This is, according to me the most profound song that has ever been composed for an anime (and the anime series being the best I've ever seen ^^).
Describing at the first person the death of the character and his ascension towards the blue sky (that is, towards Heaven), even for an atheist like me, it gives one truly powerful and beautiful impression of death ; every time I listen to it, this song makes me feel some kind of awe, by thinking how strong human being's poetry can transmit their imagination... I see myself dying, losing consciousness, and ascending to the blue skies, then to the black space. How great it would be to die, if it was like waking from a dream... And how awful at the same time, as the dream would be ending...
I was wondering what the lyrics of the choirs might be, and didn't find any right answer. But I think they could be Gabriela Robin/Yoko Kanno's imaginary language, and it seems to be some kind of mixing between japanese, portuguese, english, german, and maybe latin... It could indeed be Kanno's own translation of "Never seen a bluer sky" in her own "hanamogera" (that's how she calls that imaginary language).
On the live version of the song (from the "Souvenir of Tokyo" video), the choir pronunciation is slightly different, but that might also just be the japanese accent of the choir singer replacing Gabriela Robin. I wonder what Kanno wrote as lyrics, for this substitute singer... Maybe she just told her orally. Here is what I hear (in romaji) : "Ue ju me sa ya unt du mye di kan tus". Some words among those sounds could be found...
Anyway this is one of the song I like the most singing in karaoke, and of course listening to :)
@Kamiku This official statement was released when the Bebop movie came out:
@Kamiku This official statement was released when the Bebop movie came out:
Slumber is the sister of death, just like dreams are a foretaste of Heaven.
Slumber is the sister of death, just like dreams are a foretaste of Heaven.
In the beginning of the movie, we hear Spike mutter in his sleep. He talks about his arch-rival Vicious, but it could also describe Spike himself. Spike sleeps a lot in this movie, and to borrow the words of the 19th century poet Lord Byron. "Slumber is the sister of death." Perhaps Spike's tendency to risk his life without thinking, as well as his fixation on sleep and dreams, are linked together as metaphors...
In the beginning of the movie, we hear Spike mutter in his sleep. He talks about his arch-rival Vicious, but it could also describe Spike himself. Spike sleeps a lot in this movie, and to borrow the words of the 19th century poet Lord Byron. "Slumber is the sister of death." Perhaps Spike's tendency to risk his life without thinking, as well as his fixation on sleep and dreams, are linked together as metaphors for death.
In the same vein, Vincent says, "I am not afraid of death. I'm just dreaming a dream that will go on forever." He was talking about himself, but it fits Spike so well that the line could've been written for him instead.
Spike seems to peek into the abyss of death during every action sequence. He puts himself in so much physical danger and is so unafraid of death; it’s like he’s already dead and is trying to feel something again. He doubts reality, and this is brought to the forefront in the movie more than it was in the TV series.
"Do you know what purgatory is? It's a place somewhere between Heaven and Hell where those who cannot enter Heaven do penance -in other words, Earth." This is how Vincent explains the motivations for his crimes. This theme appears in Bebop repeatedly in various forms. The movie, however, brings it clearly into focus, and in that sense, the movie represents the defining essence of Bebop.
At the end of the series, we hear this lyrics, "Please, Don't wake me from the dream. It's really everything it seemed." Spike's dream was to be with Julia. That dream comes true at the end of the series. That's why he goes from seeing her with his eye that sees his past to seeing her with his eye that sees his present.
This is, according to me the most profound song that has ever been composed for an anime (and the anime series being the best I've ever seen ^^).
Describing at the first person the death of the character and his ascension towards the blue sky (that is, towards Heaven), even for an atheist like me, it gives one truly powerful and beautiful impression of death ; every time I listen to it, this song makes me feel some kind of awe, by thinking how strong human being's poetry can transmit their imagination... I see myself dying, losing consciousness, and ascending to the blue skies, then to the black space. How great it would be to die, if it was like waking from a dream... And how awful at the same time, as the dream would be ending...
I was wondering what the lyrics of the choirs might be, and didn't find any right answer. But I think they could be Gabriela Robin/Yoko Kanno's imaginary language, and it seems to be some kind of mixing between japanese, portuguese, english, german, and maybe latin... It could indeed be Kanno's own translation of "Never seen a bluer sky" in her own "hanamogera" (that's how she calls that imaginary language). On the live version of the song (from the "Souvenir of Tokyo" video), the choir pronunciation is slightly different, but that might also just be the japanese accent of the choir singer replacing Gabriela Robin. I wonder what Kanno wrote as lyrics, for this substitute singer... Maybe she just told her orally. Here is what I hear (in romaji) : "Ue ju me sa ya unt du mye di kan tus". Some words among those sounds could be found...
Anyway this is one of the song I like the most singing in karaoke, and of course listening to :)
@Kamiku This official statement was released when the Bebop movie came out:
@Kamiku This official statement was released when the Bebop movie came out:
Slumber is the sister of death, just like dreams are a foretaste of Heaven.
Slumber is the sister of death, just like dreams are a foretaste of Heaven.
In the beginning of the movie, we hear Spike mutter in his sleep. He talks about his arch-rival Vicious, but it could also describe Spike himself. Spike sleeps a lot in this movie, and to borrow the words of the 19th century poet Lord Byron. "Slumber is the sister of death." Perhaps Spike's tendency to risk his life without thinking, as well as his fixation on sleep and dreams, are linked together as metaphors...
In the beginning of the movie, we hear Spike mutter in his sleep. He talks about his arch-rival Vicious, but it could also describe Spike himself. Spike sleeps a lot in this movie, and to borrow the words of the 19th century poet Lord Byron. "Slumber is the sister of death." Perhaps Spike's tendency to risk his life without thinking, as well as his fixation on sleep and dreams, are linked together as metaphors for death.
In the same vein, Vincent says, "I am not afraid of death. I'm just dreaming a dream that will go on forever." He was talking about himself, but it fits Spike so well that the line could've been written for him instead.
Spike seems to peek into the abyss of death during every action sequence. He puts himself in so much physical danger and is so unafraid of death; it’s like he’s already dead and is trying to feel something again. He doubts reality, and this is brought to the forefront in the movie more than it was in the TV series.
"Do you know what purgatory is? It's a place somewhere between Heaven and Hell where those who cannot enter Heaven do penance -in other words, Earth." This is how Vincent explains the motivations for his crimes. This theme appears in Bebop repeatedly in various forms. The movie, however, brings it clearly into focus, and in that sense, the movie represents the defining essence of Bebop.
At the end of the series, we hear this lyrics, "Please, Don't wake me from the dream. It's really everything it seemed." Spike's dream was to be with Julia. That dream comes true at the end of the series. That's why he goes from seeing her with his eye that sees his past to seeing her with his eye that sees his present.