In this post, I want to explain the complete timeline of the trilogy, give my opinion on the lyrics and rate all the songs in my order of enjoyment. I first shall post all the artworks/on the covers of the CDs to get into the spirit!
Timeline:
So, I suspect that the chronological order is roughly: Sandome (San) - Maisery (Mai) - Vengel (Ven).
and more precisely: Mai3 - Mai2 - San1/San2 - San3 - San4 - San5 - Ven3 - Mai1/Ven1 - Mai4 - Mai5 - Ven2 - Ven4 - Ven5
I suspect that order because Mai3 and Mai2 have taken place a long time ago, I think Mai3 was the first event, because it takes place in paradise. Mai2 introduces Bloody Mary, telling her past, without connecting to the present timeline. Then many, many years pass and Sandome takes place, all songs are in chronological order there, but San1 and 2 take place at the same time, in both songs the same ritual is performed, but San2 goes a little deeper into the past of the girl. I think Vengel and Maisery roughly take place around the same time. Vengel was not yet in the world of Sandome, but was still alive when the Maisery story happened. The 5th song in Vengel suggests Vengel dies, so I have to put that song at the end of the timeline. The "birth" of Vengel in song 3, has to be placed before the first song of Maisery and Vengel. About those songs... I think the first song of Maisery and Vengel refer to the same event, the error occurs in both songs... and I can name many more similarities. Then Bloody Mary takes over the second girl in song 4, Vengel exorcises the girl in Mai5 and then the rest of Vengel occurs.
Some crucial questions I thought of myself while making up this chronology were:
Why do I think Vengel died? Well, it seems that the words: 幕を下ろした appear in all the 5th songs. It means "let down the curtains", which refers to death. So, in the San5 the girl who has summoned bloody mary dies and becomes an angel. The possibility exists that that girl is actually the previous life of Vengel and I considered that theory too. I, however, have no proof of this theory. The only evidence I have is that both the girl who became Vengel and Sandome's main girl were sickly and lived in a broken house/ worn down mansion.
Why do I think Sandome and Maisery do not sing about the same events? Because the CD was initially named "The return of Bloody Mary", thus referring to that there are two times Mary has summoned someone. "Zetsubou no Quartet/ The Quartet of Despair"is a song she sings to both of her victims, but the victim in Sandome hears other songs than the girl in Maisery. The first named hears "Shuuen no Fantasia/Fantasia of Demise", "Yamanai koe no Rondo/ The rondo of the unstoppable voice"and the latter named hears "Fukushuu no Oratorio/ Oratorio of Revenge", "Kyouran no Prelude/ Prelude of Madness".
Lyrics:
So, in general I thought the lyrics of all songs including Vengel were amazing, they truly tell a story, one I would enjoy reading. I especially like how Paspal writes other kanji down than what is sung, which makes the lyrics even more impressive. However, it's harder to figure out what is actually sung. The ambiguousness in the lyrics was something I also like, especially in Vengel I was confused a lot. Who was who? Who is Vengel? Who is the friend? It made me think a lot!
Finding stylistic elements such as chiasms, ellipses and parallelisms inside the lyrics and implementing them on purpose, although I have not written all down in the translation comments, truly made me happy too! I hope many more people can enjoy and find those elements in Japanese and my English translations.
So the total story of the lyrics becomes:
Somewhere in heaven, God has angels who gather flowers for him. Everytime a child dies, it becomes an angel. One day, God locks up two angels inside a clock that can look into someone's memories... Then Bloody Mary is born, she is loved by her mom and dad, until one day her dad murders her mom, her dad remarries, her new mom is murdered again. Mary murders her dad and starts to prosecute protestant Christians.... Many years later, a sickly girl hears of the rumour of Bloody Mary. The girl was never happy and wanted friends to play with. She was abandoned by her parents and nobody wanted her, except for an eldery couple who took her in. The couple gave her a mirror, and one night she utters this in front of the mirror: Bloody Mary... Bloody Mary... Bloody.... Mary.... *sounds of a mirror shattering*. The girl is very frail and thin and thus the girl is possessed by Mary.... Mary takes over and only desires to see beautiful red blood! The girl goes crazy from the ringing voice in her head.... but finally she succombs and ascends to heaven, becoming an angel (possibly becoming Vengel). So an angel (who later becomes Vengel) is born, but instead of having white wings, her wings are mechanical. Vengel remembers that she once was a sickly girl, who was bedridden. Her life was brightened by a flower, which she couldn't take with her to afterlife. Once in afterlife, she was not long in heaven, although she had become an angel, she was captured and her wings were cut off. She grew mechanical wings and continued to search for the flower. During that search for the flower, she was sent out for all kinds of jobs, to bring people from real life to the afterlife. She had to do this and was never thanked for what she did. She did her job without emotion, until one day, her emotions pierced through and she failed her mission. She is sent out again, to take down a girl who is possessed by Bloody Mary, they have a fierce fight and Vengel wins in the end. The vengeful spirit of Mary wanders eternally.... But then Vengel continues her duty and her search for the flower and comes to a broken city and a broken house. She remembers her only "friend", who was actually herself of the past and a flower. She finally found the flower, all whithered, and thought of her angelic past self, but then she realised that the past self had become the cruel angel that she now was. She wanted vengeance on god for making her cruel.... Hence she then is an angel who wants vengeance, becoming Vengel. In the end she kills herself......
Enjoyment:
My personal enjoyment of the songs in order from favourite to least favourite is in general Maisery > Sandome > Vengel. the exact order as of 24/11/2019, including the instrumental outros is
Mai4>Mai2>Mai5>Mai6>San4>San3>San2>San1>Ven6>Ven2=Ven1>Mai1>San5>Ven3>Ven4>Mai3>Ven5.
There are multiple things I take into account when I rate songs.The most important thing for me is numbered with 1 and the least important with 6. This list is not exhaustive!
1. Mastering
2. Main melody, including pitch correctness of the singer
3. Composition (background music) overall
4. Originality of the music, does it contain variety in itself? refraining from using ostinatos?
5. Voice of the singer
6. Lyrics/meaning (Unless it is really vulgar, then it will take top priority)
I enjoy Yura's voice more than Lalue's for example, Lalue, however, does a truly good job in this CD trilogy. Next to that, I prefer heavier/more powerful compositions such as Mai4 and Mai2 over Mai3 and Ven5 (especially when the background music fades away, I think the composition becomes too lacking), as my favourite genre in music is "Gothic Metal"!
That was it for the compilation post.... Oh no! One more thing! Not only do I like listening to the songs, I also like to sing them!
This is an example of me singing "Maisery" with a friend named Rippi! Check it out!
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