A mini report on a meaningful song I've rediscovered

[Riri]

It's eerie, dark and has a very meaningful message: it's Keyakizaka46's Mou Mori e Kareou ka? (Shall we return to the forest now?)
The lyrics speak of how corrupted and oppressing the town is, making everyone want to return to the forest where the air is breathable and they are free.

Shall we return to the forest now?
There was nothing for us in the city
It was really quite different
From the world we had imagined
There’s neither earth nor greenery
In this cramped space
I wonder what makes people decide
To start living in a place like this?
Amidst the bustling noise
Even if they speak to each other of love
All the steel and concrete
Can never convey warmth for them

At first it may seem they are talking about pollution and environment problems, but that is not quite it (even tho we know Keyaki are green legends).
The actual meaning has been given to us thanks to the MV's director who explained in detail what the song wants to convey and how the girls should be acting in the MV


"Mass manufactured idols" seem to be the general idea behind the song. In a society where big groups of girls debut and fight for the spotlight, the forest symbolizes the innocence and the normal day to day life. The town is cold and unappealing once they start living in it meaning that the entertainment is not as shiny as most people with dreams of debuting think it is.
The nature has succumbed: there is only winds of rumors, the sky is filthy of pollution and time is driving everyone to the same sad destiny.
Here are the rest of the lyrics.

Member of the group Saito Fuyuka also explained the MV in one of her blogs, when it was first released:

Spoiler: explanation

In the plastic-sheet greenhouse at the beginning
Are idols that have been thrown away....
From among them, Hirate stands up
And walks off somewhere.
As if lured away by her
They progressively stand up and walk off
That's the setting it starts from.
Partway through,
We began moving mechanically,
As if we were actually manufactured.
Our feelings, of course, were "none."
Then came the image of us used up
And thrown away like garbage.
That was the scene where we were lying on top of each other.
But we ran out from the gates
Of the factory where we were made,
And after the escape scene
We fled here, to the symbol of a
Huge blaze like the rising sun.
From there feelings we shouldn't have had bubbled up in us
And in the end, our feelings exploded into dance.
I wonder what image of "Utopia"
Each of us has in her mind...?
It's a story that makes you think about things like that.
There's finer detail,
But that's a rough outline.
"Being an idol is difficult..."
I somehow thought.

I've always liked this song but just recently gave it more thoughts after seeing this performance



Stan Keyakizaka46, stan green legends​

 

[Yuki]

yes stan edgy queens

 

[BlueNose]

One of my fav Keyaki songs, but i never knew the behind it
the mv is beautiful and shows the concept well
and the perf is well put together as well

the last part of the lyrics hit me the most
When we look back (when we look back)
We see our shining (hometown)
It is that forest (utopia)

 

[Riri]

One of my fav Keyaki songs, but i never knew the behind it
the mv is beautiful and shows the concept well
and the perf is well put together as well

the last part of the lyrics hit me the most
When we look back (when we look back)
We see our shining (hometown)
It is that forest (utopia)

yeah it's like, they left the forest to seek the utopia but the utopia was the forest all along

 

[demasta]

queens

 

[Some]

Mou mori e still one of my all time faves