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Today's random Kingdom Hearts thought
"Simple and Clean" and "Hikari" were songs about Kairi's relationship with Sora.
"Sanctuary" and "Passion" are songs about Riku's relationship with Sora.
Nomura said this, that he wanted it this way and asked for it this way because KH1 was really about Sora and Kairi, and KH2 is more about Sora and Riku. And it interests me. It kind of makes me want to pull out analysis for these songs, but more Riku's than Kairi's, because Kairi has been created as a very... we'll go with undeveloped character. I'm not saying she doesn't have development, it's just that she's sort of established as this sort of ideal figure and what personal movement she has, we don't really see it. We just see her steady faith, always there for her boys. Good for her, but. It makes analysis less fun. XD
I do really, really like thinking of her character in relation to "Hikari", though. It presents an interesting image of a narrator who took everything for granted and never really put any significance in her life, and then very suddenly everything changes and she realizes how much the things she had meant to her -- how much Sora meant to her.
Then, her memory gets erased, and she forgets all about him. :D *shot*
A year later, "Sanctuary" is very truly a song about Riku trying to escape his fears and finding comfort in Sora, because he's... Sora. When they're together, even though Sora is asleep in Namine's chamber, it's hard to be emo -- Sora needs him, and that's all that Riku really needs to know. He doesn't need to worry about if Sora would hate him for what he's become because, duh, Sora.
("My heart's a battleground" makes sense for a lot of people, but for Riku it probably makes the most sense. XD Except for possibly Roxas. And "Sanctuary" very much sounds like it could be him also -- he has all these doubts, all these questions, but becoming whole with Sora makes them all make sense. Unfortunately, no sanctuary for Roxas.Nomura hates him.)
"Passion" is equally a song about Riku looking back on before everything went all to hell, wondering if he and Sora can ever get back to that place where they were all happy and there was nothing worry about, no doubts, just peace. They're traveling down different roads and Riku doesn't know if he'll ever be able to backtrack and be able to be what he used to be. But he does want to meet Sora again. He really does.
(Please be to ignore the last stanza: "zutto mae ni suki datta hito" / "the person I loved long ago"... It's the single version, not the game version. Nomura was also kind of startled to hear about how Sora was evidently having a baby. That part isn't Kingdom Hearts, so lala.)
I would like to point out that neither "Sanctuary" nor "Passion" are inherently gay, despite everyone's first thought when they think about a Riku POV song about Sora called "Passion". "Sanctuary" could be just a... a very deep meaningful friendship song, and "Passion" actually doesn't explore very deeply into the meaning of those memories. Neither of them are inherently gay... unless you read the reversed lyrics. They become extremely gay when you take into account the reversed lyrics.
Having to decrypt "I need more affection than you know" just sounds like "I can't tell Sora and I can't even admit it in my song but I am gay for Sora."
It's true.
Relevant excerpt from Nomura's Ultimania interview translation:
Following the previous game, Utada Hikaru also sang the theme song for this game, "Passion."
Many fans seem to have the image Kingdom Hearts = Utada Hikaru so I didn't think of changing that at all. This time I wrote a story explanation for her that's longer than the previous game's. We decided to have it played at the last scene, so for me the theme was "Sora and Riku's reunion." I wrote stuff like "An image of a reunion, a happy moment in a way" and "Like a Hikari 2" in there.
In the single version, there are phrases like "Seems like a child will be born in winter" and "The New Year's card has a photo attached to it" in it...
After getting the finished song, we worked on the movie to make it synchronize with the song, and when we were almost finishing, suddenly I was told "we've made a single version" so I tried listening to it and noticed those phrases were added into the lyrics, so we didn't know about it initially. Come to think about it, if those phrases were added earlier, we would have been brainstorming how to make the movie fit that part of the song. (laugh) I guess it's because Utada-san understood that "Kingdom Hearts" won't be using that part of the song.
It was amazing on how the ending synchronized well with the song and movie.
The first KH's ending also stuck well with the theme song, but this time it was a bit more difficult because the song started with soft piano keys. Before, the scene that synchronized with the start of the song was Sora letting go of Kairi's hand but this time this two would hold each other's hands. In the editting process, we were arguing on how many seconds we should show them holding hands. Someone said "Shouldn't it look better if we show it longer?" but I said "No, we're going to show it for just a split second" so we cut it short enough to just show them holding hands. The external editors told me "you're a really cold person", though. (laugh)
"Sanctuary" and "Passion" are songs about Riku's relationship with Sora.
Nomura said this, that he wanted it this way and asked for it this way because KH1 was really about Sora and Kairi, and KH2 is more about Sora and Riku. And it interests me. It kind of makes me want to pull out analysis for these songs, but more Riku's than Kairi's, because Kairi has been created as a very... we'll go with undeveloped character. I'm not saying she doesn't have development, it's just that she's sort of established as this sort of ideal figure and what personal movement she has, we don't really see it. We just see her steady faith, always there for her boys. Good for her, but. It makes analysis less fun. XD
I do really, really like thinking of her character in relation to "Hikari", though. It presents an interesting image of a narrator who took everything for granted and never really put any significance in her life, and then very suddenly everything changes and she realizes how much the things she had meant to her -- how much Sora meant to her.
Then, her memory gets erased, and she forgets all about him. :D *shot*
A year later, "Sanctuary" is very truly a song about Riku trying to escape his fears and finding comfort in Sora, because he's... Sora. When they're together, even though Sora is asleep in Namine's chamber, it's hard to be emo -- Sora needs him, and that's all that Riku really needs to know. He doesn't need to worry about if Sora would hate him for what he's become because, duh, Sora.
("My heart's a battleground" makes sense for a lot of people, but for Riku it probably makes the most sense. XD Except for possibly Roxas. And "Sanctuary" very much sounds like it could be him also -- he has all these doubts, all these questions, but becoming whole with Sora makes them all make sense. Unfortunately, no sanctuary for Roxas.
"Passion" is equally a song about Riku looking back on before everything went all to hell, wondering if he and Sora can ever get back to that place where they were all happy and there was nothing worry about, no doubts, just peace. They're traveling down different roads and Riku doesn't know if he'll ever be able to backtrack and be able to be what he used to be. But he does want to meet Sora again. He really does.
(Please be to ignore the last stanza: "zutto mae ni suki datta hito" / "the person I loved long ago"... It's the single version, not the game version. Nomura was also kind of startled to hear about how Sora was evidently having a baby. That part isn't Kingdom Hearts, so lala.)
I would like to point out that neither "Sanctuary" nor "Passion" are inherently gay, despite everyone's first thought when they think about a Riku POV song about Sora called "Passion". "Sanctuary" could be just a... a very deep meaningful friendship song, and "Passion" actually doesn't explore very deeply into the meaning of those memories. Neither of them are inherently gay... unless you read the reversed lyrics. They become extremely gay when you take into account the reversed lyrics.
Having to decrypt "I need more affection than you know" just sounds like "I can't tell Sora and I can't even admit it in my song but I am gay for Sora."
It's true.
Relevant excerpt from Nomura's Ultimania interview translation:
Following the previous game, Utada Hikaru also sang the theme song for this game, "Passion."
Many fans seem to have the image Kingdom Hearts = Utada Hikaru so I didn't think of changing that at all. This time I wrote a story explanation for her that's longer than the previous game's. We decided to have it played at the last scene, so for me the theme was "Sora and Riku's reunion." I wrote stuff like "An image of a reunion, a happy moment in a way" and "Like a Hikari 2" in there.
In the single version, there are phrases like "Seems like a child will be born in winter" and "The New Year's card has a photo attached to it" in it...
After getting the finished song, we worked on the movie to make it synchronize with the song, and when we were almost finishing, suddenly I was told "we've made a single version" so I tried listening to it and noticed those phrases were added into the lyrics, so we didn't know about it initially. Come to think about it, if those phrases were added earlier, we would have been brainstorming how to make the movie fit that part of the song. (laugh) I guess it's because Utada-san understood that "Kingdom Hearts" won't be using that part of the song.
It was amazing on how the ending synchronized well with the song and movie.
The first KH's ending also stuck well with the theme song, but this time it was a bit more difficult because the song started with soft piano keys. Before, the scene that synchronized with the start of the song was Sora letting go of Kairi's hand but this time this two would hold each other's hands. In the editting process, we were arguing on how many seconds we should show them holding hands. Someone said "Shouldn't it look better if we show it longer?" but I said "No, we're going to show it for just a split second" so we cut it short enough to just show them holding hands. The external editors told me "you're a really cold person", though. (laugh)