to Kalafina, and the other day was for a YK LIVE, KEIKO-chan and WAKANA-chan were taking part in every single one of those lives ... I think it must have been hell for the two of you *laughs*. KEIKO: I had no idea what to expect back then so I had no way of properly preparing. Then again, nothing could have prepared me for it. All I knew was that I had to get through it! My focus and concentration were tremendous. Looking back, I am glad that we did those lives. We also did the Kalafina Asia Tour that year, it felt natural to sing every day. If it hadn’t been for these tours, I don’t think I would have gotten used to the regular live performances so quickly. They became a matter of course for me and that’s a good thing. *laughs*

ーThis became your foundation?

Kajiura: I felt like KEIKO-chan was worrying a lot during the first Yuki Kajiura LIVE, she didn’t quite know what she was doing. But then all of a sudden she became an incredibly reliable vocalist *laughs*. At around vol.#3 it was clear that KEIKO-chan had improved a lot and grown immensely as a singer so I was able to 100% rely on her *laughs* KEIKO: Yeah, I guess *laughs* Kajiura: Nowadays, it feels like she is truly the backbone of FictionJunction. I appreciate the sense of stability that KEIKO-chan is able to provide.

ー What happened to KEIKO in that short period of time after VOL＃1 to inspire that change？

Kajiura: KEIKO-chan really hates to lose, she is very diligent. She has a lot of respect for the work she does and is not willing to waste any time so I think that’s what enabled her to improve and grow in such a short amount of time.  KEIKO: I was in a hurry to catch up *laughs* Because everyone around me had so much more experience than me. I think it was a good environment for growth.  Kajiura: Maybe it was KEIKO-chan's growth that eventually changed the environment for the better. If you do your best like that, everyone, including myself, will be inspired to work just as hard. The sense of stability of the Yuki Kajiura LIVE regular team was truly tremendous back then, and I felt like this year’s vol.#16 was also amazing. I think KEIKO-chan was the major driving force to get us to this point so I am very grateful. KEIKO: I really enjoyed this live! Kajiura: It was really wonderful and your singing was so amazing that no praise would ever do it justice. I kept thinking that your vocals were astounding so I couldn’t help but tell you again and again. KEIKO: On this tour, we had a lot of discussions with everyone during the vocal rehearsals. Kajiura: Oh really? I want to know what you talked about *laughs*. I am always wondering what you are talking about. KEIKO: First of all, we each listen to the original version of the songs and practice by ourselves regarding various aspects, then the four of us come together for a group rehearsal. This time there were many Japanese songs which we hadn’t performed before, and moreover, they we were singing a lot of original songs. We had no real reference so our individual preparations were quite different depending on the song, we certainly had to discuss a lot. "Which is the correct way to sing this?" For some song it was relatively easy to find a solution but we struggled to find a good flow in "Beginning" and "Kioku no Mori" which were at the beginning of the live and were meant to serve as a sort of introduction for each voice. Kajiura-san had assigned certain parts to all of us so working on connecting the vocals proved to be quite difficult. Instead of creating harmonies like in "Distance", we are going from one vocal to the next to highlight them, just to eventually come together in “Kioku no Mori”. It took us a long time and we tried over and over again until I finally felt like I was getting more comfortable with "Kioku no Mori". Kajiura: About half of the set list was made up of FictionJunction songs but we don’t have WAKANA-chan with us anymore, instead we have Joelle-san. However, Joelle-san is not there to simply sing WAKANA-chan’s parts, her parts have been reassigned to the other members as well. The same is true for Kalafina's songs, truth is, with the exception of Aimer-san’s songs, none of the other songs are exactly the same as they used to be, I had to redo everything, so I think it was very difficult for my four utahimes to work with that. Also, everyone had a bit of a dry spell due to corona so I was a little worried whether or not they could handle the challenge after such a long break. But turns out I needn’t have worried, everyone was amazing so I felt bad for ever doubting them *laughs*. KEIKO: I'm happy you are saying this *laughs*. Kajiura: After all, you are seasoned performers. All of them have a high skill level and are accustomed to harmonising, they are also good at listening to their fellow members’ singing and adjusting their own singing accordingly. I think that there were many fans who hesitated to attend the lives because of corona but with everyone, including KEIKO-chan, singing so beautifully, you will surely have a change of heart and decide to come. You were guaranteed a fun experience so how could anyone miss out on that? Moreover, this time it was a live where the audience couldn’t do anything except sit there and listen so the utahimes needed to be all the more engaging to create a fun atmosphere. They really did their best and made it a wonderful live. The fact that they sang so well in such difficult times, there is really not enough praise for that!  KEIKO: This time the set list was full of inspiring and motivational songs. For this reason, I put in a lot more time into preparation and rehearsed frequently by myself. I feel like I've been preparing for two months straight after finishing the FC event in spring. I trained my body and had gained some experience holding a live completely by myself so once the vocal rehearsals had started I felt like I was up to the challenge. The set list was filled with so much fighting spirit that it had just the right amount of heat for a tour in the middle of a pandemic. I wanted to make it a live where the audience would feel like deep inside they could move along despite only being able to sit there quietly. It was similar to what I felt back in 2010 when I had this strong drive to increase the heat *laughs*. With all the breaks and cancellations in light of the pandemic I thought it was very important to go on stage and experience this unique feeling in order not to forget it. Kajiura: I really liked KEIKO-chan's singing in "Beginning". I think that 5 years ago, you would have put too much effort into the performance to make it perfect but this time it felt very intimate, like a private session, like an performance from your "KEIKO’s Room" series *laughs*. It was almost like you were singing in a tiny room, I wonder if you feel the same way? KEIKO: There were times in the past when I wanted to convey such a feeling but I couldn't. I think I am able to do this now because of the experience I have gained, I would like to continue slowly adding nuances like that to my singing. Kajiura: I remember asking once if you could sing “Kaze no Machi he” in the same natural manner as you originally did. Your answer back then was that you could no longer sing it naturally like that but your singing in "Beginning" is proof that you can definitely do it. I feel like that "more personal singing style" is similar to the one you use in your album " dew". There are some songs that are quite strong and powerful but the ballads come across as very natural, I really like the feeling they are conveying. KEIKO: I made this solo album around the same time Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#16 was taking place. I think it contains a lot of powerful pieces like “Hoseki”, some bewitching pieces and also songs that are similar to “Beginning”, occasionally it sounds like when I am harmonising with Kao-chan. Many different vocalisation styles were used in the production of the album. 

ー So it’s a good thing you did both at the same time?

KEIKO: Absolutely! After all, singing in front of an audience is quite different from singing in a recording studio, so I feel that both experiences had a positive effect on each other. Kajiura: I loved the singing styles you went for and I thought there were a lot of beautiful melodies in the album. “Tori Ame” in particular is such a stand-out piece for me, it really is a good song. KEIKO: Thank you *laughs* I am so happy to hear this.

ー Did you have a concept for the album？

KEIKO: This time, I wanted to make an album that you could casually listen to in your daily life rather than having to pay close attention to all the details. That’s why there may be many songs that feel calm. I tried a few different singing styles such as recitative or restrictive techniques. Kajiura: There are a lot of quiet songs but they are not at all plain or subdued because they are shining brightly. In terms of tension I feel like it is maintained throughout the album, I honestly thought it was beautiful. There is a shimmering radiance running through the entire album and I couldn’t help but wonder if that is what “dew” is referring to *laughs*. KEIKO: That’s “dew” indeed *laughs*. “dew” can mean "drop" or "fresh". During the summer when I was working on the album, I had many opportunities to come into contact with water, the sea, rain, and so on, so this year's me kinda reflected those feelings which in turn inspired the album. I have always liked warm and comforting songs. For example, I absolutely adore Kalafina's "Haru wo Matsu". I feel like I've added more songs like that this time around. Kajiura: How do you feel when an album is completed now that you are a solo artist? KEIKO: This time, I decided to shoot music videos for 9 new songs since I wanted everyone to enjoy a video alongside the song. When we were all done, my team and I felt a strong sense of accomplishment, it was amazing. At the time of the 1st album "Lantana", it felt like I was just trying to put together a few songs that would suit me but this time around it really felt like we had made a proper album, it was great. Kajiura: The overall flow is solid and the album feels strong. KEIKO: Right now, I'd rather use songs that express a part of my daily life or my state of mind. I have always been the type that is easily influenced by others, I like talking to various people to get different perspectives so I think this album contains a lot of inspiration. As a solo artist, I want to incorporate the stimuli I receive in my activities. I think that this album realistically expresses myself.

ー Some songs are written by yourself?

KEIKO: This time, I wrote the lyrics for four songs, "Tori Ame," "Latté," "Hachigatsu no Sora," and "Kimi ga Nemuru kara." I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to write the lyrics for "Hachigatsu no Sora" but after I went to see the sea the lyrics flowed smoothly. The melody of "Latté" feels neither hot nor cold so for some reason when I was thinking of natural lyrics, I kept thinking of drinking latté *laughs*. All the lyrics were really interesting, I was happy to be able to make music that expresses my personality so well.

ー I thought it was an album that you would want to listen to repeatedly with its captivating melodies and consistent feel.

Kajiura: After listening to the last song you really want to press the repeat button. I felt the sound and atmosphere were good and I wanted to keep listening. KEIKO: I hope everyone can also enjoy the 9 music videos we shot. In particular, "Revolution" was filmed in a magnificent location so when we were done, I was deeply moved. Kajiura: I think it’s nice to have so many music videos. KEIKO: I attempted something new but I honestly enjoyed the video production. It was pretty much self-produced, I also did the hair and make-up myself. I tried my best to stick to my own style while also making it fit the image of the song. Also, this time I worked with team of very young people, I was impressed by everyone's way of thinking and their footwork *laughs*. Their motivation was inspiring so we all made those videos with a lot of passion, it was a refreshing experience.

ーI am sure you are looking forward to everyone’s reaction to the album.

KEIKO: I'm really excited! Kajiura: There are so many great songs on this album so I'm sure everyone will be happy. Listeners are satisfied when the music is intriguing and poignant. KEIKO: I hope everyone will like it. I will continue to do my best to make good music for as long as possible.

[canmom]

PMMM?

Oooh, OK then. So I actually wrote an Animation Night post on Madoka, back on Animation Night 10 - hard to believe that's 81 weeks ago now. Back then, though, my posts were much shorter and I didn't discuss the production in much detail. However I did end up talking about SHAFT again later in the post about Kizumonogatari on Animation Night 51.

Anyway, I love Madoka. I admit, my engagement with the series has just been the original anime and Rebellion, and not any of the expanded world of gacha games and manga and the spinoff anime adapting the gacha - but I would rank Rebellion as one of my favourite animated films and I can't wait to see what they do with the upcoming sequel.

Last time I wrote about Madoka, I mostly wrote about Gen Urobuchi. I generally speaking think he's an immensely talented writer and I've enjoyed basically all the stuff he's worked on from Psycho-Pass to Fate Zero (yet to watch through Kamen Rider Gaim or play Sayo no Uta but I hear great things), but Madoka wouldn't be half the show it is without the incredible design work of Ume Aoki, distinctive direction of Yukihiro Miyamoto [and Akiyuki Shinbo overseeing all SHAFT projects, but see below], fantastic animation of too many key animators to name, gorgeous music of Kalafina and of course the absolutely brilliant Jan Švankmajer-influenced [Animation Night 50] collage animation of the incredibly talented duo Gekidan Inu Curry [see sakugablog for a nice retrospective of them].

The Madoka series excels in choreography and storyboarding - the classic austere, geometric SHAFT environments and striking camera angles, and the abstracted dance-like action sequences in which aesthetic elements and symbols flow into each other. And then they kick that up another notch or several in the movie, which indulges fully in Inu Curry's style. I still consider it some of the most beautiful sequences of animation set to music I've ever seen.

Anyway, I've only seen a bit of the SHAFT oeuvre (alongside Madoka, that's Bake- and Kizumonogatari), although the story of the studio is fascinating, like something out of a play - the charismatic Akiyuki Shinbo and his friends reorganising a fairly minor studio into one of the most distinctive of its time. Let me quote kVin (who else?):

The task Shinbo received at SHAFT wasn’t simple: he wasn’t going to direct a new series, but rather the whole studio. He became an overall supervisor of their entire output, while also guiding younger artists to make sure this style would live on. This marked the beginning of his unusual moonlighting, juggling jobs in a way that didn’t really allow him to do as much classic directorial work. To date, Shinbo has never been the sole director of a SHAFT series because he can’t. But he didn’t face this crazy challenge all by himself, of course. With his good pals Tatsuya Oishi and Shin Oonuma they formed the appropriately nicknamed Team Shinbo; a group of artists with compatible sensibilities, who had worked together in the past, and shared the desire to construct a new SHAFT.

kVin notes that the SHAFT style is an heir, through the influence of artist Nobuyuki Takeuchi who had had a significant role on Utena, to an incredibly influential director I've still yet to give a proper discussion on Animation Night, Osamu Dezaki, by way of - of course - the master of symbolism-dense, technically avant-garde anime, Kunihiko Ikuhara. I'll save a full discussion of that for another time, though. In any case, this was successful - perhaps too successful. Many of their best animators got caught up for years in the sprawling Kizumonogatari project, while kVin and other commenters more familiar with their work say the SHAFT style, once bold and innovative, became frozen in and lost its original contextual meaning, and some years later many SHAFT staff ended up leaving the studio for less overbearing work environment.

Madoka came just two years after Bakemonogatari, though, so the Team Shinbo style was still plenty fresh. Not surprisingly, it was quickly a huge hit. In Western fandom, it kind of became that meme show, where the magical girls have guns and being meguca is suffering. There's a bunch of extremely bad misreadings out there (it's grimdark! it's a 'deconstruction'! and the backlash to that - didn't you hear, gen urobuchi wants little girls to not have hope!) but that's just how anime fandom is I guess. It's certainly in dialogue with other magical girl shows, but to me it seems in a clearly appreciative way. Thematically, it's frankly not too far afield from something like Sailor Moon.

But you've asked for me to answer an ask meme, so let me do that instead :p

haven’t heard of it | absolutely never watching | might watch | currently watching | dropped | hated it | meh | a positive okay | liked it | liked it a lot! | loved it | a favorite

don’t watch period | drop if not interested within 2-3 episodes | give it a go, could be your thing | 5 star recommendation

fav characters: Homura - more on that when we get to 'unpopular opinion'! - and Kyōko, I generally really like the concept of a burned out cynical traumatised magical girl lol

least fav characters: is it too easy to say Sayaka's cardboard violin-playing boyfriend with nonspecific anime disease whose name I can't even be bothered to look up? I guess that's the whole tragedy of her character, she wants to save this boy who just resents her for it, but you can do so much better Sayaka!

fav relationship: haha well Homura/Madoka is obviously the central framing one innit, but actually there are dynamics I really like here, especially in Rebellion. again, more on that in 'unpopular opinions'. outside of that, I think you could write pretty good fic of just about any pair of girls. They hint a bit at Sayaka/Kyōko during the last big fight sequence in Rebellion (possibly more earlier? it's been a while?) and that's cute. I admit I'm not much of a shipper these days.

fav moment: There's many I could name, but one I keep coming back to is the sequence in Rebellion when the magical girl squad deploys and each of the girls gets a brief abstract sequence illustrating their vibe. The music and imagery is sooo good here. I also love the gunfight later in the film with the time-frozen bullet trails. And the incredible climactic battle when the whole world breaks down around Homura as she realises the truth of what's going on and becomes a witch again. Am I just naming the whole of Rebellion at this rate? OK, I admit it, years on in which I've watched literally hundreds more animated films, I still think this one's great.

headcanons/theories: This is clearly a redemptive headcanon that's not especially well signalled by the text, but the reason for all the nonsensical stuff about entropy and ancient aliens is that Kyubey is a low-level functionary who doesn't understand anything half as well as it pretends. The Incubators didn't cultivate human civilisation over the centuries and give us technologies, that's just a convenient lie in the moment, and Kyubey doesn't really understand what it is that they're harvesting from the magical girls very well at all. But because the girls are like, what, middle schoolers, they don't have the background to pull Kyubey up on his misunderstanding of thermodynamics lol.

unpopular opinion: OK. oKAY. let's do this again shall we. strap in. I went over this some time previously when I first watched Rebellion (good god that was hard to find, tumblr's search functions are a travesty) but my comments amounted mostly to *gestures at Stirner, who I hadn't read and still haven't*, so let's have another shot at justifying this Take...

Here we go: I still don't think Homura is the bad guy at the end of Rebellion. Which seems to be the shared opinion of every girl I know who's seen the film but in wider fandom is basically nonexistent as a take. I don't necessarily think Homura has the answer, but I don't think Madoka permanently sacrificing herself for the sake of every hurting person in the universe was a happy ending in the first place - Homura's insistence on being the one to save Madoka and her lack of imagination in trying to reconstruct the pantomime of a 'normal' life is surely an unhealthy fixation, but she's right that the situation was intolerable and something did have to be done about it. The tension between Madoka's agency and Homura's, and whether their desires and self-sacrificing impulses can be reconciled, is a productive one.

Now, the end of Madoka is something that produces endless interpretations. Back in May last year there was a fascinating discussion on here between @azdoine, @businesstiramisu and @anarcha-catgirlism getting into the characters' various saviour complexes and the possible religious readings of their arcs in the series's broadly Buddhist cosmology.

Visually, the film pulls out all the symbols in the SHAFT toolkit to suggest that Homura is as evil as she makes out - the mouth closeups, the headtilts, the cadence and tone of the dialogue. But it also gives us quite a few lines of evidence that Homura is onto something. Notably, it makes clear that Homura has not saved Madoka at the expense of all the other Magical Girls - outside her pocket universe, the Law of the Cycle still exists. Whether Madoka can truly be happy there is another question. It also gives us a very blatant image that Madoka as 'Madokami' is still suffering with an arm covered in self-harm scars:

Admittedly this film is about as visually dense as an Ikuhara anime and I don't blame anyone for not reading the implications in this very brief cut but it's fairly important, I think. Madokami may be taking the girls up to heaven, but it's a very impersonal heaven, and the strain it's placing on her is evident. Because I've increasingly caught on that a universal self-sacrificing impulse to save everyone, however understandable, isn't actually a great thing.

Even if you can't sympathise with Homura - and I admit, a lot of my sympathy comes for her rhetoric (desire over rules) more than her actions, and you could make an argument that trapping Madoka in a false pocket universe after struggling to escape one made by the Incubators and herself across the whole film is deeply ironic - overall, in any case, I feel that the ending of Rebellion is at least a very apt extension of the tragic arcs of the two characters. Not to mention a fascinating discussion point and far richer than the happy ending that was, I believe I read at one point, originally planned before Shinbo requested a darker ending.

Yeah, it is very sudden, probably too much so - that presentation does make it seem like a 'shocking twist! Homura's bad now' which is perhaps one reason why a lot of people reacted badly to it. I'm not exactly sure where they should have foreshadowed it; at least it's not like they don't spend a lot of time on it afterwards showing you just where Homura is coming from.

how’d you find it: Without Rebellion, I feel like Madoka is 'merely' a very good magical girl anime with excellent art direction, some creative twists on the format, and a darker tone than usual... with Rebellion, it's something fascinating that has completely hooked me.

So I really can't wait to see if they can keep the ball rolling in the Rebellion sequel, whenever that lands. Although the breakup of Kalafina will be a tragic blow. I don't know how you do Madoka without Kalafina.

random thoughts: More a bit of trivia than anything, but as far as one of the lasting influences of Madoka, Yoko Taro asked Kimihiko Fujisaka to think of the series when designing the Intoners for Drakengard 3. Which proved to be a great decision.

I admit, there's a whole side of Madoka which I am not familiar with. I tried starting Magia Record once but bounced off what seemed to be a simple recap of the opening beats of the series - I need to give it another shot some time because there are some spectacular clips from season 2. Per some of @azdoine's posts which I only vaguely recall, it sounds like they've been monkeying around a bit with retconning some of the themes and logic of the series which would be a shame but whatever, I don't believe in 'canon'.

Hope that satisfies you as an answer, anon!

[erza-shidae]

Kalafina 27 Weeks Challenge  Week 5 - Favourite & Second Favourite Song in Red Moon

Red Moon & I Have A Dream

[dailyjidols]

March 2019 Round-Up

It’s round-up time! Below the read more is a compilation of some notable news stories that we haven’t previously posted about.

This month features the official disbandment of Kalafina, Watanabe Miyuki’s new girl group project, a ton of graduations, and more.

9nine

The group is going on hiatus for an undetermined amount of time, starting on April 6, 2019. The members want to challenge themselves and independently try different activities for a time. [x]

AKB48

Takahashi Juri will be graduating from the group in order to pursue a career as an idol in South Korea. She has signed on with Woolim Entertainment, and will be debuting with them in the future. Her graduation date has not been announced yet, and neither has her debut date in South Korea. [x] Hitomi Kotone and Taya Misaki have also announced their graduations from the group. [x, x] In addition, the group will not be holding a Senbatsu Election in 2019. They did not announce an official reason for this. [x]

Candy Syrup

The unit has gone from 3 members to 5 members, the two new members to debut on March 31st! [x*]

Juice=Juice

Juice=Juice's most recent triple a side "Bitansan/Potsuri to/ Goodbye Good luck!" became certified gold this month! [x]

Kalafina

The group has officially announced their disbandment. The group had been on hiatus due to the departure of two members from the agency. [x]

Kana Nishino

Nishino married her former manager and long-time boyfriend this month. [x] We wish her happiness in her new marriage!

Kaqrio Terror Architect

Member Yamakomaro has withdrawn from the group. One of the reasons sited for her departure was to seek treatment for an eating disorder. [x*] Her last live with the group with be May 5th, as her graduation concert. We wish her a healthy and successful recovery.

Keyakizaka46

Nagahama Neru will be graduating from the group. Their latest single, Kuroi Hitsuji, was her last. An official graduation date has not been set, though. Nagahama has not revealed her future plans yet. [x] We wish her success in her future endeavors!

LoVendoЯ

Okada Marina has graduated from the group. She wishes to pursue a life of fishing from now on. [x] We wish her success in her future endeavors!

Migma Shelter

Rina Arisaka formerly of the idol group THERE THERE THERE's has joined Migma Shelter. She will be joining the official line up in late April! [x*]

Necronomidol

The alt-idol unit has announced their return to Europe with a tour, and their appearance at Hyper Japan London. They'll kick off at Hyper Japan London [x]. Additionally dates after the convention are London, the UK, Scotland, Holland, France, Finland, Sweden, and Slovakia. [x]. Tickets are available for Hyper Japan Festival already, tickets for other tour dates are not currently available.

Miyu Takeuchi

The recent AKB48 graduate has signed an exclusive contract with Korean music label Mystic Entertainment. [x] We wish her success in her future endeavors!

NMB48

Iwata Momoka will be graduating from the group in order to focus on her studies. [x] Jo Eriko will also be graduating in the future, with no set date. [x] We wish them success with their future endeavors!

Nogizaka46

Ito Karin has not yet set a date, but she will be graduating from the group in the near future. Saito Yuri will also be graduating soon. [x, x] We wish them success their future endeavors!

Ran Ito

The former member of the popular 70's idol group, Candies, has announced her solo debut! Her album will be released March 29th, and it's entitled "My Bouquet". [x*]

SKE48

Okada Miku, Takagi Yumana, and Uchiyama Mikoto have all announced their graduations. [x, x, x] We wish them success their future endeavors!

STU48

Sano Haruka has announced her graduation, but has not yet set a date. [x] We wish her success in her future endeavors!

Up Up Girls (2)

Morinaga Niina, Niikaura Ami, and Shimazaki Yuria have joined the group! [x]

WACK Exhibit results

The current BiS line-up is disbanding on May 11th, with auditions for new members happening soon. All 9 members of the lineup submitted a request to disband and it was granted. Cent Chiiro no Imouto was added to the WAgg lineup, no official debut date announced. Naruhaworld has been added to GANG PARADE. Teryama Yufu will be added to EMPiRE, her debut date with the group will be April 21st. Anzupia has changed her name to A Anzupia. [x]

Wa-suta

The group has announced that they will be performing at Anime North, in Toronto Canada. The concert date is May 25th, and you need either a weekend pass or Saturday Convention ticket to attend. [x}

Watanabe Miyuki

The former NMB48 members and solo artist has announced that she will be producing a new girl group unit. She will also be participating in the group, and auditions have been announced for the other members. [x]

[youturnitintolight-blog]

『Kalafina’s All Time Best 』Looks/Outfits Challenge ~ PV Outfits

Sorry @putschki1969 I'm stealing borrowing your template

Also, these are not in order!

Group Outfits:

I do like many of the outfits, but there is always one that I don't like very much. This was surprisingly difficult. Special mentions go the ring your bell, Yume no Daichi, and the to the beginning PV's.

Magia PV: This PV was the first of Kalafina's that I watched and I fell in love with the dominatrix look with the leather and the high boots with the flowing fabric. Hikaru especially, looks like a queen in this song with her hairstyle, and owns the song. I also love Wakana's sleeves and Keiko's jacket.

into the world PV: Did someone say... LACE?! These dresses would be just your average white dresses for me, but the lace around the chest and the sleeves really sells it for me - it reallt gives an elegant style that fits the setting of the room in the PV as opposed to the beach with their jackets

Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa PV: These outfits are popular throughout the fandom, and I love them to death. The pure victorian gothic lolita aesthetic of these dresses fit the song and the PV in a way that is utterly gorgeous

Wakana Outfits:

believe PV: Wakana's dress is so shiny and coupled with her straight hair (which I am always a sucker for) suits her really well

Hyakka Ryouran PV: I absolutely adore Wakana's hairstyle here with the ribbon. The shoulder off look always shows off Wakana's collarbones and here is no exception and the single flowing arm along with the patterns make her look beautiful

into the world PV: The lace design on Wakana's dress is absolutely beautiful I don't have words for it. I usually don't like this kind of hairstyle on Wakana, but it looks beautiful with this dress

Keiko Outfits:

blaze PV: I love Keiko in a ponytail, and this dress is quite cute and suits it. What sells the dress for me is the flowing arm which is just the right type of fabric imo (not too heavy and not too thin). The cut of the neck is quite nice as well

Hyakka Ryouran PV: I love the flowing sleeves on this dress, it really sets it apart from the other girls with its bright red that catches your attention. The layers of fabric is something that I'm not usually a fan of but on this dress it's small enough that I can look over it. Again, the patterns are gorgeous

storia PV: I adore the puffy sleeves and the decoration on the chest (she kinda looks like a maid it's cute). The hair decorations are not too OTT and complements the curls of her hair. The fabric of the skirt is my favourite out of the three and I love boots on Keiko

Hikaru Outfits: tbh Hikaru's hairstyles are the standouts of these outfits imo

Hikari Furu PV: I freaking LOVE the hair decoration + hairstyle, she looks very elegant and cute at the same time. I also like the puffy sleeves, I feel like they really sell the dress for me. I also love the cut of short at the front of more flowing at the back, it looks better on here than on the other dresses

Kimi no Gin no Niwa PV: The design of this dress is quite simple but it's simplicity is really the selling point. It's a very cute look, with the small boots, the short, loose dress with that small amount of embroidery and curled hair

Hikari no Senritsu: Hikaru's dress of the HnS dresses is my favourite. Although the chains are a bit too much for my taste, this yellow looks really nice on Hikaru and the small amount of red really adds to it. The straight hair is also really nice, and the length of the sleeves I've always thought is cute, and the boots are always nice with shorter dresses.

[chibalein]

Kalafina Harmony Magazine Vol. 4 - Hikaru Solo Interview ~ Translation

Continuing with my translations of Harmony magazine Vol. 4, here you have Hikaru’s solo interview. However, I don’t know why, but I really struggled with this and many parts will sound super strange and maybe even misleading. Whenever I couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of the sentence, I just did a literal translation. So, pleeeease, if you see parts I really screwed up, tell me! But still credit me, if you wanna use this for anything XD

Anyway, this interview is about Hikaru’s then upcoming birthday event, so again an outdated interview. Have fun!

Next up will be Hikaru at Animate Cafe!

Hikaru Solo Interview

Feelings about her first attempt at the solo event „Hikaru Birthday Event 2018” and gratitude towards her fans. About her being able to step forward since she welcomed her 10th anniversary.

Your first “Hikaru Birthday Event 2018” has finally been decided. This means we can celebrate both Hikaru-chan’s birthday (July 2nd) and the birthday of Kalafina’s Hikaru (July 30th).

Yes. I wrote about my feelings on the blog, but I am grateful that I can set forth like this, as the first step in this 10th year. I am thinking about a lot right now and I hope I can spend a wonderful time with everyone as closely as possible.

You asked things on the fanclub site like “Songs you want me to sing”, “What you would like me to do”, “Questions”…  Right now, a staff member carried a huge bunch of papers…

Whoa, it’s such a huge amount!? Ugh... this is “Things I would like Hikaru to do at the event” (for a while, Hikaru reads the sheets of paper enthusiastically).

There are a lot of maniac, specific and deep requests, right!? *laughs*

Well, it’s amazing! I think everyone’s imagination is abundant, as might be expected from people listening to Kalafina songs. So these are the fans that gave their opinions... There are many opinions I wouldn’t think of *laughs*

What appears to be a lot at first glance… is related to Anime and Manga. You can’t say something concrete here, can you? *laughs*

Well, everyone knows that I love Anime and Manga *laughs*. I am thankful.

Also, a recitation like in the last fanclub event or a rock-paper-scissor competition have been requested a lot.

That day’s Hikaru had too much luck in terms of rock-paper-scissors *laughs*. This is surely a revenge match to everyone.

There were also many requests for a “goods introduction”. Because the concert at Budokan was the 10th Anniversary version, you didn’t do a goods talk.

Right… I am so happy that everyone is thinking about so many things!

Nevertheless… They request this because it is you after all! These kind of feelings are overflowing.

There were many original ideas where I thought: “Where does this idea come from!?”. But… everyone! You all overestimate me! *laughs* I am not that dexterous!

Hahaha. It looks like there are many things you have to practice.

If I followed those requests, then this event would become totally maniac and deep. By taking a look at these entries, I understand how everyone feels about me *laughs*. … While everyone was supporting Kalafina for the past 10 years, slowly showing my true nature, I only let them know recently that I am an otaku. I am sure that there are also fans that “are following something thoroughly”, and those people think that “Hikaru smells the same” [this is literal translation, I guess it means that Hikaru as an otaku is “one of them”], and this is being handed down pressingly. They are my comrades…and there are many of them here *laughs*. Of course, there were people you wrote versatile opinions in a simple matter, but there were also many who wrote long and detailed letters… Intense!

“If there were only maniac requests, Hikaru might retreat!” You didn’t have this kind of fear, did you? “I am sure she would accept them!” I only feel this kind of relationship of mutual trust.

I came to think that these 10 years have been “an activity to go forward with everyone, while talking with everyone”, I could personally experience that those feelings have been received properly. However, everyone’s requests were so maniac, it’s funny *laughs*. I will think about which ideas to adopt until they are actually conducted.

No matter which ones you will take on, I feel like they are many high hurdles to overcome.

That’s because there are many things that Kalafina hasn’t done or tried yet *laughs*. I wonder how far I can go alone!?

Are there things you might want to do, right now?

I have been thinking “Maybe I can do this? It seems interesting” about different entries, but people only requested stuff that I haven’t done in front of others at all *laughs*

Well, hm, right *laughs*

There are certainly things that I would enjoy doing alone in my room, however doing them in front of everyone?

You will perform in front of hundreds of people.

In addition to the challenge of doing a concrete program on stage, there is also a mental challenge required.

Preparation of your mind became also important, right?

I have to make up my feelings and face them! I have to make physical and mental adjustments!

I haven’t seen a fanclub event where such a fighting spirit was necessary…

Since everyone made it until here with huge effort, I want to follow with all my power as well! … That might not be normal for a singer’s funclub event, but since I received every possible interesting wish, I want to meet those feelings as best as I can.

The people whose wishes you’ll adopt will surely be happy. Even if you don’t adopt them, people might want you to introduce what kind of requests came in.

I see! During or after the event, I will introduce the things that everyone wanted me to do, and I will look back on how far I was able to implement them, and also a prospect for next time…

Why does everyone want some kind of reflection meeting? *laughs* Requests for “Songs I want you to sing” are also arriving like a mountain. The process is still ongoing, but you are already tallying the votes, right?

Correct! Well… I will sing the songs placed number 1 and 2!

Oh, you declared it.

Looking at this, these are the very best of the votes obtained. I want to meet everyone’s feelings towards this.

Looking forward to that, will the setlist be songs that you as Hikaru “want to sing”?

This time it will be only me and Sakurada-san on the piano, so I want to make a musical selection that will fit into this arrangement. Also, there are many opinions that want me to cover anime songs, and I want to take this challenge too. I got many requests for singing songs by international artists or musical numbers, as well… I can’t follow each and every request, but I want to show everyone a new singing voice, that sings songs that are yet to be performed. Of course, the usual Hikaru will be present. For now, I will face the creation of the setlist!

It looks like there are many questions for the “Question Corner” coming in.

I just scanned the things that have been printed out so far, but this is a huge amount of paper *laughs*

There are so many papers printed in A3 size with small letters…

That’s so amazing… (looking at the question sheets) It looks like there are again many questions about Anime and Manga… but also so many other things… Questions I won’t be able to answer properly or some strange consultations…! I guess I have to come up with a way to answer this many questions…

It might be better if you answered the questions that you couldn’t respond to at the event, on the fanclub site or in the magazine piece by piece. The amount is crazy! However, after all there are many “deep” questions, right?

I am happy that questions about myself are coming in!

Anyway… How long will the event take? With this amount of questions and requests, I feel like this will become a very long event *laughs*

About 1 ½ hours would be normal, right? It’s an event like this. “This can’t be…” I thought, though. There is a chance I can’t collect everything *laughs* However, those printouts have been the sum of only 4-5 days since opening the questionnaire, so I suppose it will increase a lot more from now on…

That’s a pleasant shriek! *laughs* I get the feeling that the bond between you and the fans is getting deeper, and the feeling of solidarity among fans is becoming stronger. It seems like a strange sense of unity is being born…

It will be an event of the elite force where heroes gather *laughs*

You are looking forward to this turning point after 10 years and this new challenge.

Yes. I am nervous since I am about to challenge things I have never done before, so I will tackle them with all my power. Please look forward to it, everyone.

[Upper row, from left to right]

The first outfit is a yukata for the publication of the serial segment. Lovely!

How much of the door in the background shall be shown? This and other confirmations.

This fan as little prop and full of summer feelings. It makes me want to do fireworks [typically done in Japan in summer].

An elegant finish to the little retro atmosphere. Her neck is so beautiful!

[Bottom row, from left to right]

One pose for the interview section. A refreshing coordination!

“Which cut do you like?”, during a friendly chat with the two photographers.

The second outfit is a chic black one-piece. The make-up is also very adult-like.

Hikaru taking a photo with her cellphone of the shot recommended by the staff and photographers.

The end of the photo shoot! Fascinated by her elegant movements <3

[hadi-sama]

Kalafina Bingo - 10th Anniversary Live Setlist Predictions

Okay! So this is going to be my first post on Tumblr! I really like this challenge! My predictions are based on a lot of factors; including fan votes, participating musicians, occasion, my own votes as well as my 6th sense xD , and the fact that this live will most likely be filmed meaning that there’s a higher chance for songs that have never been filmed to appear! Here are my predictions:

1. Oblivious: Their debut song, It has to be there and very likely the first in the setlist.

2. Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku: I would call this Keiko’s debut song, this is where we heard her take a good lead. I really reeeeeeeally hope they sing it.

3. KantanKatan: This has to be performed! To a lot of fans this is their fav song from the new single, and it has not been filmed so far so yeah.

4. Serenato: I think this will win first place in the vote! TONS OF FANS voted for this! Plus it’s Wakana’s fav song from SH. I’m curious to see how they perform it!

5. Storia: One of their “signature(ish)” songs, a lot of fans like it (not me though xD). Akagi-san <3

6. Hikari no Senritsu: A very successful and fan-favourite song, I love it. Also Akagi-san.

7. Hyakka Ryouran: Well, their latest single. It has to be performed, and the girls love it so much. My new personal favourite Kalafina song :’) Akagi-saaaaaaaaan is gonna kill it!

8. Red Moon: My 1st vote went to this masterpiece. One of my absolute fav songs. I hope Wakana and Hikaru perform this better than their dead Arena performance. Please :(

9. ARIA: Tons of votes went to this, plus it’s Hikaru’s signature song. I’m sure she wants to show ppl that she can still rock this song. I’m curious, and I know Hikaru is gonna kick ass.

10. Progressive: Not really a fan of this song, but also a lot of votes went to this. Would be a nice change though.

11. To the Beginning: Eh well do I have to explain xD?

12. Tsuioku: My 2nd vote. Love this song to pieces, and I want my eyes and ears to experience this live.

13. Sandpiper: One of my favs, I reeeeeeeally hope they perform it! Also I’ve seen a good amount of votes for this song.

14. Märchen: This needs to be performed with the FLUTE! Plus they didn’t perform it enough. Akagi-san ^_^

15. Magia: THE Kalafina song xD. Nuff said.

16. Destination Unknown: My 3rd vote. This song makes me CRAZY xD. A song that gets the crowd going, And the girls enjoy performing it!

17. Blaze: An easy song to perform after that explosive set, plus this song has been well-received in Japan.

18. Ongaku: Staple in all their lives. Everybody loves it, including the girls

19. Signal: This is like one of their vocal showcase songs, it has to be performed. Plus accordion is there so yeah xD.

20. Kimi no Gin ni Niwa: Also a fan-favourite song, and there has to be another accordion song.

21. Far on the Water: Cuz not enough songs have been performed from their FotW album, a nice song to start after the encore.

22. Alleluia: THE Keiko song, her time to shine.

23. Sprinter: A fan-favourite song, and a perfect goodbye song </3 I am sure it will be there.

Announcements etc: I think they will announce an acoustic release and a world tour. Maybe a new single? I also think they will make the crowd do something.. I don’t know I just feel like they want the crowd to get involved in their 10th anni.

That’s about it! I hope my setlist will be accurate :D

[gabi4chan-akatsuki]

Song list tag

Jeez I haven’t done a tag since like my time on DeviantArt damn...

Anyway, tagged by @shyrenthedawndragon and the rules are:

“We’re snooping on your playlist. Set your entire music library on shuffle and say the first 10 songs to come up! Say the songs that came up and choose 10 people to send this challenge to. >:D (sending to ten people is optional)“  I don’t do tagging. If you want to do this then please do!

1. Love is War by ryo feat. Hatsune Miku (Ah, one of my first Vocaloid songs! I still love it, especially the lyrics and the music, it just sounds so cool)

2. Floriography -forget me not- by Shigotoshite-P feat. Meiko (Way back when when I was just starting to get into Vocaloid, I browsed the Vocaloid wiki for songs featuring Meiko and I came across this beautiful piece of music that I just love it so much. It sounds so sad and yet I just can’t help but sing along to it every time it plays)

3. Magia by Kalafina (Ah, Puella Magi Madoka Magica... One of my favorite anime, to be honest. And I was so obsessed with this song I actually made a cover of it with Miku, Meiko, Kaito, Len and Rin. ‘Course it never saw the light of day, but oh well. I still love this song)

4. KARATE by BABYMETAL (This song and band are fucking amazing and I love them so much. Not my favorite Babymetal song but it’s still up there.)

5. Whereabouts by shu-tp feat. Meiko (Does this count as a horror song? Who knows, I don’t know the English lyrics)

6. Hibikase x Echo (No matter how much I dislike Gumi I can’t deny that Echo is an awesome song, and this mash-up is ever better. also guess who has translations for both of these songs in the works)

7. Time＆Space by Signal-P feat. Kagamine Rin and Len (HOLY FUCK THIS IS AN OLD SONG.)

8. Melody for a Baby Bird's Perfromance by mayuko feat. Kagamine Len and Rin (mayuko is one of my favorite producers and I fucking love this song bite me.)

9. The Hideous Me beyond the Mirror by Nashimoto-P, covered by me feat. Mayu (Yes I do have all of my covers in my mp3 shut up I’m egotistical)

10. Saa, docchi? by Hinata Haruhana feat. Kagamine Len and Rin (I have so many old songs oh gosh...)

[seasonreaper]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge: Week 21 - Favourite Outfits?

I don’t think I can write much about this, so have images. Every one of these outfits is grand and wonderful. I’d probably go with the last shot there with the Christmas dresses as my overall favourite though, they match the girls well and are actually perfect in every way. The band in suits and shirts looks dapper as well.  Follow-ups are probably the 2014 Live, To the Beginning and Consolation sets.

[leebompi]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge

Week 5 -  Favorite and Second Favorite song from the album “RED MOON”

Hikari no Senritsu I Red Moon

A very very tough challenge because every single song from this album makes it to my “Favorite Kalafina songs” playlist. It was too hard but I had to select 2 songs that I like the most. So, for the challenge I chose :-

Favorite song - Hikari No senritsu

As I already mentioned in my “Week 2” challenge post that Hikari no Senritsu is my favorite Kalafina song. The song “One Light” introduced me to Kalafina but I truly started loving them after I listen Hikari No Senritsu. This song took my heart with its beautiful happy melody. The bright melody, harmony, PV, musical instruments and the way they were played, the composition and the vocals; everything about the song is so wow. And I love the outfits and the set. Onto the vocals, the harmony and vocals are great and I love how the ladies sound in this song

I become instantly happy as soon as the song starts playing and as I lipsync to the song, I can’t help myself but to act like Hikaru (The-looking-on-to-the-sky-with-a-smile-and-happy-emotion face of Hikaru). I don’t quite recognize the instrument that plays at the starting of the song together with the flute.(Please enlighten me with the name of the instrument). I also love the Akagi Rei version i.e. the live version, of the song. The song always end with a little change in the melody of the flute and I find that extremely cute.

Second Favorite song - Red Moon

I had the hardest time to decide the second favorite song from the album. Honestly, I could put all the rest of the songs to this category but Life isn’t that easy, right? Right! I finally jotted it down to these three songs to choose from - Red Moon, Storia and I Have A Dream. It’s obvious by now that I went with the Red Moon.

The song starts with Wakana as a lead and it sounds like as if a very sad soul is calling out to me. Her voice makes me feel as if I am being hypnotized and made to enter a Haunted castle. As the lead shifted from Wakana to Hikaru, the voice turns into a cry telling a love-story filled with pain. Also, Keiko did some amazing notes towards the end of the song. [You understand which part I am talking about, Right?] That part feels like I am finally in the process of being possessed by the three souls.

[hikaru9]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge (2017 Edition) - Week 8

Favourite and second favourite song in “far on the water”:

1. Usumurasaki (うすむらさき) 2. identify

[putschki1969]

KEIKO SPICE Interview ~ English Translation

Note: Once again this is a very long and icredibly insightful interview, so please enjoy it! As always, take everything you read with a grain of salt, my Japanese is by no means perfect. If you want to use this translation or parts of it, be sure to CREDIT me and LINK to this post.

KEIKO ~ Looking beyond Kalafina and finding her music as a solo newcomer, “With everyone’s help I will be able to know what kind of music I seek”

Former Kalafina member KEIKO has released her first solo album "Lantana" on December 2nd. With this work you can fully enjoy high-quality pop-music and additionally it is packed to the brink with KEIKO’s ideas and thoughts in her role as solo vocalist. KEIKO has taken the first step into her future career as a solo artist, we have asked her to share what kind of thoughts went into the making of her album. Here are her insights accompanied by some exclusive stills from the interview.

Everything that has happened this year inspired the lyrics I wrote for “Nanairo no Finale”, the song which Kajiura-san composed for me

―― On the occasion of your 1st album "Lantana" having been released on December 2nd,  I would like to ask you a few questions. 

Please go ahead. 

―― First of all, the album title "Lantana" is the name of a flower, right? May I ask why you chose this particular title? 

This album took about a year to produce, we worked without having a concept, I just chose the songs based on whether I liked them and wanted to give them a try. Additionally I received many suggestions during discussions with my staff members. So rather than focussing on the overall concept of the album we would like everyone to pay attention to the individual tracks. In Japanese the name of the flower "Lantana" literally means "Seven Changes". As the name suggests, this album represents many changes. So on the one hand the title reflects those changes and on the other hand, I just really like flowers so the name seemed fitting. Also, I wonder if we chose the name  because it has a pleasant ring to it? These are pretty much the reasons why "Lantana" became our album title, it was a very quick decision actually. 

―― I thought that there was a connection between all the songs of the album, the flow felt really beautiful but now that you have explained all of this to me I find the album even more interesting because there is truly so much variety, each song is completely different. is. In addition to the songs you picked to include in the album, were there many other pieces you liked among all the options you got to choose from?

Well ... This year, partly because of coronavirus, the album production was quite flexible. After it was decided that we would be doing a live-stream concert, we reconsidered a few things since we thought it might be better to increase the number of up-beat songs suitable for a live performance. Since the album production and the live performance were happening pretty much simultaneously, we made some big changes to the album to accommodate our needs for the live performance. As a result, I think it became a very well-balanced album. 

―― During the MC of the live stream you mentioned something like "ff it weren't for Corona, it might have been an album with a lot of darker songs" *laughs*. 

"Dark" is maybe a bit misleading *laughs*. I guess a little “more mature” is the word I was looking for? 

―― But with a darker vibe? 

Yeah, that’s what I had in mind but it turned into something completely different. 

―― Considering all of that, has your approach to and understanding of music changed at all due to coronavirus? 

I think the biggest change for me was that I could no longer sing my songs live in front of everyone ... I can't meet my fans. Not being able to meet the fans...it’s not only difficult for the fans but also for all the artists, after all this connection is very motivating and inspiring. So to have all the fans waiting but not being able to go out there and perform for them is very discouraging, you are just cut off...that was definitely the biggest change.  

―― But you did get the opportunity to do a live stream. How was it? There were a few fans at the venue, right? 

It was a lot of fun! When I first heard that there was a limited capacity of around 72 people due to coronavirus, I was wondering what kind of live concert it would be, but I was very happy to have at least a few people there because the feeling is completely different if you have someone actually there right in front of you listening to your singing. When I was in my early twenties I would sometimes perform in front of Cinema ROSA in Ikebukuro, back then we had like 5 fans coming to see us. I was reminded of  that feeling. 

―― Was there something burning inside of you, yearning to be released? 

Yes ... At the day of the live I realised how many strong feelings I had suppressed before, when I was finally standing in front of the audience, all those feelings were overflowing. I truly experienced a welling up of feelings and sensation on that day. I felt excited and inspired from the early morning onwards. 

―― Returning to our original topic, your album, as you said, there is a lot of variety.  You once mentioned, "it's like ... like a box of my favourite chocolates." 

Hahaha, that's right, I said that *laughs*. 

―― I think there were many challenges in terms of song variety, but are there any songs that were particularly challenging for you? 

I saw all of it as a big challenge for me. That's why I was so adamant to try as many new things as possible. With all songs I felt like I wanted to try and sing them and then later I was deciding how to use my voice in each song. 

―― Did you have any difficulties regarding your singing technique? 

I think the most difficult must have been “Nanairo no Finale”, I don’t even know how many takes I did until the final result. After all, this is Kajiura-san's song. It's only natural that it would feel completely different to me compared to all the other songs. 

―― Well ... yes. 

I have been singing Kajiura-san's songs consistently for about 12 years now, ever since I got to sing “Kaze no Machi he” for her as solo singer FictionJunction KEIKO  I have been determined to do my very best, I felt like I had to give even more than before, I wanted to provide the best singing possible, I guess I was just very frustrated.  “Please let me try and sing it again?” I was really stubborn like that when it came to “Nanairo no Finale”. 

―― You know, I was really surprised to see “Nanairo no Finale” as the second track on the album. 

Oh *laughs*. Really? 

―― Didn’t you sing it as an ecore during your live performance? 

Oh, that's right. 

―― When I listened to the album without paying too much attention to the track order, I thought that having “Inochi no Hana” at the end was quite fitting. But to have “Nanairo no FInale” as the second track?! What? I was completely taken aback by that, it had a really strong impact on me in that particular position. 

Hooray! I am happy to hear that *laughs*. 

―― Regarding the song order, you mentioned earlier that you didn’t make this album with a particular concept in mind, the flow wasn’t as important to you, instead you wanted people to listen carefully to each individual song. 

But I do think there is a flow when it comes to the track order. I came up with a draft first and then consulted with everyone else. Everyone agreed that we would start with "Be Yourself" but we wondered how to continue. 

―― Indeed, "Be Yourself" definitely feels right as the leading track. 

I had this idea of putting a very uplifting song right in the beginning, I wanted everyone to feel positive energy right from the get-go. I chose these three songs up till "Hajimari wa" as an introduction to my album because I thought they would make the listeners feel a sense of lightness and brightness. 

――  “Nanairo no Finale” was composed by Kajiura-san and written by you, it has a very strong Kajiura-feel to it, even a sort of Kalafina vibe if you listen closely but it’s also very reminiscent of many of the up-tempo FictionJunction songs. It really seems to have been custom-made for you. How was it to write the lyrics for this song? 

At first, I was a little surprised when I was told that I should be writing the lyrics. 

―― Was that a suggestion from Kajiura-san? 

Yes, the suggestion came from her. This song was a team effort, first of all I discussed it with my producer Yoda-san, then it was eventually decided that Kajiura-san would be in charge of the composition and she suggested that it would be interesting if the arrangements and lyrics were done by someone else. When I first heard of that idea I was quite shocked. 

―― The pressure was intense? 

Yes, definitely. When she told me I was like, “eh?” and literally froze. 

―― So did she send you the song and then you wrote the lyrics for it? 

Pretty much, yes. To start with, Kajiura-san sent me a song sample, at that point nothing much had been set into stone yet, the key and such still had to be decided but I really wanted to sing it as soon as possible. So I tried all kinds of singing and then suggested a few arrangement ideas to the arranger Nobuyuki Shimizu, we really thought carefully about every little detail. The arrangement changed steadily, the final result is very different from the song I originally received from Kajiura-san at the beginning, we changed the tempo and key quite a bit. 

―― I see. 

It was a challenge indeed but Kajiura-san told me it was very interesting to see the changes this song had gone through. As we kept changing the arrangement, the lyrics naturally changed a bit too. However, when I initially received the song from Kajiura-san I was immediately envisioning the protagonist looking ahead at a very positive and bright future, so that aspect of the lyrics hasn't changed at all. From the beginning, I had that particular image in mind, I hoped to write lyrics that would portray a positive outlook towards the future.

―― When I listened to this song live, I felt like so many things were put into motion. It's a song that feels bright but it’s also filled with determination. 

That’s to be expected since the Olympics influenced me strongly. I wrote this song in the summer when coronavirus was ever present. Seeing all those athletes in the media made me very emotional. They are all so very determined to strive for next year’s Olympics even though it is still uncertain if they will even take place. I wrote my lyrics with the hope of providing a positive message for those who are working hard right now. 

―― It really touches the heart. 

If it hadn’t been for all those things happening this year, I don’t think these lyrics would have been written.

―― They really reflect the state our world is in right now. 

Yes. Our current situation is something that cannot be ignored, it's hard to write a song that’s all fun and “yay” in times like this *laughs*. You hesitate to make something too lighthearted. But I also didn't want it to be too negative, so I wrote hopeful lyrics like this. 

―― Starting to write your own lyrics with a song like that, putting all those feelings into words, I guess one could say you created something that can be left to posterity? 

Yes, I felt very grateful for that opportunity.

During my time in Kalafina, my role was very clear

―― You also wrote the lyrics for the song “Yugao” in this album so I would like to hear what you have to say about this. 

This is the last song we recorded. At the beginning of the album production, I knew I wanted to include something short, a minimalistic song, like a short story but then we had the live performance to think about and all of a sudden the entire tracklist had already been decided ... But I still chose this song because I was adamant about having something like this on the album. 

―― I see. 

For the most part the songs on my album have a pretty nice standard melody, nothing out of the ordinary so I felt like singing a sad and transient melody. It was an obvious choice that felt natural because that sort of music resonates with me. I looked at all kinds of songs for this album and in particular I wanted something calm, something you could fall asleep to while listening to the melody, vocals and lyrics. 

―― Since it is in the latter half of the album, before "End Roll" and "Change The World's Color", I thought it was a very beautiful sort of overture. It’s a nice transition to two up-beat songs. Absorbing energy in a relaxed manner right before speeding up. 

I thought it would be nice little surprise to have “Yugao” lead right into  "End Roll" *laughs*. 

―― As for "End Roll" and "Change The World's Color", I feel like your infamous strong physical presence is back with these two songs *laughs*. 

Everyone, get up! *Laughs* Yes, you really feel a sense of waking-up. 

―― In the middle part of the album there is a section of songs with beautiful melodies such as "Akane", "Tameiki no Kieru Machi" and "Ray". I got the impression that you really challenged yourself with quieter songs like this.

I agree. That may be the case. 

―― Is that reflected in all of your music? 

Yes. I have faced many challenges because this was my 1st album, I just wanted to try a lot of things. I'm sure in the future I will have a clearer vision of what I want to do. But this particular album is filled with all the things I am currently capable of doing. 

―― Do you feel like you are experimenting? 

Yes. I won’t know what kind of things I like and what I'm looking for without piling up experiences ... I've been doing Kalafina for 10 years, and I've been doing FictionJunction for about 12 years so I am confident in myself when it comes to these activities but as a solo artist I am basically a first-grader *laughs*. 

―― So it’s like you are starting from scratch learning the alphabet all over again? 

Yes exactly.  But of course technically speaking I am not a newcomer when it comes to singing and being a vocalist. As for the kind of music I want to sing in the future, first and foremost this album was about trying new things and finding out how everyone around me reacts to it, ultimately I would like to make something that makes everyone happy.

―― You have obviously had a big career so far. So of course the image from that time is still in people’s minds even now that you are a solo artist. Without trying to make it sound bad but  I think there are many fans out there who look at things from a biased point of view, they have these preconceived notions of what exactly the solo careers of each Kalafina member should look like. 

That's right. 

―― I guess there are two types of ways to handle these sorts of expectations, either you are the type that just goes ahead in a determined manner regardless of what everyone else thinks, along the lines of, “I am going to do exactly this and that. Period!” Or one can find a different approach along the lines of, “I want to try various things, how do you feel about this?" Before you went solo I actually had the impression that you would be the first type, thinking, "okay, this is the music I made and because I made it everyone should listen to it!" However, I was surprised to find out  that you are actually more like the second type.  

Yes. I am definitely the second type. I have zero idea what I want and I am not at all scared to admit that. I think it’s best to ask everyone around me for assistance to work through all the things that I do not know at this point in time. 

―― It's simple, isn't it? 

Yes it is. During my time in Kalafina, my role and my duties were very clear, we had wishes and aspirations lined up, once we had reached a certain goal and seen the results we just moved to the next step. But right now I am at a starting point and I have not seen any results yet so I think it's natural for me to go take this route. 

―― I see. 

Going around and asking everyone for their opinion is something we also did in the early days of Kalafina. So I thought I would start at that point once again . It's different from Kalafina though. That's why it's interesting, and the feeling of creating something together is a lot of fun. Creating sounds, creating harmonies. 

―― Harmonies? 

As in chorus arrangement. You can enhance the chorus pretty flexibly on the spot if you want. While working on my singing I consulted a lot with my producer Yoda-san and my assistant Asami-chan, together we added a lot more oomph to many of the choruses, I sang some parts and we also tried mixing and subtracting...I was really absorbed in the whole process of creating something together.  

―― It seems to be very interesting to make so many changes on the spot. 

I felt a strong desire to create spontaneous music like that. If everyone involved feels inspired while working together, then I think it’s best to go with the ideas that are born during these sessions. 

―― And you will wait till the very end to share your opinion. 

Yes, I am the last one. I am literally just watching everyone all the time wondering about how we should do all of this  *laughs*.

I will approach the challenge of a big venue at a slow pace

―― Hearing you talk about all of this, it seems like you are having fun with your solo activities. 

It is a lot of fun. 

―― We as fans are also incredibly happy to see you enjoying yourself while making music. So your album contains a total of 10 songs, and at the end there is a bonus track, an acoustic version of "Akane". May I ask you why you decided to include this? 

During the production, I listened to a take with just my voice and the guitar. At one point, Yoda-san had edited "Akane" in such a way that all rhythmic sections were gone. I suggested that it would be nice to hear an arrangement with only the strings, since I thought it would be very calming. Then Kosuke Oshima, who composed the strings part, dramatically changed the melody of the strings so that's why I wanted to include this version as well. 

―― So once again this idea was born spontaneously in the midst of production rather than having been planned from the get-go. 

Yes. We just all agreed that the melody of “Akane” was beautiful with a simple arrangement like that and the strings are perfectly complementing it. 

―― When you compare the two versions, the acoustic one definitely sounds more dramatic. 

The strings are pretty intense and the melody lines are dramatic so I really like it! I love the final result! 

―― That’s really amazing. You pretty much did that song on a whim. A song born out of a spontaneous session.

I think we have created an album that feels like a real team effort. 

―― I think you had a similar working environment during your activities as Kalafina but it's the first time for you as a solo artist to bring up ideas such as, "why don’t we try to include this song?" 

No, not at all. We didn’t really have that with Kalafina. This is truly the first time for me because during our time in Kalafina we only ever received a finished song which we were then asked to bring to life. But we were never involved in the recording of musical instruments or anything like that.

―― To celebrate the release of “Lantana” a live performance is scheduled for December 16 at Zepp DiverCity TOKYO. How hyped are you about that? 

To say I am not hyped at all would be a lie *laughs*. But I am honestly not that hyped. However, it is an opportunity to meet everyone which is a great thing so I want to do my very best performing live. Everyone has worked really hard this year, it’s been a tough year for sure so I want to convey all those feelings through my singing.

―― It's that time of the year where everyone is busy and needs to get all of their work done. 

Instead of being super hyped or nervous I want my audience at the venue and all the live stream viewers to feel a sense of relief, “ah yes, the year is almost over”. My fans should be able to relax and detox, hopefully my live will be a source of energy for them to survive the last few remaining days of 2020, I guess I just want everyone to try and escape from busy reality. Hopefully I can make everyone laugh *laughs*. 

―― Sounds great. 

Since I am doing my live so soon after the album release I thought it would be fitting to use a hugelive house like Zepp as my venue, I wanted to invite as many people as possible and have them sprinkled all across the hall to keep everyone safe.

―― You are pretty much standing alone and separated from everyone else. The same was done for your previous live. Of course you have the band members on stage but still... During your Kalafina days you always had the other two members next to you and in FictionJunction you stand on stage as one singer among many. How is it to stand in the middle of the stage all by yourself? 

Even before Kalafina I was part of a unit so this is truly the first time for me being all alone on stage. But I always feel like I am making music together with all the musicians, so I never really felt lonely. 

―― Yes of course, the band members. 

If I just had a backing track. Or if I hadn’t known the musicians behind me on stage, then yes, I might have felt alone. But we all worked together during my first live to create my solo music with as much care as possible. It was like having a session with my musician, so I really didn't feel alone. 

―― I think you may try to perform at bigger venues in the future. 

I think it’s okay to go step by step, slowly *laughs*. It’s totally fine to take very small steps. 

―― So you are not eager to perform in bigger venues? 

No. If anything, I want to have fun, this is my highest priority at the moment. How do I best enjoy music with my audience? This is what I feel strongly about. 

―― I think that’s great. 

Rather than thinking about producing a big live I just want to create a simple place where everyone can enjoy music together.

―― When I was listening to you album I got a strong jazz vibe from your song “Tameiki no Kieru Machi”. 

Oh yes, it definitely has that sort of vibe. 

―― Listening to you explaining all of your ideas, this song immediately came to mind when you mentioned  the “session feeling”. You kept saying in this interview how very much you enjoyed the exchange between yourself and everyone around you, how everything has become some sort of team project, was everything like that? 

Before recording my songs, especially in the early days before I had recorded "Hajimari wa" and "Ray", I wasn't used to recording with a new singing style so I was incredibly scared ... I vividly remember that feeling *laughs*. 

―― So there were some terrifying parts as well? 

To be honest, I was really scared. It was my first time using such a voice. It was unlike anything I had done in the past.  Rather than just blindly providing my vocals we created my voice together, I would constantly be asking, “should I sing like this or maybe like that?” 

―― I feel like it is very worthwhile to listen to this album, no matter how many times you listen you will always experience a new special flavour. Last but not least I would like you to say a few words to everyone who has been supporting you for a long time.

I've been working as a vocalist for Kalafina for 10 years but this time for the very first time I have created an album that’s made up of songs that I really wanted to sing. I would be happy if I could touch your hearts and find a way to connect with everyone through this album. Let’s end this year with a live concert! There is also a live stream available so please, let's spend some time together, I will be awaiting you ♪ Thank you for reading this interview.

[hikaru9]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge (2017 Edition) - Week 7

Favourite and second favourite song in “Consolation”:

1. signal 2. Kiichigo no Shigemi ni (木苺の茂みに)

[hikaru9]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge (2017 Edition) - Week 6

Favourite and second favourite song in “After Eden”:

1. sandpiper 2. Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa (輝く空の静寂には)

[hikaru9]

Kalafina 27 Week Challenge (2017 Edition) - Week 5

Favourite and second favourite song in “Red Moon”:

1. Yami no Uta 2. red moon