On Cantarella
Okay, so before you read this post you should probably search for "Cantarella" on Youtube and then "Cantarella Len Rin" (watch them in that order). And have a basic understanding of Vocaloid, because, you know, I'm much too lazy to explain it to you. GGRKS Wikipedia it.
This is an analysis of the most popular PV of the Len/Rin Kagamine cover of the song "Cantarella" (the one usually found with lordxwillie/RENA sub). It does not rely on the meaning of the song's lyrics in any way, only the music video.
Firstly, the preliminary statements:
- Firstly, I have no strong opinion on how related Rin and Len are. Like most things concerning Vocaloid, the canon changes regularly. I think we can all agree that Miku is not an assassin solely because of Cendrillon, or that Kaito is a pedophile solely because of Shotarella. In other words, individual songs have no bearing on the overall canon.
- That said, in this song, Rin and Len are at the very least raised as siblings. They live in the same house and sleep in the same bed.
- I can't really be sure if Kaito and Miku are their parents in this song. But, again, they are portrayed as significantly older and live in the same house as them.
- I am working under the assumption that Cantarella is a drug that causes a temporary period of extended unconsciousness/sedatedness. Some point out that in real life, it makes people die. I would cite the fact that in the original video, Miku clearly does not die, but is merely unconscious for a short time and then gets up again.
- It is very likely that these videos (as in original and cover Cantarella) take place in the same continuity, but only a small part of the interpretation depends on that fact.
On to the fan wank! Verse by verse!
First, as I said above, Rin and Len are living as siblings in this song. They may be step-siblings or adopted siblings or good old fashioned twins, but either way they are siblings of some sort. Very, very close siblings. At first this closeness is expressed solely through pillow fights, sleeping in the same bed when sleeping alone is too scary, playing in the garden, etc. (This is established in the first verse.)
However, eventually Len realizes that his affection for Rin goes beyond a brotherly level. (This is established around the first bridge.) So he gets the Cantarella and goes into the garden. He sees Rin and is afraid he knows what she's doing. But she just laughs and they start to play together, Cantarella instantly forgotten. Meanwhile, Kaito and Miku look on, knowing exactly what is happening to their adorable young wards and very amused. (This happens in the first chorus.)
Len goes into the library and finds himself the vial of Cantarella. I don't know why he does this after he already approached Rin with a vial. (This is in the second verse.)
Then there is the second bridge. A few establishing shots showing that Rin and Len's wrists and ankles are bound by chains. Len looks at his shackle. Cut to him standing in front of a grandfather clock holding a weapon. Back to them with the chains, slowly panning from Len's face to Rin's. Len angrily wielding this weapon. Back to the chains, completing the pan to Rin. Len angrily swinging this weapon and breaking the glass. Rin crying and saying something - the shards of glass appear as white patches of light against a gray light over her. Len standing in a stern way as glass shards fall in front of him. A full body shot of them with chains, panning up. Len's angry face. Closeup of his angry eye. Back to the body shot, showing Rin looking sad about the whole thing and Len looking sadly at his chains.
I really have no idea what this scene means. My best interpretation is that it's a dream sequence representing what Len thinks might be going on: That weapon (a phallic symbol!) is the Cantarella and the glass is Rin's virginity. -shot- I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
During the second chorus, they basically play in the garden some more. Then there is the instrumental. In the middle of the night, Len gets out of bed; Rin's eyes are open as she notices this. He goes to a cracked-open door and sees Kaito over a drugged Miku and an open vial of Cantarella on the nightstand.
Pause for a topic of discussion: How did Kaito use the Cantarella? That is, is it a tool of sexual pleasure for them used consensually, similar to bondage or asphyxiation? Or is this an unhappy marriage where Kaito rapes Miku on a regular basis? Or is this a special occassion, something to surprise her (she sure as hell looks surprised)? Or is it all staged for Len's benefit? Or... I can't really offer a conclusive answer. However, I would point out that Miku is conscious during this scene and appears surprised, but during her earlier appearance seems happy enough with Kaito. So it's pretty confusing.
Anyway, Len is shocked. He leaves immediately and returns to bed, still shocked. Rin stirs, and Len desperately pretends to be quiet in an urge to get her back to sleep. They're both quiet... and then they turn to each other...
They meet in the garden. Rin is blushing in a bright pink fashion. She is holding a bright rose. Len presses his mouth to it. When he takes his mouth away, he is drooling. For the rest of the video they are both blushing in a casual, black-scratches sort of way. He extends his hand, which Rin nervously kisses. Now she is also drooling. Closeup of their mouths. Len drops his vial of Cantarella... and Rin drops hers.
Now, this begs the question: Did they use the Cantarella? I would say they did not use it, for the following reasons:
- Firstly and most importantly, when Kaito has used the Cantarella on Miku, the vial is open. The vials dropped at the end are closed. In my opinion that seals the entire situation right there, but of course that's not solid enough evidence. After all, they could have easily put the Cantarella somewhere else and then closed the bottle... for example, onto their hands, or on the flowers. This is a very popular theory. So we must go further to disprove it.
- Secondly, in conjunction with the above, when Miku has fallen victim to the Cantarella, drops appear on her cheek and chin, while at the end Len and Rin have drops immediately surrounding their mouths, which are falling off more quickly. (You can compare if you like at this link.) I personally believe that Miku is sweating while the Kagamines are drooling.
- Furthermore, in the original Cantarella video, there is not any evidence of drops of any kind, nor in the "Loli Cantarella" video, nor in that one video with the art style that actually makes the characters look kind of Asian and Miku has blue hair. Do you see where I'm going with this? Drooling or sweating is not necessarily a symptom of the drug.
- Then there is the complex matter of matching actions. Essentially, Rin and Len do everything in parallel: He kisses her hand and begins to drool, she kisses his hand and begins to drool, they hold hands, they lean in, and they drop their vials. There are no differences in their actions. This leads me to believe that either no Cantarella was used, or both of them used Cantarella.
- So if Cantarella is used, it was probably injested after the victim began drooling. (Even though, as I said earlier, drooling is not necessarily related to the drug.) This would mean that Cantarella was presumably on Len's hand and Rin's rose. Now, I could believe the position that Rin's rose is drugged - it's brightly colored and there are plenty of spaces it could hide, that's more than enough. But Len's hand? It's completely blank, no sheen of drugs or anything of the sort. Now, there is a probable way an indicator on his hand could be absent in this context: If Rin was blushing bright red, the color would turn into a beautiful symbol of drugs and sexual submission and it grows in the garden which explains the infinite supply and all these other things and...
- But she's not. There is no indicator whatsoever that Len actually used the drug. Thus, the prevailing interpretation for me is that neither did.
One last note: Much to my disappointment, I have thus far not been able to find if the color pink represents anything in the video. There are only the flowers and Rin's blush - but the flowers do not appear to contain Cantarella. (If they did, this would mean that Len received the Cantarella and Rin did not, which would be fascinating if they did not both have the exact same amount of mobility aftewards.) So the color is presumably just a rather casual creator of emphasis, or maybe an indicator of sexual desire. Whatever.
TLDR: Rin and Len fell in love with maybe a little help from their parents and didn't die or actually use any of the Cantarella. Honest.
But I would love to hear any extra interpretations you all have! Break free of YT's 500 character limit and bind yourself to LJ's 5000 one instead!