Re: Japan | 日本 | WV67: Ethnic Fusion NF is over, 'winner' sent
After a slight delay, it's time for some entry links and fun facts! Entry on the info is below, but first let's take a look at the NF results.
By a very close margin (or, technically, no margin at all), Japan's entry for WV67 is
Sanka! One last huge thanks to the nine voters here who helped me decide. My condolences go to those who barely missed out on their favourite winning, but especially to [MENTION=7176]RomanFromRussia[/MENTION], who so narrowly missed out on getting both his 7 and 10 and instead had me send his 1 in the tiebreaker.
Despite the chaos of things, I can't say I was too shocked by the popularity of the eventual winner.
Sanka is probably my favourite song of the NF (despite one other coming very close - more on that later), my previous NF was a precedent for people enjoying emotional instrumentals, and I did hope that the lovely melodies and composition would find some supporters. What
did come as slightly more of a surprise was the success of
Yakusoku, which managed to tie 53/53 with Sanka in the final results. While I do think it's a beautiful piece, I was predicting a lower placing owing to its short length, relative simplicity and competition with the less-niche Sanka. Thrilled to see some unexpected support here though - it's lovely to see that some people are enjoying the stuff I have here, plus it helps me to better determine what you guys like so that I can make future NFs even stronger.
Moving down, we have
Kachou Fuugetsu in an incredibly-close third. I was a little worried for the chances of this one, given that it's perhaps the most alternative song here - very 'messy', no easy hook to latch on to, etc. - but clearly it's got some support, taking three of the nine tens on offer here (plus some beautiful accolades from [MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] in his usual long-PM style). To those who enjoyed this one, make sure to check back in future editions - I adore a great many Yuuhei Satellite songs, many of which should also find some support from fans of this one, and I've got vague plans to use them all for a single-artist NF at some time in the future. Look forward to it!
Quite some distance behind (though still with its supporters), we've got
Nuedori, which managed to take out the last ten-pointer on offer. [MENTION=8534]theCONWEL[/MENTION] was rather vocal about his enjoyment of this, and even went so far as to call it a possible WV winner in his vote PM. While that plan's clearly been put on hold for now, I was happy to see I'm not alone in my love for this one. Nuedori is only the tiniest distance behind Sanka in my personal ratings, and in my predictions I had it pegged as both 'equal most likely NF winner alongside Sanka' and 'most likely to perform well in WV'. While it didn't quite live up to those expectations, I'm still feeling the urge to push it through to the main contest at some point, so don't be surprised if you see this one popping back up in another NF at some point, or even an internal selection.
Only a couple of points behind that was
Endless Story. Nothing too out of the ordinary here - it placed about where I expected it to, had mostly middling scores, and the general feedback of 'nice but not outstanding' was rather close to my own thoughts on the song. I largely put this one in the NF for a little variety, seeing as the selection was otherwise a little low on pop, and I do like to provide a wide range of options where I can. I'm noticing, though, that the crowd of voters attracted by NFs is a little skewed - based on pot stereotypes, I'm getting low numbers of pop fans but a lot of lovers of alternative stuff. This time around, for example, I took votes from four Pot C voters (
), two Pot F, one each from B and E, and one from the iconic Pot Gera. Perhaps this explains why my emotional instrumentals keep outperforming the pop? Fun fact: 3/12 songs in my NFs so far have been instrumentals, and those three are the three that have gotten the most votes, i.e. every instrumental song has so far beaten every non-instrumental.
Finally we come to the poor
Hakkin Disco, left lingering in a distant last place. As I was putting together the NF, I included this as a wildcard of sorts - I do find I'm usually throwing in at least one song I find hard to predict the support for, and that was what happened here. I don't think it's the worst strategy, despite the hot disco flop here - Yakusoku was a much more successful wildcard, after all. Well, it's fun to do, so I'm pretty sure I'd keep including weird little curiosities like this even if they bombed every time
As is probably clear from the fact that I picked it as my winner from the two tied entries, I'm quite the fan of Sanka, and I'm thrilled to be sending it to WorldVision. Composed by Ryo Mizutsuki, this beautiful little instrumental has been around the front of my shortlist since I first signed up for the contest. While it's a bit of a case of comparing apples and oranges, this is probably my favourite song I've sent so far, and just one of my favourite songs in general, coming in as my #1 most played Japanese song in my music library. I must admit, I'm a little worried to be sending something I care so much about - especially given my track record so far - but I couldn't resist the opportunity to put this out there and share it with people. Now, before I ramble on too much more, I should probably let the song speak for itself - so here it is!
As with a lot of my shortlisted entries, this has a kinda geeky/pop-cultural background. Following on from the trend of my first entry -
Takeshi Abo's 'Believe Me' - Sanka is actually another visual novel soundtrack, this time from the popular Rewrite series. In all honesty, there's not a lot of easily-accessible information on Ms. Mizutsuki, bar that she's a 46-year-old composer, originally born as Kiyoko Yamada, originating from Japan's Hyogo Prefecture. I do, however, have this beautifully grainy 'I couldn't find much on the English internet and am too tired to search in Japanese' selfie picture of her.
Moreso than Mizutsuki herself, however, the most important aspect of the song's composition is likely that it was made as part of a KEY project. Quick warning, this... might be a slightly messy explanation, but if you've read through this much of a wall of text already, I'm sure you can put up with it.
Alright, so: KEY is, at its core, a Japanese publishing company centred on visual novels (kind of like choose-your-own-adventure game/story/manga/anime thingies;
I explained them in more depth previously). In both the Japanese and English fan communities, they've got quite the reputation for their drama, having refined the tearjerker to an art - they've built their brand around writing endearing, cute characters and using them as the centrepiece for character dramas that rarely leave the viewer with a dry eye. They're perhaps best known for their visual novel Clannad, and its two highly-acclaimed anime adaptations, but have a range of popular works that also includes Air, Kanon, Angel Beats, Little Busters, Planetarian and Rewrite.
Now, to explain this tangent: it's generally agreed the soundtracks to KEY's works are one of the major components of their emotional draw, and they've very much got an identifiable sound. After collaborating together for years on different soundtracks, KEY's composers have almost formed a stylistic hive mind of sorts: while each brings their own talents to the table, they've developed a company style for emotional music, and the end result usually comes out sounding much more like a 'KEY track' than something attributable to a particular composer. On top of providing some background, then, the point I'm making here is that Sanka is a song by KEY just as much as it is a song by Ryo Mizutsuki - so if you enjoy the entry and you're interested in finding some similar stuff, just take a look through the catalogue of KEY's soundtracks for their other works! Oh, and I also thought the description might be useful because I've got a KEY-only national final planned for the future. Or two. Or three.
Anyways! Since this is a soundtrack, I thought I should give a little bit of series background to wrap up the mini-essay I've got going here. While I've already mentioned KEY's general writing style above - lots of emotions and personal drama with likeable characters - the 2011 release of the
Rewrite visual novel marked perhaps the largest departure from their usual style to date. With usual head writer and composer Jun Maeda taking a break, the staff at KEY headed a slightly different direction for the project, keeping their basic tendencies and emotional stylings, but applying them to a large-scale sci-fi war story rather than an everyday romance drama. The end result was the sprawling story of Rewrite,
spanning 757,000 words and elements of almost every genre of fiction. While criticised by some for being a little messy, the VN otherwise received high praise for its ambition, scale and emotion, and continued KEY's legacy of dramatic, high-stakes storytelling.
The song I've sent here, Sanka, is actually one of the more minor tracks from the series, used only on a few occasions related to a certain side character. While it didn't have long to grow on me, I fell for it regardless, as did many other fans of the visual novel - and, now, I'm glad to share it with WV! While there's not much to analyse in terms of lyrics (since, well, there aren't any), the composition is bittersweet, combining soaring emotional highs with melancholic lows and a sense of fragility. The faint piano sounds are linked quite explicitly to the imagery of falling cherry blossom petals (from which the piece derives its name, 'Scattered Petals'), and this image - combined with the rise and fall of the music - hint at the idea that everything has its end, and that loss is only natural. Kind of a philosophical piece when you (over)analyse it like that, really.
Anyway, that's quite enough of my rambling; I've already gone on far too long for a green room song announcement post, and I'd be a little surprised if any of you were still reading at this point. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy the song!
