Story Commu 69 is a required reading before beginning this part. Please watch it if you haven't already. There's a convenient translation already on youtube. I mean, what the heck are you doing here if you haven't read it. Which terrible person directly linked you to this part without letting you experience part 1?
Optional readings for this part include Hayate Memorial Commu 1 and Memorial Commu 3 They're not quite as essential, but might help you get an idea. These were added way over a year before the commu in question.
Once you've completed all the required readings, we can begin proper.
This part contains SPOILERS for Commu 69 and will ruin the true experience of the song if Part 1 is not read first, so go do that if you haven't for some reason.
Lyrical Deep Dive: Packing Her Favorite - Unpacking Her Favorite
「……自分に、好きって言われたい。」
「はーは……はーを好きになりたい。」
And these words changed everything. For over 3 years, the motivation behind Hayate as a character was shrouded in mystery, the key pieces of the puzzle deliberately hidden from everyone. Her sister Nagi took the spotlight for being that more quirky, interesting girl who's still a giant bag of questionmarks and weird but stood out more for that. Just like at the beginning of the commu or in her memorial commu 1, Hayate doesn't have much at all going for her because her personality is rather ordinary and generic.
But now that the spell has been broken, the barefooted Cinderella must confront herself with the truth. What was it that really brought her to the castle? Was it to make everyone say they like her, just like what she claimed in her 1st memorial commu? Now we know, the reason she said "everyone", is because "everyone" includes herself, her number 1 hater. The thing that drove her to become an idol is a product of her own selfish ambition. An intense dissatisfaction for herself and a compulsion to do something about it.
The real crazy part is that usually an idol's character song would either be done at the point where almost everything about the character has already been established, or the character song helps explain and gives us information on the character, but as we've established in part 1, the song doesn't actually tell us anything! Or does it...?
The translations in Part 2 are identical to Part 1, but are kept here to help you follow along as we go through the whole song again.
明日になれば世界は変わる
わくわくとまらないな
キラキラなフライトIf it becomes tomorrow, the world changes
The excitement/anticipation won't stop
sparkling flight
Sometimes the world doesn't change tomorrow, but if "tomorrow" was the 27th April 2022, the world did change on that day. Perhaps this was the first warning in the song of what was to come. To Hayate, she's looking forward to the future in a new place and in a new world shrouded in light, because we now know it's born out of discontent with the present.
「まもなく未来です」
チケットが呼んでる
準備しなきゃ ね
照らしてリングライト"It will be the future soon"
The ticket is calling
I've gotta get ready huh
Shine ring light
The same thing is going on here as we've covered in part 1. The ticket to the future would be her audition to become an idol and what would end up getting her so invested in her preparation.
Also a ring light in the context of preparation can be used for the purpose of makeup. Which is the art of covering flaws on one's skin to improve presentability, a cue into the real theme that is to come.
それじゃパッキングはじめ！(いえー)
ピカピカでマイカラーのスーツケース
つまり自分専用(やったー)
かなりお気に入りでーすSo let the packing begin! (Yay!)
A brand new suitcase of my color
In other words, for my own exclusive use (Hooray!)
[It's] considerably a favorite
Thus we've begun packing. But what are we packing? We've sort of touched on this previously but let us examine the packing a little closer this time. What exactly is being packed here?
There are more ways of looking at these things. We know that Hayate has a dislike for her present self, so for something to be considered "her own color", "for her own exclusive use" and to be "considerably a favorite" we can see that the suitcase can represent the ideal outward appearance of Hayate. How she wants to be seen by the world.
東京だし負けられないし
まーけっこう顔可愛いし？(へへー)
思いっきり肩出しワンピ
ママウケ賛否？ でも着たい！
(もってきまーす)It's Tokyo, so I can't lose
Well, [my] splendid face is cute isn't it? (hehe-)
A one-piece with as much exposed shoulder as I want
Will mom approve? But I want to wear it!
(Bringing it!)
After reading the commu it really gives you the impression that Hayate is putting up some kind of act because of the stakes involved. She really wants the whole idol thing to work out for her. Tokyo is "the big city" and as such that represents an additional pressure for her to not mess it up.
This whole theme about wearing some sort of risqué clothing has a lot to do with how they want others to perceive them. She doesn't like who she currently is, and as such her interest in fashion and the lines covered here really describe the desire to change their own outward appearance.
あれもこれもって つめこんで
もうちょっとで はじけそうで
たったひとりの特別な女の子がStuffing this and that
It's already slowly about to burst open
The only one special girl is...
If you think about this in a more casual speech setting, the final clause in line 3 has no verb or action which means the meaning can be derived from the clause before it. (i.e. The action was mentioned before the details on the action)
I did drop a few hints about this, but the thing that's about to burst open is Hayate herself. The new meaning of the section is that stuffing things (packing) will cause the only one special girl (Hayate) to burst open, a foreshadowing to what happens in the commu and how we have come to know about her true motivations.
行くよ！
キラキラの世界のワタシ
今すぐ追いついてあげる
一番キラキラしたワタシ
好きになってねLet's go!
The me of the sparkling world
Right now I'll catch up with you
The myself that sparkled the most
[you'll] like it
Do you catch the wording here now? The wording in this chorus also happens to also make sense if you think about the intended audience of the song being herself. She's wants to catch up to the expectations of herself and wants herself to accept and like the new her, the idol Hayate.
期待しかない 今のワタシ
パッキングNothing but expectations , the me of now
packing
But of course, she wants to hide who she currently is ("the me of now") away from others ("packing") which is by far the more intriguing interpretation of the song. The song's second meaning has been revealed. The thing that Hayate is packing away is her current present self.
やる気ばっかり空回りして
ぜんぜんしまらないな
パツパツのキャリーGoing in circles with nothing but motivation
[The] Completely disorganized [...]
[...] carry bursting at the seams
We have seen from everything we know that Hayate is highly motivated to achieve her goal of becoming an idol in the hopes of it being that change factor that would help her to come to acceptance with herself, but she's also lacking a clear plan on exactly how to get there and how this change will positively impact her perception of herself.
The self that she's trying to hide is going to burst out, and that's something that she's been trying to prevent, for mostly selfish reasons. You can recall that the producer in the commu knows that Hayate is holding something back, but she's not ready to confront what's in the box yet.
「そろそろ寝なさい」
バイマイマザー フロムリビング
そーこーしてたら
やばいてっぺんってマジ？"Go to bed soon"
By my mother from [the] living [room]
After doing this...
Wait it's midnight are you serious?!
The meaning of this segment is largely unchanged. However, the context is changed slightly. This whole packing thing, together with the bursting luggage and combined with the whole indecision about what part of herself would be the most presentable in the world of idols. Our cinderella has spent countless hours deciding how they would want to conduct themself at the ball.
再開！ 計画的にCheck it(いそげー)
必要なモノからいれます(テキパキ)
「オヤツにバナナはいれます？」(なにそれ)
かわいい合いの手(いただきまーす)Reopen! Check it as scheduled (Hurry!)
Put the required items in first (Briskly)
"Do you need a banana as a snack?" (What's that?)
Cute interlude (Thanks for the meal!)
So as we continue this part, the question changes from why is she packing to "what is required" exactly. It's clear that even to Hayate herself, the answer to what is truly required from her as an idol is something that she has not solved yet. How can she check for the items that she requires if she herself does not know it?
そーだあれも必須だ
地元じゃ着れない背伸びのコーデ
寒いとヤダしカーデ スニーカーで遠出
って待って やっぱ入んない！(えーん)Oh right! That's required too!
Outfits that overreach what I can wear in my hometown
If it's cold that's bad so, cardigan. Outing in sneakers...
Hey, wait a minute! (As I thought) it won't go in! (Eeee...)
There's a lot of discussion in this song about this idea of a new outward appearance. Most notably this whole discussion about hometown seems to represent what are the things that make her unique. The central discussion point that comes up in some Hayate commus is about what differentiates her from the most plain vanilla idol possible.
If that sounds somewhat familiar, thats probably because there's another idol who's entire gimmick is being exceedingly normal. But unlike that certain idol, Hayate's normalcy is not entirely her. It has been revealed that some degree of this outward appearance of trying to be the most generic idol is a deliberate act on her end, and a consequence of not having properly evaluated what parts of herself are presentable and should be presented.
だってだって 足りないから
夢も希望もおさまんない
選んで 工夫して
オトナになっていくのかなBut because it's not enough so
Dreams and aspirations also won't fit
Choose and work it out
[Will doing this] make [me] become an adult?
On one hand, she can only cram so much of who she really is and hide that away. The other way to look at it is that she needs to decide what to bring to the cinderella ball. Remember, the question was about what is important. This decision shaped what her idol career has been like so far. We've seen the outcome of this decision with her choosing to leave various parts of her true personality behind.
We know especially from this commu that Hayate worries about things a lot and it seems like she has some preconceived notion that the idea of thinking all of her problems over and spending time on this has something to do with developing her maturity. However, from everything we've seen so far its indicative that she still needs other people to support her and help her think through her problems. If the commu is any indication though, how can her friends and colleagues help her through if she isn't going to be upfront with them?
Also it's unclear what exactly are the aspects of Hayate's personality that are being hidden or suppressed, outside of the part where she's generally overprepared to try and come off as a natural.
行くよ！
キラキラの世界のワタシ
いっぱい失敗してごめん
何回だってやってみせるワタシ
できる子、だからLet's go!
The me of the sparkling world
Sorry for failing a lot
Any number of times I'll do it and show you
Because I'm a girl that can do it
So what is the thing that she's failed at? Perhaps the only thing that can be said would be her own expectations. Hayate seems to expect a lot out of herself and that is evident in the brief moments part of her ambition shows through. People who self-hate also tend to have very high expectations of themselves, so this is largely consistent with what has been revealed to us.
The whole act about trying to come off as someone who's a natural and can "do it" seems to be a selfish reason after all. She wants to convince herself that she's someone who's competent and capable.
Note that at no point did we ever discuss the idea of Hayate being a fraud. I don't think any of the material together with what we can infer would make us go that far to make this conclusion. She has some elements of trying to hide things or trying to have a different stage persona even to the point of trying to sell the act to all her colleagues, but there's also nothing that suggests outright incompetence or malicious intent. She doesn't seem to have any major problems doing the things that idols seem to do, but maybe she's uncomfortable with the idea of letting others know that she has to work hard to get results.
誰も知らない 今のワタシ
パッキングNobody knows, the me of now
packing
So instead the conclusion that we've gotten to is that she wants to hide away her current self, so that nobody would know about it.
(今はこのくらいのサイズ だけど
いつかはもっともっと
もーっと大きくなるんだ！
しくはっく でもよろしく Yeah(Now [I am] about this much size, but
In due time, more and more
[I'm] gonna become much bigger!
in dire distress, but nice to meet you Yeah
Thinking through this problem herself will supposedly make her more mature. Remember that once again, this section makes an equal amount of sense if you think about it as her talking to herself. And knowing that she's her own biggest critic, it makes more sense that way. This whole section will make even more sense if you consider the whole internal monologue together.
一生懸命つめこんでみたよ
ワタシが好きな 今のワタシ
あぶなかしい？ ちゃんと考えたし！
…じゃあ、ちゃんと見てて？)Desperately tried to cram it all you know?
The me of now that I like
Dangerous? I thought this through!
... So, watch over me then?)
The whole monologue here represents one of her answers to the questions posed. What is the real her? What is it that makes her unique? What does she want to bring to the ball? What is it that she choses to hide away?
In some ways this is the answer up until this point. She believes that after a great deal of distress, that cramming everything she currently is to hide it away is the method that will lead her to success on the stage. She thinks that this gambit of trying to pack her old self away will appease the critic side of her. The way that this section is phrased its really like she's trying to convince herself that this is the way forward and that this gambit will work. We know how it's turned out so far, and it's from this point on that we have to see how she responds to the reality check.
There's just one more thing. There's a peculiar phase in this part. 「ワタシが好きな 今のワタシ」 (The me of now that I like) This piece tells us that not everything about herself is negative. There are in fact parts of her that she likes. This means that part of the present exterior appearance of Hayate is already a reflection of her true self. It's perhaps this glimmer of a jewel that caught the Producer's eye during the audition.
あえて空けた
からっぽのかたすみ
お土産を入れるんだ
絶対 あげるね 笑って
月曜日に会えるからIntentionally made space
empty corner
Souvenir able to fit in
Absolutely. [I'll] Give it. Laugh
Because I'll meet you on Monday
Do you remember something about how Hayate and Nagi became idols? The TLDR version of their first commu is that Hayate went for the audition, Nagi was present as support but obviously didn't join her in auditioning. While she was waiting for Hayate to finish up, Nagi got scouted. This implies two things, Nagi was prepared with the preconceived notion that she would be "separated" from Hayate if Hayate were to get the audition. Secondly, Hayate arriving to find Nagi gone because she got scouted also represents this separation from the other half's perspective. Yet despite the different approaches, both of them ended up becoming idols and are together again in the big city.
While the whole true meaning of this segment remains largely an enigma, it's interesting to consider the following:
Another interesting point to think over is to go back to the title of the song. What exactly is her favorite? Why is she packing her favorite? At the end of the day, have we even figured out what her favorite is? It seems evident that even Hayate hasn't quite figured out that part, and the result is we have a lot of cramming as Hayate tries to figure out how to fit the entire kitchen sink in there. She hasn't gotten an answer for who she needs to be, who she actually wants to be and who she is. This is why she has to leave a space for a souvenir from her hometown, why it has to be brought over into the new world. It is this potential ace up the sleeve that can turn her destiny around.
Other interesting points to note:
Hayate's seiyuu did point out on the Cinderella Party radio program about the contrast between the two twin solo songs. Nagi's song and the souvenirs are adopted from the outside environment, the new destination. In Hayate's song, the souvenir is a packed item from the place of origin. This speaks of the differences between the characters personality, mainly how a lot of the things that Hayate likes are things that are packed inside.
When Yashiro Yuta did a stream on youtube, he brought up how the lyrics for Nagi's solo were not really written with Hayate's in mind at the time. He did mention that some consideration into the possible theme of Hayate's solo was made, but since the whole idea that there would even be a Hayate solo wasn't decided until much later, a lot of these details were written in retrospect to tie the two songs together.
あのね
キラキラの世界のワタシ
ホントは未発見 だけど
ねぇ 約束するよ
見つけるよ 見せてあげるよWell...
The me of the sparkling world
Actually is undiscovered, but
Hey, I promise
I'll find it and show it off to [to you]
The ending of the commu has revealed something that lines up with this section. Unlike most (or all) main story commus, Hayate's ends with a cliffhanger. The question on what she truly wants and desires, on who she really is and what she wants to become remains unanswered. This is the barefooted truth we have to deal with, a Cinderella that has returned to her basement and must find her way back to the ball. Does it imply that Hayate is an idol forever in search of an answer? Its too early to say that, but this what makes the future so exciting.
When you view this part as a statement to herself, she's acknowledging that she hasn't quite made it yet as an idol, and that she hasn't completed her transformation yet. It is worth pondering about whether this transformation was destined to not happen from the start due to the decisions made to this point.
However, now that we've exposed the flaw in Hayate's packing, perhaps we have altered the course of history to pave the way for a different future. There's this looming threat that Hayate would be forgotten or buried as an idol due to the lack of personality and unique qualities, and it seems to be the Producer's mission to avert this disastrous future by correcting Hayate's course. Either way we think about it, Hayate must find her answer to pave the way to a brighter future. This seems to be the next chapter that everything has been building up to.
あの子も好きな 今のワタシ
パッキングThe me of now that that kid also likes
packing
And in that future, she can bring along the version of her which even "that girl" (herself) likes.
I have been maybe a bit strong in the wording in this article, it's not truly black and white that Hayate detests herself to the ends of the universe. Things are definitely on a sliding scale here and the answer is left open for all of us to think through.
Hayate's solo song is an exercise of literature interpretation in context. The context that you view any piece of writing changes the meaning you extract from it. In the case of this song, the context we were given after the song's release provided us a fresh way to see the song.
It is uncertain if Yashiro Yuta had designed the song to be interpreted both ways intentionally. He did make some comments about this song when asked on his own private youtube streams, but didn't really bring up details about this aspect. Interesting he also did not mention anything about the song being an elaboration on Hayate's internal struggle with herself and what she is withholding. We're not sure if he had collaborated or been given instructions from the writing team in any way regarding this. The most probable hypothesis being that this version is the intended interpretation of the song and until the point that the full picture was painted, we have been left to draw our own conclusions.
Either way, the facts of the lore leave us with a piece that presents an interesting duality on an idol with an interesting duality. It is this demonstration on the power of context and the whole experience that people who were able to read the original material in the native language got at the time where this came out. It was so cool to suddenly realize that everything you had read changed how you see the song.
This technique is not new. If you're someone who watches a lot more anime, dramas and movies (or at least more than I do), then you would have came across well written theme songs that play repeatedly over the course of the show in different contexts, and each time the lyrics of the song would give a different feel depending on the context presented. This isn't foreign to story based games either, in fact I think there's a well known example from a certain award winning MMORPG with a free trial or something like that...
The real challenge when designing this article is to create a way to allow readers to re-experience the window between the song release and the commu release, because thats what makes this CM truly special. Even though this article was decided upon sometime in early May, it would take another 6 months for the writing, setup and additional features I had to write into the site to make it happen, and I hope that at least some of that has managed to reach readers.
This piece has fundamentally changed the way I see Hayate as a character. From the start she's been overshadowed by Nagi due to being generally less of a weirdo, but the whole part about her being quite plain in the context of idols hasn't really been all that compelling of a reason until this point. The fact that they would willingly withhold information about a character for over 3 years is an interesting approach, because Hayate is one of those idols who will end up with having the majority of her character development in Starlight Stage now that the original mobamas is approaching its content cutoff and will end service in 2023. In fact, the cliffhanger in the ending tells us that they still have more of a story to tell. Averting Hayate's bad ending has been such a major plot point of her memorial and main story commu that I'm convinced they will pick up on it in the future.
So what is it that lies in Hayate's Tomorrow? To find out there are really only two words required, for the next chapter has already begun: Summer Cider
PS: This part is deliberately hidden from the main post list, don't link directly to it so that others can experience both sides of the song as well. If you made it all the way to the end, good job. leave a comment, reply or discord message to me with the word elephant to confuse people and let me know that people actually found this part.
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