AIMYON: When I was in elementary school, we had morning reading time. I remember we all read "Totto-chan: The girl at the window" at that time. Also, my paternal grandmother was a big fan of the artist who drew the cover of Totto-chan (artist and picture book author Iwasaki Chihiro), and she had a lot of calendars by that artist at her house. When I told her that I was going to perform a Totto-chan song this time, she said she would go see it with my father.

The film is set shortly before the end of World War II, when Totto-chan is expelled from her elementary school due to her restlessness and transfers to Tomoe Gakuen. The story goes on to tell various episodes about Totto-chan, including her interactions with her teachers and classmates, her life with her violinist father and mother, and Tomoe Gakuen's unique educational methods.

AIMYON: There were so many elements that could become the theme, I really struggled with where to start. While thinking about whether to write from someone's point of view, or to write the entire historical background, I just created a lot of one-choruses and repeatedly asked the staff, "What do you think?" Since it's a story about children, at first I imagined the melody to be more like a nursery rhyme. I thought it might work, like the bento song that the children sing in the movie, or something like "Maru Maru Mori Mori!" (laughs).

But since it's the theme song for the movie and it's my 15th single, I wanted to make it a song that was truly my own, and I had the ending scene in mind, so that was a big factor. I thought it would be weird to suddenly start with a fast tempo, and I had an image of the nuances and atmosphere of the song in mind from the very beginning.

The resulting song is a medium ballad, AIMYON longest at about 6 minutes and 50 seconds. It starts off simple, gradually builds up with strings, and ends with an outro that lasts more than a minute, creating a deep aftertaste. The lyrics are reminiscent of the relationship between Yasuaki-chan, a boy with polio who is disabled in his legs, and Totto-chan, who is at the heart of the story, and descriptions such as "If I could cross that puddle" recall famous scenes from the movie.

AIMYON: When the lyrics "I want to get back your shadow, your stride, your speed, reflecting your loneliness" came out along with the melody, I thought "this is it," and once I had an image of the chorus, I started writing the A-melody. But I didn't want to lean too much towards Yasuaki-chan, so I basically wrote it with the feeling that it was a love song. So if it weren't for the image of Totto-chan, it would sound like a love song. To achieve that, I feel like I've raised the age a bit in the song. Totto-chan and Yasuaki-chan are elementary school students, but in the song they seem to have grown up.

The image of "You with bedhead" really fits, and people with bedhead are often seen as childish, right? Because I'm writing in a slightly older age range, I imagined Yasuaki as childish by saying "with bedhead." The line "getting angry with a still-young look on his face" is also a reference to the fact that the two are young to begin with, but because I'm writing in an older age range here, I say "with a young look on his face."

The puddle scene is a really good scene. At the end, Totto-chan tries to jump over the puddle in front of the school, but she can't jump over it, which is also great. It really makes you face reality, and I think that scene is very important to the film, and it was very memorable to me.

The word "Anone" which is the title of the song, does not appear anywhere in the lyrics. However, if you are familiar with the phrase "Sensei, Anone," you can immediately imagine how this word is perfectly suited to "Totto-chan," which depicts various emotional interactions.

AIMYON: The initial working title was always "Totto", but when we were talking about what title to use, I suddenly thought of "Anone?" There was an image of a dialogue before the chorus, like, "Anone with your bedhead, I feel like you're more alive." When Totto-chan first enters Tomoe Academy, the principal says, "Tell me everything," and Totto-chan says, "Anone, Anone," and that feeling may have been in the image.

Also, in my hometown of Nishinomiya, there is a school called "Anone" (a booklet). I always thought it was something that existed all over the country, but when I wrote this song and asked the staff, "Do you know what Anone is?", they all looked confused, so it seems that it's not something that exists everywhere. It starts with "Teacher, Anone," and you write down what happened that day, and I thought that it connected to the image of Totto-chan. Now Tetsuko is the one listening to the story on TV (laughs).

At a preview screening held prior to the film's nationwide release, viewers said they saw parts of the film that allowed them to see themselves in Totto-chan.

AIMYON: When I was in elementary school, I would mess around whenever a camera was pointed at me, making funny faces and shouting loudly, so there were a lot of parts where I felt like, "That's just me." Also, Totto-chan is a very tomboyish girl, and you never know what she'll do suddenly, but she's also very considerate and always keeps an eye on her surroundings. In the final scene, when the girl started crying, she purposely made a funny face to make her laugh, and it made me feel like I have times like that too. I watched the show and related those parts to me, like if I mess around, people around me will laugh.

I would like all parents who wonder why their children are so hectic or why they can't get along with others to watch this movie. The current generation of parents is already quite young, with mothers and fathers born in the Heisei era, so I think there are some who have never read Totto-chan, so I would like them to watch it again. I think this movie will surely evoke something in both adults and children.

The strength of AIMYON 's singing is what makes the sadness and deep love contained in "Anone" even more apparent. This year, she has completed a nationwide tour of 40 shows, and her expressiveness as a singer-songwriter and singer is becoming more and more refined.

AIMYON: I don't remember the recording being that difficult, but the first A-melody and other parts have a small number of notes, so I didn't have to push my voice too hard and there were a few parts where I had to rely on the nuance. Recently, I don't do things like re-recording so much, so I sing about three lines at a time and choose the one with the best nuance.

At first, I was a bit worried, so I chose people who sang well, but I've been doing this for 7 years now, and I've seen a lot of different people perform on stage, and I think singing isn't just about being good. Of course, I'm happy when people say, "You're good," but there's more to it than that, like how you stretch out your words, how you speak, whether your emotions are properly coming out, and so on. I think that's what's important for a song.

Recently, Oideyasu Oda-san sang "Naked Heart, and although he's not very good at it (laughs), that's not what's important. I used to be very concerned about pitch too, but recently I've sometimes thought it's better to be a little off. I've been on tour all this year, and I've had even more time to face my own singing, so maybe that's why I thought that.

The single's B-side includes "calcium," arranged by Mitsume's Motoi Kawabe. This is the third collaboration following "Miniskirt and Highlights" and "Satsuki," which were also performed on this year's tour, and the combination of the rough band performance and lyrics that describe the conflicting feelings of "I can't forgive the person I love" and "I want to drown in the person I love" is fun.

AIMYON: Basically, I like to create coupling songs that are completely different from the title song, but this time I had already decided to ask So-kun, so I chose a song that sounds like So-kun, or rather, something that would be interesting if So-kun arranged it.

The recording was super fun, it felt like a club activity (laughs). Until recently, the songs that Moto-kun arranged were played by the members of Mitsume, but this time it was Moto-kun's friends, and it had a student band feel, which was really refreshing. Of course, the musicians this time were great, but it was more lively than usual recordings, and we were saying things like "Why?", and it felt like it's been a while since I felt this way. By the way, the title "calcium" is a play on the phrase "I love you so much."

This year, Aimyon released three singles: "Ai ai no hana," the theme song for the morning drama series "Ranman," "Not Not OK," which was created freely and with her own unique style, and "Anone," and completed AIMYON fulfilling national tour. In 2023, a year in which society as a whole seems to have regained its former momentum, it can be said that AIMYON once again established her footing as a musician.

AIMYON: This year was a year of thinking, "I hope I can do this, this, and this." I think it's a really good balance to have the tour as the main focus, and to have released three new songs. This year's tour was imagined as a tour with the people who have always come to see us, so it had a homey feeling and it was great to be able to go around with peace of mind, and I thought it would be great if we could do this every year. I'm really glad that I was able to come across a great morning drama this year, and I want to work hard at the end of the year as a way of giving back.

TEXT: Atsushi Kaneko