Re: Japan | 日本 | WV81: Ryo Mizutsuki - Scene Shifts There
Another NF done, another winner sent - and what a winner it is! I find it very hard to say what my favourite is from the NF, as I love them all, but Scene Shifts There would probably take that title most of the time, so I'm thrilled to see that it won.
I'm not sure what I love more about it: its emotion or the way it's so dynamic. Rather than base itself around predefined sections or structure, it just grows bit by bit, line by line, instrument by instrument, reaching that big string crescendo and then easing itself out with that beautifully emotional piano ending. It's similar to my WV67 entry
Sanka in that sense, and for good reason: both were composed by Ryo Mizutsuki for the Rewrite soundtrack. Luckily, that allows me to be a little lazier than usual with this post - if you'd like to read more on Rewrite or Ms. Mizutsuki, just take a trip back in time to
my green room post for WV67!
This marks the first time that Zobo-Japan has sent a proper returning artist (unless you count composing an entry without being the artist, in which case Jun Maeda managed it a few editions back). And I'm thrilled to have that title to go Rewrite and Ryo Mizutsuki; Rewrite has my equal-favourite soundtrack of any Japanese media, and Ryo's contributions to the soundtrack are perhaps my absolute favourites from it overall, tied only with a particular ballad that's been sitting on my WV shortlist since I joined.
I must admit, my library of music from Ryo Mizutsuki is rather short: Sanka and Scene Shifts There are both staples in virtually all of my instrumental/soundtrack playlists, but otherwise I've mostly just got them, one good song which is perhaps worth a WV try but is in a very different vein to what I've sent from her so far, and then a smattering of nice-but-less-amazing songs from the rest of the Rewrite soundtrack. Hoping to correct this, I looked through a good
list of visual novel soundtracks composed by her, which I noticed included three visual novels I've already been intending to play.
So I looked up some tracks from those VNs on YouTube, and... immediately fell in love with at least a couple. So I think I may want to play through one or two of those at some point soon and find some more favourites from her
Anyways! Onto the NF results.
The NF started out as a close one: four sets of votes in, eventual winner
Scene Shifts There was only a single point ahead of Eve, and Reminiscence also seemed a strong contender, with many of its likely supporters not yet having voted at that time. The second half sealed it, though, slowly propelling Scene Shifts There into a more convincing lead as it managed the impressive feat of coming top-two with five voters in a row.
But while it took its time to really jump ahead, the song was a strong performer from the start, holding onto the lead from the very first set of votes and never letting it go. In the end, its winning margin was the most convincing of any full Zobo NF since Kalafina stomped my WV73 selection: while things weren't quite at that level here, Scene Shifts Ahead was still 16 points ahead with three 10s, a whole lot of 7s, and no bottom-twos. Hardly a unanimous decision, but a pretty wide show of support, which I was really happy to see!
Going down the scoreboard,
Reminiscence ~Awakening Soul~ in second place was no surprise, as I'd expected the song to challenge for the win all along. While it was received just as many top scores as our winner, it seemed to lose out by being more divisive, receiving a number of fairly low scores to drag down its 10s. It was nice to hear just how ardent its fans were, though - all three voters who gave it their 10 also left a comment to say how much they loved it. I always enjoy the more divisive stuff that evokes strong reactions, so... who knows? This might pop up again somewhere in Japan's WV future.
The short-but-sweet
Theme of SSS and the crazy low-budget synths of
Toono Gensou Monogatari were also divisive, though in a less polarising way; they seemed less 'love-hate' and more 'these scores are so varied that I have no idea what the next voter will think of them', with each of the two receiving every possible score at least once. Both ended up roughly where I'd expected them to, and had no particularly interesting patterns to talk about, so... well, nothing too exciting in that part of the scoreboard, really
Going in to the NF, I figured
Eve would be the most divisive of all the songs, getting a couple of top scores offset by a swathe of 1s; surprisingly, I was quite off the mark here. 5th-6th place is pretty much what I'd expected from it, but the scores were clumped more in the middle than what I'd expected. Still, I'm happy to have shown the weirder, rockier side of instrumentals that doesn't pop up so often at WV, and I'll continue to do so in the future!
Finally,
Shounen-tachi to no Wakare comes as the requisite surprise flop of the NF: I'd expected this one to be second, third, maybe even fighting for the win. I figured it'd be somewhat divisive, and it did indeed have people on both sides of the opinion spectrum, but I hadn't quite expected the wave of 1s that came for what I find to be a really emotional, touching song, ultimately dooming it to last place. Nonetheless, no regrets in including it!
Anyway, that's it for now - no lyrics translation this time around, for obvious reasons. Enjoy the song, and thanks again to all my NF voters who helped me choose it!
has voted!! What a superb NF this is. Nothing I disliked whatsoever and some incredible pieces of music. Best of luck James 
) but it isn't fair when things like this happen. It was such a gorgeous entry and should have been in the final.
I can't believe you're leaving Japan soon though
1 It just won't be the same without you at the helm but i'll be excited to see where you go next.
or queen Kokia 
I know this is the sort of thing that's usually done behind closed doors, but I've so far failed to find anyone interested via PMs so... now I'm here! Going to throw a mention to those who expressed interest in LastDreamer's thread of potential swaps a while back, and who haven't already said they wouldn't be interested yet: [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION] [MENTION=12072]Amir[/MENTION] [MENTION=15323]Eulaliya[/MENTION] [MENTION=14007]lavieenrose[/MENTION] [MENTION=14424]Genesis[/MENTION] [MENTION=10910]SwedishFailurez[/MENTION]
