Board 8 > [VGMC] R16 D1: Innocence and Emptiness (Baldr) vs Douwa Kairou (Gitadora)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to today's topic for Video Game Music Contest 13, a tournament of the best tracks from games, as decided upon by you, the voters.

Links:
Bracket - http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=471679
Contest info - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17rEeB1_oYWgryWzIxOaZXw2a381gKGnMegjHCG_2OTQ
Discussion and results thread - https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77672812
Bracket playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW9O9mntH1RF28glW72G6s_5M1e4kcSxR

.
Rules:

- Listen to both of the songs. Links have conveniently been provided for both songs. Even if Song A is your favorite of all-time and Song B is from a series you hate... Listen. To. Both. (If I have suspicions your vote is not based on a fair and impartial preference, it will be disqualified.)
- Obvious contest rules apply (no alts, one vote per person, no rallying, etc.).
- Please make your voting options clear, rather than burying them in text.
- Each set of matches lasts 24 hours, even if the new one isnt up by then.
- Always vote on the versions of the song provided, not versions from different sources.
- If you know ahead of time that you're not going to be around and you want to vote in advance, post your choices in the discussion/bracket topic.
- Please do NOT post tallies/score updates in the middle of the match, as this has a tendency to directly influence matches.
- You don't have to vote in all the matches, but it'd be cool if you did!

.
Today's match:

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TnnPq4AxPU" data-time="

GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOrlz6yxLqU" data-time="

.

Easy vote form:
Innocence and Emptiness / Douwa Kairou

.

Song lyric trivia: Utupe leo chakula chetu / Tunachohitaji, utusamehe / Makosa yetu, hey! / Kama nasi tunavyowasamehe / Waliotukosea usitutie / Katika majaribu, lakini / Utuokoe, na yule, muovu e milele! // Ufalme wako ufike utakalo / Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni (Amina)
---

Innocence and Emptiness

oops i missed yesterday

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou
---

DK deserves a better position. Of all the 15 other retirees it had to go against...

Innocence and Emptiness
---

Douwa Kairou
---

Innocence and Emptiness

Feels very foreboding with only one match a day now. I'm not used to my vote being this short! Hope the strong votals can be maintained now that the retirement round's done.
---

Douwa Kairou

Douwa Kairou

Douwa Kairou

Glad we more or less made the best out of this part of the bracket.
---

Douwa Kairou

Douwa Kairou

The last 3 minutes of I&E are awesome, but I can't just ignore the first 4 minutes, which I find to be really mediocre. Douwa Kairou is consistently good, even if it doesn't reach quite as high at its peak.
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness

vote of no confidence bring back tigar
---

Innocence and Emptiness

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness

Let's do this!
---

Douwa Kairou

nfun votes:
Innocence and Emptiness
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

Douwa Kairou

It pains me to vote for any of these, but I guess Kairou
---

Douwa Kairou

Douwa Kairou
---

Douwa Kairou

Hopefully this should be the last tricky match of the contest I'll have to put a decent amount of thought into. Unless 2 of my 3 favorites happen to face each other then I'll be glad to put in more thought again but they're all in different brackets and I think only one of them stands a chance of getting much further.
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

Douwa Kairou
---

Douwa Kairou
---

Innocence and Emptiness
---

New rankings out of 16!

3. Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness (9.5) (over Snake Eater, TIGAR, Mount Vesuvius)

vs.

15. GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou (3) (for Howling of the Birds, over Your Contract Has Expired, for Machine Passage))

It doesn't get much more mismatched than this. I love songs with a slow build and I&E's slow build is just awesome - when it finally plays its cards, it's a wild ride. Really glad to see this one retire.

It's not like I don't understand why people like Douwa Kairou - it's just not for me. Too much overwhelming guitar. Some parts of it are nice. Most of it isn't. I will be sad if it wins.

Also, this will be my first time answering the lyric trivia, because I don't think anyone else has yet: it's the only VGM song to ever win a Grammy.

Vote:
Innocence and Emptiness

rwlh posted...

Also, this will be my first time answering the lyric trivia, because I don't think anyone else has yet

I guessed that in my head. That counts right?
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness
---

Douwa Kairou

Douwa Kairou
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness

Today's day is brought to you by... 4 waifus vs. 1.

Match-up analysis:

If this was a site-wide Character Battle, this would be the Legends Bracket: The beginning of the definitive overall results at an extraordinary level of power and quality compositions.

...For the most part (you know, you'll almost always have a character there that you think shouldn't be there, but maybe you also agree that most of the popular characters there are just... extremely cool). Maybe I got a little carried away with this obvious comparison, but at least that's the kind of hype I was getting by just listening to Innocence and Emptiness building up in my head while writing this.

Speaking of which, I&E has a kind of uninteresting first quarter IMO, but it also serves as a pretty good build-up for what comes next, which I think helps it way more than it hurts it. It gets progressively more and more accommodated, as well as sounding more "complete" in a way as time goes on and the melody blasts at full power. It may have been a rather overlooked piece from my part in the past rounds, maybe for the context in which it was in (you aren't hyped enough like in later rounds), but listening to it now, carefully and with more attention, really makes me appreciate it a lot more. It gives you a "look, there's a huge battle coming at just around the corner, but take heart - you have the power of us, your friends, behind you; we will beat this thing together!!" kind of vibe.

Contrast it with Douwa Kairou, which is a pretty good and solid rock song by itself, but lacks a lot of charm and emotion behind it. There's actually nothing wrong with it (musically speaking, it's great), but that's simply not enough at this point of the round if you want to get away with victory. There's also not much excuse to make it so short if we're taking into account that the song itself literally has percussions, guitar riffs and bass lines everywhere. It makes it seem like it has also a lack of direction, which is actually a huge deal considering that its rival literally has a build-up greater than 2 minutes to make up for an amazing 7-minute song (when normally, as I've said many times in previous write-ups, it's really dangerous to make a song longer than 4:30 without a loop since a long duration can actually hinder the overall quality of the song [but hey, don't take my word as a musical expert, 'cause that's not my intention; it's just a personal observation I've come to realize lately]).

Now, I'm not saying that you have to follow I&E's steps specifically to make up for an amazing song. Blasting off like Douwa Kairou does is great in its own regard; it's just a matter of perception (and, of course, taste).

Oh, and... the girl with purple hair at the left is too attractive, so...

Un-Guiltiness and Un-Fullness >> Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness

good match. I prefer the, uh, emptiness of Innocence and Emptiness to the overly-busy feel that Douwa Kairou has for much of it, but I won't be upset either way.
---

Baldr Heart - Innocence and Emptiness (yes, this is my vote)

Man..... this is a tough choice. Turns out these are closer than when I my rankings yesterday indicate. I hope this match doesn't come down to one vote. Yeah, I was supposed for vote for Douwa, but.....

Baldr Heart Innocence and Emptiness
Im not sure if the title really describes the music well. Well, it does fit the beginning. The starting bells theme are pleasant enough. It starts to grab my attention when the creepy stuff starts happening in the bass I especially like the bowing of the string bass at 0:54, as well as how the bells are not moving in double time. I know some people dont really like the beginning, but I think its really good. At about 2:00 a beat sets in, setting up for more melodic stuff. This is my least favorite part of it, though its not bad. 4:00 we start seeing harmonies start changing and setting up for the final materia. This is my favorite part of the piece begins, and the intensity hits its max. My favorite part has to be 4:23 4:47 I just love the static bass with those changing harmonies there. So yummy, cool dissonances. Of course, the climactic melody at 4:46 is favorite nice, too, and the strings/flute melody at 5:10 is even nicer. Interestingly, the starting theme (the bells) weaves its way into the material towards the end of the loop at 7:00 way to end it with a bang!

Favorite part: 4:23 4:47 (and when it repeats)
Ranking: 9 out of the 16 Retirees

GITADORA OD - Douwa Kairou
Waithuh? A piece with complex harmonies retired? As Redd White might say, Impossachievable.! (there are a handful of them, actually) I hope this sets a precedent for the future! The guitars melody is super tonal, though, so thats probably why it didnt turn everybody off. Pretty standard rock sound, but of course thats no problem. Fortunately, the underlying chords remain interesting pretty much constantly. At the start, I enjoy the 5/4 feel in the piano before it goes into 6/4 with the guitar/bass, where it decides to go between 3+3 and 2+2+2 for continued variety. I always like fast patterns with those minimum changes necessary to accommodate the changing harmonies, such as at the start. The music calms a bit in the intermediate section, but it continues to throw harmonies galore at you it's easily my favorite part of the whole thing! The way it ends with the same starting figures but with that bass note changing the final harmony to a VII instead of a I is awesome. Maybe theres not a lot of variety in the sounds used, but its not really necessary here. As far as Beatmania music in this contest, though, I prefer Junge.

Favorite part: 1:04 1:15
Ranking: 6 out of 16
---

Douwa Kairou

Innocence and Emptiness

Not in love with either, but the choice is clear.
---

Innocence and Emptiness

Innocence and Emptiness

Well, the good thing about being near the end of the contest is that even my crappy short-term memory can recall the last time a song was in a match, so I knew right away to just skip to about the 2:20 mark for I&E. Which is longer than the entirety of Douwa Kairou.

Vote: Innocence and Emptiness
---

GITADORA OverDrive - Douwa Kairou

Man, it's crazy to think that we're in the final 16 songs now! This has been such a fun experience so far participating in my first VGMC that I honestly don't want it to end. After the whole thing's over, I'm probably gonna have next year's VGMC on my mind a lot haha. Well, I guess I've said just about everything that I needed to say throughout the contest, so I probably won't say much more until some closing remarks once it's all over.

Innocence and Emptiness
---