Re: Japan | 日本 | WV73: Kalafina - To The Beginning
Welcome back to edition #this-has-happened-far-too-many-times of
Zobo's Late Green Room Posts! I'm your host, ZoboCamel, and today I'm here to apologise for the wait and to gush for a while about my latest lovely entry. Without further ado, please enjoy!
I've gotta say, this one has been waiting in the wings for a while; ever since I joined the contest back in WV63, it's been hovering right around the top of my list of stuff I want to send. I did have a feeling it'd be the favourite in this NF; as much as I loved everything I included in that selection, Kalafina's certainly got a proven track record in WV, and the song does have wider appeal than most of the alternatives. What I
wasn't expecting, though, was that victory margin. Whoa. Ending up with a 27-point lead over second place, this now marks my biggest runaway winner from an NF, dethroning the 22-point win of Believe Me back from my first NF in WV65. Anyways - the scoreboard!
So, uh... quite the resounding victory, really. Top scores from 5/9 voters would have given Kalafina a clear win even if the other four had all put them last, but that wasn't the case: the group managed a respectable top-three finish with most of those who sent their 10 elsewhere. Even Rainy, the only voter to place them outside of the top half, commented that "In all seriousness this is super charming, perhaps even more enjoyable than their previous song which I killed my 3rd with by upping my points for the song to 7 in the final when sending in my votes." Not sure I'll see more of a consensus winner in my NFs any time soon - hopefully at least a little of that support trickles over to the main contest!
That's not to say that the other entries here were snubbed, though - despite the clear winner, every entry got at least a respectable level of support. Despite its overall deficit,
Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau had a strong run of points, actually tying Kalafina's 37 points in the middle five sets of votes. The entry scored received strong scores from Pots 8 and 9, grabbing a couple of 10s; it was a divisive one, however, ending in the top 2 or bottom 2 of all but a single voter.
Starlog, on the other hand, received a fairly consistent stream of middling reactions - except for one particular voter - Rainy, again - who gave a lovely few sentences of gushing praise for it. Tied in third place was LiSA's
Oath Sign, drawing high scores from some but suffering from a couple of last places. I'd about expected that, really - I love the song, but LiSa's vocals aren't for everybody (though I think her voice sounds beautiful in a particular ballad that WV hasn't yet seen... how would people react to her with that one, I wonder? I might like to find out at some point. Hint hint.)
A jump back from the rest, Aimer's
Brave Shine sits snugly in fifth place. I've gotta say, this one surprised me; I adore the song, and I had it pegged as a competitive second or third place in the NF, as I find it to be strong, accessible and well-performed. There's always the one surprise, though, which I guess goes to Aimer this time. The song did have its NF fans, receiving a couple of 7s, but more than one user noted that it felt a little too subdued, safe and Western for a Japanese WV entry - which is a fair criticism, I suppose. Though I still haven't entirely thrown away the notion of going internal with this in some later edition where I feel like flopping...
Finally,
Memoria took up the back of the pack with a respectable-but-not-impressive 30 points. Some had praise for the song, but most felt it failed to stand out enough from the rest of the pack. I can't say I'm particularly shocked about it's last-place result here; in all honesty, this was the last entry I put into the NF, as I'd been tossing up between this and a couple of others for my 'sixth favourite' slot. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have shared it with all my voters here - who, of course, deserve one last thanks for helping me choose my entry for this edition!
I suppose this is the section where I would usually write at length on the song and band, but... truth be told, I'm feeling rather lazy at the moment
For the short version: Kalafina is a three-piece vocalist band formed in 2008, working closely with composer Yuki Kajiura to release a range of songs for general consumption, soundtracks and more. The band is related fairly closely to FictionJunction - also a Kajiura project, sharing most of its members with Kalafina and debuting in the same year. While Kalafina are relatively well-known in the West compared to many other Japanese artists, most of the band's popularity outside of Japan comes from two of their themes for anime series:
Magia (the Madoka Magica ending theme, sent to WV65 by
nekoisneko) and our entry for this time around, To The Beginning (Fate/Zero's second opening theme).
Well, I... guess that's about all I have to say! Anyone looking for more information on the composer, Kajiura, can go back to my
WV70 Green Room post, where I talked about her in a little more detail; similarly, I gave a brief rundown of the Fateverse in my
NF post for this edition.
Oh, and finally, a brief teaser for the near future of Japanese WorldVision: plans are not yet concrete, but expect the next few editions to bring:
- A particular trance song that might be a little more well-known than my average entry (though considering the context that probably means maaaaaybe one or two people have heard it before, rather than the usual zero).
- A national final full of lovely instrumentals. Pot 9, pay attention!
- The upbeat national final I'd planned but postponed to send an internal entry.
- A national final of (loosely-defined) suggestions and discoveries from WV users and more. I haven't yet checked, but I think I'm already at a comfortable 5 or 6 - though do send me suggestions if there's something you want to see, and I can either upscale the NF or boot out something else! :twisted:
Well, that's it for now. Best of luck to all for this edition!
Though I wouldn't mind breaking it by nabbing a second Q in a row next edition, of course!
