adreamer4lone

[adreamer4lone]

Iberis Song Analysis

For the English viewers who have no clue what is going on. [WARNING], really long and detailed analysis. Also my first, so read the tl;dr if you don’t want to spend your time reading an essay. It’s also much longer than you might think. tl;dr(Too long; didn’t read)- The boy who’s seen as the protagonist of the song, is having an internal struggle, having difficulties being indifferent while preserving his sense of self. Throughout the song, he’s trying to figure out answers about himself. He deals with having to grow up and fit with society. This leads to multiple conflicts with himself and his ideals, all while dealing with a mixed storm of emotions and feelings which causes him to become more confused about himself. He does eventually find his answers. I’m going to point out some details in the mv and other small things:

-The same high school setting is used in all of Caphat’s songs which can be seen from the similar uniform styles of other song protagonists and how some of the scenes are reused in other songs. -In one particular scene at 1:41, the mc of the story says something, but there is little to no context as to what he says due to no lyrics or text. He’s wearing a tired expression with a fake smile. No, he doesn’t die here, it’s metaphorical for losing himself. -There are also scenes where there are strings of black text that appear in a classroom. Which represent the cluttered thoughts and confusion that resides in his mind. -Throughout the entire story, a lot of the scenes have the panels being flipped upside down, more so in the chorus sections. In my opinion, this is to represent the boy’s world constantly turning upside down in his confusion. -The parts where his face is covered with a black squiggle could represent his indifference/blindness towards himself.-The entire song’s perspective is the boy talking about himself and talking to himself. In the song, it is visible that he talks and refers to a different persona of himself. There are two main personas that represent him. I believe they are the side of him that is indifferent and his true self behind his indifference. In the first and second chorus, the one that is falling is his true self and the one that is looking at himself fall is his indifferent self. His true self is falling down because he is losing his sense of true self. -A way to look at it from a story perspective is that each chorus and the lyrics that come before it represent the beginning-middle-end. The first part (B) is his true self explaining his situation then asking his indifferent side to save himself. He first extends his arm to his other self. The second part (M) is where he tries to grasp his true self (metaphorically speaking but literally shown in the mv) but fails. The third part (E) is where he grasps himself but in a different way. I’ll talk about the last few scenes at the end of the lyric analysis. -The author’s note says that “Everyone is looking for a heart.” According to google translate that is. I prefer Ikhwan-san EQ-01’s translation/rewording -“Everyone is finding their own heart.” This further reinstates the idea of how he’s trying to change his indifference and finding his sense of self. Now on to the lyric analysis, this includes the English translations from Ikhwan-san EQ-01’s eng subtitles: -“イベリス ”, or “Iberis” in the language of flowers symbolizes indifference. Today, I’m a step closer to become an adult I understand the religion and its content -Adulthood is kind of a “religion” in the sense that children/teens worship the idealisms of becoming what they view as independent and free without fully understanding what being an adult means. He’s stating that he grows closer to being an adult and grasps what it means to be one. It’s dramatic in the yes-man classroom, I can’t laugh -People who are a “yes-man” are those that easily comply with their superiors. I have three interpretations of this: 1. He isn’t allowed to express himself in the situation. 2. Before the teacher arrives the students are being a bit “dramatic” and rowdy, but he’s unable to converse and “laugh” with them. 3. He views the situation with everyone is being a “yes-man” as “dramatic. He finds this amusing but knows he can’t express it. I like number 3, but I feel like his indifference is supposed to be represented in the phrase so 2 might be more accurate.) The day I lost everything but my heart -This probably means that he’s losing himself, his ideals, hopes, and beliefs that he once held onto, except the feelings that his heart gives him I search for everyone Revived in the “16th” reality -I talked with some people and came up with 16 representing age, and already said that he’s in a high school setting. He might be trying to find those who live their life meaningfully around his age to learn from them and refill what he has lost. Even if the nonsensical me was rewarded, if the coward me dies, then I won’t even need absurdity, reason and all logic -If the cowardly side of him were to disappear, then he wouldn’t need to overthink everything. He doesn’t need to be rewarded to feel motivated in himself. “Please” Put a curse on me, just for a moment So we won’t hate and smile to each other -He doesn’t want to feel anything towards the part of him he dislikes, he wants to be indifferent to aspects of himself. “You’re such a ‘lonely’ hypocrite” What’s correct? What’s incorrect? What, you don’t know? -He knows that he’s being contradictory as to what he wants for himself, but he ends up questioning what’s right and wrong. This causes him to pressure himself into finding answers. Cancel the spell, just for a moment So that the crowd of lost youngsters will shout -“Cancel the spell” refers to the “curse”. It seems like he wants to let out his emotions, or “shout” could be him shouting at himself, wanting to save himself/be saved. I think it’s the latter, due to this being said at the final part of the chorus where he can be seen falling even deeper. The reality escape, the young boy’s eyes -It means that reality is fleeing from his sight as he’s losses himself I won’t let you throw away my heart -He won’t let him lose himself I want to enjoy the human emotions and live “Yeah, yeah, don’t talk nonsense” -He’s pushing himself further down for desiring to live his life. After I sleep, will you listen to me? Then, will you cry together with me? -He wants to listen and comfort himself Let’s imitate the unidentified emotion Turn round and round -He’s struggling to understand his emotions, creating more confusion. This is also represented in the mv as the world around him becomes more disoriented. Don’t educate me A farce performance. In the moral of majority rule, the rampaging sentimental rotted away. -He doesn’t want his flaws to be pointed out because he knows he’s being ridiculous with himself. He used to be quite a sentimental child, but the majority around him don’t express their sentiments freely. This caused him to conform to the norm. I’ve no hope, but I live the tomorrow I’ve no reason, but I breathe again -He lives without anything to push him forward. I wonder what kind of picture will I see on my last moment -He wonders what he’ll see when he dies. Therefore,I’m opposing them many times too So I won’t be broken by other people -Because he’s already living without reason, he’s fighting society’s ideals so that he won’t lose himself. Society would be the “them”, but I also believe that “them” and “therefore” can refer to different things. “I can’t understand” “whos there?”-He doesn’t understand himself I don’t know, I want to know The result is “paraappaapaa” <- a weird part -For me, this required more speculation as I couldn’t find context in the song as to what “paraappaapaa” could be referring to. I later came up with this, he wants to find the answers, but the more he looks the more confusing it gets.“Paraappaapaa” is just a filler answer, it means nothing. The subtitled video by Ikhwan-san EQ-01, says in the description that the sound might be representing a trumpet. The general symbolism of a trumpet is involved with military conflict. If it is the sound of a trumpet, then the “result” could be pertaining to more conflict, which does make sense. The brainwashing and the reference book Eyes of the spectators -I believe the “eyes of the spectators” still refers to society “the brainwashing and the reference book” refer to social conformity and the rules that people refer to in order to fit in. In order to not be tainted any further I’m waiting for “life” and “punchline” My non-fiction, last siren -For him not to be pressured into society’s standards, he waits for something crucial to happen in his reality, his final calling. I don’t want to get hurt but I have to get hurt -He doesn’t like the feeling of pain but he has to deal with it I look like a living knack -Talked with some people again, the literal translation of ”'生きるコツ'らしい” says-“Has a talent for living, it seems”.“I look like a living knack” is another way of rephrasing but it just seemed so confusing to me. Unless my sources were wrong, but I trust their translation work. I would reword it to this, “It seems I have a “talent for living”“ which makes it easier for me to understand its meaning. He believes he has the capacity to deal with the pain. “If I rely on my pain, I’ll feel good?” It shouldn’t be like that. -He asks himself if he’ll eventually be rewarded if he depends on his pain. He knows that’s not how his life should be. As if writing the “answer” I’m a little bit scared, I don’t think I can return Thus, I’m deleting the life -He’s stating he’s scared once he finds his answer, thinking that he won’t be able to go back. He’s wasting the life he has by being afraid to move forward. 削 means to cut, so I believe cutting is a better word to use than deleting. I would rephrase it as: Thus, I’m cutting my life, for better understanding. “Let’s dance at the line of defense until we ‘regret’ it” “You’re so irritating, shut up for a little while.” -His other persona tells him that he should play safe until it’s too late to change stance, and so he tells himself to stop putting such thoughts in his head. “Our justice is in which locker?” Save this imperfect me -He’s trying to find his peace, and he wants to be saved. “Please” Put a curse on me, just for a moment So we won’t hate and smile to each other -A repeat of the first chorus. “You’re such a ‘lonely’ hypocrite” But that’s fine too, why don’t you know that? -He deprecates himself by calling hypocrite, then questions why he doesn’t understand it’s ok to be one. Cancel the spell, just for a moment So I won’t lose the “truth” -He doesn’t want to lose his answers by ignoring himself, the truth lies within him. I won’t let anyone steal my identity I won’t let you throw away my heart -He won’t let other people take away who he is, and he won’t let him lose himself. -As I promised, the scene where he chokes himself is given context with the last lyrics. He’s claiming what is his, choking himself is to signify that he’s trying to control himself. You can look at choking yourself as trying to gain a sense that you’re in control of your life in a rather extreme way. Afterward, a scene comes up with the black string of text revealing himself standing in the middle of the room with the same white blood splat as the scene in 1:41, although the room is upside down. This might be to represent that his initial confusion was cleared, but his world did not change back to what it originally was. This is probably due to how he forcefully took himself back, and his world still being upside down is supposed to show that he still has errors in his reasoning. This is just my analysis and lots of things have room for different interpretations, especially with the story becoming more difficult to grasp as it progresses. - http://eq01jrmesubs.blogspot.com/2018/09/hatsune-miku-iberis-englishmalay.html <- English translations