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Kyu-Kurarin

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2021 single by Iyowa
"Kyu-Kurarin"
Single by Iyowa
from the album Watashi no Heritage
LanguageJapanese
ReleasedSeptember 4, 2021 (2021-09-04)
Genre
Length
  • 3:37 (single version)
  • 3:34 (album version)
LabelSelf-released
Songwriter(s)Iyowa
Producer(s)Iyowa
Iyowa singles chronology
"Adipocere"
(2021) 		"Kyu-Kurarin"
(2021) 		"We Are Special"
(2021)
Music video
"Kyu-kurarin" on YouTube

"Kyu-Kurarin" (Japanese: きゅうくらりん; styled as Kyu-kurarin) is a song by Japanese Vocaloid producer Iyowa. The song was first released on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga on August 29, 2021, and released as a single on September 4, 2021. On December 22, it was included in the album Watashi no Heritage [ja].

The vocals for the song are by Kafu of CeVIO, and the composition contains experimental sounds, described as "chaotic" despite its "simple" and "powerful" chord progression and "pop" and "catchy" melody. Iyowa also wrote the lyrics and created the illustrations for the music video. The lyrics, whose main theme is described as a broken heart or one-sided love, are alleged to contain a sense of unease with its visual representation. The song is considered one of Iyowa's signature songs, or one of their biggest hits. Several fan works have been inspired by this song, and it is also included in the soundtracks of music games.

Production and release

Kafu is a voice synthesizer package of CeVIO, released on July 7, 2021, as the "musical isotope" of the virtual singer Kaf. The song "Kyu-Kurarin", which uses this package, was released by Japanese producer Iyowa shortly after its launch. In a 2024 interview, he stated, "It felt like a child who just got a brand-new toy, wanting to try it out as soon as possible," and added, "I wanted to shape the initial genuine image I received from the voice in its freshest state." He also stated that the song was influenced by "Sotsu Omeshiki (そつおめしき)", a soundtrack of the game Taiko no Tatsujin.

The song was first released on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga on August 29, and later subscribed on streaming media as a single on September 4. On December 22, it was included in the album Watashi no Heritage [ja].

Composition

"Kyu-Kurarin" is set in the key of D-flat major with a vocal range of G#3-F5. The chord progression of the song is described as "simple" and "powerful", while the melody is "pop", and "catchy". Jin Sugiyama from Real Sound [ja] states that the atmosphere of this song was created to take advantage of "Kafu≈Kaf's voice, which has a natural fluctuation." On the other hand, the song contains a rich layering of sounds, and the rhythm is not quantized. Genko from Eureka [ja] argues that the first striking impression of the song is its "grainy sound quality, like a meme image that has been incessantly reposted," "as if it had been irreversibly degraded to a 64kbps.mp3." Japanese composer Toidora described the song as influenced by lofi hip hop and drum and bass.

Flat from Eureka argues that the synthesizer sound in the song's intro, which "probably uses a chorus-like effect to excessively bend the pitch," is one of the characteristic elements of Iwona's music in general. Tadahiko Yokogawa [ja], in addition to focusing on the synthesizer phrase in the intro, points out elements such as the living keyboard, frequent use of reverse audio, and modulation, and concludes that the song "is packed with the charactaristics of Iyowa." Satoru Wono [ja] notes that the song's "xylophone-like sounds that play continuously and intricately," are "only achievable through programming" and highlights the excessive amount of information per unit of time, which is one of Iwona's characteristics. Shiori ni Fit suru Kado from Eureka also focuses on the "marimba and the peculiar, wavering chords played by the synthesizer," as well as "the reversed audio of these two sounds," noting that these elements create an effect that "evokes a sense of unease amidst cheerfulness." He praises the song as "a zenith of Iwona's songwriting, where catchiness and weirdness coexist." Regarding the dissonance, Toidora points out that the song's chords "deliberately play notes that should not be played together." Flat also evaluates the song positively, highlighting how these "dissonant ornaments" are unified by "the catchy melody and powerful chord progression," maintaining "a sense of order as pop music."

Sugiyama appreciates the experimental sounds used in the song, such as the "hurly xylophone, dissonances, spacey synth, and reverse-audio-like effects," noting that they harmonize well with the lyrics. Shiori ni Fit suru Kado focuses on the light timbre of the drums, which maintain drum-and-bass-like rhythm, and argues that they emphasize "the eerie atmosphere of the kicks, played in sixteenth-note clusters, implying a sense of unease amidst the briskness." namahoge from Eureka focuses on its characteristics of sounds, including the "persistent imitation of an alarm clock sound and the resetting of the half-time progression with a sudden single beat of silence," and stating that these elements "imitates the moment of forcibly being pulled out of her dream —a direct intervention into the story's time— in a highly musicalized form." According to Genko, its "collapsed, but not entirely" tonality and rhythm add a complex flavor to what would otherwise be a simple chord progression. This structure, they argue, evokes a sense of "something is irretrievably fallen apart with each repetition of the alarm."

Lyrics and music video

A frame from the music video of "Kyu-Kurarin". In this video, a girl named "Kurari-chan" "falls from above and slides to the left, overlapping and forming a chain."

Iyowa also wrote the lyrics and created the illustrations for the music video. In the video, "before the lyrics, a girl dressed like a schoolgirl and an alarm clock appear in the music video." The girl, referred to as "I (わたし, watashi)" in the lyrics, was named "Kurari-chan (くらりちゃん)" in her character sheet. Her hairstyle is inwardly curled with a slightly messy bedhead, with three pink hair clips shaped like ribbons on the right side and three flower-shaped ones on the left. According to the aesthetician Yuki Namba, in the music video for the song, Kurari-chan is portrayed as "a character who sings about her restless and wandering mind that goes back and forth between hope and despair in a one-sided love," and she acts in a way that embodies the qualities of the song's sound, characterized by its "displacement, delay, and muddiness."

The animation where she "falls from above and slides to the left, overlapping and forming a chain," is "the most memorable scene in the video." Many fan works quote and pay homage to this characteristic scene. Across seven illustrations, she is depicted overall as "holding a slice of bread in her mouth, finishing it, presumably checking the time, showing a flustered expression, beginning to run, raising a hand to signal to something or someone, and finally wiping sweat from her forehead as if she just barely made it in time." However, since there is a certain time interval between each pose, viewers "can hardly feel any continuity in her actions." According to Shoma Yonehara from Eureka, notes that this sequence draws the viewer's attention not so much to the character's poses themselves but to "the easing and spring effect of the fall." He argues that this technical simplicity helped encourage the creation of fan works. Namba states that this scene emphasizes not only "the persona of the character in a hurry" but also "the persona of the chaotic song." Furthermore, a similar sequence in the chorus, "perfectly synchronizes with the rhythm of the song, expressing the hurried and arrhythmic emotions of a character in love."

Moreover, Namba argues that in the video, the "interaction between the voice, animation, sound, direction, images and editing" expresses the emotional instability of "Kurari-chan". This kind of direction has the effect of making the viewer want to know more about the character's feelings and encouraging them to "interpretation" of the situation. The singer Kokoa Ando talks about how the song has a narrative quality, where "the deeper you dig into the lyrics and the song, the way you listen and interpret it changes," despite its cute melody. Some fans believe that Iyowa wrote this song inspired by Sayori from the visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club!.

Sakiko Kawano [ja] argues that the song initially gives the impression of being a heartwarming love song, with the phenomime kyu-kurarin (きゅうくらりん) seeming to imply "the girl's feelings of romance toward you (あなた, anata)" in the lyrics. However, "as the song progresses and the same melody is repeated, kyu-kurarin is paraphrased" and "by the song's conclusion, this phenomime, while retaining a similar sound, transforms into one suggesting hanging (chu-burarin)." She notes that its lyrics, much of which were camouflaged by a cheerful singing style, are eventually revealed to be about the emptiness plaguing the girl, providing the pleasure of a riddle for the listener to solve. Yet, she also argues that the structure also creates a sense of emptiness in the curious gaze of "our delight in exposing it" and the song holds an "ironical attitude regarding the act of interpretation."

The Japanese word chu-burarin (宙ぶらりん) itself refers to "hanging in mid-air" or "being in a halfway or incomplete state". Yutorina from UtaTen argues that the song as a whole is about her broken heart, and that the word chu-burarin expresses the girl's feelings, who cannot give up on the person she love.

Reception

"Kyu-Kurarin" received critical acclaim from many music critics. namahoge described the song as "Iyowa's glitch magnum opus," and praised the musical expression of time, including the musical expression of the alarm clock and its divergence from dreams. Sugiyama described the song as using of experimental sounds as well as the excellent fusion of Kafu's voice.

On September 5, 2021, it surpassed 100,000 views on Nico Nico Douga. On YouTube, it had over 1,000,000 views by January 19, 2024. As of October 2024, the number of views for the music video on YouTube has exceeded 68,000,000. It was ranked the top in the Billboard Japan Nico Nico Vocaloid Ssongs Top20 [ja] chart, which was released on 23 August 2023. Since this chart launched on 7 December 2022, the song has appeared in the chart every week up to the one announced on December 27, 2023, except for the one announced on August 9, 2023. According to Kawano, the song has become "the most popular track" on the album Watashi no Heritage [ja]. It is considered one of Iyowa's signature songs or one of their biggest hits.

Fan works

Many people have created fan movies inspired by the song. Many cover songs (utattemita) have been released, including a cover by Chogakusei [ja], which was digitally released on August 17, 2022. The song has been covered by many VTubers. The Vtuber Makaino Ririmu has mentioned "Kyu-Kurarin" as a song she often watches when feeling down.

Games

On January 12, 2023, the song was added to Chunithm, a game developed by Sega. On July 3, it was also included in Sega's rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!. On March 21, 2024, "a full-size 2D music video" of "Kyu-Kurarin / MORE MORE JUMP! × MEIKO" was released on their official YouTube channel. On March 13, 2024, the song was added to Bandai Namco Amusement's arcade game Taiko no Tatsujin.

Charts

Weekly chart performance for "Kyu-Kurarin"
Chart (2023) Peak
position
Heatseekers Songs (Billboard Japan) 7

References

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