Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Monday, February 12, 2018

SEKAI NO OWARI -- Sazanka(サザンカ)



As is usually the case with TV Japan during an Olympics, due to copyright issues and the like, any NHK Olympics coverage in North America is heavily curtailed and limited to 2~3 5-minute reports a day. Now, it's not so bad with the Winter Olympics since it seems the Canadian, American and Japanese media generally focus on the same events together as opposed to the Summer Olympics. So, I was able to find out live this morning on CBC that Japan's Sara Takanashi(高梨沙羅)got a Bronze medal in the ski jump. Happy about that and of course, Canada has been hauling in the medals early as they currently occupy 2nd place behind Norway in the medal count.


Of course, with Olympics coverage in Japan, that automatically means campaign songs for each of the networks covering the Games in Pyeongchang. And for NHK, the Olympics song is "Sazanka" (Camellia sasanqua) by SEKAI NO OWARI. It is also the band's 12th single that has yet to be released (February 28th is the date).

Written and composed by members Fukase, Saori and Takajin, the brief excerpts of "Sazanka" that I've heard on the NHK highlight broadcasts and the first half of the song from the video had me thinking that this was a pretty subtle ballad for something as grand as the Games but of course watching the video of the older brother supporting his younger brother (through the simple acts of cooking) as he struggles to become a successful artist finally did send the message along with the rise in the music halfway through. Yes, inspiration and encouragement through food.

This was such a heartwarming video that I think it could be chopped into separate segments to create commercials selling the separate dishes. It was also heartbreaking to see such good tonkatsu go to waste like that but the artist was going through some major angst, so understandable (to a certain extent). Still, it was nice of him to apologize through that final art piece.

Well, Canada has a big early morning tomorrow with the Mixed Doubles Curling Gold Medal match between us and Switzerland.

2 comments:

  1. Good evening J-C: made the mistake of watching this while my leftovers are cooking, now I feel quite inadequate in my dinner :( Maybe some more wine will help. So for the rest of us - what did it say on the placard in the gallery (the apology) ?

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    1. Good evening, T-cat. Yes, I have to give my respects to Fukase-san for being as adept at cooking as he is at singing. :) That tonkatsu dinner was restaurant-quality.

      As for what the placard said, I believe it was 「後悔」...regret.

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