Released in the summer of 2001, this disc features the single for the ending song to Pokémon: Celebi a Timeless Encounter. This includes the song as it appeared in the movie, which was also available on the Pocket Monsters: Celebi a Timeless Encounter (ZMCP-1260) soundtrack. It also includes a karaoke version... and that's the entire contents of the disc. Singles tend to be short, but often a song from the artist will be tossed on just to extend the time a little. Not the case here, as this disc is under ten minutes total. Still, it's an okay experience, although hard to merit purchasing over the full movie soundtrack.
So first off comes tackling the "regular" version of the song. This features pleasant signing from Fumiya Fujii to the backdrop of a full orchestra. That orchestration features a lot of piano and string work, sounding quite soothing and sweeping in its style. Mixed together, the track is a pleasant listen. It's not super memorable, but is enjoyable and allows Fujii to really show his vocal strengths. Unlike some other songs for the franchise, this one isn't dated at all. For reference, this is the same exact version found on the full soundtrack.
As for the karaoke version, I was looking forward to this track. The original song always struck me as pleasant and I'm a sucker for piano and violin work. However, as is often the case with karaoke tracks, it wasn't quite as engaging as hoped for. It does a good job supporting the vocals, but becomes a bit too transparent without them. As a result it's just not a super engaging experience when isolated from the lyrics. Essentially the strongest parts are those where the music swells when there normally wouldn't have been vocals anyway. The remainder falls a little flat, though. It's not bad, it's just not something that stands out as a strong experience on its own.
Now for some background on Fumiya Fujii. He started his career in the 1980's as part of the musical group The Checkers. If that sounds familiar it might be because the musical group was showcased in the 1980's Toho film Checkers in Tan Tan Tanuki (1985). The group itself formed in 1981, back when a few members were still in high school. Before launching their professional career, though, they waited for graduation time. As a result, they signed with a record label afterwards and were active from 1983 to 1992 before splitting up. That led to Fujii starting a solo career and finding success pretty much right away in 1993 with his single True Love. He's been very active since, following that up with Goddess, Angel, DAYS and more, although he has somewhat slowed down of late.
On this single Fujii is paired with composer Hirokazu Tanaka. Now Tanaka started his career back in the 1980's as well, although as a composer for video games. One of his earliest efforts was Super Mario Land for the Nintendo GameBoy. He has been fairly active on the scene ever since, generally tied to Nintendo. This includes work on the MOTHER (Earthbound) series and commercial albums related to other video game franchises like Mario and Metroid. He even lended his talents for the oddly titled Super Mario Compact Disco: Ambassadors of Funk featuring M.C. Mario, which is actually available from Apple Music. Somehow, he also got in bed with the animated Pokémon series. This wasn't a one off either for the franchise. He has been doing the odd composing task here and there ever since 1997, in fact. Most often he fills a role similar to this, providing instrumental music for an already established artist.
In terms of if this single release is worth picking up or not, I'd advise against it unless you get a really good deal. All it has going for it over the full album soundtrack is the karaoke version. Now that's nice, but hard to merit purchasing over as it just doesn't engage the listener as a stand alone composition. That said, if you are a completest, that karaoke track can only be acquired from this release. Not only that, this single is still pretty easy to come by almost two decades after release. In fact, CD Japan for example is still selling new copies here in 2020.
As a side note, the packaging for this single is a little abnormal. Although if being honest, single releases tend to buck normal CD packaging trends pretty often. Anyway, the CD cover essentially is presented in reverse, with the back being the front. The "actual front" of the jewel CD case is transparent, with no cover design. This is why the front image is slightly taller than it is wide, as opposed to the more traditional even width and height.
Finally, I would also like to thank Jessica Stan for sending this CD in for
review! |
