It’s #SongLyricsSunday! This time, it is an unusual prompt about highlighting contrasting items: light and darkness, day and night, Pepsi and Coke, winner and loser. My pick for this week’s #SongLyricsSunday is from one of my favorite anime series, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In the series, there is one character who has contrasting personalities: Lady Une. What is her song? Continue to find out!
(This is part of a #SongLyricsSunday challenge, which is hosted by Jim at An Unique Title For Me. Anyone can join! Details on how to participate are found at the end of this post!)
Lady Une: Diplomatic Yet Ruthless
Lady Une, one of the female antagonists in Gundam Wing (a series about space wars with large mobile machines called Gundams) and lover to the main villain Treize Khushrenada, is written as a character who has dissociative identity disorder. She has two personalities: “one sadistic and ruthless, the other diplomatic and peacefully inclined”.[1] The ruthless side of Une, or Miltary-Une, wears her hair in braids that are wrapped around her head. She likes to wear military uniforms with white gloves and glasses. While peaceful Une, or Peace-Une, likes to wear her hair down, wears dresses, and wears no glasses. You can see an example of her transformation from one personality to another in Episode 17.
There isn’t really a clear explanation of why Lady Une has dissociative identity disorder. Some suggested may be due to her strong loyalty to Treize Khushrenada, the manipulative Chief Commander of OZ. Treiza is said to be the one who prompts Une to switch personalities. (Even Lady Une doesn’t know she has two different personalities residing in her.)
Brightness and Darkness
“Brightness and Darkness” is the character song for Lady Une that appears on the 1995 album Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing: Operation 3. It is sung by the character’s voice actress Sayuri Yamauchi. Yamauchi has voiced various characters until her death in 2012 due to cancer. She even voiced Itchy and Maude Flanders in the Japanese dub of The Simpsons.
The lyrics were written by Takako Nishikori and composed by Motoyoshi Iwasaki. There isn’t much information about Takako Nishikori besides that she wrote the lyrics for a couple more songs in the Gundam universe. Meanwhile, Motoyoshi Iwasaki has composed countless songs for many anime and kids series like Hamutaro, Pokemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Tokimeki Memorial, and other Gundam series.
I like many of the character songs featured in Gundam Wing. Each are composed really well, bring out each character’s personality, and featured talented voice actors and actresses. ln “Brightness and Darkness”, I love how the song displays the two, contrasting sides of Lady Une: the peaceful side in a slow, mellow tone and then the ruthless side with a maniac rock tone. It is a song that is well-suited for Lady Une.
Listen to “Brightness and Darkness” down below and let me know what you think in the comments!
(In case you wondering: yes, Gundam Wing characters’ names are based on numbers in different languages.
Lyrics for Lady Une’s “Brightness and Darkness”
Here are the translated lyrics for the song, provided by Melody Ryu at AnimeLyrics.com:
At the end of the faraway sky
I can only believe in this painful longing forever
If it is for your dream
I would destroy everything…
In love with you Do anything for you!
Beyond the flame of love
By the heart that was torn by darkness
Now—--I swear! The world that the lives will shine-
It is the proof of my love for you
I am hiding all my tears
While I keep on praying with love held in my arms
The person who appears in my mind is only you
Even if I have to go through hardships…
In love with you Do anything for you
Cry out! The feelings that were kept to yourself
Hard as you can cut through the darkness
Now—--Reach to you resting in the dream
Proof of my that will not change forever
I believe that dreams will surely come true someday
Until my life ends…
In love with you Do anything for you
Beyond the flame of love
By the heart that was torn by darkness
Now—--I swear! The world that the lives will shine-
It is the proof of my love for you
Cry out! The feelings that were kept to yourself
Hard as you can cut through the darkness
Now—--Reach to you resting in the dream
Proof of my that will not change forever
If you want to participate, here are the rules:
- Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it fits the theme or not.
- Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.
- Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
- Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
- Ping back to this post will eventually work, as long as you are being patient, but you can also place your link in the comments if you don’t like to wait.
- Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
- Feel free to suggest future prompts.
- Have fun and enjoy the music.
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References
[1] “Lady Une.” The Gundam Wiki, gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Lady_Une.
Fabulous art, and you know your subject. 💜
This is a really nice song Amy, I liked the singing and the music.