Kagerou Project History: Otsukimi Recital (”Moon-Viewing Recital”)
[ debut date: July 02, 2013 ] [ Vocaloid: IA ]
(Happy anniversary, Otsukimi Recital !!)
“A story that brightens the eyes.” - Jin’s Song Introduction
Summary (from Kagepro wiki):
The scenes take place after the events described in Kagerou Days [the music video where Hibiya first debuts (and Hiyori, referred to, before her canonical design was finalized.)]. Hibiya, who is depressed after losing his friend and crush Hiyori, is trying to live with the fact, but is unable to do so. Momo tries her best to cheer him up by showing him stuff in life that are worth to move on for. By doing this he slowly lightens up, but as soon as Momo steps on a cat’s tail, Hibiya is haunted by the memories of Hiyori, who liked to pet cats as well, falling back into depression.
After several attempts to cheer Hibiya up with food and fun, they eventually end up in the park together. Walking by a playground he once again remembers Hiyori’s death by getting pierced by falling iron poles and can no longer hold back his tears, crying out that he misses her. Desperate as she is, Momo grabs the boy and activates her power to show up him he is not alone, encouraging him to accept his eye power and past and no longer hold onto his grief.
As she later wakes up on Kido’s lap, having passed out from exhaustion, she notices Hibiya shouting at the moon while his eyes turn red that he will give his happiness another chance. Seeing Momo that happy over his emotional change, he holds out his hand to hold hers, but hesitates. Seeing this Momo grabs his hand and pulls him along with her, all while being watched by her brother Shintaro.
Notes and Trivia:
- After posted by Jin [series creator] this video quickly became the 1st in the Nico Nico Douga ranking.
- Kido and Shintaro both cameo here, watching over Momo (& Hibiya). Shintaro is even seen smiling / grinning as he watches over his sister.
- Hibiya ‘accidentally’ almost holds hands with Momo at the end of the video.
- Momo notices, intentionally dragging him along by the hand.
- The music video’s artist/illustrator, Wannyanpuu, also created Momo’s design.
- Wannyanpuu previously worked on the pre-main series Kagerou Days / Kagerou Daze fan pv, also featuring their interpretation of Hibiya, and their personal interpretation of Hiyori, before Hiyori even had an official design.
- That fan pv would later be so popular it helped this series to form and eventually continue.
- Wannyanpuu also created the music video for Kisaragi Attention, Momo’s initial debut and music video.
- A melody from Kisaragi Attention plays at the very beginning of this song.
- Hibiya and Momo are shown wearing flower crowns together around the 0:47 mark (even if just in Momo’s imagination).
- Hibiya wears a maid dress around the 01:18 mark, with Momo also in a maid dress, her encouraging him posing in different costumes for the camera.
- Wannyanpuu would later draw Hibiya crossdressing about three or so more times since in manga bonuses and other spinoff materials.
- It’s possible the scene around the 2:12 mark in the video was inspired by Wannyanpuu’s Kagerou Days as well due to the very similar imagery and the coloring (different from the rest of the video) and may even be a shout-out.
- Seto also cameos very briefly.
- Hiyori is also shown giving a beaming smile at Hibiya around the 3:00 mark, appearing briefly at multiple other points as well.
- Konoha (whose story often interconnects heavily with Hibiya’s & Hiyori’s, but especially Hibiya’s in Music Route) also briefly cameos around the 2:49 - 2:50 mark, though he is easily missed. When Hibiya is still teary eyed, he looks to the right, seeing Konoha (& Hiyori?)’s side(s), hidden in the void, and looking surprised or stunned. Momo watches them happily supportive from behind, as Hibiya looks up particularly at Konoha’s direction in surprise.
- another translation of the songs’ lyrics is on the Kagepro wiki’s article.
Otsukimi Recital References / past reblogs from 2013:
- the pamphlet scan from the concert (held in Japan) that the song debuted at [around April 2013], previous to this video/pv’s release [July 2013]. The western fanbase didn’t get to hear the song until the pv debuted.
- Jin’s tweet announcement for the first half preview of the song [April 2013].
