AKB48, "Keibetsu shite ita aijou"

Sorry for disappearing for almost a month! x_x
I've had some rough times irl, but I'll try to update this blog a lot more in the next few days!

Also, do check the new layout, done for me by Sanzo, featuring Miyazawa Sae ♥


Let's move on to the song. I have been requested to do this single quite a lot, and it's a very meaningful song that I honestly believe anyone should know, so here you go.

"Keibetsu shite ita aijou" (The love that used to scorn me)
(from "Keibetsu shite ita aijou" single)
AKB48 senbatsu members (A: Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami, Nakanishi Rina, Oshima Mai, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami/ K: Akimoto Sayaka, Kasai Tomomi, Kobayashi Kana, Masuda Yuka, Miyazawa Sae, Ono Erena, Oshima Yuko, Sato Natsuki)

words: Akimoto Yasushi
music: Inoue Yoshimasa
point of view: female
theme: social problems
original lyrics


listen to Keibetsu shite ita aijou on youtube

Even the tragedies told by the TV news
Protected by anonimity
Are as normal as using emoticons
When I type an email on my mobile phone

The grownups, looking like they know it all,
Are looking for a motive
But their quite off the point analysis
Is like a joke that makes no one laugh

Our future is decided
By our rank in decimal point-accurate charts¹
Even if she did her best
She had no hope of making it
We realized that
Quite a while before
But we did nothing

Without even realizing it
I am longing for the love that used to scorn me
I don't want to be alone
I wanted to be held
By someone...

The girl who tried to turn into a bird
Lined her shoes neatly on the rooftop
Did she want people to praise her for her good manners?
Or was it an insinuation?

Even if they carry out a survey now
Asking if she "was" or "wasn't" bullied
The voice in her heart, which she wanted us to hear,
Is lost in the wind and can't reach us

The process of shifting the responsibility
Makes important people cry
We still don't understand
This way too foolish chain reaction...
The one pointing her finger
Is this me,
Who didn't do anything for her

This love used to scorn me
But despite that, I'm hungry for it
While pretending I didn't notice how anxious I felt
I kept looking for a kind glance
All the time...

Without even realizing it
I am longing for the love that used to scorn me
I don't want to be alone
I wanted to be held
By someone...

All the time...

Note
¹ The lyrics use the word "hensachi", meaning deviation value (in the assessment of an exam). It refers to the charts where the whole school's exam results are listed in result order. These charts are usually hung on the wall for everyone to see. In such a competitive schooling system as the Japanese one, where the best marks are essential in order to access the best schools, then universities, then jobs, even ranking one place lower can make a big difference.

Comment
"Keibetsu shite ita aijou" is a very heavy, un-idol-like song. It talks about a schoolgirl who commits suicide by jumping from the school rooftop after enduring bullying, through the eyes of a classmate of hers. This classmate points her finger at how adults seem to rationalize the accident and make excuses and accusations, but at the same time she feels guilty because she knew the girl was bullied, yet didn't do anything.
In a competitive, yet uniformized society like Japanese society, bullyism towards who is "different" for a reason or another is a serious problem. Suicides caused by bullyism are, unfortunately, pretty frequent - which is addressed in the first verse (the news do not give out the names of the people involved if they are underage, therefore "tragedies protected by anonimity".
The verses are sung by the classmate/narrator, while the chorus, in first person, is like the last, desperate cry of the bullied girl, longing for love even from the people who hurt her.

And here comes an idol group addressing the issue with lyrics which are feather light and stone heavy at the same time. The PV opens and closes with Yuko standing on the rooftop, looking as if she's about to jump, and shows instances of bullyism.
What makes the song even more haunting is the use of the flute and of "heavenly" sounding harmonies in the back track of the song. The contrast between this instrumental, the severe melody in minor mode and the seriousness of the lyrics makes the song all the more a blow to the stomach.

Just out of curiosity, there is another AKB song about a classmate killing herself (despite not specifying if the reason was bullyism), "Hitei no requiem" from Team K's 5th stage "Saka agari".

AKB48, "Ponytail to shushu"

As I promised, a single!
This time I wanted to go for something lighter, but still meaningful, so let me introduce to you...

"Ponytail to shushu" (Ponytail and scrunchie)
(from "Ponytail to shushu" single)
AKB48 senbatsu members (A: Kojima Haruna, Maeda Atsuko, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Takajo Aki / K: Itano Tomomi, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae, Ono Erena, Oshima Yuko / B: Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Miyazaki Miho, Watanabe Mayu / SKE48: Matsui Jurina)

words: Akimoto Yasushi
music: Ota Shinya
point of view: male
theme: love song
original lyrics


listen to Ponytail to shushu on youtube

Before the set date on the calendar
I roll up my shirt's sleeves
It's the sign that the sun is getting closer
I'm changing to summer uniform starting from my arms¹

Blue sea
On the shore
I want to see you
Splashing water with naked feet

(Shaking) your ponytail
Into the wind
You run (I run)
on the sand
(Shaking) your ponytail
You turned my way
Your smile
My summer begins

Sunrays lighten the classroom
The temperature of my dreams got higher
When I look at you, sitting some rows ahead of me
My heart aches

I'll never be able to say I like you
I whisper my feelings to your back

Your ponytail (makes me feel sad)
Inside my dreams
I have all of you (all of me)
For myself
Your ponytail (makes me feel sad)
One-sided love
When our eyes meet
Now, we're just friends

Your long hair in a ponytail
In a polka dot scrunchie
I can't catch the tail of love
It's an illusion that will disappear if I touch it

(Don't take out) your ponytail
Without ever changing
Just keep running
As you are (as I am)
(Don't take out) your ponytail
Please be forever
The happy young girl you are

La la la...

Note
¹ The whole first verse refers to the Japanese school tradition of changing from long-sleeved winter uniform to short-sleeved summer uniform on a set date (usually at the start of June).

Comment
This song is cheerful only in appearance. It is actually a melancholy song, sung from a schoolboy's point of view, about his unrequited love for his classmate. The literal story is as follows: he sees her frolicking on the beach, her hair in a ponytail, and in their sunlit classroom at the beginning of Summer, and thinks that he will never be able to confess to her, he'll just keep loving her from a distance.
But the ponytailed girl is also a symbol of idealized youth. Her ponytail (tied with a colourful scrunchie), her school uniform, taking off her shoes and socks to play with the sea in the first Summer days... The schoolgirl symbolizes youth as it is often idealized in the Japanese adult world: innocence, simple beauty, cheerfulness. Youth is beautiful and fleeting, the only carefree time in a lifetime before being lining up in the "shakaijin" (productive worker) ranks; therefore it is an object of longing - this is the real reason why idol industry is so florid in Japan. They don't sell an image of sex as many Westerners think: idols are the image of perfect youth.
Back to the song, of course the literal unrequited love story is the prevailing part of the song, but the "symbolized youth" metaphor is a pivotal element of Japanese, and especially idol, culture, so I thought I'd point it out since it would be easy to overlook it for someone who is not very knowledgeable with Japan's idealization of youth.

AKB48 - "Beginner"

It seems only fair to start this post with AKB48's biggest hit to date.

"Beginner"
(from "Beginner" single)
AKB48 senbatsu members (A: Kojima Haruna, Maeda Atsuko, Sashihara Rino, Shinoda Mariko, Takahashi Minami, Takajo Aki / K: Itano Tomomi, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae, Oshima Yuko / B: Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Watanabe Mayu / SKE48: Matsui Jurina, Matsui Rena)

words: Akimoto Yasushi
music: Inoue Yoshimasa
point of view: male language is used but it is not relevant to the meaning of this song
theme: fighting/support song
original lyrics


listen to Beginner on youtube

In your position set!

All the experiences you made until yesterday
And your knowledge are only a burden
The wind will always pass by
And leave nothing behind

Look for a new road!
Don't spread someone else's map!
When you raise your eyes that were looking at the ground you'll become zero

Are we dreaming?
Are we believing in future?
Afraid of nothing, careless of what's our place
As reckless as ever
Are we dreaming now?
We should be as brand new as a child...
Let's tear off the chains that controlled us
Change your mind
Change your mind
We don't need to know anything Beginner!

Adults have failed and felt ashamed
And suffering has become their trauma
Thinking they don't want to feel such pain again
They have become smart

Challenges are laughed upon
What are you protecting with your silly calculations
In order to avoid risks?

Are we alive?
Do we want to be alive tomorrow?
We pretend we understand, we feign a knowing look
While we haven't dreamed in a long while
Yeah, are we alive?
Aren't we wasting our life?
Feel now the rhythm pulsing through your veins!

Stand up! Together!
Remember the day you were born!
Everyone's a beginner!
Stand up! Right away!
It won't go well
Easily from the beginning
Stand up! Together!
You just need to go back to the beginning
A beginner again
Stand up! Right away!
Be defiant, be defiant
You will make it somehow
Tear away the old page
Come on, let's begin!
We can be reborn all the time

Are we dreaming?
Are we believing in future?
Afraid of nothing, careless of what's our place
As reckless as ever
Are we dreaming now?
We should be as brand new as a child...
Let's tear off the chains that controlled us

I can't do anything
I can't do it well
So what?
We're still young
I can't do anything
I can't do it right away
That's why we have possibilities

The rain has stopped
The wind has stopped
A light we've never seen before
Is shining
Now's the time

You are a reborn beginner!

Text in italics is in English in the original lyrics


Comment

This is probably the song with the strongest lyrics among AKB48's single releases of the last years. It apparently fits in the category, so peculiar of Japanese lyrics, of "ouenka" (support/fighting songs), yet it is much more than that.
The meaning of the lyrics could be largely broken up in three big layers.
The first layer is strong and immediate: do it, recklessly. If you feel it's worth doing it, then don't think that you could fail, don't think of the risks and just do it - it's the only thing that can make you break away from a dull life and make it worth living.
It would be already a rather strong message for a group of idols, considering how idol music is generally very conservative and idol "ouenka" are usually limited to cute "Do your best!" songs; but let us look at the other layers of meaning.
One was nicely pointed out by this Oricon article (translation by me):

Idols song are a means of communication. They are a tool for shaping a message. But if the idols who stand in front don't synchronize themselves with the message, it won't come across. (...) This is an AKB48 song, and at the same time it isn't an AKB48 song. It's not the AKB that has taken the whole Japan by storm and conquered it, but it expresses a reality that's in synch with the state of mind of each single member. (...) A strong will is the reverse side of cheerfulness and high quality entertainment. Idols, too, in order to be able to keep showing their smiles to the fans, have to be strong. AKB can sing this message exactly because they are doing their best to be strong. The reason why this message becomes pain and pierces through us listeners, it's because we have stopped trying to be strong.

I think this is straight to the point. Several members posted on their blogs how they felt the lyrics reflected their own state of mind. It cannot be excluded that it could be a push on their backs from Akimoto, to encourage the girls to keep pursuing their dreams and to stay strong.

Next, there is another point of view we can look at these lyrics from. The controversial PV for this song's theme was "getting to know the meaning of 'being alive' through pain". In short: until you feel pain, until you know what pain is, you cannot understand what it means to be alive. In other words, as especially pointed out in the second verse, avoiding pain is avoiding life. Only by pain can we be reborn (which is, in my opinion, the true meaning of the word "beginner" as it is used in this song).
Moreover, not knowing what pain means leads to smaller perception of what it means hurting others (the "adults who have become smart" might refer to overprotecting parents).

The three interpretation levels overlap and interweave forming the broader picture of this song. The repetitive melody, deep-voiced singing and hard beat make for a compelling song, leaving you slightly anxious, and this is the case where the music is a perfect match for the lyrics.

Language-wise, the song is sung using male language, because of its "strong" connotations. Whether the first person is a boy or a girl is completely irrelevant when it comes to the meaning of "Beginner".

This song led me to take an important, maybe reckless decision that could change my whole life. It's just a song, but it has this kind of power, and I felt it was right to dedicate my first entry to it. I hope I could convey the strenght of this song through my words.