Short Hakoniwa no Coral appreciation post (tiny analysis, but mostly glaze) because IT DESERVES TO BE TALKED ABOUT (and also I didn't get to yap about it in my drafted rankings for the sake of being concised)
HOLY SHIT GUYS HAKONIWA NO CORAL IS SO FUCKING GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T GOTTEN OVER IT. The music is so soothing, as if the wind at sea muses with every lyric, and the way it sways and shifts between verses is so perfect??? It's the same with Hoshizora no Melody (can you tell I love Nene coms) where the rhythm of the song carries so hard, and the instrumentals do wonders for its emotional factor. Like omgg it's so hard to choose between which Nene com is my fav (with the best obv being Yuke but that's besides the point) because even though Hoshizora no Melody is my favorite showcase of everyone's vocals, with a beautiful set of lyrics and visuals, Coral is just.... Gorgeous in every aspect possible. How Nene as a character is displayed so bittersweet yet befittingly, with ocean themes and imagery that paints such a vibrant picture for us to imagine, and so many metaphors to pick apart and interpret (typical of WxS), mixed with straight forward, bittersweet lyrics.
I especially love 2 lyrics: 'I reach my hand for the bottom of the sea, because someone told me that I'd find what I lack there', being such a good representation of Nene's drive and journey as a whole. How I see that lyric, what's at the bottom of the sea isn't just the Coral (something I view as the manifestation of Nene's ideals, which I'll get to later), but Mermaids. The Little Mermaid that she grew up adoring and the very thing that got her to dream of being songstress in the first place, and in her more mature years, being the actress behind that mystical creature that holds so much of Nene's inspirations. Reaching her hand beneath the sea- essentially drowning herself- in hopes of becoming that person, of finding herself becoming the talented and showstopping performer that she hasn't fully believed she could become at this point in life yet is such a good metaphor for how dedicated yet sacrificial she is. Not to mention the 'someone told me' part of the line. It really could be so many people, the people who believed in her and wanted her to gain what she wants, like Rui as the most overt, herself/her younger self, ect, implying that she's actively using what should be kind and encouraging words to drive her further into the sea and find exactly what she needs to become better, or maybe, the potential she does see, but can't reach; or on the flip side, that 'someone' could be from people (her middleschool friends or again, her younger self) that made her feel even more insecure of her abilities, of how far she has to go because she doesn't have it in herself to be what she ideals of becoming, delibrately seeking to drown in pursuit of what could be.
People talk about Tsukasa sacrificing so much for the sake of being a star, and while it's not completely fair to compare them (despite my history of doing so a bit), Nene is practically on the same wavelength. The reason I constantly use the word 'ideals' instead of 'dreams' when talking about Nene's future is because it's constructed almost entirely based off of the person she could be, instead of the person she wants to be (if that makes sense), and from what I've seen, that genuinely frustrates her. To think that Nene can't be the person she wants- expects herself to be (based off of instances from other coms songs besides Nijiro Stories, how she treats herself in Nene1 and just in general, WL2, Boku no Kamisama especially, ect), the person her younger self adored, drives her so far to being this specific image. Yes, it's her dream, but it's an idealized version of what she could be based off of her failures and general internalized comparisons between what she is and what she isn't, the coral dyed orange (which btw, is the color of dusk, the sky between day and night, also being the space that crushes Nene in the chorus) that she only has a miniature version of in her garden, the object meant to represent the image of her idealized future, is so deep under the sea, that she's willing to hate, to fear the person she used to be, just to look forward and grasp that coral.
OMGG I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE 2ND LYRIC I SAID I LOVED- UHHH ok the second one is 'Swaying around, the shadow of that day grabbed my cold hand; (...) Is it alright if I sing this song?'. No one, and I mean no one (that I've seen), has ever talked about Nene's lyric here and it is one of my favorite ever in any WxS coms. The drowning and swaying at sea imagery, the call from the past- the shadow of her past (likely drowned and literally dead because Nene is at sea and the shadow is now with her, previously put under water, a state she's growing closer to herself) most likely being her child self that forgot her lines and ruined an old performance, followed up by Nene questioning whether or not she deserves to even continue this journey to begin with. Is it alright to sing this song about my own dream, about facing so many challenges and pain and hardships, when I may not even be able to reach the peak I've yearned and thought I would? Am I letting my younger self down? Am I enough to even continue? Dawg this part of the song, soon being followed up by the bittersweet ending of Nene not even fully believing in her own dream, looking back at the miniature coral and thinking, 'at least I sung and did my best, amongst a world and a circle/community I tried to be a part of' INSTEAD OF THE HOPEFUL ENDING SHE DESERVES??? WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT IT, It genuinely aches to see how the song ends with Nene basically coping at her own distrust in herself. Ughhhhh I fucking love Coral, it showcases Machico's gorgeous vocals, with very fitting line distributions (even though I do question why Emu and Kaito got the line 'I'll just close my eyes and bury it down' instead of Emu and Tsukasa cause like cmon guys its too fitting wtf is Kaito doing singing that line), and how WxS is willing to see through Nene's dream, regardless of how it pans out. Nene is a beautifully underrated and undertalked about character and that needs to change.
(I'm really mentally drained so uhh someone else please do it it's not too late to)
(can you tell my fave wxs member is Nene)