Fan Soundtrack: Oniisama e... : Let Us Descend Together! [Fukiko Ichinomiya/Rei Asaka]
EDIT 2: I went ahead and brought this over to Tumblr, a Sign Of The Times. An active download link after many years, blessed be. Interested parties may find it here.
EDIT: It has come to my attention that this fan soundtrack can be found in a torrent file along with other official music from the series. While I'm flattered that someone would think highly enough of it to make it more widely available, please understand that with the exception of a few tracks, this mix does not constitute an official soundtrack. I understand that my upload links have expired by this point, but I would appreciate those sharing the torrent to link to this post. Thank you.
A compilation that has been sitting on my hard drive, subject to many revisions, for nearly a year. In what was already an extremely well-developed cast, the characters of Oniisama e's Fukiko Ichinomiya and Rei Asaka captivated most of all, their disturbed dynamic lending the series the majority of its darker tones and surprising revelations. Even by the story's end their relationship is left undefined, toeing the line between adoration, obsession, co-dependency, and genuine understanding. Likewise are the two girls themselves never quite resolved; instead we are left to watch the consequences of perfectionism, idealization, paranoia, detachment, and loneliness. The irresistible pull of madness, and the ensuing game of one-upmanship.
We take one girl, hideously spoiled, overly imaginative, terribly anxious. We take another, shakily devoted, mutably meek, privately morose. The result is as follows.
Let Us Descend Together!
A Fukiko Ichinomiya & Rei Asaka Fan Soundtrack
Spoilers will be present in track titles and descriptions. The songs are all in .mp3 format, properly ID3-tagged and with album art for those using iTunes.
01. Fukiko I
(Anathallo - Yuki! Yuki! Yuki!)
"Who are you?" she cries with squinting indignity, "This is my garden." A girl of eleven, comfortable in her household's womb, huddled by the roses and minding the bees that swarm overhead. It was a hot day.
02. Rei I
(Mayumi Kojima - Arashimae no Shizukesa)
She liked the sun on her back, the smell of the flowers, the experience of a personality so unlike her own. The unfamiliarity of it all leant to her a charming awkwardness; crooked teeth, grass-stained pants, too many apologies.
03. Thy eternal summer
(The Gentle Waves - There Was Magic, Then...)
for I believed / the world was grand with many precious things / fine air, such precious things / it was my world
He's focused on his sore muscles, the product of a rowboat excursion, when she confesses, "I love this poem, too!" She insists; she loves it. Reciprocity is not an issue, for it is warm in the crook of his arm, and there are seven days in the week.
04. Death is Now a Welcome Guest
(Henry Purcell - Dido & Aeneas: Dido's Lament)
remember me, but ah! forget my fate
"Don't follow me! I'll never forgive you if you follow me!" She knows not what she speaks, nor what she does. But all the disappointment in the world still cannot make her sink. No; it is the weight of what she has just attempted that will drown her down the road.
05. The Very Best of Conciliatory Sisters
(adenosine tri-phosphate - My Old Green Martian Baby)
life is a process of dying / everyday i'm getting closer to my grave
Two rather odd peas in this pod: terribly morose and far too young for it, talking of things they've really only read about. "It's sad how we ended up being such wonderful sisters, isn't it?" the elder coos, petting the younger's hair. Because everything is just so terribly sad.
06. Snowy Beaches / Red On White
(Mayumi Kojima - Yararechatta Onna no Ko)
Momentum sends Jack rolling down the hill, with Jill tumbling after. A rock in the hill breaks Jill's fall. "So, before sadness overtakes us..." Mind the rock.
07. We're Playing Our Song
(Kentarou Haneda - Oniisama e BGM M-9)
Three years have passed; time has healed scant few wounds. Nod of the hat, tip of the glass. Coping mechanisms are laughably ineffectual.
08. Rei II
(Medicine - Time Baby III)
sometimes it rains inside my head / all the words run dry / walls are breathing / hands are reaching up to touch my thigh
"What now, this languorous ache, this smart That pierces, wounds my heart?" Unashamedly proud of her Verlaine, her Greek tragedy, her pockets of over-the-counters snatched from the corner store. She considers her daily fanfare a "Taps" for the girl with the grass-stains.
09. Fukiko II
(Bright Eyes & Her Space Holiday - Contrast & Compare [Making Words Work Mix])
days drag on / and there is nothing to do / oh, well
She's quite the acrobat, spinning those plates, keeping up her balancing act of push and pull. The loneliness is manageable, as is the rage, as is the guilt. The love, too, even! It's all so very temporary, in the long run.
10. Self-medicated, Lonely room
(Thee More Shallows - 2am)
and it seems strange / there's no one home / you start to wonder "who's making that noise if I'm up here all alone?"
At a certain point, solipsism becomes her anchor. "'Everyone' is nowhere to be found." This is funny, to her. It all is, at a certain point.
11. Blasé Campus Queen
(Smashing Pumpkins - Daydream)
my daydream screams, bitter 'til the end / the love I share, true, selfish to the heart / my heart, my sacred heart
Time capsules can be shoeboxes in the backyard, or safes in the cellar, or third-floor bedrooms in your vacation home. "My secret, invisible treasure."
12. The Happy Birthday Song
(Masatsugu Shinozaki - Phoenician Cobalt Sky)
Practice makes perfect is a right lie!
13. "My Heart Died That Day"
(Yoko Ono - Death of Samantha)
was like an accident / part of growing up / people tell me
"My first and last happiness died," she thinks with resolve, giving a little nod to reassure herself of her absolute misery.
14. Death Revisited, Rooftop Truths
(Léo Delibes - Lakmé: Sous le dome epais)
let us descend together!
One of these girls is not as miserable as the other wished to make her; one of these girls tried to jump.
15. Abdication
(Wolf Parade - Dinner Bells)
maestro learns the music / musicians learn to dance / there'll be no more trumpets / there'll be no more flutes / no more clapping hands
It simply took the loss of every victory she thought she held to bring her back to herself. "But I know that nothing can be gained without sufficient motivation," she says in the manner of one who's Found God, who's Come Around, who's Starting Over. Redirection of obsession is most fitted, though no one says it, at least not out loud.
16. "High, Very High"
(Elvis Perkins - While You Were Sleeping)
were you falling? / were you flying? / and were you calling out, and were you dying?
The cruelty that is fate cleaning up its mistakes.
17. A Farewell in Roses
(The Shins - Australia)
dare to be one of us, girl / facing the android's conundrum / I felt like I should just cry
The letter, itself. It said it all, and that that was all that needed be said broke her heart.
18. "I Loved You"
(CocoRosie - Tekno Love Song)
i'm a jailbird to your music / a criminal in your prayer / i watch you when you sleep / even when you're not there
"I loved you. But you knew that, didn't you." Lips pressed together, warm to cold; so many reasons to feel ill. She rides out the nausea.
when you went away maybe one day we'll meet
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