Yuki The Snowman

Goddammit.  Another challenge day  that’s going to be a struggle.  Why?  Because I simply love music.  I simply love anime.  I love when anime and music comes together.  Just like with the  favorite opening and ending themes challenges, I just can not think  of that one anime soundtrack that deserves the number one top spot. That how much I love the unity of anime and music.

So, this is how I’m going to do this instead. Rather than me  going through my massive list of my favorite anime soundtracks and songs,  I’m going to discus one of the most  beloved concert scene from an equally beloved anime series that fuses both superior animation and high quality musical performance.

The scene – “God Knows…” from episode 12 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya “Live Alive”.

I have the highest respect for the “God Knows…” animation and the  endless hours of hard work and love that was put into it. I am not saying this as an anime fan right now. I am saying this as a musician (I’m a violinist).  I wish I had the words to describe to you guys on  how much I love the greatly detailed animation, the energetic performance by Aya Hirano (voice actress of series heroine Haruhi Suzumiya), and of course, the audio and music production.

I can relate to Haruhi pouring out her heart, passion, soul, and emotions into her performance:  playing rhythm guitar and singing, expressing herself through body language (bouncing up and down, head bobbing,  rocking her guitar back and forth) and her facial expression (sweating under the bright, hot stage lights, her hair matted, and ending with her panting; struggling to catch her breath after such an intense performance.  This isn’t the normally bossy and aggressive attention whore Haruhi that we’ve known for a the last 11 episodes.

This  is Haruhi – the passionate musician.

Passionate about her musicianship. Passionate about becoming joining with the one that she loves.  It is as if she’s speaking heart-to-heart about Kyon through God Knows…

As if she wants him to know that she wants to be with him.

‘I send my now passionate feelings-
they melt reality
then just hover there suspended.
There’s no reason for me
wanting to see you.
I pour my feelings into you, lovin’ you’
–Haruhi Suzumiya

 The sound  production is just as impressive as the animation itself.   To start, I appreciate how the band starts tuning to key , how Haruhi’s mic picked up her moving  her stand, her footsteps, and adjusting the mic itself.  Next we have sounds of the audience chattering, chants, cheers, and clapping to the rhythm of the beat (in time with song to boot) as if this was a concert going on in real life (with them jamming to the performance itself).  There’s even a short period of time in which the crowd starts to cheer for Yuki’s guitar solo.

Those were nice touches to me.

My only gripe with this animation and music masterpiece is that Kyoto Animation did not use the fully animated God Knows in it’s entirety (meaning animating the full song and not the TV size).    But I assume that they were under a time limit to release the episode so I can forgive them for that.  And they did create a legendary concert scene that anime fans still love and celebrate to this day, so I can’t be so fault them for real.

With that said I hope you enjoy this quick little post!  See ya!

Please do yourself a favor and  watch/listen to both the anime and the live action versions of this song.  I promise you won’t regret it.

‘You’re here, and I’m here-
all the others have disappeared.
By sketching the beauty of our fleeting dream,
we’re just tracing our scars’

-God Knows…. (2006 Single)