Gratitude #12: Ottiki, Charlotte, yuP – Who Am I?

It’s my favorite Miku song. And perhaps the most niche one on the list by far.

How niche, you ask? Well, it’s a remix of an ending theme on a bonus disc of a soundtrack to an updated release of a bullet-hell videogame that doesn’t actually exist.

And it’s a real shame that it doesn’t. Ottiki and Charlotte’s avatars as protagonist stand-ins have good visual designs, and their supporting characters are all outlined and illustrated as well. The ‘level’ soundtracks are a welcome mix of dancefloor EDM, plus a few more varied tracks on the album that would fit character select screens, intros and lore dumps alike. The final boss themes through the ‘series’ might need a Gratitude dedicated to it by itself, and so I’ll save that praise for another day.

In any case, yuP’s remix of ‘Who Am I?’ differs incredibly from the energetic J-Pop that you would usually expect a vocaloid’s voice to be paired with. While the original is pretty upbeat and catchy for a credits-roll song, here it’s turned into a grand orchestral dubstep track in minor key, completely overhauling the chords and melodies of the original song while keeping the original’s vocal notes and intents. All the new elements and ideas introduced feel like it should be too ambitious to work, yet the way that it all clicks together makes for a style of song that has stuck in my mind for years.

I think I’ve stumbled upon a few artworks that share a similar vibe, in that they’re a mixture of clashing styles which a single artist couldn’t possibly conceive alone. I really think an original work inspiring another creator, with different ideas and influences between the two, is an absolute requirement for an artwork like this to exist. The same can likely be said for many standout transformative works like fan-games, too. It’s an idea that I’ve arguably tackled before in my own work, and I would like to practice and experiment with it more deliberately in future.


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