I have a new obsession. One song, to be exact. 番凩（つがゐこがらし）


I'm posting my favourite PV for the song, done by 佐々木ササさん.

I haven't listened to a lot of MEIKO so far, but 仕事してP's MEIKO is probably one of the best out there. MEIKO really suits the traditional Japanese style of this song, and KAITO's harmony is great as usual. まさに神調教。

MEIKO has some high pitch parts so the female singer would need to have a steady yet strong enough pitch to pull a good one. The real challenge, however, is KAITO. While there's lower pitched parts, there's quite a bit of higher pitched harmony, so the male singer would need to have a wide vocal range and an excellent command of falsetto to illustrate the full spectrum of KAITO.

There isn't as many live renditions for this song compared to other popular Vocaloid songs, but I found two really good ones, by しのぶ & 石敢當 and 憂辛(うさトゥライ). Other decent ones include びびあん & clear, 海苔 & シャオ, and even another Vocaloid cover by Luka and Gakupo.


While MEIKO seems to sing the main melody for most of the duet part, KAITO's presence is equally impressive. But due to the difficulty of KAITO's part in the song, it's hard for me to just pick any live version over the original even though it's human vs. machine, as some of the female singers tend to overshadow the male singers and thus tipping the balance of the duet.

Equipped with the latest Vocaloid engines, Luka and Gakupo obviously have the advantage of having more natural sounding voices, but the pitch of their voices don't seem as flexible as the 1st generation to me. As a result, I still prefer the original MEIKO & KAITO version for the song.

I just listened to the version included in the EXIT TUNE CD, and I was disappointed to find the instrument change. The absence of the prominent samisen beats drastically altered the feel of the song and makes it less attractive to me.

I've been singing along since Labour Day, and it doesn't seem like this new obsession is gonna go away anytime soon. In the mean time, I think I should take the chance to explore other singers on Niconico; I'm only familiar with うさ out of the list of people that's performed this song.

Lastly, let me leave you with a few lines by KAITO that I really liked from the song.

信ずる道を　 ただひたすらに
歩むお前の　支えとならん
紅の剣を　携えて
この身　木の葉と　吹かれて行こう