The sense of Wonder

Click here for the video.

So there's this pretty well-known anime called Gurren Lagann. The show was pretty popular (I love it and own it), and the studio that created it, Gainax, also made some extra music videos for the show, called Parallel Works. Two years later, they made some more, calling them Parallel Works 2. Now, out of that batch, my favorite one is most definitely Akemi Hayashi's "The sense of Wonder." Hayashi, who works at Gainax and was one of the key animators in Gurren Lagann, made a short video set to music of a simple love story set in a fantastical world. Although you'll get the most out of the video if you are actually familiar with the Gurren Lagann story and universe, its different setting and simple story lends itself to be able to be enjoyed by everyone. About the music: There's no actual words sung until near the end, when the singer is essentially singing the boy's words to the girl, and the very last line, the one that sounds different, is the girl's reply.

Translated lyrics (not by me):

Just believe strongly in the tomorrow that is yet unseen...

I'll take you and run from here
Instead of hesitating, wherever you go,

I'll entrust my wishes in your hand
along with the dawn

Emptiness and hollowness
and the dry, sleepless nights

Changing all of it into smiles
That's what it means to protect you

The long night is dawning
I won't forget you

On this same earth
paint out the unfulfilled dream

I'll paint it onto this same sky...

 

Aw...don't the words make the pictures better?

Also, in Tokyo's 78th Comiket, they sold a 70-ish page book of storyboards, image boards, design notes, etc. of "The sense of Wonder."

As a collector and a fan, I'd sure like to get my hands on it, as well as a legit copy of the second set of Parallel Works.