By NucleARtyom October 15, 2023

codomomental bulletin #51

On October 6th, the final online release event for TOKYO TEFUTEFU’s third album “Butterfly Dogma” was held,¹ and in addition to the girls, Nobuhide Imamura also attended and revealed some pretty interesting details about the new release. Here are some of them:

Since this was the first album after the members decided on their first big goal: to perform at the Makuhari Messe with a fire show, this also directly affected the content of the album. It contains the songs that the director feels are best suited for performing on large stages.
Ouhi’s favorite song on the album is “rinbu,” Nonno’s is “negative buster,” Lust’s is “Rosario to koi,” Chimura’s is “TenohiraNoTomoshibi,” and Kagari’s is “Butterfly-Hi.”
A music video is planned for “rinbu.”
“rinbu” was based to some extent on Nonno’s image. While working on it, Imamura-san remembered the training camp where he developed the TOKYO TEFUTEFU concept three years ago based on Ouhi’s image, and then decided to add Nonno’s dancing to it. That is why the first lines of the song are sung by them. At the same time, this song is meant to reflect the changes that have recently taken place in the group, and is similar to “Kakumei Zenya” (also known as “Eve of the revolution”) by Zenbu Kimi no Sei da, a particularly important song in the group’s repertoire that is meant to proclaim the girls’ determination to move forward at turning points.
“houyou” was created to bring out Ouhi’s potential during the time when the director told her that “if she doesn’t change, TOKYO TEFUTEFU can’t become popular.”
“Rosario to koi” was intended to be a song with a rather complex concept. This is why it has particularly complicated lyrics.
While working on the “Hyperphantasia” album, Imamura-san asked the members if anyone would like to try their hand at writing lyrics for the group. As we know, this eventually led to Lust writing the lyrics for the song “teardrop.” Chimura said that she was interested in writing lyrics at the time, but lacked confidence. However, after the LIQUIDROOM show at the beginning of this year, as well as the groundbreaking GOLDADCT tour, she decided to give it a try and the result of her efforts was the song “outrogue.”
The title of the song is a fusion of the words “outro” and “monologue.” Its concept can be described as “the end of the beginning,” when after a turning point a new path begins. In this way, the song also refers to the changes that have recently taken place in the group, proclaiming the end of the past TOKYO TEFUTEFU and the beginning of a new era for the group. The placement of the song in the tracklist is also no coincidence: it’s easy to see that it is followed by tracks that are something completely new for the group. In the process of working on the lyrics, the music was also reworked to fit this concept: in particular, that’s why the song got such an outro.
“Clown Amaryllis” is meant to show off the girls’ natural charm. And it is also a song with quite a complex choreography, despite the fact that the group has recently stopped emphasizing dancing.
During the working on the “Hyperphantasia” album, Nonno (as well as Ouhi) had already tried to write lyrics for a different song, but nothing came of it.
“negative buster” was meant to be a cute and funny song, but still in the spirit of TOKYO TEFUTEFU. Nonno also added little references to other codomomental groups in her lyrics, such as the phrases “Kimi no Sei” and “Kakumei Zenya.”
“Butterfly-Hi” is, as we already know, the group’s introduction song, similar to how “TadaKimiTo” is the introduction song for “Zenkimi.” Except that unlike the rather straightforward “TadaKimiTo,” “Butterfly-Hi” has a more complicated approach to fit the group’s style, and only a few phrases more or less directly express the members’ characters, such as Ouhi revealing her eye tattoo on her arm to the public for the first time, Nonno’s sudden introduction as a “psycho rice-eater,” and Kagari’s sudden proclamation that she’s actually a rebel. Lust and Chimura’s lines, on the other hand, were the hardest to understand without context, but apparently they can be translated as “We are fallen children with the illness of today’s cute-face era.” Specifically, in Imamura-san’s words, “What applies to all girls: a cute face is an illness. Beauty is pain.” Thus, these lines suggest that Lust and Chimura are particularly hurt by the “today’s cute-face era.”
According to the director, “miniature garden” is a song that only Lust could have written. The image of a miniature garden refers to the fact that “her world is still very small, but this world is everything to her,” and at the same time, the girl expresses her feelings and love for the group in an incredibly honest way in this song, and so it can be perceived as “Lust’s feelings packed in a miniature box.” Imamura-san also noted the special romanticism of the image of “mirages rising to dazzling heights” used in the song, where the artistic image of real mirages rising is complemented by a metaphor for the “mirages” – the group’s fans who follow them to new heights.
“TenohiraNoTomoshibi” is a song that only came into being because the director has been personally responsible for the management of “Tefutefu” since the beginning of this year and has witnessed their rapid growth first hand. He wanted to create a song that could stay deep in the hearts of the listeners, and even if it couldn’t be listened to ten times a day, everyone would turn to it when they were really in pain. When performing a particularly important moment, the members stand so that they can clearly see each other’s eyes.
As already stated, “LYCORisALIVE” is the first song in which the lyrics deliberately make such bold and categorical statements that have never been seen before in codomomental lyrics, and it was also intended to be a particularly important song for the group, similar to Zenbu Kimi no Sei da’s “Kakumei Zenya” (“Eve of the revolution”), and at the same time a homage to all the artists of the agency.

Another interesting moment: the back cover of the CD contains a reference to the cover of the group’s first album “impure,” continuing the artistic narrative:

“Butterfly Dogma” was the first album after the change in management and creative approach. And what I was consciously striving for in everything was to “throw away everything.” I made a strict vow to do that. Including what was lost. I wrote five songs. I tried to be consistent, to make everything feel balanced. And to pay homage in different ways to all the groups we’ve done before. Loving everything that was created before and then entrusting it to [them]. Above all, trying to achieve originality. I am very, very happy that the first song of the album, “Rinbu,” has been on various playlists (even though I didn’t write it). All the songs on the album are wonderful. Please listen to them.²³

From GESSHIRUI’s Twitter.

Also, in anticipation of Chimura Shifumi’s birthday show, which marked the start of the group’s new tour, the lyrics of the birthday girl’s solo song were posted on Twitter.⁴ The song is called “fukagyaku” (“不歌逆”), which is a kanji play on the word “irreversibility” (“不可逆” – literally “reverse is unacceptable”) where the kanji for “acceptable” has been replaced with the kanji for “song/singing.” The music for the song was composed by Yokoi Takayuki, the support guitarist of Zenkimi band and a member of the band GARDE SECT, and the lyrics were written by GESSHIRUI. You can check out the translation of the lyrics below:

Playing around the musical staff, countless kotodama*, I stand face to face and wail.
It’s too late to realize that no one is around. The reflection is frozen in the mirrors facing each other.

I will tear apart the inversely proportional wings. “Indulgence.” Only you [I] taint me.
I’m trapped along with the black-and-white monochrome.
I still don’t see, don’t look, cannot forgive myself, only myself.

Fly/Fallen. The cry of coming into the world turns into a wail. A signal to make a decision.
Longing. The meaning of faith, burned into my consciousness countless times.

What color will the torn wings be painted? A dream? Déjà vu? From some point, I begin to love…
I’m a coward. The future frightens me. But to look away— I cannot, I don’t want to. ‘…’ [‘I sing’].

A thousand heartwarming sights stretch out before my eyes. I spin in place amidst inspiration and the pressure of responsibility.
The result of adhering to a single truth— the sights I can experience with those I love.
The world is ugly, but creates a false image of ultimate wisdom and beauty, yet the child mentality doesn’t allow me to stop challenging the ever-distorting spiral.

“I’m alone.” I swallow it, digest, and embrace the present with love.

I will tear apart the inversely proportional wings. “Indulgence.” If it’s me, you can be sure that, having embraced the dream with love,
I will turn into reality the voices that cannot reach from this place.
They will not disappear nor be erased. They continue to echo.
Unceasing cries. “Everything will be alright.” I will carry this burden,
So I give one single promise— to laugh together with you one day, in the dream.

*Note: “Kotodama” refers to the spiritual power believed to dwell in words in Japanese culture.

It’s also worth noting that the “…” that comes after the words “I cannot, I don’t want to” apparently refers to a similar technique that Chimura used in her lyrics for the song “outrogue.” Namely, it seems to imply that the listener should fill in a phrase that is meaningful to them.

~~You can also watch a recording of Chimura’s birthday livestream where the girls played Resident Evil 2 Remake, which is still available on the official codomomental YouTube channel.~~

In the final video in the series of translations of Seireki13ya members’ addresses to fans, Yowa Minai talks about why she decided to become an idol, the difficulties she experienced after joining the group, the important things she realized for herself during all these months, what she sees as her goal in all this activity, and how she overcame her tendency to oversleep:

A video of Nene Komochi’s full cover of the song “Eien No Akuruhi” (Ado) has been posted on codomomentary YouTube channel:

The second solo concert of the new iteration of KAQRIYOTERROR is scheduled for October 18th. Like last time, 18+ “beasts” are mentioned, with no new details yet.⁵

Zenbu Kimi no Sei da have reached another goal in their crowdfunding campaign to release Blu-ray of the group’s Budokan show. This means that the group will start working on new costumes.
The campaign will end tonight at midnight (JST), so don’t miss your chance to get your hands on the Blu-ray and other exclusive items. All information about the campaign and how overseas fans can support it can be found at the following links:

http://www.codomofan.online/codomomental-bulletin-46/
http://www.codomofan.online/codomomental-bulletin-47/

It has been 8 years since Zenbu Kimi no Sei da first solo concert. Really, thank you very much for loving the group all this time. The group is currently on hiatus, but I love you “patients” as before and continue to live as part of Zenbu Kimi no Sei da. Thank you very much. All this time being Kisaragi has been a real blessing to me.
I hope we can meet again.⁶

From Kisaragi Megumi’s Twitter.

Still, it’s hard to move forward. It’s very hard. This path is full of difficulties. I express my respect to all the artists. And also today, what we created was brought to life. A lot of people put their hearts into it. And I’m proud of that.⁷

From GESSHIRUI’s Twitter.

codomomental bulletin #51

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