<Gakumas> Yearning for Sunfaded

This is sudden, but this article is not part of the main series (what even is a 'main series' anyway?).
You could say it's like a sealed insert that comes with a magazine, or a side story unrelated to the main plot.
I can't say for sure that there won't be any reverse influence, but I'd be happy if you could just think of this as being in a different timeline or a different world line.
There are no headings or table of contents, so feel free to just skim through it from top to bottom.

With that said, hello everyone, I'm Shinkaigyo (Deep Sea Fish).
I'm posting this article while making excuses about being busy and letting my updates stall, and I have no room for excuses—I am truly sorry.
As the title "Yearning" suggests, I've just been consuming it so much that I felt like I'd be trapped forever if I didn't settle things this way, so I decided to let it all out.

Now, are you all familiar with "Sunfaded"?
I mean, there's no way you wouldn't know it if you went out of your way to come see an article like this, but...
"Sunfaded" is one of the songs by Hiro Shinosawa, the goddess that Hatsuboshi Gakuen boasts.
I'm planning to release a properly written note about the details, so I'll leave the explanation at that.

What I want to talk about here is, in short, a portion of my thoughts (and the endless, non-stop theories) on this song.
In all seriousness, ever since the moment I heard this song, all sorts of interpretations and non-existent memories have taken up residence in my head, making it impossible for me to live my daily life properly.
I had been scribbling down notes in a Google Doc to summarize later, and the purpose of this article is to just paste those as images, exactly as they were written.
Since I just rattled them off before I forgot and they weathered away, it might be hard to read, the wording might be careless, and what I'm saying might be contradictory, but please forgive me.
I'll include some commentary as well.

What I'm saying on this page is pretty much exactly what it is.
I've jotted down some impressions, scenes, contrasts, thoughts on the connection to Mekurume, and light thoughts on the lyrics.
I feel such romance in the word "Sunfaded" that I regret not knowing it until now.

Here, besides talking about my favorite points, I've started a theory that Hiro might be singing lyrics written from the perspective of "me," a fan.
This was my first impression, but the more I listen to it, the more it feels both right and wrong, and it's making my head spin.

This page is a continuation of the previous one.
The "I am XX" part is the hardest to think about, so I've embellished it quite a bit and leaned into my own interpretation.
Also, Hakushi Hasegawa posted the lyrics from the final part on X, so I've summarized a rough translation and some light thoughts on that.

To wrap things up, let me talk about the thumbnail I made with a business card.
I thought of and created the overall design by myself, but there is one part that I completed after getting advice from a friend.
It's the SUNFADED logo at the top center.
At first, it ended up looking a bit too pop, which wasn't the atmosphere of "Sunfaded" that I wanted to convey.
However, the Gakumas business card tool doesn't have a text input feature, so I'm in a state where I'm managing to place letters by modifying my own messages.
It's difficult to change fonts or create elaborate designs, and if you want to use highly flexible text, you have to create the parts from scratch.
When I showed them the finished product at the time and mentioned that I felt something was off about the logo, they advised me to try tilting the letters using 3D rotation.
From there, after much research and many twists and turns, it reached its current form.
By the way, since I couldn't use any symbols other than brackets, I made the enclosure using the kanji for three.

And while I was hesitating to release this article, the Sunfaded MV on YouTube surpassed 1 million views... amazing.
Personally, I think it will easily exceed 100 million, but I'm looking forward to seeing how far it actually goes.
I loop it and listen to it many times every day, so if a single person's views are counted infinitely, I think I'm responsible for about 100 out of the 1 million.
Of course, I'm listening to it right now while writing this.
It has changed my life.

Well, this turned into a more casual and rambling piece of writing than usual, but thank you for sticking with me until the end.
I plan to resume updating the main series in the first week of August.
Please wait a little longer.

I'll wrap things up here.
I'd be very happy to receive comments, even if it's just saying "I agree with your interpretation! But isn't this part different?"
This has been Shinkaigyo.
Thank you very much!