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kuroihashiba · 2 years ago

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Just posting some thoughts about the TOBARI 陰陽 series tracks that I've had on my mind since I just finished lively with dazzling light's first listen last night. Spoilers for both, do feel free to avoid if you wish.

So first off I just really wanna say I really love the whole conception and existence of 陰陽 for TOBARI and the fact that ZIX are also incorporated into it..!!!! They were apart of the Black With High Purity (BWHP) initial track and I think their senior-junior relationship with TOBARI is so fun :')

(also maybe this is just an insane person thought but I really reallyreally REALLY want SAUDADE to become a real in-universe unit beyond Ryouji and hear their style too)....

With the existence of 陰陽 as a CD series for SUNPRO, I do think it's really important to note that it appears Sainosuke-sensei designed them with the concept in mind, as their respective "attributes" are noted on one of the character design sheets found on their pixiv! Very neat detail B)

So basically the first half of the series (after the SUNPRO meeting in #1) is all about Kuroi conceiving songs for the series. With the help of Shiou, they end up deciding that the 陰陽 series for them is in the form of personal songs (hence why each disk comes with a solo). The tagline for BWHP, 俺の陰。俺の影。(Loosely: My darkness. My shadow.) was actually a line spoken by Shiou in regard to the conversation. Both characters actually speak each other's taglines for this series! I don't have Shiou's on-hand right now, but I know for a fact Kuroi mentions it in Lively with Dazzling Light.

(Also a very specific fact, they spend time at Shiou's apartment for track #2– and Shiou owns a beanbag. I just think that's very important to note. Kuroi loves the beanbag and like, immediately sinks into it.)

Track #3 flits between Kuroi's life post-disbandment but pre-TOBARI– showing how he spent the last of his money on cup noodles and was living on the bare minimum food-wise for a good while before Shiou came to his apartment to propose the formation of TOBARI over a meal (as seen in Innovation #3). Kuroi is effectively telling the story of how his life was before Shiou, days blending together while he composes, broke as all hell... It's worth noting that Kuroi's flashbacks of the days show nothing but rain, with the moments leading up to Shiou's arrival being prefaced with chirping birds signifying a great day outside. Genuinely neat point, I think.

With regards to his background, this is... literally the most that he's talked about those days at this point. I thought this would've been in Yamanemuru, but I think the small hint of him listening to his band's CD back then leading into BWHP was a great idea. In general, I just love the way the scenario writer is handling Kuroi and his growth.

I don't want to spoil too much about the tracks, but I love the way TOBARI have grown together here. BWHP's songs are what hooked me into X Lied Project as a whole, but the tracks are just a total 1-2 punch...!!!

Speaking of songs, I'm working on TLs for both of them at the moment and wanted to share a few gems:

Moonlight, the duet track for the disk, makes note of water lilies in the second verse– the peak flowering season for them is August, the same month in which the disk itself was released. It also symbolises a pure spirit/heart, something which I'm fairly sure Kuroi is described as having. Take that last bit with a grain of salt until I can confirm it, I'm sure it's been in there somewhere.

Additionally, Moonlight makes note of what appears to be Kuroi's unpainted, true face (素顔, or sugao)– it looks like a direct callback to Real in the Dark's line about throwing away a fake facade, to me at least! (Kana's TL is linked via the wiki above for context reasons).

Setsunateki Blast, localised for the worldwide Spotify release as Momentary Blast, contains words such as 煩悩 (bonnou, worldly desire), 本能 (honnou, instinct)– these words have been trends in TOBARI songs– particularly Resonance of a Solitary Night. They're also present in GOKUSAISHIKI!

Anyway, onto Lively with Dazzling Light. The first track's name is a real mouthful particularly with the Spotify localisation, but I genuinely love it– "The musician who is like the smell of the sun", this constant comparison to the sun for Shiou is really so true lol I love him.

First track has follow up on what was seen in Proani S2!!!! Kuroi and Mamoru friendship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ken and Mamo also finally get to meet Shiou, who wasn't present for the episode at all– Ken and Shiou really seem to hit it off, I hope we get more of them in the future (like in a NIX anime adaptation? winkwink). TLDR: They go out to a cafe and have a chat, mostly about music and work related stuff. Iced coffee, yay!

Track #2 is really where the meat of it comes in. Essentially, Shiou takes Kuroi out to a fast food place (think: mcd*nalds, b*rger k*ng, m*ss b*rger, etc) for a meal after he's been hard at work on the songs for LDWL. Kuroi calls him troublesome, Shiou calls him cruel in return. Classic banter.

Shiou gets a burger combo, Kuroi gets chips & a coffee. There's this real good bit where Shiou can't decide whether to sit at the window bench or at a regular table, and Kuroi chimes in like "let's get it to-go" and Shiou snaps back with "That's not the point." I like them a lot

It feels like the focus is mostly on Kuroi here, but there's subtle ways in which the focus is on Shiou– Shiou as a good partner and junior, Shiou's past, in some ways, Shiou through Kuroi's eyes. There's a bit of talk about Shiou's high school days in particular, it seems that even back then he was reliable and even thought highly of by his peers. Even disregarding the content (which I'll be doing for brevity's sake, this post is getting LONG), it's nice to see how Shiou and Kuroi can talk so freely and openly like this– prior to X Lied, prior to even Innovation when it's not focused on the initial meeting. It really speaks to Kuroi's development, and even Shiou's as someone who effectively enables Kuroi to open up and avoiding much attention on himself while doing so (see: Shiou getting flustered whenever anyone comments him... he's moe your honour). There are points where Kuroi sounds so genuinely happy and gentle, which is a feat in and of itself given how neutral and even emotionless his tone has sounded right from the beginning. The end of the track actually made me tear up a little– there's even a little callback to the bit in Innovation where Kuroi says something and Shiou asks about it, only for him to hit back with "...its nothing". I love them so bad guys I promise.

Unfortunately I've decided to put off the LWDL tracks for a little while (because GOKUSAISHIKI is a real doozy and I do not have the brain capacity for that right now). I don't have any substantial TL notes yet, but I would like to point out that the way the song name is written (極祭色) is a play on the word 極彩色 which is pronounced the exact same way. The GOKUSAISHIKI we know itself doesn't have a meaning, but the word it's based on means "richly coloured", much like the idol it's representing :) I only figured this out because there's a RE*L album of the same name, I'm not a language whiz lol

Aaaaanyway that's all, apologies for the very long ramble as a first post. I'm just thinking about them a lot right now. I survived NIXLIVE and all I got was these fantastic songs :')

#kiley blabbering #kiley meta talk #tobari

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