Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle AMV: Yuzurenai Negai

Happy Halloween! I unfortunately was not able to complete Chapter 67 of New Trials, but here is just a little something to pass time. Edit; I reuploaded the video for higher quality (Youtube butchers video quality these days) and added translation annotations to the AMV.

AMV: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle - Syaoran's Unyielding Wish

Medium: Sony Vegas Pro 8

Song: 「ゆずれない願い」 "Yuzurenai Negai" - "Unyielding Wish" (Magic Knight Rayearth Opening Theme 1)

Singer: 田村 直美 Masaaki Endoh (Jam Project) 

Album: Enson2 ~ Cover Songs Collection Vol. 2

Composer/ Original Singer: 田村 直美, Naomi Tamura

Romaji: Takayama Miyuki at animelyrics.com

English Translation: Takayama Miyuki, Wish-chan. I wanted to create the "best translation" though I don't know if this is that. The original translations by Takayama Miyuki from animelyrics.com were very good, and I referenced that heavily, but there were some lines that I cross-referred to Korean translations for. 

tomaranai   mirai wo   mezashite

yuzurenai   negai wo   dakishimete

Aiming for the unstoppable future

and embracing the unyielding wish

umi no iro ga akaku somatte-yuku

mujuuryoku joutai

kono mama kaze ni sarawaretai

The color of the sea is being dyed crimson

In a state of free-fall... [No gravity condition]

I want to be swept away by the wind like this.

itsumo tobenai HA-DORU wo

makenai kimochi de

KURIAshite-kita kedo

dashikirenai jitsuryoku wa

dare no sei?

I've always cleared impossible hurdles

by this feeling of not wanting to lose, but

whose fault is it if it's still not the best I can do?

tomaranai   mirai wo   mezashite

yuzurenai   negai wo   dakishimete

iroasenai   kokoro no chizu

hikari ni kazasou

Aiming for the unstoppable future

and embracing the unyielding wish,

I'll hold the unfading map of my heart up to the light.

dore dake nakeba asa ni deaeru no?

kodoku na yoru

hajimete genkai wo kanjita hi

How long do I have to cry before we meet in the morning?

The lonely night...

The day I first felt my limitations.

kitto, koi ni ochiru no wa

mabataki mitai na

isshun no jounetsu dakedo

ai ni tsudzuku sakamichi de

tsuyosa oboetai

Surely, falling in love

is a momentary passion like a blink of an eye, but

on the uphill path that leads to love,

I want to remember my strength.

tomaranai   mirai wo    yume mite

kuchi wo tozashi   hitomi wo   hikarasete-kita keredo

motto ooki na

yasashisa ga mieta

Dreaming of an unstoppable future,

My mouth was shut and light shone in my eyes, but

I was able to see an even greater kindness.

tobenai HA-DORU wo

makenai kimochi de

KURIAshite-kita kedo

SUTA-TO RAIN ni tatsu tabi ni

obiete-ita

I've always cleared impossible hurdles

by this feeling of not wanting to lose, but

whenever I stood at the start-line

I got scared.

tomaranai   mirai wo   egaite

ude wo nobashi   kokoro wo   hiraite

Sketching out the unstoppable future,

stretching my arms out and opening my heart

tomaranai   mirai wo   mezashite

yuzurenai   negai wo   dakishimete

iroasenai   kokoro no chizu

hikari ni kazasou

Aiming for the unstoppable future

and embracing the unyielding wish,

I'll hold the unfading map of my heart up to the light.

I worked on this AMV on and off for the past month as it's been about a year since I made my last TRC AMV, Saga~This is My Raod. I initially was making another AMV, but somehow I ended up with this one instead. "Yuzurenai Negai" or "Unyielding Wish" aka "A Wish that Cannot be Yielded," was the opening theme song of the first CLAMP anime I ever saw, Magic Knight Rayearth, and till this day probably remains in my top 5 favorite opening themes of all time. I first saw this anime back in 1996; Magic Knight Rayearth was one of this anime that I knew immediately, simply from watching a 10-second trailer, from the first notes of the opening theme song, that I knew I was going to love. Fantasy, drama, romance, mecha, pretty girls, a bishounen male cast, beautiful music; this anime packaged everything I loved. Sometimes, the theme song completely represents the anime, and "Yuzurenai Negai" is a song that does that.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle initially seemed to follow the format of Magic Knight Rayearth, three individuals (well, plus an unconscious Sakura) journey to different dimensions for a mission, especially when the three mashin from Rayearth are used as Syaoran, Fai and Kuragone's kudan. I like this version of "Yuzurenai Negai" by Masaaki Endoh even better because his voice really compliments the guitar riffs and captures the exhilarating vigor of the song, whereas Naomi Tamura's original version captures more of the wistful tone (check out the acapella version; it's very beautiful as well). I thought the lyrics really suited Syaoran. Masaaki Endoh is from the Jam Project, a group of talented musicians who often participate in anime projects. Part 2 of the video is a trailer with Yoko Kanno's "Prologue F," my favorite bgm from Macross F. I was going for a "movie trailer" effect, or TRC (what everyone thought it would be) in 1 minute. And of course, I couldn't resist putting the orchestrated version of "Yuzurenai Negai" for the credits. A sign that a theme song is a good theme song is when the orchestrated version is even more beautiful. I remember hearing the "Yuzurenai Negai" strings version on one of the latter episodes of MKR Season 1, at an age when I wasn't really aware of the function of background music, and that tune to me was the most poignant thing about the whole anime. I was thrilled to find the MKR OST years later. I think I sometimes enjoy making the credits sequence more than the actual AMV. 


The most difficult part was gathering all the different episodes sub-free or cutting out the subtitles (the process took up much memory on my hard drive). But besides that part, making AMVs is very enjoyable process to me and I usually end up being much more appreciate of the production and thought that went into creating each frame of an anime, and I end up picking up a lot more details than I would just passively watching that episode. For example, I didn't really notice how much emphasis was put on "holding hands" in the anime. Having somewhat of a hand fetish, it was interesting compiling all these clips. When I make an AMV, I try to tell a story rather than just paste together a random assortment of clips to music. The last TRC AMV I made, Saga, was intended to relay sort of the epic nature of TRC, which is why I focused more on the OVAs which is post-Clone!Syaoran revelation. I wanted to make another AMV which focused more on the prototypical adventure-theme aspect of  TRC, which represents the earlier half of TRC, back when everything was jovial, spirited and happy, aka before the Record Arc. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is a manga which I think really has two parts and the atmosphere and tone of the manga drastically changes from the Tokyo arc onwards. I bet I wasn't the only one who felt cheated upon learning that the "Syaoran" that we all grew fond of through the course of the manga and anime was a "clone." It's been a year since the manga ended, and I am still grappling to really understand the totality of the manga and waiting for xxxHolic to perhaps tie up some more loose ends. Somewhere along the way, TRC switched from the typical shounen adventure to a twisted Jungian philosophical study of character archetypes where are hero pulls a Jekyll and Hyde. I still hold my belief that though CLAMP tricks us in the end of the TRC manga with a pseudo-happy ending for "real" Sakura and Syaoran," aka the Tsubasas, it doesn't change the fact that Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is the chronicles of "Clone!Syaoran" or to me, the original Syaoran, the hero (or anti-hero) of this story. Anyhow, I hope this AMV helps recall happier times.

I also included the English lyric translations on my other TRC AMV, Saga~This is My Road. The two AMVs are meant to be viewed together, "Yuzurenai Negai" as Part 1, "Saga" as Part 2, as they sort of counterbalance each other and represent the two faces of TRC for me.