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An Ode to Calling

cold_spirit

he/him
AKA
Alex T
Do you have a safe place in a video game? A secluded path or hidden area that you can’t help but take a momentary rest in? There’s something to be said about these secret areas, especially if you find them yourself. I have a safe place. It’s really obscure. It’s not even in a game, I just thought the idea still applied. My haven is a karaoke-destined, Japanese pop song from the '80s heard during the second credit sequence of an extremely niche CGI action movie. How did this happen?

“I wonder how many sleepless nights you have to count, before you find your way
After how many lives are lost, will the strife end?”


Calling by Kyosuke Himuro is used as the closing theme of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The song plays over footage of a CGI Cloud Strife riding his motorbike across the real-world prairies and mountain tops of Hawaii. A dazzling spiral staircase of golden names rotates in front of the viewer giving additional credit to those involved with the film’s making. It’s quite an odd affair.

Yet there’s an undeniable candescent comfort to it all.

“With your voice strained and your hands gripping tightly
Waiting for the time when your destiny is sure to change”


I can’t help that I was first immersed into Final Fantasy VII and the Compilation when I was in middle school. Enjoying JRPG’s made me a bit of oddball growing up in the Midwest of the United States where hunting and football is all the rage. I always felt completely isolated with the media I loved. People just didn’t understand the importance of my PSP wallpaper of Cloud being impaled by Sephiroth on top of the Shinra Building, a sneak peek at Advent Children Complete. But that stuff absolutely excited me. And I watched the movie every day when I got home from school, usually falling asleep for a bit when the action picks up during the second half. I remember flashes of the fight scenes merging together as my conscious faded in and out. I’d start waking up, however, just before Cloud’s smile. The first credits roll. Soon it’d begin. The screen fades from black and you see an aerial view of rolling clouds. The music starts. It’s so catchy and upbeat. The credits swirl up. A motorbike rolls across a distant highway. The drums kick in. The beginning of the end. A smile across my face.

Just imagining the tune brings me back. We all know what it is. Pitiful nostalgia. Reminiscing that feels more like ruminating. Before I stumbled through college. Before I knew what I liked and what I hated. Before loved ones died. Before I forced myself to get used to my 8-5 desk job. We were all once kids. The power of infinite potential coursed through us! Yet there was no other place I’d rather be. Mesmerized by Calling.

“Like someone said one day before
The answer is in the wind”


 
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