Hollowness
a review by Douzeries
a review by Douzeries
You've probably been intrigued by this review because you didn't recognize the name of the anime or the banner image. That's because it's not an anime, that's a song review ! You probably know the japanese female singer Minami or you're at the very least familiar with her song on Domestic no kanojo openning "Kawaki wo Ameku" or "Crying for Rain" (a bloody masterpiece)
____Today I'm here to talk about another song of hers "Hollowness" or more particularly it's lyrics. If you haven't listen to this song yet, do that right now it's a BANGER and then comeback on this review :)
I recommend you to go on youtube so you can read the subtitles and give a like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIRiduzNLzQ
This song is about persona (well at least in my interpretation) and I think it does a great job potraying the dualism of using one in your everyday life. We're gonna take each line and analyze it with the clear subject in mind "The dualism of a persona"
Quick reminder of a persona : the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.
Disclaimer : of course everything I say is my interpretation I'm not saying that my analysis is exactly what Minami had in mind writting the song
thanks to user-yd2hg2tn1d on the comment section, Imma use his translation
There, Minami is talking to her persona. Minami's persona (MP) "tricked" Minami into thinking that using her would benefit Minami.
This is a sweet trap because it is comfortable to rely on a persona but it's still a trap because later on, it'll cause problems. Why is it so comfortable to have a persona ? Because you don't expose your true self thus you can't be hurt. Being honest and open with your feelings with others make you vulnerable because it puts you in a place where you can be judged directly for who you are. No problems of the sort with a persona.
One of the problem with a persona : you base your fake personnality off other people expectations. To me, to socialize is to disappoint your interlocutor. He doesn't know you yet, still, he already has prejudices about you. Based on how you look and how you act, it reminds him of certain mental images that he'll associate with you. When you talk to the interlocutor for the first time he excpects you to act a certain way because of his prejudices. As people are usually self aware, I think it's easy to imagine the mental images you produce for people around you and what you look like from an outisde perspective. If you quicly pick up on what the interlocutor "excpects" of you, you can easily act that way. It's a convenient method to be easily liked at the cost of blending in, being part of a mob and never disappoint the excpectations of your interlocutor. But as I said, to me, it's precisely disappointing the expectations of your interlocutor that is the essence of socializing. Even if he's lowkey right on the money about you it's impossible to completely guess a whole person's personnality just like that. By "disappointing" the interlocutor you just show who you really are and THEN he may appreciate you for what you are rather than a convenient image he already had that was never broken by fear of rejection. You must betray those expectations people have on you and having a distinct persona is the exact contrary of doing that. This is even truer knowing that Minami is a singer but we'll get on that below.
Japan. Like any other country, the public has A LOT of expectations on the stars (even truer for idols). They have to maintain a good image and female celebrities have the pressure of being "cute". This must be breathtaking and stressful to always live up to your fans ideals. In my mother tongue's translation these lines sound more brutal but I think the way she dissociate her persona from herself is shocking. She clearly establishes that she says fake words she doesn't mean, she creates a fake images, that her persona is an absolute fake (in french it even says that she pretends to be more open-minded than in reality but I don't know about the truthfulness of translations). It shows how much her persona is fake and different from her. I don't usually see singers openly dissociate their persona from themsleves that much so it was a surprise.
To me she says there that people who look all perfect and clean hide the worst things. Perfect people don't exist, they just pretend to be perfect and the fact that they absolutely want to make you think they're prefect should scare you.
Minami is tired of this world, of pretending, she would like to just escape it for a moment. Which is also the same reason she wanted to let her persona rule in the first place. When she says "you think so too, don't you?" to me she either expects the viewer to relate because everyone has a persona or she's talking to MP (Minami's persona) like she's an actual person, just like her. (this will get very intersting in the later lines)
This right here hits HARD, to me it's the most touching part of the song. It is so hard to create self worth without the validation of people. You try to be satisfied by yourself and for yourself but it's so hard to think of yourself as sufficient to validate yourself. Humans feel the need to be recognized and validated. To me it's really sad how she's just like " I don't care how, even if it's a lie, I don't give a fuck, just give me love please". Your persona is a way to recieve love and appreciation, even if it's fake, without the danger of being hurt. She's at the point where she just needs love. Another backflash of having a strong persona is that you lose your own value, Imagine : you'e never been liked by people but when you put on a mask people start to appreciate you. Uncousiously you can start to think way less of yourself and that you are undeserving of love unlike your persona. But you still want your "true self" to be loved which is the whole issue.
To me, Minami wants love because, as we disscused earlier, it would validate and be the proof of her life. But since the love she receives is MP's love the only proof of her life is wounds due to the sadness of not being loved for who she truly is. That's basically the song up to now : Minami begs MP to give her the love she receives but it's only palliative she wants the true her to be loved.
The mirror is an easy symbolism but GODDAMN does it works on so many layers. Through a mirror you see a an imperfect, inacurrate reflection of yourself. But it's the only way you can see yourself because you can't get a look at yourself with your bare eyes. You use the mirror to see if you look good. Brushing your teeths, doing your hair, even using make up or whatever, symbolically you use your reflection to cover up your true self and use products to modify your natural self. (I'll talk aout the other layers later and get ready it'll give the song a whole new meaning)
A doppelganger is an apparition or double of a living person.
Hey hey there, isn't it weird how it reflects the lines "Oh, I want to escape from this miserable world of 3D.You think so too, don't you?"
But this time she's also answering "Of course I want to close my eyes.. Same for you, right ?" Makes you wonder who's talking right now....
Great vocalizing I love her voice.
MP is getting such an important place in Minami's life that..where does she get to be MInami? Is there still a place for her ? No. To put in back in context she is a celebrity with a lot of pressure on on her shoulders, when does she get to be Minami. What's interesting is that in the french translation she doesn't "you" she says "I" and "me". The line is getting thinner and thinner...
HERE WE ARE. The big plot twist that changes everything I teased you about is explicitely revealed. There is no MP and MInami, they're the same person, strictly dissociating her persona from herself is wrong as there is no "true you". Who knows if we were seeing the right reflection the mirror since the beginning of the song? From the other side, your reflection also looks at you and see an imperfect version of themsleves that they want to change. I exaggerated when I said that there was no "true you" but my point is that if all you ever are in your life is a fake persona then how is that not you ? The "real you" is the fake you knowing that it was the"real you" who created the persona. It's Minami saying lies, not MP, MP is a lie and Minami is the orchestror. I love Minami's critical judgment and I think we needed both versions of her dissociating herself from MP and her dissociating MP from her to arrive to the point where we realise it's the same person. Minami wishes she was just MP all the time, sacrificing Minami and MP wishes she was Minami all the time so that Minami can finally receive love and be herself. Both personas said to the other "Be my sacrifice", they've said to themselves "Be my sacrifice". Genius writting. It is very reletable to me who had a huge persona in my life. My persona was unintersting and I was a mob person like. Once I tried to be the "real me" I realized how utterly uninteresting I was. Was it that I erased myself so much that there was nothing left of me and that I became like my persona by dint of pretending or was my "persona" just a convenient excuse to dump all these traits?
She's only left with herself, and who is she really ? What was once a comfortable situation became hell.
Is it Minami talking about how MP is a disgusting fake or is it MP talking about Minami being a liar pretending she isn't the one lying?
I'll skip some lines because I don't have anything new to add.
__ I can't become you who is
just a vessel.__
__ All of place is created
by my ideal.__
and
__My current situation is
all because of my ideal mirror.__
__I wanted to break this situation,
but I couldn't.__
__Because my utopia was
only here.__
and
__Because my ideal mirror was
only here.__
__I reached out my hand
for no reason,__
into the mirror.
To virtualize a lie
An unrealistic reality and
__a non-existent mirror image.
Give me back the fading
boundaries.
Please give me back.__
__Please give me a chance
to try again.__
God-tier singing, she is incredible. You feel the raw emotion trrough her voice, it's heartbreaking and captivating.
Lyrics wise we're back at Minami longing to be loved. It's kinda ironic I used the name Minami to talk about the real her knowing Minami is a pseudo and that it's precisely her persona's name. There, she realizes that if everybody loves her as Minami then...who wants the real her? We see her as Minami, an artist but that's it, obvisouly we do not know the real person and we don't know her real name, just like anyone I can only see her reflection but to me that's her yknow? Imagine if you discover someone is the complete opposite of what you thought they were. At first, you wouldn't believe it. The "real" would seem "fake" to you.
To us fans, the "real" Minami is the "fake".
CONCLUSION
As bad as it can sounds after this review I love Minami. Her songs are always a blast to listen to and even if it's limited I'm glad I get to know a little of the real her through her songs and through her persona. Hopefully, this "fake her" as she describes it, will be able to free the real her through via their genuine songs.
I'll finish with the illustrator images that perfetcly retranscribe the lyrics. Minami strangling MP but then it's MP strangling Minami and you realise it's just Minami strangling herself or MP doing so....
if you want to disscuss this review you can go on my profile :)
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