#The Purge March

[civettictis]

i wanted 2 draw something proper for purge march but unfortunately couldn't muster up anything good but whatevs heres this

[deadfishtellnotales]

I tried something different this time

Should be studying lmao im fucked

Time-lapse below

[goomyloid]

i disavow you

[mokadevs]

purge march

[lagomoz]

Everyone so far seems to be theorizing Amane’s victim as her dad, her mom, or an unnamed child also in the cult. I’ve got my own theory - it was Gozake.

That’s Gozake, from Magic. The blue guy. He’s one of the four main figureheads of the cult, and possibly a music teacher of some kind to Amane, conducting her to sing in Magic. The very first shot of The Purge March is Amane playing the drums.

The mindscape Amane’s wield flags representing the four cult leaders (teachers? elders? propaganda peddlers? high up members? whatever, important cult people), but Gozake’s flag in particular is given special attention. 

Same color scheme, same three dots over a narrow rectangle like design, same ear thingy to the side, same orb-like design features - that’s Gozake. Before we see it flying though, we see it crumpled up on the floor by Amane’s feet, something not true for any other flag.

We then see an Amane messing up her flag routine, dropping Gozake’s flag in particular and falling over. The other Amane looms over her, preparing to punish her for a failure related to Gozake. Once the punishment starts, rain pours down.

Then, the punished Amane begins to drown. You can even see the flag while she’s sinking.

She drowns further, and we get another shot of just the flag, lying on the ground, and then the drowning Amane reaching up towards it. She’s reaching toward Gozake, the one responsible for drowning her.

And he is the one drowning her. We see it directly in Magic.

It cuts to the real world, with Amane actually being drowned, and her placed below the one drowning her like she is placed below the flag. 

Take note of the framing, with one hand stretching from out of frame.

I can’t find a better picture for her undercover card, but her location shows a bathroom. Undercover also has a shot of a victim lying on a blue tiled floor (we can’t see the floor, but the shower in Purge March has blue and green wall tiles) with water coming down. Blue and water are representations of Gozake (Amane’s character color is aqua), and it’s framed as a single hand stretching out while the rest is (mostly) obscured, and takes place in the bathroom (or at least a bathroom) that Amane was drowned by Gozake in.

Throughout the MV, there’s a lot of blue, too. Amane’s school uniform is blue, the cloth she heals the cat with is blue (the cloth later becomes bloody, another thing representing Gozake being damaged), the sky and general background and lighting is blue. Symbols of Gozake are present everywhere in the MV.

The suit man with the briefcase could be Gozake, I’m not sure. Gozake would fit the profile - a cult member, adult male, disapproving of medicine, willing to put Amane in harm’s way - but I don’t have further evidence.

Before Amane goes all in on the cult’s doctrine, she has an umbrella, but it’s unopened. The baton she uses to kill and to represent her as fully converted and the opening umbrella are overlayed. 

The lyrics show her motivation for the murder, as both a means of protection and revenge. She’s been horrifically abused for years, and has taken on the role of the punisher to avoid being the punished.

“It’s my turn to tear you apart / So there is no second time, I’ll give back the judgment that you gave to me /  It’s now your turn to say that hopeless “I’m sorry” /  You’re sorry? I don’t care! / Please, go ahead and die already / Remember MY cries, MY repents, MY words of “I’m sorry” that I said to you?”

Beyond showing a lot of resentment and disdain for the one she’s speaking to - her victim - the phrasing clearly shows that she’s not just punishing a sinner, she’s turning the tables. She’s returning the favor to someone who’s been violent to her in the past.

The umbrella is symbolically her murder weapon and what she uses to punish others, but also literally and obviously a tool to protect from the rain. What she uses to kill is what protects her from Gozake. She can’t take the abuse anymore and tries to become the cult sanctioned violent avenger that’s hurt her so many times. She can’t be the victim if she’s the perpetrator.

The final shot has her over the corpse, having tracked in water from the rain. The puddles lead right to it and the framing is the same as both the Undercover victim and the one drowning her - a single hand, reaching from out of frame.

Amane killed Gozake.

[residentmara]

ill crush your throat too

[clover0101]

Um... that was certainly a MV!

[kipitls]

amane

[kani-miso]

粛清マーチ

どうしようもない屑からの「どうしようもない」 そんなこと絶対絶対絶対絶対絶対絶対絶対赦されない

uwaa heavy inspo from @hectorthedoggo

thank you for creating The Warden !! (swear The Warden is different from es )

[moldsporr]

Idk if anyone has pointed this out, but!!

In the scene where Amane drops the flag, the approaching shadow doesn't really look like the March Leader Amane.

It looks like Es. The cape is longer, the hat is smaller- Amane thinks that Es is similar to the people who punished her in the cult.

But she also thinks that she and Es are the same. This is given more proof by the voice drama.

Oooourgh I love this project

[red-moon-at-night]

THE BELLS AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE MV. THE RINGING--

ITS THE RINGING THE RINGING THE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[fuutaprotectionsquad]

What scenes the Milgram instrumentals would be for if they were video game soundtracks.

Except I make an entire game layout with it, including three mini boss fights and a final boss. They're in order of when they appear in the game, and color coded based on the area.

This took so long why did i do this-

[If you want me to design these bosses based on like. mvs and the character designs. i will.]

Parasite - The music at the starting area, before you've began your expedition. Like the home village. Possibly shows up at the epilogue too, when you return to the village, if you enter certain buildings.

Tear Drop - The salon that acts as an equipment shop. Except the shop keep has intense lore. Is maybe evil. We dont know. It pops up all through the game, or theres a way to get back to it and its in a neutral area.

Delusion Tax - You begin your journey into the first area! It looks very rocky and lava filled, with the stone buildings melded with the rocky mountains.

I Love You - Investigation scene. For what, I have no idea. Probably something related to your mission. The beginning of ILY is like. you find something very shocking and kinda scary, but then the rest is like. you + ur group(?) using it as a cataylst to keep looking and journeying. (its giving danganronpa udg honestly)

[Possibly more Delusion Tax after]

Backdraft - The 1st mini boss fight. A very overconfident, fiery kind of boss, despite being the weakest. This is the first part of the fight, where you're chasing them while they effortlessly hop through/set off many traps you have to dodge.

Salamander - Second part of the 1st boss fight where the boss actually stops to fight you. They fight with fire (...wow who would have guessed)

Purge March - When you get to the second area, and you're. continuing with your journey. Or something idk. I'm thinking this area is circus themed. Many animals.

Vampire - You first meet the boss. You think they're just a friendly child. They're so cheery and happy and childish and innocent. And then 1:19 in Vampire, you realize they're a little fucked up. But thats okay, because they're just a kid and they could never hurt anyone-

INMF - Now they're trying to murder you, so you're running away as they chase you and throw shit at you. Like uh. A million gruesome ways to die from billie bust up.

[More Purge March]

Animal - The second boss fight, filled with many circus props used as weapons. The softer parts of the song are when you're fighting different animals this boss sends after you, like lions and other circus animals.

Android Girl - Adventuring theme for the 3rd area. This area has a glitchy, techy hallucination theme. Like the boss is hacking the area to make illusions. Everything looks very glitchy, and has a kinda cyberpunk city look.

MKDR (DSCF) - Some part of the journey through the 3rd area where you've been completely absorbed into a hallucination, likely before you know that there are hallucinations here. When this happens it becomes a lot less glitchy looking and more real.

[Android Girl part 2]

Reversible Campaign - Phase one of the 3rd mini boss fight. They have a very techy theme. Like ig spamton.

Double - Phase two of the 3rd mini boss. You've pissed them off now, and theyve switched forms. The parts of the song that are softer (when mikoto's singing) are when you're deep in a hallucination. Then when you break free, it goes back to the glitchy harsh vibe.

Neo-Neon - You've defeated the three mini bosses and are filled with a newfound sense of determination. Now you go through the final area (likely a castle?) to get to the final boss. This area is a lot shorter.

Deep Cover - The final boss fight begins ! This is the first phase, which is very long distance and not quite near the boss yet. I imagine this one has a very celestial, crystal / star theme.

Streaming Heart - You weaken the boss via long distance, and they become more enraged. They haven't given up though, and fight with even more determination. This is where you can finally get face to face with them and have an all out battle.

AKAA - This is where their tough exterior cracks. You have a brief conversation, in an attempt to persuade them to stand down. But they put the broken pieces of their form together, for one last stand.

Cat - You've defeated the boss!! Roll end credits. Yeah thats it cat's just end credits. I. could not think of anything else </3

Triage - Epilogue after the boss fight when you're talking with everyone. Everything is happy and good, but there's also those very sentimental convo scenes.

[Some Parasite sprinkled in]

[shinsei-hatsumi]

𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐄 !!!

[justzosiahere]

Amanes at 9 Mil!

[toeatagod]

Destroying the Corrupted Gaze: An Analysis of Momose Amane’s Second Trial

In case you don't know, MILGRAM is a Japanese interactive music project by DECO*27 and Takuya Yamanaka, established in April 2020, where 10 prisoners are put into three rounds of trial to gradually express their guilt and sins into a song. The viewers, representing an ungendered guard named Es, vote if the prisoner should be “innocent” (forgivable) or “guilty” (unforgivable). Each prisoner has a different experience and style of music and visuals, but have a single thing in common: they all have committed murder.

This will focus on one of the 10 prisoners, a 12-year-old girl named Momose Amane who has known to have been brainwashed into a cult’s practices, and will analyze four aspects of her music video: the visuals, lyrics, song title, and the convention defied (hopefully, once I submit this to my professor, I too will also be forgiven for the length of this analysis since I am very fond of this series; I apologize in advance).

Visual and Lyric Analysis

The music video starts with an army of countless Amane’s, all poise and flawlessly in position. Each row waves four flags of different colors, representing the cult’s “commandments”. The following are the official English translations of the lyrics, with the original Japanese beside it:

Thou shall follow thine destiny. / 人は運命を生きよ

Thou shall discard vulgarity. / 人は卑しきを捨てよ

Thou shall deliver unto those thou believest in. / 信じたものに納めよ

Thou shall stay thine course, then perish. / 道を外れずに果てよ

The way these were written were imperative, and were enumerated with the word “ひとつ” (hitotsu, which means firstly or one) before it. This shows that there is no order to their commandments—all of them were of utter priority. Additionally, these lyrics were made to look like actual commandments, but the following are the actual meanings of the lyrics:

People must live out their fate.

People must abandon the lowly.

People must submit to their beliefs.

People must meet their end without straying [from their path].

Moving on, one of the Amane’s is holding a blue flag, which represents the second commandment, fails to deliver the correct pattern in the march. The leading Amane catches her mistake, summoning clouds that caused rain to sink her down the “snow” as a punishment. After an uncomfortable sequence of her struggling, she is then pulled back to reality, where she is soaked and kneeling on her bathroom floor, gasping for breath. A hand is in front of her, holding a showerhead, showing that she had been waterboarded by her own mother. Another detail to notice as she was sinking is that she still reaches out to the flag. It is common one to turn to their beliefs in desperate times, and since Amane was still at such a young age and didn’t have much to rely on, she relies on the same beliefs that hurt her. As she sinks, the “snow” covers her drowning body, a sign that no one saw (or ignored) abuse she was going through.

At the next scene, Amane is seen administering first aid to a wounded cat, and is spotted by two figures, no doubt members of the cult. They then tell this to Amane’s mother, and the poor girl gets tased as soon as she arrives at home. This was a punishment because she interfered with fate, thus violating the first commandment. It is possible that Amane receives different punishments depending on the commandment violated. The balloon that moves away from Amane’s apartment has a symbol with all four colors, encapsulating the commandments.

Amane returns to the spot where she took care of the cat, and only a torn collar and her bloodied handkerchief is found. She eventually realizes that her disobeying these commandments, intentional or not, will only bring her misfortune. Her face is covered in bruises, as she looks up and smiles. The army of Amane’s runs with the same eerie smile, with the flag and mascots symbolizing the four commandments in hand, showing that the brainwashing has been effective. She does the usual pattern with her baton, but in the third sequence, it is stained with blood.

In the scene of the crime, Amane stands over her mother’s dead body, wearing her same outfit from the march. This symbolizes that it was the beliefs taught to her that pushed her to that extent. Additionally, her voice as the song prolongs becomes more aggressive, compared to when she started the song, where she was more soft-spoken.

The lyrics of the song is Amane implying the things taught to her and the punishments she endured for violating them. On the second verse, she can be heard constantly muttering the commandments over and over again in the background, and the following lyrics are one of the phrases that are sung over and over again: “After you cry, repent, and kneel, it’s now your turn to say that hopeless ‘I’m sorry’!” That sentence of apology can often be heard from children who promise they won’t act up ever again.

Title Analysis

The Purge March’s title is written as 粛清マーチ in Japanese and pronounced as Shukusei Māchi. It can be broken down into two parts: the Chinese characters “粛清” and “マーチ”. 

Shukusei is usually written where, when the characters are combined, it would literally mean solemn justice. But in this case, it is written differently (although pronounced the same). The first character stays the same as solemn but the second character “清” means pure, cleanse, or even exorcise. This implies that the beliefs brought upon Amane can be viewed as unjust to some.

Conventions and Conclusion

Songs with an upbeat tempo are often associated or assumed to have wholesome lyrics. Not only does this case defy that stereotype, but The Purge March also mixes in a haunting sense of reality in both the lyrics and the song in the fictional case of Momose Amane. She sings with threats that attack both believers and non-believers alike, because she only knows about the incoming punishment if she doesn’t obey. 

To think that there really are people out there—children, specifically—who experience this lingering fear with their beliefs is incredibly concerning, and even more so with the possibilities that might happen once they are pushed to their limits. I speak from pure experience, and I have chosen this piece of media not only because it is dear to my heart, but because it also reminds us of the reality we are in. It is better to be educated and afraid than to be blissfully ignorant.

[EDIT] Additionally, Amane mentioned in her voice drama that those who run away from trials are the worst kind of people, and in the last scene depicting her murder, droplets of water are trailing outside of the bathroom, showing attempts of escape. The trail ends in the living room, where Amane hovers over the dead body. She really is just trying to live the way she was taught.

[lagomoz]

Milgram blinkies trial two