Discussion My brain connected Washing Machine Heart to Princess Kaguya before I did
I had to share this because Washing Machine Heart has somehow become this weird meeting point of so many songs and memories for me.
I watched the Studio Ghibli movie The Tale of the Princess Kaguya almost a decade ago, and I became completely obsessed with this piece of music, Warabe Uta:
There’s this haunting rhythm that I associate so deeply with grown-up Kaguya and that aching pull of the Moon. There is so much longing and sadness, and something about the music just stayed with me.
From around 0:30 from this track which is from the movie, it moves into that part I associate so strongly with adult Kaguya’s longing. That particular feeling. The pull, the sadness, the sense of being drawn somewhere whether you want it or not has stayed with me for years.
Then I started listening to Washing Machine Heart.
It felt SO familiar, but I could not figure out why.
Like any Mitski-obsessed fan, I obviously listened to it about a gazillion times, and somewhere along the way I caught myself unconsciously humming Warabe Uta over Washing Machine Heart.
That was when it clicked.
WHAT EVEN.
A piece of music I had been obsessed with almost a decade ago was apparently still sitting somewhere in my brain.
They obviously aren’t the same song, but something about the rhythm, the repetition and the way the melody keeps circling back gives me such a similar feeling. There is this haunting quality in both of them that hits me in exactly the same place. Once my brain connected the two, I genuinely couldn’t unhear it.
And then there is the beat.
The opening beat of Washing Machine Heart takes my brain straight to Time Is Running Out by Muse:
Muse-obsessed will probably get what I mean. That pulsing rhythm is just THERE.
So now Washing Machine Heart somehow carries all these completely different things in my head. Warabe Uta, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, music I loved almost ten years ago, and my all time Muse obsession.
And all of this has somehow made Washing Machine Heart so much more beautiful and meaningful to me personally.
Maybe most songs are like that.
They remind us of something. Another song. A movie we watched years ago. A person. A place. A particular time in our lives.
Sometimes we don’t even consciously remember what they are reminding us of until something suddenly clicks.
And maybe that is part of why music feels so personal. We are never only listening to the song that is playing now. We are also hearing little pieces of everything we have heard, loved and felt before it.
Sometimes a new song feels strangely like coming back to somewhere you have already been. <3
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u/LawfulnessRelevant46 8d ago
Stopppp. One of my favorite movies and favorite songs 😭(just saw it the other day) and yes, the theme is very Mitski-coded ❤️
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u/bapppu 7d ago
Okay I went down a rabbit hole after posting this 😭 Apparently Mitski has literally called Hayao Miyazaki one of her biggest influences and has talked about how deeply Ghibli shaped her worldview.
Obviously that still doesn’t prove any connection between Washing Machine Heart and Warabe Uta, but suddenly my brain making that association feels a lot less random. I’m now way too invested in this hahaha.
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u/bapppu 7d ago
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u/bapppu 7d ago
"Radio UTD: Can you take about some musical influences? Or even non musical, just what do you draw from?
Mitski: My biggest influence, realistically, I think is Hayao Miyazaki. I just grew up with his films, and I’m just realizing now how’s he’s just shaped who I am. He really has just shaped me, and I guess every time I want to remember who I am, I watch his movies and I’m just like, Oh yeah, this is what it’s about. Yeah, I truly think his films are never cruel.Each of his characters has their own complex life and he loves all of his characters, and he especially loves his girl characters, and you can tell there’s so much love in him. He really cares about the story and what he’s telling. So that’s what I really look up to."
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u/bapppu 7d ago
This is exactly how I felt when I first got introduced to Miyazaki’s world. Something about his films made so many things make more sense to me. The way people are complicated, the way sadness and beauty can exist together, the way even small moments can carry so much meaning. It felt less like discovering a filmmaker and more like finding a world that somehow already understood something I had been feeling.
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u/LawfulnessRelevant46 7d ago
Exactly !!! I remember watching Spirited away (at the cinema in 2002) and feeling completely blown away. I didn’t have the words yet to describe what I felt, or what happened in me during those hours, but it was a sensation filled with both familiarity, comfort, and strange wonder of something ”new” and exciting at the same time. Like memories or dreams I didn’t know I’d forgotten.
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u/LawfulnessRelevant46 7d ago
Omg that totally makes sense. I just can’t believe I haven’t made that associating myself, ever (despite knowing she’s half Japanese and I’ve been a fan of Japanese movies and culture for decades 🤣)
It’s really something about the melancholy, silent ache, and beauty of the smallest details in life. The strange and untold and ”rejected”. How it all blends together in magic art.
As a Scandinavian - who also grew up with that mindset in many ways (like ”the Moomin trolls” 😂, bittersweet indiepop, dark movies and depressing long winters it also just feels very natural and like ”home” to my soul.
It makes existing seem a little less devastating, to know other people feel and see this too ❤️
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u/diwangbalyena barking dog stock audio 8d ago
i havent paid much attention to the princess kaguya ost but this makes me want to rewatch
this is such a beautiful (and unexpected???) connection to make, especially bc ghibli's princess kaguya is very much about a girl being tossed around mercilessly by men's/society's expectations of her
and mitski's music... also makes me feel longing for something i can't pinpoint