カルマ (Karma)

"Karma" represents BUMP OF CHICKEN at their most expansive: written for the Tales of the Abyss JRPG soundtrack, the song was designed to carry the weight of a large narrative and it does. The arrangement is the densest in their catalog at the time — layered guitars, strings, a rhythm section that moves from restrained verses to full-force choruses. Fujiwara's vocals are pushed toward their upper limit on the chorus, achieving a controlled intensity that suits material about fate, birth, and the question of whether a life can be justified by what it becomes. The lyrical content is more philosophically ambitious than typical rock — grappling with predetermination, the ethics of existing, and what it means to face a destiny you didn't choose. What prevents it from becoming pretentious is the specificity of the emotion: the feelings are universal even when the vocabulary is cosmic. For listeners who encounter it outside its game context, it functions as a complete statement about the burden of living, delivered with an emotional sincerity that is genuinely rare.