時よ止まれ

I’m still trying to digest that finale because hoooly shit that was… definitely something. 

I mean… wow… what… wuh… 

I think… it’s a pity that the Dolores & Man in Black team-up didn’t last longer, it was so great. I’m missing the point, I know. But it was awesome.

And I’m not entirely sure that Sizemore going out like that was entirely necessary? I mean I understand what it was meant to be, but still.

Also, the universe can stop pissing on Bernard any time now. Any time now.

But anyway, the thing with the hosts who went to Host Heaven, that was basically Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, Kuze with the refugees. Except I guess a bit more concrete and happy, since in case of Kuze it wasn’t a promise of a better world, it was a desperate effort that’s never been done before and its success wasn’t guaranteed (and was never directly confirmed, iirc). Also they were humans with partially (or fully) digitized brains, not hyper-evolved AI, I guess that also counts. But otherwise, yeah, that’s what came to my mind, being the filthy otaku that I am.

Come on Season 3, and please let it be the last season that ties everything up.

capricious-bastard13:

(I’m just going to go straight through it, no introductions here. The translations are all from Ryota-san who translated Takaaki’s drama cds  and Akemilena-san who translated SolidS’ drama cds.) This isn’t a a theory or anything like that, it’s just something that I’ve noticed and wanted to say but didn’t know where.

You see, Shiki and Shu (and Takaaki who’s now part of TsukiPro) were all in a nationally-known idol unit before. And I was reading a drama cd translation about Takaaki, who’s the leader of VAZZROCK, and (‘former’) friends with Shiki and Shu.

And I noticed something that they’re been hinting at for a while now.

I first noticed it when I was reading SolidS’ origin. 

But whenever Shiki, Shu, or even Takaaki mentions their former unit, they get gloomy- sort of. Like there’s this thing that happened that made their memories of that unit turn bad(?). I understand Shiki and Shu’s because during that time Shiki wanted to pursue his own style of music but he couldn’t do that because he was restricted by following the unit’s style of music and genre, so he couldn’t really produce what he wanted; Shu, on the other hand, is the youngest within the group and saw Shiki as his older brother because Shiki was the closest to his age- being three years apart- and when Shiki told him that he’ll be quitting the unit, it’s pretty understandable that you’d feel sad because the person you look up to is leaving and feels like you’re being left behind, all alone. 

But now, see, Takaaki, who’s was in the same unit said something gloomy- like he doesn’t want to talk about his previous unit. If he was affected by Shiki leaving too, then it’s understandable since they seem to be pretty close (because in the tweet-conversation that they had, it’s shown that they can still talk as if nothing happened between them at all, being chummy and all that) yet when I read the translations, it gave off this vibe as if he regrets something or that there’s this heavy past that he (nor the other two) don’t really want to talk about.

Example no.1 about Takaaki giving off this regretful vibe:

Example no.2:

Example no. 2.5:

And it’s not just Takaaki, Shiki and Shu too. And Shiki was the first one to exhibit this.

Even in the anime, Shu talked about how he looked up to Shiki and how Shiki left the unit, it was even shown that he was affected by it.

But there’s something else that they’re not talking about.

Something much more that they’d rather ignore than acknowledge and I feel like TsukiPro is setting this up intentionally. 

There’s even this scene:  

There’s something that they’re hiding. Or more specifically, something that they avoid particularly when it comes to their previous unit. And I understand that there may have been some instances where it the unit was internally falling- hell, Takaaki even said that it was complicated.

And I get that. But TsukiPro deliberately setting this up because if they set up that whole conflict with Koki, Ryota, and Kensuke, with ZIX then it isn’t far off to say they’re planning something with gathering the members from Shiki’s, Shu’s, and Takaaki’s former unit together. TsukiPro already has three out the six (was it six, shit I forgot) members of that nationally-known unit, what’s to say that they’re planning something bigger for them-?

I’m not saying that they all regret leaving their unit, but what I meant is that: Why does it seem like they’re implying that there’s a thing that they’ve left unfinished-?

- Honestly, this seems like a theory but it isn’t, I just wanted to voice something out that I’ve noticed for a while now and I felt bad because I’ve been bothering my friend about it (lol). They even kept on telling me how Takaaki might be lonely because unlike Shiki and Shu who has this sibling-like bond, Takaaki (as of now) had no one-? And my friend said that Takaaki seems like the type of person who puts a distance between himself and other people despite his easy-going and means well. (Our conversation about this whole thing, lol)

Anyway, if you read this up to here, then I give my applause to you *Claps* but honestly, this isn’t a theory or anything, just something that I wanted to say (lol).

I haven’t read/listened to all of the things you listed so I can’t really comment on them, especially as tbh I’m quite vary of fan translations so I wouldn’t necessarily want to draw conclusions from them without having heard the original. (Not to clock the people who did the translations! But in those that I’ve seen I often come across mistakes and misunderstandings.) But anyway, while there may very well be a larger conflict in the backstory, I think with characters like Takaaki or Shuu it’s more about how their experiences with the old unit shaped them and affect their current situation.

Shuu, for example - we know enough about his past to know that he’s always been lonely. He doesn’t necessarily feel or even recognize this very strongly (when he tells about his childhood to the other Quell members and Issei, observant as always, asks if he was lonely, his reaction is basically “now that you mention… yeah, probably?”) but nevertheless it’s strongly implied. He never had a real family or somewhere he felt he belonged, he had few friends or close relationships as a young child. So for him the old unit was basically the first place he felt he really belonged to, the first people he had close bonds with, which was all the more important to him as he was/is still so young. And regardless of his surviving friendship with Shiki, when the unit broke up he felt lost and alone, until the twins came along. 

So I think it might be more about the individual characters and their characterization and how their past affects their current situation, rather than something about the entire unit (although again there might very well be something larger in the backstory that we don’t know about yet). In Shuu’s case, being lonely, finding a sort of family and then losing it, which gives a basis to how he relates to the twins and Quell in general. In Takaaki’s case it’s something he’d been struggling with since then and is trying to handle now… etc.

You know, while overall I still like Anata no hana better (I love that driving beat, and the “ah ah ah” is so damn catchy, actually the whole song is catchy as hell) Nemuru oogarasu has been growing on me a lot, kinda cheesy refrain and all. But I’m finding that as much as I enjoy the melody and the performance, I actually kind of like the karaoke track even more…? kind of?

Like, I know I’m probably doing this wrong, but the arrangement in that song. Just listen to the karaoke track and tell me it’s not a lot of fun and really well put together, especially how it builds up to that energetic finale. It really makes you want to sing, or at least hum the lead melody. And that koto(? probably koto) solo leading up to it - so elegant! Anata no hana has a delicate piano solo there that fits that song, but Nemuru oogarasu has what is kind of like a surprise touch of elegance and class with the flashes of koto.

Anata no hana’s arrangement is pretty damn nice, too, by the way. It’s just really classy and tasteful, with just the right amount of electronics. Also, that pulsing beat is really great.

(By the way, Anata no hana must be so damn difficult to sing! I’m someone who prefers to keep 2D and 3D separate in this aspect, so as much as I like the seiyuu and enjoy interviews and seiyuu goofing around in or out of character and whatnot, I don’t really have a desire to see live concerts. But damn, I’m actually really curious to hear this song performed live. I wonder if poor Nakamura has any breath left by the end. I can’t even imagine singing this while also doing choreography and whatnot.)