Daisoushi
True Meaning of a Great Life
Album / Collection: KAITO
Music/lyrics by shikaku
Image/video by cochineal
Original story by Kambayashi Chohei
View romaji/english lyrics
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The lines in [brackets] are not part of the actual lyrics, but they appear in the PV as background texts and provide clues vital to the understanding of the entire song.
This song is based on a Japanese sci-fi novel "Hadae no Shita" (Under the Skin) by Kambayashi Chohei. In the story, during a prolonged war, the moon has been shattered, and its pieces have fallen onto Earth, completely destroying the environment. In order to survive, the humans send themselves onto Mars for a 250-year-long freezing hibernation, while the robots they leave behind restore and revitalize Earth. The ones in charge of the robots are the artificially created A-Troopers, who are genetically-altered humans highly capable of emotion, intelligence, and judgment.
However, some humans have chosen to stay behind on Earth, and they gradually grow fearful of the A-Troopers. Thus, a war is imminent. The male protagonist, Keiji, is one of the A-Troopers, and the entire story is written in the form of Keiji's diary. Keiji spends much time contemplating the meaning of his own existence. He, neither a human nor an animal, but merely an altered creation, seeks to understand his life and his being, as he meets all sorts of people and goes through all kinds of adventures throughout the novel.
The title of the song, "Daisoushi", is written in the same characters as an ancient Chinese philosophical piece "Dazongshi" by Zhuangzi. Dazongshi expresses the philosophy of "to live searching for the central pillar (shi) of the great (da) way (zong/dao)". This can be more liberally interpreted as "to contemplate the true meaning of a great life".
Translated and transliterated by animeyay
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