Märchen (Album)

Märchen is the 7th Story CD of Sound Horizon published on December 15, 2010. This is the first Story CD to have a Prologue Album Maxi which is named Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido. The album is based on medieval Germany, commonly affiliated with fairy tales, which is the German translation for Märchen, which were the album's namesake. The album focuses on 7 different fairy tales with equivalent sin.

Soundtracks
01 Yoiyami no Uta - 宵闇の唄 - The Song of Dusk 02 Kakei no Majo - 火刑の魔女 - The Witch at the Stake (based on "Hänsel and Gretel") 03 Kuroki Okami No Yado - 黒き女将の宿 - The Dark Landlady's Inn (based on "The Man from the Gallows") 04 Garasu No Hitsugi De Nemuru Himegimi - 硝子の棺で眠る姫君 - The Girl That Sleeps in the Coffin of Glass (based on "Snow White") 05 Sei To Shi Wo Wakatsu Kyoukai No Furuido - 生と死を別つ境界の古井戸 - The Old and Unused Well of the Boundary That Separates Life and Death (based on "Frau Holle") 06 Bara No Tou De Nemuru Himegimi - 薔薇の塔で眠る姫君 - The Girl That Sleeps in the Tower of Roses (based on "Sleeping Beauty") 07 Aoki Hakushaku no Shiro - 青き伯爵の城 - The Blue Marquis' Castle (based on "Bluebeard") 08 Takkei no Seijo - 磔刑の聖女 - The Crucified Saint (based on "Fräulein Kummernis") 09 Gyoukou no Uta - 暁光の唄 - The Song of Dawn 10 Bonus Track : 無音 / Silence
 * Main Vocal: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Main Vocal: Vocaloid Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Vocals: Kanami Ayano, REMI, Tomoyo Kurosawa, Ceui, Mikuni Shimokawa, Minani Kuribayashi, Joelle (Dead Princesses)
 * Narrator: Sascha
 * Main Vocal: Kanami Ayano (Daughter)
 * Vocal: MIKI (Witch)
 * Vocal: Kazuki Kiriyama (Hänsel)
 * Vocal: Saymi Kobayashi (Gretel)
 * Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: REMI (Poor Girl)
 * Vocal: Jimang (Landlady)
 * Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Narrator: Sascha
 * Main Vocal: Tomoyo Kurosawa (Snow White)
 * Vocal: MIKI (Queen, Witch)
 * Vocal: Jimang (Mirror, Hunter)
 * Vocal: Yume Suzuki (Prince Charming)
 * Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: Ceui (Daughter)
 * Vocal: MIKI (Stepmother)
 * Vocal: Chinatsu Ishii (Stepsister)
 * Vocal: Azumi Inoue (Mother Holle)
 * Vocal/Seiyuu: Revo (Bread, Tree, Rooster, Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: Mikuni Shimokawa (Sleeping Beauty)
 * Vocal: MIKI (Alte Rose)
 * Vocal: Azumi Inoue (Aprikose)
 * Vocal: Yume Suzuki (Prince Charming)
 * Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: Minami Kuribayashi (5th Wife)
 * Vocal: Akio Ohtsuka (Blue Beard)
 * Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: Joelle (Elisabeth von Wettin)
 * Vocal/Seiyuu: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)
 * Seiyuu: Miku Hatsune/Saki Fujita (Elize)
 * Main Vocal: Revo (Märchen von Friedhof)

Story
The story starts after the last scene of Ido e Itaru Mori e Itaru Ido, in which Märchen was thrown into the well. He wakes up with a doll named Elise beside him, and together they aid seven "princesses" in taking revenge.



Kakei no Majou (gluttony)

A mother and child live together in poverty, the missing father unable to provide support. Despite only being a young girl, the child is often mistreated, called a witch and accused of crimes that don't even exist. Even so, she is happy to live with her mother and the animals in the forest, her only friends.

However, she is eventually abandoned as the mother grows frustrated with their poor standard of life. Taken in by a monastery, she then becomes a nun. Unfortunately, the monastery is soon taken down by dissatisfied reformists, and the nun decides to search for her old home and find the answer to her mother's cruel actions.

When the nun arrives, the only one she finds is an old woman, barely recognizable as the mother that she had once loved. Similarly, the mother does not realize that the visiting nun is her own daughter, and greets her as merely a woman of the church. Out of kindness, she offers a piece of bread, which is greedily devoured, but when the nun tries to ask if her mother knows who she is, the woman seemingly loses her sanity, killing her own daughter in an attempt to take more of the bread. Ironically, the location of the death is an altar with an inverted cross, the body taking the place of a sacrifice.

At this point, Märchen gives the nun an opportunity to take revenge. Corresponding to her suffering as a child, two children become the tools to carry this out with.

Hänsel and Gretel, a pair of siblings lost within the forest, find the mother's house. Having inherited her money-loaner husband's fortune, she warmly welcomes them, seeing this as a way to fulfill her dream of feeding children, out of regret for her own. After some time, Hänsel grows to be quite fat, and Gretel, deluded by her own imagination, convinces him that the old woman is actually a witch who plans to eat them. With this in mind, the two murder her by pushing her into a fire, returning to their home to brag to Tom, a friend. Together, the three of them go on to claim the house in the forest for their own.

Märchen comments to Elise on the immediate assumption that any old woman in a forest is a witch, and she expresses her dislike of cruel and dishonest children.

Kuroki Okami no Yado (greed)

"Buranko" is a somewhat dim girl living in a poor village. When the men of the village go to war against invaders, never to return, she, along with the rest of the women, is sold off. Buranko ends up at a shady inn in a faraway city, working as a servant for the enigmatic "landlady," a person of unknown age and gender.

As the landlady loudly reminisces over the men of her past, a customer arrives, and Buranko is forced to interrupt her, an action which is not taken very well. Even after finally agreeing to cook the him some of her famous liver dish, the landlady continues to work at her own pace, leaving for almost an hour with no explanation. Buranko tries to pacify the annoyed customer, constantly apolgizing until the landlady returns, carrying a raw liver. After the meat is prepared, however, his mood immediately improves, and he leaves satisfied.

Hoping to quickly gain money, the landlady comes up with a way to make her own resources, and Buranko is hanged, her liver harvested.

Märchen regretfully notes that the victim was not at fault this time, but continues on, telling Buranko to take her revenge by retrieving what was lost.

Reanimated, Buranko knocks on the door of the inn, asking for her liver back. As this is obviously impossible, instead she takes the liver of the greedy landlady.

Märchen and Elise discuss the failure of this attempt to become rich, with Elise spitefully remarking that such a poorly-designed plan could never have worked.

Garasu no Hitsugi de Nemuru Himegimi (envy)

A princess is born with skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony, and lips as red blood, fulfilling a wish her mother had made in winter. However, the queen dies in childbirth, and her place is taken by a vain and wicked woman.

The stepmother possesses a magic mirror, to which she frequently asks the question,"Mirror,mirror on the wall, who in the land is the fairest of all? " The response always "You, my queen," until the princess, Snow White, matures enough to overtake her stepmother in beauty.

Consumed by jealousy, the stepmother sends an old hunter to kill Snow White, who is able to escape by promising never to return, a boar slaughtered in her place.

Unable to find her way, Snow White eventually comes across a small and cute house, which, as she discovers upon waking up after spending the night there, is inhabited by seven dwarfs, who become her caretakers. Although the stepmother tries several times to eliminate Snow White through her schemes, each time she miraculously survives. One day, she approaches the house disguised as an old woman, and is able to trick Snow White into taking a poisoned apple. Upon her return, the mirror's reply is as before.

Märchen bids the sleeping princess to wait for her fated partner and the chance to take revenge.

A prince in search of the ideal bride is having little success, despite having gone through many women of all ages and dispositions. When he finds Snow White in her glass coffin, however, it's love at first sight. Because of his lineage, the dwarves easily agree to hand the body over, but when the coffin is dropped due to careless handling, she immediately wakes up.

With "skin as white as sorcery, hair as black as obsidian, and lips as red as fire," the princess forces her hated stepmother to dance until death in burning shoes, a symbol of her burning envy. The prince's wedding day ends on a somewhat negative note, as he wonders what marrying Snow White has gotten him into...

Elsewhere, Elise uses Märchen as her "mirror," asking for the cutest girl of all. She is delighted when he replies that she is.

-- (TO BE CONTINUED)

(rewritten 7/8)