Anime Songs to Remember #005: “Kusari”

I never actually finished the Disgaea TV series, nor ever did get too far into the video game on the PS2. It’s a cult-classic thanks to its fairly original and addictive design of turn-based strategic gameplay. The big reason I never got past around the 6th stage is because the damn Item World came into play. The Item World allows you to level up your equipment by going through “magical dungeons within the weapon or armor’s soul” as you may shortly put it. There’s an infinite amount of floors, which means there’s almost no limit to how strong one piece of equipment can get. Since I’m a die-hard perfectionist; not having THE best equipment by the time I hit the next battle irritates me to no end. It’s really sad, since I’ve been a huge fan of turn-based strategy games (such as Front Mission and Advance Wars) for such a long time, and it still continues to fade out of existence. Fortunately, Nippon Ichi Software, the developer of Disgaea, has not given up on creating sequels for this game. I really love to see this genre grow more and more, but with recent trends in the video game business; you can’t be too hopeful about that.

Today’s song is…

“Kusari”
Artist: Akiko Kawakami
Series: Makai Senki Disgaea (TV – 2006)

Caution: Volume might be extremely high!!

So why this song from a series that’s nearly SEVEN years old now? Well, for a blog series that refers to anime songs assumed to be long forgotten, I think this is more than appropriate! As a young high school student, I had to hog my older brother’s “super computer” at the time and now that I think about it; I was kind of a dick about it too! Eventually he moved into his own room and took his computer with him, and ended up giving me his old room along with a cheap old pre-built PC. It wasn’t a very strong computer, so there were very little things I could actually do on the machine. That’s when I got into the whole YouTube phenomenon when it was way before Google bought the site. After a couple times attempting to play the game, I concluded that maybe the game itself wasn’t really right for me. I happened to stumble upon the full anime series uploaded on YouTube at the time and… well, what else was there to do on a shitty computer with internet? Time to watch some anime!

In a gist, Disgaea is about a demon lord’s son named Laharl who wakes up from a deep sleep to find out his dad is dead, and now he’s out to reclaim his rightful throne! Along with a love-obsessed angel named Flonne and the greedy devil Etna, they travel together to reveal the truth behind Laharl’s father’s death. As kiddy as that may sound… well, aside from the potentially addictive gameplay, that basically is what Disgaea wins their fans from. Its comical humor from the characters and dialogue together creates an entertaining story, and of course, who doesn’t love them exploding blue penguins known as Prinnies (which happens to be Nippon Ichi Software of America’s official mascot)!

Although I never really got into the whole Disgaea franchise, nor finished the TV show, there was one thing I don’t regret about watching it for; the ending song. If I had to have a generic top 100 anime theme song playlist uploaded on YouTube, this MIGHT actually have made the list. It’s only a little surprising, because as far as I can remember, the TV show wasn’t exactly of spectacular quality. I recall a scene in the show where there was a robot in the middle of the screen, and two characters literally run and clip straight through it like it never existed. It wasn’t even subtle about it either! It honestly made no sense to me whatsoever. I’d try to find a clip of it, but Funimation, the company who has the show licensed, is pretty vigilant about their copyrighted material being uploaded onto YouTube without permission. So you’re just gonna have to watch it yourself, if you’re really that curious.

Why do I love this song so much? The instrumentals are catchy, the vocals are lovely, and it gives me a really nice, calm feeling that I can’t really explain in words. It’s like coming back from some extraordinary adventure (for me, it’d probably be hitting the anime conventions), and even though you’re back home wishing it wasn’t over, there’s still the nice afterthought of “there’s definitely a chance for more” as you begin to reminisce all the good things about your big weekend away from work. I hate making analogies, usually because I suck at them, but that’s probably the best one I could think of off the top of my head.

The reason I’m bringing this song back up all so suddenly is the fact that I had completely forgotten about this song! I used to listen to it all the time after watching half of the show as a kid, but it flew off my radar until I had heard it again in over 4 years on AnimeNFO radio only less than three days ago. I had a giant rush of nostalgia when this song hit my Winamp music player, and even as I type this, I’m currently playing the crap out of this song on repeat! Knowing this song is old as hell, and has likely been dug into a graveyard along with a thousand other forgotten anime songs, I wanted to express my personal love for it and will forever cherish this wonderful theme.

Although I think the vocals are fantastic, the singer Akiko Kawakami seemed to have never released any other works besides this song. I can’t seem to find any other information about her, so whether she truly wanted to pursue a career of singing, or went off to find other work is completely unknown to me at this point. It’s a shame, because I’d love to hear her sing more, and I think she could’ve been a great singer for more anime series to come.

I’ve recently been brainstorming new ideas for a novel I plan to dedicate my life to, which features a variety of characters working in a restaurant set in the future, and the hardships of keeping your personal life out of the workplace, and listening to this song again made me think “Wow, this song would’ve been amazing for an ending theme if my novel actually did form into an anime adaption.” Even before looking into the translated lyrics of the song, I already felt that I knew the message this song was trying to capture. As I went back into nostalgia mode and started to read over the lyrics again while listening to the song, I can still agree that it would’ve been perfect for my little “anime adaption”.

The title “Kusari” stands for chain, and my quick interpretation of the song’s lyrics, in a broad sense, is about the “singer” being stuck with someone else who others may feel are the exact opposites, yet the “singer” is still attracted to them despite this fact. If the song had to refer to something in Disgaea, it’d likely be the relationship between the three main stars of the show: Laharl, Flonne, and Etna. Laharl is a snobby little brat who only cares about taking over the underworld; Flonne is someone who wants love to rule the world; and Etna cares about her own greed for money. How exactly do all three of these work together without one’s head being sliced off by one another? Exactly my point! The “chain” the title refers to is the metaphorical link between these three, despite their distinguishable differences.

Ending Credits / Animation

Doesn’t it look fun to just float in space with all your friends without a care in the universe? I think it would. Something as simple as that really fit the song well in my opinion.

Hope you enjoyed this edition of ASR! I really enjoyed writing this one, because I believe it’s an underappreciated song that I personally wish could’ve gotten more recognition. If anyone finds more information on the singer Akiko Kawakami, please comment on this post about it! I’d love to learn more about her. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually try Disgaea one more time and beat the game once and for all. Take care, doods!

- Danny “iMoogle” Nguyen