KAITO はすごいね。ていうか、アニメですごいね... え? 何のはなし? 島唄よ。(KAITO sure is amazing. Actually, anime is amazing... Eh? What am I talking about? Shima-Uta/Island Song.)

Not making sense? OK, let's backtrack a bit. Well, it'll still be in somewhat reverse chronological order, but you'll (hopefully) get it by the end.

I was introduced to the famed VOCALOID Kagamine Rin(鏡音リン)'s song "kokoro"(ココロ) on YouTube via an ACG-oriented Chinese forum. My impression of VOCALOID songs were denpa and pop, neither of which were my cup of tea, so I didn't have much expectation. But I was near tear after I watched the PV. (I'll leave the details related to "kokoro" for another post.) Two weeks ago, I signed up for a Niconico Video account and searched for the PV, and eventually linked out to the author's mylist page. From there, I watched his PV for "Byakkoya no Musume"(白虎野の娘) and was instantly captured by the song.

That was the first time I heard KAITO sing, and I was thoroughly amazed. I started searching for KAITO's songs on Niconico, and I hit Shima Uta. (While I'm typing this, I found another Shima-Uta by the same KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, which is awesome!) Unfortunately there's no mp3 available for this version of the song, so I can only listen to it using Songza or Niconico. On a whim, I searched 'Shima Uta' on Songza and various tracks came up in the result. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. Including KAITO's, I now have 5 versions of Shima Uta in my Songza playlist.

So that explained the KAITO part. What about the anime part? Well, Shima Uta is Japanese folk music, and this type of music isn't usually liked too much by the masses except for old folks (pun intended). Nor is it something that can be heard anywhere, especially if one lives on the other side of the Pacific from the island nation. I, for one, had never come in contact with any Japanese traditional music until my interest in ACG blossomed.

The Inu Yasha anime opened the door to Japanese traditional music for me, and the genre quickly grew on me. Then, while watching Samurai Champloo, I heard Asazaki Ikue's "Obokuri~Eeumi." It might had been the atmosphere of the series itself, but I took a liking to the song instantly. While I don't actively seek out Japanese folk songs, I've been very open to the style since. If I didn't watch anime, I'd probably never be interested in the Japanese traditional and folk music.

On a side note, I recently learned of the meaning behind the lyrics of Shima-Uta. Time has changed, but the emotion remains. Rather than the vestige scarred by war, KAITO's Shima-Uta seems to convey a wish for peace after stormy times. The version by KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, on the other hand, connects both expressions in an act of oyako performance. It's simply great.

You'd be surprised by the scope and diversity of all things I've come in contact because of ACG. XD