Terror in Resonance Soundtrack Analysis: -crystalized-

After around a month of waiting, we are finally presented with the second soundtrack (arguably just as good as the first one). While the first soundtrack contained most of the “main theme” songs, this soundtrack has enough character to stand on its own as well. The first soundtrack painted a vivid picture of a transformation from subdued outrage to gentle hope; this soundtrack contrasts wonderfully with its melodies from solitary desperation to panicking action to at last fulfillment.

If one is to think the first soundtrack shows the “beginning” and the “end”, then this soundtrack most definitely can be considered to be the “middle”. It is really interesting that the soundtrack artist, Kanno Youko,/creators decided to release the soundtrack that way. Why that is for certain, I cannot say, but I speculate the reason may be how the first and the last episode tie so well together. In the beginning of the first episode, we are shown a world heavily dependent on technology, but also blissfully ignorant. At the end of the last episode, the world is back to its dependence on technology—but what is different? The “enlightenment” of the peoples. What happened between those two events are important in their own right, and I believe that the creators wanted to show us that.

And so, without further ado, let us jump into the analysis. Adobe reader 10 64 bit.

Hey, don’t leave that quickly, there is plenty of anime sheet music on this website. Also, I am the pianist of Trio ELM.We perform anime and game music in concerts.
Terror in Resonance (残響のテロル, Zankyō no Teroru, lit. 'Terror of the Echo'), also known as Terror in Tokyo, is a Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA. The anime was created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, with character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa and music by Yoko Kanno.

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First starting off: the cover of the soundtrack. The first soundtrack had a picture of a crow/raven, while this one’s album art is a picture of an unknown rock specimen. I believe this is to show a “heaven and earth” duality in the show—Nine’s transcendent “in the clouds” ideals vs. Twelve’s growing affinity with “the earth” aka the people (mainly Lisa). When considering what kind of mineral, element, or rock this specimen could be, I believe it accurately represents the multiple sides of Sphinx.

Countless times we are shown black birds in the opening and even in the final episode. Birds are a constant reoccurring theme in this show, but are mostly associated with Nine. What about Twelve? From previousanalyses we theorize that they have symbolic significance. However it is hard to notice the other potential significance. As I have more or less gone into in my chemical analysis, there could be some chemical significance in the show as well. Connecting that, I believe that this rock is meant to be the element Lithium (or at least the crystalized, fantasy-like version of lithium—as quartz lithium is in actuality a pinkish color). The reason why is because the rock appears to have a metallic luster and varying shades of grey to black-ish color. It’s crystal structure initially threw me off and made me believe it could also be another different type of rock (which it very well could be), but taking into consideration Lisa’s connection with the element Lithium, how important lithium is in nuclear physics, and how if the bird cover is meant to relate to Nine then we can relate this cover to Twelve, then this becomes much more likely. When lithium is cut, it’s metallic luster turns to a dull silver before eventually fading to black, which is what this rock appears to be doing. This in a way can show Lisa’s transformation from a “white” innocent to wanting to become a “black” terrorist. Another important thing to note is lithium is an element that all organisms have trace amounts in. It’s something that we all have in common and in a sense binds us together. While Nine was “taking flight” in pursuit of his goal, Twelve was finding something in common with Lisa.

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The first title of the soundtrack, “kvak”, translates directly from Icelandic to mean “twitter”. This is not so much twitter in the social media sense, but more of like the twittering of birds. This is a variation of “fugl” which means “bird”. The “twittering” can be most attributed to the beginning of the song where the hurried pattering of notes most resembles that of a bird’s. These two songs play during scenes with Lisa, and can be most affiliated with her. This could represent her assimilation into Sphinx, and that she feels like a caged bird desiring to be free. You could argue that this could have connection to Twitter as that was one of the main media outlets Sphinx utilized during the “information bomb”, but this song doesn’t quite fit with that.

The second song, “crystalized” is also the subtitle of the album (Zankyou No Terror OST -crystalized-). This begs the question: after such a focus on birds, why are we looking to crystals/rocks when they are never explicitly mentioned or shown? Once again, I believe this is supposed to be a more subtle allusion to the “heaven and earth” duality. It is easy to constantly focus on the heavens and ideals, but the life and world on earth can be something we often take for granted. Back to the meaning of “crystalized”, when something is crystalized, they are forming crystals as a result of a precipitation of some sort. This song is featured during the airport incident, and gives off a sense of urgency and action. It is possible to believe that the song title represents something about to come about as a result of this incident—something will “precipitate”. As a result of this incident, a lot of things result as a consequence. On one hand, it could relate to Lisa as she is helping Nine and Twelve and therefor allowing them to “beat” Five. However as a consequence Five receives information on Lisa and it goes downhill from there. Shibazaki becomes fully involved in this as well and manages to stop Five at gunpoint, but in return he is put on “indefinite leave”. Nine and Twelve go to disarm the bomb and they manage to divert it before anything could happen, but because it exploded Sphinx was unavoidably tied to that explosion. These two episodes are a cultivating point of the series where a lot of different factors and influences came together and precipitated into a much grander circumstance, and I believe the title of this song does well to show us that.

For this next track, “cket”, it was puzzling at first. It doesn’t translate into anything in any language, nor is it an acronym that stands for anything. I therefore concluded (possibly incorrectly), that “cket” is only part of a word and the whole word is actually meant to be “racket”. But why leave out the “ra-“? First of all, to look into the meaning of racket. Most commonly “racket” is defined to be loud noises. In this song, you can conclude that is one side of the song as there are a lot of instruments coming into play, coming together in a mix of sounds at the climax of the song. However another, less common definition of racket is a form of organized crime where one is to claim that they can only solve an issue/problem and only them, and if they did not exist then the problem would never be solved—but in actuality they have their own goal and pretends to try to solve the issue without actually doing so. Who does this sound like? Five. She is called in and she says she is the only person who can combat Sphinx (really, Nine), and therefore they have no choice but to rely on her and her methods to catch Sphinx. However, she has her own plan and goals, and has to constantly be reminded by Clarence that she needs to focus on her given task. In fact, this song is played during Five’s interaction with Nine. But why is the “ra-” missing? Because this isn’t quite so evident at first. Five’s methods are unconventional, but her motives are still hidden from most people. However her methods stand out enough to make people question, which is why the word is only partially hidden, as her goals are only partially hidden as well.

This next track was rather interesting to look at. Like “lolol” is played during Nine’s flashback/moment of trauma, this song, “ioloi” is played during Five’s moments. Like “cket”, these two do no

Terror In Resonance Ost