↑ Last time.
Time for another story about the songs from the NEEDY anime.
Codependent Morphine... That's quite a title, isn't it?
Since we're here, I'll talk a little about Nechika's background too. The parts the anime never really had time to show.
Just as shown in the anime, Nechika grew up in a father-only household after her mother left, together with three younger brothers. Needless to say, it wasn't easy. Her father was a taciturn sort of man. Not a bad person at heart, but never particularly gifted at raising children. Even so, despite drinking too much and gambling, he somehow put in just enough effort to keep the household standing. Seeing that, Nechika could never quite bring herself to complain. She entered adolescence carrying that vague frustration.
I remember a lot of people around me, too. Around middle school was when those differences between families started becoming visible. Kids like me, whose parents were always away because they were being raised by single mothers or fathers, had all this youthful energy with nowhere to go. Looking back, loneliness probably played a part as well. So we wandered the city at night. For us, it meant reading magazines until morning, or spending hours on the demo cabinets at junk shops. There was a Neo Geo machine with Fatal Fury on it, and we'd just keep playing.
For Nechika, wandering entertainment districts gradually taught her where she belonged. She became the emotional caretaker for other troubled girls. Before long, they started buying her meals or giving her money, just to have her listen to them.
Naturally, she began standing out as an androgynous host at a concept café. Even though she was underage. She also became fairly popular on social media. Around that time she picked up Michica, and the two started hanging around together. Those details were cut from the anime because of time.
Nechika's struggle comes from wondering whether taking money in exchange for letting troubled girls dream for a while is good or evil. That's also why she gets along so well with Ame-chan, who can coolly accept that sort of thing. Michika believes beautiful things deserve devotion. Lollipop simply thinks her fans support her because she's trying her best. Nechika carries a burden neither of them have.
In the end, she's trusted precisely because she worries about these things. Which is why Episode 7 is such a nice episode. At least that one was simply a story about human kindness.
With all that in mind, I wrote the lyrics.
One hidden theme behind the anime was, "What if a girls' anime show aired at midnight?" So we wanted the character songs to feel like those cool androgynous characters from children's anime. Haraguchi-san and Helfen-san aimed for that together. The answer they found was: "Lots of spoken lines, and a slightly relaxed mood." Perfect. Because you catch glimpses of weakness, you end up becoming even more attached. Rather than trying too hard to be cool, they found the coolest balance possible. That surprised me.
Melted away by the night（夜で融かして飲んだ）
The painkillers I swallowed finally kicked in（鎮痛剤が効いて）
At the end of the lie（ウソの果て）
A hypocrite's dance（偽善者のdance）
"It's sad, isn't it? No matter how much I want to see you, I can't enter unless you call for me."（“悲しいね どんなに会いたいと願っても キミから呼ばれないと入れないんだ”）
The night itself is nothing more than one giant painkiller. A machine that eases suffering in exchange for money.
Nechika is merely one part inside that machine. And yet she can only turn that slyness into self-deprecating jokes. I think I managed to make that position into poetry. Since money stands between people, whether they meet or not is ultimately left to the other person's decision. I tied that together with the image of a vampire.
Even the side doing the exploiting must sometimes grow attached. And wish to see someone again.
But according to the rules of the world, that becomes "business."
Clock hands.（時計の針）
Don't forget me.（忘れずにいて）
"Don't you love me?"（「愛してない？」）
That's not true.（そんなことはない）
Veins. Paranoia.（静脈 パラノイア）
Morphine. Wanna wanna. Trap.（モルヒネ wanna wanna 罠）
"This is the end."（これで終わり）
Please don't ask.（聞かないでいて）
"Don't you love me?"（「愛してない？」）
I won't answer.（答え言わない）
Arteries. The taste of blood.（動脈 血の苦味）
Don't stare at me.（見つめないで）
Don't you love me?（「愛してない？」）
I'm not deceiving you.（騙してない）
No.（イヤ）
No.（イヤ）
Until morning.（朝まで）
This was my first attempt at writing lyrics almost like a conversation. What do you think?
Hoshiki-san had previously left a strong impression on me through her adorable cover of INTERNET YAMERO as Yumemi Riamu. So hearing her suddenly sing in such a low voice made her strength as a voice actress obvious. I could already picture her future. I think she'll continue flourishing in roles with deeper voices.
I was fascinated by the glittering visuals, so I asked Danjo Sora-san to create the MV. As a result, it's unbelievably sparkly. It was my first time working with Danjo-san, but she surprised me by saying, "I've known about you since back when you hung around those creepy otaku in Mita." A true old fan...
Since she carries something as suspicious as the theme of "goodness," Nechika often ends up playing the role of support behind the scenes. But without someone like her, not just Karamazov but the entire anime falls apart. Without someone who quietly asks, "Is this structure really right?" while accepting it anyway, things like streaming and being adored become complete lies. Sometimes I wonder about idol anime that leave that part vague.
Her virtues and sins themselves are something I find deeply interesting. Something I want to keep exploring. Because they're closely tied to the nature of religion itself.
That was Nechika-sama.
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