JAPAN | 191 | Kikuo - Dance of the Frogs

[Uto]

​

181	182	183	184
4s4ki	Hotei ft Aina The End	FAKY	Konatsu Sogabe ft Yuki Murata
Hyper Angry Cat	Andromeda	Bad Things	Wasure Rareta Ike (Forgotten Pond)
185	186	187	188
Wednesday Campanella	RAY	・・・・・・・・・	AiNA THE END x Yuta Bandoh
Tamamo-no-Mae	Kayoubi no Ame (Tuesday Rain)	Sain (Sign)	Creation
189	190	191
macaroom & Sarah Angel	Shinobu Kakyoin	Kikuo
OO LA LA	Shin Soma Bushi	Dance of the Frogs

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV96: Rita - Haruka Kanata | WV97 NF: Four Short Soundtracks

19th place for Haruka Kanata, with 102 points! Not bad, not bad.

Ideally, I would've loved to crack the left side with what is one of my favourite songs I've sent to WV so far, but I honestly can't complain - even managing to qualify is a great success given my usual results, and breaking top 20 and the 100-point mark are just little bonuses on top of that. Especially in what was a rather close final, where just another 15 points would've put me in the top 10.

Thanks so much to those who got me through to the final, and then to the players below who supported me when I got there:



rr
de




Central Russia

---

Moving on to the next edition, my WV97 NF has had two voters so far. Thanks to and !

I'm setting the voting deadline to 14:00 CET on the 11th of August - so just four hours before entry submissions are due.

Speaking of which, here are the promised mentions. These are just the people who vote in my NFs somewhat frequently or who I think might like what's on offer, though of course, votes are welcome from whoever. Anyway:
[MENTION=12072]Amir[/MENTION] [MENTION=13185]Edward[/MENTION] [MENTION=10742]daniels1000[/MENTION] [MENTION=15323]Eulaliya[/MENTION] [MENTION=4724]EurovisionSmile[/MENTION] [MENTION=14451]ferret[/MENTION] [MENTION=12992]Fierro[/MENTION] [MENTION=10726]FilipFromSweden[/MENTION] [MENTION=15333]JChan[/MENTION] [MENTION=15070]John1[/MENTION] [MENTION=14007]lavieenrose[/MENTION] [MENTION=12033]Nicholas123[/MENTION] [MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] [MENTION=15013]Ringdalen[/MENTION] [MENTION=14372]Uvaro[/MENTION] [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION]

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV97 NF: Four Short Soundtracks

Thanks again to my latest set of NF voters: rr::whateverbhutan'sflagcodeis

That brings us to a total of 6 voters, and the results are showing... quite a large gap, this time around. First place is still super-close, though:

25
24
12
11

So it's currently looking like a battle for first place and a battle for last place, quite separate from each other. Things are still very close when it comes to what I'm sending, though, so keep those votes coming in!

 

[Himan]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV97 NF: Four Short Soundtracks

You don't recognise our flag? With a beautiful Dragon on it? Boo.

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV97 NF: Four Short Soundtracks

You don't recognise our flag? With a beautiful Dragon on it? Boo.

Lol... I know the flag, but none of the obvious country codes are working to get me the flag emoji, and I can't find it in the little popup box thing either What is it?

 

[Himan]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV97 NF: Four Short Soundtracks

It's pretty easy, it's just:

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

An NF and Some Catch-Up​

Well, it's certainly been a while; I've been procrastinating with my green room posts as much as ever. But I couldn't resist getting an NF up and running for the big edition that is WV100, so I figured I should finally catch up with things and get onto that! General catch-up and comments on recent editions below; feel free to skip to the NF if you want.

WV97 - Yuki Kajiura - Decretum

I never even posted the NF results for this, did I? Whoops! It might be three editions late, but let's get onto that now for anyone who might still be interested:

While this was a rather close NF early on, it ended up with a pretty healthy lead for Decretum towards the end, with 6/8 voters giving the song the top (or equal top) points. I wasn't hugely surprised to see this battling with the Death Note Theme for the top spot - Kajiura's always done well in my NFs before - but I thought the Chihayafuru piano theme would've been more competitive than it was. Either way, I ended up with a clear enough NF winner.

I can't say I was thrilled with Decretum's results in WV, given that I NQ'ed after having the song near the top of my shortlist since I first joined. That said, at least it wasn't a flop, ending 13th/29 in regular voting and 5th/29 in REJU voting for the semi - luck of the draw, I guess. Anyways, I'm glad to have finally sent the song. Now on to WV98!

---

WV98: Arashi - Bazuri Night

​

I think the best result I've ever gotten with this sort of thing is 14th/21, so I wasn't exactly expecting to light up the scoreboards with this. No real surprises with the results, then: 26th/26 in regular, and 23rd/26 in REJU, for the semi. But I had a lot of fun sending these kings of flop and their Eurobeat-revival hit, complete with drag, so I honestly can't complain.

Ended up getting a few little bonuses from this selection too. The first being this comment from Rainy, which I think might be some of the hottest feedback I've ever gotten on a WV entry:

As for Japan.... what even was that? Iconic is what it was. Best boyband EVER. It's like if Calvin, Robert and Kris formed a group and asked me to manage them. Legendary.

And the second being, well... long story short, I recently ended up winning tickets to see these guys (plus the other two in the band) in Japan for their next concert - so I'll be heading there in December to see a whole bunch of their stuff live! Hopefully there's something else as iconic as this.

---

WV99: Natsumi Kiyoura - Tabi no Tochuu

It'd been a while since I sent anything with this sort of atmospheric folksy feel... so I figured, why not go with Tabi no Tochuu? As is often the case for my stuff, this is the opening theme to an anime series I adore, and I've loved the song since first hearing it years ago.

As for the results; so close, and yet so far! I'm actually pretty pleasantly surprised by how much support this entry ended up with; it's just that my draw was apparently atrocious, giving me 17th/28 in the regular vote and 1st/28 in REJU for an edition where REJU didn't count for much. Really, getting more points from 8 REJU voters than from 28 regular voters must be a special kind of unlucky as far as draws go. But that's enough of my moaning for now, because really, the 17th is about what I was expecting in the first place - I should probably just think of the REJU win as a cherry on top.

And now, back to the present edition...

---

WV100: Mixed-Bag National Final​

I really did spend a long while umm-ing and ahh-ing over what to do for this edition, given that it's a big milestone one. In the end, though, I figured it'd be a good time to throw back to the theme from my first-ever edition in WV (and one of the things I most enjoy doing in the contest) with a general NF, throwing all sorts of different stuff I like into a bucket and having no idea of the outcome.

This time around, we're starting off a fun little slice of upbeat pop in the form of Fiction before going on to βios, the rocky epic with some questionable German and a whole lot of power. Third in the running order is unity, a great melting bag of genres in and of itself with the sort of vocals I adore.

Speaking of mixed genres, we've got My Hero, which combines rap with some big orchestral rock (and a rather odd music video, for whatever reason). Getting towards the end, we've got Pre-Parade, another anime theme I've loved for years and something that tickles my love for weird alternative pop. And we finish up with Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo, a slice of sweeping orchestral pop song with ethnic hints that comes from my WV69 artist Yuuhei Satellite. Now let's get to it!

Recap:

Song List:

#1: sumika - Fiction
#2: Mika Kobayashi - βios
#3: Lisa Komine - unity
#4: Man With A Mission - My Hero
#5: Rie Kugimiya, Yui Horie, Eri Kitamura - Pre-Parade
#6: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo​

Please send your votes in the system of 10-7-5-3-2-1, with 10 points going to your favourite and 1 to your least favourite. I'd love to hear your opinions too! The deadline is set for the 21st of October, 12:00CET.

Finally, I'd usually leave mentions until a couple of days after the NF post goes up, but I'm a little later than I'd hoped to be this time around, so let's throw out some names now:

[MENTION=12072]Amir[/MENTION] [MENTION=13185]Edward[/MENTION] [MENTION=10742]daniels1000[/MENTION] [MENTION=15323]Eulaliya[/MENTION] [MENTION=4724]EurovisionSmile[/MENTION] [MENTION=14451]ferret[/MENTION] [MENTION=12992]Fierro[/MENTION] [MENTION=16177]Himan[/MENTION] [MENTION=15700]JSSArcos[/MENTION] [MENTION=14505]Lupus[/MENTION] [MENTION=12033]Nicholas123[/MENTION] [MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] [MENTION=14372]Uvaro[/MENTION] [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION]

Of course, votes are more than welcome from anyone who'd like to send them.

I'll be trying to get around to other peoples' NFs over the next few days as well. And while I'm in a WorldVision mood for the WV100 milestone, I'd like to put up a recap video sometime this edition to rank all of the entries I've submitted since WV65. For now, though, I've spent ages writing this and would like to get some sleep, so I'll head off - hopefully there's a little something here for everyone to like!

 

[Ana Raquel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

me seeing pre parade on this nf

 

[Lupus]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

has voted! Quite the excellent selection of songs here, so best of luck Zobo!

 

[Ana Raquel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

Voted! Any of my top 3 can win and I'll be super satisfied (and probably vote for it!!!!!!!!)

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

Thanks to for being my first two voters! There's about a day and a half to go until the deadline, so hopefully I'll get a few more by then

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: NF now open! Also, some general catch-up.

Just sent the winning entry of this NF! Only a total of five voters this time around (many thanks to for sending through their votes earlier), but at least there's a bit of a lead on the scoreboard. Here's how the scores ended up:

31
25
23
22
20
19

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo

[MENTION=14505]Lupus[/MENTION] I win, my green room post was even more delayed

Anyways, Yuuhei Satellite are back at WV! I've sent them to the contest before, but that was some 31 editions ago – back in WV69. More on the band, and on the franchise that this cover song is based on, back in my old post here.

This was the first song I ever heard from Yuuhei Satellite, and it's still one of my absolute favourites of theirs. Great vocals, growth and development throughout, a whole lotta ethnic flourishes, a rock solo and the wall-of-sound synth energy that comes with most anything Touhou-related... I'm quite happy to see it taking the crown in my NF for the edition. Speaking of which, here are some NF results:

Perhaps it was the low-ish voter count, but this was quite a bit more straightforward than usual – Iro wa Nioedo, Chirinuru wo took the lead at the start and held it throughout. The results were fairly tightly packed, though, given that past the first two voters there wasn't a whole lot of agreement. I'm glad to see everything getting some appreciation!

Feels weird to be talking about results only six hours-ish before the semi qualifiers are announced, but as for predictions here... it's hard to say. My last Yuuhei Satellite entry missed the finals by just four points, so I think it could be close (though as always, I'm not sure the draw has helped me - the winning song this time around received 27 points in my NF from voters allocated to the other semi but only 4 points from voters in my semi, lol). Nonetheless, let's see how we go!

Finally, here's the original game soundtrack that inspired my entry for this edition:

---

Looking Back: WV65-100 Recap & Ranking​

I've been thinking for ages that I should do a retrospective video of my favourite WV entries I've sent since joining the contest, and with us being at WV100, this seemed as good a time as any! Seriously, this has been on the backburner for ages – getting stuff ready, ordering and re-ordering and re-re-ordering my top list, finishing the video about a year back only to lose it when my hard drive died, etc. Seriously, I originally intended to have this done when I first region-swapped to Canada like 15 editions ago, lol.

But anyway, it's finally done: a video looking back at all 36 of my WV entries so far, and ranking them from least favourite to favourite in terms of my personal preferences. This was damn hard to rank... the contest being what it is, I love everything I've sent, and maybe all bar the bottom couple would've gotten my 12 at the contest if someone else had sent them. Finally done, though – this was fun to work on. Please do take a look and scroll down Zobo Memory Lane if you're interested. YouTube Video below; backup links here and here, because quite honestly I'm amazed the YouTube video has even survived copyright takedowns for the time it's taken me to write up this post.

I'd be thrilled to hear rankings and thoughts from anyone else, or even just a couple of favourites (or least-favourites, or anything else! I'm not picky ) Figured I'd throw out a bunch of mentions for those who've seemed to like my entries at some point and are still around at the contest: [MENTION=12072]Amir[/MENTION] [MENTION=16089]anaraqueen[/MENTION] [MENTION=15900]antonywinter[/MENTION] [MENTION=5527]Charly[/MENTION] [MENTION=10742]daniels1000[/MENTION] [MENTION=12510]esc87fan[/MENTION] [MENTION=15323]Eulaliya[/MENTION] [MENTION=4724]EurovisionSmile[/MENTION] [MENTION=12992]Fierro[/MENTION] [MENTION=14007]lavieenrose[/MENTION] [MENTION=14505]Lupus[/MENTION] [MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] [MENTION=15013]Ringdalen[/MENTION] [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION]

Anyways, thanks to all for the 36 editions – and here's to a bunch more going forward!

 

[Ana Raquel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

This Pre-Parade and Touhouphobia at the same time though

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

Well, it's another NQ, but at least not a total flop – 18th place is at least respectable (and I'm suspecting REJU is somewhat higher again due to a bad draw, but let's wait and see for the final results to come out). Thanks to all those who gave points, or just enjoyed the entry in general!

As for next edition – I'm liable to change my mind at the last second as always, but I'm really leaning towards one entry at the moment. Some hints:

• Another returning artist
• *Emotion*
• And this picture:
  
  

 

[RainyWoods]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

8000 years in the making. I present to you my very own ZoboCamel top 20 entries list, featuring all the hottest ZoboCamel songs. Behold..


01. Ayane - Endless Tears

02. Tomato/Tomato - Toss It All Away

03. Arashi - Bazuri Night

04. Natsumi Kiyoura - Tabi No Tochuu

05. Megumi Hayashibara - Imawa no Shinigami

06. Takeshi Abo - Believe Me

07. Jun Murakami - Farewell

08. Rita - Haruka Kanata

09. Jordan Leibel - I Built All My Friends

10. Blue Sky Miners - Cold Water

11. Satoshi Ohno - Bad Boy (I'm berry bad boy)

12. Yuki Kajiura - Decretum

13. Jun Maeda - Distant Years

14. Ryo Mizutsuki - Sanka

15. Yuuhei Satellite - Kachou Fuugetsu

16. Sakuzyo - I Am End

17. Yoshiaki Fujisawa - Shinsha

18. Wagakki Band - Senbonzakura

19. Kalafina - To The Beginning

20. Yuuhei Satellite - Iro was Nioedo


I hope I haven't been short-sighted here and missed something important out, but I think that's a rough idea of my favourites (I did watch your video like three or four times, trying to jog my memory). If I listened to everything again in full (which i've only done for a handful) then i'm sure things would be moved around. You're such a consistent player, and that's what made ranking the songs here difficult, apart from my number 1. Endless Tears is still my favourite song you've sent. That one gets me so excited every time I listen to it. Nothing quite like a super fast, demon possessed harpsichord hit. You've sent a lot of beautiful stuff, but I think I enjoy your fun side just as much. Your recent bop Bazuri Night was ahead of it's time. You keep a great balance between your entries. Your songs are generally very easy to appreciate, whatever mood it may be that you're currently in. Go King of Japan with a lil' helping of Canada on the side!

Thanks James for the tunes so far, and here's to the next 36 entries!1

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

WV101: Yoshiaki Fujisawa - Dakara Ore wa Kaeru ni Natta

I promised another returning artist, *emotion*, and a frog picture. And I have delivered!

Yoshiaki Fujisawa, my most successful artist to date (well, depending on how you look at it) is back for a second shot at the contest after placing 5th in WV94 with Shinsha. No Chinese ethno vibes this time around; I'd say this one's more of a Western-sounding orchestral piece. But I adore the gradual build of this, the melodies, the instrumentation and a whole lot more.

Probably not the biggest surprise coming from me, but this one's another anime soundtrack – coming from Uchouten Kazoku, which is a supernatural slice-of-life drama... thing? Anyways, it's underrated, it's super-creative and I like it a lot.

This particular track, Dakara Ore wa Kaeru ni Natta, plays during a flashback scene of sorts. Long story short, the main cast are tanuki able to transform into various animals, objects, all sorts of things. One character, feeling responsible for the death of his father, decides to shut himself away from the world by transforming into a frog and hiding away at the bottom of a well. And the scene explaining all this is where the soundtrack I've sent plays – its title translating to something along the lines of "And so I became a frog" (hence the video's image, taken from the series, and the 'frog' hint).

So yeah, kind of a roundabout bit of context for the song; it's a bit hard to get across without getting too wordy. But regardless of where it's from, I'm hoping that people will be able to appreciate the lovely composition of it all just as much as I do

I'll probably be taking my first-ever break for next edition, since I'm planning to be over in Japan for a holiday for a bit. Depending on the edition's schedule I might still be able to squeeze something in, though!

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

8000 years in the making. I present to you my very own ZoboCamel top 20 entries list, featuring all the hottest ZoboCamel songs. Behold..


01. Ayane - Endless Tears

02. Tomato/Tomato - Toss It All Away

03. Arashi - Bazuri Night

04. Natsumi Kiyoura - Tabi No Tochuu

05. Megumi Hayashibara - Imawa no Shinigami

06. Takeshi Abo - Believe Me

07. Jun Murakami - Farewell

08. Rita - Haruka Kanata

09. Jordan Leibel - I Built All My Friends

10. Blue Sky Miners - Cold Water

11. Satoshi Ohno - Bad Boy (I'm berry bad boy)

12. Yuki Kajiura - Decretum

13. Jun Maeda - Distant Years

14. Ryo Mizutsuki - Sanka

15. Yuuhei Satellite - Kachou Fuugetsu

16. Sakuzyo - I Am End

17. Yoshiaki Fujisawa - Shinsha

18. Wagakki Band - Senbonzakura

19. Kalafina - To The Beginning

20. Yuuhei Satellite - Iro was Nioedo


I hope I haven't been short-sighted here and missed something important out, but I think that's a rough idea of my favourites (I did watch your video like three or four times, trying to jog my memory). If I listened to everything again in full (which i've only done for a handful) then i'm sure things would be moved around. You're such a consistent player, and that's what made ranking the songs here difficult, apart from my number 1. Endless Tears is still my favourite song you've sent. That one gets me so excited every time I listen to it. Nothing quite like a super fast, demon possessed harpsichord hit. You've sent a lot of beautiful stuff, but I think I enjoy your fun side just as much. Your recent bop Bazuri Night was ahead of it's time. You keep a great balance between your entries. Your songs are generally very easy to appreciate, whatever mood it may be that you're currently in. Go King of Japan with a lil' helping of Canada on the side!

Thanks James for the tunes so far, and here's to the next 36 entries!1

Wooo, a response! Lovely to have (and in so much detail too). That scandalous snub of my personal top two entries though xsnooty

Good to see you enjoying such a wide slice of my entries. And yeah, I remember you liking Endless Tears quite a bit... I suppose I'll have to make it my mission to finally top that with something else on your list.

Would be curious to hear your hot flop of mine too... whatever you have lingering at #36

 

[RainyWoods]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV100: Yuuhei Satellite - Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru wo | WV65-WV100 Recap Video

Wooo, a response! Lovely to have (and in so much detail too). That scandalous snub of my personal top two entries though xsnooty

Good to see you enjoying such a wide slice of my entries. And yeah, I remember you liking Endless Tears quite a bit... I suppose I'll have to make it my mission to finally top that with something else on your list.

Would be curious to hear your hot flop of mine too... whatever you have lingering at #36

Gosh, this scandalous ploy to get me to watch your video for the fifth time.. ok, let's see........

I think "Perfect" by Simple Plan is probably my least favourite of the entries you've sent. I remember being quite shocked by it as I at least always appreciated your songs up until that point, even if I wasn't in love with every single one of them. That one was too whiny college rock for me. Not that I can't do whiny western pop rock (the nostalgia factor proved too strong when "Teenage Dirtbag" went to WV), but that Simple Plan song was rubbing me in ways I didn't want it to.

Something tells me I probably snubbed "The Rock City Boy" when you sent it. I listened to the song in full just there, and I think that could even pick something up from me today. There's a decent handful of WorldVision players who a lot of the time send songs I appreciate/like but even they have slip ups from time to time. You must be one of the most consistent players for me out of everyone. Like near enough everything you've sent I at least think is alright. I might have been nervous if you stayed in Canada for any longer (you missed the comedy gold opportunity though to send Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" and then watching on as I supported it). You had a couple of songs from there I really liked, but I found your Japanese entries much more agreeable as a whole. You truly are the king of anime/visual novels/boy bands.


I'm trying to work on a 50 entries post for my greenroom, complete with a video as well. I'm doing things at like a slug pace though. I've waited so long for this moment and now i'm being lazy with it. Also my video maker is not allowing me to add text. I will destroy it. Your post and video though I think are giving me the inspiration I need to push through it and produce something.

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV101: Yoshiaki Fujisawa - Dakara Ore wa Kaeru ni Natta

Thanks to everyone who got Yoshiaki Fujisawa through to the finals here! Given my track record at the contest, just qualifying is already a bit of a win in and of itself for me – so I was thrilled to wake up and see the Japanese banner in the qualifiers show this morning.

This is now... kind of my first-ever successful returning artist? Ryo Mizutsuki and Yuki Kajiura both ended with a narrow NQ on their second attempt after qualifying once, while Yuuhei Satellite, Arashi and nano have been sent two or more times without qualifying.

That title could also go to Jun Maeda or Yuki Kajiura depending on how you look at it (the former composed my WV72 non-qualifier and WV96 qualifier entries without being named, while the latter did the same for my qualifier in WV73), but Fujisawa is at least the first to do so off his own name.

Anyways, thanks again, and I'm looking forward to the final

 

[ZoboCamel]

Re: Japan | 日本 | WV103: Aimer feat. Chelly - Ninelie

Wait, I didn't update my green room after the hot third place I managed in WV101? Oops xshifty

Anyways, it's probably a bit late for a full thanking post at this point but just for posterity woooooo, my best finish yet. I was secretly hoping for Yoshiaki Fujisawa to do well again, given he placed fifth the first time I sent him, but actually coming out ahead of that score was even better than I'd hoped for. Thanks to all the voters for getting me my first-ever podium finish that hopefully won't (but probably will) take another 37 editions to manage again

While I'm here – I know that voting for the WV103 final has already closed, but I may as well put this here as a good-luck charm or something...

WV103: Aimer feat. Chelly - Ninelie

Hot confession: I actually wasn't the hugest fan of this song when I first heard it a few years back. I liked it, sure, and I added it to various playlists, but I preferred a bunch of other songs by Aimer. It's grown on me over the years, though – and even more now, since I've been listening to it nonstop since submitting it to WV – so I was thrilled to see it qualify. Again, thanks to everyone who helped me get to the final!

As with a bunch of my other entries, Ninelie is something that I discovered via an anime: it was used as the ending theme to Koutetsujou no Kabaneri. I can't entirely recommend the show, which was hugely popular but went quite a bit downhill towards the end; I'm happy that it introduced me to this song, though.

The song is a duet of two singers I'd already known and liked for a while: Aimer (with the louder, deeper voice) and Chelly (with the softer, breathier voice). I really love how their voices blend together and harmonise here; it's probably my favourite aspect of the song, and there's a lot to like about it.

Despite enjoying both artists, this is the first time I've sent either one to WV outside of national finals. Both have been sent by other players in the past, though:

• Chelly flopped way back in WV10 (23rd in the SF), when nekoisneko sent her from Japan as the singer for the Supercell band. Side note: That's a great song! Robbed! EDIT: Actually, I just checked and that was done by Koeda, a different singer from the same band. Chelly did a different opening theme for the same anime series, also as part of Supercell... which I thought was sent to WV too, but apparently not. And now I'm just confused.
• Aimer managed to qualify when she was first sent in WV66 (by John1, from Kyushu), coming a respectable 20th place in the final.
• Most recently, Aimer was sent again in WV91, with esc87fan using her time in Japan to send another of her songs. It stayed in the semis, though, coming 18th.

For anyone who's interested, there's a live performance of the song available on YouTube. It seems like only Aimer was there, though, so Chelly's vocals are pre-recorded.

Anyway, that's about all for now. I'm also hoping to have an NF up for WV104, though, in which case I'd better get moving...