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lagoluna観測するソンザイ(Stargazer) (Jpn.)
(dialogue written on the bottom of the screen is time-stamped)
窓の向こう、流れ星をなぞっては夢うつつ
僕は降りる駅を忘れてただ見つめてる
0:21
この列車どこへ向かってるの？
"さぁ、わからない”
"時計頭の運転士に聞いてみればいい"
"自動運転が導入されてから随分と経ってしまったけれど"
そう、じゃあきっと彼にもわからない
なんだかよく似てるから...
手を合わせ、空っぽの祈りを飲み込むように
生きるだけ、それだけの僕は
何ひとつ描けないまま、星を辿る
変わることも失うことも
この手ですべて書き残せたなら
少しの勇気で踏み出せたかな 今は
今はただ空を見上げている
1:23
海底都市に巨大クジラ...あれは守り神かしら
"どうだろう"
"神が人里に降りてきたなら"
"そこはもう人の住める場所じゃない"
"そんなことより、気を付けて"
"もうすぐデザートが来る"
列車に揺られて歪む輪郭、溶けだす記憶
僕はいつからここで、何を待っているのか？
変わることも失うことも
僕は初めから一つも手にしてないのに
不安と後悔が喉に詰まって
苦しくて、届かぬと知ってなお進むよ
今も一千光年先の光が
僕らの夜を照らすように
あなたの未来へむけて
千年の明かりを灯したら
終着駅の向こう側
きっと僕らのいないエピローグで
あなたにわかるはずもない
愛の歌を流すんだ
2:48
"列車の最後尾に非常停止ボタンがある"
それを押せばこの連鎖から抜け出せるのね
オ客様、席ニオ戻リクダサイ
"水を持って来なさい、ウエイター "
…カシコマリマシタ
ねぇ、これからどこへ進めばいいかな？
"どこでもいいだろう、自分で選んだなら"
自動操縦システム停止、電波障害ニヨリ再起動ニ失敗シマシタ
旧式操縦システムニ切リ替エ、引キ続キ目的地ヲ目指シマス
出発、進行
Observer (Stargazer) (Eng.)
(dialogue written on the bottom of the screen is time-stamped)
In a trance tracing the trails left by shooting stars
Idly staring out the window, I missed my stop long ago
0:21
Where do you think the train is headed?
"Beats me."
"Ask clock-head over there, he’s the driver."
"Well he hasn’t actually been in charge ever since the train switched to automatic."
Ah, I guess he probably wouldn’t know then.
Somehow, I feel a sort of kinship with him…
I clasp my hands, sending an empty prayer to the heavens
I just want to stay alive, I don’t dream of anything else
Unable to draw a single line, I continue chasing stars
How much I’ve changed, how much I’ve lost
If I were able to write it all down for you
Would I become a little braver, right now-
-Right now I’m still just staring at the sky
1:23
A massive whale swimming through the sunken city… Maybe it’s the god of this place."
"You think?"
"Probably... when the gods come down to where humans live..."
"The places they touch cease to be habitable."
"But forget about that. Stay on your guard."
"Dessert is coming.”
My outline of you is shaken apart by the rumbling of the train
Precious memories spilling out of my head.[^1]
Have I always been here, am I still waiting for something?
How much I’ve changed, how much I’ve lost
In the end I never gained a single thing
Anxieties and regrets catching in my throat
It hurts so much to continue onward knowing I can’t reach you
Just as light from a thousand light years away
makes our night sky bright
I’ll release a light that will reach you
A thousand years in the future
On the other side of the last station
I’m sure there’s an epilogue without us
Where a love song plays out
And you don’t understand a word of it
2:48
“There’s an emergency stop button at the back of the train.”
If we push it we can break out of the loop, right?
Mistress, please return to your seat.
"Waiter, bring me some water."
Very well.
Hey, where should we go from here?
"Anywhere is fine, so long as it’s a path we choose for ourselves."
The Automatic-Train-Operation-System has stopped. Reboot failed due to radio interference.
Preparing to switch back to manual operation and continue to destination.
Initiate departure.
[1]: this lyric was only one line in the original, but i ended up splitting it into 2 ^_^;
ashuu released another behind-the-scenes post on their note blog. please go give it a like if you enjoyed my translation!
Explanation and Behind-the-Scenes:
Cast:
The pink-haired girl in “Observer (Stargazer)” is named Ichika, I don’t remember when I named her but I think it was because she was voiced by VY1[^1]
This girl is the protagonist of course but there is one other important character in this mv. She only speaks for one scene, did you notice which one she was in?
At around 2:58 you can see Ichika’s pupils turn black (btw there’s one other scene where her eyes do this[^2]), this is the only scene during which Ichika moves her mouth to speak, during every prior dialogue sequence her mouth has remained shut.[^3] The lines spoken in quotation marks belong to this other important character. Basically, there is another person inside Ichika, both of them are Ichika, but for the sake of clarity I’ll refer to this second person as “Nika”.[^4]
The final character here is the clock-head. It was my first time trying to draw such a strange design but I ended up having a lot of fun with it. He’s technically the driver of the train but, as Nika states in her dialogue, ever since the train was updated to drive automatically he’s been stuck doing various odd-jobs. That’s why he’s a waiter despite wearing a driver’s uniform. He’s the type who manages his time very efficiently but he’s also extremely inflexible to a detriment. I guess it makes sense that that kind of character might be a robot instead of a human. I wonder if he has a will of his own or if he’s just acting according to his programming.
[1]: the ichi in ichika means 1, makes sense for a character named after VY1
[2]: at 2:00 look at ichika’s reflection in the window
[3]: conversations between ichika and nika take place in ichika's head, so the first person she actually speaks to in this video is the clock-head
[4]: the ni in nika means 2, together i guess you could read their names as "one or two" representing the choice motif or perhaps "first day, second day" representing the loop that ichika wants to continue living in and the dawn (second day) that nika wants to see
Plot:
The story takes place on a train. Ichika relives the same night over and over again because she can’t remember what stop she was supposed to get off at. Every night she eats a full course meal and goes to sleep. I really wanted to add a gourmet element to this video but due to time constraints I ended up cutting some corners, so all you see is the hors d’oeuvres and the dessert. I think the shot with all the silverware lined up does enough to convey the general idea but please tell me what kind of food you think Ichika got to eat on the train. The fee for dinner would normally be payed the following day. Nika tells Ichika to “Watch out for the dessert.” because eating that will signify the end of her meal and cause the night to loop again. Eventually Ichika manages to leave the train before eating dessert and she witnesses the first morning she’s seen in a very long time.
That’s it for the summary. I don’t intend for this story to have a completely happy ending, and it’s still far from over. This is only the beginning.
Theme:
The theme of this song is “choice” Ichika is at a point in her life where she has to make a very important decision: to eat the dessert or not. Essentially she is choosing whether to stay on the train or finally leave it. There are also many aspects of this story that Ichika cannot choose, the destination of the train, the dinner served that night, or the driver losing his job to automation… Over the course of producing this work i’ve been thinking about what it means to “choose” or “be responsible for our choices” in scenarios like this. To choose something means to give up everything you don’t choose. If you choose one of three options then you’ll end up discarding the other two. And there are times in life where we’ll have to choose to discard far more than just two options. If our lives were bound to a rail laid out from beginning to end would and we never had to be afraid of making choices, would we be happier? It’s hard to say, humans are very complicated creatures after all…
There is another person within Ichika called Nika, Ichika wants to maintain the status quo forever but Nika wants to change. Both of these positions have merit and despite the push and pull between them Ichika and Nika support each other.
Ichika herself also has multiple aspects. The blank paper and pencil that appears at 2:18[^5] represents one of her memories, she had suddenly recalled a time she tried to create something while she was eating. Thinking about things like what you want to do, what you can’t do, or what you should do is scary. She wants to be able to make the perfect choice but it’s difficult for her. When it comes to things as complicated as this the best choice for her is just “the best of the choices she can make”, there is no one completely correct option. This is why Nika responds to Ichika’s final question the way she did:
Ichika: Hey, where should we go from here?
Nika: “Anywhere is fine, so long as it’s a path we choose for ourselves”
These are the words she needed to hear most.
[5]: the paper she’s writing on is sheet music, i wonder if she’s a composer herself… maybe this is why ashuu feels like the lyrics are too personal to go in depth on. this detail probably connects to the final verse about writing a love song that will never be understood by it's recipient.
Q&A:
I’ll go over some small details in this section.
Q: What’s up with the “Waiter, bring me some water” line?
A: Clock-head was going to stop her so she overwrote his priorities by making a request. Now that he's been forced out of the driver’s seat and his role is in limbo, he is dictated to follow whatever request is made of him.
Q: What is that thing sinking into the sea in that shot with the whale when the chorus begins?
A: It’s a train running along a different line. So staying inside the train isn’t actually the safest place for Ichika.
Q: What is that giant object that fell from the sky after the first chorus?
A: I didn't have anything specific in mind when drawing it, but there are many scenes in this video meant to convey “the collapse of civilization”. This is one of those.[^6]
Q: The train is quite similar to the one that shows up in Synthesized Future (Synthesize You), was that intentional?[^7]
A: Chronologically speaking, this song takes place sometime between the Miki and Miku eras. Although just because they take place in the same universe doesn’t mean their stories are related.
Q: what’s up with the final shot of clock-head?
A: when Ichika, the last passenger, finally got off he was relieved of his duties. radio interference prevents him from receiving new orders from his programmers so he is finally in complete control of himself. the radio interference was caused by the satellite falling after the first chorus.
[6]: i wonder if all of the “shooting stars” ichika sees are really debris falling out of the sky…
[7]: Synthesized Future (Synthesize You) is another song written by ashuu
And Finally:
This ended up being more of an mv explanation than a lyric explanation… But that’s all for today. The lyrics are very personal this time so I’d feel embarrassed talking about them in so much depth, however I feel like the mv does a good enough job of coalescing all of the main motifs.
I think VY1 did a wonderful job of expressing those more personal aspects of the song. She is a voicebank without any set appearance so i thought she would be a perfect fit for this story and asked her to sing this song for me. Her clear voice matches the music well and I was very satisfied with the result.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section of the video so that I might answer them at a later date. Any announcements I might make will be made on X (aka twitter) so please check there as well. See you again next time, thank you for reading this far!
