Spring Thief

 Nostalgic emotions have always been my enabler of productivity. I seek whatever that triggers nostalgia such as listening to classical music, re-watching old films, and flipping through old photo albums. As I was browsing through the internet a couple of weeks ago, I hovered over a thumbnail that makes me feel nostalgic. It was an animated Japanese music video on Youtube released on January 9^th, 2021 - 春泥棒(Harudorobou, Spring Thief) by Yorushika. The music is composed by N-buna and sung by Suis. The art style appears to be unrealistic and realistic at the same time, yet it offers me a mixture of feelings of anemoia and wistfulness. Nevertheless, as I scan through the lyrics while enjoying the gorgeous graphics, I begin to feel frustration and nervousness - knowing that this story is depressing. The transitions in the colorful 3D visual, metaphors in the lyrics, and minor soundings in the music as a whole not only reveal the story behind this music video but also imply that time, is an invisible and unstoppable thief that robs lives.

Spring Thief begins with a slow-paced story-telling that features a young couple experiencing different events at different locations. However,  the sudden transitions in the locations and times that happen later not only speed up the pace of the story, but also insinuate that time cannot be stopped.  The video begins with the girl sitting on a bench observing and enjoying the view of cherry blossoms while her boyfriend, who sits right next to her, is reading a book. Their pet Corgi is sitting in front of them wanting some attention. The time suddenly shifts to nighttime as the girl picks up a cherry blossom petal, and the view is shifted to the stunning multi-color fireworks that are decorating and brightening the night sky and the surroundings. Afterward, the time switches to afternoon, and the girl noticed that she is on a train as she turns her head to look at her boyfriend. Although they are on a train, the physical distance between them is quite far away. The view changes one more time as she almost catches up to her boyfriend - with windows opened in a dark and spacious piano room, she is observing and feeling the cherry blossoms alone as the wind blows through the windows. As the cherry blossoms filled up the room, the time and view shifted back to what it is in the introduction. The cycle repeats over and over again, each time with the girl being less noticeable. There is barely any interactions between the couple in the story and the time seems to speed up every time when the girl is trying to interact with her boyfriend.  In the second cycle, the girl picks up a wooden box on the bench. There is a clear symbolization that the girl has passed away since the dog stops reacting to the girl. Further, the hands of the girls holding a thin and long wooden box also become grayer. The wooden box is passed on to her boyfriend with her boyfriend always holds on tightly to the box at every location they have gone to. In the end, the girl tries to touch her boyfriend but never succeeds. Nevertheless, she can still hold on to a cherry blossom petal, and it is the only object she can hold on to - implying that cherry blossoms are afterworld objects, which are the metaphors of life.

The lyrics barely contain emotional adjectives, and when the adjectives appear, they are always in minor soundings - indicating the unpleasant/sad events that are happening to the protagonist.   Although the visuals are mainly filled with stunning cherry blossoms, the lyrics, surprisingly, do not have a single word that is associated with cherry blossoms. There are almost no emotional words mentioned in the lyrics except 億劫(okku, bothersome), yet Suis sings this word emotionally, creating a feeling of regretness instead of feeling bothersome. The lyrics also mention that the protagonist in the story prays and wish the cherry blossoms petals to stop falling off, which also hints that the cherry blossoms are the metaphors of life. There is a word that is mentioned repeatedly in the lyrics, 春吹雪(harufubuki, spring storm), it may also be a metaphor of carrying life off. Moreover, if the cherry blossoms are the metaphors of life, then the winds blowing the petals will be the metaphors of time.

The music is in F major, however, it has many minor soundings in the melodic line insinuating the negative emotions in the story. The most noticeable minor sounding that appears in the melodic line is when the word “億劫(okku, bothersome)” is sung. Minor seconds are known for representing unpleasant emotions (Zuluaga, n.d.). When the word is sung in minor seconds, the regretful atmosphere that is carried out not only contrasts the bright colors of the visuals but also contrasts the major sounding jumpy notes that often bring out positive emotions.

The transitions in the visuals, the metaphors in the lyrics, and the major/minor soundings in the music reveal that lives can be easily robbed away by time. The interactions between the protagonist and her surroundings leave the message that since we can’t slow time down, we could still create more lasting impressions and memories as times pass.

Reference

Zuluaga, J., n.d. Impact of Intervals on the Emotional Effect in Western Music. [ebook] Available at: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.04723.pdf> [Accessed 16 April 2021].