MUSIC DIRECTOR REACTS | Drift - Guilty Gear Strive OST 

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If you don't like what you're hearing during Drift, just wait 20 seconds and you'll have a new song.

16:45 PLEASE DON'T STOP THE FLOW Narrator: "He stopped the flow"

14:40 "Have we seen everything drift has to offer?" 😆

As someone who comes here for the variety, someone that has never played this game, this was a pleasant experience. That shift near the end was a thing of beauty.

A little bit of characterization of Happy Chaos for you: He like to stir the pot of humanity because he likes stories and drama. He'll play parts of said stories to get the outcomes he desires, the best depiction of this is a few of his quotes. "The shield would not exist without the sword" and "Which came first the chicken or the egg? The omelet." He'll be the sword so the shield can exist, he'll be the chicken or the egg. The lyrics at 16:10 reflect this. Also fun fact, while being the creator is what is essentially magic in the Guilty Gear universe, he fights with guns. One being a magic cosmic space gun that only a grand total of 5 exist in the entire universe of GG, the other being an exact replica of the other one but is just a regular ass revolver. He fights with the regular one and only pulling out the magic one while doing specials.

Some music reactions can get boring, because they're just the person listening to the song and that's it. While I get that some people might like that, for a song I've already heard PLENTY of times, this type of reaction is FAR more enjoyable, I really feel like I'm watching someone react to each little meaningful section in real time, which in the end, is what I came to watch. TL;DR, good vid, I liked it

10:49 funny enough I actually do something similar in my English class. I've given students the lyrics to this song and ask them to try and discern the tone and genre without the music. It's a really fun thought exercise.

My favorite bit of the song is how the ending is just the song trying to start again. Really goes along with the lyrics of "I don't want any conclusions" and "please don't stop the flow". It's a song that just never wants to stop and constantly keeps evolving into something else, but even when it has to end it keeps going as if a 3rd verse is about to drop, but all things come to an end.

Finally more Guilty Gear Strive, can't get enough of these

You would actually be faithful to Guilty Gear music by comparing it, Daisuke Ishiwatari takes A LOT of inspiration from western 90s and 2000s rock and metal, so you’ll find he makes a lot of direct motifs to specific songs (If it sounds like another song it’s definitely intentional)

Tge song is really good because it basically portrays how Happy Chaos has no real goal or ambition and that he just goes with the flow of what's happening, creating more chaos while enjoying his time. He got the gift of life due to the death of an earlier evil and reincarnated, so he's enjoying his free time, tagging along with the main villain Ino and cracking jokes along the way while being one of the most wanted terrorists

That third verse really make the chorus hit SO much harder. That last "please dont stop the flow" feels like an acceptance of a role right before barreling straight through to the unknown to me. With him fully committing to the bit, being "a vast universe" rather than "just the black sea". Its describing the same thing but suddenly theres so much more detail put into it, quite literally understanding your place in the universe and appreciating it for what it is.

18:42 PLEASE DON'T STOOOOP TH- *stops the flow*

The song reflects the character fairly well. Happy Chaos was once a magician of sorts, who through research found out the secret of the universe - and it broke him. That's what the opening lyrics are about "It took me ten years to find the answers to something | I forgot about it in two seconds | That's about it" From there it describes his view of the world (both in lyrics and instrumentation) - he thinks everything is beautiful, and his moral compass is on some axis that a normal human can't comprehend. Hence his name, 'Happy Chaos'.

Damn, It was my go-to song (as well as other guilty gear stuff) and I never even thought about the title being in context of drifting on car. When I saw the title for the first time, while haven't even listened to the song yet, I (for some reason) knew it was about drifting on a raft at the sea

You might be the most communicative video maker there is. I often feel bad watching reaction content, where i just want someone to tell me how great the thing is that i like. Not only do you obviously have a lot experience in music, you also express your thought process so precisely, its just so cool man. no one can hate this

FINALLY... Now all we need is Mirror of the World and The Gravity and he's essentially got the best of the best of strive.

Context: Happy Chaos lives for The Drama (tm). In his words, he 'stirs the pot so the pudding doesn't burn'. He's a phenomenally powerful mage, the oldest and most powerful, actually. Also he fused half of God's "divinity" with himself. In doing so, he was granted essentially omniscience / too much knowledge, which supposedly drove him mad (by causing him to view humanity as a whole entity rather than as individuals). As a result, he's kinda... a trickster god? Anyways. Meta-context: Daisuke absolutely LOVES Queen. Happy Chaos is ultimately an embodiment of Freddie Mercury's final sentiments about his music and legacy - 'do whatever you want with it, just don't make it boring'.

I remember being blown away by this the first time I heard it. It's so chaotic! (how fitting) From what I understand, Happy Chaos is a guy who basically creates problems because he likes to see people overcome them. (I could be wrong.)

Its time!! The time has finally come for the “Drift” song🤩 Can’t wait to see you what you think about it.

I had a feeling this would be a long video lol. Song is all over the place and it's great.

I absolutely love watching musicians react to this one, it's such an amazing song

im not gonna lie, ive learned about, and grown to enjoy many songs and types of music that i probably would NEVER have heard if it weren't for this channel, and i learn about music at the same time, and even if neither of those is true its always fun to watch someone who is passionate about something talk about it.

Happy Chaos's theme is just as you said: happy chaos lol Eventually you'll get to hear Extras and I can't wait

My favorite part of this song is that the lyrics describe the characters backstory, but it also is a discussion and parody of the song itself. It truly feels like you're listening to the character having an internal discussion with himself. As someone who loves when songs break traditional conventions, this song is just truly so special and unique.

Tbh, Drift is such a random song even its starting lyrics dissipate any possible expectations you may have had for it from the get-go. Such a uniquely fitting song for Happy Chaos. Thanks for covering it.

Wow this music comes with a free album and the album comes with a free game

Nothing better than seeing you pause so much cause even thoigh you wanna stop so the vid isnt so long youre just actually interested in breaking down what you heard and it makes your vids way better than just watching someone listen to a song i like (which btw im so glad you liked it cause it is my favorite from the soundtrack)

No judgement for comparing these songs to other bands! Daisuke Ishiwatari, the Director/Composer/Writer/Illustrator/Former Voice Actor for the series, is a MASSIVE rock and metal enthusiast, making the vast majority of the elements of the game references to rock and metal, from the names to the music to the aesthetic designs of the characters. You see Happy Chaos’s wide smile and funky glasses? Nirvana reference. Sol Badguy? His real name is Frederick Bulsara. Axl Low’s first theme literally took the riff from a Guns N Roses song. Daisuke basically is making this with the expectation of comparisons to other work and telling us “yeah, okay, then name every reference you can find.”

Ahhhhh another fantastic insight video from my favourite music teacher and RU-vid celeb - thanks for the trip, Tony 😊 I think you might find Baiken's theme is a close contender for the throne of "Most Artistic Guilty Gear Song"🤘🏼

Really happy you enjoyed this song. This was one of my favorite ones from Guilty Gear Strive because of how fun it is. It also trully pulled me into the game and introduced the fighting game genre to me. Happy Chaos is also a really fascinating character to me and how he thinks.

a little more context for people who don't know the gg lore, although i guess mostly gg fans are watching this video: Happy Chaos is basically someone who became all knowing and all powerful and got bored of everything, so he decided "fuck it, imma just go with the flow", he does't have anything important for him as what he likes and dislikes are constantly changing, for example it is stated that he currently likes a toy jewel that he found somewhere, for no apparent reason, he can teleport anywhere in an but prefers to drive a car instead, he is the most powerful magic user in the world but uses guns because fighting with magic would be too boring, he also stole the jacket he wears from some dude in the white house. plus since he only finds entertainment in real events, he shakes things up creating conflict for his amusement and to make mankind grow and evolve (when the violent storm is over the blue sky is more beautiful than ever),while filling the missing roles with himself, like when the main villain explained her plan and he went like: " yeah don't care but I will help you cause it sounds fun ". tl;dr goofy ahh war criminal

-sees 20 minute video upload "Oh, i wonder which..." -its drift "Ah, that explains it."

I’ve seen some people affectionately refer to the ending operatic section as the “Disney princess part”

HERE WE GO, REALLY EXCITED FOR THIS ONE

I love how this song is just a fusion LP speedrun

I hope you do Freesia. An amazing rock ballet and honestly a beautiful song.

Happy Chaos unironically by definition is a Disney princess! And the ballad portion is his Disney princess moment lol

daisuke fucking cooks

oh boy... here we go. Happy Chaos is a moniker he took on, his actual "name" is That Man, distinct from That Man, a moniker taken on by Asuka R. Kreutz. ...oh no I've gone cross eyed thinking about all the context.

Haha! This song is so goofy and fun to listen to, it is easily a theme of happy chaos lol

Love the Guilty Gear reacts, I feel like you pause and talk about things at all the moments I want you to!

YESSSS I'd been looking forward to this one! Drift is such a fun song from beginning to end!

The community has collectively dubbed the part you accurately compared to musical theater as "the Disney princess part" 😂

These tracks can be so overwhelming for me sometimes so it's nice to have a breakdown of what's actually going on

well happy chaos did say "you can see me as what ever you want me to be" so i think in his book that he there a need to be a "bad guy" he be a "bad guy" and the same if there need of a "good guy"

I'd love to see you do a pull apart like you mention and analyze the separated pieces as what you would do as a musician if you were given this material.

Might be biased but GGST has one of the best osts in any game period

I love this song! Awesome to have you react to it!

Let's go was hoping you'd get to this one now I gotta stay awake for 2 more hours but it's definitely worth

i wonder what it would take to perform that song live without any like premade recordings playing

A minute and a half before Tony started wondering where exactly this was going. I've been looking forward to seeing him cover this one for a while.

almost every vocal of Guilty Gear Strive songs was done by Naoki Hashimoto

You definitely need to react to Extras (Elphelt Theme)

Before I talk about Happy Chaos and the song in context (because this is gonna be a DOOZY) I wanna talk about the vocalist of this song first cuz you mentioned recognizing his name at the end. Naoki Hashimoto does ALL of the male vocals in Guilty Gear with the exclusion of a small number of backing vocals in Love the Subhuman Self, whose leading vocals are sung by GGs main female vocalist Aisha. Aisha and Naoki both, more than being singers, are such character actors in their songs. Every song that's meant to be from the point of view of the character of the song FEELS like it's the character singing because of how incredible both their vocal performances are. Naoki is the lead singer of a Japanese band called Outrage, but the band funnily enough was referenced in the series before Naokis involvement via a legendary weapon known as the Outrage. There are so many aspects to Happy Chaos, so many angles to his character that it's really difficult to paint the full picture, evidenced by the fact that me trying to formulate this comment in my head resulted in me realising some new things about him, and I think it's all intentional. Before he was Happy Chaos he was known as the Original, the man who discovered magic and an alternate dimension called the backyard that dictates fate itself. He taught magic to the Apostles who went on to teach it to humanity during its darkest hour. Asuka also learned from the Original. He also created a robot called the Universal Will and tasked it with ensuring a perfect future for humanity, however the robot, to put it bluntly, turned evil. From this point, 200 years pass where almost nothing about the Originals actions and whereabouts are known, until the Universal Will is defeated and a couple weeks later I-No just, pulls Happy Chaos out of the robot somehow? He then goes along with I-Nos plan to have her powers, which he stole from her at some point in the past, returned to her to make her godlike, and that's basically the plot of Strive for him. Happy Chaos is a pure being filled with all the worlds knowledge to the point where right and wrong have become meaningless. To put it bluntly he sees things as existing as a means to an end. The chicken exists to lay the egg, and the egg exists to be made into an omelete. He exists to make I-No a God and fulfill her dreams, as well as generally just stir the pot in order to cause interesting things to happen in order to entertain him. In order to create the strongest shield, he becomes the strongest sword in order to justify the shields existence. These are analogies HE HIMSELF has laid out throughout Strives story. In terms of Drift, the lyrics cover the philosophies that I just laid out, but also touches on just how mysterious it is that 200 years worth of this characters life are just unknown. The only source for anything from that period is his own vague word and whatever humanity's collective minds can theorize up. "100 mouths speak of me, a hundred of me will be born" in my opinion refers to how many events in the lore may or may not be attributable to him, and how the murkiness of it all leads to many different possible interpretations on what he is in the eyes of the other characters in the story. He's the cause of virtually everything in the series, but to what extent *really*? At some point it makes you wonder how people's perceptions of him make him feel. He might not actually care, but the lyrics of the song really make it feel like he might of some level. At the end of the day tho what he fights for is the progression of history and of humanity, and making things interesting, which in itself makes him very interesting and a very entertaining villain who might even be redeemable despite his undeniable sins. Oh also this guy has been menacing the competitive scene since he was added to the game lol. He was *just* finally recently, meaningfully tuned down in the latest version, but for years he played a very exhausting game of red-light-green-light using his gun, mixed with very formidable close quarters combat. The latest patch tonned down his ability to keep people at a distance by shooting his gun but his offense and unique traits are still there, and they made him easier to control in exchange a couple updates ago. Personally I think his gameplay is interesting to watch but a lot of people have grown to hate him. Almost nobody will deny tho that his design and story are pretty peak.

it took me 10 years to figure out the genre of this song, I forgot about it in 2 seconds

I love Drift because it's so unique, I don't think I've ever heard a song that shifted so many times and still sounded amazing.

This one was one of my favorites of your Guilty Geear vids

YOOO MORE STRIVE

WHAT I'LL BE SLEEPING WHEN THIS GOES LIVE THIS IS UNFAIR

*PLEASE DONT STOP THE FLOOOOOOW*

happy chaos's theme is just that happy chaos

Good video! Also where is the Sleep Toke ii Drumeo video?

Try "extras" you need "buckle up" because there is roller coaster of music there

Truly happy chaos has the greatest Disney princess theme of all time 😂

In Strive, Happy Chaos (think Mr. Manhattan on the scale of omnipotence) plays the role of the “designated villain”, literally in all senses: both from a narrative standpoint, and from his interactions with other characters, at times as if he’s some sort of director and/or method actor. The fact that such an omnipotent being (because let’s be fair - he wasn’t human for quite a long while due to an “incident” in his backstory), which can disintegrate someone with a snap of fingers, in the _fighting game_ proper fights _with a gun_ (and quite clumsily at that), adds flair to character.

Happy Chaos: A literal God who got bored, and has no real ambitions or goals of his own, so he instead spends his time feeding the ambitions of others and causing as much Chaos along the way as he can. As is heard in the orchestral part of his theme, he believes "When the violent storm is over, the blue sky is more beautiful than ever." He believes that the best stories are ones where the stakes are high and everything's on the line, because when it's over, and the heroes win, the victory is so much more sweet. He's not a good person, but he's not a villain, either. He writes a story, an ordeal for the world to go through to add drama and excitement to the boring tedium the world finds itself in, and writes himself a role to play in it to keep himself from getting bored. He plays that role, and watches the story play out, with the metaphorical popcorn at his side. This is shown through his theme - a chaotic, nonsensical mess of genres and lyrics that although chaotic and all over the place just sound... Right. Despite the apparent chaos of the song, everything fits just how it should, somehow. "I am whatever you see or feel me to be. I could be anything you like, or nothing at all. But... I do exist."

LETS GOOOOOOO

i love drift so much

YES LET ME CARVE YOUR WAY NEXT PLEASE, ITS SO WILD

This song gives me flashbacks

20:09 what a compliment XD

this ost is really good

The operatic/musical theatre portion of the song is lovingly referred to as 'the Disney part' by the GG community

Lads we did. He finally did

Happy chaos and drift was the reason I wanted to play guilty gear strive

Can't wait till Elphelt's theme "Extras" reaction...

This song is truly Happy Chaos

drumrolltony, how did you first get into music analysis and directing and stuff?

You should definitely listen to love the subhuman self it's imo one of the best ost's in the game

Lore and theme wise dude is easily in my top 5 for gg 🤣

Def recommend freesia, one of the best songs imo

Hi Tony, I would suggest you to listen to ' Heartful Cry ' from Persona 3 FES, as I know you've reacted before to some of the Persona tracks, it's much older than Persona 5's tracks but I think it's so worth a listen. Persona 3 is a game with many songs I'm sure you'd enjoy!

The day of reckoning has finally come

You should react to some of the stuff Motoi Sakuraba did! Especially his work in Dark Souls.

naoki does almost all of the vocals for guilty gear songs

So uhm.. Guilty Gear reintroduced my personal favourite character Elphelt, her third~ish incarnation. I'd love to see your reaction to her theme and what you make of it, it's always so interesting to see how clear the music manages to convey the characters and their motivations to someone essentially blind.

You know it’s gonna be a good video when it’s 4 times the length of the song

If you're looking for another guilty gear song to listen to, freesia is a great one

Not sure if you've done this already or hear it all the time but please listen to the beastars op 1 (wildside by ALI).

Just wait until he hears the last 1 minute and 20 seconds of Let Me Carve Your Way

"will there be more evolution or changes or have we established everything" Ohhh he doesnt know about the Disney princess part LFMAO

You gotta react to an Attack on Titan soundtrack called AOTF-s2, it’s a more conventional remix of the Levi vs Female Titan theme and it goes hard

Hey tony was wondering if you could take a listen to link click opening 2?

You must react to broken games by fzmz it's such an amazing opening

More guilty gear strive please. I'd recommend "Extras", "Hellfire", and "Love the subhuman self".

Hey, I think it would be great if you would take a look at some of TUYU's songs - you'd probably like them, with all their bpm changes, chaotic staccato and other parts. You could consider If There Was An Endpoint, Under Kids or I'm Getting On a Bus to Another World - see ya!

Listen to Extras!

Finally