Futari No is a pop album created by Japanese musician Harumaki Gohan, featuring a mix of vocals from Vocaloid and Harumaki Gohan himself, and was released on August 26, 2020.
The series began with the release of "Reunion"
on June 29, 2019. After Reunion, Harumaki Gohan released 3 more songs before announcing the album on June 18, 2020 with the release of "If I Could Become a Comet". Like Harumaki Gohan's other works, these songs have animated music videos that portray the story of young girls. However, this series is the first to be worked on by Studio Gohan: a small studio consisting of Harumaki Gohan and several animation assistants. A total of 5 of the 10 unique songs in the album have animated music videos.
The album follows the story of two girls, Nana and Lili, who form a close bond at a young age. Soon after they meet, Lili's family moves away, but not before they promise each other to stay children forever in order to one day reunite. Much of the story is vague and left up to interpretation, but an art book was released with the limited edition version of the album that explains the lore in more depth.
On November 15, 2020, a live concert called "Their Conclusion" was held which added a few more details to the story. This concert was the final installment in the Futari No series.
Futari No contains examples of:
- Absent Animal Companion - Lili's dog, who is seen once in a photo in Saikai and then never mentioned again.
- Ambiguous Situation: So much of what happens in Secret. Why are the adults gathered around Lili? Is the beheading symbolic, or did it actually happen? Why is Nana dressed like that?
- Ambiguously Gay: Nana and Lili's dedication to reuniting with each other after years of being apart, paired with the sentimental lyrics have lead some fans to believe that the two of them have romantic feelings for each other. This is in addition to Harumaki Gohan quietly featuring wedding fan art of the two in the music video for the acoustic version of "If I Could Become a Comet". Ultimately, he has stated in an interview that he intentionally left the nature of their relationship ambiguous, and any interpretation is welcome.
- Bittersweet Ending: Just like many of Harumaki Gohan’s previous works, the ending of Futari No is ambiguous and left up to interpretation. However, many interpretations fit under this trope.
- A popular theory is that Nana and Lili died at the end of "Reunion", and are now together in heaven. This theory became even more popular after the music video for "Birth" came out, showing the two of them together in pale blue against a blank white background.
- At the end of Nana’s version of "Reunion", Macaron is shown alone atop the tower that Nana jumped from. It is later revealed that Macaron’s version of If I Could Become a Comet takes place after Reunion, as he visits the beach that Nana liked and reminisces about his time with her, because Nana never came back for him.
- A popular theory is that Nana and Lili died at the end of "Reunion", and are now together in heaven. This theory became even more popular after the music video for "Birth"
- Black Cloak: The adults depicted in Secret wear these.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The robots that inhabit the world are called “Adults.”
- Character Development: As the story takes place over a number of years, you get to watch as the characters mature from children into adults, and slowly abandon their promise to stay children forever.
- Cheerful Child: Nana and Lili in "The Promise". The two of them wish to stay like that forever.
- Chekhov's Gun: Nana’s globe. It was present in every music video leading up to "Secret", and then it became the weapon Nana used to wipe an adult’s head clean off.
- Child Prodigy: Lili is described as this in her character description.
- Childhood Friends: Nana and Lili met at age 7, and quickly became best friends. Which is reasonable, since Lili was the only other human child that Nana ever met.
- Childless Dystopia: The world that Futari No takes place in is a world where the majority of humans are a race called the "adult," who resemble robots. Flesh-and-bone humans still exist, but they are greatly outnumbered. Because of this, when Nana first met Lili, she had never seen another non-adult child before.
- Chuunibyou: The sudden change in atmosphere and character design in Secret can qualify as this, especially since the characters are within the age range at this point in the timeline.
- Coming of Age Story: Throughout the songs, Nana and Lili get older. Starting at age 7 in The Promise and ending at age 21 in Reunion onwards. You get to see and hear their childish innocence start to fade away against their will, and they slowly stop fighting against the maturing process.
- Cute Machines: Macaron, Nana’s roomba companion.
- Damsel in Distress: Lili is this in "Secret".
- Dress-Up Episode: While the previous music videos show Nana and Lili wearing regular everyday clothing, in Secret they suddenly start wearing cloaks and princess gowns.
- Justified in Lili's case, as at some point between The Promise and Secret, she became a princess. However, she doesn't wear her gown in any other music video.
- Episode Finishes the Title: The title of the album is “Futari No” which literally translates to “of two people” but is similar in usage to the English word “their.” Combine this with the titles of the songs and you get: Their Reunion, Their Promise, Their Secret, etc.
- Expressive Shirt: Nana’s shirt has the Japanese character 七 (seven) written on her shirt. The amount of characters on her shirt changes in each song and they correspond to her age in multiples of seven. For example, she was 7 in The Promise, so there was only one 七. She was 19 in If I Could Become a Comet, and her shirt said 七七5 (7 + 7+ 5 = 19.) The character 七 is pronounced “Nana.” Lili also has her name (リリ) written on her shirt. This is how people knew their names before Harumaki Gohan announced them.
- First Friend: Lili was Nana’s first friend that wasn’t a cleaning robot.
- Girlish Pigtails: Nana has this hairstyle throughout the entire series, through age 7 up until age 21. Her pigtails play a big part in her looking younger than she is.
- Hairstyle Inertia: Nana and Lili both have the same hairstyles throughout the whole series. The only noticeable difference is that Nana’s hair gets rounder in If I Could Become a Comet, although this is likely because it’s easier to draw that way.
- Idiot Hair: Nana gets this after tripping and falling over in "The Promise".
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: In "Secret", Nana’s pigtails stick out from the hood of her cloak.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Subverted. Lili has blue eyes, despite being arguably less innocent than Nana.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Can apply to both of them as they get older, but especially Lili. In "Reunion", she’s expressionless and doesn’t react to anything that happens around her. This is likely because of the events that happened to her in "The Promise" and "Secret".
- Left Hanging: At the end of Secret, Nana kills an adult, and then ends up standing back to back with Lili. You know, the person she’s spent years trying to reunite with. Whatever happens after that is never explained, and the next time we see her (in “If I Could Become a Comet”), she’s alone.
- Little Miss Badass: Nana, who, at the age of 15, beheads the adult who took Lili from her with a globe.
- Machine Blood: The adult that Nana beheads in "Secret" secretes bright blue fluid the same colour as its eyes.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: They look like robots (or tin dolls, as Nana describes them), but the adults are just another type of human in this world.
- My Greatest Failure: The songs "Nana" and "Lili" from the album show that both girls respectively view their separation as this. Nana realizes she'd become withdrawn and unable to speak ever since the day she couldn't even tell Lili goodbye; meanwhile Lili yearns for Nana's forgiveness, as she perceives herself as having foolishly run away from her, and regrets that they didn't try harder to stay together
- Older Than They Look: Even though the story takes place over 14 years, the characters don’t physically age much. This is because of Harumaki Gohan’s chibi and simplistic art style. At most, 21-year-old Nana and Lili are taller than they were at age 7.
- Pen Pals: After Lili moved away, she and Nana sent letters to each other. These letters are partially displayed on the back of the album cover.
- Plot Armor: In "Secret", Nana runs into what can be assumed to be a private gathering full of cloaked Adults and violently beheads the one standing next to Lili with a globe. Then the two of them stand by the corpse dramatically with their hair blowing in the wind as all the other Adults stare at them, not doing anything about the intruder who just murdered their leader.
- Recurring Riff: The single note at the beginning of "Reunion". It’s in a different key in Nana and Lili’s separate versions, symbolising the separation between them. This note has come to represent the Futari No series, and is often used in announcement videos to set the scene. At the very end of “Conclusion,” the final song in the album, the note plays in the same key in both versions. They really did reunite in the end.
- Reunion Vow: With Intertwined Fingers, Nana and Lili promise to meet again when the indigo bell in their hometown rings.
- Snail Mail: Nana and Lili both wrote physical letters to each other, despite their world being implied to be far more technologically advanced than ours. It’s unknown whether or not these letters ever completed their delivery.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Although their relationship isn’t canonically romantic, it does have themes of this in every music video.
- Especially at the end of Reunion with the line “A reunion that will never come again.”
- Stuff Blowing Up: Harumaki Gohan likes animating explosions. In the elevator scene in “Reunion,” the head of an adult explodes for no reason. This startles Nana, but Lili doesn’t even look at it.
- Sudden Eye Colour: In Lili’s version of “Secret”, while holding the onigiri, her eyes are suddenly bright blue. In fact, they are the same shade of blue as the eyes of the adults.
- Talented Princess, Regular Guy: Lili, who marries into the throne in the middle of the story, is described as a Child Prodigy, naturally talented at everything. The “Normal Guy” in this scenario is Nana, who is hard-working, but at the end of the day she’s just an ordinary person who is often powerless against the forces that keep her away from Lili.
- The Nameless: The cloaked robot characters in "Secret" have never been given a name by Harumaki Gohan, nor has their species/race been explained. Fans can assume that they are a type of Adult, but that is all the context there is.
- The Promise: Nana and Lili promised to stay children forever in the song with the same name as this trope.
- Time Skip: Every song in the series takes place a number of years after the last, with little context as to what happened between them.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: While the “girlfriend” part is subjective, the “violent” part is definitely true for Nana, assuming that the events of "Secret" weren't just metaphorical. She commits murder for Lili.
- Weaponized Ball: Nana uses a globe as a weapon in Secret.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Harumaki Gohan describes 7 year old Nana and Lili as this in the art book.
