HIMEKA – Asu he no Kizuna PV (Valkyria Chronicles OP)
Asu he no Kizuna is one of those songs that I knew I’d like as soon as I heard it, and I’ve been enjoying the full version of it quite a bit recently. As I mentioned a week ago, I had seen a commercial for single and had been very interested in the PV, but the reason for that was because of the way HIMEKA had been dressed up. It was, to put it delicately, not the most flattering. In fact, I found the actual PV kind of difficult to watch because the outfit and the excessive make-up was very distracting, especially since this is one of those videos that focuses a lot on the singer. It feels like they’re trying too hard to market her as a classically beautiful idol, and that just doesn’t suit her. There’s just so much more they could do with someone who has a background like hers (her real name is Catherine St. Onge, and she’s French Canadian) and has such a great voice. Anyway, to its credit, the video isn’t entirely made up of shots of her and mixes things up a bit with that little boy and the painting. Plus, as I said, I still really like the song itself, and that alone made the PV worth a watch.
The single for Asu he no Kizuna is due out May 27th, 2009. You can also keep track of what HIMEKA is up to via her blog which is written in English, Japanese, and sometimes French.
Edit: I’ve re-encoded and re-uploaded the PV so that the audio and video are in sync.
May 10, 2009 at 10:35 pmEroKero
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Right, I enjoy the song, well, I could enjoy the song, if it wasn’t for the HORRIBLE sync’ing for the lips. They’re like a half-second off most of the time. Flow breaking.
May 10, 2009 at 10:36 pmMajinAndy
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Interesting…
May 10, 2009 at 11:01 pmmangaka-chan
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Not a bad song, but I agree that the lip syncing was off and that made it kind of weird to watch.
May 10, 2009 at 11:04 pmMIxM
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the song was beautiful. yes the lip sync’ing was off a bit, she puts on a beautiful voice. her japanese is very exquisite, i cant believe shes only french canadian!
May 10, 2009 at 11:34 pmrairyu
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wait, so is it in fact her voice? I enjoyed the song but couldnt look at the PV. the lip-synch was noticeably off
May 10, 2009 at 11:34 pmrelentlessflame
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I assume the lipsync is probably just due to the encode/stream. But yeah, this is definitely one of my favourite songs of the new season, and really is quite a remarkable talent.
The weird thing I found about the video is the pacing — all the pans and fades are so slowly-paced, even though it’s quite an upbeat and emotional song. I guess they were trying to make the video sort of whimsical and thoughtful (yes, we get that she’s a “foreign beauty”…), but it just seems so mismatched with the music. She tried to show emotion anyway, but the director wasn’t doing her any favours at all. All in all, I greatly prefer the anime OP’s visual treatment of the song, but the song itself is great either way. Looking forward to picking up the CD when it comes out in a few weeks.
May 10, 2009 at 11:40 pmQ
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Could the lip-synch just be the video’s problem?
May 10, 2009 at 11:58 pmEden
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pretty cool :D
love it!!
May 11, 2009 at 12:33 amShizor
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this girl is living the weeaboo dream
May 11, 2009 at 12:46 amZange
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weird to watch indeed. The song is nice though :P
May 11, 2009 at 1:38 amSonicy
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white chick singing anime songs… now i’ve seen everything
May 11, 2009 at 2:00 amabnegator
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Pmsl @ zange. The song is pretty okay, thanks for sharing.
May 11, 2009 at 2:00 amabnegator
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Pmsl @ sonicy. The song is pretty okay, thanks for sharing.
May 11, 2009 at 2:55 amMooMoo
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Somebody confirm that this Himeka is the same one from youtube? I forgot what the himeka in youtube looked like but I know she was white. :P
May 11, 2009 at 6:09 amRie-chan
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Yea, the lip sync was off.. and her actions just doesn’t match the song and the PV =/ song is awesome third to AGAIN and futuristic imagination
May 11, 2009 at 6:44 amSherry
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I actually like the ED of Valkyria Chronicles better then the OP.
Does anyone know where I could listen or watch the PV of the full ED?
May 11, 2009 at 7:25 amAlexstratz
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Indeed, too much makeup and she doesn’t seem very natural in the video overall. The song’s nice though.
May 11, 2009 at 9:05 amchazuke
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@MooMoo: Yes, it’s the same Himeka as the one from youtube. At least, was…I think she had to close her account awhile back due to the fact that she was debuting or something.
May 11, 2009 at 9:57 amzerojad
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Yeah, nice song.
May 11, 2009 at 2:08 pmYohJay
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i wonder y didnt i detect this song on my redar xD its sucha nice song but i didnt feel anything when i watch the anime
now im looking forward to its release date
May 11, 2009 at 2:12 pmXineohp Erif
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Alexstratz – Well what do you expect the video for this song to be like? If you could direct it for her, how would you have done it?
I think it’s a nice PV for her debut. And a lot of artists wear make-up anyways? Name an artist that does not use any make-up at all. I’m just saying so what if she’s wearing make-up? I’ll admit it might be too much, but you expect her to not wear any?
As for the pacing and blah blah blah. It’s in a different context. The anime has ACTION. Were you wanting to see Himeka run around with a gun shooting? So no kidding the anime opening’s visual will be different.
At any rate, I enjoyed the PV aside from the lip-sync that’s off.
I expect to see great things from her in the future. :3
May 11, 2009 at 3:17 pmGod~Knows~
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DUh….I am speechless.
May 11, 2009 at 6:06 pmbalance
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canada owns u
May 11, 2009 at 6:54 pmKethy-chan
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wow… French Canadian… yay to us ! Woohoo!
May 11, 2009 at 9:01 pmOmni
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I’ve re-encoded and re-uploaded the PV so that the audio and video are in sync.
May 11, 2009 at 10:24 pmCain
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one more reason to make fun of french canadian (in a good way though) ;)
May 12, 2009 at 12:55 amanimeboy92
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The song was great and her voice was just superb but her in a dress and just standing there was just horrible because her actions was screaming that she wants to move and jump around rather than to just stand there and sing. Despite the setting, her voice was just fantastic and i loved the song. Thanks for the upload!
May 12, 2009 at 12:57 amanimeboy92
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Scratch what i typed about the setting. It’s just the dress that prevents her from moving around more that i was trying to emphasize.
May 12, 2009 at 3:47 amEri
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the lips and the song don’t mix together.
the song was good to hear…but the PV was a drag to watch after a few seconds (coz the intro shots were nice and intriguing).. :(
May 12, 2009 at 4:30 amrum1rum
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ah…is it just me, or was that kid smiling at around the last minute creepy.
May 12, 2009 at 11:58 amAdam
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Mediocre video. Good song / beautiful voice though.
May 12, 2009 at 12:14 pmtehjonel
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great song! ^^
May 12, 2009 at 9:08 pmChimasternmay
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Hot! Nice> Song.
May 13, 2009 at 5:32 ammegalith
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“this girl is living the weeaboo dream”
AHAHAHAHAH! LOL! XD
Nice song btw. Though I was just shocked at the vid. XD
May 14, 2009 at 12:44 amFlixt
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ITS THE WEABOO DREAM
May 14, 2009 at 5:34 pmHomer Ruglia Beoulve
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OH my GOD! It’s Catherine, I mean HIMEKA!!! ROAR!
Please, quickly translate the whole song^^ Please… I’d been waiting for her, for so long!
May 27, 2009 at 7:07 pmYuki
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@MooMoo, it’s the same HIMEKA that was on YouTube a while back; she managed to move to Japan and win the ANIMAX singing contest! She closed her YouTube for a while for personal reasons, then was forced to take down all of her singing videos due to her debut.