Author: ミーナ

Published: 2018/6/20
Original URL: https://kiki-voice.jp/journal/480

※This essay contains a bonus image that can be seen at the original URL above, past the paywall (KIKI-VOICE subscription required).

#14: Yet Unnamed

One of my hobbies is giving strange names to songs and stories. I’ve always been oddly obsessed with titles, and in high school, I wrote a story called 密花 (Hisoka; “Secret Flower”) that won a small prize. The judge announced it as “Next is… Mitsuka!” and I said, “Oh… um… it’s actually Hisoka…”, secretly embarrassed by my unusual kanji reading.

The three songs on my third single “Date” were all written and composed by me, so of course, I was the one who named them. “Date” came rather easily, but “Reminiscence” was originally called “Ame” (Rain) and it had a more “wet” feeling.

“C” went through the most complicated journey. Its temporary title was “crowling chaos” [sic]. This was lifted from the Cthulhu mythos (those familiar with Nyarlko-san may recognize it too), and since I didn’t have any English song titles before, I thought I’d go with something chuuni. Then it became “Cx” (as in C multiplied by x), at which point I realized that I could fit a lot into the letter C, so it became “C”.

“C” can mean anything you want; I don’t mind—but I suspect that people will have the most questions about what this song is about, so here are a few possible meanings for “C”:

cute.
chaos.
crazy.
catastrophe.

The pronunciation and spelling is a bit different, but:
see.
she.

And then, placing your index finger to your lips and saying,
“Shiii” (Shh)

So there are actually quite a few meanings that can be retrofit—I mean, assigned to it.

By the way, one of the senpai I’m close friends with at my agency (who has unusually intense eyes and used to be a magician) had this to say about the song: “I see. I thought of eyesight tests first. You look at rotated C’s for that, right? When you do that, one of your eyes sees the world of light, while the other eye sees the world of darkness. I imagined good and evil blending together into chaos.”

To which I proclaimed loudly, “Oh, I’ll say I came up with that then! I’m stealing that idea!” Utter chaos. 14 highballs were consumed. Jesus.

While I’m at it, here are some of the strange titles I have:

Sunny Day Lost (In Heaven)
Atashi Zekkouchou (I’m in top form)
Lemming, Ai, Obelisk
Ninniku Vampire (Garlic Vampire)
Saritotemo Akirameru Atamanaku Mujou ni mo (Alas, I’m in no mind to give up)
Android Spacenoid
Mayonaka no Maple Leaf Rag to Mune ni Aita Kyomu no Ana ni Tsuite (About the Maple Leaf Rag at midnight and the empty hole in my chest)

Utter chaos. When Takasugi Shinsaku was 27, he said, “Live an exciting life in the not-exciting world.” Now that I’m the same age, I more-or-less agree. Even if I can’t become like Kurt Cobain or Janis Joplin, the world is still so exciting. Totally lit. Markedly marvelous. Insane.

All of those feelings are packed into my third single, “Date”—please give it a listen♡

• Note: The senpai he mentions is Kamio Shinichiro