I’ve translated the lyrics and made an in-depth analysis of S∀G∀ by 1Nm8, including the song lyrics, the imagery used in the MV, and how they’re connected.
The analysis will contain heavy, unmarked spoilers for the 1Nm8 “SHOWDOWN” drama track, which I translated in full here.
The following analysis is fully subjective. You’re free to interpret any parts of the song and MV differently. I share it in the hope that my musings will prove interesting, and because the depth and effort put into this song and MV blew my mind.
I made my own translation of the lyrics based on the original Japanese text to use in the analysis.
Imagery:
The motifs and symbols repeating through the MV are: the color green, plants and flowers, and crystals.
The color green is most associated with Itsuki, and a lot of the symbolism seems to be connected to him and his experiences this time. This goes in line with Itsuki’s verse kicking off the song and him playing an important role in the drama track.
I believe that green in the MV may symbolize one’s real, “natural” self, most generally speaking. For Itsuki, it’d be his emotions, for Rokuta, his memories.
1Nm8 causing flowers to bloom over lab floors and sitting in a flower field would represent them healing themselves and others.
During Itsuki’s verse, the imagery alludes to the Alter Trigger labs and experiments performed on him. During the verses “Something I lost / A feeling I can’t explain” we see a green crystal shattering into pieces.
Next, we see near transparent crystals with little bits of green at the bottom locked in test tubes, as if the aim of the experiment was to drain the “green” from the “crystals”. The crystals would be the experiment subjects’ hearts/minds, losing themselves and becoming broken if they resist.
However, the three large floating crystals that appear repeatedly and are connected by some sort of a ring would represent 1Nm8 and their healing connection (they’re all green!). I do notice there’s four crystals in the picture, but I don’t have a definite explanation: it might be a symbol for Rokuta not identifying with his past self, Minori, because of his memory loss or foreshadowing for something we don’t know yet.
Itsuki’s verse:
未だ手に残る感触
It hit me like a gunshot
焼き付いた記憶は単色
塗りつぶしたみたいさ
The sensation that remains in my hand
It hit me like a gunshot
The memories burned in me are monochrome
As if they’ve been painted over
The imagery going with the verses “The sensation that remains in my hand / It hit me like a gunshot” shows Itsuki’s phantometal, the Geometric Square Tattoo, which means they describe how the metal was implanted in him and its effects.
The word “塗りつぶす”, paint over, can have another negative connotation, meaning “cover up the truth”, like the emotions associated with Itsuki’s memories being blocked out and the way he perceives the world with his senses changing.
失ったsomething
説明がつかない感情
干渉する必要はないunknown
見ろ ここじゃ俺たちはweirdo
理論通りにやる Let’s get on
Something I lost
A feeling I can’t explain
Unneeded interference from the unknown
Look, here we’re the weirdos
We’ll proceed logically, Let’s get on
The tree might be a special symbol relating to Itsuki. We do not know if “Itsuki” is his real name or if it’s the name he received (or picked, based on his test subject number) at the facility; the way it is written in canon, using katakana, doesn’t reveal the intended meaning.
However, the name Itsuki can be written with the character 樹, meaning trees, wood.
In the MV, we see the tree behind Itsuki, obscured; then Itsuki separated from the tree with a transparent cylinder, then finally, Itsuki sitting at the foot of the tree, among flowers.
Itsuki being shut off from the tree while the verse “As if it’s been painted over” plays - he’s separated from his emotions, and how he used to see the world.
足踏み入れた世界は
歪みだらけさ Nah mean
ワンシーン切り取るたび
見える理不尽なことばかり
The world we stepped into
Is nothing but distorted Nah mean
Each time you take a snapshot
You see nothing but senseless acts
Here, I believe that Itsuki is no longer rapping about the facility - but the world outside it. That’s what the line “The world we stepped into” implies. The outside world he and Rokuta chose wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows; it’s overwhelming and twisted.
If plants in the MV represent the real selves of the experiment victims, then the saplings here would be the released victims taking part in the government program - small, because they’re just “growing”, learning how to be themselves again. However, they’re doing it in a locked up, controlled environment, like an incubator machine. To Itsuki, that’s not much better than what they’ve just escaped. Like he said in the drama track, “To be controlled again by anyone else would be intolerable.”
The imagery of the incubator machine appears again in the chorus, as the line “In the tainted soil”, sung by Itsuki, plays - Itsuki sees the outside world who does things like locking up the victims again as tainted.
奇妙な感覚
感じたことない温度
We can do it non-stop uh
奇跡かもな I don’t know
A peculiar sensation
The temperature I’ve never felt before
We can do it non-stop uh
It may be a miracle, I don’t know
I think these verses refer to 1Nm8 and their relationship. The “peculiar sensation” is expressed with a word that can mean something strange, difficult to understand in a logical or scientific way, but also something rare and excellent.
“Temperature” makes you think about physical contact and warmth, like from holding hands, which 1Nm8 have done on more than one occasion.
A “miracle” is an unusual thing for Itsuki to talk about, as he tries to approach everything logically. A sign of his outlook changing shows the impact of 1Nm8 on him.
Chorus:
Yeah 集中したら It’s going down
It’s true, true いつも通りさ
少しづつ I can see clearly now
Yeah
Yeah as long as we focus, It’s going down
It’s true, true, just as always
Little by little, I can see clearly now
Yeah
The line “Little by little, I can see clearly now” by Rokuta might reference his memories returning bit by bit.
すり抜けた砂で描いた
儚い愛の詩
何度もbreak down and 創り上げた
それを証明するため
Written in sand slipping away
A poem of fleeting love
Broken down and remade countless times
In order to prove that
The imagery of sand, together with the word "fleeting" makes me think of a hourglass, and time running out. It may be the limited time they have to change things before phantometal claims more victims, or the limited time they have in general...
"Uta" sounds like the word for "song", but the kanji used actually means poem. There's a pattern of referring to written word instead of music in the song - the word SAGA, 書き足す later in the chorus, using the kanji for write, "drama", a written work.
The beautiful flower いつかは枯れ
芽が出るまた 汚れた地で
We must have the power 勝ち取るゲーム
書き足すSAGA 幸せなdramaになるまで
The beautiful flower will wither one day
To sprout once again in the tainted soil
We must have the power to win the game
Keep writing the saga
Until it becomes a joyful drama
Before the Drama Track came out, I thought the withering flower was a part of the imagery of fleeting things relating to Itsuki’s and Rokuta’s health, but after listening to it, I believe the “beautiful flower” is actually Kei.
In the hospital scene, when Kei falls asleep on his shoulder, Itsuki says that “Things that are too beautiful are also fragile” and that he’s terrified of Kei breaking one day. There’s also the symbolism of plants - they’re what’s true and pure in the world, the opposite of people in the labs.
Also, if you look closely, the flower is pink, a similar shade to Kei’s hair. It's shape is even a bit similar to Kei's hairstyle!
Kei’s verse:
It’s sky high 見渡す
誘う聖なる場所まで
We fly high
Y’all never shoot me down
It’s sky high, the place in our sights
Towards the holy land that’s calling us
We fly high
Y’all never shoot me down
This verse contains references to religious imagery that Kei often uses - he compares the changes they want to carry out to entering paradise and leading people there.
Birds are a common symbol for freedom, too, like freedom from the influence of phantometal on their lives that 1Nm8 is seeking.
深い傷と疼くpain
ただの数字がhis name
降りかかるdirt 振り払う
ウンザリさどれもsame
Deep wounds and aching pain
With mere numbers as his name
Warding off the dirt falling as rain
What a pain, it’s all the same
I think just as the tree may be a special symbol connected to Itsuki, the others also have a plant or arrangement of plants associated with them. For Rokuta, it’d be the vertical garden with ferns, which often appears in the background behind him. However, as the line “Warding off the dirt” plays, Kei is shown in front of it while something like a scanner device is running, a wall of light passing through.
If we assume the vertical garden is a symbol for Rokuta’s real self, this scene looks like someone is looking for traces of Kei in his lost memory. The “dirt” falling down is the corruption affecting them or Rokuta specifically.
This verse (together with the Drama track) shows that Kei’s feelings about Rokuta’s name are complicated. It’s not like he doesn’t care that his little brother’s name and identity was taken away from him. We see Rokuta blurred and far away, and looking closely, the circle of light at his feet is covered by a shadow much closer to the screen, like someone’s shoulder. I think that might be Kei’s shadow, watching his little brother fade out of view, far away from him. He found Rokuta, but in a way, not Minori.
In the story, Kei chooses to call Rokuta by his new name, but I see it as a sign of respect and love towards him, not that Kei doesn’t care one way or the other. During the piano scene in the drama track, Kei almost calls him Minori when overcome with emotion, but corrects himself. He makes a conscious choice for Rokuta’s sake.
It could also symbolize how the scientists were dehumanizing Rokuta by referring to him with a number. Faces and eyes are connected to perceiving another person’s humanity, so they get blurred as Rokuta is treated like an object. The word choices by Kei in this verse, different than his usual beautiful language - annoyance/ a pain, dirt - verse show his hidden anger about the issue.
Yeah, we did it again
物語る信念はいつもbrand new
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah, we did it again
The conviction we speak of is always brand new
Yeah yeah yeah
I am not sure here, but I think “brand new” might possibly reference the concept of “original intention” or “initial resolution” in Japanese (初心,初一念, 本意). It’s the feeling when you’ve just started on something and you’re full of enthusiasm and belief in what you’re doing, the opposite of being jaded and discouraged.
Rokuta’s verse:
シャボン玉のように浮かんでる you & me
どんなに遊んでもdon’t worry 遊園地
F R E E D O M
ギリギリシーソーゲーム
You & me, floating like soap bubbles
No matter how much we play, don’t worry, it’s an amusement park
FREEDOM
Seesaw game on the edge
This verse seems to refer to Rokuta and Itsuki (“you & me”), their precarious situation as former test subjects and their choices from there on. Soap bubbles are something short-lasting and incredibly fragile.
We see a scene that parallels one from Itsuki’s verse. Rokuta gets locked in a cylinder in the lab while a computer on the wall is obtaining data. What’s more, if you look closely, in the background there’s something like a semi-transparent window and a blurry outline of a tree (seen in the background of Itsuki’s lab cylinder scene) can be seen. This possibly shows Rokuta and Itsuki being a part of different experiments at the same time.
In the SHOWDOWN drama CD, Rokuta says he and Itsuki “chose freedom” over living at another facility for the victims with government support.
ギリギリ in Japanese describes a situation where you just barely make it, and there’s a danger of failing.
A seesaw goes back and forth, just like how performing in Paradox live can either cause the phantometal influence to hurt Rokuta and Itsuki (and by extension, Kei, who deeply cares about both), or it might ease the adverse effects of the metal through the healing properties of Kei’s music.
それナイス 楽しいなら
繰り返すのさ １回よりもtwice
edNって名のparadise 集合みんなで
That's nice, if you're having fun
Repeat, twice is better than once
Everyone, gather in the paradise called edN
悪いけどさ 手放す気はないんだ
この音が 止まるまでずっと踊りたい
I’m sorry, but I have no intention of letting go
I want to keep dancing until this sound stops
This part always sounds ominous to me. What sound, Rokuta? What sound? Surely, you wouldn’t mean something like your heartbeat?
Interpreting “this sound” as Kei’s music isn’t much better, because Kei has previously tried to quit music under the weight of guilt for using phantometal when it hurt Rokuta and Itsuki this much. It might just mean the end of a particular song, but Rokuta’s verse has so many concerning flags for their future I can’t help but worry about this one, too.
Before the chorus repeats again, we're shown flying birds again, more symbolism for freedom, but also a blooming white flower.
I believe showing these motifs one after the other isn't accidental, but is meant to create a connection between them. If birds flying mean freedom and positive continuation of their "saga", then flowers blooming mean the same.
It matches up with the interpretation that plants growing and flowers blooming in the MV represent healing and breaking free from the past.
This analysis was very fun to do, but it still took a lot of effort to research for and compile, so if you liked it I appreciate it if you showed it some love! I plan to analyze other 1Nm8 songs in the future, so stay tuned.
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