Romaji lyrics of "Truth" by REIRA starring YUNA ITO

Title: Truth
Sung by: REIRA starring YUNA ITO
Lyrics: Mami Takubo & Narumi Yamamoto
Melody: Koji Goto

Let me stay with you
kizutsuke au no ni
naze konna ni motemete shimau no
Don't you know my heart
sunao ni narezu ni ita no
tada hitotsu no ai ga hoshii no ni...

meguri aeta kiseki wo shinjite
kanadete yukitai anata e no melody
moshimo subete wo nakushite shimatte mo
kono omoi wa eien na no
It's my Truth

Believe in yourself
tsumazuita toki mo aruite kita namida wo fuite
Open up your heart
omoide no saki ni kitto ashita to iu kibou ga aru kara

Give me your loneliness
and I'll give you my Tenderness
wasurenaide ite ano hi mita yume mo
hanarete itemo kono mune ni itsudemo
kanjiteru anata dake wo
It's my Truth

chirabararu hoshi ga sasayaki kakeru
tomadou kokoro wo terashi nagara
deai to wakare hito wa sagasu no
itsu ka musubi aeru tsuyoi kizuna wo

sekai chuu no kanashimi wo subete
uketomete mo ii anata no tame nara
sekai chuu kara okizari ni saretemo
sono hitomi wo shinjiteiru
It's my Truth

Hitoiro - NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA

This song is the theme of NANA 2 where the lyrics are written by Yazawa Ai, the manga's author and the melody composed by GLAY's Takuro. As compared to the insert song by Ito Yuna, this is more on the rock side but not as groovy as "GLAMOROUS SKY" though. The melody is much more mellow and slower. However, it does show Nakashima Mika's vocal ability to a certain extent especially the parts where the lyrics have to be sung at a faster pace which I'm glad to see as a form of improvement on her part.

In tune with the title, "Hitoiro" i.e. monochrome, you will see only black-and-white images in this PV except for the scenes in the movie which is in colour. This is rather different from Ito Yuna's PV which has a lot of beautiful scenery from Scotland. And you don't get to see scenes from the movie in Ito's PV. Another significant difference was the fact that the Trapnest members appeared in Ito's PV but none of the Black Stones members made a live appearance in the Hitoiro PV. It was more of a one-man show from Nakashima right till the end.

One issue I have with the PV is the shiny crumpled dress she was wearing while she's walking on the road. Personally, I cannot appreciate this outfit at all and thinks Nakashima looks quite awful in that. Somehow, I remember seeing this type of style before but I can't remember who had worn a similar outfit in the past.

As the "Truth" PV was done in an elaborate fashion, the "Hitoiro" PV pales in comparison in terms of the packaging but it has a certain edge over its rival because it featured scenes from the PV. However, it's quite evident that there was a difference in the budgets for both productions and Nakashima's PV had a strong sense of her personal style. In essence, it felt more like a song from Oosaki Nana rather than from Black Stones.

I can't say that I really like the song right from the start but this grows on you over time. However, given that it's not easy to take to this song easily, this may have an impact on the sales figures especially when compared to "Truth" which can be easily accepted by the mass market due to its ballad style. We'll see how the sales go from now on...

Truth - REIRA starring YUNA ITO

This new song, TRUTH, under the name of REIRA starring YUNA ITO, is the insert song for the upcoming movie sequel of NANA to be shown next month in Japan. I'm not too pleased about some of the changes in the cast but I'll pass judgement on that when I watch the movie.

Just like what happened previously when everything about "GLAMOROUS SKY" and "ENDLESS STORY" were compared to the finest detail, the new theme song "Hitoiro" by Nakashima Mika and this insert song is bound to invite controversy even before the movie is shown. Both songs are vastly different in terms of style and target market. Even the PVs show a clear difference in the production budget and somehow hints at difference in treatment of the two singers who belong to the same record company. I'll talk more about "Hitoiro" in the next post.

This PV is similar to "ENDLESS STORY" in the sense that both of them are ballads which makes it easier for the general public to take a liking to. One difference I noticed was that the lyrics of "TRUTH" seemed to be more applicable to Hachi's relationship woes while "ENDLESS STORY" felt more like Ren and Nana's story. I guess I can only confirm my guess when I actually see the lyrics.

Personally, I like seeing those scenes where Ito Yuna has straight hair and snow flakes falling on her. The curly hairstyle doesn't really suit her although I guess it must have been done to correspond with Reira's image.

For the time being, here are the screenshots of the beautifully-done PV shot in Scotland. By the way, the crew went to Scotland for the filming of the movie in the first place during September so it wasn't a deliberate trip made just for the sake of filming the PV. At least, that was the idea I got from what Ito Yuna wrote in her official blog.

Death Note Shueisha 2007 Calendar Review

I received the Death Note Shueisha 2007 calendar last Friday but could only find time today to post a review about this product. The picture on the right is for the month of March which is my birthday month and I happen to like this picture too thus explaining why I decided to include this in the post.

This calendar consists of 6 sheets in laminated plastic form with 1 month printed on each side. Each picture will consist of the characters in the story including Light, L, Misa, Near and Mero. For your information, Misa dominates the months of January and February with her solo shots so she can be considered to have the highest exposure rate among the characters if you also count her appearances in other months with various characters. I guess this is good news for fans of Misa but I would have loved to see more of Light or L.

Another picture which I like is this solo shot of L in April. His appearance ratio in this calendar is simply too low and that's only restricted to this picture and the small corner he has in March. Even Mero and Near seems to enjoy more prominent focus than L who is a key character in how the story develops.

I was expecting to see new pictures in this calendar but was disappointed to see many familiar images like the double-shot of Ryuk and Light against the height measurement background. As such, it was quite upsetting to see old pictures rather than new ones. I thought the manga artist would have come up with something new for the calendar which I doubt a new edition will be released next year now that the manga has already ended. Nonetheless, the quality of the pictures are still fairly good so I'm prepared to let this pass. Anyway, I don't have any solution but to complain here. ^__^ I have also taken shots of the plastic stand containing the logo of Death Note which displays the pictures in back and side view so you may judge for yourself whether you want to buy this after all.