Single NGT48 2nd [Sekai wa Doko Made Aozora na no ka?] (2017/12/06)

I like the song for message it is trying to convey.

NGT48's have never fitted the 'AKB48' song mould.

MAX toki 315 go, Midori to Mori undokoen and Seishun dokei all start with a surreal feeling. The new song is no different, to me anyways.

 

Everything but the ending is great for me, it felt so weird and I had to skip it

 

Idk but the parallel scene of Ogiyuka saying the lines confidently and then her saying it in tears gives me a weird feeling that there might be a sequel of this MV. Like, how did she go from being so confident to crying in fear? Did something happen? Did she regret her decision being an idol? It gives me suspense feeling tbh.

 

Now that I'm no longer drunk with the initial excitement, I rewatched the MV and noticed a few things.
The MV is kind of spazztic! The frames change at an average speed of approximately 1 seconds per scene.
I now realize that as a fan it was easier for me to identify the non-main members in those 0.01 seconds, but it's actually hard for casual fans and general people to process their faces. I thought some of my faves got decent shots, but now I find that the frames move so fast you can't really tell it's them. This is a 10 minutes long MV! It's actually MUCH better to have one long shot than extremely short ones scattered throughout. At least we got a good shot of Mahohon hair flipping in the beginning.
When I first watched the MV, I couldn't concentrate on the words Ogiyuka was saying at the end because I got scared and skipped it when she started crying and repeating herself. Now that I actually sat through the whole thing, it's even worse lol those lines are too unrealistic and heavy, and it's really unfair to Ogiyuka. Whoever thought it was a good idea should be fired.

 

I think we'll find out next SSK/whenever the NGT documentary comes out lol.

 

Wow. That was interesting. It reminded me a bit much of School Idol anime. The main song, I mean.

 

They could play it with next single should being the answer song to this one (I mean, the main song title itself is actually a question). The third single would be a dark song about how the sky is not always blue (centered by our negative queen Nakai Rika).

 

Personally, I interpreted the last scene as Ogiyuka being overwhelmed by happiness to the point of tears.
Since the character in the drama is pretty much herself playing a fictionalized account of her life, this may be just another trait of herself that they decided to include in the narrative. And one she's pretty well known for, too.

 

And you wonder why those two are so close esp the 2016 SSK results and Thanksgiving concert. Positive and Negative attracts each other.

 

Two ways of interpretations from me:

Setting:

Since the drama was all about her resolution into what it really takes into being an idol which Kitarie and Yukirin beats her down with the reality that she might be better off in school and meeting boys.

And she showed them she really meant it by training hard rocky balboa style everyday by herself and threading those costumes also by herself, she was recognized slowly and affected the other girls into joining her dream and standing beside her.

Spoiler

(A) Two possible future (Unrelated theory)

At the end of the song, the epilogue we are shown has two realities juxtapose side by side as to where Ogiyuka seem to have succeeded it to her dream or might have failed miserably and had hit the bottom of the canyon. The monologue she uttered can really go both ways in terms of endings as we do not know the future of her story (fictional in mv or in reality as well).

Spoiler

(B) Before and After (Related theory)

Based on the clothes she wore...

The first time when she wore the school uniform running to the hill where she usually trains, she uttered this monologue probably before the fact she started her whole resolution into becoming an idol and thus had high hopes into what she will become.

But after a while, she seemed to have became that idol she dreamed of as she wore the black dress costume. Without given much more information and based on the heavy ventilating signs she might be in the process of a struggle in her idol career with some deep stress bothering her. She remembers the monologue she uttered and reminded herself by saying it out loud what her resolution was when she uttered those same words into the same vast blue sky long time ago...

...

No matter in which theory or situation, she smiled at the end.

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Hope I am writing this clear because it's 5 am in the morning and I'm kinda high lol Analyze the monologue again you might find more meaning into what I am saying here.

Spoiler

Some of you probably think it was weird because you thought she might be saying those words to you the viewer, which I think should be more meaningful (if you would pretend yourself wasn't there because) she was actually saying it to the sky and to herself. (Monologue duh) We all talk to ourselves sometimes right?

I'd say that was pretty good acting from Ogiyuka

 

^ I buy the B theory more though. Before and after seems plausible.

But no matter what, Ogiyuka's acting was disturbing in the MV. Perhaps a little more studio magic (and perhaps better directing) aannd a little more practice would have done lots to better the MV. To me, the MV quality is both giving me the professional-look and amateur-feel. The camera/video/cinematic quality is pretty grand, it's obvious that they had quite the budget to take various shots. But, other than Ogiyuka's acting, the MV also felt amateurish, in a way that some shots are pretty shaky. I agree that the frames change too fast. I know the song is fast paced, but the frames change can be toned down. It felt like they are trying to cram too much into the MV. As a trailer or preview to something else, sure, it's looking okay, so I'm hoping it is going to link to something else.

But wow, Ogiyuka do have a lot of moles.

And I liked Okappa's role, reminding her senpai for a reality check.

 

The monologe style and the "before and after" concept is obvious to me. This part is to prove Rie's speech "It's not just funs and games. There are highs and lows, too", as well as Yuka's speech "Do you have confidene without despair? I do", " Sudden winds and storm. You can't get it let you down".

Instead of suggesting a sequel, this part makes the story complete. Though, it is long and cringe, particularly Ogi's crying scenes

I see it as a 4-min music video + 7-min extra drama. If you do not like the drama and acting, or think of a fairer screen-time distribution, you can skip the drama part. The camera change is rush, but I think it is a common thing in 48 MVs ?

 

yea, like I got the msg, but I just felt there were other ways to make it less cringey lol. The MV is still amazing even with that ending tbh. And really u can just stop the MV right at the time she starts that monologue-thing. U see it once and you're good imo lol.

 

I had a similar interpretation as your 2nd theory. It's like the saying "easier said than done". I assumed the Ogiyuka in school uniform was before she was an idol so it was easier for her to say these words. While the scenes she's crying is after she became an idol and she now realizes the weight and consequence of her words and promises.

 

I tend to like my sequential before and after theory too but I just can't rule out completely my parallel world theory because it will be an interesting message too. It's a really nice touch that the director made this subtle because she basically told two different stories with one narrative.

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Anyways I would have to disagree saying the MV is amateurish. The shooting technique the director used is well conceived to me. The collage-montage type of a fast paced cut scenes of seemingly random shots is pretty common in Japanese animation openings, as you have to assume they are there in the sequence for a reason of pushing a narrative.

Personally I really love the build up intro part where the director introduces each members role in this MV. I mean she intentionally edited these fast paced cut scenes into some slow-mo shots just for you to have a better glimpse of our cute girls without interrupting the narrative tempo LOL Just how considerate can she be? Take a good look as most scenes here can be a awesome GIF for some girls.

I especially love the transitions of multiple uses of cut scenes such as slow-mos, jump cut, match cut, flash back shots and many more. (She is definitely telling us she knows how to use these techniques)

Even the first shot we see here, one of the members is acting like a transition wipe cut scene by jumping over from one screen to another. That is just brilliant and at that scene on I already know the rest of the MV was gunna be visually impactful. The director knows what she is doing and she is doing these shots for a purpose.

Off shot member is acting like a transition wipe cut scene


Few more example from these small transition cut scenes absolutely brilliant.

Ogiyuka practicing > Kitarie and Yukirin looking backwards then stepping the puddle > bam Ogiyuka (Also notice the shot here is reversed in time shown by the motion of the rain, indication of the next scene? Flash back!)



Various cutscenes > Uniform in the snow (season changed cuz time passed) > bam Ogiyuka flash forward


To illustrate my point "why I think the director knows what she is doing" a little bit more, the shots does actually have a pattern/structure it follows.

i.e.)
The beginning of the MV (when music played) started out slow and showed a stable constant focused shot to tell the viewers who the protagonists in this story gunna be.

Sorry GIF was too big had to downsize this one (This narrative was important enough to have a whopping 20 sec duration)


Then the intro cut scenes kicks in...

Around every 4-6 random cut scene will always bring the viewer back to a Ogiyuka flash back scene to the staircase where she is sitting alone.




Except for this last one as it ended in 3 cut scenes to signal an abrubt end was to happen next as Ogiyuka drop to the floor.

And then a whole new sequence of cut scenes happened to tell another narrative and so on. Just analyze it scene by scene guys! And notice the clothes changes indicates a leap of time!



Not a pro at film analysis, but I hope I'm not making things up because to me this is just good story telling through directing and editing techniques here. Refined work of art.

Also the object shots is strikingly similar to the styles namely the more famous ones like Evangelion, Madoka, Monogatari series, Zetsubo Sensei. Since these are my hella top fav shows, they all do a great job in providing impacting dynamic visuals while providing small details to a narrative about the context of the story. Cuz I mean do you any guys even noticed there were tons of small references to the last single MVs too?

The sound of the sea(Kurayami), Lovela2(Seishun), red color silk, school uniforms(Shitsujin), idk if they were included intentionally but the thought of pondering that leaves room for interpretation which I do agree with some of you there might be a sequel to this. In fact if better described, it may well be a trilogy of MVs.

And sorry for the long post, here is my fav shot in the mv. Ogiyuka turning her back on the camera and looking at her companions is just effing emotionally beautiful idk how to even describe as I got so much goosbumps from this scene. (This is probably how it looks like when members are looking at her back, it just makes you wanna put your best into dance more.)



As I might be the most h-core STU fan on this forum, I'm kinda glad now they pushed back their STU debut single to January 2018 because I have to say the best MV award of 2017 has to go to NGT cuz they really hit the home run here and they pretty much beat out any groups single MV I've seen so far this year by a large margin. (English sub-titles?? Come on that is just not fair lol o-effing-p)

When was the last time you got an MV that actually had a really good structured story line? To me it was Iwake Maybe perhaps, because that's how I got into AKB. GOOD QUALITY MVs!

What can people possibly be complaining about the small irrelevant things in this MV just boggles my mind.

 

TBH, I have watched Japanese dramas long enough to automatically discount bad acting (esp those with new young actors) and to just enjoy the drama.

Give the girls some slack. They are 1st and foremost idols, not actresses. Hinatan's acting in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was stiff according to some, now she is seen as the better actress compared to OgiYuka. This is OgiYuka's 1st time acting to a script and character. I personally thought it was normal and quite good.

Time from when the announcement was made and when the MV was released is short. I think all the MVs were all done over a weekend or two, since the girls had other AKB48 events, stage shows and school to attend to.

I was never interested in AKB48 (the mother ship) and still am not. I didn't enjoy or like the Heavy Rotation MV (and nsfw) . But it seems that it is a very popular song.

I have been reading google translated matome and it came with some reality checks. Does NGT48 (girls, theatre rent and support staff) have enough of income stream to support more girls? Ogiyuka and Hime at the moment are NGT48's main income earners, other than normal theatre performances. I am taking Kitarie out since she's leaving.

Whether NGT48 gets more girls will depend on money, so the 2nd single's sales and related events are important. Some Japanese posters don't like handshake events but they are buying cds to make up for it. I can't go because of geographical reasons, so I am buying all 4 CDs to support the group. Much cheaper and the sales go toward stats which management looks at.

 

@marioworldakb : good assessment

 

Hohoho I'm also impressed with Hinatan's acting I knew she had it in when her character in Higurashi stopped being 1-dimentional and her true chara was revealed. She has improved even more since then!
So yeah, Ogiyuka's acting might come off awkward but in the end it's her first time and this is just an MV.

 

I've only watched the PV now and whoa! I hope AKB and all the other 48G learn from this PV on how PVs should be done!!!

Love it.

Only qualm would be the 1 sec shot transitions that make it almost impossible to recognize the lower senbatsu.

I'm not even sure if I saw Katomina in the video or not.

I can only hope SKE management can come up with this set in Aichi.

 

https://twitter.com/official_NGT48/status/930058263395045376

You know the drill already: see you tomorrow at 8:00 AM JST for more important infos about the single.