V-ROX. it was a nice day and a nice night

It was a wonderful song, thank you

http://www.youtube.com/user/vroxonline

lyrics translation. 'This silence is mine' by Onitsuka Chihiro

A wonderful, wonderful song. So slow, so heartrending, so mad...

Japanese

私に見えるのは
遠い遠い過去の渕
私に見えるのは
ひどくひどく凍えた眼(ひとみ)
私に見えるのは
そっと覚醒(めざめ)た羊の夢
私に私に見えるのは

雑音の狭間　揺り籠
誰にもこの肌には届かない
雑音の狭間　揺り籠
緋の跡

This tattoo
This, this preview
This heartbeat
沈黙の最中(さなか)よ

Where is my gear?
Where, where are my stairs?
Where is heartbeat?
This silence is mine
This, this silence
Silence… silence…

私が祈るとき
それは熱を帯びる
私が叫ぶとき
それは、それは声を奪う
私が生きるとき
それは乱れ舞い放つの如く

This tattoo
This, this screw
This heartbeat
灯りと正義よ

Where is my gear?
Where, where is my choir?
Where is, where is my heartbeat?
This silence, this silence…

哀しみを捨てて
心を失って
思いを犯して
先に行ければ　ああ　それでいい
身体(からだ)が囁く　囁く
囁く　囁く　
囁く
(your symphony is never-ending)

This tattoo
This, this preview
This heartbeat
沈黙の最中(さなか)よ

Where is my gear?
Where, where are my stairs?
Where is, where is, heart, heartbeat?
This silence is mine
This, this silence

This silence is mine


Translation

What I see
Is the abyss of the remote, remote past
What I see
Are the deeply, deeply frozen eyes
What I see
Is the dream of a lamb that just opened its eyes
What I, what I
See

Between the noises – a cradle
Nobody can reach this skin
Between the noises – a cradle
Traces of scarlet

This tattoo
This, this preview
This heartbeat
Oh, in the midst of silence

Where is my gear?
Where, where are my stairs?
Where is heartbeat?
This silence is mine
This, this silence
Silence… silence…

When I pray
Is the time when I am wrapped in heat
When I scream
Is the time when I take [one's] voice [from him]

This tattoo
This, this screw
This heartbeat
Oh, light and justice

Where is my gear?
Where, where is my choir?
Where is, where is my heartbeat?
This silence, this silence…

Giving up sadness,
Losing heart,
Killing feelings,
It’s all right if I just move on
My body whispers, whispers
Whispers, whispers
Whispers
(your symphony is never-ending)

This tattoo
This, this preview
This heartbeat
Oh, in the midst of silence

Where is my gear?
Where, where are my stairs?
Where is, where is, heart, heartbeat?
This silence is mine
This, this silence

This silence is mine

______

It becomes absolutely obvious when you know that Onitsuka's 'inori ga...' is an OST to a horror film. The veil of mysteriousness falls down. In case of 'Silence' it's important to know that it's an OST to Drakengard, where the dragons are said to give the characters special power in exchange for their voices, hence the 'I take voice' line.

'Elemental Gelade' anime ~ when Yuki Kajiura was still young

spoiler alert, as usual

It's your usual shounen. But it's also romance and fantasy. So it's a story about a young boy who travels in a different world, fights enemies, makes friends and falls in love. Be ready to see lots of silly things. Shounen as genre is not for you, 30-year-old manager, or even you, university student in his early twenties.

story and characters

Once upon a time in another world there were flying ships. Made of wood.

And then our Hero finds a mysterious girl who's like

and the Hero is like

and like, I'll guide you to the end of the Earth! Oops, it was not Earth but another world. So, they unite and do something like

and the huge attacking monster is like AAA I'M FALLING OMG

but then a guy like this comes and try to guess whether he's a good guy or not.

But our heroes are not giving up!

 And they like

 and

but then another bad guy comes, or stop, can he really be bad having such appearance? Oh he can. He's SUCH a BAD_GUY OHHHH

 But there's also this guy

 Who's all mysterious and merciless. Guess if he is really that bad?

And the enemies are all like

 and our characters are like

OF COURSE YOU HAVE! But guess whether they will win that battle or not? OK, 'twas easy. Now's the time for the main enemy. And they are all very mysterious and their house is all in dark violet.

 

And then our characters have to deal with many troubles. The story tries to look more serious than it is, so we have several unnecessary deaths, and our Hero is like

But then they gain the remaining strength and defeat the big boss. And their enemies are like

 And our heroes are like

And except for those characters that were created only to die artistically, all the others are like

And then after some time they fly in the sky together. Which is essentially a very heartwarming, happy end. Like I said, I don't like it when the adventure ends and they 'live happily ever after'. This kind of ending is much better for me. Oh, wait. Did you think, after seeing all these ironical descriptions, that I hate this anime?

Now you see what kind of story EG is. Does it mean it's bad? Nope. I'm just warning you. It's extremely silly, naive, plain and usual. Did I like it? Yes, a lot. Why? Exactly for those things that most people would probably dislike. It's not the case when people say 'this and this was bad, but instead that and that was good', no. It's the case when people say 'it was so mediocre' or 'it could not happen that way'. And my friend +Арагорн Араторнович said 'shut up and watch'. You don't want all laws of physics maintained here. You don't want credible stories. You want flying ships. You want red or blue hair. You want loli-girls with big eyes. You want magical swords and non-human creatures. You want Medieval Europe villages mixed with Ancient Greece clothes and oriental fighting styles and and 19th century Europe progress.

The story was obviously changed to meet the requirements of a TV series. Some episodes were such obvious fillers you would probably want to skip them, but I did not. I don't know why, but even those parts were enjoyable.
The humour was not original or new, but hey, it's 2004. It was the trend those times.

music
Now for the main attraction. In 2000s Yuki Kajiura was still young and fresh and her music was good. Just in case you want to ask me, I think her latest melodies repeat and resemble one another too much. However, in early 2000s she was still able to write a decent OST with several melodies that can be easily taken for listening as independent tracks. The only minus point for this OST is that not all melodies that were used in the anime were issued on CDs, even though there is an OST album and a special album, too. Like I said to my friend when I started watching, guess who is the composer here if I hear pseudo-Latin lyrics laid on pseudo-gothic chorals?

The OPED songs were not as good, since they were very plain. I would not say they were bad, though, since they belong to the category 'nice to listen when you watch the show'. And just in case you want to know, savage genius' song 'ameagari' was used in episode 15 as a background song. It's a coupling song for 'Forever', the opening.

graphics
It was mid-00s. Anime was becoming better and better, the visual side of it, too.

However, there was still no money for creating absolutely-every-frame-beautifully-decorated. Most moving objects were created simply but nicely. In my mind, it's better than 'kuro to kin to hirakanai kagi' that I looked through the other day, where you will see clear sparkling images with no faults, but won't find anything except for hard fanservice for female fans.
'Gelade' also did not let any slack in design. The clothes were all elaborate and nice, even though simple, and so were interiors. Name the style? =)

voice acting
While art was becoming more and more expensive-looking, voice acting in 00s began to slightly decrease its gorgeousness. Outstanding seiyuus of 90s were giving up their place to new seiyuus, but some of them were not worse than their seniors. 00s were rich in young promising actors. If 'Gelade' is not an eye-candy for you, than it will for sure become an ear candy. Have some Ishida Akira, Ueda Yuji and Ogata Megumi, multiply them by Toriumi Kousuke, Okiayu Ryotaro, Kugimiya Rie, Suwabe Junichi and many others. My discovery of the year is Saito Kimiko. Her low voice was making me tremble with excitement. Another seiyuu that I did not know before is Hanba Tomoe. Her performance was very good. The main heroine voiced by Takahashi Mikako was good. Kuea's Suzuki Naoko was so good it's a big trouble she does not do many anime roles. And even Mizuki Nana whom I basically dislike previously did a very, very good job. That's good that some of them are still active. I'm afraid of times when they will move to an elder category and will have to be replaced with younger ones.
Or you could say that I am simply grumbling because 00s was the period of my youth. Well, that's true.

conclusion
Yuriko Kaida's and Yuri Kasahara's voices have never spoiled an anime. Bizarre vehicles and strange swords, magic crystals and mysterious people, but more than that, journeys to another towns, to another continents... Yesterday one of my friends told us she's really intending to spend at least half a year in India... but I'm not as brave as her, and Valcione is not India, so I think I'm glad to have travelled to another world with 'Elemental Gelade' team.

lyrics translation. 'kikoeru' by RK Standard

It's been my favourite song on the album since I first heard it. I don't know why but it's so inspiring and so positive I almost cannot stand or sit still when I hear it. The translation is very, very approximate because the lyrics here are just like a stream of consciousness...? Anyway, that's just what I managed to create out of the original text.

Japanese

聞こえる　あなたの声が
始まる　その瞬間に

この胸を刻んでゆくよ
暖かい炎の中に
風に乗って奪われてく
すべてをばらばらにされて

聞こえる　胸の高鳴り
聞こえる　呼んでる声が

町中は暗いニュースで
人々は傷付き合って
本当の友達はなくて
だけど時代は垂れ流され

この胸は苦しめている
あなたのその傷口が

ときめくことさえ忘れていたよ
あなたを知った今はどこか違うね

聞こえる　あなたの声が
始まる　その瞬間に
聞こえる　胸の高鳴り
どこまでも今響いてゆくよ

translation

I hear it – your voice
And it begins – when I hear it

I shred my heart into pieces
Inside this warm flame
And the wind takes it away from me
My everything in scattered

I hear – the heart throbbing
I hear – your voice

The whole town is filled with dark news
People hurt each other
You don’t have real friends
But time leaks and passes by

This heart hurts so bad
That wound of yours

I even forgot what it’s like when your heart trembles
But now, when I met you, something is different

I hear it – your voice
And it begins – when I hear it
I hear – the heart throbbing
And this sound travels to the horizon

lyrics translation. 'inori ga kotoba ni kawaru koro' by Onitsuka Chihiro

I immediately fell in love with those 2 dark songs of Onitsuka that she issued recently. 'Silence is mine' will follow suit very soon, as for now, I tried to translate 'inori ga kotoba ni kawaru koro', or 'when prayer turns into words'. I say 'I tried' because the lyrics are... you know... that kind of lyrics when one cannot understand what they mean no matter how he tries. This song is more for 'feeling' or 'sensing' rather than 'understanding'. As for me, I'm not in favour of such songs when lyrics make no sense, but in case of Onitsuka the song is just brilliant. The dark melody, the blood-lust in lyrics... and the ambiguity. Like we say here, 'everybody is free to understand it according to his/her level of dissoluteness'.

Japanese

掠れた光
どうか消さないで
影が見えなくなる
どうか踏み付けないで

忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと

貴方の心臓を食べる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで
貴方の三日月にのぼる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで

烏の飛び音
どうか攫わないで
漆黒の刻印
どうか踏み付けないで

忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと

貴方の心臓を食べる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで
貴方の三日月にのぼる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで

忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
忍び寄る　足跡　ゆっくりと
貴方の心臓を食べる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで
貴方の三日月にのぼる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで
貴方の薬芽(くすりめ)に絡まる時
どうかどうか振り向かないで
貴方の空洞を貪る時
どうかどうか振り向かないで

Translation

The blurred light –
I beg you, don’t put it out
The shadow is almost invisible –
I beg you, don’t trample on it

Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly

When I eat your heart,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around
When I crawl up your crescent moon,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around

I hear crows taking wings,
I beg you, don’t take it away from me
Jet black carved seal –
I beg you, don’t trample on it

Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly

When I eat your heart,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around
When I crawl up your crescent moon,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around

Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly
Footsteps draw closer, slowly

When I eat your heart,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around
When I crawl up your crescent moon,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around

When I mix with your medicinal herbs,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around
When I covet your caves,
I beg you, please, don’t turn around

_____

The mysterious veil that covered the song in the beginning fell down as soon as I learned that it's just a theme song for a new Juon movie. All riddles were solved. Only one thing is left uncovered - what's kusurime? I couldn't find any explanation in the web, and even any context with this word, so 'herb' is just my version of what it could mean. 

IMHO. 'Galileo' drama and movies ~ why you should watch the first season and shouldn't watch the second

story and characters

Professor Yukawa is hot. He likes climbing,

 boxing,

baseball (or what was it again?),

beach volleyball (by the way, his previous partner Kusanagi is not bad, too),

 and even diving.

He's good at cooking, too.

And just coincidentally he happens to be smart.

You can tell, right?

I'm not sure if it's really important to write all those formulas when you think about a way to perform some sort of crime, but well, like I said, professor Yukawa is hot. In case you haven't understood yet, he has always been smart, since his young days.

And the criminals can be widely sorted to two groups: losers who lose to professor's smartness and good people who committed a crime while having some good intentions. The boss is such a good man! We can't do without him!

Your father will be released soon! I'll wait with you!

 'Cause he has such warm kind eyes. Aha.

Unlike the TV series, the full-length movies were more serious about crime-handling and the motivations, reflections, reasons and conclusions were much more human and understandable.

And here is our hot professor not understanding how can feelings make a person do something like that. I'd say this moment was really impressive.

Even still, I was not completely satisfied with the second movie. It was too much trying to force some tears out of me, and when that kind of intention is so visible I don't really appreciate it.

Before watching the series I only saw ms Kobasaki in one drama where she was awful (same goes for the story itself, which is the real problem, I guess). However, in 'Galileo' she was brilliant. Her young and passionate detective was a good match for the cold professor.

*nods* me too.

It was a great pleasure to see that their characters were getting along so well, even after they were separated by the merciless world of the Japanese cinema.

It actually took me a good hour to understand what happened with the story. Sometimes I hate that vagueness of the Japanese language that does not say anything straightforward. So, this is what happened: the original partner of the professor was detective Kusanagi, but under the writer's consent he was replaced by a female detective to 'add flowers to the story'. That's what Japanese wiki says literally.

After the writer saw how good the story looks with a female lead, he introduced her to the story and made all the following stories center on Utsumi-Yukawa pair, while ms Kobasaki apparently became engaged with some other project and could not lend her hand to season 2, which is why her character was made to go to the US and finally, Utsumi was replaced with Kishitani. At least that's what I guess. I don't think she would simply reject the offer if she were asked to participate in season 2.

And this is where the tragedy starts. I was against that idea from the very beginning, but somewhere I understood I have no right to criticise the story simply because one actress was replaced by another. However, my friend expressed my feelings even better than me, when I told her what happened. She said: 'they just replace one person with another, and what do they hope for? To replay the same tricks that were used in the first season again, but with a different character?'

In fact, I read some comments that Kishitani is a good character in her own right, and I almost calmed myself and decided I'll give it a try and watch her as a completely different character with her own style... But then you know, it just did not happen. Nope.

acting

But that's an aspect that leans on acting greatly. The problem is, the cute Yoshitaka Yuriko was trying to make those cute faces all the time or express her emotions, which is obviously not her strong side.

The only thing she managed to do properly was this:

And in the full-length movie she suddenly starts wearing makeup....?

If there were any reasons for me to watch 'Galileo' at first, there were two. The first one looks like this

 And the second one is this:

OMG I JUST CANT OMFG

Well, through the course of the second season it turned out there is one more reason to enjoy the series. It looks like this

 But can look like this, too

In face, miss Amami is who made the second season so enjoyable.

Unlike Yoshitaka, Shibasaki, who was such a terrible sight in 'Marumaru Tsuma', was so natural and interesting that I'd give her five out of five. I really enjoyed her face expressions throughout the series.

Mr Fukuyama was very natural in portraying the weird professor. Even though he was made to write all that nonsense on doors, windows, tables and all kinds of flat surfaces with any possible tool that is available at the moment, he did a good job. He and Shibasaki made me think about this wonderful thing: 'chemistry'. I don't know how we live in Russia without such a word in our language that could express that special kind of interaction that exists between two actors or fails to exist, thus making the whole story either enjoyable or not. After watching 'Galileo' I think I can say I wish Fukuyama and Shibasaki acted together from that moment and forever.

If you ask me who were my favourites, I'd say: Watanabe Ikkei as the unfortunate assistant, who was always making my day when he was with Utsumi (and not when with Kishitani),

and two policemen partners, Ogawa Yu and Shinagawa Hiroshi. Such enjoyable acting.

'The worst actress' Oscar goes to Aoi Yu. She was so explicit and desperate to show the ambivalent nature of her actress that it was almost unpleasant to look at her.

music

Even though the composer is the famous Yugo Kanno, and Fukuyama himself lent his hand (with a guitar in it) to the soundtrack, I wouldn't praise the OST too much. The ending themes by KOH+ were unimpressive, too. However, I'm saying that because I wouldn't want to listen to the OST after I've watched the show. The background music was good as background music.

conclusion

Like I said to my friend when I started watching, the Japanese just don't have the genes that are responsible for creating good detective stories. To be serious, I'm not an expert in detective stories either, but I've read some classical ones and I can say for sure that Japanese 'mystery' shows  don't have any mystery in them. Even though you don't know who the criminal is, you don't even want to know, and you don't suspect anyone, and  you don't predict anything, because it's meaningless, the truth uncovered would not present an answer to your questions or explain your predictions. It will just state how the crime had been committed, in case of 'Galileo' - involving some physics. But that aspect is also lacking... you know...

SRSLY???

Of course, like in any other Japanese mystery, the most important is not the crime and the criminal, but the fact that

1. the criminal did it out of his love to someone, so he's not such a bad guy, or

2. the victim was such a good person but what a pity we learn it only after he or she is dead

and everybody's like

Even though I am so skeptical about Japanese mystery dramas, 'Galileo' is one of the best of them, and not because it's a mystery but because it's so funny. At least in the beginning.

p. s.
Oh well, in case Fukuyama and accidental Kitamura are not enough, there's some naked Katori Shingo for you.