ARM Backup/Ar Portal translation/Firefly Alley Citizen's BBS/Issue 7

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こんにちは、土屋です。
遂に3回立て続け！という事になりました。というのも、歌い手さんの紹介を途中で切る事は出来ないので、まとめてやってしまおう！という事になったからです。年内は歌い手さんの紹介、そして来年からはゲームシステムに馳せる想いをガンガン書いていきますので、よろしくお願いしますね！
さて、第三回目は、みとせのりこさんです。
雑誌情報もWEB情報も、シークレットな部分が多くて恐縮ですが、今回のお話も別の意味でシークレットな部分が多くなります。みとせさんがアルトネリコにもたらしている影響力というものが、どうしても今お話しできない部分に集中しているので、非常に心苦しいところではあるのですが…。
出逢いは、もう1年半以上前に行われたKircheというみとせさんのユニットのライブだったのですが、実際にこの企画にお誘いしたのはそれから一年後の事でした。私がKircheとみとせさんを知ったのはまだ大学生だった頃のこと。更には当時からKircheを聴いて育っていた（？）私でしたから、彼女はお願いするのも畏れ多い方だったのです。
実際お願いするのにはかなり度胸要りましたが、帰ってきたお返事はOK…どころか、他の誰よりも喜んでくれていた事は、今でも嬉しい驚きと共に記憶しています。それもそのはず、彼女もまた幻想世界の住人。このアルトネリコの企画をとても興味を持ってくれていたのでした。
志方さんの回にも同じ事をお話ししましたが、みとせさんのアルバムからも様々な世界を頂いています。そのアルバムは「夜音標本（ヨルオトヒョウホン）」。幻想的な民族系、東洋系の音楽にインダストリアルとロックのエッセンスを入れた素晴らしいアルバムで、このCDは、ゲームの実構築期間に延々と聞いていました。特に精神世界シナリオを書いているとき、このCDがお供の事が多く、ここから様々なエッセンスを頂いています。ただ、そんな状況ですので、ゲームも終盤にさしかかる頃の部分であったり、精神世界の相当深い部分などにこれらの楽曲から影響を受けているものが存在するため、「ここなんですよー」と言えないのです。更にはその外側（意味わからない発言だらけですみません）で、もっと色々頂いていたりするのですが…。
特にこの「夜音標本」の中で２曲目「天の鈴」は、今回お願いすることになったキャラのイメージとピッタリだったというのがあり、一発で決めさせていただきました。	
Hello, I'm Tsuchiya.
And we have finally reached number three!, or so it seems. Anyway, now I wish to introduce to you all a singer that can't be excluded, and while it seemed that it would be impossible at first we finally managed to do it! I have introduced to you all some of the singers during this year, and also, during the next year, I'll be talking about the intense feelings that drove me to write for the game systems, so hope continue making your acquaintance!
And well, this time, we will be talking about Mitose Noriko-san.
With her own journal and website, and while she is very secretive and shy, during the conversations, she showed me how different are the concepts of secretive that she has for many facets. While Mitose-san also brought her own influence to Ar tonelico, there also many things that can't be discussed here, so please, excuse me for that...
I met her around a year ago, when I went to a live concert of Mitose-san's unit: Kirche, and at that time, I invited her to participate in the project. You can see how it turned out now. And actually, I knew about Mitose-san 
and Kirche since I was still at college. Furthermore, I was brought up (?) listening to Kirche, and since she was so awesome, I wanted to ask her to work with me.
I really needed a lot of courage to ask that to Mitose-san, and when she replied to me with an "Okay"... I think that was the happiest memory I had in all my life, since I felt I was happier than anyone in the world. And besides of that, she also was another resident of a fantasy world. Naturally, this meant that she was also very interested in the Ar tonelico Project.
And similarly to what I said about Shikata-san, I also received various images for the world from one of Mitose-san's albums. That album was [Yoruoto Hyouon], and it's a fantastically wonderful mix of ethnic, oriental, rock and industrial music, and I actually listened to that CD a lot during the development process of the game. Especially when I was writing the Soulspace scenarios of the game, since I produced the essences for them together with the ideas that this album gave me. Also, in that form, because it also served as the source of the influences that I needed for the music of the final 
parts of the game, and for the deepest areas of the Soulspace, I can't say that is [whatever]. Furthermore, in the exterior (which I'm sorry if I covered this with an impossible to understand speech) it also gave me many other things...
This is especially true for the second track of [Yoruoto Hyouon]: [Bells of Heaven], which was what made me decide to ask for the definitive character images.
そんなみとせさんですが、アルトネリコの世界やストーリーを本当に気に入って頂けまして、収録やら打ち合わせやらでは、私の方が負けてしまうほど。何に負けるって、シナリオの熟読度がすごいのですよ。作っている私が「ここってどんなシーンだっけ…？」と考えている間に、サラサラっと答えてしまうくらい！更には、「ここでこのキャラはこういう発言はしないと思う！」と校正までして頂いたというエピソードも（いや、本当にその通りでしたので助かりました）。そんなこんなで、誤字脱字関係も含めて実はデバッグにもご協力いただいてしまったみとせさん。当然ながら、歌の方は更に輪を掛けて最高でした。
シナリオを熟読されて臨まれた方の歌は違います。そりゃもう、ヒュムノスが本来大切にしている部分である「歌のその奥にある、歌詞以上に大切な要素「想い」」までしっかり合わせて歌ってくれるのですから。みとせさんご本人が、そういう事（その歌をキャラが謳っているとき、どんな気持ちなのか、どんな想いで歌っているのか）をとても大切にしていらっしゃる方で、自ら何度も軌道修正をして自分リテイクを何度も出しながら、ご自身で最高の宝珠を創りあげてくださいました。
そしてまた、この収録時間の長いこと長いこと！毎回１２時間くらいは普通に歌っていましたし、更には彼女は一度ブースに入るとそれこそ何時間も出てこないのです！ブース内は熱もこもりますし座れませんから、普通は長くても１時間持たないものなのですが、本当にもの凄いバイタリティでした。いやはや、恐れ入ります。
そんな彼女の詩は、ゲーム中ではやはりプレイ終盤くらいから聴くことが可能になります。なかなかそこまで到達するのは大変ですが、聴いたらそんな疲れも一発で吹っ飛ぶことでしょう。それこそ天上の音楽…彼女の澄み渡るクリスタルのような歌声が、必ずや皆さんのプレイを祝福してくれることでしょう。そんな事も楽しみに、頑張って最後までプレイしてくださいね！	
And in that way, Mitose-san also liked a lot both the story and world of Ar tonelico, and when we began holding the meetings for the recording, she even defeated me. As for how she defeated me, it was because of how carefully she read through the scenario. While I was the one that wrote it, more often than not I'd say [How was this scene...?], and then, she would come fluently reciting all of it! Furthermore, she would even come and say [I think that the characters were supposed to say it like this], that I even ended entrusting to her the proofreading! (well, actually not to such extents, but she really was a great help with it). Well, in that way, Mitose-san really helped us a lot with the misprints, spelling errors, and with the debugging. And naturally, where she excelled was when she did the singing.
When it came to singing, she was different from how she was during the proofreading. That is, because Hymmnos is itself one of the most important part of the songs: [it's the center of the songs, the [feelings] which are even more important than the lyrics], and she did her best to fulfill these exigencies.
Since Mitose-san herself also had that concept in high esteem (When the character sings this song, with what kind of emotions and feelings does she sing it?), many times she self-criticized her work, and wanted to correct it to display the feelings better, which means that she herself created a magnificent treasure out of these efforts for us.
And also, the recording times were extremely long! She would usually sing for around twelve hours everyday, and furthermore, once she went inside the recording booth, she wouldn't go out until the recording time had finished! The inside of the booth was very hot and lacked chairs, so while I don't think anyone could continue being there for even one hour under normal conditions, she displayed that she has a truly amazing vitality. Good gracious, she has really amazed me.
Her songs are featured in the game near the endings, so that's when you should be able to hear them. While it will be considerably problematic for you to reach that point, once your hear them, the fatigue should be blown away. Because that is heavenly music... her crystal-clear singing voice it's surely a blessing for everyone that plays it. I hope you all are looking forward to it, so please, everyone do your best to continue playing until the end!