#I'm talking about that video from rich black exhibition

[bihastuff]

Watching our ciel's dream from emerald witch arc and hearing real ciel voice makes me emotional 😭

[anggecity]

Non-Japanese tries to explain the lyrics of "Black Gold" by otetsu ft. Megurine Luka

Note: I am not a Japanese speaker, so I depend on translation engines, and comments are always welcome.

Black Gold is one of otetsu-P's iconic songs featuring Megurine Luka. It's also one of my fave J-pop songs to listen to, so I got curious on what the lyrics meant...

TL;DR I think the song talks about a breakup, in simplest words. But it is not one that ended because of infidelity.

So first off, I'm checking the PVs if they could have highlighted other elements of the song. The original PV by meola is more of a still, exhibiting the sheen of gold, contrasting on a dark background. Meanwhile, Project DIVA's game video features Luka in a railway station, with black-gold motifs.

Down to the lyrics, I looked up one at Vocaloid Lyrics by user @vaffisuco.

On Vaffisuco's, there are some notes, possibly adding more context to the intended message:

1. Not quite sure what the little 'dot' means between 犠牲 and 代償。Here I just assumed these two were connected to one another grammatically and in context. 2. Unsure if the その覚悟 part connects with the next sentence cluster, and can't tell if the intonation is necessarily going down to indicate the end of a sentence. I decided to translate these sentences as such as to avoid a very lengthy English explanation. 3. Here I assume that the singer is verifying her existence/her failed relationship. She grasps the 'love' and the Black gold ring in order to leave her 'mark'. May possibly be referring to the existence of her ex, but I decided to translate this portion in first person.

Those notes aside, comparing it to DeepL and Google Translate, the human and engine translations mostly have the same translation. For comparison on engine translations, I merged lines per phrase, usually into ones or two whole lines. There is also one line-by-line at DeepL, as the line breaks sort of bring a different context, though still similar.

Altogether, the translations at the first verses present a confusing group of lines.

I was asked to decide which way to go, and I lied. The person who told me to go right went left. (from DeepL, merged lines)

As someone who also speaks Tagalog, I might see that "going left" can translate to "pangangaliwa" or a connotation of adultery/cheating. However, I am not sure if this is applicable in Japanese too. So I thought that it implies more of a backsliding, or a reversal of what was once promised.

To be able to breathe / So that I can live / Having to put it into words (from DeepL, line-by-line)

To me this implies that there had been an end of a connection in good terms, that ironically not staying true (lying) to one's initial words would mean being true to the next.

It must have been hard for you to put it into words, but you were still smiling, covered in scars. (from DeepL, merged lines)

There is a slight difference on translated syntax to different engines, but it is pretty consistent with all three presented translations here. However, for the next line, both line-by-line DeepL and merged lines at Google Translate show the same to who is expressing laughter, but differ to who apparently got the injuries:

You're covered in scars/ I was smiling (from DeepL, line-by-line)

It would have been painful to put it into words. I was laughing with all the scratches. (from Google Translate, merged lines)

And so is for Vaffisuco's and merged lines at DeepL, saying it's the other party that did so:

As I became covered in wounds / You laughed. (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

It must have been hard for you to put it into words, but you were still smiling, covered in scars. (from DeepL, merged lines)

I am not sure which among these translations fit the producer's intended message. Perhaps for one, it is open to interpretation. But I also think that the laugh can connote a "hiding the pain" (no reference intended), or it is more of a relief to one that broke the bond, that it had to be a relief for both.

The chorus translations are very similar. Vaffisuco's translation brings an imagery of, likely a lost possibility, a path that with this became a dead end.

Scared of the things that could separate us, / I averted my gaze and ran away / I stop in my tracks, my vision flickering / I am not prepared to be, or repay the victim* (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation) *The words translated were "犠牲" (sacrifice) and "代償" (compensation). Per the note, the translator "assumed these two were connected to one another grammatically and in context."

Vaffisuco's translation strikes me that it was a shock for the person, as if they were caught off-guard. At least as how I see it, the persona talks about how difficult something was to let go, and consequently "repay" the compensation that for one, will mend things altogether. I reckon a line confirms it, that they still have a significant attachment despite the breaking away:

I'm so, so scared of being separated, / I just want to be by your side (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

I'm afraid of being separated from you. I'm afraid.　 I wanted to be there. (from DeepL, merged lines)

Where Vaffisuco's (and another translation at LyricsTranslate) repeats with "or repay the victim", the engine translations seemed to show slight differences:

Stopping, hiding in plain sight The sacrifice, the price, I'm not prepared for [it] (from DeepL, line-by-line)

Stopping, sacrificing and compensating to appear and disappear (from Google Translate, merged lines)

The words may have resulted from completely different ways of extracting context from syntax, so here we are. But even so, the connotations share something in common. "To appear and disappear" presents itself in a way that there could be a sacrifice to begin with, to compensate in keeping, and the "stopping" in "[to] disappear". That's how I can interpret what I got from Google Translate. But for what DeepL showed, it could be reiterating the notion of not being able to accept for whatever had to be lost and "sacrificed".

The bridge builds up with lyrics that give a sense of "spiralling down". It likely, vaguely if anything, references fate being cruel.

So, what is the 'truth'? / Is it cold, hard metal? / Look, look at me walking! / Look, look at me walking! / So who was the one that made the decision? / Just where is our God? / Ah, how unfulfilling! (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

What's the truth, what's cold metal? Look at me, I'm looking at you, I'm walking backwards, When did God decide? I don't know where God is, I can't fill it, I can't fill it. (from DeepL, merged lines) *Without the rest of the lines, "埋まらない　埋まらない" becomes "I can't bury it I can't bury it"

I'm not sure what the "cold metal" is about, but a quick Google search of "冷たい金属だとか" showed this (and another random translation):

Could it mean that that the brink of sincerity becomes no more than gold, but that of silver? Could it be referencing the conductivity of silver? Or maybe it just generally refers to metal left in a cool temperature, that literally feels hard and cold to touch?

And down to the last two choruses... the lines changed, going to the song's conclusion.

Separating from you, I go far, far away / To the people who went left / I'll leave your last act of kindness right here / So it won't lose it's brilliance (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

To the one who went away, far away, to the left The last kindness you gave me, I'll leave it here so it doesn't fade away (from DeepL, merged lines)

Both DeepL and Google Translate shared very similar results. As for this, it bears acknowledgement on the other party, possibly memorializing the pleasant memories to be left behind.

What drives people apart / is that resolve for victims and their compensation I grasped the love dangling from my neck / and a black gold ring / So my footprints won't disappear (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation) *Quoting the translator: "Here I assume that the singer is verifying her existence/her failed relationship. She grasps the 'love' and the Black gold ring in order to leave her 'mark'. May possibly be referring to the existence of her ex, but I decided to translate this portion in first person."

One of Vaffisuco's notes imply for the second last chorus that in times of trouble, people look for compensation and will do anything for it. It might try to say that at some point, vengeance is what pushes a person to act upon something; sometimes, this can be seen as closures, closing things. This is such that they believe that removing something from their live will make it easier, that it is a resolution on their part. (There definitely are more connotations that only human translators and native speakers can catch!)

To be separated from you The sacrifice, the price, the determination With [the] love around my neck and the black gold ring around my neck I'm trying to keep my footprints (from DeepL, line-by-line)

For the last chorus, I agree with Vaffisuco's note, seconding that the song is about a process of separation, when honesty is still honesty, and the difficulty of acceptance for one end (the persona). As for whose footprints are being kept, if it is decided that it was the persona's footprints, the persona wants to be remembered by one who left her. Otherwise, the persona wants to remember the other half, implied by the footprints.

As for the title "Black Gold", it can be interpreted in many ways. For English speakers, the phrase may be slang for "petroleum" as this resource in deposits had made certain countries rich by importation. But in jewelries, "black gold" refers to processed gold so its surface exhibits a black color.

Overall, the song shows itself as mysterious and poetic (especially that I am no Japanese speaker) with how the words are translated, and the implications I get by looking at how the syntax is processed for a language I am a native speaker of.

[danganregretstestblog]

Now Playing: Ruins

> Move to: Door

I rushed over to the nearby door, ready to find some answers to all these questions I had. And like hell was I just gonna sit around and wait for the fucker who did this to me to come back and have their way with me. I shoved it open, and was about to dash down the hallway when I felt the door slam into something.

"Ow!"

Or well, someone.

> Talk to: ???

"Ngh..." A young man with blue-green hair and heterochromatic green eyes- one dark green, and the other a lime, almost neon green- dressed in a partially untucked white undershirt, blue tie, and teal overcoat sat up, rubbing his forehead. His black dress pants had streaks of dust, and I noticed some bad scuffs on his dark gray dress shoes.

"Goodness me, where am I...?" He muttered, looking around. The reasonable thing to do would have been to help him up and ask him his name.

But I was not thinking reasonably.

Now Playing: Living to the Fullest

I pinned the guy to the wall, holding one of my knives to his throat. "Hey! Are you the one who brought me here? Who the hell are you?!" I said, voice fraught with anger and paranoia. His eyes went wide as he froze, starting to shake.

"Wh-What are you talking about? I haven't done anything! A-And aren't those p-plastic knives...?" He stuttered.

"Yeah, and I'm the Ultimate Knife Thrower. You still wanna test me?" I snapped. He shook his head no.

"Good. Now answer my questions. Are you the one who brought me here?" The guy shook his head again, but I wasn't convinced.

"S-Sir, please, can't you be a bit more reasonable with this-" He tried to get a word in, but I didn't let him.

"Do you know how badly that taser hurt?! You'd better have a damn good reason for this, or I-"

"Wait, taser?" The guy looked surprised at that.

"Yeah, what about it." I scowled and pressed the point of my knife to his throat, just as a reminder.

"W-Wait wait wait, please don't hurt me! I was knocked out as well!" He yelped. "I was looking around the art history exhibits with my sisters when-"

"Do you actually expect me to believe that?" I growled. "We were both just coincidentally knocked out and brought here? Yeah right. You're the only other person here I've seen; how do I know you're not pretending to be a victim?" He scowled slightly, trying to show some degree of courage.

"Well, b-by the same logic, y-you c-could be doing the s-same! You're th-the one h-holding me at kn-knifepoint!" He stammered.

"That's-! Why would I be lying?! If I kidnapped you, I wouldn't even-" I stopped as I realized how hypocritical that was. I sighed and let the guy down.

Now Playing: Ruins

"This isn't getting us anywhere... Sorry for that." I muttered, slipping my knife into my empty holster. "Can you tell me what's going on, at least?" The guy breathed a sigh of relief and brushed off his pants.

"My apologies, but I don't know any more than you do." He said, rubbing his forehead again.

"Well, you were at the museum too, right? That means you're an Ultimate, since the place was rented out for the day." I notice him wilt slightly as I say that, his eyes glancing away for a moment.

"I-Indeed." It's a little strange how I haven't seen him around campus... But then again, I'm no social butterfly.

"Well, I'm Yashiro Fuyuki. Like I said earlier, I'm the Ultimate Knife Thrower. Can I get your name?" I asked.

"Of course." He cleared his throat and bowed. "My name is Kikuchiyo Himawari. I am of the ninety-fourth generation of the Himawari dynasty. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. FuYU-!" As he stepped forward to shake my hand, he tripped over his untied shoelaces. "Owww... M-My apologies. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fuyuki." He got back up again, wincing.

Kikuchiyo Himawari: Ultimate ???

Voice claim: Jun Kurosu, from Persona 2

(AN: Skip to 4:56 of the video provided, I can't find raw voice lines for him.)

"Himawari?" I've heard that name before. It's a crazy rich bloodline famous for always producing Ultimates of some kind, usually those involved in business or commerce. They were even among the first Ultimates ever, and have been ruling over the economy ever since.

"Indeed..." He leaned down to tie his shoes, whimpering something to himself.

"So what's your talent?" I asked. Kiku flinched, his expression becoming ashamed.

"I-I... That's... M-My apologies, I'd rather not say." He mumbled. I scowled.

"Why?" I said. "You know that only makes you more suspicious, right?"

"Y-Yes, but- W-Well, i-it's not important..." Kiku trailed off. "A-Anyway, I think we should-"

Now Playing: N/A

"Sorry, did you say we?" I said abruptly. Kiku's eyes widened slightly in shock.

"Y-Yes, is there a problem?" He asked shyly.

Now Playing: Wonderful Story

"Look- Kiku, right? I'm gonna be blunt: I still know jack shit about you. For all I know, you're some asshole fucked up in the head, and you're just waiting for a good opportunity to jump me. You made a good point earlier, but I still trust you about as far as I can throw you." I said. "Especially if you're hiding something like your talent."

"W-Well... That's..." Kiku shrunk away.

"Exactly. Call me stupid for wanting to go off on my own, but I'm not taking any chances." I said. In hindsight, that was kind of harsh, but I wasn't exactly in the mood for diplomacy.

"But isn't there s-safety in numbers?" Kiku suggested.

"Not when you're the only other person here I've seen. There's no bigger threat coming for us, so we don't have any reason to work together, especially when there's a chance you might attack me." I said.

Now Playing: Ruins

"Whatever, see you later. I'm going up ahead." I said.

"Er, f-farewell-?" Kiku started. I didn't wait for him to finish his sentence before sprinting down the hall.

(AN: Kikuchiyo's character art, by the lovely PM, is below!)

[humanwritesviolations]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to head into the vault, to dig up some shit from years in the past.

Lemme just grab my shovel and...just a little...no no I got it it's fine...man, this is heavy with opinions, I bet it's a beaut!

...hmm, ranting about white folks. Well, whatever sticks to the wall, I guess. Roll 'em.

Representation

Dated: 3 years ago

Source: Dropbox

As a white man, I'm tired of listening to white men's stories.

Every time I watch TV or a movie, I'm subjected to and bombarded with story after story of Rich White Man, Scrappy White Man, Underdog White Man, Clever White Man, Brilliant White Man, Genius Scientist White Man, Unruly Doctor White Man, Tough Cop White Man, Strong Capable White Man.

White man, white man, white man, white man, white man.

If I wanted to hear a story about a white man, I would talk to most of the people I interact with at work, or in my social group, or on the internet, or literally anywhere in my life. I have four brothers and dozens of cousins, a bunch of friends and a lot of coworkers. The sum total percentage of white men in my life is probably around 80.

So why do I also need Christian Bale's Batman, Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man, Finn Jones's Iron Fist, Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange and Sherlock, Hugh Laurie's House M.D., Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones, Henry Cavill as Superman, Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire as Spider-Man and about a thousand others I could name? Yes, I get that most of these characters are iconic and timeless and are being brought to life on the big screen, some for the first time and others for the fiftieth, but why are these stories so interesting that they need to be told and retold? What makes these characters so compelling while others are left to the side?

The Avengers are full of almost as many white men as Congress. Where is my Black Widow movie? When do we get to explore Falcon's story? Is Nick Fury (thank you to Avengers Ultimate, by the way, for going a different route with him in the first place) ever going to have some light shine on his background?

And don't get me started on "people don't want non-white male superheroes." Jessica Jones was heavily lauded by critics and views alike, and sits at 93%/90% on Rotten Tomatoes for critic/viewer response, respectively. When Luke Cage was released, it broke Netflix. BROKE. NETFLIX. It's at 96% Fresh.

And what about non-superhero stories? Well, Luther is 90% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and Idris Elba is about 150% Fresh in real life.

Even if you say that the protagonist doesn't matter, that it's the writers or the producers or the actors that make it good and not whether the star is white or black or male or female, I would agree with you - and say that if it doesn't matter, stop stacking the deck with white guys. Nick Fury was a J. Jonah Jameson lookalike in the original comics, minus the Hitler-stache, and now he's Samuel L. Jackson. You don't get cooler than that, and we're talking about a guy whose actual name is FURY. To be fair, who better to play him?

But if it doesn't matter in one direction, it doesn't matter in every direction - get us some representation.

"Sure," you might say, "but what about video games?"

Alright, let's compare apples to apples. Let's take a game that was well regarded and compare it to its sequel - I'm talking, of course, about Watch Dogs. Mainly because it's a good example, but also because I've played both of them.

Watch Dogs, starring the absolutely wooden Aiden Pearce doing his best impersonation of Christian Bale's Batman minus the charisma, clocks in at 80% on Metacritic. That's a pretty good score - I've paid full AAA price for games that rated lower than that. Its sequel stars Marcus Halloway, a young black hacker aspiring to follow in similar footsteps as our aforementioned hacker vigilante, who starts off his story by exhibiting personality traits such as humor, emotion and the ability to talk to other people without outward brooding. I've read a lot of user reviews that claim tokenism, calling out the game as a "cuck-liberal fantasy" that "drinks the Kool-Aid" to "wash down the blue pill" and other such terms intended to write off a thing as being too inclusive.

It scored 82%.

Now, you could make the argument that every aspect of the game was improved, and that you don't care about the characters or their backgrounds/races/nationalities. You could argue that it's a better game because of the gadgets, or the missions, or the story, or the UI or anything else. You'd have a good point - but you would be missing mine.

I'm not saying a black protagonist made for a better game. I'm saying that a game with a black protagonist WAS a better game. I'm saying that representation does not automatically turn off the audience. I'm saying that you can make a thing starring a not-white/male character and have it work.

But yes, I'm also saying that Marcus Halloway is a three-dimensional character while Aiden Pearce is a lifeless stawman. "Brooding white guy" is not cool anymore. It's boring. It's samey. I didn't care about Aiden, I didn't care about his strained relationship with his sister, I didn't care about his guilt over his niece.

I cared more about the drunken did-they-didn't-they one-night stand Marcus had prior to the opening credits of the sequel than I did about Adrian's entire story in the original.

I don't need another white guy hero. I don't want to see the trials of a rich white guy, or a scrappy white guy. Show me the struggles of a Chinese man. Show me how a black woman deals with life in her neighborhood. Show me what it's like to live a day in the life of a Mexican teenager. What's going on with the woman in Sub-Saharan Africa whose cousin was just arrested for a crime they didn't commit? How does a slice of Syrian life look in 1987? Afghanistan in 1998? Egypt in the 1960's? Zimbabwe at the turn of the century? Give me something interesting. Give me something original. Give me something new.

Give me something I haven't seen before.

And maybe give someone else a hero for a change.