Interview] "Girls Blue Happy Sad," the new album of Pantasia in March, to be savored with their own novel.

Pantasia of March, the music unit of vocalist "Mia", has released its second album "Girls Blue Happy Sad". The album, which contains 12 songs in total, is a conceptual one, while including a single song with an anime tie-up. It was based on a novel written by Mia, with various creators contributing songs. In addition, popular illustrator Diesuke Richard was in charge of the visuals. With novel, music, and illustrations, this is an album that will immerse you in the world of Pantasia in March.

The most important thing when singing is the "mood" felt from the song.

─ ─ This is your first appearance on Akiba Research Institute. So, I would like to start with the basics. What kind of unit is "Pantasia in March"?

Mia It is a unit in which the vocalist "Mia" collaborates with various composers and illustrators, and I am basically the only member. When I started "Pantasia in March," I thought it would be a good idea to collaborate with the vocalo-pop artists that I have always loved, so we started our activities as an independent unit. We started by sending demos of cover versions of songs by Vocaloid Ps that I admire, and asking them if they would like to collaborate with us in creating a piece of music.

──You still work with a variety of people on a song-by-song basis, haven't you?

Mia: Yes. For example, a new song on this album is based on a novel I wrote, and I started production by meeting directly with each composer.

───Your major label debut song "Hajimari no Sokudo" was the ending theme for the TV anime "Kizunaver. You have sung 7 anime tie-up songs so far, haven't you?

Mia: For the tie-up songs, I created them with the world of the work in mind. I imagine what kind of girl the main character is like, and I try to imagine how she must be feeling in her daily life, and how she must be most excited at such moments.

─ ─ So, since the song is a part of "Pantasia in March," you have included your own feelings in the song. Listening to the tie-up songs so far, I felt that the unique world view of Pantasia of March is well expressed.

Mia: I am always conscious of a good distance between myself and the work. Since it is the theme song of the work, I want the fans of the work to love it first, and I have wanted to release a song that they would think is good as a stand-alone song since the beginning. Therefore, we place the utmost importance on the theme of the music we create. For example, I was in charge of the opening theme for the TV anime "Beelzebub no Mistress no Okonomisama. I wanted to write music about feelings that I wanted to express but could not, about the frustrations and conflicts that I felt. That's how I ended up with the song "Pink Lemonade.

─ ─ "Pink Lemonade" is also included in this album. The lyrics were written by artist Kanon Wakeshima, right?

Mia: She wrote very beautiful lyrics. I thought the lyrics were very typical of Kanon, depicting detailed emotions from a woman's point of view.


───The new album "Girls Blue Happy Sad" is composed of a good balance of single songs from anime tie-ups and new songs from the album. Besides "Pink Lemonade," three of the songs on the album are singles: "Kaze no Koe wo Kikimasaru," "Rubicon," and "Collage.

Mia: "Kaze no Koe o Kizukinakara" is the ending theme for the TV anime "Slow Start. I read the original story before I started working on this one, and what impressed me the most was that the main character was a junior high school waif who couldn't tell her friends that she was one year older than them. I sympathized with the main character, who was troubled at first with her secret, but then came into contact with the warmth of others and gradually opened her heart, and I wanted the song to be about walking at one's own pace, even if slowly. I told 40mP about these thoughts, and he wrote the lyrics, composed the music, and arranged the music for this song.

───This song is exactly what you just described, isn't it?

Mia: He gave it a gentle and warm tone.

─ ─ "Rubycon" is the ending theme for the second season of the TV anime "Re:CREATORS".

Mia: It brings back memories. Rubicon" is the oldest song on this album. Re:CREATORS" was an original work without an original story, so we wrote the music without knowing the storyline. The story was about two-dimensional characters appearing in the real world, so I decided to use the theme of the existence of two worlds. In everyday life, you sometimes feel that that person is from another world. For example, a lover who has been separated from his/her lover is now living separately, but in his/her mind, he/she continues to live the same way as he/she was back then.

───The lyrics were written by aokado, and the lyrics are exactly the story that Mia just told us. I always felt that the song had a very realistic worldview for the ending of "Re:CREATORS," so I was convinced. The title "Rubicon" refers to the Rubicon River, right?　Famous for Caesar saying "the die is cast" and crossing it.

Mia: That's right. It was like there was no turning back now. I named the title after that anecdote. But many people asked me, "What does "Rubicon" mean? I was asked by many people (laughs).

─ ─ And then there is "Collage. It is the ending theme for the anime "Today's Gohan at Emiya-san's house.

Mia: "Collage" is a warm and euphoric song. Emiya-san's Family's Today's Gohan" is a spin-off of the "Fate" series, but actually I had never seen "Fate" before, and "Emiya Gohan" was my first experience with the series. So I was able to sing "Collage" with an honest and happy feeling, but when I watched "Fate/stay night" after that, I was shocked to see everyone in "Emiya Gohan" fighting so fiercely (laughs).

─ ─ That must have been a surprise (laughs).

Mia: I was rather glad that I could sing the song without knowing the thoughts of the characters behind "Emiya Gohan.

───I sang various types of songs just for the tie-up songs, and the vocals have different expressions for each song. How conscious are you of the different types of vocals in each song?

Mia: The most important thing in singing is the "mood" of the song. For example, the lead song on the album, "I wish March would last forever," is a song about a girl who is very stubborn. She doesn't really want to break up and say goodbye, but she is a girl trying to say "goodbye" cheerfully, and the vocal approach was decided by feeling her feelings and singing about them. Rather than thinking in my head about how I should sing this song, or how I should sing it with this type of voice, I just followed my "mood" as I sang it, and as a result, I think various ways of singing came out.