March 7th is miko’s birthday, so I thought it appropriate to jump to this track to celebrate! Besides the lyrics, I’ve translated miko’s blog about it, too.

Lyrics can be found here on Rock Lyric.

☆

Neo japaniizu hiroin

tomaranai kimi wa
afuredasu kimi wa
honto no kimi
neo japaniizu hiroin

togatta tsume wo kakushi kacchiri guree ni kimete
beni wa konsabapinku de happou bijin ni
botsu kosei de OK? kainarashita tsumori?
onna no kao wa marude juuni hitoe sa

gouka kenran no ai mo marude isshun no hanabi
haru no yozora ni chitta uso to honne
mure wo nasu haiena wa ikkaku senkin no utage
ippiki ookami no kimi wa oyasumi

yume wo mite naku ko yo
BABY, JUST A chotto dake sa
LOOK AROUND ki ni shinaide ii
dakara nugisutete

maiodorou ze JAPANESE LADY
nani iro no kimi mo kirei da
okuyukashiku koshi tantan to
chouten ni sono hana yo sake

otoko masari wa yakai suupaa moderu wa mabushii
koinu no you na onna wa angai inai tte
chuumon oosugi ja nai kai? sore nari ni kitai suru wa
soushoku otokodomo nya sayonara

hitoribocchi wa iyaa yo
BABY, JUST A chotto dake sa
LOOK AROUND ki ni shinaide ii
tsuyoku are, otome

hashiridasou ze JAPANESE LADY
tatakau kimi mo kirei da
mairimashou gekokujou
hokorashiku sono hana yo sake

maiodorou ze JAPANESE LADY
nani iro no kimi mo kirei da
okuyukashiku koshi tantan to
chouten ni sono hana yo sake

hashiridasou ze JAPANESE LADY
tatakau kimi mo kirei da
mairimashou gekokujou
hokorashiku sono hana yo sake

sono hana yo sake

tomaranai kimi wa
afuredasu kimi wa
honto no kimi
neo japaniizu hiroin

Neo-Japanese Heroine

You’re unstoppable
You’re overflowing
The real you is
A neo-Japanese heroine

You hide your pointed nails, arrange yourself in greys
In conservative pink lipstick you’re everybody’s friend
Are you OK with losing your individuality? Being domesticated?
See, a woman’s face is like a many-layered kimono¹

Even the most ostentatious love is like a flash of fireworks
Lies and true feelings scattered in spring’s night sky
In one fell swoop, the pack of hyenas will feast on everything
It’s lights out for you, little lone wolf

Hey, you girls dreaming and crying
Baby, just take a little look around
Don’t pay it any attention
So throw it all off

Go on and dance, Japanese Lady
You’re beautiful in any color
Elegantly, hawk-eyed,²
Make that flower bloom at the top

“Tomboys are a hassle, super models are outta my league
Who’d a thunk women aren’t like puppies?”
Aren’t you asking for too much? Have more realistic expectations³
All these herbivore men can get lost

“But I don’t like being alone…”
Baby, just take a little look around
Don’t pay it any attention
Be strong, young lady!

Let’s run out, Japanese Lady
You’re beautiful when you fight, too
Let’s go start a revolution⁴
Make that flower bloom with pride

Go on and dance, Japanese Lady
You’re beautiful in any color
Elegantly, hawk-eyed,
Make that flower bloom at the top

Let’s run out, Japanese Lady
You’re beautiful when you fight, too
Let’s go start a revolution
Make that flower bloom with pride

Make that flower bloom

You’re unstoppable
You’re overflowing
The real you is
A neo-Japanese heroine

miko Blog, March 13, 2016

“Neo-Japanese Heroine.” That title packs a punch, don’t you think?

My more or less first ever Japanese-style song is complete!

While the song was slowly taking shape during pre-production, that phrase at the intro where the guitar and synthesizer come together just suddenly happened. Up until that point, I hadn’t had any particular intention of giving this a Japanese vibe. But as I talked it over with the members, we were like, “This is a Japanese-style phrase isn’t it? It sounds like something cool Japanese girls would fight to!” Thanks to that, while I was at home writing the lyrics, the words “Neo-Japanese Heroine” popped into my head.

But people are doing all sorts of “Japanese-style.” So I figured, if I’m gonna do it with this song, I think I can make something totally different from all the cliché “Japanese style” out there. With that strong belief in my heart, I’ve written a new piece I’m confident in!

This song goes out to all the Japanese women working hard and doing their best. But since I’m also getting lots of strength from cool Japanese women, I want everyone, regardless of age or gender, to get the strength to live as their true selves from this song.

My favorite part of the lyrics is the line from the refrain that goes “okuyukashiku koshi tantan to” [“Elegantly, hawk-eyed”]. It’s kinda funny to sing the words “koshi tantan to” so cheerfully. LOL

Also, where it says “mure wo nasu haiena wa ikkaku senkin no utage” [“In one fell swoop, the pack of hyenas will feast on everything”], if you read the lyrics before and after that, surely you’ll see my sarcasm.

I’m something else, ain’t I?!

There are plenty of other places where I’m playing around with the lyrics, so this is another song that I want you to read the lyrics for carefully!

Now, to talk about the guitar work. With the intro phrase I mentioned before, or the intro to “DREAM RIDER” to give an example from a different song, I wrote these phrases without thinking about whether Omi or I would be the one to play them. Fortunately, this time I was able to give Omi-sama a phrase that’s different from what she usually plays. How Omi-sama looks while playing also has a new, different vibe; it’s so COOL! You can get a good look at it by checking out the “DREAM RIDER” music video! LOL

Of the songs on this album, this is the one that most features twin vocals.⁵ I’ve gotten pretty good at making songs like this. *ahem* The fast back-and-forth that doesn’t even let you get a breath in can only be done with twin vocals.

In the interlude, there’s a robotic voice saying “You are neo Japanese heroine” over and over. That’s me using a vocoder. I’m super satisfied that the music and lyrics both came out the way I’d imagined them. LOL

I want all of you to sing along at the live shows! You can jump around during the intro and pump your arms during the chorus. It’s a song we can get hype to together!

Oh! That’s right, I think I didn’t get to go in-depth about this with the various media coverage, so I’ll talk about it here.

At many points throughout the song, you can hear girls laughing and talking in the background. We didn’t sample these voices, it’s us. But, since all five of us have relatively low-pitched voices, even including me, we had the sound engineer keep raising and raising the pitch until it sounded cute. LOL

This has been cut from the live shows, but there are also some parts where the voices ended up sounding like something from a horror movie, so don’t let them catch you off-guard! Anyone who wants to try to hear them, by all means, do so by listening through headphones. LOL

We’ve already played this song many times at our shows, but maybe reading this explanation has made both people who have heard it and those who haven’t gotten to hear it yet like it that much more?

The drama that is “THIS IS NOW” will continue with “TWIN WINGS” and the last track, “BLAST.” Don’t miss their making-of posts tomorrow and the day after!

Those of you who have heard the song already, let me hear your thoughts! Your comments give me the greatest energy for the next day.

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^1. What I translated as “many-layered kimono” was 十二単 (juuni hitoe, literally “12 unlined kimono”). These garments were worn by noble women during the Heian era (about 800AD to 1200AD). Basically, many of what we’d now call “kimono” would be layered one over the other such that only the collars and cuffs of the ones beneath showed, creating a colorful effect while also showing the woman was wealthy enough to afford both having all that fabric and to sit around weighed down by it. ⤴

^2. Koshi tantan to can more simply be translated as “vigilantly,” but since 虎視 (koshi) is literally “tiger gaze,” I figured it made more sense to go with the equivalent predator imagery here. ⤴

^3. A few things here. What I translated as “tomboy” was 男勝り (otoko masari), which would literally mean “a woman who wins at being a man.” It can be translated to “spirited woman” or “manly woman” but “spirited woman” loses the gendered notions inherent in the original, and “manly woman” is just too vague. So I went with “tomboy.”

I’m not sure if I’ve translated the third line of this verse correctly. How I interpret this verse is that the first two lines are things guys say about women, then in the third line, Jyou asks “Aren’t you asking for too much?” and miko co-signs that statement by saying それなりに期待するわ, which I’ve translated to “Have more realistic expectations.” What miko says though is just “Have expectations in line with that.” So what does “that” refer to, what was said in the first two lines, or the idea that such expectations of women are absurd (i.e. Jyou’s phrase)? I’ve chosen to interpret it as the latter. ⤴

^4. 下克上 or 下剋上 (gekokujou), as you can guess from the kanji, means “the bottom overcomes the top,” meaning that those at the bottom of the social hierarchy overthrow those at the top. So while there is no verb here after “Let’s go,” I thought “start a revolution” was the smoothest way to translate gekokujou. All the talk of dancing and flowers blooming might’ve also made me think of Revolutionary Girl Utena. (LOL) ⤴

^5. miko wrote フューチャー (fyuuchaa) which is “future.” As that makes no sense, I think it’s a typo and she meant フィーチャー (fiichaa), “feature.” ⤴