Fanon Soundtrack Project:

Why does this song remind me of Nana? (It always has.) It's the tankoubon covers, I think, telling their own little anecdote: getting up, yawning, reading a paper, Apartment 707 blurry and bright with the morning sun streaming in through the window, make a cup of tea, put a record on... Too, I have a sort of idea that Blast should sound like Elastica, but that's just me on crack. XD
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An image song for Komatsu Nana (hereafter referred to as Nana K., or "Hachi"). She's silly and hyper-imaginative, a faithful friend but otherwise irresponsible, looking for love and falling into all the obvious holes. Strawberry Switchblade are - incidentally - the probable spiritual progenitors of all the Misatos in the world, who attend punk-rock concerts in polka-dotted poodle skirts.
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And something similar for Oosaki Nana (hereafter Nana O.), whose background is much more dysfunctional. Shabby tried to comb her hair with the gift from her grandma, her blood tangled she got halfway, sticky and powdered with dirt from the ground where her mamma had left her... Fierce, driven, and vulnerable.
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The first meeting: perhaps of all the meetings and partings in this story, the most fated. Two girls from different hometowns, who take side-by-side seats on a snowbound train to Tokyo. Two girls, different dreams and hopes, answering to the same name.

(For those keeping track at home, the songwriting credits on this one belong to Kajiura Yuki, who's to Chiba Saeko as Kanno Yoko is to Sakamoto Maaya.)
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Floor 7, apartment 707, and Nobu's just unpacked the amps. "First concert in Tokyo!" A kitchen table for a stage, a keitai for a mike, a demo tape as backup band - and one audience member, not counting the very disgruntled neighbours. But she'll always remember the magic.

(I had to put some Shirley Manson on this, for semi-obvious reasons. This isn't Garbage, but the Scottish indie punk band she was in before Garbage. Yesh, a winner is me. XD)
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Early days in Tokyo, when everything seems to be going right: the sound of sidewalk cafés, pretty clothes and boutiques selling cute retro furniture. Could be Nana K.'s "motivation song", as she wishes she could spend all her time with Shouji. She knows he's busy, she knows she has to be independent if she wants his respect, she knows it's wilful - but she's very much in love, and all she wants to do is make that call.
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Right, you were waiting for the Pistols to show up on this FST. XD The song they make Shin play for his audition, and I was sitting there thinking, "Would anyone really use a Pistols song to test a bass player's chops? I could play this!" But the first rule of shoujo manga is, never question shoujo manga. XD
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Shouji and Nana - the duet! (Okay, it's Black Francis and Kim Deal, the duet, and thus I'm going to hell, but bear with me.) The lyrics of the song pretty much say it all, as the little misunderstandings and disagreements build, and both parties find it impossible to relax into the relationship. I waited for you winterlong, you seemed to be where I belong, it's all illusion anyway...
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Upon which the Great Demon King gets into the act by providing a third party. There really aren't all that many songs about love triangles that aren't straight-out bitch-you-stole-mah-man, but all the same I thought this one was especially fitting, in that it's about the internal conflict of the "guilty" party. Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray... I always thought the Sachiko storyline was well-handled in the manga, particularly Shouji's characteristic indecision. When you drag things on because you're a sensitive soul who doesn't want to hurt anyone, it's all too easy to end up hurting everyone.
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And this is the fall-out. After the inevitable confrontation Nana O. takes Hachi home, by the hand, and holds her until she falls asleep. This is an alt.folk cover of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady, believe it, and one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It is all she wants, poor soul.
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The curtain rises on the second act, which is much more focussed on the band's struggles and internecine romances. Yasu starts them dealing with record companies fairly early on; they make a believer out of Gaia's A&R rep, but there are plenty of detractors who could keep them from getting signed. (And let alone the consideration of selling out to a major, which Yasu and Shin at least care about.)
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The title and lyrics are as close to self-explanatory as it gets. I like the over-the-topness of this song, how it's obvious the singer knows he's a giant dork, but even the absurdist irony is love. It seems very close to the affection with which Yazawa depicts her punk-rock scensters, Misato et al, who fail out of school and hop a train from Nowhere, Hokkaido to Tokyo just to catch a show, and bawl at the door in all their chain-and-leather glory when they find it sold out. XD And it reminds me of the bit early on where Hachi asks if she can play the tambourine in Blast.
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I feel like I should apologise for making Evanescence represent Trapnest on this soundtrack - but think about it. Glossy rock with a radio-friendly sound and darkly romantic lyrics, the band image focussed on the flamboyant female vocalist - who's a high pure soprano. What do you want me to do, find it in Japanese? ^^; Anyhow, I like this song, how it's double-tracked vocals and rhythm section mostly and then the guitars cut in hard.

This is the beginning of the concert in Nana K.'s hometown. When the curtain rises, and first you see Ren, then Reira, and Hachi turns around and finds that Nana's there... It has all the appropriate sense of drama.
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And the aftermath thereof. (The keyphrase you want is rose-petal bath. Or perhaps not: when I direct the star-studded j-dorama in my head this theme first appears when Hachi is falling asleep with her portable in hand, wondering how the story ends.) Ren is too much of a nice boy under the guitar-godhood to watch porn in his hotel room, of course. He'd read Shounen Jump, or play dumb kiddie card games with his bandmates. But 'tis a love song. XD
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Social circles intersect for the first time in a long while, and almost immediately things get... complicated. This song is Shin (from the POV of *massive spoiler*): the debauched, dewy-eyed, chain-smoking bishounen who gives better sentimental advice than he's able to follow, and takes money to prove he doesn't love you. What more perfect crime of the heart than romanticised underage prostitution? Okay, I stop. XD
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You can fly to the end of the world, but where does that get you? Because just when you least expect it, just when you least expect... The music has that sense of 80's style high-life glamour that draws Nana K. to Takumi, but it's a melancholy song: sex and tears. She can't stop herself from falling, but perhaps neither can he. Either way, they mistake each other's intentions for something more sordid than it could - or should - be.
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Nobu and Hachi, walking along the riverbank at night (with a little bit of prodding and connivance from their friends). In comparison with the last this song is innocent, and achingly romantic. Then the moon swept down to greet us, it was warm and made of flowers...
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Hachi, trying to bear a cross alone, trying to carry on. These remnants of joy and disaster - what am I supposed to do?
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I take exception to the general opinion that Barney Sumner isn't much of a lyricist, and not because I'm a rabid New Order fan, thank you. XD (No, it's not New Order, but yes, it's still Sr Sumner.) What I find is that his lyrics are intensely situational: full of incongruous sentiment and rhyme-making filler until you find the relationship (it's almost always a relationship) he could be singing about, and then every word is dead-on. So here you have Nobu in vol.8, confronted with a mess he didn't make and choices that aren't for him to make, pleading: say something, anything, tell a little lie... I'll believe you no matter what.
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Not so much the last song on this soundtrack as an epilogue, a summing-up of the major theme - or the first song of the next. I've only covered the storyline up through vol.8, after all, and left you kicking your heels against a cliffhanger. XD There's at least two more tankoubon out, which I shall be getting in the mail shortly. Maybe I'll make another one of these at vol.15?
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