Shota's solo song analysis (5/31 Recomen)
I just listened to the 5/31 Recomen where Yoko and Hina called Shota on the phone. Shota had just finished his work (past midnight!) and he had no clue what the two were up to, haha. Yoko had asked Hina about his lyrics to "Forward" earlier in the show, and now Yoko wanted to call Shota and ask him about his song "Watashi Kagami."
(By the way HERE is the link to the translated lyrics for "Watashi Kagami")
Shota explained the situation of this song, saying that he wrote from a female perspective. She has a boyfriend but they are in a long distance relationship, and seeing each other whenever they want to is not the way to go, he says. While Shota was explaining the lyrics, he was like "and this girl wants to see her darling, and..." and of course Hina and Yoko picked on Shota saying "darling" and Yoko was like "So Yasu, you call your boyfriend 'darling?'" and Shota was like "hahaha!! ...oh! ...Well, I don't have a boyfriend so I don't know..."
Anyway. Yoko really really likes this song and he was amazed and moved everytime Shota explained the situation of the lyric. He kept on calling Shota a poet. The "poet" said he came up with the lyrics while he was on a bus ride home from a MuchaBuri location filming. He was looking up at the sky and saw the moon, then the lyrics just came to him.
One part that amazed me as well was this:
The part that goes
Seeing you whenever I want to is not what it's all about;
Putting the happiness and sadness back-to-back
It is just divided by one line
In Japanese, "happiness" = "shiawase 幸せ" and "sadness" = "tsurasa 辛さ"
If you could see the two kanjis closely, 幸 and 辛 are only one-line different. You add an extra horizontal line at the top of 辛 to make it 幸. In the lyrics, he's saying that they're just divided by one line... which has a double meaning: one is the one-line difference in the kanji and the other is that one moment you can be really happy but the next moment, once you cross a thin line, you might just stumble down to sadness. When Shota was explaining this, Yoko, Hina AND I were all like "aahhh...!!! WOW!!"
Also, Yoko said that he and Ohkura were talking back-stage during the concert when they were listening to Shota's song. The part where Shota goes The "smile" that you forced while hiding your sadness Yoko was like "Ohkura and I were saying that maybe you're always forcing yourself to smile whenever we're around and decided that we should treat you better from now on..." and Shota's like "Hahaha Yokoyama-san! You're reading into the lyrics too much!"
Yoko really likes the last part where Shota says "Hayo Aitai." He even used it in one of his "confessions" during the Eight Ranger skit where the guys are forced to come up with a pick up line. During the Recomen, he was reading out Shota's lyrics and when he came closer to the end, he started saying things like "So yeah, you know you shouldn't see each other because you're both working and you can't just be selfish and see each other whenever you want to, you know? You have to have a mature relationship right? Yeah, but... in the end... 'hayo aitai <3' Right?!" and he imitated Shota's song "Hayo Aitaaiii" and Shota's like "Hey! Stop imitating me!" Yoko loves Hina's solo too; he keeps on saying "Everybody screeeaaammm!"
Anyway, thanks to Yoko's super (?) interviewing skills, I like "Watashi Kagami" even more!!! I can't wait to listen to the album!!!