音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Some nonsense first…

MY GOOGLE TALK IS DEAD!!!! orz
It happened for a few times before, though I solved that by logging in with another g-account. But this time, it just didn't work. I have completely no idea what's going on. I can login, but I can't see anyone there. I can't search for any of my contacts either. Even weird, since its death, I logged in with another account and I could see my dead account is online – with the status keeping changing!!!

The problem must be caused by the foobar plugin to display your current track in gtalk. I've deleted that plugin, never use it again.

So, PLZ GIVE MY GOOGLE TALK BACK!!!!! T__T

Back to my topic…

I received my copy of Akiko Shikata's newest mini-album "Utau oka ~Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor~". In the very beginning, this mini-album was a bypass stuff together with KOKIA's "Musique a la Carte", because to buy two albums, I can save the shipment fee… lol However, I do love Akiko's music, and I was very satisfied by my pre-ordering of this mini-album.

This album is an image album for legends come from the world of Ar Tonelico. To be honest, I've never played the game, and I've never got much of interest to read more about the game itself. What I know about A.T. are all from Akiko and others' Hymmnos albums. Actually, it was also Akiko got me close to the A.T. world, through her "Utau oka ~ EXEC_HARVESTASYA/.~" At that time, I was even looking for the world "Harvestasya" without knowing that's a name… ^^;

Anyway, I love this new mini-album, even though I'm still confused by the world and other settings. I just love the music and the stories. But… well, just see the stories as regular legend without the effect of A.T…. ^^; Although the basic story line can be get from the lyrics, there are much more details in each story…

So…
You know what I'm gonna do~ :P

↑ "Afezeria HARVESTASYA." my favorite

謳う丘 ～Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor～
A perfect opening song, describing the birth of the world. The cover image is about "the creation of the world" in praise of the gods. Every living beings are blessed equally, and being in the heavenly light. Then, pieces of grounds are created, gathering, and finally form in a planet. In the song, the sound effects are very nice. There are the sound of thunder, and the noise of life, with the familiar "utau oka" motif, Shikata's telling of A.T. stories begins.

This song is the most powerful song out of all others. The entire feeling is a well done, but for me, this song just lacks the typical Shikata element. I mean, it does not sound like other Shikata songs in terms of melody and arrangement, which you may recognize immediately. However, this song is good, and I love the chorus very much.

The story was about Sieryek, the son of God Listea, was born in EL=NEMESYS, under the task to help the emperor of EL=DUEL to erase EL=NEMESYS. But until 15, he did not realized his fate and fell in love with Liarsha, the third princess of EL=NEMESYS. Sieryek became the chancellor afterwards, and he found a chance to kill the emperor of EL=NEMESYS. The country was thus taken by EL=DUEL, but Sieryek was killed by Liarsha, who he did not erase on that night. Liarsha holded Sieryek's body, and jump out of their place of memory, an octagon-building. The two could finally stay together, in an ever peace.

This song used to be my favorite before I changed my mind. I like melody, which is very Shikata-like. Just from the introduction, I could feel something similar to her other non-A.T.-related albums. Very folksy, full of the happiness of being alive.

The story is very warm too: In a forest, there was a grandma used to take care of all plants, and she especially loved a dianthus. But the grandma passed away during a forest-fire, because she was protecting the dianthus. Shelanoir, the goddess of forest, was touched and thus decided to protect that dianthus. Under her care, the dianthus grew so well that people thought the flowers could give them the ever-life. For preventing people ruin the flower, Shelanoir grew a large area of thorns around the flower. One day, a young man called Ryugg overcame the thorns, and saw Shelanoir. They began a peaceful period to take care of the forest together. However, people finally burned the forest. Shelanoir thus lost her energy. Ryugg was taking care of her firstly, but one day, he said he was going to find something and never being back again. Shelanoir's worry grew another area of thorns again, until the day of Ryugg's back, with another dianthus in his hands.

Here, eventually I can recognize that I know a similar story! In this song, there are lots of familiar motifs from other hymmnos albums, and the entire song has a good atmosphere about the end of the world – which is what I like to see, to feel… ^^; There are different versions about Rhaplanca's story, and this song is the final one, a sad one.

Rhaplanca was always born at the time when the world is toward the end, trying to do something helping people. In her last life, she was forced to marry to Maoh, but she was still keeping her activity to help others. She never smiled to Maoh until one day Maoh tried to go with her and help the poor people. Maoh was surprised and wanted to help those poor people more, but he eventually did not keep because he wanted Rhaplanca to smile only toward himself. Rhaplanca thus was limited to go outside and got the message from heaven that the world was going to the end. Rhaplanca needed to introduce people who were chosen by heaven to the new world. But she could not receive it; she wanted to help more people. The world began to collapse, the only connection between the ground and the floating ground – the new world – was the huge tree of life, Implanta. People were in a rush to go to the tree, struggling to climb toward the floating ground, but the tree was already nearly dead, and could not supporting itself and people on it anymore. By praying to heaven, Rhaplanca became a huge store to support the tree. Just before her last second being alive, she told Maoh to help more people, if he really loved her.

Now, my FAVORITE song! From the beginning to the end, I love every note of this song. It is so happy and blessed, and the arrangement enforces this feeling. The melody is also extremely beautiful, so as Shikata's singing and chorus. The prettiest part is the melody since 2:15. I can't describe it exactly, but this kind of melody is just in my favorite list. About the story, before I read it, I just thought this might be another version of Harvestasya's story only from the lyrics. But … I think this one must be a continued story of the one in "RAKA". In RAKA version, Harvestasya went to west to find a way to heal Myu's eyes, and this was mentioned in the story!!! So it must be a continued story of the RAKA version! Ahh, finally I felt how excellent it is to encounter the same legend from different albums!!!!!

(After Harvestasya's success of healing Myu's eyes, and Myu finally chose her and they were in the wedding. But it was broken by the goddess of love. The goddess took Myu to her palace, which was in east. To save Myu, Harvestasya went again. There, she finally broke the curse of the goddess, and got the blessing from God Lere. The black goddess disappeared, and with the wings from Lere, Harvestasya and Myu were back to their home.

I have no more to say, but this is a good conclusion song… ^^;