Saturday 24 July 2004

Pic of the day: Screenshot from episode 23 of the anime Da Capo. This is the beginning of the song. Explained below.

A song returns

A season has passed, and a thousand thoughts have traveled the paths of my mind. Then on a sunny afternoon, I hear the memory of a soft voice singing. I can not recall the song, and I can not hear the words, although they are just out of reach, as if lost in the distance or carried off by the wind. But it is so beautiful. I strain to listen, afraid that the beauty of the song might be lost to me forever. I drop everything to go after it, but it refuses to come to me until I try to sing along with it. "La la la ... la la la la la ..." And then I remember. How could I already have forgotten? Because that was the way I first heard it sung too, without words, carried on the breeze.

It was the song of Kotori in the anime Da Capo. Gentle, melodic, yet strangely energetic once it picks up force, a song about the wind's harmony and about daring to be oneself. The first time we see her, she sings it alone in the wood, without words. Later, we hear her sing parts of it in other episodes where she appears. Finally, in episode 23, she sings the entire song after she has lost her powers, as the boy she loves walks away from the place they first met.

I'm probably not going to buy this anime. But I'd really like to buy the CD with Kotori's song (her real name is Horie Yui). Because if I live to grow old, I wish to be able to listen to that song as the sounds and the light fade toward evening. It is that beautiful.

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I've ordered it from CDJapan.co.jp, where I have already bought three other lovely CDs. It is currently out of stock but should be back.