The anime is about a third-year High School student, Yukari, who has always sought to merit the approval of her own Japanese society at the direction of her mother. Study, to become sucessfull. Achieve greatness through hard work and dedication. Both the former and latter are true, but to what end? And do the means justify the ends? Yukari realises through the eyes of some creative peers that maybe study doesn't have to mean boredom and hard work, dedication doesn't have to mean misery. She joins her new friends and strikes out on her own to seek her own happiness in the world, breaking through the boundries her previous lifestyle had erected around her. That doesn't necessarilly mean it happens easily, nor does it mean she'll find that happiness anytime soon!
That's the short of it. But it makes me think on a larger scale as well. What do we need, as human beings. Success or Satisfaction? One doesn't always lead to the other. It's rare to have both...for sometimes the hardest things to achieve cost us dear. Sometimes we never stop paying for them either. Look at love; a huge investment of time, money, sacrifices galore. Oftentimes it doesn't even culminate into what we want it to be. Even more often it fails. Is it better to have loved and lost then? Is the simple act of loving worth it?
If your scars can make you smile, perhaps...
In life, we spend a great deal of time chasing after our desires, if we're lucky enough to know what they are. I suppose that in itself can be enough. When you look at life and love, they are really the same in many ways. With either, you have no say how it starts or when or why. You can't shut it off on your own when it's new, or control how it feels. What you do with it is often out of your hands, and you travel down a road with no clear destination. Oh, you can think you know what you want to do with it or how to get to where you think you want to go... but it doesn't matter. You'll end up somewhere you never expected. When you get there whether you are happy or sad about it you try to make the best of it. The only clear decision-making comes at the end: "Are you happy?"
It's really the only decision that matters, anyway.
Here's the opening theme song to Paradise Kiss. I think even though Iike many Jpop/Jrock songs it's peppered with random English phrases and words...it says a bit of what I am about life..love..whatever.
I dashed out at 0 o'clock in the morning
I kicked the door open
My glass slippers shattered
And my dress tore, too
Hey, aren't you shocked?
Even if I chased after you, you wouldn't come
My tears overflow and I can't run anymore…
It just might be jealousy… It's-so-pain-ful…!!
"Lonely in Gorgeous" yeah…
Party night… I'm breaking my heart
I want you to find me immediately and embrace me
The headlights shine
…where are you bad boy?
Wipe away my tears with the scarf of love
I can't see anything
I want to scrape up stardust
And hurl it at you
Why do you care?
And yet you are only able to love yourself…
I just might be falling out of love… Is it for real…?!
"Lonely in Gorgeous" yeah…
Party time…won't bury that
If you're not here, then the world seems empty
I want to keep dreaming
"I miss you bad boy"
Please don't shut me inside the glitter
Or I'll break down
"Lonely in Gorgeous"
I'm breaking my heart
Where are you bad boy?
"Lonely in party night"
"Lonely in Gorgeous"
I'm breaking my heart
I miss you bad boy
"Lonely in party time"
"Lonely in Gorgeous" yeah…
Party night… I can't laugh
I don't need anything, just be by my side
"Lonely in Gorgeous" yeah…
Party night… I'm breaking my heart
Inside of the box of glitter that you left behind
I embrace loneliness and I can't move
I don't need anything, just be by my side
Kneel down, look at me
And pledge your love
No comments:
Post a Comment