Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Flower of Hades

sentiment: raging with happiness
harmony: "Naraku no Hana" by Eiko Shimamiya

Naraku no Hana single cover

Ah-hahaha! I must say I'm a night early again from the original release of this single. I just love the cover of this single... don't you think it's attractive? I don't have much taste for aesthetical objects/pictures but it's really artistic. Simple yet it covers all. I don't have my copy of my single yet but I already have the long version of Naraku no Hana and the B-side FLOW.

I don't get why most of the people translate the song as Hell's Flower or the Flower of Hell. I'd say it should be the Flower of Hades or Hades's Flower. Why? I based it on the kanji. Take a look here:

地獄 - "jigoku" which means hell
奈落 - "naraku" which means underworld

(Note: Hell and Underworld may have the same usage but they are completely different term)

I'd consider it if they will use Pluto since Hades & Pluto are the same person, right? And take another look, according to Wiki, here's the definition for both:

Hell - is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished.
Underworld - underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly dead souls go.

So why Hades? Well simply because he is the king of underworld right? Nuff said.

Alright let's go to the critic proper... Naraku no Hana is probably one of the darkest song that Eiko Shimamiya performed. It has one weird and eery start and end. Although it's dark, it's still upbeat that's why I like the song. Upbeat that I can say it is really an appropriate opening theme for the rated-M visual novel game & anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. And with the usage of electric guitars, it'll give you a crack for 5:01. I give it a 5/5 even if the finishing touch was kind of unsatisfying like in the case of Mami Kawada's Beehive.

The B-side FLOW has a fairly upbeat tune featuring a different tune of Eiko Shimamiya. It's much lighter than Naraku no Hana but I like the first song better. I can't say much on this song as it didn't really caught much of my attention.

Overall, the single's not half bad and I think I will like FLOW when I listen to it more. I hope this will help her to be more famous because her voice is not that bad. I like most of her songs and I'd say it's not really bad. And after a year, at last, she will have her 2nd maxi single.

If you want to listen to these two songs, click here or here.

2 comments:

  1. One translation for Naraku no Hana I've seen that I quite liked was "Flower of the Abyss" - I think it's the Hauuu~ fansub that uses that translation but I might be wrong. Either way, it's an awesome single.

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  2. yeah it could be... I like "Flower of the Abyss" better. ^_^ Yeah I like the single but I didn't like FLOW that much...

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