夏恋★夏GAME by アンカフェ

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

Thanks for watching and for your feedback.

I agree with you about how risqué the lyrics are, but regardless of the band's motives for making the PV look cute, I'm still wondering if this song is sung from Cupid's point of view. It makes a big difference in interpreting the song.

I was wondering if you could verify some things in this PV. The link I gave you before had low quality video. This one has higher quality so it can be easier to see what I'm talking about:
YouTube - ‪アンティック－珈琲店－「夏恋★夏GAME」【ＮＥＷ ＰＶ】‬‏

At 1:24, it the pianist acts as if he is hit by something. Cupid's arrow?

At 3:07, we see a doll in the sky. Could this be Cupid, the one that shot the arrow that hit the pianist at 1:24?

At 1:12, when the lyrics say "女を刺す," doesn't it look like the toy is sticking it's chest out, as if to say, "shoot here?"

At 1:19 the band members make a symbol with their hands. Is this the symbol for a target, where Cupid's arrows are supposed to be shot? They do this also at 2:27 and 3:39.

At 1:35 we see the singer sitting in a chair. The lyrics here are about sex. Could the singer be portraying Cupid watching what's going on?

At 4:00, at the end of the song, we see the doll that was seen in the sky sitting in the same chair that the singer was sitting in. If this doll represents Cupid, then could that mean that at 1:35 , when the singer was sitting in the same chair, he was playing the part of Cupid?

I have read the lyrics several times and watched the video at least three times now and I still do not sense the Cupid that you speak of.
I've shown the lyrics and the video to a few people (all Japanese-speakers with university degrees) and none of them even thought of a Cupid, either. Like myself, they basically only saw a horny guy out to get girls in the summer if I may sound blunt here. As native Japanese-speakers, we are being unable to imagine Cupid speaking the wild and bald way the lyrics are written in.

This is not, by any means, to say that your theory is wrong. We are simply reading and interpreting the song differently than you this time. Hopefully, others will be posting their opinions here.

[languagehacker]

Thanks for doing all that! I know it might seem like I'm spending too much time to figure out a single song, but I this PV so much. Perhaps my tenacity in this matter can be blamed on my university education, where we had to take apart ancient texts that were nowhere near as exciting!

I've already translated (well, more like interpreted) the video and uploaded it to Youtube. It can be seen here: YouTube - ‪An Cafe - Natsu Koi ★ Natsu Game (subtitled) 【HD】‬‏ If you have any thoughts on how I interpreted the song, I'd be happy to hear them. One Japanese person already posted a comment about it.

How ingrained in Japan's cultural mindset is Cupid? Over here in America, he's just as well known as Santa Clause.

In a nutshell, Cupid is an angel that carries a bow and arrow, but he was originally a god from Greek mythology. His job was to make people fall in love by shooting poisoned arrows at their hearts. After being shot, whoever that person sees first they'll fall in love with. "Love at first sight," and this is mentioned near the beginning of the song. Cupid can turn himself invisible.

One of the things I mentioned was that at 1:24 it looks like the pianist got hit by something. The way he acts when hit and how he just runs along all happy after is just the way we picture it when people get hit by Cupid's arrow. What did you make of it?

Here you can see a comical representation of Cupid: YouTube - ‪SCADshorts: Love Hurts‬‏

Is this not known about in Japan?

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by languagehacker

Thanks for doing all that! I know it might seem like I'm spending too much time to figure out a single song, but I this PV so much. Perhaps my tenacity in this matter can be blamed on my university education, where we had to take apart ancient texts that were nowhere near as exciting!

I've already translated (well, more like interpreted) the video and uploaded it to Youtube. It can be seen here: YouTube - ‪An Cafe - Natsu Koi ★ Natsu Game (subtitled) 【HD】‬‏ If you have any thoughts on how I interpreted the song, I'd be happy to hear them. One Japanese person already posted a comment about it.

How ingrained in Japan's cultural mindset is Cupid? Over here in America, he's just as well known as Santa Clause.

In a nutshell, Cupid is an angel that carries a bow and arrow, but he was originally a god from Greek mythology. His job was to make people fall in love by shooting poisoned arrows at their hearts. After being shot, whoever that person sees first they'll fall in love with. "Love at first sight," and this is mentioned near the beginning of the song. Cupid can turn himself invisible.

One of the things I mentioned was that at 1:24 it looks like the pianist got hit by something. The way he acts when hit and how he just runs along all happy after is just the way we picture it when people get hit by Cupid's arrow. What did you make of it?

Here you can see a comical representation of Cupid: YouTube - ‪SCADshorts: Love Hurts‬‏

Is this not known about in Japan?

I feel it might be best if you leave your translation as is instead of discussing it in details between us because our views are totally different. Those viewers who are capable of judging will judge. One senses what one senses and that is probably what song lyrics or any kind of creative writing, for that matter, can have us do. Once it is out, it is destined to get interpreted in as many ways as the readers.

In Japanese culture, Cupid is very well known and it is often talked about. I googled (or Yahoo-Japaned, to be exact) the word in Japanese and it yielded nearly 7 million results. The best-selling mayonaise brand here is named Kewpie. So, at least, my reason for not seeing Cupid in the song is not because I don't know what Cupid is.

The pianist at 1:24, to me looks like he just had a pain in his abdominal region from running and quickly recovering from it. I feel that if the creater of this PV had meant to suggest a Cupid, s/he would have let Cupid hit the pianist right in his heart. Or s/he could have actually used a visible Cupid and a visible arrow.

I really think almost everyone in Japan knows what Cupid is thought to look like. What so many non-Japanese people (the vast majority of JF members included) do not realize is that Japan has a 470-year history of exchange with Europe.

[languagehacker]

The thing with the pianist though is that after he continues running, he looks happier than before. A few scenes later, at 1:43 and 2:01, he looks hysterically happy. Being hit by Cupid's arrow would explain this better than having abdominal pain.

I agree with you on leaving the video up and discussing it there. This is already going on.

Thanks for all your help on this. I probably would have never figured out アゲる季節 if you didn't tell me because I asked about it in other places and they didn't know. I even had to explain it to another Japanese person.