I've been working on editing the first episode of Corsucant is Cracking, and as a result, have been spending a lot of time developing the "sonic palette" of the season. Every season has one - a style of music and sound effects that I try to generate that makes each season unique and subtly identifiable and different to each other. Some of it is obvious - things like the intro/outro music. Some of it is less so.
But this isn't a post about that, this is a post about the greatest two scenes ever written about a man falling in love.
--
Because I've been working on the sonic palette, I've been tinkering around in music again, and chipping away at the "Japanese Royal Road Chord Progression" - the chord progression used in almost all of Japanese popular music and a lot of...well, Japanese music in general. It's a fascinating subject that deserves its own post, but suffice it to say that if you've ever felt a song "sounded anime" or "sounded Japanese" it's because of this chord progression. In any case, it's pretty easy to look up the chord progression, but I was having a really hard time groking it. I finally cracked it tonight, and as a result, I went back to watch one of my favorite songs that uses this progression: God Knows, from the Melancholy of Harui Suzumiya.
Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31aBzZokJMA
I love this song and have for years. But part of it is the scene (which is in the video) that is attached to it. To understand the scene, there's a few basic parts of Haruhi you have to learn:
- Haruhi is a god, though she doesn't know it. Whatever she wills, happens. But since she doesn't know she's a god, her emotions and desires can alter reality at her whim.
- Kyon, the male lead, is an extremely boring person. He's also snarky, an unreliable narrator and a massive male tsundere.
- There are three other members of the SOS Brigade (the group Haruhi founded in order to not be bored) - an alien, a time traveler, and an esper. They have not revealed their identities to Haruhi, but each of them has been sent by their organizations to make sure Haruhi doesn't accidentally wipe out the world (or rewrite reality so they don't exist.)
- Early in the story (in the "official order"), Kyon manages to prevent Haruhi from erasing the world through his feelings for her. It's then that it's clear they care for each other, but Haruhi doesn't remember the event and Kyon won't admit his feelings to himself.
So here we are, in this scene with this song. It's a school festival, and two of the members of the four member female rock group are sick, and the drummer is desperate to try and find someone to sing because she's worked so hard for this moment. Haruhi and one of the other characters agree to go and help her out, even though Haruhi has never shown any musical talent up to this point.
In the scene, Haruhi looks a little nervous. The girl in the witch hat is an alien who downloaded how to play guitar into her mind, so she just starts going. And then Haruhi starts to sing. In the scene, the crowd at first seems a bit surprised at how good she is - and then everyone starts getting into it. By the end, the entire place is going crazy.
Well, the entire place except for Kyon.
Kyon spends the entire time staring at Haruhi, dead still.
Kyon knows through another part of the story that Haruhi's greatest fear is being insignificant - ironic considering she's a god. She creates the SOS Brigade so she can have fun and make the most out of every day, hoping that one day she'll meet an alien or a time traveler or an esper. Haruhi has made herself a bit of an outcast at school because she is so aggressive and so strange - she won't stop talking about all this paranormal stuff.
But here in this moment, Haruhi is everything. The entire school loves her. They don't care she's wearing a bunny suit, or that she's been odd before. She is their rock god, and she can ride this moment to total popularity. Whether or not this talent is a result of Haruhi's god powers is irrelevant - Haruhi is amazing at so many things. If she wanted conventional popularity, acceptance, and success, she could have it.
But she's not singing for them.
She's singing for Kyon.
The lyrics are kind of about them - about two people who can't seem to break down their final walls of communication. And ironically the song asks god to bless them.
And Kyon sees her in this moment, and he knows how deeply she must care for him, love him, even. She could have everything she wanted, but in the end, she literally reshaped the world to be with him - a boring, average, nobody.
And I think he finally admits to himself that he loves her, too.
--
Haruhi has a lot of problems, both in the original novel series (which has gone the George RR Martin path of probably never being finished AND having too many characters) and in the anime adaptation.
But to me, another scene brings the whole story full circle.
There was a movie made for Haruhi: the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The movie is basically as it sounds like - one day Kyon wakes up and Haruhi and the others are just gone. None of them are at his school. And no matter what he does, he can't find them. He still has all of his memories, but he wonders if he's been abandoned by Haruhi, and the world has been rewritten. He's not even sure she exists anymore.
And then this scene happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=splPOCJZZUg
When Kyon finds out that Haruhi exists, and finally knows where she is, he goes ballistic. He can't control his feelings so he acts out against his friends. He leaves school and runs right to where she's supposed to be. It's the final acceptance of his love for her, now that he's lived this world where she wasn't in it, and he's finally able to externalize how much she has meant to him in his life, even though there's a long ways to go in solving the problem.
It's kind of a long scene and I won't blame you if you don't watch past the part where Kyon goes running out of the building. But if you have an ear for music, I want you to listen carefully to the background score.
This is probably a coincidence - as I said, this is the Japanese Royal Road chord progression, it's used everywhere. But the music sounds like an orchestrated callback to God Knows - as if now that he's finally found her, the music itself is drawing him to her, to that moment when he realized he loved her.
--
I get that I am taking liberties with this. I don't care. These two scenes have been so important to me throughout most of my creative life. Hell, one of the books I wrote early on was basically me trying to recreate Haruhi and Kyon's relationship, and I think it echoes in a lot of the relationships I write.
There's just something about that deep, deep emotional connection left unspoken that rings so powerful to me.
Study Questions:
Did you watch the scenes? What do you think of my analysis? Do you agree or disagree?
What is the best portrayal of love, in your opinion?