POWDER SNOW’ is my favorite song of all time. It’s a song that manages to capture the essence of the series perfectly. The notion of love is delineated, accentuated, and made all the more incredible by the singer of the piece — perhaps the largest, the most incredible victim it all. It’s a song about a love that never ends. It’s a love that was not requited, but it was a love that also never diminished. It’s a simple love song. One, cheesy in nature, but also one nonpareil in having its veracity deferred to. It’s a song that carries extreme emotion behind it. The extreme emotions don’t quite seem unnatural in the context of the song. In fact, they seem all the more attenuated, casual, and matter-of-fact. It’s a song that manages to convey the most extreme of emotions, while maintaining minimal instrumentation and execution.
And second, by performing ‘POWDER SNOW’ itself, Setsuna conveys the notion of Todokanai Koi (届かない恋).
She wrote the song, she played the sung, and she sung the song.
Try to envision emotions in the shape of electromagnetic waves, undulating through the air. Electromagnetic waves follow certain physical laws, but they don’t specifically seek a receiver on their own volition. In this instance, Setsuna serves as the receptor herself — that incredible amount of emotion, of passion which had previously been propagated through the air indiscriminately, centered on one individual. In holding all the emotions on her own, there is no catharsis. As the sole receptor, each time she sings, that amount of passion increases, and since her emotions always have a targeted direction, there is no release. Her love at that point only grows greater and greater. In other words, when she says something as nonchalant, as obvious as:
“I’m still singing.”
So despite just how lightly-delivered the line is, it’s powered by a lot of emotion. Typically, trying to talk about a love this intense would be subject to ridicule. It simply wouldn’t exist, or it’d feel far too out there. But Setsuna, with ‘POWDER SNOW’, manages to sing of the most grandiose of loves, with minimalist execution. In doing that, its verisimilitude is certain, and its grandeur, obvious.
It’s without a doubt, a breathtaking song. White Album 2, is an phenomenal work.