Yoasobi ‘RGB’ summary of the original novel by komikado Yuichiro

Yoasobi creates lyrics based on novels. This article share with you the summary of the original novel of RGB.

Summary of the story – RGB by 小御門優一郎

Red looking at his smartphone displaying showing a coming event -‘’three of us’’- scheduled in an hour. The invitation title ’’ three of us’’ sounds quite ambiguous, but still it cannot be called ‘’reunion’’ considering the way three of them went their separate ways.

Three of them were born in the same district of the town in the same year. Their first encounter was completely coincidental at a nearby park to their houses. Red no longer remembers which of them, Green or Blue, invited him to play around together. Looking back, the boldness of kids making new friends is astounding. He genuinely appreciates it as even now the their exciting interaction still hasn’t  faded away in his hazy old memory.

In their childhood, they had been together almost every day; on their way to school, at school, in the playground of the park after school. There was no doubt that they  cannot be more companionable. However, after a series of small incidents, their close-knit relationship started dissolving. It involved a tiny love affair between Red and Green. Even though their relationships could not be forged again, for Red, days with Green and Blue were an essential part of his childhood. Probably, no words can decently represent the meeting of them. In this sense, the title “Three of us” may be the best choice.

After work, he ran to a station and looked for a coin locker where his crumpled business attire could be kept during the reunion. In his plan, he will show up with a fashionable look in front of Green and Blue, and his whole lunch break was utilized in purchasing new chic clothes. It had been a long time since he purchased clothes the last time, and he was not sure what drove him to act cool. It might be  simply because of the reunion with old friends, or, does his still have a romantic feeling for Green? Every time he sees the profile of Green on social media, his heart cannot maintain the usual pace of beating. From a glance of her picture smiling with her eyes closed and her face down, he is  convinced she has grown a beautiful lady.

While he was killing time until the appointment time, he recalled a surging suspense when he handed in his notebook to Green and Blue that were filled with his comics drawn with undeveloped techniques. He was over the moon to see them being immersed in reading his comics. They were the first readers and nudged him to pursue the dream of becoming a manga artist.

At the same time, Green was chatting with her fiancé about the reunion with her old friends. She was  receiving a barrage of jokes that Red and Blue might hold affections to her, and making herself busy in dodging them and explaining their platonic relationships. For her, they are precious childhood friends who shared a wide range of activities together, until each of them grew bigger and found more companionable friends who share the same hobby and goals. Red and Green were the friends with whom she could purely enjoy the fun atmosphere. She is wishing today’s meeting would be engulfed with the same atmosphere.

Blue is talking with his friend who is trying to hang out with him today. After he declined the invitation, he recalled his school days. Back then, he was like a leader with exuding confidence and had excellent academic and athletic capabilities.  For a while, he relished relieving old memories, and then received a call again from the friend. It was a breathtaking revelation that the friend was the fiancé of Green. Blue felt the world is small. Then, gradually his attention was directed to Red- What would red feel about Green’s marriage? In childhood, it was obvious to Blue that Red had fallen in love with Green. That was the reason Red got exasperated when Green shared his notebook, the heroin of the comic was Green, with other classmates. Blue believes this incident caused a rift between Red and Green, even though Green was innocent and just wanted to share Red’s great work with others. Now, Blue is a little bit apprehensive about the reunion of Red and Green, which may work against the anticipation of Red if he still has affections for Green. Anyway, he is moving to the appointment place.

‘’Long time no see’’ was the opening gambit of Blue to Red.  To the surprise of Blue, Red had grown much taller than what he was, and blue realized he was overtaken by at least 10 centimeters. In the midst of pleasantry conversations with a nostalgic feeling, Green arrived in front of them in a rush with her marriage ring reflecting the sunset on her left third finger, saying ‘’ sorry to be late, both of you look really mature, we haven’t seen each other for ages, have we?. Silence reigned the atmosphere and time flowed awkwardly slow for a split second. Then, laughter spontaneously burst out of three mouths and it banished the silence in a quiet town.

“Cheers for our reunion” they started their feast in a restaurant and a range of topics on their childhood were brought about alternately. Eventually, Red started talking about his comic and drawing some characters on a paper, saying ‘’I cannot write the way I did’’. It seems adults cannot draw characters as unique and adorable as kids do. The Blue added ‘’ Didn’t you remember we had an argument over your notebook ? ‘’ Really? ’’ Red replied without understanding what the argument meant. “Green shared your notebook with others’’ Bule added. “come to think of it, something like that did happen. But for that matter, Green apologized to me on the day’’ Red answered. Green chimed in ‘’ In retrospect, it was completely my bad. I am so sorry’’ After a series of conversation related to Red’s notebook, they start to talk about why their relationship became weaker and weaker. In the days they became distant, Red was believing Green was in a romantic relationship with other boy, and Green was believing Blue was trying to take a distance from Green and Red to be focused on a sport club activity. Both speculations were denied instantly and it turned out there was no real reasons for their weakened relationships.

After this reunion, they healed the imaginary  rift on their relationship and started a new chapter of their life where three of them occasionally catch up with each other. A spontaneous reunion with old friends may fall upon everyone. It should be acceptable or may be good enough that human relationships become tenuous or strong in one’s life stage, as it is the way individual life interlaces one another and form connections.

My thought

This novel is quite impressive and the Yoasobi’s song ‘RGB’ captures and expresses the essence of the story in a fantastic way. It is a good reminder that our memories are filled with subjective interpretation of events, which could distort the real story. If adults want to reforge their old relationships again, it may be better to get on with it before recalling unpleasant memories.

Links

you can watch the English version of 三原色 – RGB from the following link.

Original  三原色 in Japanese

Temptation of Thanatos – タナトスの誘惑 , the original novel of ‘into the night’ is in the following link.

Temptation of Thanatos – into the night – Yoasobi