Stardust in Disguise

Date created: November 9, 2025

From here on, I would like to introduce the songs I created for my personal project,
“Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 Self-Image Song Project”
, one by one.

I watched “Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26” and turned the impressions and emotions I received from each episode into music in my own way, one song at a time.

Watching the work, turning what remained in my heart into lyrics, turning them into sound, and then turning them back into words once more.
It is a very personal and very intense record of creation.

This song was created as an image song for Episode 1,
“There Were Two Chickens in the Garden.”

I will touch on the content of the work a little.

The story is set on Earth after humanity has lost a war against aliens.
Only the forms of the cities, schools, culture, and lives where humans once lived remain, and now, aliens live there as if it were natural.

They wear uniforms, go to school, and spend their daily lives.
At first glance, it looks like a scene of youth that could be anywhere.
However, in that world, there are no “humans” who should be there.

That absence was so quiet and eerie.

Episode 1 was shocking.
As an alien invasion story, it is very novel, interesting, and scary.
It does not depict the moment the world breaks, but rather a world that has already broken, continuing its daily life with a straight face.
That feeling struck me very sharply.

The comical nature of the aliens blending into daily life as if nothing happened.
The inorganic void where they imitate human culture and live like humans, yet only humans are missing.
Behind the scenes that should be funny, there is an eeriness that resonates with reality, making the soles of my feet feel a little cold as I watched.

And then, the two humans in chicken costumes who seem to be fooling around, Yuto and Ami.

Although their appearance is ridiculous, the situation they are in is all too desperate.
Hiding the fact that they are human, they are surviving by pretending to be chickens.
Humanity, which should have been the protagonist of the world, is now holding its breath so as not to be found, hiding itself in a strange form.

It made me think that this might be one way for humanity to go extinct.
It was a work that made me think that.

And the story moves into the escape journey of the two who have been exposed as “humans” to the aliens.

To me, this seemed like a love story between the two.

In a world on the verge of collapse, still thinking of someone.
In a reality with no escape, still trying to live together.
Hiding their appearance, hiding their names, and suppressing their very existence, yet there are emotions that cannot be extinguished.

This song is a song that sings of Yuto's heart.

The title is “Stardust in Disguise”.

Literally translated, it means "disguised stardust."

At first, the image was of a small, lurking presence, like a fleeting light hiding in the shadows.
But when I thought about it, I felt that the word "stardust" isn't just about being small.

Stardust might be something that was once part of a great star.
Something that burned somewhere in the universe, shattered, lost its form, and yet still holds a faint light.
It looks small, but hidden deep within it is an immense amount of time and its former greatness.

That resonated with the image of humanity in this work.

A being that once built civilization on Earth and should have been at the center of the world.
But now, it hides in the form of a chicken, trying just to survive, so as not to be found, so as not to be taken away.
It is ridiculous, sad, yet not entirely gone.

I felt that deep within that small form, the dignity, memories, and love from when they were still human remained.

I poured those thoughts into the song title "Stardust in Disguise."

It pretends to be something ordinary, but it is actually something that was once a star.
It looks weak, but it is actually a being that has lost something very great.
Disguised, hiding, and afraid, yet the heart that cares for someone still shines.

I thought that in Yuto's heart, there was a radiance like that stardust.

The horror of this work is not flashy despair.
Rather, it lies in the fact that despair wears the face of everyday life.
Even though the world has ended, there is still school.
Even though humanity has been defeated, there is still laughter.
Even though love still remains, there is no place to protect it.

That incongruity is so undeniably characteristic of Tatsuki Fujimoto's work that it captured my heart.

I think I wanted to avoid breaking that strange temperature in this song.
Not just sad, not just scary, but a little strange, a little funny, yet leaving something heavy in the depths of your chest at the end.
I wanted to trap those emotions within the sound.

"There were two chickens in the garden" was an intense entrance for Episode 1.
The novelty of the idea, the eeriness of the worldview, and the poignancy of the love hidden beneath it.
Even though it was a short story, there was something that kept ringing in my heart long after I finished watching it.

Watching a work and not just writing a review, but turning the emotions that remained within me into a song.
I think that is what I wanted to do with this self-image song project.

I plan to introduce all eight songs one by one from here on.
For each work, the colors I received and the shapes of the sounds became quite different.
First, this "Stardust in Disguise" will be the first song.

I have also compiled the other songs released so far in my X highlights.
If you like the atmosphere of this song, I would be happy if you took a look at those as well.

I feel that the disguised stardust is still in this song, holding onto the memories of a lost star, quietly illuminating a night where no one can find it.