Lyrical Deep Dive: Kaze Series 1/4 ツインテールの風 - Winter is the season of falling in love

The MASTER SEASONS series of CD Albums tells a love story in 4 parts across 4 seasons, separated by several years. The first album came out in August 9th 2017 and the final part of the story was released on April 14th 2018. All 4 songs feature lyrics written by Mori Yuriko and feature the kanji for wind 風 (kaze) in the title. Together they represent one of the most unique collections of literature in all of Cinderella Girls. Twintail no kaze (literally "Twintail wind") is the 3rd song in the series, but is chronologically the first part of the story.

Twintail no Kaze is composed by Takizawa Shunsuke. Also known for countless other Cinderella Girls songs, most recently content like ココカラミライヘ and EVERLASTING (Together with Hidekazu Tanaka and Mutsuki Shuhei) just to name a few.

Like some ancient anime classics, there's going to be an eternal debate on whether the series should be experienced in chronological order or in original release order. To that end I have decided to do it in chronological order, since we're aiming to explain the inner workings of the song, I believe that this approach will give us the best possible idea of the sequence of events from the start to the end. Some people may prefer tackling the puzzle in its original form with release order, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader (Or perhaps you could go look up at all the discussion these songs generated when they first came out)

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.

ding-dong　ding-dong
高鳴る　心のチャイムが
君の髪がフワリ　風に揺れて

ding-dong ding-dong
Throbbing, the chime of heart is
Your hair is gently swaying in the wind

The first bit of context you get in the song is about a ringing bell, a throbbing and something about swaying hair. These are the essential 3 part combo that sets the stage for the first act. The chime of the heart sounds like something related to the ding dong but we're not actually given any context for that yet. There are clues to one thing though: The swaying hair in the wind implies that the target of the "you" subject is female. Of course we wouldn't know for sure considering ridiculous anime hairstyles, but that's a starting point.

席替えの日に　教科書忘れた僕
ごめんね　メチャメチャ恥ずかしい
ふたりで覗く　ページの中　落書き
メガネかけた「信長」　ウケた僕さ

On the day of seat change, the me [male] that forgot textbook
I'm sorry, this is super embarrassing
Together we peeked, the scribble in the page
glasses wearing Nobunaga I [male] found amusing

Welcome to the first act. It's the day of seat changes and someone forgot their textbook. We can infer that this is a school setting and the choice of pronoun suggests that the song is written from the male perspective. This is a classic boy meets girl scene with some kind of embarrassing memorable event together. And what better memorable event than one of the most iconic lines in the song and MV segment: The glasses wearing Nobunaga. So on this very first day of changing seats, these two characters share a textbook and have their very first encounter.

一緒に笑うと　胸の奥が歌うよ
頬っぺた　熱いんだ　寒い日なのに

When we laugh together, the inside of heart is singing [you know]
[It's the reason] Cheeks are hot, even though it's a cold day

So this segment is rather straightforward and an elaboration on how our male lead is developing feelings for the girl. Also note the weather is cold, which is kinda obvious since this is the WINTER album but sometimes we do need a little reminder to make sure that we know what season we're in. Up to this point it doesn't actually make any mention.

ding-dong　ding-dong
響いた　終業チャイムで
帰るなんてなんか今日はつまんない
ding-dong　ding-dong
じゃあねと君が駆け出せば
羽根のように靡いた　ツインテールが

ding-dong　ding-dong
Resounded. At the end of school chime..
things like return[ing] home today is kinda boring
ding-dong　ding-dong
"See you again" and if you start running
Twintails waved like a feather

The setting for this chorus is the end of the school day. As many would probably have guessed, the ding-dong is the sound of the school bell. It is unclear whether this is the same day as before, but it would be logical to assume that, considering the male lead's reluctance to return home. This scene describes the boy and girl parting for the day, where the boy observes the figure of the girl from the back as she departs. This is where he can observe the twintails of the girl. Since it's such a major subject of this song, it can be said that this is one of the elements that the guy finds captivating about her.

One thing that you might notice about the writing in this song is how explicit the song is about depicting the imagery. It makes it quite easy for one reading along to imagine each individual situation and scene.

僕よりだいぶ背の高い君のこと
遠くで　見つめていたけど
となり同士になれた夢のくじ引き
なのに　ザンネンな僕　からかうだけ

The taller than me [male] you
I gazed at from a distance but
To be able to become adjacent companions is lottery draw of dreams
Despite this, regrettable me [male]… just joking/bantering

So here we get some more interesting information about the characters. The guy is not as tall as the girl. There's also some interesting phrasing going on here. The guy is mulling over something… He's like not satisfied with being shorter than the girl as well, but yet considers their ability to seat next to each other to be a dream come true like winning the 1st tier prize on the kuji. And yet despite all of this there's something that he's deeply unsatisfied with, but brushes it off as a "just kidding" moment. Perhaps there are some sentiments of being unworthy here.

並んで立つたび　いつも凹んでいるけど
追い越す　もうすぐ　中学までにっ

When standing side by side, always depressed but
To overtake, soon, before middle school

This is a natural continuation of the last segment, which draws back to the internal struggles discussed earlier. One of the most important clues here though, is the timeline information. Throughout the 4 songs you will see clues on the timeline and throughout this 4 part saga we will have to put the pieces together.

BUT FIRST, we have to talk about the Japanese Education System! The timeframe hint given here is "before middle school" which is 中学. This is categorized as the age 12 to 14, or numerical grade 7 to 9. What is before this is generally called "Elementary School" according to wikipedia, 小学 or literally "small school". This is for ages 6 to 11 which represents the numerical grades 1 to 6. While there is no explicit timeline given here, we can infer a few things. The whole section, with the allusion to puberty growth spurts as well seems to hint that this is closer to the 10 year old mark (4th or 5th grade), although not entirely clear.

ding-dong　ding-dong
止まない　心のチャイムが
今日も外は北風吹いているけど
ding-dong　ding-dong
ハートのつぼみはひらくよ
いつもどんな季節にも傍にいたい

ding-dong ding-dong
unstoppable chime of the heart is
Today also/again a north wind is blowing but
ding-dong ding-dong
Flower bud of heart is opening you know
Whatever the season I always want to be by your side

Now we have even more love song stuff. Nothing unusual here. One interesting point to bring up is the use of north wind, which is typically used in literature to signify seasonal change. The north wind is usually cold, unless you live in Australia or something. In the northern hemisphere, this indicates cold weather which reinforces the idea of this being a winter song. The contrast in this section is between the idea of it being winter, but with a metaphor of a flower budding which is typically a spring activity. While insignificant in most other songs, the whole call and focus on seasons is rather significant in this song series, because that is thematically what the entire series is about.

次の席替えが来て
遠くなった君
後ろ姿を　目で追うよ
キモチだけまだ君のとなり…

The next change of seats came
You became distant
[I] followed the appearance of [your] back with [my] gaze
Just [my] feelings remained by your side…

This section reminds us that given this story the concept of time is not constant in this series. Unless my understanding of how school works is solely mistaken, this seems like an indication that some time may have gone by. It sounds like the girl ended up in a different part of the class, or different class entirely. There isn't a lot of details to draw a definite conclusion unless you have significantly more experience with the Japanese education system (which I am not). I wasn't able to find any information about standardized timings for change of seats in the Japanese system, so we can only make assumptions here.

ding-dong　ding-dong
止まない　心のチャイムが
今日も外は北風吹いているけど
ding-dong　ding-dong
ふくらむ　僕の片想い
ふと校庭ですれ違い　振り向けば
君もいま　振り向いた
羽根のように靡く　ツインテールが

ding-dong ding-dong
unstoppable chime of the heart is
Today also/again a north wind is blowing but
ding-dong ding-dong
Swelling, my [male] unrequited love
Unintentionally walk past each other in the schoolyard, if [I] turn around
Now you also turned around
Twintails waved like a feather

Oh song lyrics, how they've managed to turn the mundane into the significant. Usually a repetition of wording (with variation of individual phrases or major segments) is typical of a song, especially in the final chorus. But this time they've managed to turn this repetition into something that is important for timelining. The re-mention of the north wind tells you the season is still winter. This strongly suggests that these events are likely to have taken place a year later than the intro of the song. This also dismisses the idea that they were 11 years old (6th grade) before this, as they would have graduated had a year passed by.

And to end off the song, what better way to end it of with some very cliche anime love scene. I swear the imagery used in this song is so vivid its really easy to get a mental image of what the writer had in mind when it comes to the scenes. With the girl responding, it goes to show that maybe the male's love isn't so unrequited after all. Roll the To Be Continued screen. Of course it doesn't end here. There are 3 more seasons to go through and this is just the start of it.

So join me on the remaining 3 parts of this series as we continue to unravel the rest of the lore behind the series. Trust me, it only gets better from here and Twintail no Kaze is pretty much the filler backstory entry that tells you more information right before the end of the series if you look at it in chronological release order.