Title:  ジキルの愛情実証実験 (Jekyll’s Love Verification Test)
Circle: Pizuya’s Cell
Vocal: 普透明度 (Futoumeido)
Lyrics: 虎ヶ咲まなみ (Tora Saki Manami)
Arrangement: pizuya, yuta, hellnian
Release Date: Dec 29, 2016 (C91)
Requested By: Ihsan Bintang Ariaji

A very quick-paced, darker rendition of Hangover of Bedfellows Dreaming Differently.  It’s quite dense in terms of lyrics per bar and transforms the song quite liberally by only preserving the first note of each bar in the main riff and changing up how the song reaches the next bar.  I noticed this trend of transformation happens a lot more as Touhou Circles get older and feel the need to separate with the original composition which bothers some fans.  However, some of my favorite arranges significantly deviate from the original so I actually welcome the change (I feel Hangover of Bedfellows Dreaming Differently is a little harder to arrange in the first place).

The song itself is about someone who constantly fears that her lover doesn’t truly love her back and puts them through tests that she herself knows are cruel and terrible.  The lyrics of the song are joy to read like most songs from Pizuya, which is a bit of a shame due to how crowded they feel in the song.  I also started to mark syllable emphasis in the romaji.

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Title: 私という好奇心 (The Curiosity That Is Me)
Circle: 幽閉サテライト＆少女フラクタル (Yuuhei Satellite & Shoujo Fractal)
Vocal: 天宮みや (Amamiya Miya), 柚木梨沙 (Yuzuki Risa)
Lyrics: かませ虎 (Kamase Tora)
Arrangement: HiZuMi
Release Date:  Dec 21, 2016
Requested By: Kiryu Sento
Unofficial Lyrics

A theme song from the game 永遠消失の幻想郷 (The Disappearing of Gensokyo), a very polished-looking fangame by MyACG Studio in collaboration with Yuuhei Satellite and Shoujo Fractal.  I’ll definitely need to pick a physical copy of this game up when I head to Japan in September.

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Title: ハングオーバー (Hangover)
Circle:  森羅万象 (ShinRa-Bansho)
Vocal: あよ (Ayo)
Lyrics: ticat
Arrangement: kaztora
Release Date:  Dec 29, 2017 (Comiket 93)

Despite how simple this song first sounded, I found myself really struggling with this one.  Shinra-Bansho fit a few references in this song, some of which I’m sure I’ve missed.   From what I can tell, this song is about Suika’s drinking and why she does it.  Just like the original Broken Moon, it’s bubbly and upbeat but I feel it carries a very sad undertone to it.  Cheers!

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Title:  嫦娥絶対殺すマンのうた (Absolutely-Will-Kill-Chang’e Man’s Song)
Circle: IOSYS
Vocal: 黒澤りな (Rina Kurosawa)
Lyrics: nukillizo
Arrangement: minami
Release Date: May 7, 2017 (Reitaisai 14)

It’s been a while! Once I heard this jovial, creative tune, I knew it had to be IOSYS. This song has a very classic Japanese “cartoon superhero” feel to it. Follow the adventures of “Absolutely-Will-Kill-Chang’e Man” as she goes on a quest to defeat the evil Chang’e! The promo video has an amusing animation, but is marred an awful hard sub as a joke.

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