— “ The fireworks I’d only watched from afar are now right in front of me. “
For my first song related post, I chose to introduce one of my favorite producers/arrangers of Japanese music, HoneyWorks. I have always loved the team’s art styles and ways to express emotions through beautiful songs. However, the song I chose today was more or less geared towards love struck teenage girls. HoneyWorks is well-known for their “romance” songs, and I wouldn’t be surprised because one of their famous songs, “A Solution For Jealousy” was a romance song that had hooked me to HoneyWorks.
But that is not the song that I had wanted to introduce. The song I wanted to introduce was their most recent release, “Tokyo Summer Session” (translations can be found here). In summary, the song is about 3 different couples. Both having their own “back story”. The song would make more sense if you had known about each couple’s back story, but it is fine without it. The setting is during a summer festival within Tokyo (like the title says). The couples each have their own date and it is shown that one couple confesses to each other near the end of the song. The song makes sense just watching it, as it is not one of those confusing songs you have to re-watch over and over to get the story.
The part that hooked me to the song was the beautiful art style and animation, not to mention the catchy guitar and piano. I absolutely love Yamako’s art style (it is shown at the end of the song at around 3:21 – the end of the song).
If you’d like to find out more about HoneyWorks, check out their official website here (though it may be hard due to it being in Japanese).
Music in Other Cultures 