WE ARE! For The New World

COVER SONG

Music, lyrics, images used in this clip, and all other credits are copyright properties of their respective owners. I do not own any part of them except for my own vocals of course :)

SONG INFORMATIONS

Original Artist: Hiroshi Kitadani
Music: Kouhei Tanaka
Lyrics: Shouko Fujibayashi
Arrangement: Takayuki Negishi
Available on: WE GO! (Single)
Taken From: One Piece TV (Episode 516 Ending Theme)
Copyright Property: Avex
Cover Recording Date: 2011-12-08 18:29
MORE INFO ABOUT THIS SONG

LYRICS


Arittake no yume wo kakiatsume 
Sagashi mono sagashi ni yuku no sa ONE PIECE   

Gathering up all of our dreams 

going to search for our desires One Piece 

Rashinban nante juutai no moto 
Netsu ni ukasare kaji wo toru no sa   
HOKORI ka butteta takara no chizu mo
Tashikameta no nara densetsu janai!   
Kojin teki na arashi wa dareka no BIORHYTHM nokkatte
Omoi sugoseba ii   

Compasses only cause delays  

Filled with excitement, I take the helm  

If we can prove the dusty old treasure map, 

then it's not a legend anymore!  

It's alright if our personal problems get on someone else's nerves   

Because we think about them too much    

Arittake no yume wo kakiatsume  sagashi mono sagashi ni yuku no sa 
POCKET no COIN, soreto  YOU WANNA BE MY FRIEND? 
WE ARE, WE ARE ON THE CRUISE! WE ARE!   

Gathering up all of our dreams and going to search for our desires   

A coin in the pocket, and You wanna be my friend?   

We are, we are on the cruise!  We are!    

Zenbu mani ukete shinjichatte mo 
Kata wo osarete ippo LEAD sa   
Kondo aetanara hanasu tsumorisa
Sore kara no koto to kore kara no koto   
Tsumari itsumo PINCH wa dareka ni APPEAL dekiru ii CHANCE
Ji ishiki kajoo ni!

Eventhough I believe everything I'm told 

When my shoulders are shoved, I take a one-step lead

If we ever meet again, I'll tell you all about 

what I've been doing and where I'm headed next

So being in a pinch is always a good opportunity to appeal to someone

With excess self-consciousness!

Shimittareta yoru wo buttobase! takarabako ni KYOUMI wa nai kedo 
POCKET ni ROMAN, soreto  YOU WANNA BE MY FRIEND? 
WE ARE, WE ARE ON THE CRUISE! WE ARE!  

Full speed through the stingy night! I'm not interested in treasure anyway   

A romance in the pocket, and you wanna be my friend?   

We are, we are on the cruise!  We are!    

Arittake no yume wo kakiatsume  sagashi mono sagashini yuku no sa 
POCKET no COIN, soreto  YOU WANNA BE MY FRIEND? 
WE ARE, WE ARE ON THE CRUISE! WE ARE!    

Gathering up all of our dreams and going to search for our desires   

A coin in the pocket, and you wanna be my friend?   

We are, we are on the cruise!  We are!    

WE ARE! WE ARE!

NOTE: Lyrics and translation from... that famous lyric site for anime..  

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

Finally... the long delayed song is out! Beside that, this also marks the final song for my 1st Shounen Show tribute. Before we head on to the final song of the batch, and the reason for its many delays... let's do a quick recap of the songs (and its respective show title) I've published since February!

1. Feb 7th: Hunter x Hunter (2011) - "departure!"
2. Feb 14th: Yuu Yuu Hakusho - "Unbalance na KISS wo Shite"
3. Feb 19th: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger - "Super Sentai HERO GETTER ~199 ver."
4. Feb 21st: Bleach - "AOI TORI"
5. Mar 1st: Naruto Shippuden - "CLOSER"
6. Mar 10th: Doraemon - "Kakegae no Nai Uta"
7. Mar 15th: Rurouni Kenshin - "TACTICS"
8. Mar 22nd: GARO Makai Senki - "PROMISE ~Without You~"

PS: I'm not counting "Cendrillon" and "Little Wing" since they were collaboration-wise and both are out-of-theme, a.k.a. not on my upload list ^^... and I'm still counting Doraemon's, cause it's also a shounen show in its own way.

Noticed that a particular mainstream Shounen title -starring a team of Pirates led by rubber boy- is missing from the list? Yup, it's none other than...
Three... Two... ONE... PIECE!!!

If you've read my previous post, you would have learnt that this was supposed to go up last week. However, my intended tribute song for this show was delayed once again by the sudden ending of GARO Makai Senki (which, btw, really ended last week, but will still have a special episode airing tomorrow... ahaha ^_^;). I know you'd probably think that I've exagerrated too much when I used the term 'the long delayed' as the opening comment, just because it got skipped by a GARO a week right? Well, to be honest... this song has been delayed for a total number of 3 MONTHS + 20 DAYS since the actual recording date. Yup, it was meant to go up on DECEMBER 2011... that's right... LAST YEAR!!! XD. It is still NOT the longest delayed though, cause I still have several other songs which had been recorded much older than this, (and more than that) still waiting for my lazy butt to finish them... but, never mind that. So yeah, allow me to repeat it one again. After almost 4 months delayed, this 1st ever opening theme for the adventure of Monkey D. Luffy and his Pirates crew is finally UP! And guess what? As one of the famous Dream-9 Combo Shows, this is the 9th tribute song as well...  AWESOME coincidence!

I'm not actually a fan of the show itself (no surprise huh? hahahaha), but I'm a total sucker for this song. Why? Several reasons:

1. It is composed by the great Kouhei Tanaka-sensei, and arranged by Takayuki Negishi... who were both in the same team that did numerous Sakura Wars songs (especially the phenomenal kickass anthem GEKITEI)
2. It is sung by Hiroshi Kitadani of the hit unit JAM Project, who happened to have performed in the 1999-2000 Sakura Wars live show as one of his debut appearances. That was even prior to him joining the anison group (in 2003)... hahaha
3. It was later covered by Luffy and his gang in a very enjoyable 'pirate family' version, which I loved as well, and had Mayumi Tanaka as the lead singer. Mayumi Tanaka, the voice of Luffy is also one of the notable cast of Sakura Wars ;). Did you also know that Urara Takano who voiced Luffy in the OVA is also a Sakura Wars veteran?
4. The lyrics are simply awesome, and describe my inner desire for adventure and well, uhm... friendship, and it managed to capture my attention from day one just like... Sakura Wars' songs haha ;_;

Yeah, I know... all the reason are Sakura Wars biased related, but those are really the facts.

This song is noted as a memorable classic that became the signature anthem to the 1st half of One Piece anime. It's upbeat fun, kinda rockish but not too much, and it brought up the spirit of adventure that was always the core theme of the show. It was the winner of the Animation Kobe Theme Song Award held in the year 2000. The version that I'm singing, is the one released as the coupling song for another Hiroshi's song that is currently used as the New World arc opening theme: "WE GO!". This version is entitled "WE ARE! For the New World", and it was played as an insert theme during the ending of episode 516. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, episode 516 marks the end of the 1st journey of the Straw Hat Pirates, and this song bridges the 2 years gap, by showing us how each crew went on their separate ways and endure private special training, and promised to re-unite on Sabaody Island. The reunion occurs on the following episode (episode 517), which marks the first episode of the final adventure, THE NEW WORLD ARC. Having "WE ARE" played during the time gap scene, totally brought back nostalgia to the very first time the anime started airing, and that occured on October 20th, 1999. That's more than an awesome 12 years ago!!

As I said earlier, I was never a fan, and totally not following the series, despite some of the movies. I ended up starting to watch and follow it weekly after episode 516 though, since its the final arc and all, and I'm basically curious on how a long and winding series will wrap up. To be honest, at first, I never intended to watch it, cause all I was doing, was collecting the new episodes for the sake of a very close friend of mine. I used to call him my brother, my best friend... but I haven't heard anything from him for almost a year now, so... I doubt I can still call him that way anymore. I kept getting the new episodes, stored them in my HDD... thus, I started collecting these 'new world' episodes specially for him, cause he really really enjoyed this show (he started collecting the series since 2010, and even dreamt to go on a journey with trusted friends just like Luffy).

I simply thought that I could help him by getting these new episodes for him, and made his day. Then again, episode 541 will be airing this week but still NO sign or news from him. All the numerous episodes I have stored, started stacking up, and I figure it would be such a waste to just leave it untouched like that (or even to delete them). Without I even realized it, they ended up as something I personally watch, just for the sake of remembering the fun times, and the power of my brotherhood (or friendship in his point of view) with him. I've always wanted to spend holidays, Christmases and New Years with him, but that simple wish was never come true and stayed locked as a farfetched dream until now. These episodes eventually became my refuge, my salvation for that wishful thinking, and I would watch them whenever I was reminded of my close friend. Heck, even hearing (the lyrics of) the new opening "WE GO" always made me go melancholicly mellow, just because they are so personally sentimental. That's the same reason why I haven't covered "WE GO" eventhough I really wanted to. The sentimental value to that song is somewhat lost to me right now, and I feel that it's back to (or still in) the "WE ARE" phase right now... I feel like I still need to ask him, "YOU WANNA BE MY FRIEND?" as the lyrics suggests...

So what's the reason behind the delay then? I mean beside GARO? Well... if you've been reading my blog post, you wouldn't be surprised with all the 'internet connection drama' I've been having since December. That's one of the biggest reason for this delay, since it was originally planned to go up after Xmas last year. The other main reason, was it is TOEI's product. I actually hesitated greatly with uploading their franchise, ever since one of my Ojamajou Doremi song was brutally deleted, whereas it was meant to be a birthday song for my Mom. I still don't understand about the whole copyright issue that TOEI is doing, especially because I'm not putting this for profit, my subscriber is less than 50 anyway... and moreso... it actually acted as a FREE marketing for their products. Posting video showed that someone respected their work, so why the hell do they have to act harsh to someone who is actually being NICE to them? Hmmm. So, I basically had made a grumpy oath to avoid posting songs from their shows. Then again, I feel it's not fair to NOT have One Piece, as one of the toughest survival of the Shounen Show industry, in my Shounen Show tribute month. So, I've decided to go ahead and publish this one anyway. What if suddenly it got cut by copyright thingy? I don't mind at all. The final reason, is the one you can read on the previous paragraph. Yup, another hesitation came due to the personal sentimental value of the song, though it's not too much of an issue.

I had a great time recording this song, and got carried away while singing. I even forgot to lower the key, so I kinda struggled on some of the high notes, so yeah... I hope you'll excuse the 'ROUGH' quality of the result. The result was still fun to hear, and eventhough quality-wise/technically it's NOT, but sentimentally it will always be a personal favorite of mine. This is my special tribute to a dear friend! To my brother... I could always re-record some parts that I kinda missed, but as you already know... I'm still struggling with my health. Having sore throat and other spring-time feverish, affected my vocal range. So, eventhough I'm vocally able to sing again, technically I'm still a mess, especially with handling high notes... *sigh*. Yeah, so, this result is the one fresh from the oven, 111 days ago... ;)

Well, I won't be long with this comment as well, and as I have said... this will be the final song from the Shounen Show tribute. It was a fun ride, and eventhough I'm not a fan of most shows I covered, I enjoyed their songs at best. I guess I've had enough of singing ROCK and UPBEAT style songs for a while, that I will take a break and return to my niche genre: slow ballads... XD. I think it suits my voice better as well... so yeah! I hereby announcing the next theme, for April-May, and the theme will be:

MUSIC FROM THE HEART

so... expect more mellow melancholy songs in the following months... hahaha. Perhaps some dozey songs that wouldn't need extra vocal struggling XD.

Thanks for listening, and reading this long rant. Hope you have an awesome day, and a great end of March! Bye now...   

~Furede Riko

PS: Specially dedicated to my brother, my 'Buzz Lightyear' wherever and whenever you are! Xiong-di!!!

"...and you wanna be my friend?" (Hiroshi Kitadani from "We Are") 


ORIGINAL SONG

Aahahaha Gomen Gomen, I'm too lazy to look for the song in Youtube. Please do it yourself, cause it's EVERYWHERE XD
See you NEXT MONTH!!

-oOo-

What's Next?
- ...Let's welcome the new month April, with some music delivered from the heart...