普段のガチャピンやBandmaidの話からちょっと一休みして、今回はNEK!に注目してみる。彼らはまだ新しいバンド（この時点ではね）だけど、楽曲のクオリティがすでにかなり成熟してるのがわかる。YouTubeのリアクターたちが既に音楽的な面白さについていろいろ語ってるから、そこはいつも通り彼らに任せることにするよ。この曲、歌詞も結構巧妙で、もっと注目されるべきだと思う。ポップカルチャーのリファレンスをいくつか見逃しちゃうかもしれないし、関西弁も入ってるみたいだから、間違いいっぱいあったら申し訳ないね。
Taking a break from the usual Gachapin & Bandmaid fun to take a look at NEK!. They’re a relatively new band (as of writing), but the quality of their songwriting shows some real maturity. A lot of youtube reactors have already covered the cool stuff they’re doing musically so as usual I’ll leave it to them. This song is also lyrically quite clever and deserves a bit more attention. I’ll probably miss a bunch of pop-culture references and there seems to be a bit of Kansai-ben thrown in for good measure. Don’t lynch me.
混ぜ混ぜ素人 (x2)
Mix it up, Amateur
混ぜ — maze — On its own ‘maze’ means mix (the title of the song — yes I know it looks like the English word, but ‘mah-zeh’ is what you’re after). Repeated, it can mean ‘mixed up’ or ‘mix it up’.
素人 — shirouto — amateur
混ぜこぜマリオネット東京
混ぜこぜ — mazekoze — jumble, hodgepodge
マリオネット — marionetto — marionette
東京 — toukyou — Tokyo
Mixed up marionette Tokyo
飽きたら捨て去りなはれ
飽きたら — akitara — if you get sick of it
捨て去りなはれ — sutesari nahare — throw it away. nahare is (I think) a kansai-ben form of the imperative ‘nasai’ — a command. ‘suteru’ on its own is to throw away. ‘sutesaru’ suggests a more energetic form of discarding/rejecting something. Hika rolls her tongue slightly on the ‘ri’ of ‘sutesuri’, which gives it a sort of assertive tone. If you roll your ‘r’s when speaking Japanese, it can sort of startle people (Tokyo people at least). It can come across as a bit rough or commanding.
If you tire of it, throw it away
無秩序シルエットやるかやられるか
無秩序 — muchitsujo — chaos
シルエット — shiruetto — silhouette
やるかやられるか — yaru ka yarareru ka — do or die (literally ‘Do? or have done to you?’ or ‘Attack? or be defeated?’). It can be translated a few ways.
Chaotic silhouette, do or die
こんがらがって這いつくばう
こんがらがって — kongaragatte — becoming enmeshed/entangled
這いつくばう — haitsukubau — crawl, grovel
Tangled up, crawling
真正面から攻めたらサンドバック
真正面 — masshomen — directly in front
から — from
攻めたら — semetara — if you attack
サンドバック — sandobakku — punching bag (sandbag)
If you attack head on, you’re a punching bag
いい子ぶってぶりっ子正義の鉄槌
いい子ぶって — ii ko butte — playing (pretending to be) nice,
ぶりっ子 — burikko — a somewhat derogatory term to describe someone who pretends to be helpless or defenceless to be appealing
正義 — seijo — justice
鉄槌 — tettsui — hammer
Playing the good girl, cutesy hammer of justice
The book-ending of ‘ko’ here is clever wordplay. The repeated ‘bu’ sound sort of phonetically ties the two terms together. The whole line makes me chuckle. The MV translation goes with ‘Pretending to be a good girl, a hypocrite wielding the hammer of justice’, which is a pretty good take, I reckon.
アブラカダブラ
信じたらおしまいなのです
アブラカダブラ — aburakadabura — abracadabra
信じたら — shinjitara — if you believe
おしまいなのです — oshimai nanodesu — (you are) finished. ‘oshimai’ means ‘that’s it / the end’. Adding ‘nanodesu’ gives a sense of explaining definitively how it is.
Abracadabra
If you believe, then you’re finished
今日の敵は明日も敵です
今日 — kyou — today
敵 — teki — enemy
明日 — asu — tomorrow
An enemy today is still an enemy tomorrow
友情ハイブラ心バラバラ
友情 — yuujou — friendship
ハイブラ — haibura —could be either high brow, or a contraction of high brand. I’m going to go with the former
心 — kokoro — heart, mind, spirit
バラバラ — barabara — all over the place, scattered
Friendship high brow Heart scattered
燃え散らかして
燃え散らかして — moe chirakashite — this is a compound verb of moeru (burn) and chirakasu (scatter). ‘burn it all’ might be a close analogue.
Burn it all down
今日も生きていきましょう
生きていきましょう — ikite ikimashou — let’s keep on living
Today too, let’s live on
間違い探し疑心暗鬼Dope
間違い探し — machigai sagashi — spot the difference
疑心暗鬼 — gishin anki — A 4-character idiom that means ‘once you suspect, everything looks suspicious’. You could shorten it to ‘paranoia’, which is less of a mouthful, but seems to lose something in translation.
Spot the difference. Paranoia dope
憧れスパイシー
憧れ — akogare — adoration, admiration (also yearning, longing)
スパイシー — supaishi~ — spicy
Spicy adoration
足元お気をつけてくださいください
全てをください
足元 — ashimoto — your step, underfoot
お気をつけて — oki wo tsuteke — take care, be careful
ください — kudasai — please give me
全て — subete — everything
These couple of lines are cleverly put together. ‘ashimoto o ki wo tsukete kudasai’ is a common phrase that means ‘please watch your step’, and its ambiguous whether the first ‘kudasai’ belongs to this phrase or the next one (kudasai kudasai subete wo kudasai) which means ‘give me, give me, everything’. It creates a shift in tone from concern about one’s wellbeing, to demanding and self-centered. If you hadn’t worked out that you’re NEK!’s plaything yet, you’re probably starting to get the idea.
Watch your step (please)
Give it to me, give it to me, give it all to me
遊びましょう
遊びましょう — asobimashou — let’s play
あーあーあーあー
どいつもこいつもシャカリキ鬼だるい
どいつもこいつも — doitsumo koitsumo — everyone (every last one). It’s informal to the point of rudeness. koitsu/aitsu/doitsu are references to another person that you use when you don’t think much of them and you don’t care who knows.
シャカリキ — shakariki — going all out, frenetic
鬼だるい — oni darui — incredibly sluggish/languid, but also ‘bothersome’, ‘tiresome’. ‘oni’ means ‘demon’ and is often used to magnify the thing it’s attached to.
The MV went with ‘everyone is annoyingly overenthusiastic’, which captures the dismissiveness of ‘doitsumokoitsumo’, and makes sense if ‘onidarui’ refers to Hika and not the people she’s talking about. I don’t know if ‘annoyingly’ quite captures the intensity and feeling of being drained that ‘oni darui’ conveys. Think ‘All of these fuckers are going all out and I’m so over it’.
Anyone and everyone, all try-hards. I’m so over it.
愛だの恋だの
愛 — ai — love
だの — dano — a colloquial term used to list things, often things you feel sort of disconnected from, or possibly viewed negatively
恋 — koi — romance
Love and romance (and stuff)
欲まみれでごめんなさいな
欲 — yoku — greed, desire
まみれ — mimare — covered in, smeared with
ごめんなさいな — gomen nasai na — I am sorry. The ‘na’ at the end gives it an informal (and therefore insincere) meaning.
Sorry (not sorry) I’m so stained with greed
我らは魔NEK!猫
我ら — warera — we
魔NEK!猫 — ma neki neko — some more fun wordplay. 招き猫 (maneki neko) are those waving cats you see that invite good fortune. The way NEK! have written it, ma means ‘demonic’, (or “The dreaded…” if you’re being overly dramatic) and slotted in their own name for the rest.
We’re NEK!, the cats that beckon mischief
(Sorry, that’s the least cringey thing I could come up with that tries to work with what they’re going for. It’s kinda cool in Japanese)
騙し絵踏み絵
騙し絵 — damashi e — trompe l’oeil — If like me your are neither French, nor an art connoisseur, then you may not have known this term. It’s a sort of 2-dimensional picture that appears to be 3-dimensional. Thanks NEK!. TIL.
踏み絵 — fumi-e — This one I did know. It’s a picture of Jesus that is intended to be stepped on. Japanese authorities back in the 1600's, used it to weed out Christian converts (who then tended to be crucified).
Trick art (or) fumi-e?
It’s difficult to translate succinctly. My take is they’re presenting a deceptive test for your very soul. The MV translated this as ‘trick art, fumi-e’, which is technically correct and probably sidesteps having a bunch of histrionic bullshit brigading the comments, so I can’t blame them, but it also dodges tying together NEK!’s aforementioned mischievous intent, the callback to ‘watch your step’ and the subsequent arrival at their intended destination:
地獄へようこそ♡
地獄 — jigoku — hell
ようこそ — youkoso — welcome
Welcome to hell♡
That heart makes all the difference. I bet Hika put one of those at the end of her last Line break-up message.
回れ回れ右に
回れ回れお次は左
回れ — maware — turn. Hika pronounces this as ‘mare’, which may be a Kansai-ben thing, or stylistic choice. I’m not sure which.
右 — migi — right
お次 — otsugi — the next (thing, person etc). The ‘o’ makes it more polite than just ‘tsugi’. Used here I’m guessing, to fit the cadence.
左 — left
Turn, turn to the right
Turn, turn, next is left
感覚的支配はお手の物
華麗なるウィンクで
感覚的 — kankakuteki — sensory. ‘kankaku’ means sense, feeling, intuition. Adding ‘teki’ to the end of a noun makes it the sort of adjective that in English tends to end in ‘istic’.
支配 —shihai — rule, control
お手の物 — ote no mono — one’s speciality
華麗なる — karei naru — splendid, brilliant, magnificent. The ‘naru’ bit threw me. I’m used to it meaning ‘becoming’. Going to the books a bit, this is apparently a device from classical literature that makes a phrase seem more dramatic or sophisticated.
ウィンク — uinku — wink
Sensory control is our speciality
With an elegant wink
So rather than a wink being playful, it’s elegant sophistication used to make you wheel left or right at will.
間違い探し疑心暗鬼Dope
憧れスパイシー
足元お気をつけてくださいください
全てをください
遊びましょう
Back to our pre-chorus. No change from last time until we get to
あらやだやだやだ
あら — ara — An expression of surprise, generally at something unexpected and unwanted. ‘ah!’ or ‘oh no!’
やだ — yada — no way, eww, do not want. A contraction of ‘iya desu’.
Ah, no. No way in hell
I’m taking a little bit of poetic license here, but I think it works.
行き場のない怒りったら反吐がでるわ
行き場のない — ikiba no nai — no place to go
怒り — ikari — rage, anger
ったら — ~ttara — an expression of exasperation similar to ‘I mean…’ or or ‘honestly/really’. In this case, ‘I mean, this pent-up rage, it makes me sick’.
反吐がでる — hedo ga deru — (lit) vomit comes out. It makes me sick.
わ — Can be a feminine sentence ending particle to soften an expression, but (as in this case) can be used for emphasis and isn’t particular to any gender.
I mean, this pent-up rage — it makes me sick
あっちっちの地の利を活かした理想郷完成
あっちっち —acchi-cchi — hot hot hot
地の利 — chinori — advantageous position
活かした — ikashita — capitalised on, made the best use of
理想郷 — risoukyou — Utopia
完成 — kansei — completion, accomplishment
Utopia achieved, (by) capitalising on advantageous position
秒でSwipe Block
秒 — byou — second (of time)
Swipe Block in a second
いいとこ切り取りマーメイド
いいとこ — ii toko — strong point, good thing
切り取り — kiri tori — cut off, cut out
マーメイド — ma~meido — mermaid
Mermaid with the best parts cut out
全てはあげません
全て — subete — everything
あげません — wont’/don’t give
I won’t give it all (to you)
ハイエナチック キミとマッチング バードウォッチング上から下まで
ハイエナチック — haienachikku — hyena-like. A joining of ‘hyena’ with ‘tic’ borrowed from English words that end in ‘istic’ (a very stylised form of 的 if you like).
キミとマッチング — kimi to macchingu — matching with you
バードウォッチング — ba~do uocchingu — birdwatching
上から下まで — ue kara shita made — from top to bottom
Hyena-like, matching with you, birdwatching from top to bottom
顔じゃ無いなんてバカ言うなっての
顔じゃ無い — kao ja nai — the literal translation is ‘not the face’, but in this case you could read it as ‘not about looks’
なんて — nante — ‘something like’, ‘such a thing as’
バカ言うな — baka iu na — don’t say stupid things. In many contexts this is a fairly harsh imperative phrase on the level of ‘don’t talk shit’.
っての — tte no — emphasises the preceding phrase in a way that carries strong emotion or conviction, similar to ending a sentence with ‘I tell you’ or ‘okay??’
“Looks don’t matter?” Don’t be stupid
所詮見せびらかしいの類
所詮 — shosen — in the end, after all
見せびらかしい — misebirakashii — showing off
類 — tagui — kind, sort
In the end, it’s all for show
羨望眼差し
羨望 — senbou — envy
眼差し — manazashi — gaze, look
Envious looks
キンキラキンギンギラギン
キンキラキン — kin kira kin — a sort of onomatopoeic phrase that means gaudy or glitzy, repeated as gin gira gin to give the impression there’s a lot of it going on.
Just glitz and glam
美しくも儚い瞳は哀れです
美しく — utsukushiku — beautiful
儚い — hakanai — ephemeral, fleeting (but also possibly ‘fickle’, ‘vain’)
瞳 — hitomi — eyes (particularly the pupil)
哀れ — aware — pitiable, pathetic
Ephemeral beauty of the eyes, how sad
The alternate meanings of ‘hakanai’ are interesting, given the surrounding lyrics are calling out shallow bullshit. Same goes for ‘aware’. Both seem to fit in context, but change the emphasis. (The MV went with ‘so pathetic’).
どこまで？？？
どこ — doko — where
まで — made — to, until
How far???
果てまでしがみついてやるわ
果て — hate — the end, the limit
しがみついて — shigamitsuite — cling on, grab on
やる — yaru — do
I’ll cling on to the very end
あーあーあーあー
どいつもこいつもシャカリキ鬼だるい
愛だの恋だの
欲まみれでごめんなさいな
我らは魔NEK!猫
騙し絵踏み絵
地獄へようこそ♡
Anyone and everyone, all try-hards. I’m so over it.
Love and romance (and stuff)
Sorry I’m so stained with greed
We’re NEK!, the cats that beckon mischief
Trick art (or) fumi-e?
Welcome to hell♡
キャッチーな曲だよね。歌詞はひらめきと奇妙さがいい感じに混ざってて、かなり巧妙だと思う。小鳩ミクに負けず劣らずかもね。地獄がNEK!のライブ含むなら、むしろ大歓迎だね。
It’s a catchy tune. The lyrics are equal parts inspired and oddball, but they’re clever. I reckon they might give Kobato Miku a run for her money. If hell is a gig with this mob playing, I’m totally fine with that.