Asu No Egao No Tame Ni

   Asu No Egao No Tame Ni…

 

Another one of those long running retro series songs which I’m still singing today is Asu No Egao No Tame Ni (did you guessed it from the opening lines?) which is from the anime Gatekeepers. Okay, perhaps the anime series isn’t that long but since it was one of my many first animes I guess it does seems to be from a very long time ago even though it was released in the year 2000.

 

  Chikara to chikara butsukareba

  Arasoi wa hajimaru,

  Tatakau koto ga yuuki to omowanai kedo,

  Mamoritai yo kimi no sono egao

 

Sung by Yumi Matsuzawa, this piece of music is very lively and upbeat. As far as I can remember, it gets you into the mood and atmosphere and the series. The most prominent parts being the lively playing of trumpets and horns fanfare. Makes you feel like it’s some sort of dramatic carnival at first. Then there’s the instrumental part which has dramatic wild guitar playing which comes as early as after the first chorus.

 

  Asu e no GEETO mienai keredo,

  Dare ni demo aru yo (Let’s open the gate)

 

Now, one main reason why I still continue to sing this song besides its catchy tune is because it’s relatively quite easy to sing. Not to say that this is so easy that I can sing it with my eyes close (actually I can, literally). In order to sing this song, I find that I need to have a powerful and loud voice. Not to say that I’ll be screaming and shouting throughout the song but because of the loudness and liveliness of this music, I really have to sing out loud most of the times.

 

  Kinou no namida wa,

  Kitto muda ja nai,

  Arasoi no nai mirai wa,

  Ano tobira no mukougawa

 

Of course there’s a part near the end of every chorus which seemingly goes to a higher pitch, but it isn’t actually. Because I’ve been singing ‘loud’ for most of the chorus and then a slight sudden change in the tone, causes me to go ‘off course’ a little. But I find that I don’t flop this part most of the time, unless I’m not in form of course. Otherwise, I sound just fine and perfect especially during the verses.

 

  Mune no oku fukaku,

  Jitto shimaikonda,

  Kagi wo takaku kakagete,

  Fumidasou, Asu no egao no tame ni

 

And due to all this loud singing, I usually find myself out of breath by the time the song ends. Perhaps I need to have more ‘endurance’ practice sessions so that whenever I sing songs like this, I won’t sound so tired by the end of it. Yeah, I really really really need to sing out loud the last sentence of the song in order to have an impact (singing presence and feel good impact too). Thank goodness that there are background vocals to back me up. Or else, like other songs without those, it’ll sound really hollow and terrible. Oh well, rather than continue complaining, might as well enjoy this song again.

 

  YOU CAN OPEN THE GATE!

 

Gatekeepers

I have this weird feeling when I watched Gatekeepers. Not so much of the storyline of protecting the Earth from alien invasion, but the protectors are actually made up of high school kids. Well, not just ordinary kids. You see, these special children posses some special ability called the ‘gate’ which helps when counter-attacking the ‘Invaders’ (that’s what those aliens here are called). The 2 main characters Shun and Ruriko, who’re childhood friends, unexpectedly meet and soon are working alongside with each other. And there’s abit of a love triangle here too. Although at first Ruriko dislikes Shun, but later on discovers that she has a little crush on him, however Kaoru (another member) already declared her love out loud for Shun, but he doesn’t take this all serously. And then there’s that ‘blur’ Reiko girl. Maybe there’s no real chemistry. But overall, you know in the end the good guys win, bad guy losses, but leave some room for potential return. I think there’s a sequel after that. Anyway I haven’t watched it yet.