Signs of a Good Day (and Morrow)

All around me, the windows are brightened

There are dreams in the heads of the people

It seems today is a fine day

Tomorrow should be a good day

Tomorrow should be a good day...

-- "Ashita Tenki ni Shite Okure", Fumiya Fujii (interpreted)

Next in this month's "four a month" coverage, which pertains to Japanese ending songs from the Pokémon feature films or movies, is a rather gentle number. This song is the ending for the fourth movie, one that highlights the penchant of a particular time-traveling Pokémon. "Time" also seems to be an appropriate descriptor for the song, as it has some pertinence to a concept of time. In fact, the title itself contains "ashita" - Japanese for "tomorrow" - and the song essentially revolves around that.

The overall message of the song is about finding all the signs of a good day in daily life, and consider that they might also just be indicative of a good day in the next one (the morrow - that is, tomorrow). Those signs are indeed listed in the verses and choruses of the song, for which the quoted part represents the final chorus with its repeated final line; the choruses contain the title of the song as their final line, with my interpretation as above based on certain translations. It's still a fine message in any case, and one transitioning time - exactly a theme explored in this movie.

In a way, the song might be considered to daisy-chain into a couple of non-Pokémon songs. One of them is "The Sweetest Days", one that I've brought up very early on in this blog. It has some similar (not completely the same) messages and may also be considered to be somewhat more abstract than this song. The other is a certain song with a similar vibe, thematically and musically, that is made for another Japanese series - which I'd rather not mention for the purpose of this post - yet came out much, much later than this song; while it may or may not be a "tribute", even in partial, but it's still nice to think about what that song reflects vis-a-vis this one.

One other thing to note is that the song itself (by its title in translation) could also be considered to be alluded or referenced in the ending song for the English dub of the movie. Even with this adaptation, at least it might show that the producers of the dub at that time - and I do mean "at that time" - understood some of the Japanese contexts of either the movie or the song (or both) and decided to include the reference in the most subtle place as the ending song. In that way, the English dub is made to preserve a partial contextual tie to the original Japanese - a nice touch.

Some Pokémon species have the apparent capability to make themselves persist throughout time, one of them as evidenced in the movie or feature film being referenced as it relates to the song above. Considering the song, time persistence is also indicated by its themes, and that aligns well with the concepts presented in the movie. It is likely one watching the movie and then listening to this song afterward will consider their day to be fine - and hope that that would be the case even as the next one dawns.

One year ago: Cosplay: "It's My Town" Competition

Two years ago: Finding Reasons to Sing and Connect

Three years ago: Justification for Writing My Blog

Four years ago: Low-Bit Fantasies with Pokémon

Five years ago: Field Research Task Reporting

Six years ago: The Myth of Shiny Pokémon

Seven years ago: On Skateboards and Pokémon