Kalafina ~ ring your bell (in the silence) -- nice!!! :)

I'm a ufotable fan and I actively take part in Fate/tweet night and have done so since S1 of FSN [UBW].  I actually pay for a premium Niconico account so that I can attempt to get as best a quality as possible even though I go through a free VPN which doesn't always give me the best result.  I do this because I like taking part in Fate/tweet night as the stream plays.

But tonight, aside from wanting to take part in Fate/tweet night, I was up this late because I was waiting to hear Kalafina's ring your bell (in the silence).  The first three episodes of S2 premièred in the cinema in Japan and in the US.  We never get that kind of special treatment in Singapore and I don't think we ever will.... SEA just doesn't seem to be that important a market to the Japanese it seems.  :'(
So anyway Kalafina fans already knew that the new version of ring you bell will be used in ep15 but for most of us, we could only wait till tonight to listen to the new version.  And OH MY WORD!! ring your bell (in the silence) is completely worth the wait.  It's lovely and really fits the mood of this episode.

If you already are familiar with FSN's story from the VN etc, then you'll know what happens in this episode since it is about Illya.  But I don't know how many people know that and I don't want to give out spoiler information... even though... by now... I think most people know??

Without saying too much, I'll just say that this is a sad episode and I think ufotable did a really good job telling Illya's story.  I really felt for her and Kalafina's song at the end was really moving.

This version of the ending theme for FSN is a special version meant for this episode according to tweets from Kajiura Yuki and Kondo Hikaru (tweets I neglected to read but happily my fellow Kajiura  / Kalafina fan told me about it :p)  and I'm pretty sure we'll not hear it again in the other episodes.

ring your bell (in the silence) is a fully kajiurago version of ring your bell.  The harmony is hauntingly beautiful and is slower than the usual version of the ending theme.  It favours Wakana but these kinds of songs are really made to favour Wakana who has a beautifully sorrowful voice.  Keiko and Hikaru support her well as usual because Kalafina's lovely harmony is really one of the biggest reasons why fans are fans of this vocal unit.

My fellow Kajiura / Kalafina fan told me that this will only be a short version of this version of ring your bell. That's all Kajiura Yuki apparently wrote since it was always only meant to be used in this scenario and was not meant to be a remix or an alternate version of the full song itself.  That's a pity... it's lovely. It would have been nice to hear a longer version of it.

The song plays over a simple background of mounds of snow and leave-less trees in the woods.  Kind of beautifully simple.  The visuals and the song worked really well, in my opinion.

I don't have this song but someone made a little mp3 of it and you can listen to it on his/her's blog.  Here's the link. CLICK ME.   ALSO!!!  There is a translation of Keiko spiritual message in the Bessatsu Kadokawa Kalafina magazine on the same blog.  If you guys haven't read it, I think it's totally worth reading. It's a nice and long interview and very insightful!  CLICK ME. Thanks for the translation!!  I totally enjoyed it and I love Keiko more now. :)

Okay... I will finish up my Stefanie Sun post late Sunday night, I was working on it before the niconico stream began.  I need to sleep ASAP because I have to go to work really early tomorrow and have to be up by 530am.... oyasumi!! :)