If you’re a Gackt fan, you probably know that for whatever reason, live performances of “U + K” from his album MARS feature a bunch of people dancing around in cat costumes on stage. Recently on Gackt’s official Japanese site you can see a clip of a cat dancing to a dance/house style song. For me it’s nigh impossible to understand the robotic voice, but recently the lyrics were posted under “Preparation for the LIVE.” You can see the lyrics on the official site here, but since the kanji are pretty hard to read (because it’s a picture, not text) I typed the lyrics below (increase the text size of your browser to see them more easily, should that be of interest to you).
You don’t even need to be able to read Japanese to see where this is going! (Though I did romanize and translate it below.) How different from the childlike innocence of “U + K”, where these dancing cats first appeared! “Dispar” was pretty perverted, but this is on a whole new level!
The “character” in this song, or the one “speaking,” is a woman. You can tell by the use of the sentence-final particle わ (wa) and the pronoun ウチ (uchi), which is only used by women and children (and I should hope this isn’t a child talking!) But who is she? A girlfriend? A succubus? A hostess? I’m not entirely sure what her role is. And considering this is part of the Rebirth universe, what with its androids, I bet the action of the song is occurring online in some sort of cyber reality, explaining all the emoticons.
(Sorry the verses are all jammed together, I’m having trouble making them align correctly because of the text wrapping.)
小悪魔ヘヴン
巻き髪をかき上げて☆
濡れたリップで Up and Down ★
欲張りッしュに３回戦、４回戦、５回戦．．．
オシャベリわ 上級者な ѡ デス （＊＾◻＾＊）
愛情の欠落わ サイフの厚みで
ガマンしてま〜すゥ m( _ _ )m
恋をするのも 気楽ぢゃないんで
玩張ってま〜すゥ ハイッ（ー＿ー＃）
ナニが何でも玩張るウチらわ
いいオンナ．．．なんデス、ハイッ♪
ブチアゲな 曲に合わせ ☆
濡れたヒップを Upside Down ★
好きなナンバーわ６（＊• д •）９
ハイッ、脳脳脳脳天気．．．なんデス \(^o^)/
サイコーな決めポーズで
「本命のカレシ！？ wow、性してますゥ ！！（＾−＾）！！」
(ホンだヨ）
イヤになるほどキライぢゃないんで
小股者デス、ハイッ（ー◻ー；）
ナニを何度も玩張るウチらわ
いいオンナ．．．なんデス、ハイッ♪
恋をするのも気楽ぢゃないんで
玩張ってま〜すゥ、ハイッ v(^-^)v
ナニが駄目でも玩張るウチらわ
いいオンナ．．．（デショ？）
濃い〜のするのも若くはないんで
玩張ッてま〜すゥ、ハイッ（ー◻ー；）！！
ナニが誰のでも玩張るウチらわ
いいオンナ．．．なんデス、ハイッ♪
koakuma hevun
makigami wo kakiagete
nureta rippu de Up and Down
yokuburisshu ni (three four five) sankaisen, yonkaisen, gokaisen… [see translation notes below]
OSHABERI wa joukyuusha DESU
aijou no ketsuraku wa SAIFU no atsumi de
GAMAN shitema~suU
koi suru mo kiraku ja nain da
ganbattema~suU HAI
NANI ga nan de mo ganbaru UCHI ra
ii ONNA…nan DESU, HAI
BUCHIAGEna kyoku ni awase
nureta hippu wo Upside Down
sukina nanbaa wa (six and nine) 69 [see translation notes below]
HAI, nou nou nou nou tenki…nan DESU
saiko na kime poozu de
“honmei no KARESHI!? wow, sagashitemasuU”
(HONTO da YO)
IYA ni naru hodo KIRAI ja nain de
komatasha DESU, HAI
NANI wo nan do mo ganbaru UCHIra wa
ii ONNA…nan DESU, HAI
koi wo suru no mo kiraku ja nain de
ganbattema~suU, HAI
NANI ga dame de mo ganbaru UCHIra wa
ii ONNA…(desho?)
koi~no suru no mo wakakunain de
ganbattema~suU, HAI
NANI ga dare no de mo ganbaru UCHIra wa
ii ONNA…nan DESU, HAI
___________________________________
I suppose emoticons are a natural progression for Gackt, who frequently uses odd kanji switches to make double entendres and once used the ♂ and ♀ symbols to correspond to the sung lyrics “angels” and “gods,” respectively. Alright, so here’s my translation of this song, with translation notes at the end marked with [ ]. But note: I am NOT a native Japanese speaker so I’m sure there’s lots of puns and such that I may not even be aware of.
Little Devil Heaven
Running my fingers through your curly hair ☆
With wet lips Up and Down ★
Greedily, a third round, a fourth, a fifth… [1]
Go on and talk, I AM an advanced learner （＊＾◻＾＊）
Lack of affection can be ENDURED
According to the thickness of one’s WALLET m(_ _)m
It’s not easy even if one is in love
I will do my best, YES (-_-#) [2]
WE who do our best through ANYTHING
ARE good WOMEN… YES ♪
DON’T TALK, let’s join to the melody ☆
Turn the wet hips Upside Down ★
The numbers I like are 6 and （＊• д •）9 [3]
YES, it IS c-c-c-c-carefree abandon [4]
In our set pose,
“My favorite BOYFRIEND!? I’m searching !!(^_^)!!” [5]
(HEY, it’s TRUE)
I don’t DISLIKE it to the point I find it LOATHSOME,
I AM a woman with a nice body, YES (-◻-;)
WE who do our best time and again
ARE good WOMEN… YES ♪
It’s not easy even if one is in love
I’ll do my best, YES v(^-^)v
Even if SOMETHING is bad, WE who do our best are
Good WOMEN…(RIGHT?)
Even if it’s a deep love, because I’m not young
I will do my best, YES (-◻-;)!!
Even if SOMETHING belongs to someone, WE who do our best
ARE good WOMEN…YES ♪
_____________________________________________
Notes:
[1] He doesn’t actually sing the 回戦 “kaisen,” which is a counter for rounds (of a sports match or game). Instead, he actually says “three, four, five” in English.
[2] The kanji written here for “ganbaru,” to do one’s best, isn’t the usual one. As Gackt chose to write it, 玩張る rather than 頑張る, there is an implication of teasing or taunting.
[3] Gackt sings “six and nine,” not just “six nine” or “sixty nine.”
[4] This one’s a doozy. The word “noutenki,” meaning carefree abandon is usually written 能天気. But Gackt used 脳, which means “brain,” instead of 能, and what’s more, repeated it four times. So, is it carefree abandon in the realm of one’s mind, or…someone is giving/getting really good “brain.” (It’s the latter, in case you hadn’t noticed where this song is “going,” lol.)
[5] Gackt wrote “sagasu,” meaning “to look/search for”, with 性 , a kanji that can be pronounced as “saga”, but usually not in that word and not with that meaning. On its own, that kanji means “sex; gender; nature.”
UPDATE: According to Japanese blogger Mic, this song is about a whore, which is what I suspected given the line about the wallet. Now it really makes sense. See her post here (you have to enter a password though, as specified).
UPDATE (JUNE 5, 2009): Gackt performed this song on Music Station, so I could finally hear what he sung some parts as that were a bit strange and fixed them. See the performance! Or better yet (AKA UPDATE June 7), scroll down to see it in the comments. Ntkufreak used this translation and romanization to do a subtitled vid! Thanks for that!
Hello–
I really like your explanation and especially your translation, it is very well done. I am currently subtitling the Koakuma live and would like to use your translations — I can credit you in the video file itself and in the YouTube comment if you would like, however you would like, or if you are not comfortable with it, use someone else’s translations entirely.
If you’d like a link to the YouTube video I can provide as soon as it’s uploaded.
Thank you again for your hard work and I hope that you do not mind this~
Hello and welcome, Ntkufreak!
I sent you an email, but just in case, I’ll answer here also.
I don’t mind if you use my translation, with only two conditions: 1. add a disclaimer that the translator is not a native Japanese speaker, and 2. give credit by linking back to Scales of Libra. Surely you’ve seen the translation on amaiakuyume’s Live Journal, and it differs in substantial ways from mine. That’s why I think the disclaimer is important.
It would be nice if you could drop by and post a link to the vid once it’s subtitled. Thanks for your work doing that! (From what little experience I have doing subtitles, I know it’s not the funnest thing in the world!)
No worries. Thanks so much, and I did receive your email.
Hahaha – I really enjoy doing subs, but yeah, it can be quite tedious
But it’s so much fun to watch when they’re done!
Here you are –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRv8WTQHs9w&feature=channel_page
Thank you again for letting me use your hard work! <3
Cool! Your timing is excellent! ^_^
[...] The first single, Koakuma Heaven, came out this past week. Its cover alone is fairly controversial, because yes, that is Gackt dressed as a woman. The song, too, is from a woman’s point of view — and it’s not just any woman, it’s about a hooker. Which means that as cheery as it sounds, it is a trashy song. Well, leave it to Gackt to go out there and make me say WTF. (For the curious, you can check out the lyrics.) [...]
最強の顏文字!!!!~
e首歌好正(d歌詞),
超多顏文字..
可惜我吾多睇得明日文-3-!!
只系識少少~~~`!
英文也廢廢的說>3<!
儀.., thanks for stopping by! Xie xie! Unfortunately for me, I can’t read Chinese.
From what I know of kanji via Japanese, the first line says something like “Strongest writing”??
this song is actually about “アゲハ”, a type of girls who dress up like a princess, and try too hard to look ultra pretty, to the point of being a whore, becoz — that’s right — fishing for guys is their intention. gackt said on a recent tv show that he started writing this song from a guy’s perspective, but he rewrote it later becoz he found it more fun this way. have ya learned the dance moves already??
Thanks for stopping by, Kalmia!
Yes, now that the video is out it’s easier to understand that GACKT was mocking the girls of “Ageha Heaven” specifically, but back in January what did we know? Anyway, since he’s talking about those that prostitute themselves, I feel no need to change my translation or add more notes than it already has.
Lol, I haven’t learned the moves. The video was pulled before I could. >_<