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Monochrome Lyrics
Where all the colors are
Ocean
The silent ocean knows
Your face
Your reality
Haven't been the same lately
wonder could it be lack of devotion?
Seeing in monochrome
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
Feel
Can you feel
Might be why colors disappear
The place we call our soul
Ocean
The cyber ocean sees
Your dreams
Your totality
Nothing stays the same
Someday
I hope you will make more lasting connections
Feeling in monochrome
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
See
Can you see
Colors that the ocean offers
Be
Can you be
Something more that black, white and gray
Being in monochrome
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
Ocean
The silent ocean knows
Your face
Your reality
wonder could it be lack of devotion?
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
Can you feel
Might be why colors disappear
Ocean
The cyber ocean sees
Your dreams
Your totality
Someday
I hope you will make more lasting connections
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
Can you see
Colors that the ocean offers
Can you be
Something more that black, white and gray
Who taught you emotions
Who taught you emotions
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No comment on this song? My heart could always explode when I listen to it. So unbelievable beautiful and "out of this world", wow. And the song is included in one of the best, if not the best episode of "Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex" (2nd gig, episode 2). The song plays when the pilot is flying with the major over the city at night. The meaning: It fits the schizophrenia perfectly in my opinion. There a several thoughts in it. First it's about feeling watched by everyone. The "cyber ocean" is full of data about him. Even his thoughts aren't safe from the new technology. The second thing is that he somehow lost "something". He's not the same person he was before. I wouldn't say because of his schizophrenia, because I think that the schizophrenia is actually the result of it. ("Nothing stays the same...someday..."/"Haven't been the same lately") And the third aspect is the new person that's born inside of him. He hopes that this person will make the life better ("I hope you will make more lasting connections"), but is somehow shocked by the fact that this person seems to have no emotions. So it's somehow the "social person" inside of him that ignores his emotional side, but makes him able to live in this world. Hard to explain for me in english. I hope it's understandable :). One of the best songs I've ever heard. And Yoko Kanno has such a wonderful voice for this kind of songs (At least I read that Gabriela Robin was singing this song, which is actually her. I'm sure! ;))
Oops, sorry. This one is sung by Ilaria Graziano. Very similar voices.
Also, the word monochrome sums it up you know? The same color in different shades - Black, White, and Gray, Black and White being two colors that are often seen as opposities but in this case they are just different shades of each other...again the schizophrenia. Its like you say, the he is separating from the person he was, and becoming something or someone else, but it is still all the same, jsut different shades of his original self, amazing lyrics.
hey, I propose an interpretation that's closer to the show's content. Since it's GITS we're talking about, I feel that this song is more about a relationship between a man and a machine. It'a about an union between two worlds, one is an ocean of human soul, and the other is a cyber ocean of a machine.
hey, I propose an interpretation that's closer to the show's content. Since it's GITS we're talking about, I feel that this song is more about a relationship between a man and a machine. It'a about an union between two worlds, one is an ocean of human soul, and the other is a cyber ocean of a machine.
The part about emotions isn't that clear to me, I'm shuffling between two interpretations:
The part about emotions isn't that clear to me, I'm shuffling between two interpretations:
One is that the relationship is disintegrating, and the person in this song is sad because of that, her emotions are hurt. As to what the cyber-ocean feels, we...
One is that the relationship is disintegrating, and the person in this song is sad because of that, her emotions are hurt. As to what the cyber-ocean feels, we can't be sure. "The line : I hope you will make more lasting connections" Clearly signifies this. Somehow I feel that those words mean that the object of feelings of the person who sings the song doesn't have feelings in the end. So the entire union is just an illusion of the person, and machine doesn't feel anything. She's begginning to see that it's all inside her mind, and she treats a lifeless thing like an another person. Thus the monochrome of sadness.
Second interpretation would mean that that althought the relationship is over, the machine gained something from it, emotions ("Who taught you emotions"). Also dreams, and an awerness of one's end (totality). So it become self aware, and left. The person is hurt but still hoping that maybe the new entity will find something better out there. The way we sometimes feel about someone we once loved but somewhow it wouldn't work out.
Now the most important of both of those interpretations is the idea that we humans, longing for the machines to be alive, by showing them affection, and love, we can wake them up, somehow breathing the life into them.
That idea, as crazy as it seems, is very visible in all of Masamune Shirrows work, and is prevailent in many episodes of GITS (it's most visible in the episode with diplomats son and his doll, and of course with Batou's treatment of non living things aka "the love to the machine" which in return wakes up Tachikomas with help of the mineral oil.
I would put this song in this context, but of course the schizopfemia interpretation will work as well.
Because the idea of the song is: is the person who's hurt crazy? or maybe it really had a relationship with a machine? I leave the answer to you.
ps. I would kiss the ground that the Youko Kanno threads on, some songs on GITS OST's are just that great. :)
Though it can apply to the Schizo guy, the song as a whole really apply to Major, and her love interest, Kuze. The mechanical/techno stucco background of the song expresses their "mechanical" nature and their emotional state- though capable of love, and a wide range of emotions, both are more or less 'emotionless' . Motoko typically keeps a straight face and often feigns emotions to get an edge, and we never exactly know what she is thinking or feeling. The major, despite looking more human than the Tachikomas and Batou, is quite clearly a machine from her cold personality. Kuze himself is displayed as being almost a distaff counterpart, being also entirely cybernetic, but literally having a face devoid/incapable of expressing emotion- Motoko has trouble or won't show her feelings, while Kuze literally can't, and we see the comparison.
The two both believe in the power of the "cyber ocean", Motoko in movie and in show prone to weighing her own existence versus that of the whole collective consciousness found in human technological networks, and Kuze ends up leading his refugees to refuge within that "ocean" to escape the world. Kuze disappears within it, and by the SAC movie, Motoko is drifting in and out of that ocean. Motoko in the show and movie sutfers the paradox of being a very self-contained person who is constantly connected to a greater network, trying to find a balance between herself and the greater consciousness hence her philosophical bent.
The "who taught you emotions?" is a jab at her and Kuze's difficulty expessing themselves beyond their role and function in events., and their ultimate fate is to ultimately become more than themselves and wander the 'network of human consciousness, which is truly deep and infinite.