Hello, welcome, and tune in to Star Twinkle Mashups, where I edit various songs onto the 2nd and 3rd ending versions of Star Twinkle Precure!
Why, you ask? I just don't like the song of these endings and I wanted alternatives. Now I have made the alternatives myself. Go figure! Youtube got mad at me for using parts of popular songs even as an edit, so here we are on Tumblr.
Though these are the "second" and "third" endings of Star Twinkle, the differences are pretty minimal and are just small updates. 2 doesn't have unicorn Fuwa while 3 does, is basically it.
You can find my gif blog at gifmourningu, though the likelihood of me ever gifing seriously again is very low. Don't really got the time for such intensive edit work, you know how it goes.
If there's some song you want to see, you can send in a request to my ask box. No guarantees that I will actually make the video, and if I don't like the song I'll probably just toss the ask into Yuni's hammerspace chest where it will be shipped out to space and scattered among the cosmos. Also I will probably get bored of this in a few months. If I don't feel like making edits anymore I'll just turn off the ask box. To see which songs I've done, check my list page.
This AMV was edited to tell a narrative from Tamaki's perspective, as she's the one who hasn't gotten over Miwa after 10 years. When I first heard this song, I couldn't stop thinking of TamaMiwa and after a few months I ended up making it to quiet my brain down. So the selected scenes are primarily what Tamaki remembers.
Major Motifs:
Rain & water as callbacks to when they first got together and had those kisses in the rain, as well as other romantic moments. The ripples spread outwards, carrying echoes of the moment through time.
Lights are for romantic + dreamy moments, chosen because of the word "fireworks" in this song.
The VHS overlay represents nostalgic moments of the past.
Rewind and fast forward buttons, emphasizing the sweet past and the bitter future. These I don't really expect people to pay attention to since it can be hard to look at the side of your screen while also looking at the images in the center, but it adds a nice little narrative touch to me. They have a distortion to them to mimic an old tech vibe. At smaller resolutions it might even look like water waves.
Static is for when things are falling apart.
Leaves are for the final scene of this AMV, when they said their goodbye. This places their relationship temporally: rainy season for the start of their relationship, the Fall for the end of their relationship. (At least that's how I remember it, anyway.)
I left the English text in when I thought the text suited the vibe of the song, but reading it is optional and the timing was not cut around whether you can actually read it. It adds an extra layer to the video but only if you care enough to stop to read. I got rid of all the other text that didn't fit the mood.
Shot by shot explanation:
VHS || VHS overlay on 3 key scenes, one for each letter.
Tamaki excited to know she's the only one Miwa has told about her romantic history before. "Really…? Yay! Ha ha ha…" This is chosen because it's cute and it's before they start dating.
Miwa smiling at Tamaki and saying, "I know it'll be okay. Right?" This is in chapter 71, at the start of their dating when Miwa assures Tamaki that she can be out about their relationship. They'll brave the homophobia fine. Well, they will, but they won't brave the issues of their own relationship, making this cut extremely bittersweet and foreshadowing the rest of the song.
Three panels of Tamaki and Miwa's extended kissing as they confirmed their feelings for each other in 68. This was a pivotal chapter and likely the most nostalgic so I drew a lot of cuts from here.
I kept all // Tamaki from chapter 71 smiling at Miwa. I was looking for basically any cute Tamaki-looking-at-Miwa image that seemed to fit, especially to tie into the next cut which is all about how Tamaki's love-filled lens for Miwa.
of the old cassettes // Four edits of Miwa as she looks at Tamaki. People might assume these are picture frames but they are actually tape cassette covers. (You can customize these.) The idea being that each of these tapes holds a song Tamaki wrote for or about Miwa. Given the final chapters, we know that she's at least written one about her unrequited love that Miwa doesn't even know is about her. Backgrounds for these were stock images of rain (see motif notes above), a song that has the text "has gone away" (foreshadowing again), and lights in the shape of hearts. For the one shot of drunk Miwa with the hearts in the speech bubble, that's not actually what she says there and I edited in the hearts to fit the mood. (She's actually asking for a kiss but the text was too dense that I thought it was better to just edit it out.)
I initially wanted to animate each tape clattering across the screen like as if you tossed them out one by one onto a table, but there wasn't enough seconds necessary for this animation to look good. Rather, it just looked like they were zooming from point A to point B because each had to complete their arc in a single word. Also I didn't get the arcs to look very good and I think animation in video editing is of the devil. (By the way, my current computer hates Photoshop and these took forever to edit with all of the lag and the fact that my ALT is hardcoded to bring up the context menu instead of doing anything useful like switching into crosshairs for clone stamp, so I have to plug in another keyboard. And then it has the audacity to lag! F)
of all the songs I wrote you // [Water Drops and Ripples BG] Again, from their first day of dating. I edited out the speech bubble of other characters talking so rain was the only thing present in the image. Bonus points to anyone who knows where I pulled the BG from.
goddamn // [Water Ripples BG] An image of Tamaki looking at Miwa with possessive desire. "Don't you dare… show that face to anyone else but me." Though Tamaki is somewhere on the asexual spectrum, she did have a fierce desire to be special to Miwa and for Miwa to be special to her. This is also when Miwa asked Tamaki to do her, a major moment of vulnerability in their relationship and also the beginning of their incompatibility, though they don't know it yet. The water ripples in the back call to this core memory.
I really adored you // These two segments are the only ones that use the push and motion blur effects, as a quick jump way into the future in the final chapters when Miwa is obliviously asking Tamaki how she can write unrequited love lyrics so well. Taken together as a lyric, "Goddamn, I really adored you," fits Tamaki's feelings about Miwa. Left the text in because of how ironic it is.
Miwa: Like, I really love your lyrics! How is it that you can write such heart-rending lyrics, Tamaki?
Tamaki: …Who knows?
BECAUSE OF YOU, DAMN IT!!
There was actually more text that I was tempted to include of Miwa specifically pointing out that it was the unrequited love lyrics she thought Tamaki did the best but that would be too much for such a short segment.
Starting from here, the rewind and fast forward buttons are introduced. This next segment has rapid cuts that follow the beat of the music.
[Beat 1] [Beat 2] << [Rewind Arrows] Full pages, one from 67 of them with tension and hand-holding before they confess their feelings, one from 68 as they kiss in the hallway as it rains in the background. "Tamaki… I really like you." This must be a line that Tamaki remembers forever.
Maybe I >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] Tamaki after they've broken up asking Saeko about Miwa: "What about Miwa…? Is her job search going okay?"
[Beat 3] [Beat 4] << [Rewind Arrows] [Water Ripples BG] Shots of Tamaki and Miwa cuddling, while sitting, while walking. These appear with ripples in the back as core memories that Tamaki is retrieving.
should have called >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] Tamaki continuing from the previous cut that had lyrics: "I worry about her because I can't forget her. I'd feel like this even if we weren't exes." Personally, I'm happy that I could use the beats in between the lyrics to shift temporally back before these things Tamaki is saying in the future. The idea is that these shots in the beats are what she's remembering as she asks Saeko about Miwa.
[Beat 5] [Beat 6] << [Rewind Arrows] [Water Ripples BG] More sweet moments of Tamaki and Miwa with water ripples behind them, setting up for the next shot.
years ago || [VHS overlay] Now that we're going full back into full-blown immersive, nostalgic memory instead of just staccato ones, it's time to break out the VHS overlay again. This is of when Miwa and Tamaki see each other amid the crowd at the school festival after having broken up, as it was the last moment Tamaki could have possibly said anything to Miwa about their relationship. Granted, nothing she could've said would've changed the outcome, but the futile idea of "could've, would've, should've" is what these panels are here for. The text was initially from Miwa's POV so I cut it out.
and said this all but || [VHS overlay] A page from chapter 92, where Tamaki salvaged the beginning of their major relationship trouble by being vulnerable and reminding Miwa that she loves her. As such, I left only the text, "…And I love you." This is yet another bittersweet moment to include here because while everything Tamaki said in this chapter was true, it also wasn't the whole truth, as she wasn't honest about her lack of sexual drive out of fear of hurting Miwa. Yet, it worked as a band-aid for a little while until she ran out of the will to keep up her lies of omission. This relationship is doomed; the series knows it; the song knows it. So I wanted these shots to represent the failed chances Tamaki wishes she could've taken and continued even against all the knowledge that it wouldn't last. Also a note, but the VHS footage has a different frame rate than what I was working with or something, since I couldn't get the seconds to line up exactly with the duration of the video. Ah well.
What you doing tonight? << [Rewind Arrows] Now we're entering the chorus of the song, which is all about spending time with a lost love. Tamaki and Miwa don't have any moments like that in the final chapters outside of the shots I already used about Tamaki's song, so these parts just act as a good moments reel that wind you up for the fall. I left Miwa going "Wah!" and Tamaki saying, "Hee hee, you're red all the way to your ears," since it fits the lyric of propositioning someone. Blotted out the extra text.
I wanna << [Rewind Arrows] Two panels from chapter 85. Put together like this, you wouldn't realize that they're actually in reverse order and from two different pages. The moment of Miwa holding Tamaki is from page 7 and the Tamaki leaning into the kiss is from page 6. I thought it fit the song better as a build up, with Tamaki looking at Miwa and then taking a kiss. This is a video from Tamaki's perspective, after all, so the "I" needs to match her thoughts I'm implying from the images.
spin you under the lights << [Rewind Arrows] Another kiss scene between the two of them, but now Tamaki is on the left and Miwa is on the right. This is to evoke "spinning" without actually having to spin an image around.
I think you're << [Rewind Arrows] A full page where Tamaki laughs at Miwa while pulling her cheek and Miwa says, "I love you so much…" with tears in her eyes. Since Miwa is the one saying this, I put this image before the next image as this video needs to stay in Tamaki perspective. A background of lights starts to become more visible as the lyric continues:
the love of my life << [Rewind Arrows] [Lights BG] Tamaki thinks of Miwa as the love of her life if she evidently isn't over her after 10 years. Miwa no longer thinks this as the relationship that ultimately works out for her is with Saeko, not Tamaki. It was important to really make it feel like Tamaki is saying these lines so I chose a page of Tamaki looking at Miwa and saying something, but took out the text so you can imagine that she's saying the lyrics. The lights reach their brightest here, because it's such a weighty declaration. This page is from chapter 85 when Tamaki asks to see Miwa naked, which was really vulnerable and almost seemed like she was capable of giving Miwa everything she ever wanted. Naturally, the text didn't quite fit the lyrics. I also personally like that the fading out of the last image and the fading in of this one matched a natural song beat.
If it's really over >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] [Static BG] A full page of the beginning of the end of their relationship (chapter 98), when Tamaki asks Miwa if she has to have sex with Miwa to show her love for her (with the text cut out). This is also after Tamaki got frustrated and said that it was unfair that Miwa started crying when Tamaki was honest about her feelings about sex. Miwa cried because she felt bad for "making" Tamaki lie for her & because she needs sex to feel wanted; and Tamaki got frustrated because this is what she wanted to avoid by lying to begin with, but Miwa insisted on knowing the truth even though she also would hate the truth. Tamaki's need of not having sex at her highest emotional peaks and Miwa's exact opposite need clash here, but neither of them have accepted it yet. "If it's really over" is a statement that knows the truth but hopes against all odds that it isn't true.
dance with me one last // Tamaki looking at Miwa and talking to her (text removed) appears on screen on one side, then a panel of Miwa looking back at her and crying. These shots are from chapter 68 again, when Tamaki asked Miwa to make her her girlfriend. The panels were parallel constructions on pages 11 & 12, so they slotted in nicely here. The song here doesn't finish the sentence — the missing word is "time", but instead it cuts out. The images also cut out to follow this; again, it's putting off the inevitable. No arrows appear in this shot because I feel like it's a request, a feeling, that's so strong it's out of the bounds of linear time.
Laughing tonight << [Rewind Arrows] Miwa rubs her face on Tamaki as Tamaki laughs and says, "C'mon, listen to me!" From chapter 96.
you look so << [Rewind Arrows] Panels of Tamaki hugging Miwa in her underwear. It's very intimate. From chapter 81.
perfect under the lights << [Rewind Arrows] Full page of Tamaki and Miwa having a very deep kiss. The idea between these shots is to ramp up the tension / desire.
Could swear you're << [Rewind Arrows] Now that we're getting to the weighty declaration again, I chose a panel that winds down the tension but amps up the comfort that shows the stability and sureness of the statement coming. This is of Miwa and Tamaki sleeping together peacefully in each other's arms, naked under the covers.
the love of my life << [Rewind Arrows] [Lights BG] A page of Tamaki looking at Miwa, Miwa looking back, then closing her eyes as she nibbles on Tamaki's hand. This is from chapter 88. Tamaki has always loved how cute Miwa acts, and this is one of those moments where she felt happy to answer Miwa's sexual desire by playing along. (Conveniently left out here is the fact that after this she wasn't quite able to satisfy Miwa sexually due to Miwa's high drive.)
If it's really over >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] [Static BG] Panels from chapter 92. Now we see the other side of the part I used for "and said this all but" lyrics earlier. Again, these panels are actually in reverse order from two consecutive pages, but it looked better narratively to have Tamaki lean in. Tamaki's expression in the bottom panel always really hits me because it's when you can tell she's made up her mind to lie. Seeing how happy Miwa looks (not pictured here but in the actual page), she can feel how fragile their happiness is. Miwa is in her hands and she doesn't want to hurt her. Big oof there. In my collage here, both Miwa and Tamaki look sad, which fits the song.
Play back in your mind // This next segment again transcends linear time so no arrows are found. Instead, it's all of Tamaki playing a song and Miwa watching her from the crowd from chapter 97. The panels chosen emphasize them looking at each other despite the distance, and then fade into…
the way I look tonight // These three panels are consecutive. While the images I've used so far have appeared left to right due to my own western bias of what signals passing time, this time the panels appear one by one right to left, just like they are in the actual Japanese. Again, out of the flow of linear time. It didn't feel right to reverse this, anyway. The panels each take two syllables, "the way", "I look", "tonight". With Miwa in the middle, she's being sandwiched by Tamaki's song. Very cute. Tamaki's expression here on the final panel also kills me and leaves me dead on the pavement. So naturally as it fades out, I picked a fade to white, which is the only time that's used in this video. This moment is so special, and this line of the lyrics is one of the ones that really, really hit. Because it's when the song acknowledges it's over but also makes a request to always be remembered fondly, as magical as you are in this moment. Tamaki in this moment is certainly magical. The final panel lingers even as the rest fades to white, like an afterimage of light. I feel really happy that it turned out this way even though I had no idea what I was doing. This is the first time I've actually edited anything seriously that needed transitions and all. I'm an Adobe Premiere Noob.
Feels just like New Year's Eve // What do people do on New Year's Eve? They kiss! I'm really happy that Tamaki ran to kiss Miwa right after her song. Super romantic and also fits this song perfectly.
when you look at me // Transitioned to the next page where they're looking at each other and everyone is cheering in the background over how daring Tamaki is. Tamaki says, "Ah ha ha, I feel like I'm high right now." This is indeed how she feels when Miwa looks at her! Miwa, blushing and flattered, says, "I—I bet you do." Both of them are really only thinking of each other in this moment. Miwa's gaze through that whole song sets a fire to Tamaki's heart.
Feel everything || [VHS overlay] Going all the way back to the start before they started dating. This is nostalgic and evokes Tamaki's memories. As a parallel, these panels are of Tamaki first singing in front of Miwa and Miwa sitting there, looking at her.
I felt the first time || [VHS overlay] These 3 panels are from chapter 105, which is when we really get a chapter from Tamaki's POV right as they're about to break up. This is specifically her memories of meeting Miwa. Matches the lyrics perfectly.
Fireworks in the sky || [VHS overlay] [Fireworks BG] Another page from Tamaki's POV in chapter 105. I removed the text because it wasn't the time to completely tank the mood yet, but the text actually said: "It was so much fun… I really cared about you, you know? I really loved you. It was the first time I ever just loved someone, no exaggeration or social maneuvering involved. It was also the first time someone ever loved me so deeply. I thought it would be forever. I wanted it to be forever." AAAAUUUuuuuuuuu …
They fade into the ether << [Rewind Arrows] [Fireworks showering down BG] Panel of Tamaki and Miwa looking at each other, lying on a bed, fading into panels where Miwa gazes at Tamaki and Tamaki touches her lips. These are from chapter 99. I removed the text, but Tamaki here asks Miwa if she wants to have sex, saying she's okay with it. The page here parallels the construction of the page from chapter 88 when Miwa nibbled Tamaki's finger (though in my video I cut out a fourth panel from the chapter 88 page when I showed it). Similarly, Tamaki at the time was okay with having sex for Miwa, but now in 99, even when Tamaki offers, Miwa won't actually take it. This moment is a sweet moment right before Miwa makes a wrong decision, which is to hurt them both by refusing to communicate about her needs and choosing the self-sacrificial route instead. This was just about their last real chance where communication and finding a compromise could've maybe turned it around. By the way, every time I hear this line I think it says "They fade into the evening." Some of these supposedly official lyrics just don't seem right? But "ether" sounds cooler than "evening".
Oh, they say >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] [Static BG] Panels from chapter 98 again, when Tamaki has just said something that reveals that she doesn't want to have sex. Her expression here is basically "Oh, shit." Miwa looks back at her with blank shock. This is technically one chapter before the previous cut, but emotionally speaking it's of the future (their relationship coming to an end). Also, the lyrics say "But they say" but I can only hear "Oh, they say". I wanted this segment to be a back-and-forth of the emotional past and future, so…
not even the stars << [Rewind Arrows] Tamaki's hand in Miwa's as they sit next to each other, from chapter 71. Text removed since they're just talking about how Tamaki's using the nail polish they bought on their date. This and the page I used from chapter 67 earlier establish that they used to gravitate towards each other's touch. 67 is before they even confessed their feelings, 71 is while they were dating, and…
last >> [Fast-Forward Arrows] [Static BG] Chapter 102 is when they don't even hold hands on a date. This is a lead-in to the emotional whammy of this video.
forever =~= [Static overlay] [Horizontal distortion bars] This completes the line that this video takes its name from. The horizontal distortion and static is meant to evoke a messed up TV from the older days. This is the part of the video that has the most going on with the images; I wanted these moments to be impactful. I also tried other distortion filters but they looked weird so I hope this relatively simple effect still hits hard enough. The panels are from 103 and 104, when Tamaki has hurt Miwa beyond the point of return.
What makes this moment so great to me, though, is that Tamaki isn't who Miwa hates in this moment — it's herself. She feels disgusting because she still enjoyed sex that Tamaki was only giving to her angrily, and she realizes she pushed Tamaki to the edge emotionally by refusing all physical intimacy in a self-martyrdom that Tamaki never asked for. (Not saying that Tamaki's actions were excusable, of course.) It's a moment where Miwa's conscious brain and her unconscious desires are all tangled; what does it mean when you can't even trust your own "no"? What does it mean when your partner can sense what you actually want but won't admit and so they ignore what you say, and therefore your bodily autonomy? How can you trust yourself, and how can you trust them, after that? If you get the result you want but you hate yourself for it; conversely, if you give someone the action they want, but you do it full of resentment to the point that you ignore their emotional safety: Was it worth it? Is this the only way it can be? This is complexity of a mess of feelings that few writers ever bother to capture!
Both Tamaki and Miwa messed up majorly leading up to this point, and it leaves them with trauma for a while yet. For this portion, I moved the static to overlay instead of in the BG, but I don't know if that's actually a change anyone can pick up on, lol.
Forever =~= [Static overlay] [Horizontal distortion bars] Panel of Tamaki hugging Miwa and saying "…I'm sorry." as she realizes she did something really wrong to Miwa.
Forever =~= [Static overlay] [Horizontal distortion bars] Panel of Tamaki crying in Miwa's apartment in chapter 105. She says, "…I just don't want to break up…"
Mm-mm-mm… =~= [Static overlay] [Horizontal distortion bars] Panel of Tamaki crying hard as Miwa wipes her tears away with a distanced expression. I kept the text in the following boxes but cut them out of the white background. The text reads: "But in the end, the only thing that really seemed to last forever…" "…were the tears that wouldn't stop flowing as if they could stop the inevitable from happening." These text boxes were the most important of this whole video, because it really matches everything about the song! For the background, I grabbed the iconic page that ends chapter 103, which is just all of these scribbles to express the pure depths of Miwa's agony. Here, it's being used for Tamaki, but specifically because that page was really the defining moment of no return — the emotional pain Tamaki has given Miwa is already too much, and now she's being hurt in turn. I really appreciated that Tamaki was the one to bawl her eyes out at their breakup, despite having been more emotionally resilient between the two of them. Miwa is strong when she wants to be!
This segment and the "Play back in your mind / the way I look tonight" are my personal favorites. For this "forever" echo part, I originally wanted to put a panel of Tamaki looking scary as she initiates the sex that Miwa says she doesn't want but actually secretly hopes for (and then loathes herself for wanting), but there were only so many "forevers" in the song and Tamaki wouldn't be looking at herself in that moment, anyway. I also thought of using the part where Tamaki is about to cry at the cafe when Miwa first says she wants to break up, but not enough space. As it is, I think this segment works well, and I liked that I got to space the fadeout of the panels first, then the background second onto black.
Staring at you tonight << [Rewind Arrows] Winding up for the end, this is the last cycle of good memories. Here we have a panel of Tamaki looking at the camera (Miwa) sweetly, saying, "Mornin'."
you look so << [Rewind Arrows] Fading in and out 3 panels of Miwa and Tamaki looking cute, hugging and sticking close to each other while naked. All of these are from chapter 96. Text removed.
perfect under the lights << [Rewind Arrows] Fading in and out of a panel of Miwa and Tamaki looking cute in a bubble bath together, and then a panel of Tamaki licking Miwa's lips. Text removed.
could swear you're << [Rewind Arrows] Panels of Miwa looking at Tamaki as she's sleeping soundly. This now reverses my pattern of Tamaki → Miwa to Miwa → Tamaki. In this moment, Miwa is thinking of Tamaki as…
the love of my life << [Rewind Arrows] [Water Drops and Ripple BG] Going all the way back to chapter 68, when their relationship started. Put in the full page, which shows Miwa and Tamaki kissing with rain falling in the background. Miwa says, "What am I going to do? I like you…" The water is most animated and here, fitting the emotions of that time. Fade to black.
If it's over // Panel from chapter 106. Tamaki is walking away from Miwa but looking back at her, and she says, "Also, I lied. That color looked great on you. I just said that because I was upset. As revenge, I guess?"
dance with me one last // [Leaves BG] Tamaki grins at the camera (Miwa), and says, "I hope you never forget it, for the rest of your life. Anyway, see you later." As there are leaves in the background of this panel, I put leaves blowing in the wind from the left to the right to match. The passage of time is moving forward, and the relationship is coming to an end. Also BTW this expression of Tamaki's is TO DIE FOR. Literally makes me so insane! She's insane for saying this, also!!!!!! LIKE!! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S NEVER GONNA FORGET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! YoOooOUuuuU—!!! (Incoherent yelling and pointing between the panel and the lyrics of the song) This panel was initially what I thought I would put for "the way I look tonight", but it doesn't make sense to have it anywhere else but the end. (Also her other expression in "tonight" is as equally to die for, so it all works out.)
time // [Leaves BG] Panel of Tamaki's back as she runs off. I also spent 3 hours animating this one leaf that comes from the top left corner, crosses the panel, and then plops down below the middle of the panel. The leaf is set to screen and its initial opacity matches the leaves in the background. When it crosses the panel it's just a blur due to the screen setting, but when it leaves it reaches its full opacity. That was done to keep it from being too distracting and dividing the eye path a lot, hopefully. The panel fades out, leaving just the leaf, and then the leaf fades out. The idea being that as she leaves (no pun intended), the only thing left in her wake is a leaf from the environment, and even that fades out. As a leaf that falls off a tree is dead, and this relationship is dead. Goodbye forever and goodbye my life. I'm not even sure if I'm like 100% happy with the leaf animation but there's no way I was going to get it any better.
___
I don't want to video edit ever again, BTW. The TamaMiwa monkeys in my brain were just too strong I couldn't resist once I found the perfect song for them. If an anime comes out I'll edit another version but I probably won't do any effects because I'm too dumb for that. Everything you see here is as good as it's ever gonna get.
Over and out. My monkeys are finally at peace after vomiting all of this. It took me 3+ hours to write and proofread this explanation that no one is going to read. Didn't even bother to source every panel by chapter. Didn't manage to use every good shot of them. That's okay though. I hope future me watches this video and is happy to have all the notes detailed. Tamaki my unrequited love asexual queen. Ultimately, Saeko is the best partner for Miwa.
