So the the anime-based music video for Perfect Day the top track to their latest album Today is a Beautiful Day was released a few weeks ago, and it’s pretty phenomenal. Telling the story of two girl friends who somehow grew apart, I couldn’t help but be reminded of another anime work based on a Supercell song. And it simply puts Black Rock Shooter to shame.
First of all, look at the art. Just look at it! It’s beautiful. The sparkles and feathers, the bloom and lighting give everything an almost angelic feeling. The shakycam effect is overused a bit, but for the most part it works, because the moving camera adds just a touch of reality to this world. Some of the backdrops are gorgeous, with the crisp detail and lighting reminding me of Makoto Shinkai’s works.
Like Supercell’s song’s tend to do, it captures perfectly the emotions without necessarily going into the details of what happened. The innocence of childhood friendship. The pain of having to say good bye. The shock, and then gratitude at the sudden encounter. These emotions feels stronger and more genuine than whatever Black Rock Shooter had to offer with its story about Yomi getting jealous of Mato.
And I absolutely love the blue haired girl’s design! The hard angles, especially in the hair, remind me a bit of the characters from Shiki, but they’re not nearly as harsh. I could get lost in those wondrous round blue eyes. The simplicity of her clothing is appealing, and the little flourishes like her boots or the tight loops of her necklace stand out well against them.
But what I love most are the bandages on her legs. They’re not wrapped bandages like the kind you see on Abiru or Rei, but rather the rectangular stick on kind. And they’re just plastered all over the place around her knees, as if willy nilly. Instead of giving the image of weakness as bandages tend to do, they give her a tough and masculine one, like Lark with her chipped tooth.
Anyway, Today is a Beautiful Day came out a couple of days ago, and I highly recommend it. 6 of the 13 tracks are songs that were released on singles before – most of which I talked about in my 12 Days of Christmas post – but the new tracks are great. And the final track, Watashi e (To Me) is a follow up to Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, the Bakemonogatari ED, providing some concluding remarks to that song. You can find translations to most of the new songs on Words of My Life.
I bought the limited edition with the DVD on YesAsia, but the regular edition is there as well.
I love the video for the song! Really nice stuff, and I agree! character designs are so much like Shiki. I know BRS started as a music video maybe we will see this turned into something, either way great song and video!
I couldn’t agree more..such a awesome album. Especially Watashi He, great song to finish off the album with.
Any idea what the sheep song (Yoru ga Akeru) is about?
=)
It’s sung by someone at the boundary between waking and sleeping. She starts waxing poetic about human existence. Very Imagine.
It actually starts off with the singer wondering about how nice the sheep she’s imagining must have it.
Cool, thanks for that.
=)
WOW!! I just love the song and the fluid animation. I think this touches the heart more than the BRS song. Also like you said, I also like the character design of the blue haired girl, it seems the design gave her a character…
I’m usually not a big fan of the shaky cam and the choppy lingering shadow effects either, but I thought those brief moments were integrated well enough. Overall, the music is nice, and the video is incredible. It really tells a pretty touching story about friendship.