Hey guys! This post is a bit late because I been busy preparing for parent’s observations this week. However, this week’s Song Lyrics Sunday from what about weddings, thanks to Jim. When everybody thinks about weddings or songs about weddings, they think about Billy Idol’s most famous hit “White Wedding”. Since I know a lot of people might have picked the song, I choose something instead that reminded me of my childhood.
The Love Legend of the Angels, Wedding Peach
As you might have not known already, I’m a big fan of Sailor Moon. I’ve been a fan since I was about 9 years old. Sailor Moon was the gateway for magical girls anime series. The magical girl genre is about girls, most elementary or junior high-aged, who have special powers. They can be as a solo hero or in a team. The nineties had a lot of super popular magical girls series like Sailor Moon, Saint Tail, and Cardcaptor Sakura.
One magical girl series that isn’t well-known is Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach (愛天使伝説ウェディングピーチ; Love Angel Legend Wedding Peach). The show is centered on middle schooler named Momoko. She inherited superpowers to fight against the evil Raindevila who wants to destroy anything that deals with love and the love angels. Momoko battles these evil forces with her friends Yuri, Hinagiku, and Scarlet. With the use of the magical item St. Mirror, Momoko and friends transform into their superhero personas with two suits: a wedding dress one and a battle one.
The series is much more than a magical girl series as it also talks about social issues. A major social issue that the series touched was when the main character loved someone who was from a different race. Momoko, who is half-angel as her mom is an angel, falls in love Yusuke, who is half-devil as his father was a demon/devil. During the series, Momoko’s friend kept on telling her that it is no good to love Yusuke as he is evil, dangerous, and not suited for her. However, Momoko resisted her friends pleads as she continued to love Yusuke. This love was a pivotal key in the battle against Raindevila.
The lesson that Wedding Peach teaches is that love is love and it has no color, no race, and no culture barriers. This lesson is something deep for an anime show that was aimed for little girls.
Winning With Wedding Wars
One of my favorite songs from Wedding Peach is the second opening called “Wedding Wars ~Ai wa Honoo~” (Love is a Flame). It is sung by Erina Nakajima, who really didn’t release anything except this song. The lyrics are written by Arisu Saito, who has written lyrics for various anime and TV shows as well as Jpop songs. The most famous song that Arisu is known for is the 90s staple “Choo Choo TRAIN” by the group ZOO.
I find “Wedding Wars ~Ai wa Honoo~” is one of my favorite anime songs. The lyrics fit the theme of the series really well. The chorus briefly touches upon the battle between two sides and the wish that the two would unite as one with peace, a wish made by the main character Momoko. The lyrics during the verses can be deemed to be a bit depressing as the character of the song ponders why happy feelings become sad ones or that she is a depressed mood. However, this depressed mood turns around by the end of each verse with an oath of determination to make things better.
My favorite part of the song has always been the ending of the chorus when Nakajima sings “Negai wo komete Wedding” at the very end. It adds a dramatic flair to the song. Take a listen to the song below and tell me what you think of it:
Here is the Korean version of the song. I was introduced to Wedding Peach when I was in elementary school when my dad, who was stationed in South Korea for a year, brought home a Korean Wedding Peach t-shirt.
By the way, I talked about Wedding Peach before about four years ago when I talked about anime series.
