The world famous composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, has passed away from cancer at 71 years old on March 28th, 2023.

Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2017

You may know him from his work in the Yellow Magic Orchestra, or likely from the Dawn of Mana Opening Theme. We have a small page dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto in our Soundtracks section due to this Mana connection.

You can find an announcement on his personal website, and read the Japan Times article for more information about his illustrious career.

Below, you can take a listen to the Dawn of Mana Opening Theme he composed.

Here is something really cool. The youtuber Jammin’ Sam Miller has apparently taken to restoring the soundtrack to Secret of Mana. Essentially what he does is recreate the entire soundtrack using the original samples from all sorts of sources from when the game was made. We’re talking keyboards, drum machines, sample libraries, etc. This guy finds them and does the best he can to remaster the entire soundtrack. If you have not seen his Donkey Kong Country pieces, you’ve gotta check him out. Anyway, here is his “Fear of the Heavens” restored:

Did you ever think you’d hear those whales so clear? Apparently they come from “OMI Universe of Sounds Vol 1” and are entitled “SFX_Animals”. Really wild stuff. You can check out the information on where samples came from here.

The project has an anonymous sponsor, and will result in a vinyl release in the end. I might have to get this.

Ah, Sweet Dancer

Ah, Mana Music Mondays, Do You Remember Me? It’s been over a decade. Back in the heyday of this site, from 2007 to 2012, I really felt The Calling to highlight some of the great Mana music tracks out there. I was posting tracks almost every week.

Those days aren’t coming back, but I’ve got a real Treat for you today. It’s a Day of Celebration. There are some real Revelations here that are going to Put Your Lights On and cause some Waves Within your understanding of the Mana universe. Let the Music Set You Free. Why don’t you and I take a trip to Anywhere You Want to Go, as long as it’s to the land of Final Fantasy Adventure / Adventures of Mana. I promise this eventually has to do with music (it already does actually, maybe you’ll catch on).

Well, All Right, time to get a Move on. Before We Go, there are Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played through Final Fantasy Adventure or Adventures of Mana yet. But I am sure that You Are My Kind, and already know this stuff by heart.

Dance Sister Dance

Our music track for today relates to the Girl in Final Fantasy Adventure. Remember her? She’s no Black Magic Woman, she’s The Healer. Here is a little run-down of her story for you up next.

Skip this if you want to get to the point, or if you Just Don’t Care.

At the beginning of the game, her knight, Hasim, has fallen, and she’s got No One to Depend On. That is, except for the Hero, a former slave who is now Free as the Morning Sun, with whom she pleads “Take Me With You“. Later on, Bogard tells the two to head over to Wendel. On the way, the Hero and the Girl accepted the Open Invitation to stay at Kett’s place. But the Hero awoke in the morning to find She’s Not There. So he goes Searchin’. 

This Boy’s Fire

Turns out, he needs a magic mirror as Persuasion to get into the depths of Kett’s. It’s off to the Marsh Caves, where he meets a mysterious man who helps him out. With the Hydra defeated, the Hero gets a new spell and it Feels Like Fire. Back in Kett’s, the Hero found the Girl and defeated the Vampire who was ready to make her his Soul Sacrifice.

After finally making it to Wendel the mysterious man from before reveals his Evil Ways, he’s Julius! He kidnaps the Girl off Into the Night. So the Hero and Bogard take off after him; it’s Night Hunting Time. Shortly after, the Hero and Bogard made it to Julius’s airship, practically Breaking Down the Door to rescue her, but things go awry! Julius is on the attack! With Nowhere to Run, Bogard gets blasted off the airship, perhaps now he is Somewhere in Heaven for all we know. Julius proves too powerful, and the Hero just can’t Hold On either, so he plummets down below as well. The Girl is left alone with Julius… things have gone seriously Sideways.

Winning

A whole lot of story happens here, but the Girl isn’t involved so I’m going to Choose not to talk about it! I am Free to do as I please, after all.

Eventually, the Hero does meet back up with the Girl, but unfortunately she’s under Julius’s magic spell. And she casts her own magic spell too, reversing the flow of the waterfall. But the Hero gets blasted away AGAIN by Julius, but this Fortunate Son seems to have a knack for surviving. But he’s fed up with the adventure. He finds Bogard, bedridden, and doesn’t even say “Hope You’re Feeling Better“, he’s just ready to give up. Bogard manages to convince him to Try a Little Harder, and he’s back on track. The bonds of Brotherhood are strong between these two.

A whole lot more Adventure happens between here, as Everything’s Coming Our Way, including the end of the game.

Finally, the Hero makes it around the world and finds his way up the waterfall to save the day. At the end of the game the Girl goes through some Changes, you know Them Changes, and becomes Everybody’s Everything. She is her Mother’s Daughter after all. Time flows like a river, and history repeats Over and Over.

One of These Days I’ll learn to write more concisely.

Let’s get to the point.

Think back to the waterfall reversing scene. Do you remember the Girl’s famous line? The magic words that reverse the flow?

Klnka Imra Miryon Tin Qua

Of course you do, right? Well, that is what she says in the English and French translations at least (not sure about German). So, yeah, that seems like a load of nonsense doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be a simple Caeser cipher or any other cipher I tried. Did the translator mess it up somehow? Let’s take a look at the original Japanese text from that scene:

The scene in Adventures of Mana (Image Source)

オエコマバ イリト ペモパボサ ムワラタ

Say it Again, this time in a way that people who can’t read Japanese can understand it. I’ll write the Katakana in Romaji instead (it’s not perfect, but it’ll serve a purpose later).

oekomaba irito pemopabosa muwarata

Well, it’s definitely not the same thing… so what is it? Try saying it a few times and see if you can catch what is going on. Imagine a nice Latin beat with an organ, some electric guitar, and some rocking drums.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed a lot of strange italicized phrases in this write up. Those are all song titles actually, and I only included the recap of the Girl’s story above so I could shoehorn even more of them in. Pretty Smooth right? Tell Me, Are You Tired of it? Ok, I’m done, no more of that. I managed to shove over 50 song titles in. But why was I doing it, and whose songs were they?

Legend of Santana

They were all songs by the band Santana or that involved the band leader Carlos Santana in some way. And the reason I chose those songs is right in the article title up top, just in the wrong language. I should have written it en español.

You see, in 1970 Santana recorded a cover of a 1962 cha-cha-chá (a genre of Cuban music) by Tito Puente. That cover was of the song Oye Como Va, and it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s real good, it’s in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In fact, it’s real great. It’s on the Donkey Konga track list (but not the Japanese version). Oh yeah, you know I was rocking out in-game to this one back in 2004. In fact, this was the song I was the best at (either that or the one by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), I never missed a single note even on Gorilla mode. I was pretty cool, or at least that’s the Impression That I Get.

So let’s look at the lyrics to the song and the magic spell above together. I’m not going to translate them, because it doesn’t matter here. I’m also going to adjust some of the letters in the Romaji, because letters like B and V or R and L are sometimes interchangeable in Japanese, using the same symbols. B and P are also very related, as they are both plosives and use the same symbols apart from the diacritical marks (i.e., バ and パ; ba and pa). Same thing goes for S and Z as sibilants (i.e., サ and ザ; sa and za). Keep those in mind when looking below.

Oye como va, Mi ritmo,  Bueno pa’ gozar, Mulata

 

oe koma va i rito pemo pa bosa muwalata

Hey, isn’t that neat? It doesn’t line up 100%, but it’s undoubtedly the same “words” just misheard perhaps. We can take things a step further, if you consider that sometimes words that end in R in other languages simply end in an A sound in Japanese (bosa to bosar) and that B and G share the same diacritical marks, the dakuten (those two little lines), which mean they make a “muddier” sound compared to the same symbols without. 

But why Santana? Maybe someone on the team just really liked Santana. I don’t blame them, it’s a solid choice.

見て, 森高千里

But you see, Oye Como Va has been covered by a lot of people. In fact, Chisato Moritaka, a Japanese pop singer, covered the song in late 1990. Interesting, considering Seiken Densetsu released in Summer 1991. But that’s just a coincidence, right? How do we know it was her version of the song, and not Santana’s that inspired the quote in the game?

Let’s read some commentary from the production staff that was included in the Japanese Advanced Knowledge guidebook for the game (I grabbed the Japanese text from here). Below is a comment from Yoshinori Kitase, director and producer at Square Enix, known mostly for Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger. His story with Square Enix actually starts with Final Fantasy Adventure, where he worked on game design and the game’s scenario. Here is what he said…

物語の原案は石井さんのものなのですが、細かいところで自分なりのアレンジやお遊びを入れたりもしてます。映画ではスターウォーズが、アイドルでは森高千里が大好きなので、もしかしたらそれに関するお遊びがあるかも…？　今回、非常に楽しく作品を作れました。ー北瀬佳範

… and here it is translated… (thanks to Sevon for brushing up my translation)

The original story is by Ishii-san, but I also added my own interpretations and little details. I’m a big fan of Star Wars and the performer Chisato Moritaka, so maybe they influenced me…? I had a lot of fun this time around. -Yoshinori Kitase

Well well well, 見て at who popped up (Translator’s note: 見て means look). That settles it, I think, and some Japanese fans do as well. It also lends a lot of credence to the idea that “Jema/Gemma Knight” was inspired by “Jedi Knight” and the fact that Obi-Wan and Bogard seem pretty similar.

So there we go, let’s take a look at the actual music for this Mana Music Monday post. Listen to it and think about the words of the magic spell:

oe koma va i rito pemo pa bosa muwalata

You can definitely hear it, can’t you? It sounds a whole lot like it’s written there. This had to be a case of misheard/misremembered lyrics.

This version of the song is pretty fun. I definitely prefer Santana’s version, but there is nothing wrong with this one (well maybe those random yells that accompany the organ solo around the two minute mark). This is just a solid song no matter who covers it as far as I can tell.

So that’s the origin of the Japanese magic words in Final Fantasy Adventure, and a neat little jaunt into the ways the worlds of Mana and music flow together. I hope you found it as interesting as I did. I am still not sure about the origin of “Klnka Imra Miryon Tin Qua” but maybe one day I’ll figure that one out too.

It does share a suspicious amount of letters with the name Kaoru Moriyama… and that name just so happens to belong to the English translator of the game. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?

Courtesy of @ManaGame on Twitter, you can listen to 10 minutes of the Trials of Mana 25th Anniversary Concert.

Hopefully there will be a CD or DVD release available sometime in the near future, I’d love to see more!

Up for preorder on the Square-Enix store, you can find three Mana Music Boxes for sale. They’re pretty expensive, and the shipping is pretty high as well, but it’s pretty cool these came to the North American Square-Enix store.

Trials of Mana – Meridian Child

Legend of Mana – Hometown of Domina

Legend of Mana – Bejeweled City in Ruins

Here you can check out some short videos I took of each of them. The Domina one is by far my favorite.

You can also find some other cool Mana stuff there, if you look around. I’d recommend the Li’l Cactus Plushie, but you can also find some very expensive but very cool things.

I’ve finally managed to get myself white listed on the site again, after 5 long years, and magically enough the post I bring to you today is about exactly the same thing I posted about last time.

Except this time it’s finished.

Head over to sd3.ocremix.org to check out the SD3 OverClocked ReMix album, “Songs of Light and Darkness”, it’s taken a while but it’s finally here.

The second song on the album is especially on the nose, literally mentioning the “long long time” and “it might take 5 years but it reached the last stop” in its lyrics (I didn’t expect lyrics going in; also my last post mentions it being in the works for 4 years, so I guess we’re looking at almost 10 or so now, what an endeavor!).

Thanks to Rozovian for keeping me updated all these years on the project, and congrats to you and yours for seeing this all the way through. Also thanks for giving me an excuse to use the Mana Music Monday tag again, even though it’s technically Tuesday now. But late updates are nothing new around these parts!

Anyway, great job to all involved, and I look forward to listening through the entire thing.

“Spectrum of Mana” is a remix album of the 1993 classic “Secret of Mana.” The entire soundtrack has been lovingly reworked and reimagined by a team of almost eighty musicians. From jazz to metal, symphonic orchestration to funk rock, “Spectrum of Mana” is sure to provide something enjoyable for every fan of the game.

Head on over to Spectrum of Mana’s page to stream or download the album, which has been split into 3 CDs. You can also order physical copy of the pack.

You know what I’m going to be listening to tonight. I’ll post some impressions at some point later.

Hey everyone, belated holidays to you all, things have gotten super busy for me since grad school started so I haven’t had time to update the site at all. I don’t expect I’ll be able to update the site much until the summer or so, so expect things to keep pretty slow around here.

Anyway, OCRemix released another Christmas themed album and you can find it here. One track from the album is by Rozovian, who I’ve mentioned before in a few updates (he’s heading up the secret SD3 album, more news on that soon… possibly). It’s a remix of A Cold Beat from Heroes of Mana, and it’s the first HoM remix I’ve heard myself. Check it out! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the album too.

Into the White – Rozovian – Heroes of Mana
[audio:https://www.seikens.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/02-Rozovian-Into-the-White.mp3|titles=02 Rozovian – Into the White]

So, in my determination to study up for a test I have tomorrow I neglected to put up the MMM update at a decent time today.

And that’s how I picked this track!

If you can put up with the Rising Sun bits you can really enjoy the Fighting Arena and Endless Battlefield bits of this piece. I really like how it starts out all happy and carefree as the Rising Sun appears over the story and then suddenly you can imagine the Hero of FFA and his hardships fighting for Dark Lord’s enjoyment in the Fighting Arena. Then he escapes out onto the Endless Battlefield with a mission to save the world, and another Rising Sun appears because a new day has begun in his life. Yeah that’s pretty deep right? Ok maybe not, but I’ve always thought this album could use a Fantasia-esque animation to go along with the music. The only problem I see is that it kind of covers a lot of ground once you get to the Parting and Decisive Battle track.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Determination – Kenji Ito – Seiken Densetsu – Let Thoughts Ride on Knowledge
Arranged by Takayuki Hattori

Today’s track comes from the new Seiken Densetsu arranged album called Re:Birth / Seiken Densetsu.

Just click on the youtube video to get to the other songs if you want to listen, but I’m putting this one up because it’s my favorite from the album. I absolutely love the original version of this track, and I think the vocals added for this arrangement are really great.

The Endless Dream – Kenji Ito – Dawn of Mana

Thanks to nick912012 from the forums for telling us where to find the music on YouTube!
If you’d like to discuss the album with us on the forums, come on in!