Fake and Real - Replica
*The top image is a screenshot borrowed from “sasakure. UK - Replica”. Please let me know if there are any issues.
A story about a “fake” who wanted to become “real,” and a “real” person who wanted to love them.
Taking a break from my usual top 5, I would like to talk about sasakure.UK's new work “Replica”.
sasakure. UK - Replica MV feat. Hatsune Miku
Sasakure-P posted this on 2019/9/10. It has been quite a while since his last original Hatsune Miku song upload to Nico Nico Douga.
Kawasemi-san's MV combines perfectly with Sasakure-san's melody to present a single story. Yellow and blue tulips form the foreground of the MV, and if we take them as the language of flowers, we can interpret them as:
Yellow tulip: Hopeless love, unrequited love
In addition, regarding the blue color which is not realized with current technology, it can be interpreted as indicating the meaning:
Blue tulip: Does not exist
as interpreted.
Furthermore, it is clear that the designs given to the two characters are an homage to Osamu Tezuka's “Phoenix: Resurrection Chapter” characters Leona and Chihiro.
Leona, who died in an accident, had an artificial brain used during his resuscitation, which caused him to fall into a state where ordinary humans looked like lifeless crystals, while robots looked like humans—this is the introduction to “Phoenix: Resurrection Chapter,” but...
The love shown by you, the spectacle
The “I” mimicked by me, the fake
A world where the truth (real) is not real
“They don't look alike at all, do they?”
In “Replica”, the protagonist loves her, who is a “spectacle,” and self-deprecatingly calls himself a “fake” because he is different from those around him (this is the only time the protagonist's side is described as a “fake”). Also, she, who is a “spectacle,” a “monster,” and a “paper mache,” is trying to respond to the protagonist's love—the cause of this is unknown, but one can imagine that a situation similar to “Phoenix: Resurrection Chapter” is occurring.
Below, I will interpret the lyrics of Replica.
The flower swaying at the foot of the steel tower in a distant city
must have been torn apart with the smoke in the not-so-distant future
This is just a guess, but perhaps the "steel tower in a distant city" that controlled the "fakes" was destroyed (i.e., torn apart with the smoke) at some point in the future.
Those who scream it is a lie, children who do not notice the lie
The beast that stirs it all up
I imagine that the "children who do not notice the lie" are the protagonist, and the "those who scream it is a lie" are the adults around them trying to stop the protagonist. If so, the "beast" that "stirs up" the order would be her, the "fake."
That is why, my heart too
if only it were a fake,
I wish.
The protagonist wishes that if their own heart were also a "fake," they could get closer to her and understand her feelings. I would like to interpret "heart" in the lyrics as referring to the organ or function that governs the workings of the mind.
It would have been fine as it was
They must have rejected it as it was
The one for whom "it would have been fine as it was" is the protagonist, and the ones who "rejected it as it was" are those around them.
In the music video, the "fake" girl is captured, and crystal-like adults shoot blades into her, perhaps to restrain her.
The more it is adorned with jewels, the more the monster is revealed
The mechanism that returns the "fake" to its original form and restrains it is likely what is meant by "adorned with jewels." Even after exposing the form of such a "monster," she still offers a flower to the protagonist. The withered flower represents her own sense of despair.
Even though I sing that it doesn't hurt,
even though I sing that I want to be you,
those feelings are not alike, not alike
everything is a fake
The girl herself, being a "fake," knows best that the feelings she puts into her "song" are "fakes" that do not resemble the "real thing."
Then, are the tears she shed "fakes"? Are the feelings of suffering for being a "fake" oneself, and the sadness of not being able to become the "real thing," also "fakes"?
In the music video, the protagonist stands holding a tulip flower among the crystal-like adults who are inspecting torn tubes and discussing things with documents in their hands.
She, being a "fake," has broken her restraints and escaped.
Inconvenient feelings (i.e., functions)
are nothing but defects, right?
If we view the "inconvenient" feelings that disrupt order as functions equipped in a "fake," they are nothing but bugs (defects).
Ah, it is so sad
because we cannot understand each other
I wish I could have become you
The protagonist removes the blades shot into her, even while hurting their own hands and bleeding.
The music video is sepia-toned around this part, but I really love the way her eyes turn back to blue when she hears the words, 'I wish I could have become you.'
You're going to say that even this voice is a 'fake,' aren't you?
It is those around her, and she herself, who call her voice a 'fake.' Knowing this, the protagonist denies it. To be precise, he tries to deny the way people disparage her voice by calling it a 'fake.'
Is it wrong just because it's a 'fake' and not the 'real thing'? Even if it is a 'fake,' it sounds irreplaceable to me. If so, then there is nothing wrong with it being a 'fake.'
When the hand searching for flower seeds wipes away your rain
It likely means when the protagonist's hand, searching for hope, wipes away her tears.
Biting through the resisting body and laughing
The blade that restrained her was likely also what barely maintained her function as a 'monster' or 'fake.' With the blade removed, her body reaches its limit and begins to decompose.
And she laughs at her 'fake' body as it tries to resist the decomposition, and at the body that disappears without trying to stop that decomposition.
Ah, truly, sadly enough
'You were,'
Just like me.
The eight seconds of silence inserted here are the climax of their story.
The 'fake' girl who wanted to be 'real,' and the protagonist who was 'real' but loved the 'fake,' both wished to move to the other's side. A wish that was sadly in opposite directions, yet mirror-like and identical.
From the perspective of adults, that wish could never have come true, but between the two who tried to cross the boundary between 'real' and 'fake,' it was effectively fulfilled.
I felt it was fine to consider it that way.
Lastly, tulips also have flower meanings based on the number of stems,
One tulip: You are the one for me
apparently.
Compared to Sasakure-san's other works, one could certainly expand on various points, such as how it feels more like a VOCALOID image song, but I will leave it at that for now. See you next time.