"Lacie" (Melody 2) from Pandora Hearts, Kajiura Yuki

Japanese manga, anime and games (PC, PS, NDS, PSP, GBA...) are my favorite entertainment in everyday life. I admit that reading manga, watching anime, and playing games can be very time-consuming for a grad student, but that's something that keep me alive, refill my energy and spark my imaginations. In a word, manga and anime make me stay mentally young.

I'm always attracted to the background music of Japanese animes. I still remember one anime Soukuu no Fafner, with music composed by Japanese artist and played by Warsaw Orchestra. I fully indulged in all those marvellous symphonies. Another one is Final Fantasy series. The theme song of Final Fantasy VIII "Eyes On Me" and theme song of Final Fantasy XII "Kiss Me Goodbye" are definitely "masterpieces"!

When it comes to anime music composers, Kajiura Yuki is my favorite~I love her music ever since she composed music for Mai-HiME and Mai-Oto-Hime. Music for Gundam Seed is also fantastic~And music for Hack series, such as the beautiful song Fake Wings. Her own girl singing group Kalafina is awesome, with four girls' voices like violins and chello.

The latest song by Yuki that struck me hard is the melody Lacie from Pandora Hearts, which is a Japanese anime adapted from manga. Pandora Hearts is Japanese manga series by Jun Mochizuki.

Oz Vessalius, heir to the Vessalius dukedom, has just turned fifteen. His life is rich and carefree, darkened only by the constant absence of his father. At his coming-of-age ceremony, however, everything changes. For no reason that he can discern, Oz is cast into the prison known as the "Abyss", only to be saved by a "Chain" known as Alice, the Bloodstained Black Rabbit, B-Rabbit for short. The mystery there begins as Oz unravels the mystery behind Alice, the Abyss and the strange organization known as Pandora. (cited from Wikipedia)

It was a story of the four duke names in the kingdom.

A great ancestor of Vessalius, hero Jack Vessalius killed his best friend Glen Baskerville and saved the people 100 years ago. Jack was the third son of the declined Vessalius family and music box maker. He was the only friend of reticent and "gloomy" Glen and they created the critical pocket watch in the anime together, with Glen composed a song named Lacie and Jack made the pocket watch with a tiny music box inside. Lacie is said to be Lacie Baskerville, Glen's lover, and mother of Alice the B-Rabbit and Alice the Intention of Abyss. (Lacie and Alice, name anagram) Lacie was a very important person to Glen, yet she was sacrificed to Abyss for some reason. The twins Alice were born in Abyss. Lacie gave Glen hope and happiness, was warm like sunshine. She slept in the tomb in Baskerville's garden. The death of Lacie deeply stimulated Glen and he desparately started the Tragedy of Sablier and slaughtered this capital city just for access to the Intention of Abyss.

Lacie is the song in memory of Lacie. It recorded their happiness days together, but the beautiful melogy sounds so lonely and sad when Lacie left. I wonder how is Kajiura Yuki able to capture such a subtle, bittersweet, melancholy feeling and map them into scores.

There's several versions of Lacie. The former music box version, later piano version played by Elliot Nightray in the story, and then a singing version.

Here's a link to Elliot Nightray's piano version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi7v1scrvh4

Here's the lyrics of the vocal version:

Everytime you kissed me
I trembled like a child
Gathering the roses
We sang for the hope
Your very voice is in my heartbeat
Sweeter than my dream
We were there, in everlasting bloom
Roses die,The secret is inside the pain
Winds are high upon the hill
I cannot hear you
Come and hold me close
I'm shivering cold in the heart of rain
Darkness falls, I'm calling for the dawn

Silver dishes for the memories
For the days gone by
Singing for the promises
Tomorrow may bring
I harbour all the old affection
Roses of the past
Darkness falls, and summer will be gone
Joys of the daylight
Shadows of the starlight
Everything was sweet by your side, my love
Ruby tears have come to me, for your last words
I'm here just singing my song of woe
waiting for you, my love
Now let my happiness sing inside my dream...

Everytime you kissed me
My heart was in such pain
Gathering the roses
We sang of the grief
Your very voice is in my heartbeat
Sweeter than despair
We were there, in everlasting bloom
Underneath the stars
Shaded by the flowers
Kiss me in the summer day gloom, my love
You are all my pleasure
My hope and my song
I will be here dreaming in the past
Until you come
Until we close our eyes....