Well, supercell’s 3rd CD single, Utakata Hanabi (Literally Water Bubble Fireworks, though kumoriha translates it as Ephemeral Fireworks in his translation. I prefer Bubble-Like Fireworks, personally), was released last week on August 25. The title track, predictably enough, leaked about a month back, so that was nothing new, but also in the release was a second track, titled 星が瞬くこんな夜に (Hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni), or This Star Sparkling Night in English. Below is a YouTube video of the song in full.

Since I haven’t been able to find an English translation for its lyrics, I thought that I would take a crack at it.

This Star Sparkling Night by supercell. Written by ryo. Sung by nagi.

Believe, believe,
there’s magic here tonight
Believe, believe!

sore wa totemo shizuka na yoru de
tsunto tsumetai kuuki wa hoo o sashita
omowazu kitto kimi o niranda

It was a very tranquil night, and
The cold air slightly stung my cheeks
So I inadvertently scowled at you.

“…boku no sei ja
nai desu yo” tte
sonna kao o shiteru

“It’s not my
fault,” I said
with that expression still on my face.

nan demo nai kono shunkan ga
isshou kioku ni
nokoru you na ki ga shita nda

This meaningless moment
Is one I would forever remember,
I felt somehow.

hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni
negaigoto o hitotsu
kanau nara kono toki yo tsuzuke to

On this star sparkling night,
I make one wish
Please make this moment last

onaji sora o miagenagara
taisetsu na koto hodo
sugusoba ni aru no ka mo
nante omotteta

Looking up together at the same sky,
My most precious thing
Just might be right next to me,
I thought.

itsumo ippouteki na kanjou
sore ja tsutawaranai koto kurai
wakatteru tsumori yo

By just continuing these one-sided feelings,
I won’t be able to convey them to you,
I know at least that.

motomoto nibui kimi wa kitto
watashi ga okotte bakari iru you ni
mieru darou kedo

To you who has always been calm,
It must look like
I’m always angry

konnan darake no kono sekai de
kimi ga iru
sore dake no koto de kyou mo ikiteyukeru

In this world of mine filled with hardship,
You were there.
That was enough to get me through today.

hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni
hitoribotchi ga futari
kakaeta itami o wakeau you ni

On this star sparkling night,
Stand two lone stars
As if sharing their suffering

onaji sora o miagetetara
nanika iwanakya tte
dakedo nante ieba
ii ndarou

Continuing to look up at the same sky,
I feel I have to say something,
But what is it that
I should say?

“nee, nagareboshi ga mitai na”
joudan de furikazashita yubisaki
kirei na o o hiita
sore wa maru de mahou no you de

“Hey, I’d like to see a shooting star.”
At the tip of the finger I raised in jest
Was the beautiful tail of a shooting star.
It was like magic.

hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni
wasureteta koto o hitotsu
iikakete dokun to haneru kodou

On this star sparkling night,
That one thing I had forgotten,
My heartbeat jumps and interrupts me as I say it.

yami no naka isshun fureta te
kimi wa ki ga tsuiteru?
kore tte kitto
sou iu koto na no ka na

Our hands that touched for a moment in the darkness,
Did you notice it?
This feeling must definitely be
“That” thing.

hoshi ga matataku konna… konna yoru ni

On this, this star sparkling night.

Notes

• The second-to-last line, “That” thing is obviously meant to refer to “love.” It was difficult for me to convey that in English, so I decided to translate it literally and leave this note.
• This Star Sparkling Night will be the ending theme to Type-Moon’s next visual novel, Witch on the Holy Night. Unlike Type-Moon’s other visual novel franchises Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, this one will not be an eroge.
• The first track to the single, Utakata Hanabi, is not too shabby itself. You can see the full music video, first released with the CD, here.
• Utakata Hanabi was used as the ending theme to Naruto Shippuden starting sometime in late July. Here is the only non-mirrored version of the video I could find online.
• You can buy the CD single here and the limited edition with a DVD of the music video here, both on cdjapan.co.jp.

Credits

• Credit goes to Kyou and 희짱 (Hui-chan) for their Korean translations off which this translation was based. Warning: watch out for autoplaying music in those links.
• Credit goes to lerorin for providing the lyrics in Romaji.
• Credit goes to ryo for writing such a beautiful song. Credit goes to nagi for an excellent singing performance.

As expected, day 2 saw more cosplayers than day 1. Day 3 had fewer, of course, and had a more relaxed, muted atmosphere as well.

Again, I’ve uploaded the photos I took onto Picasa: Day 2 and Day 3.

Maybe this will help him get over his depression

Some that I found notable:

• A Bayonetta with a chainsaw she uses in one of her torture attacks.
• A Lucy and a Nyuu from Elfen Lied.
• The only Kino from Kino’s Travels I could find. That show’s quite obscure, so finding a cosplayer was satisfying.
• Princess Tutu, who actually stood on her toes for the photo.
• The only Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei cosplayer I could find, a very tall Itoshiki Nozomu doing the dance bit from the burebure opening.
• A girl as Pilaf from Dragon Ball. Talk about an obscure character from an ancient show. A show I grew up with.
• South Korea from Axis Powers Hetalia. There was a metric ****load of Hetalia cosplayers there, this was the only South Korea I could find. I didn’t even know South Korea was in Hetalia.
• The Jenova tube (that’s right, the actual tube) from which Sephiroth escaped in Final Fantasy 7.
• Windows7-tan. The best operating system out there right now, bar none. All you Mac users and Linux fanboys can suck it. (There was actually an Ubuntu booth at the dealer’s room – there’s apparently an on-going manga about Ubuntu that’s being published in Japan).
• I got a Lady cosplayer to hold her pistol in her mouth, like one of the cut scenes in Devil May Cry 3. She also had an excellent Kalina Ann.
• There were 2 Yokos from the My Stars music video based on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. One as a bunnygirl, the other in the black suit with a guitar.
• Izaya and Shizuo from Durarara! It’s hard to find cosplayers of shows this recent, in my experience.

Arcade Bumstead from Tsukihime, if you don't know.

There were also a lot of Vocaloid cosplayers. Like, a lot. So many you wouldn’t believe. It was awesome.

I won’t go too deep into the panels. I attended 3 more by Alex Leavitt, one about anime pilgrimages which made me more interested in going on a cycling trip than on anime. He talked about how otaku in Japan were making so-called “pilgrimages” to actual locations that their favorite anime were using as backdrops. He used a shrine that was shown for about 5 seconds in the Lucky Star opening as an example. He provided a link to a site that attempts to catalog all the anime with real-life locations and provides links to photos/comparison shots. The list on the front page of that site is 453 long. Some people even went all the way to Spain, from where Sora no Woto’s backdrop was inspired!

I stood in line for a 2 hour Touhou panel that was absolutely packed. I was hoping to learn more about the fanbase and the entire sub-industry that this one series of games has inspired, but it was more about the games and official works themselves. They spent a little too much time on just playing the game on the big screen. I did learn about a boxer who cosplayed as Touhou characters during his entrance to the ring. Here’s one such entrance and here’s him KO’ing his opponent while his posse of (female) cosplayers celebrate.

"My spoon is too big!"

I went to dinner on Saturday with founder and fans of Fakku, a site I won’t link to as it’s very very NSFW. Turns out the founder, Jacob, is a Massachusetts native, having grown up and still going to college in Worcester! Met some interesting people there, one of whom was kind enough to give me a ride back home at 2AM (Boston’s public transportation sucks, and part of the reason is that it shuts down around 1AM).

Jacob's the one with the FAKKU shirt in the middle

Other than photographing and attending panels, I spent a lot of time at the artists’ alley and the dealers’ room and spent a little too much money on the artists’ wares. At least the money’s going to support the artists directly. I bought 4 prints of Black Rock Shooter, 2 of Hatsune Miku, 1 of Hitagi (the only Bakemonogatari picture I could find there – the artist mentioned that he had the idea of painting a picture of her onto a stapler and selling it), and a couple bookmarks, including a Durarara!! one which goes nicely with the book I was already reading.

I regret nothing

Anyway, I had a good time. Spent probably about $200-$225 for everything, including food, with a grand total of 12+15+7=34 hours spent at the convention center. Definitely a much more exciting atmosphere than PAX East, with more people just looking like they were having fun. Like me. Looking forward to it next year.