Tuneful Tuesday Two - Raspberry Heaven

So today's tune I'm going to go out on a limb and guess none of my friends have heard before (besides D). This song is the closing credit song to one of my family's all time favorite anime, Azumanga Daioh.  The song is called "Raspberry Heaven," by Oranges and Lemons (Yoko Ueno and Masumi Ito).  Dr C found Azumanga Daioh by accident at the library.  He saw the cover and thought I would like it.  We watched a few episodes and could not stop laughing. Although it has some "thematic elements" we decided the kids would enjoy as well. Enjoy it they did and they watched the episodes over and over again - so often that we finally bought our own copy.  The boylios then foisted the show on their sister-friend D2. D2 also loved it and made her mom, D, watch it. And so we spread the love . . .

Anyway, I love that this song connects me to wonderful nights spent curled up on the couch with my family, watching the episodes and just enjoying being together. The "thematic elements" have actually been useful tools for us to explore some "grown up stuff" with the boylios.

For me "Raspberry Heaven" is about those golden, timeless, kairos moments with your dear ones. The healing moments when you lose track of time and relax into the eternal present.  Here are some raspberry heaven moments from the show.

The show explores the lives and friendships of a several young high school women. One of the girls, Chio-chan, is a ten-year-old prodigy. In the scene below she is walking through the park with Sakaki-san and she sees some children playing. You can tell that she misses her childhood, though she is still technically a child. Sakaki-san then asks Chio-chan to jump rope with her, and eventually the other young women all play and enjoy the last light of evening together (scene starts at about 18:00). The scene is towards the end of the episode, so you can listen to the song at the end.

Here's another gentle moment in the park. When the boylios saw this the first time they said, "Mom, Dad, it's "Raspberry Heaven!" And indeed it is, as the young women literally walk into the pink sunset together, for a few shining, laughter-filled moments (the scene starts at about 2:50ish).

I'd also like to share an extended, live cut of the song by Yoko Ueno. It's so fun to see the actual instrumentation:

If you're one of those people who need to know what the words mean, you can go here.


A note from March 22, 2013:

It's been almost a year since I wrote this, and in that time I've been introduced to Glennon and the Monkees. I loved what she had to say about Kairos time here and I wanted to share: 
2011 Lesson 2: Don't Carpe Diem