supercell feature (Part 2: The Story You Do Not Know)

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The “Story You Do Not Know” (君の知らない物語 – Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari) is supercell’s first debut single. The A-Side provided the ED for the popular anime series 化物語 (Bakemonogatari) while the B-Side provided for the OVA (Original Video Animation), “Cencoroll“. The single itself was released on August 12th, 2009.

Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. Bakemonogatari Cast by redjuice

Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari was also the first time ryo did not use the vocaloid celebrity as the vocalist. ryo was offered to compose the ED (Ending Theme) for Bakemonogatari back in 2009 when the anime was still in production. However instead of using Miku, the vocaloid we all know and love, ryo chose nagi to sing his songs. In retrospect, ryo was actually a fan of nagi’s doujin works back in 2007, which was in fact before ryo submitted any of his songs on to Nico Nico Douga.

It wasn’t until nagi chose to contact ryo offering to collaborate in the future that supercell decided that nagi was the singer that would be part of the unwritten album. Although nagi was selected as the first human singer for supercell, Miku wasn’t completely forgotten by ryo. In fact ryo used Miku to sing the demo of Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari to showcase the song’s vocal range, which he claimed could wear out an human singer. Although the difficultly of tone was hard to pass through Miku’s voice, ryo was pleased to discover that nagi’s vocal range varied as much as Miku’s. However when ryo listened to nagi’s demo of the song, he realized the depth and difficulty of the song itself. Although realizing just how difficult the song was to sing for a human, he did not compromise the composition of the song to suit nagi’s voice. Holding that clear in mind, the song topped 5th in the Oricon Top 10 Singles Chart.

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The cover illustration was drawn by Shirow Miwa, a Japanese mangaka. The picture itself depicts the starry sky with the ‘Summer Triangle’ as the main focus where it is a main theme within the song about unrequited love. Art Directions and designs were handled by wooser (Yoshiki Usa). Before the designing of the cover, ryo got Miwa and Usa to listen to the song and prompted them with a word or two about what image should represent. Other then that, they were given full freedom to illustrate whatever they wished based on such a small prompt provided. The illustrations of characters from the animated show, Bakemonogatari were illustrated by redjuice (Shiru). They were provided as stickers bundled with the single.

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Now many people assume the song composed was written for the lead characters in Bakemonogatari due to the heavy connection and use of the starry lit sky within episode 12 of the series. However when ryo was writing the lyrics for Nisio Isin (Author of Bakemonogatari), he did not feel it was appropriate that the song copied the tone, style or feel of the original novels that was being adapted into the anime. He thought the song would appeal more to Isin if the story was different but he still kept the setting of the starry sky.

Review:

Track 1 – 君の知らない物語 (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari)

Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. Bakemonogatari ED

I first heard this song after I watched the very first episode of Bakemonogatari. When the song started playing, I immediately cut the episode off and continued to watch the second episode. At the time, I was drawn in to the anime rather than listening to the OP (Opening) or ED’s. However when I took my time to actually watch the ED animation play out and the song. I instantly fell in love with nagi’s voice. The song features the piano heavily as the main instrument where the bass, guitar and drums support the rest of the instrumentation. It is your typical J-pop sort of song, but with the support of the electric guitar it adds a sense of rock into the song.

The song is fast and upbeat and there are around four verses to the entire song featuring an intro, outro and a bridge but no solo. While a solo would’ve been nice, that was not the aim of this song. The song kicks off with just nagi and the piano. Just from that instant you can hear nagi’s beautiful tone that coincides with the strong music. nagi’s vocals are showcased in this song exceptionally well where her voice is brimming with emotion. Combined with the beautiful lyrics, nagi sings about a young girl’s unrequited love who finds it difficult to express her feelings to the person who she loves. She finds pain in it, telling her path is beyond the point of return yet continues to hold her feelings in thus holding in a secret, a “story you do not know“.

This song was also integrated into the ending sequence for the 12th episode of Bakemonogatari following a very similar setting, although the song was about a different story than the one that was playing out on screen, the elements and settings meshed together extremely well. Now the lyrics are expressed very well by nagi and I didn’t tire from hearing her voice running through my head over a couple hundred times because it is just so elegant. nagi has a voice which many amateur or dare I say even professional singers lack, a true quality or unique tone that is clear and melodic.

Lyrics:

Track 2 – Love & Roll

Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. Cencoroll Cast

Now, I had no idea what to expect after hearing just one track from supercell. However I didn’t expect the second track to match up on equal par to it’s A-Side. Love & Roll is the ED for the OVA Cencoroll, which was one of the shortest OVA’s I have ever seen in my entire life. And it was awesome by the way, that is why they are currently in production with the sequel. Now Love & Roll is more of a techno-themed song, it is more crisp and clearer in terms of sound and has less distortion than Side-A. The emotion emulated in this song is significantly better than Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari and the lyrics are entirely on a different basis, but still focuses on the topic of romance.

Now ryo summarizes the song to be about a couple going to a club, where the can’t be quite honest and the boy is a bit clumsy. But I see the story mainly as a girl who is unable to speak up and the boy is a total idiot. Not clumsy, a real big-headed idiot. It’s like their going on their first date, I wouldn’t expect it to be at a club rather than a restaurant. With that said, the lyrics are very engaging and reaches out to teenage girls very well. Now I don’t know how this relates to Cencoroll at all, but the song on it’s own stands extremely well. The song creates nice beat and actually makes you want to shout out those repetitions of “Wooo ho!” or “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Love & roll!” Now nagi’s tone accentuates the lyrics extremely well making her sound genuinely concerned about the boy, who isn’t paying that much attention.

However this monologue shows us that this introvert also has trouble expressing her feelings. Sound familiar? You could say that Side-A and Side-B are linked story-wise somehow but vaguely. nagi also casually lays a few English phrases here and there which actually adds a sense of sophistication somehow. I also like the fact that she whispers some of the English bits, where we can hear this girl’s deep thoughts and ‘true’ emotions. The scenario that the song plays is out is extremely cute which I guess will appeal to most females. Cleverly written and performed, this techno-ballad is just plain “lovely“.

Lyrics:

Track 3 – Theme of Cencoroll

I can’t really analyze this song because it’s really just a 30 second short theme for the OVA. However I can say that this theme song showcases a stronger house/techno music. It was very catchy and when it ended 30 seconds so early, I did actually want to hear what could’ve been a feature length theme.

Overview:

Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari is by far one of the most solid singles out in the music department today. All the tracks are highly enjoyable, and being new of the professional scene, supercell has done a exceptionally well claiming fans over in Bakemonogatari. It certainly did for me. If I never watched Bakemonogatari, I wouldn’t have come into contact with supercell at all. And no, I don’t watch Naruto anymore so I wouldn’t really have heard their ED for the series either. If you still don’t have a copy of their single right now, what are you waiting for? Go purchase one! But don’t buy their DVD version with the PV (Music Video). Why? Because the music video’s in general are extremely terrible. In this case, the PV for Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari doesn’t do the song very well, because it tells another story on screen and this time it doesn’t work out at all. Just stick to the anime ED.

Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari gets a 9 out of 10.

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Trivia: nagi finished the song, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari on her birthday.

If you liked my review, stay tuned for more!