Fuck it, Kero Kero Bonito is also an anime12 Days of Aniblogging, Day 6If there’s anything to infer from all these blog topics, it’s that I didn’t actually watch much anime this year. I could probably count the shows on one hand. But I did two things to make up for that: read a bunch of manga, and consumed some anime-adjacent things. I’ve already blogged about She-Ra and Heaven Will Be Mine, so let’s talk about some music instead. I guess this also counts as my obligatory “anime and depression” post. This year, the bright joyful synthpop band Kero Kero Bonito released their second album, Time n Place. For this album, they ignored all the genre labels I just placed on them, swapping out the PC Music exuberance and Japanese vocals for crashy fuzzy guitars and longing chiptune synths. Time n Place is fundamentally nostalgic in a bittersweet way. Lyrical inspiration includes visiting a loved one at the hospital, being distressed about the endless march of time, the toll of churning out a fake identity to show the world, and going to an actual dump. It’s some sad stuff! Even the happier-sounding songs such as Time Today and Flyaway carry a certain air of melancholy to them. Time Today in particular is framed by its VHS aesthetic music video, which shows the singer in a mental hospital. It’s a song about recovery and also failing to recover. Besides watching the music video, another way to make Time Today much sadder is to listen to it at the end of the day when the sun’s already going down, leaving you forced to reflect on how you wasted the day. If it sounds like I’m dragging this album through the mud for being way too depressing, that’s absolutely not the case! The thing about the fuzzy introspective sadness of Time n Place is that it’s really good. It’s a mood inducer in the strongest of senses, and the flowing nature and short runtime make it feel like a cohesive emotional rollercoaster. And when it’s fall and the days are getting shorter and colder and you’re thinking about how you don’t have that much time left in uni, this is the stuff that really sticks with you. Time n Place is an album of sad train rides back to your parent’s house for the weekend. There are entire street blocks that I associated with Dump and Flyaway due to having particularly emotional days while walking there and listening to those, and now if I ever happen to trace the same path with the same music, I will start tearing up. The one song that breaks the soundscape the most is Sometimes, a campfire ditty about how everyone feels down sometimes. It’s real charming! It’s so sincere that it really does cheer me up with its understanding message of “shit sucks and we’ve all been there”. “Understanding” might actually be the best way to describe this album. It understands that sometimes you just can’t get up and face the day. That happens sometimes. Or maybe you’re up and walking about but just having a real time thinking about how your current life situation isn’t going to last forever and the future is vague and distressing. That’s understandable as well. Time n Place lets you wallow in that for just a bit, but after 3 minutes or so, it hops on to some other specific feeling. It’s a depression wash cycle that hopes to leave you a bit clear than it found you through spinning through all your emotions (fuck, this is reminding me to do my laundry ive been putting off because Executive Function Bad). By the end of the album, I feel way better than before, and that’s something.One of the things I’ve newly discovered this year is the value of getting psychically destroyed by media. I don’t focus as much on how good or bad media is, but rather what it does to me. Music has always been the best medium for me to get Affected by, and I gotta say, it’s even better at that when you’re a girl. It’s the estrogen or something! You just get hit by stuff emotionally more often. Or maybe I just know what I want now and am better equipped to find that stuff. Either way, it’s been a weird bittersweet year, just like the one this album depicts, but if anything, it’s been a good time to embrace and resonate with my feelings.
Dec 19, 2018 • Subscribe
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