For Episode #34 of Twisted Radio Station Ruggie’s VA Ichikawa Aoi (🍩) interviewed Twisted Wonderland’s music composer Ozawa Takumi about the creation of the character songs along with Aozora Ichika, who wrote the lyrics for 11 of the 14 songs (including dorm songs).
※Note: not literal translations, only summaries of the conversations.
Aozora: I am sorry for the difficult-to-pronounce title. I had the thought, “This is Leona. The words can’t be simple.” There needed to be a degree of “what is trying to be said, here.” Something that you don’t understand the depth of at first glance. That is what I wanted for the title.
Ozawa: I was asked to create a rock ballad. The lyrics went in a down-to-earth, unsophisticated direction, to the point you think, “Is it okay to show this side of Leona?” We thought about emphasizing the “prince” side of him, too, but we think the song as it is also represents part of the root of his character that we saw in Book 7.
🍩: I love this song. As second prince he gives up on a lot and pretends he doesn’t see things, tries to protect his mental stability. In a way, giving up can be a form of self-protection, right? I feel like that really comes through. You get a glimpse of it, that kind of helplessness or frustration that comes with his position. You can really feel it in the tone and lyrics of the song. I imagine him having found a place outside the palace where he is able to be alone and singing this to himself.
Aozora: Exactly, that’s exactly it. I struggled with how to put the flaws at the root of Leona’s character into the lyrics and consulted with Toboso-sensei a lot. When his struggles are being shown we have to be careful so that he doesn’t just come across as pitiful when viewed from the outside.
The orchestration has a strong atmosphere that makes you want to say something cool, or go in the opposite direction and emphasize weakness, so I avoided listening to it when writing the lyrics. I only listened to the melody. Oh, and I intentionally used words that linked back to the dorm song. In “DIADEM,” the word “light” comes up, and it is in Leona’s solo song as well. In his solo, he can no longer grasp the “light,” but in the dorm song…
Ozawa: He says “Until I seize the light.”
🍩: That’s how he is when they are all working together, but in reality he has already given up.
Aozora: He’s not able to seize it anymore. I hope people enjoy that link between the solo and dorm song.
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 