#vocaloid analysis

-- I feel like Miku and Teto are somehow trapped in different dimensions, mainly because of Miku saying "there's no one here"

-- For some reason the chorus makes me think of a rhythm game, where they have to match the spots on the wheel on the top in order to score points.

-- This could just be a stretch, But I found it weird how Miku seems to get more and more upset in the first chorus while Teto seems to get happier.

-- One thing that the analysis that I watched didn't pick up was how there seems to be some sort of pink star that Miku's eyes follow when the second verse begins. It's very subtle but you might notice how her eyes slowly shift over to the left as the star moves. Not to mention the way her hand seems to be pressed against the glass.

-- I still can't tell what that pink thing the TV is eating is, but it does look like Teto. I also noticed how right before the second chorus begins we see the same image of Miku and Teto sort of together but Miku is now filled in while Teto is still blank.

-- Lots of things to unpack in the second chorus. Teto is now missing almost every movement and her bar is rarely going up, as we can see that her movements on the wheel don't match the poses she is doing. Not to mention that Teto always has this creepy smile on her face while Miku gets more and more upset.

-- Oh, and only Teto's cell bar went up in the first part this time. The heart monitor also shows a pink flatline for Teto.

-- I didn't catch this on my analysis, but I just want to bring it up because I don't know how many people know this, but the bit of text shown right before the bridge is actually a message to Teto from Miku where she basically says that she found a baguette in her fridge and ate it and she misses her and is waiting for a signal or some kind of sign to know that she's okay.

-- Miku seems to be masking in the final chorus. The photo gets damp with her tears

-- Teto also just appears to be gone. Her cell bar is dead, the wheel isn't showing anything, and the signal bar is gone too.

-- The heart monitor also seems to form the shape of Teto's hair.

-- Oh, and the background when it shows the hearts is blue now! Maybe whatever killed Teto is now going after Miku because of how upset she is.

I'll be splitting this into three parts: The part where I talk about the song lyrics, the part where I talk about the animation itself, and then I'll explain a few theories I've seen, as well as my own, adding onto the story that I think it is telling.

PART 1: SONG LYRICS ANALYSIS

“No thinking about real feelings

Are you pretending to not notice?

The absolute truths and your own heart

That's how the safe zone is shrinking

Prostituting your wounds

You give a feeble cry, such shameful conduct”

Although the song itself is quite catchy, cheerful, and jubilant, the lyrics are far from those things. We immediately start off with the idea of disregarding one’s own feelings, Miku talking about how people pretend not to not notice their own feelings and the ‘truths’ of their own hearts. However, this is hard to avoid forever, and their ‘safe zones’ (escapism places) are shrinking as reality creeps up on them, so they ‘showcase’ their sorrow to others. I think this is definitely a metaphor for how some people overshare to others and tell others all about the ways that they’ve hurt, which can be used against them, as this gives others easy access to material that could be used to manipulate them. However, there are also undertones of self-shame (which comes with trauma), calling their cries for help ‘shameful’. It should also be noted that some abuse survivors, while being abused, have relatively clear cries for help through their actions that nobody else seems to pick up on, which is also a theme in this song as nobody answers Teto’s cries for help. 

“I’ve got a recommendation for you, the ultimate escape

Eventually, you will be saved from being lured into sweet traps

Now that you can no longer live sanely in this world anymore

Perhaps pretending to know nothing

And surrendering yourself is the optimal solution”

This ‘ultimate escape’ that the song talks about is escapism, or imagination. Reality is too hard to deal with, so children turn to their own minds as a way to stop the pain from taking over. It’s much easier to live in a dreamworld rather than a reality where you’re being hurt, right? They say that ‘ignorance is bliss’, and they’re taking it to the next level here by repressing, ignoring, and denying their own true feelings in order to feel happiness. They escape to that ‘safe zone’ mentioned earlier within their minds. However, there is an irony in the second line where they talk about ‘sweet traps’, as it can be interpreted as the imaginary world being ‘sweet traps’, or maybe the harshness and certainty of reality can be considered a ‘sweet trap’ as well, depending on how you look at it. 

“If a bunch of flowers dressed up with words

Can steal one's heart, are they real?

To an event where everything will be tainted

I give you an invitation”

This runs even further with the idea of imagination and escapism, because flowers cannot literally dress up and speak in the real world. This is talking about how maybe the characters feel like they can no longer distinguish fiction from reality, talking about how fictional things can make you feel things, so they must be real, too. It’s basically saying that because fiction has such an effect on us, then can fiction and imagination be considered to be another form of reality, as well? However, it is mentioned that the event will be ‘tainted’, possibly referencing the idea of fiction completely overtaking reality. 

“Farewell

You're tailor-made for this era

With an appearance of vulnerability

Fooled by this truthful acting

Your heart beats so very loudly

Your extra lives are quickly being lost

Your durability worn away

Dodging matters right in front of you

You got your hands full just living”

This is where we go back to the idea of manipulation, and maybe even conditioning. ‘Tailor-made for this era’ implies that something turned these people into the kinds of people that would be easily manipulated. It is also implied that the two are hurting and explicitly stated that they’re vulnerable and easy to take advantage of. I would consider the theme of hypnosis and brainwashing to tie into this as well. They are more vulnerable to the idea of being manipulated and taken control of due to the fact that they are hurting and want to escape to another reality, and will believe anybody that says that they will make things better because they are hurt too much. They are fooled by the acting of the people that pretend to love them, who are really here to just control them. This is talking about the urge that people have to run away from reality, because just getting up and existing can be such a challenge. 

“You’re getting sleepy, a shallow hypnosis

Your head, your body are becoming muddled

No way, so many tricks?

Swinging a coin before your eyes

You'll become completely still

"This is fine," even you can be coaxed into shut down”

This is Miku’s part, and the part where she is completely hypnotized and taken control of. She ‘shuts down’, completely rejecting reality and going into the ‘imagination world’. She does not want to feel pain any longer and takes the opportunity to run from it, turning into a puppet for others to control and manipulate. 

“You're getting sleepy, a shallow hypnosis

Your head, your body are becoming muddled

No way, so many tricks?

Swinging a coin before your eyes

You'll become completely still

(coercion cancellation)” 

Teto’s part however, in the middle of it, fades out, as she does not completely listen to what the people have to say. She resists the manipulation, and it’s explicitly stated with the part where it goes ‘coercion cancellation’. She is actively fighting the urge to run away into escapism, and resisting the manipulation of whatever is trying to do so to them. 

“However you survive today, it's unrewarding everyday

You're already in a bot-like cycle

Continuing from the moment of inertia

If you have no luck, no hope, it's all the more pointless

If you haven't got it then give up

Playing with the leftovers is your fate”

This is just more stuff about giving up on the real world. Inertia means “the inherent property of a body that makes it oppose any force that would cause a change in its motion”, aka: refusing to move, even when force is put upon something. I would say ‘inertia’ is a synonym for birth or consciousness, because it’s talking about how even from the moment that you are born that you are stuck in a cycle of endless pain in reality. This part is basically talking about why you should give up on reality entirely and simply live in the worlds of your own creation, running away into escapism and disregarding the real world in favor of not feeling pain. 

“You’re tailor-made for this era

With an appearance of vulnerability

Fooled by this truthful acting

Your heart beats so very loudly

Exaltation has already lost its meaning

A fake charisma

If you stare directly at reality, you’ll end up going blind

So do it in moderation”

Once again, talks about being perfect subjects of manipulation. However, Teto speaks of the fact that the rush of joy that you usually get after originally going into the escapism world has already been lost, and that it is fake. However, she also mentions that if you keep on living in the real world the entire time, it will not do you any good, so she advises everyone else to live in your imagination only sometimes, but to keep an eye on the real world. 

PART 2: THE ANIMATION 

This is just a lot of things that I have noticed other people saying, but some tidbits about the animation include: 

This is a screenshot from the very start, showing how there are themes of hypnosis from the beginning. 

I believe it is also mentioned that the 13-pointed star that is shown a lot represents immortality. 

Also, can I mention that their outfits seem almost childish in nature? I believe that this is meant to represent that they are ‘vulnerable’, intensifying the idea that they are easily taken advantage of. However, these also look like worker outfits in the way, with the yellow rectangles almost looking like name tags. It almost seems like they’re workers for a children’s amusement park? Which would make the horror aspect of this even worse… 

Miku’s shoes are rollerblades, which can be interpreted of her being more carefree and more willing to run away, because wheels are faster, and can also be interpreted of her being less connected to the ground/reality. It can also be shown in the idea that she is the more ‘childish’ of the two of them, being easier to manipulate, which is why she falls to hypnosis first. 

In contrast, Teto’s shoes look rather normal. Probably a representation of her being more grounded? 

I’ve seen people interpret Miku’s cuffs as like places for strings to hold onto during her later animations, which can tie into her being more of a puppet rather than a human? 

Star pupils at the start for both of them when Teto talks about an escape. They are clearly both looking for one. 

However, Teto pretty early on also does the ASL sign for “HELP”.

Also, Teto blinks in morse code for “SOS” during the first chorus. 

The first letter of all of these spell out “help”, while the fourth letters spell out “SOS”. 

“phosphoribosylaminoimidazole succinic carboxamide” is something that helps with energy metabolism, as well as DNA synthesis. I believe this can be a reference to the fact that many abuse survivors go through dehumanization, or it could be a reference to the idea that neither of them feel “real” or “human”. 

Also, at the end here, Teto makes another nonverbal sign for help with her hands. 

Miku is hypnotized pretty easily, swaying from side to side like following the motions of a coin. 

However...

Teto resists hypnosis for ten days, if you count the amount of times the sun rises and sets in this scene. Although, at the end…

Even she falls into hypnosis.

Also, their entire background is green here. Teto looks a little shocked, while Miku finds nothing wrong with this. This may be a green screen, which further emphasizes that the world that they are in is not real, and is only a product of escapism and/or imagination. 

Miku has never done this pose before, until after she was hypnotized. 

Also, it’s a good time to say that Miku’s movements here look robotic, or like she’s being puppeteered, with how jarring they are. 

I didn’t point this out before, but this happens earlier too – they point at the star, and tell you to “focus”, before “MESMERIZER” is spelt out really quickly in the star, at the very start, but not at the second time.  

As we start the next chorus, Miku’s face develops into this. It’s also noted that Teto stops bouncing for a few moments in pure shock. Also, I should mention that after you hang yourself, your tongue can protude from your mouth. There’s also a choker around her neck, and her skin seems to pale considerably, which points to the idea of a suicide. However, if she’s dead, what is puppeteering her? 

Also, the star at this point is swirling. It’s outright trying to hypnotize you. 

However, after this, Miku continues to dance, even after her part is over, and even goes off beat. The amount of confetti in this scene is increased considerably, as if whatever is trying to hypnotize them or control them is trying extra hard to make Teto give in. 

At the end, she does. 

PART 3: THEORIES 

So, what the hell does this all mean? 

Let’s recap– 

Teto & Miku are going to the unhealthy coping mechanism of escapism to deal with their lives, through one form or another, to run from reality. This much is clear. However, it gets to be too much for them and they are inevitably hypnotized by something or someone, taken control of, and while Teto asks for help, Miku gives in early, leading to the ending. This is all we can take from surface level. 

This is where I get into it with my theories. 

I like to mention the fact that these two feel immensely like they’re being conditioned by something, or someone, that they are supposed to trust. Maybe an adult figure in their lives. They clearly have faced hard shit during their lives, which explains the need for escapism. Teto is the more grounded one, and Miku just wants to escape from the pain. The first way that I interpret this is: 

Childhood abuse. Both of them are being manipulated and coerced by their own parents, and are finding solace in one another. Teto brings up escapism to Miku, and they do it together, creating worlds together and having fun at the start. Teto keeps on trying to ask for help to the people of the outside world in miniscule ways, but even when she directly asks for help dealing with her situation, she is still ignored and pushed aside. So, they then escape whenever they can because it gives them a feeling of control when in fact their own escapism mannerisms are a way to try and control their real lives but it doesn’t matter because it’s better this way. So all of her “SOS”s are for nothing. 

However, the longer the abuse goes on, the more they fall into it as their only method to be saved, and Miku eventually cannot handle reality, falling into the imagination world forever – that is, killing herself so that she will never have to deal with reality again, being pushed over by the expectations she had to fulfill in reality. Teto stays afterwards, however, trying to handle life, but is eventually manipulated into being something that she’s not, and kills herself as well due to the pressure. However, this could also be interpreted as a “loss of the self” as they either drown themselves both in the imagination world, or could be interpreted as the fact that they eventually simply turned into the people their parents wanted them to be. 

I can also interpret this in a completely opposite way – that the world that is full of colours and whimsy is actually a world that their parents have trapped them in. That they are being pressured to be happy all the time even though they don’t want to be, and that in front of everyone else they have to act like everything is fine even though it isn’t. Maybe they’re being coerced by their parents to never feel sadness, to leave all of those ridiculous things behind, to become perfect – almost like a Coraline situation. They’re pretending like everything is fine even though it isn’t. However, eventually, they get caught up in all of their lies and the fake reality they set up for themselves. They’d rather look at it rather than reality, but at the same time, they are being puppeteered by their surroundings in a harmful manner. 

Escapism. :) 

Second interpretation: they are working for some studio or something, which could be why there was a green screen at one point. They are promoting the idea of escapism to other people, but unwillingly. Miku falls into the ideals of their director and falls into the headspace entirely, agreeing with the ideals of others while they are forced to continue spreading this message in an almost dystopian manner. They are hypnotized by the person producing this message. 

Third: Maybe this is a story about them working in some sort of childhood theme park in order to escape their realities as well, and be children forever? This ties the two previous ideas together. They are overworking themselves to the point where reality and fiction are indistinguishable. Unable to deal with everything that she has to do, Miku dies, and Teto follows suit. 

Four: Literal hypnosis. Maybe some sort of horror story of becoming victims of some hypnosis monster? I like this one the most because it makes me think of a story where Mikuy and Teto were struggling, and perhaps made a deal with some eldritch being so that they can escape reality into their own fictional world. However, as more time goes on, the more the world that they’ve entered becomes twisted, and Miku falls to the being’s whims, turning into a mindless puppet in order to reject reality further. Teto, horrified at what has happened, tries to reach out to others, only to have nobody listen to her. She then gives up entirely and joins her friend. 

There’s a lot of ways to interpret this, but the general message is that people want to escape from their harsh realities. This is natural, especially if you’re a victim of manipulation or abuse, but this is also a reminder that you can’t go too far from it, and that there are still people waiting for you. 

1) The chinese character 不 is written on the back sides of Narrow’s drafts. 不 as an adverb is simply “no”, but can be used as a noun to mean “failure”.. we can assume these are either rejected drafts or works in general.

It’s also interesting that the character here is chinese, but makes sense when considering the mentions of jiāngshī later in the song. But more on that later!!

2) The en translated lyrics here-

“..and because I don’t follow the directed dosage, I’ve only got a single pill left.”

As was pointed out in a niconico comment I found, pills like this are usually meant to be taken in sets of two. However, if the dose is increased to three, there will end up being only one left due to the odd number.

Another translation of this line I saw was, “and because I don’t follow the directed dosage, it’s just the lonely pill and me.”

In my opinion this is a more accurate translation due to the english word “me” being included in the original line: “bocchi no jouzai to Me”

3) Narrow isn’t only a visual artist!

It can be seen in this frame here that he’s stressing over what looks like an error message in a DAW—or a Digital Audio Workstation. Common DAWs include garageband, audacity, and so on, so it’s safe to say that Narrow also either composes or produces music.

Similarly, these three shots of his characters each seem to showcase a different art form. Pine is a visual artist with a canvas, Chocolate seems to be puzzling over writing/editing, and Gummy is a musician playing the piano and standing in front of an audio wavelength.

4) Thanks to these two stills, we can conclude that the For Dear Life mv takes place during January, and that Narrow mostly works at night, seeing as the phone reads 10:19PM (though this is pretty easily assumed).

The text on his phone also reads “there are no new notifications”.

5) The silhouettes of Flurry and Welter can be seen in the background of the second prechorus.

6) Narrow rapidly transforms between Gummy, Chocolate, and Pine when punching the hand guy.

7) During the "jitter, butter, step, you" sequence, there's actually an animated step on the word "step".

8) "Jitter, butter, step, you" actually sounds suspiciously like the Japanese phrase じたばたしてよ, "jitabata shite yo".

Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not sure of this—but looking up translations of this phrase I believe it's an idiom that means something along the lines of "stop panicking/being so flustered". I tend to use ChatGPT as a translator, because it makes the most grammatically correct translations I've seen—but am aware that it's not always accurate. If someone could fact check that, that'd be super cool!!

Nonetheless, here's what I got after putting in the prompt to break the phrase down for me.

This little play on words is pretty clever too, seeing as he's described as "seeing pink elephants"— or actively hallucinating at this point in the MV. Of course a common Japanese idiom would sound like gibberish or complete nonsense.

9) After Narrow passes out in the bridge, the person who discovers his body is actually his younger self.

Shortly afterwards, we can also see Narrow briefly transform into his younger self for one frame before switching between his present self, Gummy, Chocolate, and Pine.

(Young Narrow compared to present day Narrow)

10) When Narrow smashes the award to the ground, he actually sheds tears.

It's just really sweet. good for him.

11) During the final chorus, the hand guys have little bandages on their hand heads—presumably because Pine punched the shit out of them.

12) And of course, more on the mention of jiāngshī:

The en translated lyrics here are: "If I remove the amulet, I'm Jiang Shi until death" or "I’m a hopping vampire to the bone if you rip off my talisman."

On jiāngshī, also called "hopping vampires" from Chinese folklore: “It is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing dynasty, and it moves around by hopping with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or ‘life force’, usually at night…” (wikipedia, march 2024)

I definitely have something to say here about the symbolism of Narrow comparing himself to a reanimated corpse, and drawing parallels from such a thing to burnout and etc... but my thoughts aren't too organized on that yet, so I'll leave it for another time.

Intro

So before the singing even starts, we get this short bit of a car driving, and then crashing, with the appropriate ‘crash’ sound accompanying it. The background is dotted with eyes, which are initially all looking at the viewer (or at the car, same general direction). When the ‘crash’ happens, they all look towards the direction the car drove in.

They are the eyes of the public. A crash has evidently happened, and everyone’s looking at it.

First verse

We are introduced to our two main characters. The song is sung in their perspective. Meet Flurry and Welter. They fit entirely within the aesthetic of the song with their entirely yellow and black color pallettes.

Then, we switch to the first verse.

Oh no, oh no, it’s a collision! Who’s at fault? Click, click, the flash went off — well, it’s kind of pathetic Would hanging yourself be a good apology? Would your parents forgive you for dying before them? Or not? Are you cornered? Can you run away like the coward you are?

This sets up the rest of the song. Instead of caring about anyone that may be involved in the crash, the first question that rises up immediately searches for someone whom they can put the blame on.

I’ve included the image of these two people, because they’ll be important for later.

The collision is immediately noticed, as we saw at the beginning. However, instead of asking ‘Is the driver alright?’ or ‘How severe is the damage?’ or anything else that shows concern for the people involved, the very first question is ‘Who’s at fault?’

And the blame is immediately put on this man. The collision is treated as something so serious, that hanging himself is the first apology that’s proposed (with him once again being looked at by the public). This does suggest that the collision itself may be a further metaphor for more ‘serious’ things.

He does follow up on the suggestion, and immediately, Flurry and Welter appear, Flurry wielding a net and Welter with a pair of scissors in his hand. They have ‘caught’ him, and now he’s going to pay.

The man tries running away, for which the lyrics call him out for. You can quickly see two monstrous figures that represent our two main characters when he runs away.

Oh no, not again — another collision! The traffic light is blinking red Who’s at fault this time? It doesn’t matter who It’s, uh… that guy’s fault! Fuck compromises! It’s do or die, but don’t get carried away ‘S not our problem, right? The wholesaler won’t sell stuff like this

This verse makes it very clear that this song is from the perspective of Flurry and Welter. As another collision happens, the process starts all over again. They point to someone who’s to blame. It doesn’t even matter if he truly is, it’s just that someone needs to take the blame to satisfy the people. The line ‘It’s, uh…that guy’s fault!’ enforces some sort of randomness into the entire process.

Flurry quite literally points the finger to underline it even more.

Then the lines say ‘Fuck compromises, it’s do or die, but don’t get carried away’. The world of gossip is one with a black and white worldview overall, not satisfied with compromises. There is a word of warning here: don’t get carried away.

The last two lines of this verse mention the uncaringness of our duo. It doesn’t involve them on a personal level, they are just outsiders who happen to butt in. ‘The wholesaler’ is the media/social perception. If it isn’t sensational with a clear-cut answer as to who is at fault, then it simply doesn’t make for a good story.

Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til you die Til I die We won’t call off the fight due to injury Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til our veneers peel off, til morning comes Let’s you and me swap spit

Chorus

It’s been theorized to many as to what ‘deuce’ is. With the way it’s portrayed, I think it’s meant to be referencing ‘juice’, as in ‘the juicy details’. In our country you have what we call ‘juicekanalen’ (literally ‘juice channels’), youtube channels and the like that are dedicated to talking about gossip. These are controversial because it’s said that they don’t always verify their information that well and the way they get their information in the first place involves a complicated network of people. Sometimes they get the news before the official channels do.

These juice channels are coincidentally a very good representation as to what this song is about. Especially this chorus tells us about the mentality of Flurry and Welter, our two representatives of types of gossiping people like those who run the juice channels. It’s a sort of hedonistic mindset. As long as they can keep pretending to be who they show themselves as, they will be together and be ‘partners in gossip’, so to say.

The line ‘we won’t call off the fight due to injury’ also gives us a peek within their psyche. They are also unfettered: even if people genuinely get hurt as a result of their gossiping, whether that’s mentally or physically, they simply won’t stop, because as they stated before: it’s not their problem.

In the instrumental bit we see two object heads, both with fruit as their head. I think this is a pun on the word ‘juice’ since literal juice is most often fruit-based. This person in particular has another apple on their head and is bound (hearkening back on Wilhelm Tell) and they’re framed as the victim.

Picturing them as an object head, and that of an apple to boot, dehumanizes this person - there’s no care about who they are and how they feel, just that they’re appointed as the one to blame. Eventually, an arrow is shot through their apple head, not through the apple on their head.

Third verse

Oh, how sad — tragic things just keep happening, don’t they? It’s good that this truly selfish soul was given life, but… Constantly finding fault and poking holes is just human nature It’ll be healed by the flame ignited by claws

Funfact: the banana object head is also seen shortly after the chorus, here.

The beginning of the second verse marks the second time that Flurry pushes Welter away. They’re certainly not a perfect duo, but they do have the same goal in mind so in that way they are still like-minded.

Then there’s this line: ‘Constantly finding fault and poking holes is just human nature.’ This is their defense as to why it is like it is: they say that it’s down to human nature and there’s no helping it. Their acting is a result of something that just can’t be helped. It’s just so easy to do it. It’s also illustrated in a literal sense, as the ‘searching’ is made literal as in looking closely.

‘It’ll be healed by the flame ignited by claws’ is what I think cryptic for that once a ‘hole’ is found, it is ‘patched’ by everyone pointing it out and making a show of it. People will literally search for the tiniest mistakes in someone else to bring them down, whether it’s in the past or currently going on.

Wait a sec, in this town the night is bittersweet It just ends up with the tiny lights freezing over A weather-beaten distraction, a sacrifice of sophism Anyway, it’s gotten hard to live in this world, huh? Inferior moaning

The characters have lost their ‘heart’, their ‘empathy’ long ago. The world is a hard place to live, something that they even outright say in the last line. It encapsulates this song quite well, honestly. In order to not be the victim of others, they have lost their own empathy to be the one pointing the finger instead. You see Welter casually sipping the ‘juice’ (see the pun from before) and Flurry hanging another body again (refer to first verse).

Also, the ‘Inferior moaning’ is pronounced as ‘retsu shingin’, i.e ‘let’s singing’. An object head also appears with a mic as to hint at this pun.

Second chorus

Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til you die Til I die There’s no way a chain’s being put around my leg Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til we’re soaked and turn into fools Til we sober up Let’s do it in a coffin

Two points of translation. ‘A chain’s being put around my leg’ is a form of the term ‘someone’s leg is being caught’, meaning ‘they are found out/their act is up’. It’s also, less commonly, a term for getting married. There might be a double meaning here, as Flurry is seen disliking Welter.

‘Til we’re soaked and turn into fools’ is translated from ‘gushagusha’, which is normally an onomatopoeia for being soaked, but it’s written with the word for ‘fool’ twice.

My anxiety spikes and I’m unsteady Once you get there, there’s no going back We’re dead people from the cradle to the grave

This is the first sign of our look beneath the surface of the two. Inside, they are actually just normal people who feel normal things like anxiety, and they have realized that once you get into the gossip world, you can’t go back. Their nihilism speaks through the third line.

Meanwhile, the visuals show us something interesting:

Which are the real selves of Flurry and Welter. This fits with the lyrics that give us our first glance as to who they really are.

Bridge

Ah, it’s the usual collision — who’s the victim this time? “Isn’t this pretty cruel?” That’s a good one There was never any end or any moral to begin with Dancing and being made to dance, the traffic jam’s getting worse But my pointless life has already reached a dead end I’ll pray faithfully every day That no one else will appreciate you

It’s a variation on the first verse, but with the information we have now. They never had any morals when they started doing this, never any true goal as what they tried to reach. They just want to gossip, want to feel better than the others and made up their own persona to show to the public. It’s all fake, hence ‘my pointless life’. They genuinely hate other people who are not themselves. Which is. Ironic.

The new bit shows them uploading another video online with gossip. But while they’re busy, they are spotted and as they turn around…

(Look at the patch of human skin on their faces.)

They’ve finally been caught by another couple that is just as disguised with a facade like them. Not even Flurry and Welter, who thought they were impervious, are immune to being victimized (and as it were, ‘replaced’) by others. Others who act exactly the same as they do.

Last chorus

Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til you die Til I die We won’t call off the fight due to injury Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til our veneers peel off, til morning comes Let’s you and me swap spit Deuce Deuce Deuce! Til a cough bursts out of me Til my throat hurts Let’s strip each other of our sighs If we stayed here like this forever I’d be able to get by without ever becoming human

Flurry’s disguise is melting away, see the grey tone of her skin melting away on her arm. She isn’t wearing her pointed hair accessory either. This is also shown during the line 'Til our veneers peel off'.

As the veneer is peeled off, so to say, by the new two that expose them (shown as them getting intimate) we finally see what they really look like. That’s right - the victims from the very first line. Note that their colors don’t fit within the color palette of the video.

Alternatively, this whole scene can also be interpreted as the real Flurry and Welter being confronted by their own fake selves, getting overwhelmed and being exposed.

The two try running away, in the same way as the nameless man from before. It ends in the same, predictable manner.

The line ‘I’ll be get by without ever becoming human’ points out that they don’t even care about being human. They just want to feel better, not feel human. The last line also underlines that, they won’t stop gossiping until there’s literally nothing left to gossip about:

Come on, let’s give up on life In this finished world, until the deuce runs out, Let’s do it, giving our flesh and bone unsparingly

At the end, the same man is stepping in the same car as the one at the start. Everything is starting all over again.

Conclusion