“All discomfort comes from suppressing your true identity.” – Bryant H. McGill

Man, listen…

I have a long history with anime.  Long before Dragonball Z I was watching the original Gundam.  Before Cowboy Bebop I was trying to binge watch Yu Yu Hakusho.  Before I reached a point where I can consistently binge watch on Hakusho I was looking through catalogs I managed to snatch from my classmates, threatening to order everything animated, long before comprehending the differences between general anime, child friendly anime and adult anime.  Trust me, I know the difference now.  I found out the hard way.

Oh how I found out…

A long time ago, back in the late 90s (when the world made sense) there was a wonderful television station known as TechTV.  It was a magical channel about computers, tech and the internet as a whole.  It was a beautiful thing.  It was made more beautiful in 2004 when it merged with G4, a gaming channel.  It SEEMED beautiful at least, because ultimately a lot of the TechTV original programming faded away and made way for game related programming, which was a mixed bag.  On one hand, I enjoyed a lot of TechTV programming.  On the other hand… I enjoyed a LOT of TechTV programming.  I enjoyed Robot Wars, and X-Play (which survived, not surprisingly), and a certain program from World of Wonder Productions that shall remain unnamed as to protect my employment opportunities.  That last one is still around now as far as I know.  That makes me go:

But the show that got to me the most was Anime Unleashed.  In continuing with my love for anime, this provided me a good opportunity to watch stuff I couldn’t see on Toonami (this is before it was a part of [adult swim], you young whippersnappers) such as Betterman and Crest/Banner of the Stars and Dual!, oh I loved that last one.  I was a fan of Tenchi Muyo and the harem anime because I guess I still hold out for that being my future one day.  My own harem anime. 

What?  I like anime.  And Dual! was an alternate Tenchi reality and… look, it was a good show.

But one show made me stop watching anime for a bit.  Serial Experiments Lain was that show.  Its easy to appreciate Gundam for the giant mech suits and the colorful characters (and weak dialog), but as you get older you can appreciate the philosophy of war and motivations of those characters, for better or worse.  Lain wasn’t like that: Lain beat you over the head with how heavy it was from jump.  The show began with a girl ending her life and only got more intense from there.

This show aired around 2003 or 04 I believe; I can’t remember the exact year.  At the time, I was NOT ready to handle something so dense at the time.  My own beliefs and thoughts weren’t developed at the time and even now I struggle to pin them down but for me, at thirteen or fourteen, this was rough.  I never made it past four episodes: I plan to rectify that soon.

One thing stayed with me though (it’s a music site so I assume you know where this is going): the opening theme.  Boa’s  “Duvet” is an indie rock track as infectious as it is obscure.  It’s one of those songs that you’d find today in Juno or an episode of Life is Strange, both of which I enjoy immensely.  Oh Michael Cera.  You’re so awkward.

The sound of “Duvet” is laid back but melancholy, and lyrically it details the ever popular troubled relationship.  Frankly there isn’t much that stand out about it besides the fact that its catchy though.  The song is technically proficient and worth constant repeats, but it falls into that rare category of songs that are good but not special.  Were it not attached to Lain in the future, would it have been so successful?

I can’t answer that.  A few questions swirl around the song though.  Why is it so infectious if its so okay?  Which is better: the studio or acoustic version?  Is the group a good group?

Actually, to answer that last one: yes.  The band is fantastic.  “Duvet” is an okay song with a catchy feel and sound: the albums they’ve released as equally catchy and critically good.  The lead singer has an understated passion behind her more monotone (better than Drake) singing, and her emotion towards all subject matter she approaches is met with calmness and pain worthy of the best 80s/90s alternative rockers. 

You know who I’m reminded of?  Polaris.  They were the folks behind the opening theme to The Adventures of Pete and Pete.  That’s to say that there’s a garage sound behind both bands, but Boa is decidedly more polished.  And while both shows, Pete and Lain, are existential forays into cultures distant from our own, “Duvet” manages to capture the show’s essence without being directly parallel to the show itself. 

And you know what?  Maybe that does make the song more special than I first thought.