So, in my "Carol" story, when the girl band "CJDL" went to Korea, they met a producer, Yu Eye, and there was a hint that CJDL might get involved in writing some music for an anime.
So, fast forward about a year or more: they did a 3 month joint European tour with "Northern Girls" (having a LOT of fun along the way!), and at the same time, Linda and Carol started writing some rather different songs: the anime OST possibility became a reality.
This is something I wrote maybe 6 to 12 months ago, just a single chapter, and no braces at all.
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The house lights dim, but the stage lights do NOT come on: the stage is in darkness. A video starts to play on the screen at the back of the stage.
No one is on stage, although someone seems to have come on stage, and gone over to the drums, but otherwise the stage is empty. The music starts, and some vocals moments later... it's quite heavy rock, and seems to match the mood of the video that's playing perfectly. At this point, everyone probably believes that it's a recording of an OST, something to set the mood of the evening.
Three other people come onto the stage, with guitars - it looks like they are playing along to the OST. In keeping with the anime theme for the evening, they are all wearing a variety of well known character costumes.
A fifth person has just walked onto the middle of the stage, and a small spotlight hits them: it is clear that they are also singing along to the OST. They too are wearing the costume of a very well known anime character.
Now the main stage lights come on, and it's very clear that the band is not simply 'playing along' to the OST, they are PLAYING the music, and the singer at the front is the voice the audience can hear through the PA system. The crowd cheers loudly.
The music is the main theme from a very popular Anime, called 'Dragon Slayer - Umibo', and it's being sung by Yu Eye, the singer who originally recorded the song several years ago for the anime. Finally, the song ends, and the audience goes wild.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Yu Eye!!" said one of the members of the band. The crowd continued cheering and applauding, but finally quietened down.
"Thank you all VERY much for that amazing welcome. My name is Yu Eye, and it was my privilege to have sung many of the songs for 'Dragon Slayer - Umibo'. Later tonight you're going to hear some more well known songs, but next, we'd like to give you the first viewing of the OP to a brand new anime that is about to be released. It's English title is 'Breathe or Die'." Yu Eye walks off the stage to much applause.
The band starts to play, and the crowd are expecting someone else to come onto the stage to sing, but no one does. Instead, one of the band members, who is playing the bass guitar, comes forwards, and starts to sing the song, and as the song hits the chorus, other members of the band also sing. As the song continues, the solo voice becomes stronger, and higher in tone, very typical of what you would expect in the OP of an anime. The solo was, unsurprisingly, reasonably challenging, but it was sung perfectly.
As the song ends, the crowd again show their appreciation, and Yu Eye come back on stage. "Wow, amazing. I wonder if I actually NEED to introduce them, I'm sure by now you've worked out who they are: Carol Danvers, Jenny Stevens, Dianne Fox, and not forgetting the girl with the amazing voice there, Linda Jacobson! CJDL!"
We are at a special stage performance on the first evening of the Anime-Con event, one of several such performances that aim to showcase the music from the many animes. In some cases it's just amateur or semi-professional bands doing covers of the music, but in three cases, it's the actual bands playing their own OSTs.
For the past 9 months, CJDL, and to be honest, mainly Linda and Carol, have been writing part of the the OST for a new anime, 'Breathe or Die'. The anime is due to be released next month, but they have put together several sequences from the series as back-drops for the performance.
"Hey there, everyone!" said Linda. "It's been about a year in the making, and we've been working with them the last 9 months, but finally 'Breathe or Die' is about to be released - it's a simultaneous release in both Europe and Asia. I can't really say anything about the storyline - you'll have to watch it to find that out - but we're going to play you another three songs that we have written for it. Three different bands have contributed to the OST, and we're very much the 'newbies', but it has been a fun journey! So we were privileged to be asked to write the OP for the series, that's what we just played you: it's called 'Take me higher!'"
Carol took over the narrative. "So, next up is the song, parts of which get repeated many times through the anime, that belong to the 2nd lead character, Ichika. She's a teen girl, who is learning what love is all about.... Yeah, been there!".
The video from the anime started, and the girls started to play: in terms of a 'show', the girls had never done a public performance with such visuals being displayed, it was an interestingly new experience for the band. The four songs they would play tonight, along with the associated videos, would become part of their next tour.
Once again, Linda started to sing, but moments later, Carol joined in the singing too. This was something new for the band: usually, all four of them sang together - although recently, they had been working on a couple of 'solo spots' - but the music for the anime was written and sung mainly by Linda, with Carol also singing in a few parts. Their singing voices just seemed to 'work'. Yes, Dianne and Jenny had tried singing the songs too, but their voices just didn't quite work so well.
