Blue Water
While most anime, manga and light novels may resonate strongly with their readers, there are some that don't quite do the trick yet strangely enough, they would still leave the heart with bits and pieces of invaluable stuff, and gradually accumulate into something way bigger than one could imagine. That's the unique charm of immersing in Japanese culture I suppose? Besides getting acquainted with the basics, the roads ahead promise endless possibilities worth exploring. Like bedtime stories, sometimes those anecdotes help pave our dreams and fantasies apart from life lessons.
About a couple of months ago, I had this unusual bout of nostalgia floating around. I watched quite a bit of old anime, listened to 80s and 90s J-POP, googled up on a few idols, blah blah blah. I don't know if a lot of people would agree with me, but often I find that the stuff from back then (maybe 20-odd, 30-odd years ago) could still mesmerise even today. What's more amazing is that after re-visiting those classics, I've realised a lot of things which I hadn't found out before.
Just a random note here: Photographic memory can be extremely scary. It doesn't necessarily support good intentions. Okay, moving on...
Have you ever watched an anime sparingly yet for some weird reason its theme song has stuck with you through the years, usually without your knowledge? When you've finally hit that eureka moment, god knows how many years have already passed you by! My photographic memory loves to pick the strangest moments to unveil certain points of my life. One of them is an opening theme song of an anime, titled 'Blue Water'.
Here comes the strangest bit: For many, many years I've been trying to locate this song because of a fragmented memory that's been 'haunting' my mind for just as long. The irony is that while I remember the melody, I've got no clue where the song originally came from! However, I do remember some random thing or two involving a jewel. Photographic memory attempting to work here: Jewel, check. Melody, check. What's missing is the bloody title. The downside of dated anime is that in those days a lot of productions were dubbed for different countries and everything was given an overhaul. I didn't know what the anime title was in Japanese! Worse, I had also forgotten its translated title. The years just went by, until one fateful night.
Photographic memory attempting to work here #2: Blue Jewel. The translated title has a blue jewel in it. The Mandarin translation contains the Chinese words for Blue Jewel. I knew that I was heading somewhere. The next eureka moment sneaked in and reminded me of a 'mystery'. Loosely translated into English, the Mandarin translation means 'The Blue Jewel Mystery'. I quickly googled for any possible lead and ta-da, I was shocked.
The original Japanese title is 'Fushigi no Umi no Nadia'. The English title reads 'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water'. Pray tell, why would the Mandarin translation bear a blue jewel mystery then? Anyway, thanks to the lovely internet I was finally able to locate the opening theme song: Blue Water.
Guess what? Now I remember everything. Well, nearly. I remember that I was in primary school when I first watched the anime. It wasn't aired during primetime (back in those days there was no 'primetime' for anime strictly speaking) but at some ungodly hour like 2am or 6am. The random thing or two involving a jewel did happen at some point in the opening credits. The word 'jewel' was sung in the chorus. Get what I mean when I say that photographic memory can be extremely scary?
Anyway, you should definitely listen to 'Blue Water' if you aren't familiar with the series. For me, the song actually matters more than the anime since it's what keeps the fragmented memory coming back. There's a re-recording of the song released in 2007, simply titled 'Blue Water - 21st century ver. -'. Oh, the singer is Morikawa Miho.
Eccentrically Yours.
Written by J.Fluffysheep ♪
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