Soundtrack/Commentary/Yanato Planting Song -Oracle-

**Spoiler Warning**This page contains spoilers for the main story of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. Proceed carefully.

## Yanato Planting Song -Oracle-

After five months of writing since the game's release, this is finally the last song I'm going to write about in the "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin" music commentary. The final song to be introduced is, of course, the main theme and ending song, "Yanato Planting Song -Oracle-".

This song is also available as a stand-alone video on the YouTube channel of the vocalist, Saya Asakura, so you can listen to it even if you haven't played the game yet. The video is posted below.

However, if you want to listen to this song in the most emotional way, the best situation is to play the game until the end, experience the hardships and joys of planting rice, think about the bonds with your friends, and listen to it while digesting the ending of the story.

I have warned against spoilers many times in this series of articles, and I hope that those who are going to play the game will not read this article, but listen to it first in the game.

This is the last song in terms of the order in which it will be played, but I'd already decided to use the Yanato Planting Song as the main theme when I was asked about it in the fall of 2015, so it was the first song I worked on in terms of production order. I hadn't decided on a name for the song at the time of production, so I simply called it the rice planting song (orchestra version).

The composition of the melody is described in the article on the acappella version in Part 7.
However, I had the impression that the melody tended to be rather monotonous due to the nature of the song, which was originally intended to be sung during hard manual labor. I felt that if I made it as it was, it would be less powerful as a main theme, so I wanted to add elements of the rhythmic folk songs sung at bon dances, etc., to make the melody more memorable.

When I wanted to add elements of folk music to the song, the first thing that came to mind was the Nikko Waraku Odori, which is very familiar to the people of Tochigi Prefecture. (If you're familiar with the legendary Ninja Action Team, you might recognize it as the original song from "Born.") (Viewer discretion advised - this video contains flashing images.)

If you listen to the song, you will notice that the three notes at the beginning of the song "Nikko Waraku Odori" are exactly the same as the three notes at the beginning of "Yanato Planting Song". Of course, the rest of the song is completely different, but the tempo and the rhythm of the musical accompaniment have influenced me in many ways.

The song is composed of a verse at the beginning of the song, followed by heavy strings that remind us of the ending of the story. At the time of production, we hadn't decided on a singer yet, and I was just hoping it would be a memorable intro.

After the strings, guitar and drums join in and the first theme starts with a slow rhythm. The whole piece is in major key, but only the first theme starts with a minor chord. In the beginning, the minor chords are used to depict the struggles of planting rice with no hope in sight, and then the major chords are used to depict the gradual emergence of hope, and the second verse, which is the chorus, marks the first harvest. The drums and flutes of the festival celebrating the harvest become an interlude, and in the second number, which inherits the first's bright rhythm, there is a lot of hope - a feeling like that of getting married or when a child is born. The second theme at the end of the song tells the grand story of the ascension to heaven and looking down with the gods for the prosperity of their descendants and a good harvest.

In fact, the song was written first, and then the lyrics were applied, but the lyrics fit perfectly into the song structure, and the wonderful singing brings out the worldview more than enough to make the song truly complete. The song was used in a very moving context, and combined with the overwhelming voice, many people said they cried or were moved by the song. I think I was able to create something that is truly beyond my abilities due to a combination of various fortunate factors, and I hope that people will continue to listen to it as a beloved song for a long time to come.

This is the end of my lengthy explanation of the song.
I will be more than happy if this song will remain in your memory along with the great game "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin".

**Thank you for reading!**