Lyrical Deep Dive: イケナイGO AHEAD - the final parking lot of the 3chord series

I'm on a roll recently... Well actually this one was being rushed when Ikenai Go Ahead was announced but since I missed the deadline I just stopped work on it and haven't touched it for many months...

The 3Chord album series tell a story about a pair of lovers in 3 different perspectives. The concept of the story is the idea of fixing the "time" of the story but instead the story is retold through different people. Drawing from the names of the individual tour stops of 7th live, Comical Pops, Funky Dancing and Glowing Rock, we get our CFG song trilogy in the form of Furachi na CANVAS, Odoru FLAGSHIP and Ikenai GO AHEAD. Ikenai GO AHEAD is the third and final song in the series, and is the third perspective... wait didn't you say the series is about a pair of lovers? Who's the third...?

The hype train for this song was quite something when it was initially announced. From its surprise preview during derepa (a radio program that usually doesn't get much in terms of any kind of news) the song starts with absolutely no holds barred. The instant callbacks to the previous songs in the series, the song wastes absolutely no time in drawing you in to the final episode of the trilogy guns blazing right from the gate. It sounds like this song does a lot of things right, but I'll cover my problems with the song a bit later.

This is the 3rd and final writeup in the 3chord series. You can find the other write-ups in order I've written them here

Flagship: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarlightStage/comments/m8j0rq/lyrical_deep_dive_3chord_series_odoru_flagship/

Canvas: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarlightStage/comments/poo8fj/lyrical_deep_dive_%E4%B8%8D%E5%9F%92%E3%81%AAcanvas_painting_the/

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Standard fare: Translations are not meant to be perfect English and comprehensible sentences to give the reader who may not understand Japanese a chance to derive meaning from the original literature with the original contextual clues, instead of having someone else already making that interpretation for you. Read the discussion under each section for some suggestion on the interpretations.

私　気づいちゃったよ
踊るようにみえた
キャンバスの真っ赤なトートバッグで

I've noticed it now
The canvas deep red tote bag looked like it was dancing

Like mentioned earlier, the song wastes absolutely no time jumping into references for the previous songs. We have odoru (but not the same kanji), canvas and red tote bag right from the very start. This is very effective and concise writing, as within a few short statements we've established a connection to the previous works and we've gotten immediately cued in to the fact that this is a third perspective.

私　わかっちゃったよ
あの二人　恋に落ちた
ハートを　いっぱい散りばめて

I understand it now
Those two have fallen in love
Many hearts [are] scattered around them

If you haven't gotten the memo that this is a third perspective yet, then this should tell you. It's explicitly telling you of a pair that has fallen in love.

交差点から動けなくなる
このブロックだけが　黄色信号
点と点の　線がつながる
モノクロームの背景　ジェラシー　今

Because of the traffic intersection we can't move
Only this block is on an amber light signal
Lines join point to point
Right now the monochrome backdrop [is shrouded in] jealousy

Now we get to the interesting bits of the song. One of the key features of Ikenai go ahead is the heavy use of driving and traffic light analogies. If you were to look at the album art you would notice that the background is explicitly a crossing, overlooking the harbor. In fact this extends to the event emblems being a traffic light on red. The interpretations possible for this segment could go pretty deep. I think the core idea was that the third person was forced to make a decision, the amber light signifies that they have a choice. In a generic road system an amber light means they could either speed up or slow down and it's up to the driver to make that judgement call on what would be appropriate. (Unless of course you're living in those parts of the world where red lights mean nothing but let's ignore that for a moment here)

The act of joining points represents someone drawing or painting and the monochrome backdrop is another callback to canvas where the 2nd verse buildup uses it to describe the world. The second half of the paragraph describes the world using the descriptors used by the male lead, but now jealousy is also part of the mix. This is the first major clue to the nature of the third character. It is evident the third character has high stakes in the relationship. Enough to feel jealous when faced with the realization that the male has fallen in love with someone else

イケナイ先へ　GO AHEAD
イケナイ夢だ　GO AHEAD
叫びたいくらい好きでした
守ってあげたい場所
塗りつぶした距離
飛行機雲を　見送ってそっと泣いた

To the wrong path, GO AHEAD
Forbidden dream, GO AHEAD
Its like [I want to internally] scream I love you
The place [I] want to protect
The distance [was] painted over
The vapor trails [which] I sent off as I wept softly

Now we're looking at the meat of the story here in the chorus. Our 3rd character is revealed to be the losing 3rd party in the relationship. A few points to note here, the vapor trails is another recurring theme in the series, and is also a recurring element appearing on the album art of the CDs. イケナイ先へ is a particularly nasty line to phrase in English because its the combination of negative verb イケナイ "Won't do/Shouldn't do" and 先へ (lit: "before/future" + direction of action, typically translated as "forwards") I settled for something that makes the most sense in context.

As for the vapor trails, it has been something that has been recurring in this series, but we haven't really discussed what it implies. In Canvas, the vapor trails were piercing the crevices of skyscrapers and was something the male lead thought was cool. Flagship has a very similar thing, where the vapor trails makes their appearance amongst parts that talk about a wind around the buildings throwing things into disarray. I believe that the vapor trails actually refer to the event or opportunity presented by the new relationship. The male lead finds it cool, it throws the world around the female lead into disarray and presents itself as an opportunity for the girl to invite the male lead on a ride. And finally the 3rd girl sees her guy has left her for someone else and weeps. ("The send-off")

ひび割れた時間の　印象はあつまり
キュビズムの想い出へと変わる

The impression of fractured time gather
Turning into a memory of Cubism

This part is a bit of a reference to Canvas and the boy, as Cubism refers to a style of art in particular.

空も陸も海も　渦巻くサークルモッシュに
抱いて　とめてほしいよ

The swirling circle mosh in the sky and land and sea
[I] want to embrace [you] and stop [you]

Interestingly, circle mosh sounds a bit like a description of The Starry Night again (which is the painting being described in the introduction of Odoru Flagship) and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that this whole section is about our third character wanting to stop the sequence of events that caused the guy to leave the relationship for someone else.

路上に光る　Parkingのマークに
もたれて深く息を吐いた
永遠の片想いでも
歌に描くことはできる　でしょ？

On the parking mark lit up on the street
[I] lean against and let out a deep breath
Even this eternal unrequited love
can be written into a song can't it?

If it's not already obvious by this point, we've been perpetually going through various stages of grief and this is the point where we've arrived at acceptance. A parking lot signals, the start or end of a journey, and so by leaning against the parking mark its a signal or expression that implies that they've stopped the chase. The second girl has kinda conceded the relationship and the upcoming chorus will show it as well.

気づいちゃったんだ　GO AHEAD
わかっちゃったんだ　GO AHEAD
叫びたいくらい好きだから
守ってあげたい場所
塗りつぶした距離
＜祝福＞なら　まっすぐ笑っていたい

I fully see it now GO AHEAD
I fully understand it now GO AHEAD
It's because I love you [that I want to internally] scream
The place I wanted to protect
Was completely painted over
If [it is a] blessing then [I] want to be straight laughing [in joy]

This is the bitterness and acceptance arc. One of the things that is interesting to think about on this section is the differences in the meaning of the 3rd line and how similar yet different the meaning is when you think about でした (past tense です) vs だから (because). The final line is also really tough to phrase in English because there is a high amount of implied meaning here. It's also unclear why blessing is being wrapped with <> either.

恋することは尊いよって
輝いてた　絵になったんだ
二人　笑顔が翼みたい

[They say] Falling in love seems like such a precious thing
It could become a sparkling painting
The smile of those two look like wings

Honestly this bridge is a pretty cool mixup in the song composition wise, because the rest of the song has been relatively the same. The bridge itself is really short though. The first line is inherently still very bitter sounding still.

イケナイ先へ　GO AHEAD
イケナイ夢だ　GO AHEAD
叫びたいくらい好きでした
守ってあげたい場所
塗りつぶした距離
飛行機雲を　見送って泣いた

To the wrong path, GO AHEAD
Forbidden dream, GO AHEAD
Its like [I want to internally] scream I love you
The place [I] want to protect
The distance [was] painted over
The vapor trails [which] I sent off as I wept

The breakdown before the chorus starts up here is a rather nice change of pace. Otherwise there are minimal changes where its comes to the chorus here. The crying is a little less soft this time I guess

イキタイ先へ　GO AHEAD

Towards where you want to go, GO AHEAD

The switch in the wording here is a tricky one to catch if you weren't paying attention the first time around. This is like the final concession in the song.

守ってあげたい場所
塗りつぶした距離
＜祝福＞なら　まっすぐ笑っていたいよ

The place I wanted to protect
Was completely painted over
If [it is a] blessing then [I] want to be straight laughing [in joy]

And that concludes Ikenai Go Ahead, a song that covers the various stages of grief of the losing party in the love triangle. In my opinion the composition is fantastic, the high bpm rock and the whole heartbreak theme is a lovely combination that really fits the genre. I don't really have a problem with the song itself in that sense.

As a series, I felt that Flagship was probably the most interesting song in the series to interpret because of some of the style of expressions used. It's also one of the songs in the series that got the most attention in terms of official discussions on the song process. All 3 songs are really great to listen to as a whole and suit their individual genres really well.

The main problem of the 3chord series is how the series concludes. Compared to the way they concluded the Seasons series, the way this ended is a complete let down. They did very well in staying true to the idea of 3 perspectives in time. The relative time frame across the 3 songs isn't exactly constant but it is a reasonably small window of time compared to the literal years of the Seasons series story. Canvas is from the time the boy notices her until the point he confesses, Flagship is from the confession to the point that she has an answer for her and Go Ahead is from the point the 2nd girl notices what's going on to the point she concedes.

The same point is also exactly why the song falls short of being a satisfying conclusion, we only ever get to know that the 2nd girl goes through various stages of grief and is bitter about losing out, but what happens with the two that are now together? There is no solid conclusion and we're left with a giant cliffhanger with no planned sequel in the same way some anime series close with a cliffhanger and never get enough funding to actually get to making that season 2. It's not a great feeling to leave the reader with.

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Anyway that concludes the 3chord series write-ups. Let me know if you're interested in hearing about the Seasons series or some other song or something. and be sure to like subscribe and hit the notification bell I'll probably be taking a break to write about some other fruity song for my next project but I'll consider whatever feedback there is in the meantime.