All in One Song Analysis!
Wow, just wow. I read the Kasa7 event right when it came out, and of all things, I was not expecting Tsukasa getting manipulated into unhealthy method acting and imagining killing his family to be one of them. I’m really happy with this event, and the commission sounds wonderful! It’s very, very chaotic (which matches up with the theme of the trained cards, I need to analyze those as well), and I wanted to do a quick line-bye-line analysis of it! Enjoy!
Before I start, I’m just gonna say that I’m gonna make a lot of leaps in logic, but just trust me, it’ll make sense (or not). Also, I love parallels and WILL include parallels that require a big reach (I was able to connect Tsukasa with Curly from Mouthwashing once, written out that sounds insane).
Without further ado, it’s analyzing time!
To start, I wanna dig into how the title is, All in One. Now, this could be like, an all in one shampoo (like how the phrase is used there). He is taking all his emotions, and putting them all into one person, and labeling this “new persona” as All in One (if that makes any sense).
Interestingly, I saw someone say that the translation of the “All in” part is the same as the one used in poker. Going “all in” in poker is a risky move, it means that you are betting all of your chips into the pot. Then, it’s either you make a giant earning, or lose everything. This could signify how Tsukasa is taking all the parts of him, and making a risky gamble by going “all in” on everything. It’s reckless and risky, all or nothing. This philosophy, so to speak, reminds me of absurdism. In many of Tsukasa’s focus songs, he has echoed the mentality of “Nothing matters, so do whatever you want!” (Ex: The World Hasn’t Even Started Yet (yes I know that is the sekai song, but since Tsukasa is a single sekai owner, it is only made of his feelings) and Filament Fever). A more refined version of this that could fit Tsukasa more is, “Life is inherently meaningless, but it’s up to you to forge your own meaning.” This would be considered a more positive take for something like nihilism, the meaning being considered Tsukasa’s dream of making people smile by becoming a star. This could further explain why Tsukasa felt as though everything was meaningless during Deep Dark for Light (kasa6) in the imagined alternate reality. This is where his mentality takes a darker turn. Rather than finding multiple things to live for, he simply says: my reason to live=making people smile. This can further be simplified into: usefulness=self worth. Once he stops being useful, his will to live shatters, hence why kasa6 was the way it was. Also, for him, he decides that losing his dream is impossible, and that the world itself would have to change for him to lose it. This is a reasonable reaction for him though, because it’s either that, or admit that he might fail and spiral into worthlessness, on top of lose his will to live in a meaningless void within his lifetime, and Tsukasa isn’t one to admit, or even realize things. To add, Tsukasa’s entire identity is centered around being a star, and the persona that he is in 24/7 is exactly that. Without his dream, there is no persona to uphold, and with no persona, there is no him.
AAAA I just lost an entire chunk of writing to a device crash :(
Well, crash aside, this is a lot just from the title right?
All of this risky behavior is making me think of a certain character, Hyuna from Alien Stage (I told you that there were gonna be parallels). If you don’t know Hyuna is a bright person who puts her all into pushing forward. She’s rebellious and pretty reckless. Like Tsukasa, she puts up a larger-than-life persona, and is always moving forward to outrun her own grief and emotions from the past. She can be more vulnerable, but that is only with certain people, particularly Luka. Description aside, Hyuna’s main song is named “All In.” In it, she sings a triumphant and rebellious tune, and how she’s going “all in” to change the world, even if the odds are stacked against her. She fights to also prove that her rebellion isn’t useless, and that it means something. To add, you can see that she is trying to convince herself that her past feelings don’t matter anymore, or that she has successfully beaten them, but it is clear that this isn’t true. This contrasts with Tsukasa because he is someone who has successfully convinced himself that his past doesn’t affect him anymore using temporal distancing. However, this fragile illusion is shattered in kasa7, hence why he spiraled so extremely. To add, Hyuna is deeply selfless. She may seem like your standard “you only live once” type of person, but she is willing to sacrifice herself if it means saving someone she cares about. Now, Tsukasa’s situation doesn’t really call for physical sacrifice, but he will, and has gladly sacrificed himself mentally for the people he cares about, and for his own cause (to become a star). They go “all in,” gambling their entire existence on the present moment, because if they win, it’s a huge victory that brings them forward. One other contrast I would like to bring forward though, is their personas. Tsukasa has successfully fooled himself into thinking that his star persona is really him, while Hyuna is painfully aware that it isn’t her. This can parallel someone like Mafuyu, who uses a full blown mask that she is conscious of and actively hates. Unlike Hyuna and Tsukasa though, she isn’t outrunning an amalgamation of feelings, she’s just masking her empty void, because she has no identity (which is slowly changing since she has set out on her mission to find herself). Also, some evidence for Tsukasa’s persona, since it seems pretty unbelievable at first, can be seen in many of his focus songs. Some lines in particular, though, is,
But I'm already different from you,
I have no place to return to,
From Goodbye Heaven, Come Back to Hell (he’s different because he has no base identity to return to if he loses his dream), and
My imitation of someone else is excellent,
But I'm just an average person in the end.
(From the same song, it’s pretty self explanatory), as well as,
The greed of an ordinary man,
Narcissist fools himself,
Give it your all and act like you are the brightest star,
From Mr. Showtime (he subconsciously thinks that he is an ordinary guy acting/imitating a star).
So, there’s some evidence that the star persona is a persona. I also want to add that focus songs are a direct manifestation of the character’s true feelings. Tsukasa may not be aware of all of this consciously, but he sure is subconsciously (that bit will be relevant later).
All in all, the title “All in One,” implies that Tsukasa is gonna bet all he has into every moment or performance, treating his life like a high stakes game of poker rather than something to truly live (ties into how he views his life as a theatrical legend to write for others to view. Wait second, he doesn’t want to be forgotten, and people who are remembered have their stories told. Is he trying to make his story/legend be as entertaining as possible so he’ll be remembered when he dies? (Evidence for this is in Mr. Showtime where he says, “This is how I write the reckless and amusing legend of Mr. Showtime). This is also his way of running from processing his own negative feelings, instead viewing them as just another tool in his acting kit.
(Hi, I just had a realization about kasa7. When Tsukasa was in the flashback, there was no muted color filter overlay like how they usually put it to signify something is a memory. This means that Tsukasa was actively reliving the memory, hence why it felt like a dream, and his body couldn’t tell that the memory was a memory and not actively happening, causing his body to go into flight or fight mode, which takes a toll on the body (from high cortisol levels), hence why he was so tired and panting after. He re-traumatized himself, and that’s why he started acting “odd” after. He realized that there was a selfish part of himself that he didn’t look at, and the sheer weight of that existing completely dismantled his persona (which he banishes selfishness from). You can see when he looks at Saki right after, his eye shine dims, he has a blank face, and is very stiff, and then he politely asks her to stop talking to him for the show. The isolation did 2 things at once. First, it functioned to help him get into his role (he simulated the circumstances which further dismantled his persona since it requires external validation), and second, it prevented wxs and saki from seeing him spiral into a disassociative episode (it is implied he has fuzzy memory or emotional amnesia (no emotional connection) from the time where his eyes were empty, which is where his subconsciousness took over his body, and since he has no identity outside of his personas (older brother and star), he was completely empty and cold to wxs when they saw him in that state (but they identified it as soley being because of method acting and character bleed rather than his persona turning off, which is why Emu wanted him to “snap out of it”). Note that their intervention doesn’t fix him, it just gives him the groundwork for his persona to come back. He was literally going “Don’t speak to me” with no light in his eyes 5 seconds before he was yelling “wonderhoy” with the troupe. This showcases his extreme compartmentalization skills, which he has used in earlier events to get out of a role. I have more to say, but I’ll end this tangent off here (it’s gonna be relevant for the lyrics).
With the title analysis out of the way, let’s get into the line-by-line lyrical analysis!
(I’m using an old translation that got taken off of fandom, so it may be inaccurate).
I can hear it! But has your voice now
This could be any external factor that cheers his dream on, like WxS, Saki, Toya, etc. those voices that founded his dream now become suffocating.
I can't take any of it anymore, I just want to refuse those expectations and the like
Because I can't live up to a single one
He may be referring to how he can’t live up to his own perfectionistic standards because of how high they’ve gotten. Another interpretation is that since Tsukasa has time and time again achieved his own freakishly high standards, WxS and the people around him have adopted those standards into their perception of him, and he feels as though he is falling short of them. This leads him feeling useless, and one of his biggest fears is becoming completely useless (shown in kasa6).
(Also side note but this reminds me of the line “I want to meet your expectations,
But my heart is gradually withering and dying in the process” from Mafuyu’s Nihil-San. The difference is that Tsukasa wants to refuse his expectations, while Mafuyu wants to live up to them, but both are motivated because they can’t reach them).
My heart is so noisy it's poisonous, I wish it would shut up
Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting them to bring back the “it’s too noisy” sentiment from The World Hasn’t Even Started Yet, “There's too much noise, so much noise and it keeps getting worse.” His 10 years worth of repressed feelings are too noisy for him, and it “poisons” his act, so he wishes that that part of him would shut up. He hates his own, votive feelings.
On my hands and knees, worn out, I want to disappear already
Ok so this line I really wasn’t expecting, his subconsciousness is finally admitting that he truly wants to disappear, he’s finally admitting how exhausted he is from keeping everything up (a persona that loud is bound to take up a lot of energy, and he wears it 24/7 even when alone, because he thinks that the persona is him). He’s completely worn out, he’s on his hands and knees from the sheer exhaustion of his act, and he wants to disappear. The “already” makes him sound impatient as well, like he’s annoyed that it hasn’t happened yet because he has no “excuse” to yet (if that makes sense).
(Also another Nihil-San parallel! In Nihil-San, Mafuyu sings, “Because I don't want to disappear just yet.” She started out wanting to disappear, and thanks to N25, she now wants to move forward, no matter how painful it is. On the other hand, this is the first time that Tsukasa has ever said this, he started out not wanting to disappear and now he does).
Even so, you aren't alone
Take my hand that I reached out to you
Even 'til now, no matter how many times,
I stood back up and came to this point
This has a heartwarming meaning on the surface. This could be Tsukasa replaying the words of reassurance from WxS and his own positivity in his mind to force himself to live a bit longer, and to convince himself that, no matter what happens, he’s gonna stand back up and fight longer, and he has WxS to support him (insert phoenix line from tondemo wonderz). However, with the next lines, that illusion shatters completely.
(To add, he is commonly associated with a cube, which can be a box, and in the mv, there is tape on the words. His bandaid here is just plastic package tape. He is sealing the box shut.)
(Also, in combo with the next line, these words could be the “curse” he was talking about in the beginning. He wants to stop, but he just can’t because the people around support him with so much love.
To add, in Nihil-San, Mafuyu says “Your well intentioned love hurts me, but I pretend I'm fine/I'm tired of it already…” Now, is WxS as bad as Mafumom? No! But here, the “well intentioned love” only acts as a temporary fix that traps him, moving him further and further away from healing).
Juuuust kidding! The bugs eating away at my heart are
Ok, so the song takes a dramatic shift in tone here (it sounds metal and I love it). Emu saying how he’s “just kidding” could show how, subconsciously, Tsukasa IS aware that wholesome phrases and temporary bandaids aren’t gonna get him anywhere. (What kind of ticks me off is the fact that sometimes Pjsk shows the power of friendship solving problems that can’t be fixed in a single conversation, so I am glad that this was dismantled). The words he was saying in his head consciously, he subconsciously was like “yeah that’s not gonna cure over a decade worth of repression and structural disassociation.
Growing, growing, 'til they were fully raised
The bugs he’s referring to might be his buried feelings and trauma. Those feelings have eaten away at his mind from the inside, and in kasa7, we just hit a glimpse of the extent of repression he’s dealing with subconsciously.
I ended up on the wrong path with just one step
This line is interesting because the path and one step can refer to multiple things. On a small scale, it could represent his direction in kasa7. However, he might be referring to like, the path he has taken in life, which would add a whole new layer to his character. In Filament Fever, he explicitly talked about how he’s actively burning out, and we can see how becoming a star is bringing him more pain if anything, but he can’t stop now; he’s come so far (god the Curly parallels are so strong here). The “one step” could be the theatre show he saw as a kid that changed his entire personality. If he hadn’t seen that, he would’ve taken a much different path.
I wanted to also add that this isn’t the first time he’s talked about not liking what he’s doing or who he is right now. I didn't bring it up earlier because it’s a cover, but in Fixer, he sings with Rui,
“I never wanted to end up like this”
(Also the lines he sings before this are more proof of his persona, but I wanna focus on this line). I think for Rui, it’s pretty self explanatory (he’s talking about the past in this song). For Tsukasa, combined with this line, he could be feeling regret over the path he took, but just runs as fast as he can to ignore those feelings because he can’t turn back now.
But I can't erase that; I bury myself in a pillow and flail around
This basically confirms the fact that he can’t turn back, so he buries his regret.
Also, I wanted to add that Tsukasa doesn’t really fight against what has already happened (like in Our Happy Ending, he lets Emu do what she wants, even if it pains him). This probably stems from Saki as well, because it’s not like he could magically change her condition, and it’s not like she herself had any control over her condition (this ties in to the lines in kasa6 about shows not being able to cure illnesses).
"I've had enough of this" I cried
Here, his crying child version shows up in the mv, showing how he looks down on himself for having these emotions (also the tone of the song shifts again, it’s calmer now. Maybe the metal being an “anomaly” could show how both he and WxS views his true self, an anomaly that needs to be fixed. (Also, WxS didn’t have the context that he was digging through trauma and re-traumatized himself. They don’t know that his star persona is even a persona. When they try to “snap” him out of it, look at some key words they use. Emu says “I can imagine…” Nene refers to him as “That Tsukasa...” (Rui does too in his side story), Rui refers to his state as him being in the grip of “madness.” Tsukasa hasn’t given them enough info for them to even know what’s fully going on, which leads to the misconception that he’s too deep into the method acting (which he is, they just don’t understand why), and that this is only character bleed and a symptom of overworking. They get it half right, but the issue is that he used his trauma, which sent him into a disassociative episode, which dismantled his star persona, and revealed his 10 years of repressed feelings). Also, he states that he “selfishly felt anger, no, hatred” towards Saki and his parents for forgetting him, a normal feeling for a child to have. Feelings aren’t always right, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t process them. Acknowledging and weaponizing =/= healthy processing.
That's me. I might be replaceable,
He thinks that he, at his core, is ordinary, so he thinks he can be replaced by any other guy. (Now, this isn’t true. The sheer amount of problems he has alone makes him incredibly unordinary. In a way, maybe he realizes that, so maybe that’s why he avoids processing his feelings as well, so he won’t become ordinary and “replaceable.” Once again, even if he heals, he won’t be ordinary, but you get the gist of it).
That's me. But I'm the only one here
This could refer to how he is emotionally alone, and in the past he was constantly left alone. He could also refer to how he is the only one who has the full context of his life (idk I’m just rambling).
That's me. And if that's how it is,
He is going full on absurdist now. He’s saying “Ok fine! I realize I am ordinary, replaceable and alone, but I don’t care!”
Go and embrace everything,
Even your hope, even your despair
Smile, dirtied as you are,
Nice to meet you, I'm all in one!
He’s saying that if he is alone, ordinary, and replaceable, he will embrace everything. The good, the bad, the ugly, he will take all those volatile emotions he’s repressed for 10 years and throw it into his new persona. (Looks like healing on the surface, but it isn’t when you dig a little deeper).
He’s making a reckless bet. He’s going “all in,” whether it be a performance or his daily life. He’s greeting us with his new persona, no longer the star (which was dismantled in kasa7), but as an all in one container of just, everything. This also makes him different from Mafuyu, who feels numb and nothing and cherishes any emotion she feels, he feels everything, and bets that all on external forces to keep himself running.
(Also sad piano is buried in the back)
(The instrumental is glitchy and the chart is too.)
We aren't similar to the gods, are we?
I feel like he would look down on religion and god because of his trauma and how much everyone in his family suffered (especially saki).
His heart was being eaten away by bugs earlier, and now he’s taking his wounded heart and placing it in his betting system. (Also this reminded me of Ena’s With Our Wounded Hands. Enakasa parallels keep on growing (in that event they were compared by Rui as well)).
(Also, yes another Nihil-San parallel. Mafuyu says, “So fill up/My dry, dried-up heart.” Her heart is dried up, and N25 rehydrates it with their love and support. Tsukasa’s is actively dying and bleeding).
Bring all your surplus too
Surplus is having more of something than what is needed or used. It's basically excess. He’s taking any excess energy he might have, and betting that as well. He is doing this because he has nothing left to lose.
And go all in, I'm all in one!
The new all in one identity feels very reckless. Also, the song abruptly cuts after this note. No iconic fakeout (where the song goes completely haywire), no long note, no visual after, just an end. It also glitches out at the end as well. This could represent how, if he loses his bet, then there is literally nothing left for him to give. No note, no song, no pose, just… nothing.
This section will be mostly like, just things that tie in that I noticed.
The MV shows a lot of glitching and the use of lighting is interesting. The beginning parts of the song are in darkness, while WxS and the end parts are in the light. Also, Tsukasa is very isolated in this song, both visually and in the actual story. The glitching could represent how he is unstable and is finally starting to crack. To add, there is a lot of black specks everywhere, which is likely the static that you can see in old movies and stuff, like the 20s. The fact that it’s all black could represent how the darkness from the earlier parts of the song are not gone, just relocated.
TSUKASA AND THE ROARING 20S
Stretch time! Gonna be reaching here. So, the static and glitching reminded me of the 1920s in America. Now, this seems nonsensical at first, but this isn’t the first time that Tsukasa has referenced this time period. In Filament Fever, it has a very swing kinda melody (and the time period here is the Showa (I think), which is reminiscent of the 1920s in America). In Filament Fever, the og mv also has the same kind of glitches appearing. The black paint? at the top of the screen also appears in both All in One and Filament Fever. Now, what does this have to do with the 1920s? Well, Tsukasa is very much like that time period. The 20s were just after ww1, and many people were traumatized from the war. Basically, “People in the 1920s coped with the aftermath of World War I by throwing themselves into an era of unprecedented consumerism, mass entertainment, and rebellious youth culture.” Many people were also disillusioned and wrote books about their feelings. It was also the same time that the “Harlem Renaissance” and Hollywood also came to be. (Also worth noting that this is also known as the “Jazz Age” because of the rise of jazz (Filament Fever has jazz elements).
Ok so how does Tsukasa embody that? His “wartime” could be when Saki was fighting for her life in the hospital. Now that that’s over, he puts his all into becoming a star and fulfilling his dream to make people smile. He copes with his past by frantically moving towards the future and suppressing his past feelings. One thing he does the most is entertain. In the 1920s, entertainment had a huge boom. Movie theaters, Hollywood, music, spectator sports, and broadway all contributed or had a huge boom in popularity. Tsukasa indulges in most of this, never letting a dull moment be there when he is in the room.
(Ok so this section makes no sense so I’m gonna move on).
The overall song shifts vibes like, 5 separate times within 2 minutes. To add, the theme for the cards was chaos (and Tsukasa’s card is literally called “Chaos that Burns the Body”). This could represent his mental state, and how his illusion and stability falls short when you peer into his mind.
The song during the melody specifically deceives the viewer by making them expect the song to continue in the major scale, but then subverts this by adding a minor (or flat accidental) note. to add, underneath all the noise in the main chorus, there is a rather sad sounding piano (Some pasted from my other analysis). In music, minor keys usually give off a sad impression. The sad piano that is also played in minor key being buried by all the noise during the chorus shows how he represses his past, but it’s starting to bubble up now and his defense mechanisms are shattering. This further supports the idea that he hasn’t healed, only weaponized his own trauma and used extreme compartmentalization to make the illusion that he has healed.
All in all, this song is jam packed with new ideas and symbolism, and Tsukasa is probably gonna only get worse from here. He’s a gambler whose only move is to go “all in” in poker, because he has nothing to lose. He bleeds for his craft, but never patches the wounds. I said this in a different post, but acting isn’t therapy. He isn’t properly processing his emotions, something that’s done in therapy, and puts any trauma in a ready made box that he can open and use later. He’ll tape it back up using the love his friends give him, to give him a reason that he should happy and be a star, to give him a reason to not introspect (also the part of his brain that does that is fried, but I’ll get into his neurology some other time if I’m not lazy).
Anyways, thanks for reading this 4000 word over analysis of Tsukasa’s 7th focus song “All in one.”
