RE_PRAY Audio Commentary Impressions Part 3

Some memories come flashing back.
Memories of the past begin to surface.

The second part of RE_PRAY begins with that sensation.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Happy End," which Hanyu-kun collaborated on with the Tohoku Youth Orchestra at notte stellata 2026.
Having watched Hanyu-kun's performance several times,

and after hearing Hanyu-kun's interpretation, what I felt was
that even though the hands of the clock were definitely moving forward,

it felt as if I were being pulled back into the past somewhere,
a sensation of being dragged backward while moving forward.
It wasn't just remembering; it felt as if

past memories were being replayed right here and now,
and rather than looking back,

it felt like they were flowing into the present.
In the second part, "Someday a Dream Will End; RE" is,



even though what was once pursued
was thought to be absolute,
it's as if one is beginning to realize somewhere that

"perhaps it was just a dream"...
Ah, something like that happened.

I was thinking about something like that.
In that way,

it's like looking at my past self,
yet not completely detached from it either,
a slightly warm feeling,

as if beginning to accept it somewhere.
Hanyu-kun mentioned that sometimes dreams are so real

that he doesn't know which is the dream,
and I thought that was just like the Butterfly Dream.

When I wake up from a dream where I was a butterfly fluttering freely,

I am certainly a human—
but,

precisely because that dream was so real,
I end up feeling that this place where I am now might be the dream.

After living a dream (ideal),
what lies beyond that...

When I was vaguely thinking about such things,
"Yae no Sakura" suddenly came to mind.

The other program that Hanyu-kun performed at notte stellata 2026.
Even though it should have a different concept from RE_PRAY,

I felt something overlapping somewhere.
Hanyu-kun's expression,

I think, is truly unwavering.
So, rather than a coincidence,

perhaps it was something that naturally overlapped.
Rather than the moment a dream comes true,

how to live after that.
After accepting the end,

to still keep moving forward.
Hanyu-kun said that "Yae no Sakura"

was a continuation of "Heaven and Earth."
"Heaven and Earth" is a story of upholding one's beliefs.

Fighting for righteousness,

carrying an ideal (heaven) on one's back,
and clashing with the outside world.
"Fighting with something you believe in"—

I think that was his way of being.
But what I felt in "Yae no Sakura" was

the world "after" that.
The rightness one believed in wavers,

or what was taken for granted is overturned.
Even so, people go on living.

"How to live after what you believed in is broken."

I felt that such a question was there.
Hanyu-kun, who has continued to fight while upholding his beliefs,

chose "Heaven and Earth" at the end of his competitive era,
and what he showed me now in "Yae no Sakura" was,
while holding onto what to believe in and live for,
how to live beyond that,
I think that was the figure he showed.
Which is the dream, and which is reality?

Hanyu-kun, who has faced skating to the point where that boundary becomes ambiguous,

chose as his final act to "skate off the rink."
That was something that,
even after the dream of expression ended,

made us feel its continuation
in our daily lives.

Hanyu-kun,
what did he feel looking at the tracks he left behind,
"How do you feel about what comes after this?"
he asked.

Rather than handing over a meaning,
he is creating a resonance.

I thought that was the kind of expression it was.
(Echoes of Life!?)

After living a dream,
rather than it remaining as something,
it spreads somewhere as a resonance.

Thinking about it that way,
even chasing a dream,
and even that resonance,
rather than creating it yourself,
it might just be something that is happening.

White and Black

Listening to Hanyu-kun's story,
I involuntarily straightened my back at the words "White is death, black is life."

He casually brings in perspectives I don't have ☺️
While thinking it was interesting,
I suddenly started thinking while listening.
The things we think "we have done ourselves." The more we stack each one of those,

I feel like the heart becomes an opaque "black."
On the other hand,

perhaps it is not me who is moving it...
The moment I could think that,
I had a sensation of the vessel that is myself suddenly flipping to "white (empty)."
Hanyu-kun continued, saying this.

Colors become black when layered.

White is a color close to death, too dazzling to see anything, where nothing exists.
Absorbing everything,

black is living as a substance in a gritty way.
However, light becomes white when layered.

That is the difference between whether light is absorbed
or not, and the rules and the character called "myself" disappear,
and white is a state where only energy exists there.
That means...
Paint (matter or thoughts),

the more you layer it, the "blacker" it becomes.

It feels like absorbing energy tightly into oneself,
becoming heavy and raw.
In contrast,
light (pure energy),

the more it layers, the "whiter" it becomes.
That is an image of passing through the substance of oneself,
and reflecting just as it is.
Ah, that's true 😌
I don't know if it's the same as Hanyu-kun's intention, but I felt it connected within me.

And, what Taketoshi Hara said,

"Hanyu-kun's transparency"

might be the brilliance of that boundary,
where he carries the weight of "black (life)" while instantly transmitting it into "white (light)."

And and ✨ today is finally REALIVE ✨
The main visual for REALIVE also,
the background was white and black.
How will it be felt,
I have nothing but excitement ☺️

To be continued...