2025-08-12: Local Spotlight: Polychord
- Cutscene: Local Spotlight: Polychord
- Cast: Ririka Kawase, Emi Takeda, Takumi Sasaki, Tomori Nakajima, Hiroshi Oda, plus a surprise shoutout
- Where: Sumaru TV, Aoba Ward, Sumaru
- OOC Date: August 12, 2025
- IC Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012 (Evening)
- Summary: After a mysterious blackout last Sunday disrupted Polychord's TV appearance, they get to come back the following week to perform for a local interest segment.
A woman with a polished smile sitting in a cozy set appears on screen, to the applause of a crowd. "Good evening," she says brightly. "And welcome to our June 24th broadcast of Sumaru Sundays. We've got a great program for you tonight, including a very special performance and interview later on, so please stick around!"
The intro plays next, and the smiling hostess goes through several local stories and interest pieces. Finally, coming back from another commercial break, her consistent cheerfulness dims for just a moment. "Regular viewers of our show may remember that last week, a blackout at our studio disrupted last Sunday's programming, including the taping of this show. We apologize once again to our viewers for the inconvenience. We would also like to apologize to our invited guests who were not able to perform as planned. However, we are delighted to be able to bring them back tonight. Performing their song Mastermind, please give a big round of applause for Polychord!"
The camera cuts to a small stage where Ririka and four other band members are waiting. But Ririka stands at a microphone without an instrument. To her left is Emi with a violin, and to her right, Takumi with a standup bass. Behind her is Tomori with a console and an electronic keyboard, as well as Hiroshi sitting on a stool with a tambourine. It's an unusual setup, to be sure.
"Thank you, Sumaru!" shouts Ririka with a big grin. "We are Polychord, and now... please give it up for my girl Tomori-chan!" The supposed frontwoman of Polychord steps aside and lets Tomori take center stage, moving over to the keyboard instead.
Tomori, whose skin tone is much darker than that of her bandmates, begins to recite a renga, a classical form of Japanese poetry. The theme starts as dualities and forms of balance found in nature, the ebb and flow of a tide, the sun and moon... Her voice is smooth and rhythmic within the renga's structure, smoothly moving from one line to the next. One by one, each member of Polychord plays a phrase of music and Tomori hits a button on her console, causing it to loop. Hiroshi provides a gently driving tambourine rhythm, providing a drive even as the bass, violin, and piano unfurl into a melody held instasis, repeating but not advancing as it loops under Tomori's control.
It's a Western classical arrangement underscoring a Japanese classical renga, another duality. Tomori's voice provides more urgency and drive as the lights fade out around her, leaving her the only presence on stage. The lyrics shift, the theme of balance turns to one of stasis, the theme of duality turns to struggle...
All at once all the music stops, and the last light goes out.
And with a loud clash of strings and drums all the lights come up. Ririka's at the front with an electric guitar, Emi mirroring her on her left. Takumi's switched to an electric bass, and Hiroshi is now on the drums with a driving double kick pedal rhythm.
And Tomori has stepped out from her console to the front of the stage, grabbing a microphone along the way. Her smooth, classical renga style flows into a fast, effortless rap verse, mirroring the shift in lyrics from a moment before. That new theme continues, but subtly shifts into something more personal. Balance, duality, stasis, and struggle in Tomori's own life. Ririka and Emi provide backup vocals for Tomori as they play.
The lyrics change once more to synthesis and transformation as the band swings full-speed into the bridge. Tomori expresses how she's combined different aspects of her life, different loves, dropping a mention to each of her band members and the things she's taken from them, and how everything became the very song she's performing in the moment. A final key change amps up the energy for the last chorus, and the song ends with one last burst of energy, the last chords lingering in the air as the lights all die down once more.
The lights come back up once again as the host steps onto the stage, gesturing to the band who is now taking their bows. "Wasn't that something? Please give it up for Polychord! We'll take a quick break but when we come back we'll sit down and get to know Polychord better so don't go away!"
After the commercial break, the show returns to the main set, with the host in a comfortable arm chair, and the members of Polychord sitting together on two separate couches. Ririka sits closest to the host.
"Welcome back, everyone," says the host warmly as the cameras start rolling again. "We're here with the local band Polychord, based out of Iwatodai. Why don't you all introduce yourselves?"
Going down the line the names come: Ririka Kawase, Emi Takeda, Takumi Sasaki, Tomori Nakajima, and Hiroshi Oda.
The host turns to Ririka. "Kawase-san, why don't you tell us how Polychord got started."
Ririka is dressed in a dark amethyst tank top, leather choker, vest, bracelets and skirt, ripped stockings, and chunky boots. But she's sitting upright, hands politely folded in her lap despite her rock ensemble. "Well, it started as an idea I had with my friend Emi-chan. We both thought it'd be fun to learn electric guitar, and we had fun learning and experimenting, and invited Takumi-kun to join us since he played bass. I met Tomori-chan when she transferred into our school. I saw her working with music on her laptop, asked her about it, and invited her to join us. Hiroshi-kun we'd known for a while. He works at the music store I go to pick up equipment, but one day we heard him drumming and I knew we needed that sound to play with us. His drumming was so good, that we actually all picked up instruments in the store and jammed with him right on the spot." This gets a small chuckle from the audience, and the band members all share glances and smiles with each other at the memory. Ririka continues. "Really we just started out jamming together because we loved music, and once all five of us started playing together, everything just kind of clicked you know?"
The host laughs softly, "Well! I'm sure that must have been a surprising moment for anyone in the store that day. And what can you tell us about the band's name?"
Emi stuck her hand up, leaning forward. She was dressed in a pink denim jacket with animal pins on it, a long pink tunic with lace on the bottom, and bright pastel leggings. "I can answer that one! So when you play specific notes together you make a chord, right? But when you play two separate chords together, you make a /polychord/. All of us like different types of music, and we all have different skills, so when we play, we're combining all of these different sounds. So for us, Polychord means all of us playing the types of music we like together."
"What a delightful way to name the band," enthuses the host. "Speaking of your diverse musical influences, Sasaki-san, what's it like to play bass in a group like this? It must be challenging to keep everyone on-tempo with all these different types of music to contend with."
Takumi has short, shaggy brown hair, and is currently dressed in a suit, but the button-up shirt is untucked, and his tie hangs loose around his neck. "Oh, well, it can be tricky sometimes, sure, but... that's why we practice and experiment a lot, to see what works and what doesn't. Sometimes you won't know until you just go for it, right?"
"Well it certainly seems to have paid off for Mastermind," remarks the host, who then turns her attention to Tomori. "Speaking of which, Nakajima-san, I understand that you're the driving force behind that song. Can you tell us a little bit about how it came about? The use of a renga was inspired. How did that come about?"
Tomori was dressed in a dark green pleated skirt and a fitted cream-colored sweater over a brighter green shirt. She had dark skin, and short black hair. She smiled as she leaned forward to answer. "My parents both teach languages and poetry, so I grew up hearing a lot of poetry from them. The renga is a cooperative style, and while I wrote most of the lyrics myself, I hope I still maintained the spirit of the collaboration with how I relied on the others to help compose the accompaniment.."
"Well the result was certainly quite memorable. And perhaps you'll inspire a resurgence of popularity in the form."
"That would be great," replied Tomori. "I love taking things that already exist and finding new ways to make use of them, so I'd be excited to see what other inspirations others can draw from it."
"That would certainly be exciting to see. Now, Oda-san," said the host, turning to the last member of the group. "Your drum kit certainly has a distinctive look. Care to tell us more about it?"
Hiroshi was wearing a black tank top and ripped jeans, with his long black hair worn up in a top knot. "Oh, yeah. Well you see, my uncle taught me how to repair and maintain instruments. He let me earn that drum kit, it was secondhand, and then I fixed it up myself. So it's kind of special to me because of that."
"I think it's awesome," said Ririka, jumping in before the host could respond. "It's just like our band, right? We're bringing together different things and making something new out of them."
"That certainly seems to be your style," agreed the host seamlessly. "And it's clearly working for you."
The interview continued with a couple more rounds of questions, until finally the host said, "Well that's about all the time we have tonight. How can our audience follow you?"
Ririka grinned. "Well, we've got a website where you can keep up with what we're doing, and we also upload some of our songs online, too. Oh! And, we're gonna be uploading a special Behind The Scenes video about our time in the studio today, and everything that goes into making this broadcast possible. I wanna give a huge shout-out to our classmate Fuuka Yamagishi-san for coming along to take the video for us!"
"I'm sure that'll be exciting to see," says the host as she turns to the camera. "We need to take a quick break but don't go anywhere. Polychord will be back with an encore performance to play us out."
After the commercial break, the camera fades in on the host sitting in her chair. "We've got a special treat for you tonight, folks. Our special musical guests will be playing us out tonight, so please give a nice round of applause to Polychord!"
The camera cuts over to the stage, where Polychord is set up, this time with their electric instruments. Hiroshi counts them off and the band launches into an energetic song... and after a few moments it becomes clear that it's a rendition of the show's title sequence. It normally plays over the credits in a stripped back form, but Polychord have given it a unique arrangement. They're still playing as the credits roll, and the song ends right as the last credits do. The audience applauds and the host joins them on stage as the screen fades to black.