The song Zetsubou Billy

[languagehacker]

I've read the Japanese lyrics for Zetsubou Billy as well as some English translations. I have a few questions about it.

Was this song specifically made for the Death Note anime? Who is Billy? What is the Eraser Rain, and how is it connected to Billy?

[KyleGoetz]

10 char limit

[siokan]

It is a tune composed for the animated cartoon when thinking about the content of the sale time and lyrics.

Taro's characteristic is "Rhyming lyrics" and "Heard lyrics in the foreign language".
It is neither vocal, nor lyrics, and recognizing it as musical instruments is usual.

namely
There is no meaning.

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

I've read the Japanese lyrics for Zetsubou Billy as well as some English translations. I have a few questions about it.

Hi.

This song was not specifically made for the Death Note anime.
It’s sung by “Maximun the Hormone”.

Maximum the Hormone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Was this song specifically made for the Death Note anime? Who is Billy? What is the Eraser Rain, and how is it connected to Billy?

If you read Japanese, this site would answer your question.

絶望ビリーは何についての歌ですか？ - Yahoo!知恵袋

[Koir]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Hm, interesting stuff.

*goes off to listen to Pantera's "I'm Broken" and Finger Eleven's "Drag You Down"*

\m/

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by Koir

Hm, interesting stuff.

*goes off to listen to Pantera's "I'm Broken" and Finger Eleven's "Drag You Down"*

\m/

Hi, Koir.

The person who had written this lyric usually write lyrics in English first, and then he changes it into Japanese with an iron grip.
When listening to this song, most Japanese people think this is not Japanese but English. I mean this song sounds English to most Japanese people.
Many Japanese people wonder what this song all about.

[Koir]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Hi, Koir.

The person who had written this lyric usually write lyrics in English first, and then he changes it into Japanese with an iron grip.
When listening to this song, most Japanese people think this is not Japanese but English. I mean this song sounds English to most Japanese people.
Many Japanese people wonder what this song all about.

The rhythm of the voices do sound like their speaking English, but very quickly. In that way, it reminds me of the song "Jesus Built My Hotrod" by Ministry. Only when I found a youtube video with the lyrics did I finally understand what the singer was saying. Crazy!

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by Koir

The rhythm of the voices do sound like their speaking English, but very quickly. In that way, it reminds me of the song "Jesus Built My Hotrod" by Ministry. Only when I found a youtube video with the lyrics did I finally understand what the singer was saying. Crazy!

When reading “Zetsubou billy” lyrics, we don’t understand what they mean.
Their first priority seems the rhythm.
Really crazy.
I think native English speakers would not write lyrics in this way.
The lyrics of “Maximun the Hormone” seem only to have “atmosphere”. Not meanings.

[Koir]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

When reading “Zetsubou billy” lyrics, we don’t understand what they mean.
Their first priority seems the rhythm.
Really crazy.
I think native English speakers would not write lyrics in this way.
The lyrics of “Maximun the Hormone” seem only to have “atmosphere”. Not meanings.

*finds lyrics video*

Hm. It's similar to most heavy metal and darker music like it. The important part is to understand that the song is from the perspective of the person making all the events happen. Also, the song is mainly about one repeated action and the reasoning or thinking behind it.

I can see why it was used in the Death Note anime as it shares the same themes of ruthless justice done by someone who believes they are unquestionably correct.

However, I do agree there are some words and imagery that don't make a whole lot of sense even after many readings. But that's the nature of music and creativity...sometimes it makes sense by not making sense.

[YuriTokoro]

Originally Posted by Koir

*finds lyrics video*

Hm. It's similar to most heavy metal and darker music like it. The important part is to understand that the song is from the perspective of the person making all the events happen. Also, the song is mainly about one repeated action and the reasoning or thinking behind it.

I don’t listen to heavy metal music much.
I prefer lyrics which make sense.

I can see why it was used in the Death Note anime as it shares the same themes of ruthless justice done by someone who believes they are unquestionably correct.

Yes, one of the early themes of Death Note is ruthless justice, I agree.
Many people say that Death Note had been very good before L died.

However, I do agree there are some words and imagery that don't make a whole lot of sense even after many readings. But that's the nature of music and creativity...sometimes it makes sense by not making sense.

Exactly.
When listening to music, many Japanese people don’t try to understand or listen to the meanings of the lyrics.
Once I was really surprised when one of my friends said she didn’t know the meanings of songs she really loved. Do you believe that? The songs were sung in Japanese, and yet she didn’t listen to the lyrics. She just listened to the melody.
Since I love reading lyrics, I wasn’t able to believe how she had listened to music.
However, I’ve found many friends who don’t listen to lyrics since then.