Translation of an interview in Gundam Seed Destiny Journal Mechanic03. Thanks to Kagariba no Hanabira for the translation!
Yuki Kajiura’s Interview
Kajiura-san took part in Cagalli’s image song “Honoo no Tobira (The Gate of Fire)” which was used for Akatsuki [the name of Cagalli’s mobilesuit in DESTINY] first appearance in Phase 40 (The Golden Intention)
She is the owner of the calm-voiced ending song “Kimi wa Boku ni Niteiru (You are similar to me)”. Moreover, she is also Cagalli’s diehard fan. It’s such a coincidence that she was always assigned to deal with Cagalli’s songs.
The coincidence….in the studio
After being trusted in the previous season “SEED” as SEE-SAW, I was so surprised when I heard the guideline of the song from the sound producer Nozaki Shuichi [I guess his name from Thai pronunciation, which has no difference between ‘sa’ and ‘za’, and ‘chi’ and ‘ji’. I can’t find his name in other English source.] I thought that “Is it really a Gundam song?” (lol), but I must accept that it’s See-Saw’s style. It’s the style that we always mixed in the studio. Afterwards, we watch the [Gundam] movie, both the sounded and soundless version to find the direction of the song. It looks so similar to “Star Wars” so Mr. Nozaki said that please think as if we would use “See-Saw’s song” for “Star Wars”. It made me speechless and thought that “really?”. Surely, I didn’t have the exactly same idea as Mr. Nozaki’s but I saw some lines moving behind the story.
What you need to understand is someone in front of you is also a human.
As for the ending song of “DESTINY” “Kimi wa Boku ni Niteiru (You are similar to me)”. I partially set up my own direction. Pairing with Ishikawa Chiaki who is the vocalist made me need to be careful to maintain our standard. Furthermore, it’s like the responsibility to close the series as beautifully as possible to thank the fans who had supported the series for a long time. So this song is full of various emotions.
The feelings of cursing the cause of the endless war, crying for what lost in war, and wanting to end it are what I thought. The opponent is a human, you’re also a human. What will we fight for? No matter who dies, it makes discord, makes pain, becomes the endless cycle of sadness, becomes fuel of war in someone’s mind.
It doesn’t matter that who started it or who has cruel past before. Everyone joining the war is wrong. No matter how angry you feel [towards the war], it doesn’t mean that the one you fight with is the cause [of the war]. Your opponent may have the same pain as yours inside. At last, it’s two hurt hearts fighting until the wounds were ripped and both sides are painful. Like Shinn, Athrun, and Kira, all of them held their own justices and fought each other. This is the reflection of the truth in the world. It’s an nondifferent mistake. Therefore, I passed [these messages] to the ending theme of “DESTINY”
Both Shinn and Cagalli are just stubborn children
In another point of view, Cagalli is very stubborn. But it’s a good kind of stubbornness because her real personality is a very good person, crazily good. But it’s a frightful thing. Walking directly to stop the war is like using herself to shield the bullets. You couldn’t do that if you weren’t crazy enough. “DESTINY” is awesome in many aspects. It’s like they put many news about current world situation into one anime and changed my opinion about the cause of the war. What we saw isn’t which side dies “more” or loses “more”, but any side is “innocent”. It’s like the sorrow that Athran and his side feel. This is the truth that the “number” is meaningless. No matter which side dies, it’s sad. This is what children growing up in a peaceful country like Japan will never understand. They just literally know war, but “DESTINY” will change their visions of what called war, and make them grow up as adults who can see the world better. I’ll be very happy if it becomes like that.
Profile: Kajiura Yuki
She debuted as an anime soundtrack composer before* forming the band with the singer Ishikawa Chiaki under the name See-Saw and sang the hit ending track of SEED, Anna ni Issho Datta No Ni. (Even we’d been together). Afterwards, she worked with a female singer YUUKA under the name FictionJunction, composing and singing Cagalli’s insert song “Honoo no Tobira (The Gate of Fire)” again.
[*I think this information is incorrect.]