The music continuity

[branchandroot]

Not the musicals, but the music–the characters songs.  It’s a totally separate continuity, in tenipuri, it really is. Characters who are presented as (mostly, allegedly) straight sing love duets with each other. Characters known for their reserve and stoicism sing really silly songs. Some of the character songs fit in with either the anime or the manga continuity, especially the Best Riva/Best Player songs, but a lot of them, especially the ones produced for the more popular characters, form a continuity of their own with a whole different set of characterizations that are, by and large, pure fanservice.

This is, to be sure, complicated by the occasional descent of both anime and manga canon into similar fanservice, anime moreso than manga. The continuities have even crossed, as for example the ‘talent night’ thing in the Senbatsu arc. And then there are the music video things, which appear to have some crossover with other parts of the music continuity, especially in the formation and naming of discrete groups.

In short, the whole notion of “continuity” in tenipuri is vastly complicated and a huge mishmash, but I’d still say it’s possible to count the music itself as at least one and quite possibly two or three totally separate continuities.

In case anyone wondered, these reflections are the direct result of Kirihara’s latest single.  That seems more a seiyuu character song than a character character song, really.