夏恋★夏GAME by アンカフェ
 

I'm having trouble understanding certain parts of this song.

The very first line is this:
アゲる季節がやってきた

This would make sense to me if アゲる wasn't in there. What is アゲる季節?

夜もキメろ!!
Why is キメ written in kana? Is it related to キモイ?

I checked the lyrics. You've got the transcription correct. The rest of the surrounding lyrics are talking about an awesome summer (beach, blue skies, etc.). My guess is that it's 揚げる (either indicating it's a really hot summer) or 上げる (raise up/whatever).

The second one definitely needs context. The lyrics I found say "恋の季節さはじけましょう／ATAKKU 成功夜も極めろ" are the two lines. You got the transcription wrong. It's 極（きわ）めろ apparently.

Where did you find 成功夜も極めろ? All the lyrics I found for this song say キメろ. I tried to google "成功夜も極めろ" but didn't find anything.

You're right. I ended up on a page where a non-native had transcribed the lyrics. You got the lyric correct. アンティック珈琲店 夏恋★夏GAME 歌詞

Thanks. So if it's キメろ, what does 夜もキメろ mean?

アゲる is a fairly new slang word meaning "to raise one's spirits".

アゲる季節がやってきた means "The season to raise our spirits has come."

キメる is a slang word meaning "to be succesful" here. The other important meaning is "to wear (certain items) and look good".

夜もキメろ essentially means "Pick up a good one at night."

Whenever you see a word in katakana that you might expect to be in kanji, you are seeing a regular old word being used for a new slang meaning. This happens all the time.

決める = to decide
キメる = what I said above

上げる = to physically raise an object
アゲる = to upload, to raise one's spirits

Wow, I thought I knew what the slang words were. I have never heard of those. What you said about katakana slang words is helpful, thanks. Do you know of a good online website where I can learn all about the new slang words?

What does "pick up a good one at night," mean? Is that talking about picking up girls?

I don't know of a website unfortunately. I am a Japanese-speaker, so I just have not looked for one before. Perhaps other members know of some websites.

It means what you said. It's all about flirting. Summer is just considered the season for that kinda activity by many here.

Oh ok, thanks. What you said about katakana, there are other words in the song that are written in katakana: キミ, ハジけましょう, フリ, and トキメキ. Are these all slang words?

What does 一夜の恋も星になるさ mean?

Summer sounds like fun over there.

Here is a site with slang words, although there are gross words XD the list is pretty long a-o Japanese slangs (among young prople) dictionary Japanese slangs (among young people) E-Japanese.jp . Japanese study

Among those, only ハジける is a slang word. The others are regular words written in katakana only for the author's own aesthetic reasons. 　　

キミ　＝　君
フリ　＝　振り
トキメキ　＝　ときめき

ハジける = to act or speak in an open and uninhibited way. In other words, "to go crazy".
弾ける = to split open, to burst open

Why didn't you ask all your questions in one post? :p

It means "Even a single-night love will turn into a star."

That's a lot of words, thanks! ＼（＾ ＾）／

I didn't want to scare anyone away with lots of questions in my first post. :D I know what 一夜の恋も星になるさ is in English, but it doesn't make sense to me. What does it actually mean? I heard somewhere else that it might have to do with a Japanese superstition about people turning into stars.

Then there's this other part:
不運なルーレット
夏の落し物

It's talking about bad luck at roulette and losing something in the summer. However I can tell that this is not really talking about roulette. It's a metaphor for something else. What is this talking about? What is lost?

My experience tells me that 80% of what you "hear" around you about this country and its people is untrue. Remember that SVP. Too many people, both in real life and on the net, pretend to know so much about Japan when they simply don't (by my standards). We are not a very superstitious people as a whole, either.

一夜の恋も星になるさ , I think, implies that what you thought would be short-lived could end up being ever-lasting. This is so true particularly when you are talking about love.

不運なルーレット so clearly does NOT refer to real roulette. I think It is being used as a metaphor for the undependableness of the things you do and the decisions you make in life. Nothing in life is guaranteed: Life is a gamble.

夏の落し物 is again a metaphorical expression. You can lose your pen, camera, cellphone, etc. Those are 落し物
in the literal sense of the word. Here, I see it referring to summer affairs, the majority of which will not last.

Thanks. :) I don't think that Japanese people are very superstitious but every culture has its superstitions. Even in America there are superstitions that everyone knows about but that doesn't necessarily mean we take them seriously. I agree with what you say about 80%. Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? There are lots of weeaboos that think they know a lot more about Japan than they actually do, but this person seemed different.

I thought that maybe this song was about ナンパ in the summer time, and 落とし物 was a girl's virginity. I thought that アッタク meant ラブアッタク. Was I wrong?

One really interesting part of this song that I don't quite understand is the part that says 裸撫GAME.

I tried to look up 裸撫, and I can't find this word. Is this a pun? What does 裸撫 mean?

No, you are not wrong except, perhaps, about "girl's virginity". The girls who would actively seek one-night stands would not usually be virgins, dontcha think?. Think of 落とし物 more as a memory to leave behind.

裸撫 is a coined word and it is a play on word as well. The kanji culture makes this possible. The author would want you to read it as ラブ as the two kanji CAN be read ラ and ブ respectively for their on-readings. You know about on and kun, right? And the two kanji, respectively, mean "naked" and "to caress". So, it was coined for both the sounds and meaning. Dang, what a cool language we have!

Yes, I've seen these kinds of kanji puns in other songs, and it's pretty cool. It's one of the reasons why I like learning Japanese songs.

I thought the way ナンパ works is that you can approach any random girl on the street. They might not necessarily be girls looking for one-night stands.

How would you say 裸撫 in English? I googled it and I keep finding gay stuff. Is 裸撫 something that's gay?

There are a lot of lines in this song that seem to be talking about セックス. Like 夏来い★裸撫GAME. which is a pun on another line that says 夏恋★夏GAME. Is it 夏来い about セックス too?

This is true in general. This song, however, looks to me to be all about sex.

Just "love" or "physical love", unfortunately. The pun will be lost in translation. And no, I don't think it's gay. Then again, I am not familiar with the gay world.

In this particular song, it seems to be about sex. Elsewhere, 夏来い just means "Summer, please come soon." In this song, it seems "summer = easy love = easy girls".

For 裸撫, could it be translated as "naked sex?" The first kanji means "naked," but I'm not familiar with the second.

I thought that 夏来い might be talking about the same thing as キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!, if you know what I mean. ;)

What does the last line mean?

シーツに染み込むほど 体を火照らせろ 朝には燃えつく二人

Thanks for answering all my questions so far by the way. I know there's a lot of them. :o Can you see why I didn't put them all in the first message?

If "naked sex" sounded good to your ear, maybe. The second kanji means "to caress".

I think that if you really try to translate every little nuance, your translation can get wordy and/or overly explanatory. You could keep your translation simple and use sidenotes where explanations are added for the reader.

lol You know too much Japanese!

You keep editting, eh?

"Let our bodies radiate through the sheets. The two of us will be burnt out by the morning."

I thought that 燃えつく means to ignite, not burn out. Could シーツに染み込むほど be talking about making the sheets wet, since before it is 濡らしたままイっちゃえ 大胆に?

:vsign: I could say the same about you, since you're English is so good that you can tell when a phrase doesn't sound good. How long have you been studying English? Did you live in an English-speaking country before?

燃え付く = to ignite
燃え尽く = to burn out

You are not going to have enough energy left to ignite anything in the morning after your hard work all night long, are you?

Yes, it could. Though in words, it is saying that you want to let your body radiate in the fashion that it will permeat through the sheets, this may well allude to actual sweating.

What you say makes sense. I was confused because 燃え付く was in the dictionary but 燃え尽く wasn't.

I'm still thinking about the wet sheets. I don't understand how the body can be said to radiate.

I just started to think about the line that says 恋を忘れた女を刺す.

At first I thought this was talking about sex. But now I think it could be talking about being pierced by Cupid's arrow. What does 女を刺す mean?

It seems like in some parts the song is sung from the point of view of Cupid. Like the part that says アタック成功. I was thinking that might not be about ナンパ. It could mean he just shot one of his arrows and it hit its target. That might be what the Summer Love Game is about.

It is not in the dictionary because the actual existing word is 燃え尽きる or 燃え尽くす.　You have a choice of labeling 　燃え尽く either as a bonehead mistake or as one of those "new" words created by the author.

Song lyrics are the same as poetry. Your body doesn't have to literally radiate to say it radiates. It is not the same thing as a guy in real life asking another on the street, "Hey, Bob! Did you radiate last night? I did." You should not be taking every word so seriously when it is by someone who uses "★" in his writing. Play along with it. 「裸撫」 will never be in the dictionary, either.

Nearly 100% of Japanese-speakers, myself included, would take 女を刺す to mean "to get laid". Seriously, nothing else would be even possible. "Sting like a bee." is all it's saying.

Thanks. I suspected that 女を刺す was something like that.

Have you seen the PV for this song? It not, I was wondering if you could take a look at it here?
YouTube - ‪An Cafe- 夏恋★夏GAME (Romaji/English subs)‬‏

When I watch the PV, it doesn't seem like it's told from the point of view of someone that does ナンパ. The image that the singer portrays is too angelic. The whole feel of the PV seems too good-natured to be about ナンパ. That's why I think it's sung from Cupid's point of view. There are things in the PV that seem to support this, like when they make a target symbol with their hands. When he sings 唇重ね指で這う, in the PV it looks like it's something that he's watching as a third party. What do you think?

If you watched the PV above, would you agree that it's badly translated?

Just watched it.

What perplexes me somewhat is the fact that it seems to matter to you from whose point of view this is sung. Let us be realistic here. The content of the lyrics represents nothing short of extereme male chauvinism and even hedonism. To sing it without being accused of the lyrics, you need to dress cute and sing it as if it were a fairy tale from another culture. I am sure that the fans would prefer to see it sung that way as well because this song would probably get banned from TV for its lyrics if the band sang/played it seriously in the non-visual-kei style. The lyrics are already borderline airable. You gotta cover it up and dilute it with the surface kawaii-ness if you want to sell the song.

The translation is between passable to mediocre, which I am sure that you already know. But we have seen worse when it comes to Japanese songs on Youtube, have we not?

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? :confused:

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.

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 :rheart: 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.

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. :pinkbow: 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. :ywave: