You and Me, In Our Life Struggle

Courage and hope flowing from a place

Will lead me to save you from drowning

There is not a soul who believes me, and yet

I have walked so long, never straying from my way...

-- "toi et moi", Namie Amuro (interpreted)

Since the "four a month" approach - pick a topic, write on it almost weekly - seems to work in getting me to write about Pokémon things, I thought I'd apply it again this month. I was also thinking I'd do it on a Pokémon game, but none seems to fit right at the moment. So I decided to shift gears and cover something else related to Pokémon, and this time, I've decided to get musical and cover some of the Japanese ending themes from the Pokémon movies or feature films like that one time in the past. As with other Japanese songs, I offer interpretations of the quoted part(s) based on translations rather than the translations themselves.

The song I've quoted above is the ending song for the second movie, which may have overtones of "unveiling" per the original Japanese title or "self-determination" by its English title. The part that I've quoted could be regarded as the "chorus" of the song, since it may be a bit challenging to determine its structure. The song actually contains a portion of English aside from Japanese, but that portion may be deemed to accent or augment the Japanese messages in the rest of the song rather than to elaborate those messages further.

For those messages, the song could be construed to represent the struggle of a person in light of another significant person; as expected, love is a related theme for the song, though it's not elaborated too deeply in the lyrics. This, of course, resonates with the premise of the movie - for the "be all that you can be" of the central character and the one who is unveiled in the progression of the storyline. The song title itself is neither Japanese nor English - it's French for "you and me", making it further appropriate to the premise of the movie.

In some respects, the song is rather emotional - if the slightly pulsating beat of the song doesn't already suggest as such - for the movie and its storyline. But then again, for some fans, the movie itself could be emotional as well, so for them there is a neat connection. It's a somewhat different message than the song used for the English title, which makes for a good post but will have to be made at a much later time.

As Pokémon is Japanese in origin and I'm also immersed in Japanese things in part through Pokémon, I feel that it is also right to give some representation to this aspect, like with this and other Japanese songs for Pokémon, some of which are to come. At least, different perspectives may be gleaned, as through this song with its struggle vis-a-vis a movie depicting what could be depicting a great struggle of its own.

One year ago: Rising Troubles, Falling Embers

Two years ago: The Forge of the Trainers

Three years ago: Nights of Raging Battles

Four years ago: Trainers of Might and Sorcery

Five years ago: Local EX Raid (Time and Again), 6/3/2019

Six years ago: Classical and New HP Heal Amounts

Seven years ago: 3DS Pokémon Themes