Discussion topic for Track 5 of Owari no Hoshi no Love Song: Muteki no Soldier (The Invincible Soldier). 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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Yanagi must have had a fun time singing until she keeps up with the song (lol); I did a little calculation and the BPM of this song is around 190, according to Wikipedia it is 210 so I’m sure we can safely assume that this song have the highest beats out of the 13(14) tracks. And really, it is so fast paced that you can easily hear the lyrics just kind of clogging up with each other at certain points. Which is to be expected of course, I don’t think I’ve ever consumed any kind of other musical media that (explicitly) tries to tell a short story by itself so this was definitely an interesting discovery (thanks to you guys).
Random information aside, I love the vocals and instrumental of the track, the densely-packed and fast paced lyrics paired with the frantic melodies from the strings and electric guitar of this song is truly spectacular.
In fact, I think this is my favorite track out of the album, even if it’s set in a fantasy world the story follows a down to earth path (no Key magic, no Key miracle, not that they’re bad or anything), it’s just a straightforward story of a girl who have only fought for herself, killed for her survival, robbed for her food, who abruptly meets a knight in shining armor that willingly fought for her, traveled with her, and taught her, only to end up being killed by the girl herself because in these ruined worlds that Maeda would encompasses as a general, overarching setting for all of the tracks in this album, the girl, who have been living her entire life used to killing others for one’s own gain, was unable to morally change her nature. One’s nature can’t be changed so easily can they?
The twist in the end wasn’t meant to be surprising (meant more as a continuation after the backstory of how she got there) because it’s extremely obvious at various points, but since I wasn’t paying attention to the screen to the beginning, what happened in the end to me was a great plot twist! (until I realized that I had the attention span of a 5 years old)
Overall this song (and all of the other ones) feel like they could really use the Jun Maeda bingo to go along with them because let’s be honest here, thematically, all of them involved in either having a character dying or disappearing completely, leaving either someone grieving or no one at all. (except for the 13th track) (specific summary spoiler thing)
tl;dr Muteki no Soldier is awesome because it sounds great and the simple story follow Jun Maeda’s theme for the album very well. Oh and the character art design are nice, because lolis
I remember actually crying at the end of this one
OOOoooooooh DIS A GUD MUSIC.
This is absolutely my favorite song on the album for a multitude of reasons, the song is catchy as hell and does a bunch of neat things, the video is cool and has some fancy pants presentation, but before I squee over those I’ll sort the story first.
So this song bares a decent resemblance to Killer Song, the world showcased here bares a fair resemblance, deserts, bandits, rampant killing. But where as the killing in Killer Song was seen as a big deal, Solider-chan over here is quite happy to kill to survive, seems even proud of how good she is at it even as the song bobs along while she smirks to a man becoming a fountain.
You could question if Roxas and his loli are really heroic, but Soldier-chan isn’t painted in that light at all, she’s a bad person who only cares about her survival(also cute as fuq and dose hips but that’s besides the point).
SO WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT EYES.
Something I think a lot of people are overlooking is the PV’s, they’re full of little details that help further bring these characters to life. And this PV has a somewhat interesting trait, nobody has any eyes, the crowd, the bandits, the shopkeeper, Aniki(give it a bit), even the The Invincible Solider doesn’t have eyes until he saves her, at which point he grows a face.
What’s this say to me? It supports that Soldier-chan only cares for herself, everyone else is a faceless nobody to her, it’s only when someone is fighting to help her that he grows a face. Now there is one exception to this, Aniki grows eyes when he is cut down, whether this has more meaning too it I can’t say, it’s possible it was primarily to show the fear in his face better.
BUT SEE HERE’S WHERE THIS SHIT GETS GOOD. Because right at the end, after killing The Invincible Solider, in the last shot of the PV. She loses her eyes. If we go by this interpretation that No Eyes = Not a relevant person to her then this last shot could imply that she is overcome by regret and grief that her selfish personality is the entire reason that The Invincible Solider, someone she truly cared for, died that she falls into self loathing after the story.
For a little bit more, The Invincible Solider is usually depicted with shimmering light glowing on him during his solo shots, helping further drive that this guy is the nicest coolest dude, this light does not, however, shine on him after he finds out she killed a man.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT LETS TALK ABOUT THIS MUSIC
Oh BABY this is suuuuuuch a good song, the speed of the music is fantastic, Yanagi Nagi going absolutely ham on this shit, and the instruments are all giving it their all the entire song too, the entire thing is just a treat to listen to.
My favorite part is the “cha cha” “ba ba” “ja ja” onomatopoeia parts of the song, aside from sounding good, help further to strengthen the connection between the song and the story, as the music itself is providing sound effects for the PV(something that happens again in a later song that I am SO EXCITED to be able to point out). This is such a good thing, it really helps bring the stories to life that much more.
But we’re not done with that either, the same notes arn’t just used for sound effects and sometimes are applied to a normal word in the lyrics. Muyou, Mazui, Miteta, You ni. As examples.
ALL OF THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT WORD IN EACH SENTENCE. It was useless to fight him. This is bad. He saw me. I will end up like Aniki.
Having them sung in a different tone(?) to the rest emphasizes their importance and further connects the song to the story and MMMMMMMMMMMM ISSO GOOOOOOOOOD.
You can take a kid out of the streets, but you can’t take the streets out of the kid. Or can you?
Rather than parental love, this is a story of a teacher-student relationship. The teacher had made the girl his student and opened up a path for her to live an honest life. His student had then failed him and betrayed all his efforts. However, instead of giving up on his student, the teacher used his own life to save hers and teach her one last important lesson.
I’m pretty sure she won’t steal ever again.
Another interesting thing that I forgot to point out was how the first thing that the video show to us is the death of the Soldier, which is the ending of the song, by having the girl to end up in the same scene as the beginning of the song in the end, it goes out to show that despite after all that she went through together with the Soldier, she returns back to square one, which is the opening of the song.
Something I noticed is… From the point the girl is saved by the soldier, the music progresses from the chorus to the bridge, and really starts to sound a lot more light and optimistic. Even the lyrics are reflective of this, talking about how they spent so much time together, then it abruptly cuts out and returns to the guitar riff from the start again, reflecting the girl’s abrupt return to her old ways, and how change doesn’t come so easily. Really clever composition.
I’m sure someone could’ve worded that better and more accurately than me but hey, I got to it first.
One thing I didn’t really understand: What did he mean by, “Have a duel with me and open your own path”?
Also, why was the crowd cheering when she won when she just killed the shop owner?
I’m guessing because he wanted to teach her the value of a human life. By sacrificing his own life, he might finally teach her to regret killing others. He probably saw no other option.
For your second question: because the world in owari is f***ked, and people are more likely to be excited to see the rise of a new champion than terrified that someone was killed in front of them.
edit: nevermind everything I said below. I just read a part where she said: “Just like how you killed my gang leader…” Which means she really took part of the banditry, but was just poorly treated.
I just realized something. Doesn’t she kill the shopkeeper out of reflex? Like she said in the beginning, her life was full of kill or be killed - she had no choice in it.
Then again, the way she reacts when killing the shopkeeper suggests otherwise. Cause if it has just reflex, then what good would the swordsman’s death have been?
Another very straightforward song, made even more straightforward by the video. But god, do i love this song! It’s always been one of my favorites, and the quality just shows. I especially like the onomatopoeia highlights that @Kanon pointed out; not only do they accompany the video well, but they provide such a good highlight and sudden stop to a fast-paced song like this. I can imagine myself shouting those parts if I ever witness this song performed live 
Not much I can add to the song, since everyone else kinda figured it out already. Girl keeps her nasty habit, man sacrifices himself to teach her a lesson, and she regrets her decision which, hopefully, changes her for the better.
Instead, I’d like to compare it with something else I’ve read from the Narcissu Anthology Project: A Little Iris. Spoilers for those who haven’t read it like this song, Iris also ends up with the whole “kill or be killed” mentality, and also lacks hesitation to kill anyone to her advantage. Both stories have a very different resolution, but they both point out how one can lose perception on the value of life after living through a life of killing. Perhaps the girl here, like Iris, only feels meaning in being needed by someone… this meaning only manifested after she kills the soldier.
But perhaps what the old sage in Killer Song said was true all along: after the first kill, the rest no longer matter. Thus is the world of Owari no Hoshi no Love Song… and perhaps it isn’t much unlike our own world.
My take on this has been that he probably saw him self in her, knew from the start that she was “a killer” - probably because he had come from similar background. It is hard to think that he wouldn’t have figured that out if she had been traveling as his disciple.
Calling on her to “carve her own path” was his way of challenging her to grow up - to both gain respect for human life in the only way it would stick, and through that to be more present in her own life instead of skulking around gangs and soldiers. They are a teachers last words of advice to his student.
My guess from here is that she becomes a force similar to the Invincible Soldier who trained her
I always thought of it in a more literal sense. She’s in the middle of a town, but if she can the defeat the invisible swordsman, no one else will mess with her. Therefore, he puts on a show for the crowd, but gimps himself by using his left arm.
The literal meaning is there I think too - I just think it came as a part of bigger plan and vision he had for her since he took her on.
