Lyrical Deep Dive: Packing Her Favorite - Unpacking Her Favorite

Packing Her Favorite is Hisakawa Hayate's Cinderella Master, specifically it is CM 062. It was released on the 20th of April 2022, alongside the other two CMs for the year. It is composed by seibin (ESTIMATE) and with lyrics written by our Cinderella Girls lyric overlord Yuta Yashiro.

seibin is a Korean composer not unfamiliar with the franchise. Their previous work includes Palette and サニードロップ, all very good songs in their own right. They're also a massive HayateP apparently...

Ordinarily, I would introduce to you some info on why I'm doing an explanation on this song, but instead I'm going to take a page out of Hayate's commu 1, where the producer doesn't explain why he passed Hayate for the audition. We're going to play a little game. Let's see if you can figure out why by the end.

Anyway this song lyrics seems pretty straightforward so we should be able to get through this without terribly much drama in translation for once.

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

The first thing that you notice in this song is that there's a lot of talk about flight and travel related words. I suppose the album art really helps you get an idea of this since she's quite literally holding on to a suitcase.

In this case, the changing of the world likely refers to her world view as part of the journey to become an idol. This is pretty common in terms of songs. Also another point here is that "The excitement that won't stop" (together with sparkling) is technically being used to describe the flight. It can be seen that the flight is considered some massive event.

「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 first line here is a speech and phrased in a way an announcer would announce the next destination on a train or... a plane even! Hey I wonder why that's the case huh...

If you know Hayate's introduction story, she wasn't scouted, but she got in by audition (unlike her sister Nagi who got scouted) which means the road to the stage was more stressful on her end. So in a sense, we have the destination of this flight and travel being the stage and being an idol and the packing represents the preparation done before that part can be achieved.

Also one more thing, there's a mention of a ring light which is something thats typically used by influencers for taking photos. We're not here to discuss lighting and cameras, but I think this would be one of those details that point towards Hayate's interests and hobbies.

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

Just in case you've never looked at the album art, this is where we're introduced to the suitcase, so that we can do some actual physical packing.

What else would you like to know about a suitcase? I guess because it's for her own exclusive use she can fit whatever she wants in there, but as we'll soon discover things aren't really all that simple.

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!)

So both Nagi and Hayate's solo have somewhat of a focus on the idea of being away from home. Their hometown is Tokushima after all. This is kind of like going to the big city in the hopes of making it big. After all, originally Nagi did not have plans to become an idol, but she wanted to support Hayate's ambition to become an idol.

Here we are also introduced to something that is a part of Hayate's character, which is fashion. I guess fashion in the big city these days involves wearing risqué outfits or something. I can't say I'm a fashion expert myself so what do I know. Hayate's supposed to be 14 years old, but this series seems to have no shortage of young girls who want to wear risky outfits so this gets a pass here.

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...

With so much excitement and anticipation for the big move to this new world of idols, it seems like the luggage has gotten a bit full. A natural process of packing of course.

One of the interesting things to note about this section is that there's the retro style sound effect kinda like the coin pickup sound effect from the NES super mario brothers. This is present in both Nagi and Hayate's solo song which is an interesting common point between the two. Did I mention both songs are just 4 bpm apart?

So we know that the luggage is about to explode, but what about this special girl? In this case, we can always look towards the next line for an answer.

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

With the packing completed, Hayate can step into the sparkling world of idols. It can be easy to confuse the "destinations" but in this case, the sparkling world is that of the stage. Tokyo is more or less a means to an end.

We might want to ask what "catching up" is required in this context. In this case I think that Hayate being a relatively new idol has a lot to learn and pick up. Plus she has this persona where she frequently talks about being able to do things well (or learn quickly). This is something that's even present in her character introduction.

The back half of the chorus here is another callback to her memorial 1 commu. She declares in the audition that her objective and reason for becoming an idol is to make everyone say they like her, and so these lyrics sort of remind you of those events, or perhaps that ideal scenario.

期待しかない　今のワタシ
パッキング

Nothing but expectations , the me of now
packing

Of course, all of this is the future, the current Hayate is still packing.... But what is she packing?

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

It seems like the packing is not done very competently which is a bit of an issue considering that the contents of the carry are supposed to be important to the journey. What could this mean for the trip to Tokyo and that sparkling world?

「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?!

It's actually super unusual that the 2nd line is written entirely in Japanese engrish with katakana. The translation you see there are the exact words used.

What's important to take note here is that this packing thing has kept her up late at night, which means she's probably putting a lot of thought into this. When you combine this with the idol analogy, this makes it seem that she is holding some uncertainties about the whole idol thing, but it's not really obvious what these are. Whatever it is, it's causing her to spend a lot of time on the preparation.

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!)

An important part of packing is to make sure the essentials are in there. This would be like one of those sanity checks to do right before you set off, so we can probably assume that this would be another day compared to the last part.

So up until now we haven't mentioned something about the Mom of the Hisakawas. "Yuuko-chan" as she's referred to by the twins, not to be confused with another idol known for being a psychic dumbass. In the last part we were introduced to some speech from Yuuko chan and so this part actually marks her 2nd line in the song. Normally a solo song doesn't have multiple voices, in that the words being said in the lyrics, even if they are quotations, are meant to be the voice of the singer and representative of their own thoughts, but this is considered a rare exception. If anything this highlights the close relationship she has with her mother and the concern the mom has for her.

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...)

This is starting to sound like a true vacation where all the wilder personalities start to come out when it comes to clothing. This is the 2nd time we've covered clothing related stuff.

Also the 3rd line is the only awkward to translate line in the entire song (if you don't count how "ittadakimasu" is actually formal polite "to receive" but is used in the context of meals to express gratitude) so let's clarify some stuff here. The sentence here uses structure common in casual speech. The first clause is "if cold then bad/don't like" so if you were to try and translate for meaning and not for nuance it would be "It would suck if it got cold, so this is a cardigan [for that]". Its debatable whether cardigan and sneakers were meant to go together as part of the same outfit, as there are no connecting particles between the two nouns. Either way you slice it, it seems like she still has space issues when it comes to physical preparations.

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?

Remember how packing was supposed to be some kind of metaphor for preparation to enter the new world of idols? We actually get to cover more of that here, just in case you didn't catch that idea already earlier on.

It turns out that packing so much stuff means you can't fit everything, what does that mean? She only gets a limited amount of things she can bring over to the world of idols damn airline weight limits these days. She has to decide for herself what is important to her. Note that here it says that dreams and aspirations won't fit which really raises the question of what sort of things was considered important enough for those to have priority over dreams and ambitions. Or maybe the dreams and aspirations are so big they don't fit in?

She has to make her choices on what she wants to bring. What will be her decision ultimately? Perhaps we will find out...

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 there's something here about failing a lot, which is a little strange. I'm not a complete loremaster, but when it comes to Hayate, the general impression is that she's more known for the 2nd half of this chorus, as the girl who can do things well. So what exactly is she failing a lot here?

誰も知らない　今のワタシ
パッキング

Nobody knows, the me of now
packing

Of course as someone who has yet to make it in the world of idols, she wouldn't be known by others. Which explains the focus on the preparation process? In many ways a first impression is very important, and it's clear that this is something not being taken lightly.

(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

Size in this case could be literal or metaphorical. It could be talking about a physical growth in maturity, or even a growth in renown and fame as they make it as an idol.

The part about being in dire distress is a small headscratcher because its not clear exactly what she's in distress over. From what we've covered so far, it seems like she's overly concerned over her packing, her preparation.

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?)

We've known that she's been working tirelessly to cram everything, and that's a lot of the message we've gotten from this song so far. But what's this about the "me of now that I like"? Could it be that there's something she likes about the girl that's in deep distress over packing her stuff? Is that a little wild? It's a bit weird, but the song gets weirder.

Before that though, we know that there's dangers to having your suitcase too full. Zippers aren't exactly known for being the most durable thing in the world, nor are they exactly great at load bearing, so an overpacked luggage could just burst open, but it seems like Hayate has a very high risk tolerance or is just kinda crazy.

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

Welcome to the reference zone. We shall ignore all the weirdness going on here because that's another can of worms. There's the mention of souvenir (not in katakana) which is your reference to Nagi's solo (14平米にスーベニア) And then there's the thing about meeting on Monday. The days of the week have not been relevant to this song's discussion until this point, so we can only assume that this has something to do in reference to O-Ku-Ri-Mo-No Sunday! since that song also has that one line in the chorus "キミがそばにいる今日は (You are by my side, today is)" and the day after Sunday is Monday so.... But let's not stay too long on this point.

So what's this part about making a space to fit in a souvenir? What could this mean? Nagi's song is about a girl moving from the countryside to the city. Hayate's song is very much of the same thing but the differences seems to be that Nagi's song is the opposite (heh) in terms of focus. Hayate's song focuses on arriving at the destination while Nagi's song is about life after reaching the destination. Note that both songs are written by the same lyricist, and Nagi's was done first. In some ways you can see there's a bit of a continuation in terms of themes, but this part of the song is truly a weird part.

There's several ways you can look at this, it could be about the importance of Nagi as her sister in her life with the focus on the relationship. The other way to look at this is that the souvenir refers to elements of their hometown. The whole song so far has been about adopting new things to survive or stand out in the new world awaiting at the destination, and so perhaps this was the element that is the emphasis here.

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]

Like a typical idol journey, there's an element of exploration and self discovery here. After all that preparation to become an idol is just to get her foot into the door after all.

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

What does this part mean? Why are we talking about some kid right at the end of the song? If you call back to Hayate Memorial commu 1 again (in reference to how she wants everyone to like her), in that case, this expression becomes one that conveys the idea of "that kid [over there]" will also like the current Hayate.

This brings us to the end of the song. Time's up, have you figured out why the song was chosen yet?

No?

Indeed, if you think it through so far, everything we've gone through is fine and good. However, doesn't it come off as a bit ordinary, plain or maybe even too orthodox? A little unsatisfying? Yes, this is as bit of a strange situation that I've finished writing this article yet somehow it feels like there's a missing part of the puzzle somewhere. What do you think?

There has to be more to this!