A Lyric Analysis of Kenji Ozawa's 'About Fluidity': Why a Subway Map, Not a World Map?

Kenji Ozawa's 'About Fluidity' is a special song for me.
Every time I listen to this song, I feel a sense of immense inclusiveness and affirmation.
At the heart of that is the phrase I love most in this song: 'subway map'.

A question about life, starting from Haneda

The beginning of the song.

'Arriving at Haneda, the city lights flicker / As it's announced that we've arrived in Tokyo'
'We look out the window for a while'
Just these few lines vividly bring to mind the scene the protagonist is in.

The city of Tokyo seen from an airplane window. The night lights. The calm time waiting for landing.
Even though there isn't much explanation, a scene like one from a movie unfolds.
However, the song doesn't end here as just a song about returning home.

The protagonist poses a question.
'If I hadn't noticed the mistake / Where would the me in a parallel world be living?'
What if I had made a different choice back then?
What if I had chosen a different path?

They begin to think about that 'other self'.

Why is this map a 'subway' map?

What draws me most strongly to this song is the line that follows.

'Where would the me in a parallel world be living? / I look at the subway map I've spread out to every corner'
I think this phrasing is truly interesting.

If you were looking for a version of yourself that lived a different life, wouldn't you normally imagine a world map or a map of Japan? Since the protagonist is on a plane at the beginning, they should know about the wide world.
But the map the protagonist spreads out is a subway map.
The area covered by a subway map is very small.

No matter how closely you look at every corner, it only shows limited places within a single city.
Yet, the protagonist is looking at that map.
I felt in this a gentle gaze from the protagonist toward their 'other self'.
Even if they had made a different choice, that version of themselves isn't in some far-off, different world.

They are surely just a few lines away from where they are now.
Life isn't something that ends if you stray from a single correct route; perhaps it's something that continues while having many branches.
The phrase 'subway map' feels like it changes the way one views life itself.

It's enough to just resolve

And the words that appear at the end of the first chorus.

'If it's in the hands of God / The only thing I can do at any given time / Is to resolve to do good in the universe'
Here, too, is the great inclusiveness of this song.
If life is within the flow of something much larger.

If, no matter what choices we make, we are ultimately heading to the same place.
Should humans just leave everything to fate without doing anything?
This song doesn't say, 'If it's already decided, you can do whatever you want.'
What you can do within that great flow.

That is to 'resolve to do good'.
I like that it sings about 'resolving' to do good rather than 'doing' good.
Even if you try to do good, it doesn't always lead to the right result.
Actions meant for someone else's sake can sometimes end up hurting them. Even if you want to be a good person, there are days when you can't take action.

That is precisely why I feel there is a great forgiveness for humanity in the word 'resolve'.
It doesn't have to be perfect. It's enough to just have the feeling of wanting to face in a good direction.
I have been saved many times by that inclusiveness.

What kind of world does a resolution create?

And the song doesn't end there.
The words follow: 'But, will changes words / And words change the city'.
The only thing a human in the hands of God can do is resolve to do good in the universe.
'But' that small will changes words. Words change people. And if people change, even the city will change.

That city might be as dense and beautiful as if it were calculated.
Because there is a lyric that says, 'A mirage that explodes mathematically and aesthetically'.
It can also be interpreted that the 'premonition of a new city' is being expressed as a 'mirage'.

The resolution of one small person eventually changes the shape of the great world.
I think that is exactly what 'fluidity' is.

The 'infinite sea' that is scary the more free it is

There are countless choices in life. But the phrase 'infinite possibilities' can sometimes be a bit too pretty.
Having many choices—that is, an 'infinite sea'—is a source of fear as well as possibility.
You don't know which path is correct.
You can't see the future.
There is that kind of anxiety in life, too.

But this song doesn't say, 'It's not scary'.
It sings, 'There isn't that much fear'.
There is fear.
But if you have the will to try to move in a good direction, that fear eases a little.
That feeling was very important to me.

A great affirmation that embraces the uncertainty of the future

Sometimes I think about the future and get anxious.
What if I had made a different choice back then?
Is the path I'm about to choose the right one?
There are times when I end up thinking about things like that.

But when I listen to this song, I feel a little relieved.
It's not that I have to keep choosing the correct life. It affirms me as I worry, telling me that no matter what path I choose, what's important is to try to head in a good direction within it.

Another life that is just a little different, like one drawn on a subway map.
The slight fear felt before an infinite sea.
A sense of immense affirmation that seems to embrace it all.

'About Fluidity' is, for me, a song like a precious charm that makes my anxiety about the future feel just a little lighter.