アンヘル || Ángel

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17 responses to “アンヘル || Ángel”

1. 

   Dappou

   17 September 2020

   It’s really called “Angel” bcuz kai is forced to put on a happy/beneficent facade when he is inclined to be neither of those things, and yet he still cares a whole lot abt pleasing people (i mean, as an artist, knowing how to please the crowd is essential to success. So if you were a really dedicated artist like kai, one would have the people-pleasing desire seep elsewhere into one’s life to an absurd degree). He feels trapped in the mask, but he still has to be such a darrrrrling little angel to be accepted. Notice even Mikoto’s pose looks like she’s performing for some1.

   The distorted speech that says “shiawase desu”, the latter part of the bridge, etc are voices in kai’s head. In a couple cases it expresses how the collective of society would answer kai’s rational cynicism, e.g. “just be happy just be happy just be happy lol”. But overall the voices are meant to represent demons, in theme with the song. imo, they probably are demons, as best as he can discern them w/o actually believing. That’s neither here nor there tho…

   Suggested changes (imo):
   “Dokudoku majiwatte, tachimachi konnichiwa” -> “They gush out like pus, rushing to greet me.” (line gives a People Allergy vibe, drastic desire not to interact w/ other people)

   “Ta-ta-ta-tanjoubi” -> “Oh it must be my birthday!”

   “Zoku zoku wazuratte me no fuchi nuretemo shiawase desu. Ikite iru nara hora!” –>. “I keep getting sick, and tears line the edges of my eyes, and yet, ‘This is happiness!’. But if you’re alive, look at me!” (kai is told he’s supposed to be happy by society’s standards, but he’s dying inside and wishes someone would see through his paper-thin facade of happiness and well-being)

   “Que sera, que sera, que sera…” -> “It is what it is, and that’s that…”

   “Rararara…” -> “Blah blah blah blah” (“ra” is used as a pluralizing suffix, esp to downplay importance. So it’s saying something like “life’s a bunch of whatever”)

   “Juuboku no karuma” -> “A people-pleaser’s karma”. (Like ig “manservant” works too for the metaphor. But this adds clarity to what he’s saying imo)

   “Mokusoku ayamatte tachimachi konnichiwa” -> “My eye measurement’s off, and I’m rushed down with unwanted hello!’s”. (The first part you did just fine, I’m just changing the second part for flow value.)

   …I’m getting kinda tired atm, will post more suggestions when I can

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   1. 

      Releska

      17 September 2020

      Hi there! Thanks for your comment (^_^) I enjoyed reading your interpretation of the song, I can tell you’ve put a lot of thought into it. I’ll have a think through your suggestions for the translation and leave another comment letting you know which parts I update. In the meanwhile, please feel free to leave another comment with more suggestions!

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      1. 

         Dappou boi

         19 September 2020

         idk if there’s a character limit or what, but I’m not seeing my comments posted. For that reason, here have a GDoc link with what I was gonna say.

         https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E7qsxqTBQtLlCwOw8vdnLYYGIiHcpKrHkHSknKOC0c4/edit?usp=sharing

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         1. 

            Releska

            19 September 2020

            Thanks for the link to the Google doc! It looks like your comment was just caught by WordPress’ overactive spam filter (^_^);

            If it happens again, no need to comment multiple times – just leave a shorter comment letting me know you commented and I’ll fish it out.

            I’m looking forward to reading through your suggestions and making any changes that need to be made…!

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            1. 

               dappou boi

               22 September 2020

               seems it did actually post, just massively delayed. just scroll down a bit :p

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      2. 

         Dappou boi

         19 September 2020

         (for some reason it won’t let me post this comment, or doesn’t show it. If there are duplicates, just delete them if you’d please lol)

         tbh while i did put alot of thought into this, must give credit where it’s due. Learning the ways of God and thus the spiritual underpinnings of this universe made it so that this particular song was right up my alley. Like, I guess you’d call it a spiritual gift, the “discernment of spirits” iirc. Yes it’s something that one gets better at from practicing (and i often see the sprouting seed in other people too, even non-Christians), but it was ultimately given to me from nothing i myself did to earn it. In any case, it makes reading the erm…”zeitgeist” of the song much clearer.

         Anyways, enough preaching. Today I did the angel/demon monologues.

         Angel Translation Notes

         ((Angel’s monologue))

         此の灯に万歳三唱
         (This) (light) (towards) (giving up) (three cheers!)
         Three cheers to giving up the light,
         (Banzai has many definitions. Trynna read the spirit via context, I think “giving up” is more appropriate to the “fallen angel” theme. The cynical sarcasm seems to fit, too. Like, I doubt any instance of “three cheers” in kairiki-san’s music would be unironic celebration.)

         孤独に存在一生
         (Solitude) (towards) (existence) (lifetime)
         And living my life alone.

         その苦に異論提唱
         (That) (suffering) (towards) (objection) (advocate/propose)
         I raise an objection to all this suffering,
         (I imagine this like an angel asking God among the heavenly host, “hey I have a proposal. I object to all this suffering, please make it stop”. The weird wording starts to make sense, like “advocacy” and “objection”. Like phoenix wright, when you choose irrelevant evidence.)

         御託は論外殺傷
         (Irrelevant talk) () (wearing) (disease)
         I’m wearing a diseased body,
         (Implies spirit as inhabiting the body, like water in a vase. Body is in bad condition, spirit suffers as a result.)

         奈落に惑う表情
         (Hell/eternity) (->) (puzzled/doubtful) (facial expression)
         that puts on a doubtful face regarding eternity.
         (See the second entries for “hell” and “puzzled”. It took me a long time to figure out, but the alt definitions made sense of things. The body won’t live into eternity, though our souls are being grown into that mold so to speak. But in-song, kairiki is talking about his pessimistic denial of eternity being pretty much muscle memory, like the idea that “death = oblivion” is hard-wired into his brain, denying any meaning to everything he loves and cares about.)

         “A condition of numb deterioration. Unreachable lifesaving injuries.”
         Good translation, but for extra clarity i’d translate it the following way:
         “This condition of numb deterioration makes my deepest wounds unreachable, so that I can’t heal them to save my life.”
         As always, merely a suggestion.

         ((Demon’s monologue))

         皮肉の混在立証
         (Distant thing) (position/oneself) (watch) (whole universe)
         See your place in the universe,

         皮肉の混在立証
         (Cynicism/irony) (’s) (mixture) (proof/demonstration)
         It’s a demonstration of this mixture of ironies.

         偽善の横行現象
         (Hypocrisy) (’s) (prevalence) (phenomenon)
         The phenomenon of hypocrisy’s prevalence,

         滅びの生存競争
         (Ruin/destruction) (’s) (existence) (competition)
         It’s like a contest, for the perishing of your existence.

         (The 4 lines right after these, you translated very well. Nuff said)

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2. 

   fay

   9 September 2019

   Thank you so much! (^_^) Kairiki Bear is an incredible lyricist, and you’re always really thorough with your translations, so I’m really glad about this!

   I love the stream-of-consciousness feeling that the breakdown has. It has the same themes as the rest of his music (nihilism, hedonism, and self-destruction) which is pretty wild, considering that this song was used for promotion! I was wondering if he was going to tone it down a little, but I feel like he just made the lyrics more complex instead of less graphic, lol.

   The imagery of “angels” because it invokes this idea of ascension.

   Thanks again! You honestly contribute so much to this fandom. ❤

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   1. 

      fay

      9 September 2019

      *The imagery of “angels” invokes this idea of ascension.
      (typo)

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3. 

   Saryu

   5 September 2019

   Thanks, I was looking forwards to this translation! The one uploaded on Youtube was pretty hard to understand and apparently innacurate, though the first bit seems to come straight from the original…

   I don’t have a definite theory for this song, but I do like one interpretation I read: that it’s about a girl that’s depressed, disabled/chronically ill or both, and how she struggles between instinctively wanting to live and feeling like all that awaits her is more pain. So all the fake cheeriness is her trying to convince herself that she’s actually really glad to be alive and that everything will be great from here on. The angel is the girl herself and represents her connection with death (either through suicidal thoughts and maybe self-harm or from her illness shortening her lifespan). The one thing it’s missing is an explanation for the changes in expression and eye color through the video.

   Did you see my comment in the My Beloved Flower is Cheerful post, about shiawase changing to tsurai at one point? Another interesting thing I noticed in the PV is how just before the second que sera, shiawase is written in katakana. I’m reminded of Falling-Apart Heart, in which it’s spelled the same way at first and then as 死合わせ. I wonder if it’s the same idea at play there.

   As an aside, the popularity of “que sera sera” vaguely annoys me, since it’s so close to being proper Spanish but they always drop the article that makes it into a coherent sentence. I do think that it’s more phonetically pleasing that way, because then you only have two different vowels instead of three, but it’s still a bit irritating that the one “cool” phrase that got picked up by foreigners got chopped up.

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4. 

   Tempera

   3 September 2019

   I agree with your intepretation! The angel is observing and commenting on human life. I think in the parts about happiness, they’re trying to see the humans’ perspective. However, the angel is extremely cynical about human existence and is appalled by the humans’ que sera, sera attitude. I watched the video a lot, which directly affects my interpretation. Fun fact: this was a demo song for the Vocaloid, Meika Mikoto (the character in the video and whose depiction seems to be a stand in for the angel). I’ll just refer to Mikoto’s depiction as the angel.

   The angel has a few different expressions in the video. I interpret the first expression (seen in the beginning of the video) as neutral/curious, related to the angel’s initial observation of humans. Later, the facial expression changes to a smile around 1:05. Perhaps the angel is amused and entertained by what they perceive as the humans’ futility. Around 1:55, the angel audibly and visibly laughs, hinting at their true nature. To me, the laugh signals the change in tone. The lyrics sound very cynical and sarcastic, almost as if the angel is mocking the humans. At about 3:05, we can see very briefly their happy(?) face. The angel’s horns have been visible the entire video, but from this point on, the halo disappears… This leads me to believe that maybe we’ve actually been dealing with a false angel all along…

   Are the numbers (123 and 223) sound alikes for other words? Since they’ve been repeated many times, I wonder if they’re significant in some way.

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   1. 

      releska

      3 September 2019

      Thanks for your comment and for your detailed interpretation! (^_^)

      Unfortunately I don’t know for sure if the numbers are sound alikes for other words. I definitely haven’t encountered anything in the past, but it may exist. The closest thing I can think of is counting in music. If there are three beats in a bar, you count the first bar “1, 2, 3” then the second is “2, 2, 3” then “3, 2, 3” and so on. It may not be related but that’s all I could think of.

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      1. 

         Arthur

         23 May 2023

         I don’t feel like it’s literally about an angel, the song seems to be about pushing yourself to be positive despite pain and misery the speaker seems to be in. Something more like struggling to be positive among the people who rush in and trying to assure oneself that you’ll be happy eventually if you just continue acting happy, despite the future seeming empty.

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   2. 

      Tempera

      4 September 2019

      I was wondering about their significance because in another of Kairiki Bear’s songs, 613 is read as 無意味 (see https://vocaloidlyrics.fandom.com/wiki/%E3%83%AC%E3%83%9F%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%9F%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0_(Lemming_Ming) ). I scanned through their other songs and they don’t seem to really do this often. I guess Kairiki Bear just might have liked the sound of the numbers or it just might be random then. I’ve noticed that lyrics for some songs (regardless of artist) have certain words written down, but different words are sung or in the furigana. I’m not sure how common this double reading is.

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5. 

   raineydayparade

   1 September 2019

   Kairiki Bear has an interesting style, love the new meika siblings(?) too

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   1. 

      releska

      2 September 2019

      It’s a very interesting style! I love the new vocalods as well, some of those effects (like the breath) are really effective and life-like!

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6. 

   taringtajam

   31 August 2019

   yes! it’s here, finally.
   thanks, releska! ^^
   you made my day

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   1. 

      releska

      31 August 2019

      You’re welcome! It ended up being quite a tough song, but there’s a very deep story behind it which made it all worthwhile!

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