Weird Soundtrack Cravings

For some reason I’ve felt like listening to ‘24 Jikan Aishiteru.’ Why is this?

Netemo samete mo hen nano
Kimi no koto bakari na no
Haato ni wa kimi igai mou hairanai-mitai
donna amai SWEETS yori
Me ga aeba sore dake de
torokeso ni shiawase koitte sugoi PAWAA

Na no ni KIMI wa bonyari-shite
meguri aeta kiseki motto hora moriagete!

*Ichiban aishiteru aishiteru ni-juu-yon jikan iitai
dare yori massugu ni oikakete mamotte agetai na
harete mo kumotte mo arashide mo itsumo hohoemi atte
onnaji sora no shita aruite-ikou

Yume ni miteita doori no
kimi wa unmei no hito
issho ni ireba zettai kanau koto ga ippai
Tatoeba kizutsuite mo te wo tsunageba soko kara
yuuki ofureru kara nani ga atte mo heiki

Na no ni KIMI wa bonyari-shite
sonna toko mo doushite masu-masu hottokenai!

Yappari aishiteru aishiteru hyaku nen datte mo iitai
chikau yo zenryoku de dakishimete mamotte ageru koto wo
Ashita mo asatte mo sono tsugi mo zutto yorisoi atte
mabushii mirai dake shinjite-ikou

[*REFRAIN]

By Arishima Moyu,
Adapted from transliteration by Kikyosama

It’s the opening to Yumeria, widely panned as a generic and forgettable show. Do I have some sort of hidden loyalty to the series? I doubt that. It provided me with some laughs, but the absence of any real character development, reliance on stereotypes, and huge deus ex machina at the end meant I couldn’t seriously recommend it except as a way to kill time (or for fans of the video game.)

And yet something about this audio track is compelling, in a way that defies my cursory analysis. Is it the acoustics? ’24 Jikan Aishiteru’ couples an unnaturally sweet voice with a driving rock beat reminiscent of marches, and a straightforward chord progression. Perhaps what I am not looking for is there either. How about the lyrics? The lyrics express a simple and pure devotion free from the complications induced by real life. It might be naive, but then, this is not a mature woman’s love; it is a simple girl’s love. This is only reinforced by the simplicity of the song’s structure and the deliberate emphasis of youth in the vocals.

It could be that this simple, unfettered devotion, unbound by circumstance or reason, is what I feel compelled to seek.

Have you ever had the inexplicable urge to listen to a song from a soundtrack?

Author: moritheil

One might be forgiven for thinking that Moritheil is a postmodern literary critic who started reviewing video games in 2001, and spent the early 2000s learning at the right hand of con staff and fansubbers. However, those rumors are spurious: Moritheil is actually a distant relative of Genghis Khan who stands poised to conquer the world via the Internet. Follow along at http://twitter.com/moritheil.

8 thoughts on “Weird Soundtrack Cravings

  1. I occasionally will have the urge to put “Inori ~You Raise Me Up~” on loop. The many versions of it are all from Romeo x Juliet, which was a terrible series, but hey, good music is good music. I also find myself being in the mood for the X soundtracks, which are beautiful, beautiful masterpieces, but X the series was mostly forgettable nonsense.

  2. @Kiri – Yes, it’s weird how sometimes the lackluster shows get awesome music.

    @omo
    – Actually I think zzeroparticle press-ganged me in at some point in the past, as I seem to already be a member. Thanks for reminding me, though!

  3. Oh no! Not finger-point anime! D=

    Actually, I also found something catchy about the OP: part of the tune sounds a bit like this

    yea, its very far-fetched, but I couldn’t separate the two back in the day.

  4. Oh goooood.
     
    Yumeria.
     
    That, along with Air Gear, was my first anime that wasn’t ported and mass commercialized in North America. Oh the innocent days. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as harem and ecchi in CARTOONS. I thought they were just coincidentally well defined female characters >:

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