For the sake of completion, I figured that I should discuss the use of music in Tircis and Amante. For those of you that aren’t aware, I did an analysis of every track in the planetarian soundtrack in the Planetarian - General Discussion page, and how each track is used to represent certain themes and concepts throughout the novel. Tircis and Amante only uses a select few pieces of music from the original vn, but because of the nature of this story it is very difficult to discuss their significance of all of the tracks because it’s very different from the rest of the side stories. With that being said though, there are still some significant placements of music.
The general ‘Hoshi Meguri no Uta’ motif: Now in the previous topics, I have argued that this is the theme of each stories ‘Stargazer’, but in Tircis and Amante, there is no clear indication of a Stargazer existing which initially threw me off writing this earlier, but it starts to make more sense when you consider what the characters represent. Tircis and Amante’s meaning in life is to protect the words they have gathered, the words given to them by the previous generations of humanity, the words of the Stargazers. Throughout the story, the character decide that they no longer want to just protect the words, they want to share them, similarly to how the Junker wanted to show the world what Yumemi showed him, and in Hoshi No Hito, the three children wanted to share what the Stargazer showed them. While it may not be as clear as the previous characters, Tircis and Amante are Stargazers, or at least share the mentalities of a Stargazer, and the use of this theme represents this. While one could argue that the music is used just to remind the listener that this is a story in the world of planetarian or something along those lines, I would like to point out how Jerusalem had an entirely original soundtrack that was not used in any of the other stories, so there must be a reason why track from that story, or entirely new tracks weren’t used, and I think Jerusalem’s lack of a Stargazer is the reason.
Winter’s Tale: This piece first plays when Tircis sees the Moon/Earth in the sky along with all the stars in the sky. This is similar to how in Hoshi No Hito, this music first plays when the Stargazer shows the three children the stars. Now I’ve always argued that this piece represents a turning point for characters – it represents a character wanting to become a Stargazer, a character wanting to share knowledge and experiences with others. Now it’s around this part in the story where we see Tircis start to develop more as he starts to ask more complex questions and come to more conclusions such as how some words are wrong.
Gentle Jena: This plays when Tircis gets in the ship and starts to leave the moon. I’ve always argued that this piece is very similar to a hymn both musically and symbolically and its use in Tircis and Amante is no different in that regard. Tircis is about to embark on a journey with the purpose being to pass on the words of humanity to someone else. This is such a hopeful thing – even though the human race is gone, their wish is still being fulfilled. I think is the really significant when considering one of the lines Yumemi says in the vn: “Mankind will be able to solve all of its problems, and will one day reach out to the world of the stars”. Even though humanity didn’t physically make it to the stars (or at least beyond Mars), their words did, so in essence humanity did reach out to the world of the stars, and this makes Yumemi’s belief come true, and that’s what Gentle Jena is about – believing in Yumemi.
Itsukushimi Fukaki/Deep Affection: This is the final song that plays in the side story, and one of the most fitting ones to end on. While some may argue that Hoshi Meguri no Uta is ‘Yumemi’s theme’, I will continuously argue that this piece plays that role instead. In all previous cases of this piece being used, Yumemi gives her ‘Why don’t you come to the planetarium’ speech, and stays the same until the end. It is at this point in the story where it is revealed that the ship containing Tircis also contains Yumemi’s words, and the story concludes with them travelling through the world of stars. I think it’s a beautiful way to tie everything back to Yumemi. We have to remember, none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for Yumemi – the Junker wouldn’t have seen the beauty of the stars, thus Hoshi No Hito wouldn’t have happened and thus this story wouldn’t have happened. While humanity may have died out, because of Yumemi, they didn’t die in vain – they were able to pass their knowledge on to someone else. It really shows how the hope of one individual can really have an impact on the world. Even though Tircis doesn’t know who Yumemi is, she is giving him hope, and will most likely give hope to someone else.
Despite being very different from all the other side stories using this music, Tircis and Amante are very consistent with how the music is used and what it symbolises when compared with the vn and the other side stories. In my opinion, the use of planetarians music is severely underappreciated - it is rare for any series to have music that consistently embodies all of the main themes of the series, and I hope the analysis has helped others appreciate how masterfully planetarians music is used, and enhanced their appreciation of the series.
