Discussion topic for Track 4 of Love Song: Hashiru (Run). Please support the official release by purchasing the album from iTunes! You can find a translation of the lyrics on ShiraneHito’s blog.
Please tag references to later songs or outside works with the [spoiler] tag, providing adequate context in parenthesis.
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I feel like this is a very introspective song and not just because meditation is mentioned. I mostly latch onto the lines about the narrator’s body being eroded by the wind, and them being left with only their love. It’s like they looked inward to find the most important thing to them.
The lines about god(s) really confuse me. Why are they there, and why are they formulated so strangely? Also this song is super catchy.
First off, this song will stand out to many as containing the same melody that was later used in the Little Busters! EX BGM, Kakeru, which was from Saya’s route. Not that this has anything to do with the song itself but an interesting tidbit.
This song has me quite confused as to what it’s about. The art depicts a man running through the forest, possibly fleeing something. Yet the lyrics are very, like Helios said, reflective.
The first stanza brings to mind the thought that this man is dissatisfied with his fate, like ‘the gods are toying with me. They could save me whenever they want.’
The line about ‘the gate of stars’ certainly makes me think of the afterlife, especially so since I hear what seem to be church bells in the music as he talks about watching “the door closing all by myself”. As if was unable to meet his beloved, even in the afterlife.
Hoo boy, well this song sure sounds familiar! That aside, I don’t think I have too deep of an interpretation for this song. It’s really about someone willing to fight all odds, and to go against fate (regardless of whether it’s real or not) just to gain the love and acceptance of the person they love. Maybe it will end in vain, maybe not? But because of their love, this is the only choice they have. To keep running and chase the love that they seek.
One of the more interesting points of the song is the title “Run” - which is decidedly a physical motion and one that notoriously takes a lot of effort. This theme of running is set against spiritual imagery - like gates to the stars, or becoming nothing but a soul, and unseen worlds.
The singer is also notably dismissive of gods and fate - The gods laugh and give salvation easily. Something like fate. No one waiting at the gate at the gate of stars.
This leads to me thinking that the singer does not want to rely on gods for their salvation, and instead are going to achieve it by continuously running towards love. Basically achieving salvation with their own humanity as opposed to through divine intervention.
They mention the gods waiting for someone to drop the axe to the bottom of the water - I’m assuming this is a reference to The Honest Woodcutter. I think it was just here to kind of illustrate how mercurial and easy salvation seems if you rely on gods? I hope some other people tackle that stanza because I am kind of making the :shizuflust: face at it.
Ahhhh this is the best Love Song track by far for me. Saya’s theme is probably my favourite track from Little Busters, so it carries over to here. The melody is fantastic, and the vocals of this are cool too.
The instruments are really different from Saya’s, this definitely feels like the older track, not necessarily in a bad way though, it’s probably the synths, compared to a more clean instrumental version.
Hashiru for sure feels more like actual running though, funnily enough, like that fast drum track coming in with the chorus.
These lyrics are really tough to think about and discuss. As has been said, it’s definitely someone very determined to fight against the gods and fate for love. I feel maybe they could have gone mad over love, and are destroying themself to try and find that love.
I think maybe the singer doesn’t even care that they’re destroying themself, because they’re so determined that they’ll persist even if they destroy themself, as a “single soul that loves you so much”. As long as the love can reach them, that’s all that matters.
I wanted to just mentioned a few things about the stanza, “The cat appeared… closing all by myself.” When I attempted to analyze, this set of lines caught my eyes, mostly because of the gate of stars. But starting from the beginning, this cat seems to symbolize the singer’s inner voice. After the mediation, the inner voice appears and points out that this place is cold. Why would this be important? When you have human contact or simply just a few people in a room, it would be warm due to the body heat. Here the cold symbolizes isolation as cold is the absence of warmth (and powa powa soup). The singer realizes that the current isolation is wrong, so they continue seeking the love interest. At this point they find the gate of stars, aka the gate to heaven. Since there is no one waiting, and the door already closed, then no one entered, and the singer knows that the love interest is still out there somewhere. And so the singer runs with the hope of meeting the love interest.
I have this idea that because Love Song has the theme of reincarnation, people can be granted salvation by the gods and go into heaven if they have accepted their fate, or they can be reincarnated if they have not. Hey wait this sounds familiar… Rebel against the Aspi god…?
One of my favorite things in music is syncopation and this song absolutely drips with it. Syncopation is when the rhythm in a song moves in an unexpected way that emphasizes the offbeats. It’s what makes funk funky and so much other music memorable and catchy. For me, at least, the absence of sound on the beat just makes the beat itself stand out more to me, like those optical illusions where you see a picture created by the space between images. I would even argue that the Japanese language and the word choice in the song help to make this syncopation even better, as unvoiced consonants are used to great effect in lines like “boku wa kimi wo oTte hashTte yuku.”
Love it love it love it!
As for the rest of the track, the song starts off with just the voice and a sort of “twinkling” synth panning back and forth between the channels, almost like an orbiting sound. There’s also some shaker and other effect percussion. A bass comes in with a guitar. Again, the bass is beautifully syncopated (
) and the guitar is understated, almost classical. The guitar is allowed to close out the opening section, and gives a nice little flourish before everything else reenters.
At 1 minute into the song we start to get our first taste of a beat. It’s a very simple beat, like you might expect from an old Moog synthesizer. The vocal goes into what is known as a “Call and Response” melody, where the call and response are differentiated by effects that give the sense of low quality recording equipment. The effect is reminiscent of a person talking on the phone, and is actually very pleasant.
Now the xylophone gets to accompany the singer, as we go through a phrase not just reminiscent of a children’s rhyme, but with an allusion to the folktale of the Honest Woodcutter. When the beat comes back in, it’s now a considerably more frenetic backbeat (though still very synthetic sounding). From there, the song doesn’t do a whole lot different, but the catchiness of the melody is more than enough to carry it through to the end.
Something else worth noting about Hashiru is the presence of overdubbing (Riya singing multiple parts at once to harmonize with herself). So far we haven’t heard much of it in other songs, but it really helps to give a lot of depth to this song.
Based on the translation provided in the topic, because I don’t know Japanese.
Title
“Run” is a simple title with many meanings. There is running to and away from things, as well as running in general. In this case, “Hashiru” is about the journey of running, how there is a beginning and a goal at the end. As the singer runs to the goal, certain things happen to them on the journey (as they say, “it’s the journey that matters”).
Summary and Interpretation
The song has heavy emphasis on fate and the future. It starts with the singer complaining about the unfairness of fate. The song compares the gods “switching on and off the starlights” to somewhat of a game, as they are “merrily laughing.” The gods “giving salvation” to anyone reminds me of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who would make mortals fall in love for her own amusement, with salvation meaning “love”.
If the singer is fated to meet their loved one, then they don’t need to endure the search. Trying to start a relationship can be hard, as referenced by the harsh word choice in “throw this body away.” Here, the “message from the stars” is their plea for love, and they hope that it was “transmitted to someone.” The following line, about “erase[ing] my loneliness,” is a little confusing. The use of a double negative implies that they don’t want to be alone; they want to be together. It also implies that deep down, they think fate may not work, the singer having a negative attitude towards it. They would be willing to stop believing that something will simply happen to them, and will act on their own. It happens in the very next line.
The singer runs, chasing this “other person”, through the “world yet unseen”. After spending what I assume is a large amount of time believing that fate will bring him what the singer wants, they get up and decide to take matters into their own hands. While doing this, they pass the beauties of nature, an ocean of blooming flowers and a sky filled with rainbows, and in turn, experience the beauty of the journey. The end goal is still the singer’s main goal, as they “move forward with their finely honed sense”. Yet, the running and the wind starts to make their body crumble. Fate begins to work against them. But after fighting what destiny is trying to deny, what’s left of the singer is only their love (“Only this single soul that loves you so much”). Their dedication to this other person is deeply ingrained in them. Does this stem from obsession? find out next time on Dragon Ball Z
Again, the singer compares the gods giving salvation to something. However, this time it is to an axe dropping into the water. I refused to accept that this was random word choice, so I googled some stuff. Like @kyuketsukimiyu said, one reference it could be is to the Honest Woodcutter. It does make sense here, the relation being how easy it is to rely on the gods. I would like to explore another possible reference, one to the Bible (2 Kings 6:5). I believe, in terms of the song, it carries a similar meaning to the Honest Woodcutter. If salvation is meant to represent love, it can also refer to how easy it is to lose it, it being as easy as an axe head sinking into water. This further implies how hard it is to find love, and how much easier it is to just leave it to fate.
The next stanza is about self realization. I agree with @cjlim2007, in that the cat represents the singer’s inner voice, and that the singer doesn’t want to be alone. In addition, I believe this stanza is where the singer denounces the idea of fate forever. “In the gate of stars, there is no one waiting” implies that above all the mortals, there is no higher power, no one directing people’s lives. As the singer watches the “door closing”, they finally believe that fate is not real. And so they continue to run.
The chorus repeats, with two modifications: the line “No matter what kind of world it is, I’ll run through and through,” and “Even though I wasn’t strong at all, but… always…” The first line indicates the passage of time. The singer has been running for a while, but may show signs of giving up: their self doubt. “No matter what kind of world it is” sounds like a line they would say to reassure themselves that they need to stay strong. Words of encouragement like this are mostly seen only when signs of potential failure arise. Something has happened between the beginning of the running and now, but what? Has time worn them down, has fighting fate? The other changed line hints to the fact that after all this time, they went back, maybe briefly, to believing in fate. The constant back and forth between deciding to move forward with their own power or let fate run its course has worn them down. What’s stopping the singer is their own mindset. In the end, I believe they finally settle on “fate is a lie,” because the infinitive nature of the ellipses.
No matter how worn down the singer will be when they find love, they will always have it deep in their soul. As the run through the great unknown, they may face travesty, but the end goal is always clear.
Musical Analysis
The song perfectly encapsulates the idea of running. It starts a little slow, as if warming up, then builds to the chorus, where the singer takes off. At this point, as @therationalpi mentions, the call and response pattern begins. What’s interesting about it here is that if you separate the call and response, you get similar yet different stories.
Calls
I start to run chasing you.
Surpassing the ocean of blooming flowers,
I’ll move forward with my finely-honed sense,
What is left of me?
I’ll run, run, run and run.
Surpassing the ocean of blooming flowers,
I’ll move forward with my finely-honed sense,
Even though I wasn’t strong at all, but…. Always…
Responses
I’ll even start to dash through the world has yet unseen.
Crossing over the sky with the lined-up rainbow on it,
With this body that starts to be crumbled by the wind.
No matter what kind of world it is, I’ll run and run through.
Crossing over the sky with the lined-up rainbow on it,
With this body that starts to be crumbled by the wind.
I think it’s pretty cool that the lines still make sense when separated. I almost think of it as two people running together, one ahead of the other(because the response sounds kinda far away), and they try to reach each other. As the singer harmonizes with herself while singing “hashiru hashiru hashiru hashiru,” the runners meet briefly, then part again as one takes off ahead of the other once more. This made me think back to what @Pepe said in the Ao no Yume topic, and how the two in the song are trying to support each other.
I think this nicely adds to the running theme, I can imagine the singer’s feet hitting the ground every beat.
Picture
The picture reminds me of a fugitive on the run. Among trees in dark clothing, a look of paranoia across their face as they look over their shoulder, the person clearly doesn’t want to be found. But what are they running from? these feels.
Final Thoughts
What are is the singer saying at around 2:30? I don’t think it was in the translation.
Anyways, I think this is my favorite song in the album. It’s been on my walkman for a lot longer than most of my songs (including most from Love Song), which is somewhat of a testament to how much I enjoy it.
I lightweight got Days of Dash vibes from the lyrics, probably because of the whole “running” thing(“Run into the wind”, “through the unknown”, etc). Probably added to the reason I liked it too. I do like the theme of running in general, because I personally have/had problems running (wrecked my knees, long story). All I know is that the feeling of running after being handicapped for a while is the best thing I’ve ever felt. Hashiru encompasses that feeling entirely.
Another one liner I thought represents Hashiru:
Lots of paths can lead to the same destination. Choose wisely.
I’m curious about the singer’s goal in this song, the “you” he refers to now again. Is it a specific person, like in the earlier songs? Or is he looking for some type of contentment? As many above me have already pointed out, he transitions from doubting the existence of god(s) to outright accepting they don’t exist. That definitely figures into the theory he/she’s looking to find himself in a way. I would definitely agree with the theory that this is meditation. Heck, the singer outright mentions it in the first line of stanza 5, “Within the two and a half hours of meditation”. Life itself is often compared to a race, so the emphasis on running would make sense if the singer is looking to find himself. Although this makes sense to me, I am a bit curious as to why the singer would refer to reaching this “you” as “love” if he/she was merely looking for self- fulfillment.
The use of “rainbow” here intrigues me. After looking into it, I discovered in Japanese mythology, Izanami and Izanagi, the creators of the world, used a rainbow as a bridge to create land from a sea of chaos. Many texts refer to this as a “rainbow”. Considering the precursor to this part of the line is “Crossing over the sky”, I imagine this is a neat reference to said mythology.
In conclusion, I also agree with the assessment that the cat is the singer’s inner voice. Much like with meditation, the song’s lyrics all but state this. “The cat appeared, with the voice very similar to mine”. Also the singer being alone isn’t just evidenced by the reference of cold but also the last line of that stanza. “I watched the door closing all by myself”.
I like the sound of this song. Admittedly, this is my first time hearing the melody, but it has a nice ring to it. I’d agree it echoes the self-reflective nature of the song though. Like Biz, I am utterly baffled by this picture. The character looks like a survivalist, somewhat reminiscent of the Junker in Planetarian, so I find it odd he/she would be so introspective. Although, if this is to literally be taken as a representation of the singer, perhaps the lines about crossing the “ocean of blooming flowers” is somewhat literal and the singer really is searching for an individual.
