#wk4

The song “Villain,” by Teniwoha and originally sung by the Vocaloid voice bank Flower, was posted onto Youtube on February 7th, 2020. The video currently has nearly 22,000,000 views, and has been covered several times by Japanese singers online. Most notably, the song has been covered by well known Japanese singer and Youtuber, Yuu Miyashita, who is known for covering many Vocaloid songs.

The song “Villain,” tells the story of a transgender man who likes men, but is seen by society as a “villain,” because of his deviant gender and sexuality. The song “Villain,” perfectly embodies the scrutiny and villainization queer individuals face for not fitting into social norms. 

Gender:

While not explicitly stated, we can infer the main character of “Villain,” is most likely a transgender man. This is implied by certain lines in the song, such as, “I wear different clothes and pretend to be a boy in front of you,” and “Keeping my deviated nature (gender) a secret again. Would two stamens only face a dead end?” Here we can confirm that our main character is a person who doesn’t fit into their assigned gender at birth. Our main character’s masculine attire throughout the song, comprised of pants and a hoodie, along with the line about two stamens, the male part of a flower, facing a dead end leans towards our main character viewing and identifying themselves as a transgender man. This is further supported by the chorus and concept of, “Mr. Crazy Villain Villain.” The use of the male title “Mr.” in “Mr. Crazy Villain,” who is also meant to be the main character, supports the idea that they view themselves as a man.

Color: 

Throughout the song, the main character’s hair switches between being blue and red. Blue and red is commonly associated with different genders, where red or pink is associated with women and femininity, and blue is associated with men and masculinity. In lines where our main character is doubting himself, such as, “Just holding hands will surely creep them out. I’ll be reported if I quit the “rat race.” It’s not a mutation; it’s just who I am.” his hair is red. In lines where our main character is embracing who he is, such as most notably at the end of the song, we see our protagonist laughing carefree dressed in a male school uniform with blue hair. Further supporting the notion that the main character is a transgender man. 

Traffic Lights:

We also see the use of red and blue color being utilized with the depictions of  traffic lights throughout the song. In Japan, green traffic lights are actually referred to as blue traffic lights. This is because a long time ago, the Japanese language only consisted of four basic colors: black, white, red and blue. Often times when something was green, it was described as “ao,” meaning blue. Therefore, items that were actually green, such as green apples, green bamboo, and green traffic lights, were referred to as being blue. This was the case in till the actual word for green, “midori,” was created. You can even still find some green items being labelled as blue today in Japan. The shade of traffic lights in Japan are actually a slightly different shade. Japanese traffic lights use the bluest-green shade for their traffic lights, in order to pass international traffic law decrees for there being a green traffic light, while also being blue enough to justify referring to traffic lights as “ao.” We see in “Villain,” when the traffic light blinks red, it signals a person walking symbol. When the traffic light blinks blue, it depicts a person standing stopped, signaling not to cross. Here the walking red signal represents that our main character is only free to advance, roam, and be accepted by society when they hide their true themselves, and conform to being a girl. The blue stopped signal represents that when our main character embraces who they are, their identity as a transgender male, they are no longer allowed to advanced and are instead stopped by society.  The symbol of a crossing sign also represents our main character being at a crossroads, where they have to either choose to embrace being their true self at the cost of being rejected by society, or they can be accepted by society, if they neglect and hide their true self. 

Homosexuality:

There are references to homosexuality as well throughout “Villain.” We see  references in the lines, “Would two stamens only face a dead end?...In the end, artificial flowers will bare fruit, too.” where our main character is asking if a male-on-male relationship could be successful. We also hear references to Ranpo in lines such as, “Hey, Hey, about the writer called Ranpo, called Ranpo. Do you know of him? Import you, import you.” Edogawa Ranpo is a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese master and thriller fiction. During the 1930s, Ranpo held a competition with his friend Junichi Ivana, who was a historian who spent a lifetime researching homosexuality in Japan, to find the most books about love between two men. These references to Ranpo represent the main character wanting people to inform themselves on understanding homosexuality like Ranpo sought to. 

Being Closeted and Being Villainized:

Throughout, “Villain,” we see our main character battling between wanting to fully embrace their gender identity, but fearing public scrutiny. We see this in lines such as, “Nobody knows, I don’t want anyone to know what’s under my skin.” and “Nocturnal petals.” Here we see the main character wanting to stay in the closet and not have anyone know who they truly are, inferred by them not wanting anyone to see what is actually under their skin. The references to nocturnal petals relates to the same premise, as nocturnal flowers are plants that bloom only in the night, as they are averted to bright sunlight. In other words, our main character is similar to nocturnal flowers as they only feel comfortable revealing their true self when none is around to see or scrutinize them, like how a nocturnal flower blooms in the dark invisibility of the night. We know our main protagonist is scrutinized by society because of certain lines, such as, “They spread rumors that I’m “infringing” upon you,” and “To people who don’t even know me I am already a villain.” Here we see that because of our main character’s deviant gender, they are villainized by society and seen as encroaching on others. We see our main character combat this opposition through lines such as, “Do not be afraid, A wide variety of genders.” Here we see that the main character believes their gender identity is natural, and other’s shouldn’t be afraid of them for their gender identity. This concept is supported by the depiction of them holding a fish bowl, as some fish are known to be able to naturally change their sex. We also see references to villains through lines like “Dr. Duran Duran.” Dr. Duran Duran is a mad scientist from the 1968 science fiction film Barbarella. At the end of the song, our main character proclaims, “Dear Dr. Duran Duran (Hahahaha) I am here!” when he embraces his gender identity, and subsequently his role as a villain in society. 

Conclusion:

In Wylder’s Level 4 Pop’n Sweet Cafe story, Wylder is dumped by a cat and MC bakes a nostalgic Herring Pie to console him.  Probably.  We know from the story that the pie contains layered dough and obviously herring.

In honor of the cat that got away, I chose one of the many recipes dedicated to the herring pie in Kiki’s Delivery Service.  

Unlike a lot of other recipes I saw, it has the dough layered upon itself.  Check!  This particular dish won an award in a small contest, and the recipe itself is fantastic as it separates each stage of the pie’s construction into easy, manageable tasks.

Let that cute dough herring turn your frown upside down and re-spark your imagination!

A musical, no matter its subject matter, is always inherently queer.  The act of breaking into song when the point could’ve easily been made in probably less words and time without it is inherently off-beat.  

Kids all over the country are accosted for being in Musical Theatre programs, even in the most liberal cities.  In my high school, I had a friend who was formerly a football player but left that behind to join our theatre program.  He always got made fun of by his former teammates for “switching sides”.  Luckily, he was able to brush them off and is now pursuing acting in college and is a phenomenal performer.  This exact situation was also presented to the world in High School Musical where Troy tried his best to hide his involvement and love for theatre from his athlete friends and teammates for fear of them thinking less of him.  In many places, theatre is seen as “gay” or a more feminine extra curricular activity in comparison to athletics.  For straight people, specifically straight men, participating in theatre, especially during the difficult years of high school, shows a certain comfortability with themselves despite social pressures of toxic masculinity and heteronormativity.  

In an essay posted to HowlRound by Ezra Brain titled, “Towards a Queer Reclamation”, the writer points out that while yes, there are a good few queer-centric plays, there are far too many barriers preventing them from being seen.  They suggest that in order to make queer stories more accessible, queer stories must be made into genres of theatre that are the most popular, musicals being one of them.  They state, “Queer artists should reclaim these genres as their own not just because queer art can exist in any genre, but because more popular genres are, by definition, more accessible to audiences. Through this reclamation, we can move from queer plays existing as a marginalized genre to a true mainstream theatrical culture.”  This is why queer representation in musical films is so important as well.  Film in our world today is so accessible, with a seemingly endless number of streaming platforms.  Musical films generally have a more family-centric audience, so that is just another way for younger queer kids to see themselves represented in the media they consume and for our world to be cultivated for those kids, so they don’t have to go through the same struggles most of us did.  

In terms of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, John Cameron Mitchell talks about how different it was for him at the time to be openly gay in the 2001 Chicago Tribune article, “Challenging Hollywood's identity crisis”. He states that in American culture the actor and the role they play are seen as synonymous, whereas in other places they’re wholly separate in the audience’s eyes.  Hearing this made me examine my own views of queer actors and their roles.  I first thought of Kristen Stewart and how I grew up obsessed with the Twilight films, but now I’m surprised when I see her in a heteronormative, non-outwardly-queer role.  I know I was never outwardly taught to think of an actor’s personal life in synchronicity with the characters they play, but it’s definitely something I have to learn to challenge and correct.

In this week we have one idea to focus is the Vulcanizing shop. It focused in Cagayan de oro area, the problem for that is how you earn money maybe lack of user. We are still validating this idea, how to overcome the problems the lack of users and lack of income. Just we need is to ask questions in shop and store again. After brainstorming again and again we found out how to gain sustainability of income. The shop will also gain profit. It is important to have more interview and you can get the information that you need in your idea. User need this it helps them to locate where they want to repair. Locating is useful to us and some people are not familiar in some places. We follow up some questions to make sure the user will use this application. After gathering we get their some feedbacks , if this is reliable and useful. Most of them are good in this idea. Also they can gain profit. You need to work hard more and more to gain better information, Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.