Shenmue The Animation Opening Theme - Lyrics

Switch

Switch

Shenmue analysis at www.phantomriverstone.com
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Location
Japan
The anime's opening theme really grows on you!

If you were wondering what the song is singing about, I've put together a "karaoke-style" video with the lyrics and translations.


Disclaimer: the lyrics are from my own listening, so may need small adjustments after the official lyrics are released.
 
Very cool, thank you for doing this. The lyrics are quite dark, very fitting.

"Are you really alive?"
 
I was curious about this! Thanks for taking the time to translate.
 
The lyrics are quite cryptic, but the choice of certain words and phrases I think deliberately ties them into the world of Shenmue.
 
Great work transcribing, translating and trying to figure out the meaning of each of the verses. 👏👏👏

It's really a very difficult lyric to interpret... well... like everything that has to do with Shenmue! 😆

The song is not very "Shemueesque", but I really liked it. It's cheerful and makes us even more excited at the beginning of each episode. I think they made a good choice here.
 
MetalSonic said:
Great work transcribing, translating and trying to figure out the meaning of each of the verses. 👏👏👏
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Thanks MetalSonic! There are definitely many ways they could be interpreted. (And trying to pick out the words being sung was a challenge in itself!)
 
Great breakdown. You picked up on a few connections I completely missed -- the Dobuita reference in particular is quite cool.

It isn't uncommon in Japan for people to use English words when naming/branding things...without too much consideration as to whether it makes sense in English or not. "UNDEAD-NOID" certainly feels like one of those to me :p
 
orient said:
Great breakdown. You picked up on a few connections I completely missed -- the Dobuita reference in particular is quite cool.

It isn't uncommon in Japan for people to use English words when naming/branding things...without too much consideration as to whether it makes sense in English or not. "UNDEAD-NOID" certainly feels like one of those to me :p
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Thanks Orient! You may well be right about the song's name, it might be a case of there not being anything there to analyze!
 
Awesome work as always Switch!

Really taken by the intro, the song is catchy and the visuals are great. One thing I will say regarding how "cryptic" the lyrics are; natural Japanese (in my limited experience) doesn't easily lend itself to this style of music, so compromises are frequently made to make it "work." It's certainly consistent with what you'll find in other anime intro music.
 
Fabulous! Thank you. It’s a really cool song (and ear worm!), nice to read the lyrics and get some more depth to it.
 
Thanks for the comments! I'm currently working on the lyrics for the ending theme as well.
 
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