All the Jack Jeanne songs, with thoughts
Sep. 30th, 2024 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrJack Jeanne Masterlist
So it turns out the reason I couldn't find these before was that I... had the title of the game wrong. It's "Jack Jeanne", not "JackJeanne", oops. I have thus now found a bunch of videos of the songs, with translations! Which belatedly added a bunch to my understanding, and I thought it made sense to write up my thoughts as one post, since it's the same songs in basically the same context for every route.
I unavoidably spoil the plots and casting of the plays, but I'll put route-spoiling thoughts under an internal cut.
So! As a reminder, Jacks are male parts and Jeanne are female parts.
Our cast, including associated colours:
Some context about Neji, the song-writer.
When he was a kid, his playwright dad had an affair with an actress, lost his writing mojo, and killed himself in the ocean. Neji became afraid of women and relationships, and decided to join all-male theatre and dedicate his life to writing and directing plays.
He met Fumi and Kai, who were both feeling lonely and creatively frustrated, and formed a successful creative teamup and friendship, with himself as playwright, Fumi as Jeanne, and Kai as Jack.
But he still hears the sound of the sea (suicidal thoughts) and feels like one day he will eventually succumb, like his father, to bad relationship decisions, burnout, and suicide. Also it's not hard to read Neji as bi and/or trans and very repressed about it. There's repeated imagery of him as a bird flying without somewhere to land, with "going beyond the sea" a metaphor for facing his fears and working through his trauma to find something on the other side.
Fortune Colour Is Crystal: Everyone in the castle is happy that the king may be able to sleep! Very silly but fun and bouncy. Has a lot more scattered English words than I realised haha. Kisa and Suzu's voices really stand out: Kisa's for being so feminine, and Suzu's for being so clear and energetic.
Beyond the Plane Tree: The maiden sings the king to sleep with a song about how even when he can't sleep and is alone, he should look up at the moon, and they will walk past the plane tree (symbolising the present moment?) together. Sweet and shippy!
We The Great Galleon: Lewis and the ensemble sing about how great their company 'The Great Galleon' is. The building looks like a huge ship and I think is intended to be an international company with a theme of Global Exploration Of Distant Lands. Lots of ocean/sailing metaphors. Suzu's voice is again very energetic!
Compass line: Romantic duet between Hasekura and Ando about how compass lines (the past?) leave scars but point the way to a future together. Gave me feels about not just Kai/Fumi but Kai/Fumi/Neji, since he wrote it for them. They both have really nice voices which go well together.
Miss Robin: Solo by Shiroma, with Kisa doing backing vocals. This is the actual music video, since the song is in English and has lyrics onscreen. The lyrics don't neatly match up with anything in the world of the play, but there's a lot of metaphors about a beautiful singer and wanting to fly away across the sea which... could be read as an ode to Mitsuki, I guess? Or Hasekura's feelings about Ando? It kinda feels like Neji just wrote a bittersweet song about his general feelings and put it in English for Vibes.
Shirota's voice actor has a nice voice and does a good job expressing himself in English. I struggled understanding his pronunciation sometimes, but it's not aimed at Australian English speakers, and the vibes are spot on.
Until this song I'd felt a little sad that I couldn't understand the Japanese lyrics that popped up on-screen sometimes, but damn if they weren't distracting when I was trying to pat attention to the rhythm game haha.
*stares at all the ocean imagery*
A Friend Without a Name: Mary sews Jacob out of corpses, so she has a friend. An enjoyably creepy duet. More Fumi/Kai/Neji feels, since the three of them were all incredibly lonely until they created their working relationship together, and are still a little lonely now.
Hallelujah “Shout the name of God, My Friend”: Having befriended and then betrayed Mary, the brothers plan to murder Jacob, his mother Mary, and their ghost friends, in the name of the Church/Holy Mother. Mary sings to her 'friend' (The brothers? Jacob? The ghosts?) about picking up their weapon, and that prayer is madness. The symbolism of 'Mary' and double meaning of 'mother' didn't hit me until I read the translation :D This is the closest thing to a Fumi/Kisa or Sou/Kisa romantic duet and it's delightfully ominous and sacrilegious. The contrast between Fumi's tenor and Kisa's soprano is pretty good, especially since Fumi is playing a woman and Kisa a man. Sou is... in there, trying his best haha.
Ghost Party: Mary, Jacob, and the ghosts escape on a boat to party forever and see what lies beyond the sea. A fun bouncy song, Neji's voice has the right energy but is a little weak to carry so much of the lyrics.
I didn't realise until writing this out, but Shirota does no significant singing in this play! He's playing a very minor character, but I assume that in-universe some of the audience would have been confused that the soloist got no solos.
Sou, Suzu, and Fumi play dudes in a messy love pentagram with the two women, but don't show up much in the songs.
Oh Rama Havenna, Oh Beloved Havenna: Rukiora sings in her club about how Havenna, the city of desire, is a place to forget the pain of existence. Chichi joins in, having just entered the city and been seduced by the priest.
I assumed "dabadaba dadattara dadara dabadaba dadattara chacha chachahha chahhaya cha haya chacha chachahha chahhaya" was just meaningless scatting but apparently it's about packhorses galloping and leaves being disrupted, and is followed by "Spin and spin, human rocking horse" and a bunch of imagery of Havenna as an unstable, spinning illusion maintained by the hidden work of the mugwort (sex) seller. Which works really well! In the script, Rukiora complains that this song is a rosy lie designed to appeal to the self-deluded citizens.
Intense Confessions at the Confessional: Domina goes to confess her sins to the priest, and everyone's secrets and feelings start to become less hidden. The priest and Domina don't have much of a relationship in the script, but this is an effective duet about wanting love and absolution, only to commit the same sins over and over.
Neji you... you really got some issues about sex and gender you need to work through, buddy. Plus that's a lot of songs about hedonistic dancing and singing as a way to deal with a cold and cruel world.
Faded Colour: A duet between Chicchi and Rukiora, after they have they told each other the truth, and decided to move past the lies, misunderstandings, and pain and live together. Even shippier once I understood the lyrics, for both Chichi/Rukiora and Kisa/Mitsuki!
The singers start out closed off, wanting to forget their pain, then it turns into "Don't cry. I won't forget this pain. Let's embrace it together. We'll be able to smile one day." and metaphors about lies and sin melting away into the blank canvas of white snow they can write on together. They sing really well together too, very emotive and sweet!
Departure: Sissia sings her audition for the Central Nation of Kielce. A bit hard to follow but like... yearning for another land, and a better future, I guess?
Tragically I can't find versions of these next two with translated lyrics, but enjoy the cheesy 3d models dancing. This reddit post has translations but you'll need to be logged in to read them.
Sou: Man wearing a goat head
Neji: Man with short dark hair
Kai: Man in top hat
Suzu: Man with red hair
Fumi: Man with white hair
Mitsuki: Woman with white hair
Kisa: Woman with pink hair
Kielce the Nation at the Centre: A Big Ensemble dancing and singing number. A catchy song but not super interesting to watch when you don't know Japanese, except for Mitsuki and Kisa's shippy girl dance section. "Let’s put an end to this cold night. Stand up, come on, just run away. I don’t need a song of joy over sacrifice, with certain courage, pushed back."
Quartz Anima: Everyone in the Central Nation of Kielce sings and dances with Sissia in turn, on the Wall Dividing The Nations. "Shining white towards a new world, that foot that takes a step. There is no correct answer. Birds sing, our departure. Spin the gears that weave your dreams! It's a revolving gear. Even if someday our light disappears, the world keeps spinning, it keeps spinning."
I can see why this is the only song where Sou gets to sing any lines by himself, but hey, he's still doing better than I would.
Over the Wall: Sissia sings a cheesily earnest solo in English about how war is bad and we should break down the wall and let flowers bloom. Kisa's voice actor is, overall, a good singer, but she is kinda awkward with the English in this, less her pronunciation (which I am happy to let wash over me the way I do Japanese lyrics) and more, idk, a sort of choppiness, like she's stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar words. In universe this song is SUPER INSPIRING AND AMAZING, both in the game and in the play within the game, but it's my least favourite.
And that's everything!
My favourite songs are probably Faded Colour and Hallelujah “Shout the name of God, My Friend”. But they all sound a lot nicer without my ineffective attempts to play a rhythm game over the top, lol.
So it turns out the reason I couldn't find these before was that I... had the title of the game wrong. It's "Jack Jeanne", not "JackJeanne", oops. I have thus now found a bunch of videos of the songs, with translations! Which belatedly added a bunch to my understanding, and I thought it made sense to write up my thoughts as one post, since it's the same songs in basically the same context for every route.
I unavoidably spoil the plots and casting of the plays, but I'll put route-spoiling thoughts under an internal cut.
So! As a reminder, Jacks are male parts and Jeanne are female parts.
Our cast, including associated colours:
- Kisa Tachibana (pink): The protagonist. Plays Jacks and Jeannes, usually a lead.
- Sarafumi 'Fumi' Takashina (red): Dancer. Usually the lead Jeanne.
- Kai Mutsumi (yellow): Usually the lead Jack.
- Kokuto Neji (purple): Playwright/songwriter, usually minor comedic roles, Jack and Jeanne.
- Mitsuki Shirota (light blue): Jeanne, soloist.
- Suzu Orimaki (orange): Jack.
- Soshiro 'Sou' Yonaga (dark blue): Jack and Jeanne. More of an actor than a singer or dancer.
- Black: The ensemble
Some context about Neji, the song-writer.
Major spoilers for the Neji route! Content note: Suicide
When he was a kid, his playwright dad had an affair with an actress, lost his writing mojo, and killed himself in the ocean. Neji became afraid of women and relationships, and decided to join all-male theatre and dedicate his life to writing and directing plays.
He met Fumi and Kai, who were both feeling lonely and creatively frustrated, and formed a successful creative teamup and friendship, with himself as playwright, Fumi as Jeanne, and Kai as Jack.
But he still hears the sound of the sea (suicidal thoughts) and feels like one day he will eventually succumb, like his father, to bad relationship decisions, burnout, and suicide. Also it's not hard to read Neji as bi and/or trans and very repressed about it. There's repeated imagery of him as a bird flying without somewhere to land, with "going beyond the sea" a metaphor for facing his fears and working through his trauma to find something on the other side.
Spring/Newcomer's/First year's Performance, "The Sleepless King"
- Suzu Orimaki (orange): The king who can't sleep
- Kisa Tachibana (pink): The Maiden, wants to help the king sleep.
- Everyone else: Minor characters around the castle.
Fortune Colour Is Crystal: Everyone in the castle is happy that the king may be able to sleep! Very silly but fun and bouncy. Has a lot more scattered English words than I realised haha. Kisa and Suzu's voices really stand out: Kisa's for being so feminine, and Suzu's for being so clear and energetic.
Beyond the Plane Tree: The maiden sings the king to sleep with a song about how even when he can't sleep and is alone, he should look up at the moon, and they will walk past the plane tree (symbolising the present moment?) together. Sweet and shippy!
Summer Performance: "Weekend Lesson"
- Kai Mutsumi (yellow): Hasekura, a shy businessman.
- Kisa Tachibana (pink): The businessman Mukai, who is a supportive junior of Hasekura. She also does backup singing, not as Mukai.
- Sarafumi 'Fumi' Takashina (red): Ando. A woman who used to dance competitively but became a dance instructor.
- Mitsuki Shirota (light blue): Shiroma, the office hot girl. Learns dancing from Ando. Hasekura has a crush on her.
- Suzu Orimaki (orange): Lewis. Arrogant coworker who kinda bullies Hasekura.
- Everyone else: Background coworkers etc.
We The Great Galleon: Lewis and the ensemble sing about how great their company 'The Great Galleon' is. The building looks like a huge ship and I think is intended to be an international company with a theme of Global Exploration Of Distant Lands. Lots of ocean/sailing metaphors. Suzu's voice is again very energetic!
Compass line: Romantic duet between Hasekura and Ando about how compass lines (the past?) leave scars but point the way to a future together. Gave me feels about not just Kai/Fumi but Kai/Fumi/Neji, since he wrote it for them. They both have really nice voices which go well together.
Miss Robin: Solo by Shiroma, with Kisa doing backing vocals. This is the actual music video, since the song is in English and has lyrics onscreen. The lyrics don't neatly match up with anything in the world of the play, but there's a lot of metaphors about a beautiful singer and wanting to fly away across the sea which... could be read as an ode to Mitsuki, I guess? Or Hasekura's feelings about Ando? It kinda feels like Neji just wrote a bittersweet song about his general feelings and put it in English for Vibes.
Shirota's voice actor has a nice voice and does a good job expressing himself in English. I struggled understanding his pronunciation sometimes, but it's not aimed at Australian English speakers, and the vibes are spot on.
Until this song I'd felt a little sad that I couldn't understand the Japanese lyrics that popped up on-screen sometimes, but damn if they weren't distracting when I was trying to pat attention to the rhythm game haha.
*stares at all the ocean imagery*
Fall Performance: "Mary Jane"
- Kisa Tachibana (pink) and Soshiro 'Sou' Yonaga (dark blue): Teen brothers who kill ghosts.
- Sarafumi 'Fumi' Takashina (red): Mary Jane. A lonely dollmaker.
- Kai Mutsumi (yellow): Jacob Jane. A friend/son Mary makes out of corpses.
- Kokuto Neji (purple), Mitsuki Shirota (light blue), Suzu Orimaki (orange): Friendly ghosts who party inside a church.
A Friend Without a Name: Mary sews Jacob out of corpses, so she has a friend. An enjoyably creepy duet. More Fumi/Kai/Neji feels, since the three of them were all incredibly lonely until they created their working relationship together, and are still a little lonely now.
Hallelujah “Shout the name of God, My Friend”: Having befriended and then betrayed Mary, the brothers plan to murder Jacob, his mother Mary, and their ghost friends, in the name of the Church/Holy Mother. Mary sings to her 'friend' (The brothers? Jacob? The ghosts?) about picking up their weapon, and that prayer is madness. The symbolism of 'Mary' and double meaning of 'mother' didn't hit me until I read the translation :D This is the closest thing to a Fumi/Kisa or Sou/Kisa romantic duet and it's delightfully ominous and sacrilegious. The contrast between Fumi's tenor and Kisa's soprano is pretty good, especially since Fumi is playing a woman and Kisa a man. Sou is... in there, trying his best haha.
Ghost Party: Mary, Jacob, and the ghosts escape on a boat to party forever and see what lies beyond the sea. A fun bouncy song, Neji's voice has the right energy but is a little weak to carry so much of the lyrics.
I didn't realise until writing this out, but Shirota does no significant singing in this play! He's playing a very minor character, but I assume that in-universe some of the audience would have been confused that the soloist got no solos.
Winter Performance: “Oh Rama Havenna”
- Kisa Tachibana (pink): Chichi, a 'mugwort seller', which is kind of like a metaphorical sex worker. Hides her job from her best friend, Rukiora.
- Mitsuki Shirota (light blue): Rukiora. Earnest but naive club singer, life ruined by Domina and so hates mugwort sellers. Best friends with Chichi, doesn't realise she's a mugwort seller.
- Kai Mutsumi (yellow): Repressed horny male priest.
- Kokuto Neji (purple): Domina. Evil slut ex-mugwort seller.
Sou, Suzu, and Fumi play dudes in a messy love pentagram with the two women, but don't show up much in the songs.
Oh Rama Havenna, Oh Beloved Havenna: Rukiora sings in her club about how Havenna, the city of desire, is a place to forget the pain of existence. Chichi joins in, having just entered the city and been seduced by the priest.
I assumed "dabadaba dadattara dadara dabadaba dadattara chacha chachahha chahhaya cha haya chacha chachahha chahhaya" was just meaningless scatting but apparently it's about packhorses galloping and leaves being disrupted, and is followed by "Spin and spin, human rocking horse" and a bunch of imagery of Havenna as an unstable, spinning illusion maintained by the hidden work of the mugwort (sex) seller. Which works really well! In the script, Rukiora complains that this song is a rosy lie designed to appeal to the self-deluded citizens.
Intense Confessions at the Confessional: Domina goes to confess her sins to the priest, and everyone's secrets and feelings start to become less hidden. The priest and Domina don't have much of a relationship in the script, but this is an effective duet about wanting love and absolution, only to commit the same sins over and over.
Neji you... you really got some issues about sex and gender you need to work through, buddy. Plus that's a lot of songs about hedonistic dancing and singing as a way to deal with a cold and cruel world.
Faded Colour: A duet between Chicchi and Rukiora, after they have they told each other the truth, and decided to move past the lies, misunderstandings, and pain and live together. Even shippier once I understood the lyrics, for both Chichi/Rukiora and Kisa/Mitsuki!
The singers start out closed off, wanting to forget their pain, then it turns into "Don't cry. I won't forget this pain. Let's embrace it together. We'll be able to smile one day." and metaphors about lies and sin melting away into the blank canvas of white snow they can write on together. They sing really well together too, very emotive and sweet!
Final Performance: "Sissia of the Central Nation"
- Kisa Tachibana (pink): Sissia, an escaped refugee who wants to join the anti-racism circus.
- Everyone else: The anti-racism circus aka "the Central Nation of Kielce".
Departure: Sissia sings her audition for the Central Nation of Kielce. A bit hard to follow but like... yearning for another land, and a better future, I guess?
Tragically I can't find versions of these next two with translated lyrics, but enjoy the cheesy 3d models dancing. This reddit post has translations but you'll need to be logged in to read them.
Sou: Man wearing a goat head
Neji: Man with short dark hair
Kai: Man in top hat
Suzu: Man with red hair
Fumi: Man with white hair
Mitsuki: Woman with white hair
Kisa: Woman with pink hair
Kielce the Nation at the Centre: A Big Ensemble dancing and singing number. A catchy song but not super interesting to watch when you don't know Japanese, except for Mitsuki and Kisa's shippy girl dance section. "Let’s put an end to this cold night. Stand up, come on, just run away. I don’t need a song of joy over sacrifice, with certain courage, pushed back."
Quartz Anima: Everyone in the Central Nation of Kielce sings and dances with Sissia in turn, on the Wall Dividing The Nations. "Shining white towards a new world, that foot that takes a step. There is no correct answer. Birds sing, our departure. Spin the gears that weave your dreams! It's a revolving gear. Even if someday our light disappears, the world keeps spinning, it keeps spinning."
I can see why this is the only song where Sou gets to sing any lines by himself, but hey, he's still doing better than I would.
Over the Wall: Sissia sings a cheesily earnest solo in English about how war is bad and we should break down the wall and let flowers bloom. Kisa's voice actor is, overall, a good singer, but she is kinda awkward with the English in this, less her pronunciation (which I am happy to let wash over me the way I do Japanese lyrics) and more, idk, a sort of choppiness, like she's stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar words. In universe this song is SUPER INSPIRING AND AMAZING, both in the game and in the play within the game, but it's my least favourite.
And that's everything!
My favourite songs are probably Faded Colour and Hallelujah “Shout the name of God, My Friend”. But they all sound a lot nicer without my ineffective attempts to play a rhythm game over the top, lol.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-06 09:03 am (UTC)I had thoughts about how games use music and how interesting it is to have characters performing diagetic music that is part of the story and also comments on it, but I am tired and the thoughts have flown away.
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Date: 2024-10-09 02:11 am (UTC)Yeah I keep having vague inarticulate thoughts about how this game uses music, game mechanics, and stories within stories (within stories!) It's definitely interesting to think about!