Learn Japanese with Pop Music with these 23 Song Recommendations (Full Translations Included!)

愛唄 (Ai Uta, "Love Song") is GReeeeN doing what they do best: a guy who knows he is being cheesy and says it anyway. He opens by admitting that saying 「愛してる」 ("I love you") is クサい (kusai). Literally that word means "smelly," but here it is slang for corny or cringey, the kind of line that makes your friends groan. Then he shrugs: there is no other way to say it. And she laughs at him, of course. 「ほらね! またバカにして笑ったよね」 ("See! You made fun of me and laughed again"). I love that the song lets her tease him.

The heart of it is simple. He is not sure she picked the right guy, but standing 隣 (tonari, "next to") her through days of crying and laughing has become his reason to live. He looks back at their first meeting, when they were awkward with each other (よそよそしく, yosoyososhiku, "distant, stiff, like strangers"), and the fights since. By the end he promises to hold her hand until his voice gives out with age, and to swear to God 「めちゃくちゃ好きだ!」 ("I love you like crazy!"). めちゃくちゃ is casual slang for "insanely" or "a ridiculous amount," which is exactly how a nervous boyfriend talks. He even calls his own song ヘタクソ (hetakuso, "terrible, clumsy"), which is a bit much, but it is also why the whole thing feels honest.

YOASOBI's song is a pep talk the singer gives herself, and by the second half, to you too. It opens with life rushing past: seasons gone before you can miss them, meetings and goodbyes coming so fast there is no time to get ready, and the morning sun rising again anyway. Nobody knows where wishes or a sweet little crush will end up, so she just keeps walking.

The image that carries the whole thing is flowers. "枯れかけた木にも" (even on a tree that is almost dead) / "花は咲く" (flowers bloom), and then the command "私よ 咲き誇れもっと" (Me, bloom proudly, even more). The title verb, 咲き誇る, means to bloom in full glory, and here it is in the imperative, which makes it sound like she is shouting at herself in the mirror. I love that she does not wait for the spring wind either: she wants to go on ahead of it.

A word to watch: "何一つ見逃さないでいたいの" (happiness, for sure) uses 仕合わせ, an older way of writing shiawase (happiness) that literally hints at things fitting together by chance. Later the song turns it around with 不仕合わせ (unhappiness), telling you not to decide you are unlucky just because rain is wetting your cheeks. The chorus keeps pointing "over there" at her answer and her future, and the ending repeats "咲き誇れ 咲き誇れ" (bloom proudly, bloom proudly) like a chant. It is sweet, a little relentless, and very easy to sing along to.

This song is a sugar rush of a love confession, and M!LK don't hold back. The title word 爆裂 (bakuretsu) means "explosive" or "bursting," and the chorus stacks the word for love five times in a row: "爆裂 愛愛愛愛愛してる" [I explosively love-love-love-love-love you]. It's a bit much, and that is exactly the point. The feeling is "キャパ越え寸前" [right on the edge of over capacity], so it ends in a "ビッグバン" [big bang].

The first verse starts somewhere very modern: "ハートの通知が来るたび" [every time a heart notification comes in]. Likes and one-tap reactions are tiny proofs of love, but the song asks "それだけじゃ物足りない?" [isn't that alone not enough?]. 物足りない is a handy word: something is missing, it leaves you wanting more. From there the song zooms out to the whole universe. Stars are the "スポットライト" [spotlight], the moon is a "ミラーボール" [mirror ball], and the person he loves is "キミこそが太陽" [you are the sun]. こそ adds strong emphasis, like "you, and nobody else."

There is a softer middle, and it's my favourite part. He wants to be the first to tell you that "月がやけに綺麗だった" [the moon was oddly beautiful] on the walk home. Japanese learners will know the old line that "the moon is beautiful" can mean "I love you," and here it sits next to small everyday sparkle. The song also says love is not something to fight over: "奪い合うものじゃなく" [not something to grab from each other], it's something everyone piles up together. "いかなる愛でも大正解" [any kind of love is the right answer] makes the message open to every kind of love.

Watch for the slang. シェアハピ is short for "share happy," sharing your happiness, and ピーポー is "people" in a jokey katakana spelling. The hook "一生一緒にいたいっしょ!" [you want to be together forever, right?] is a pun: いっしょ (together) and the casual tag っしょ (right?) sound the same.

"マイオンリー" (My Only) is SixTONES at their most openly devoted, and honestly it is a bit much in the best way. It opens like a movie scene the narrator hates: he is standing in the rain on a lonely night, following the trail of tears someone he can see in the distance has cried. Then the wish kicks in: "その手を握れたなら" [if only I could hold that hand], and suddenly "モノクロも色付く淡い世界" [even a black-and-white world takes on pale color]. That is the whole song in one image. Her presence is what turns the gray to color.

The chorus is where he lays it all out. "これ以上何も望まないから" [I won't wish for anything more] and "ただ俺のそばにいて欲しい" [I just want you by my side]. Notice he switches between あなた (a soft, respectful "you") and 君 (a closer, more casual "you"), and calls himself 俺, the rough, masculine "I". There is also a cheeky line, "もう俺しかいないって言わせたいんだ" [I want to make you say there's no one but me], which comes back later as a confident "分かってるだろ?" [you know it, right?]. He even admits he is clumsy about it: "不器用なまま君抱きしめたい" [I want to hold you, clumsy as I am].

The bridge is my favourite part. "涙降り止まないなら 傘となって護りたい" [if your tears won't stop falling, I want to become an umbrella and protect you] pays off that rainy opening perfectly. And the "運命の糸" [thread of fate] he keeps mentioning is the red thread of fate, a popular East Asian idea that two people destined for each other are tied together by an invisible string. Then the outro just loops "愛してる forever" [I love you forever] over and over, which is about as subtle as a boy band gets.

Natori's "セレナーデ" (Serenade) is a love song sung by someone who has decided they are the problem. The narrator is stuck in place: "ここから動けない" (I can't move from here), with a future that "ずっと 止まったままでいた" (has stayed frozen all this time). Then comes the chorus, which is a strange, sad kind of serenade. Instead of asking to be loved back, the singer begs "僕に触れないで!" (don't touch me!) and wishes the other person "僕なしで上手く幸せになってね" (be happy, and do it well, without me). It even asks for punishment: "罰をください" (give me punishment). That is a lot, and the song knows it.

The second verse turns almost theatrical. Life is "シナリオ通りのコメディ" (a comedy that follows the script), and the line "不幸自慢はハウメニー?" (how many in the misery-bragging contest?) mixes Japanese with the English "how many" written in katakana as ハウメニー. 不幸自慢 is a handy word: bragging about how unlucky you are. The narrator even admits "僕らは 全員共犯者だった" (we were all accomplices).

For learners: the bridge is a great drill. "あと 何回数えたら" (how many more times do I have to count), "あと 何回傷つけば" (how many more times do I have to get hurt), and so on, all lead to "この思いは満たされる?" (will this feeling ever be filled?). Watch the conditional endings change: たら, ば, えば. And the closing promise, "願い疲れても歌うよ" (even if I'm tired of wishing, I'll sing), uses ても for "even if", which you will hear everywhere in Japanese songs.

"Five" feels like Arashi looking back at the road they walked together and deciding it was worth every step. It opens on a smell, of all things: "不思議と懐かしい風の匂い" (a wind that smells strangely nostalgic), a breeze that slips past and feels like a hand gently pushing their back. Then comes an honest question: "どれほどの夢を描いて どこまで届いたろう" (how many dreams did we draw, and how far did they reach?). What's left is "ザラついた 埃の手触り" (the gritty feel of dust), which is a pretty unglamorous image for a pop song, and I love it for that.

The heart of the song is the star image. Someone once said a night sky with no stars is boring, and the reply is gorgeous: "僕らが歩いた軌跡がいま 星座を紡いでゆく" (the path we walked is now spinning into constellations). Even if the lines are "イビツで不揃い" (crooked and uneven), the feelings still connect. Learner tip: 紡ぐ literally means to spin thread, so the constellation is being stitched together from their footsteps.

Five people, five skies

The title fits the five members, and the lyrics talk about life going on "それぞれの空の下で" (each under our own sky) while still "同じ時間を刻んでいる" (ticking through the same time). There's no despair here. "だから迷いはもうないんだ" (so there's no more hesitation) and "ここからまた始まるんだ" (it starts again from here). The ending lands on plain gratitude: "心からありがとう 言えたこと" (that we could say thank you from the heart). It's sentimental, sure, but it earns it.

Mrs. GREEN APPLE open this one with a little rule for life: "孤独を知って 愛を知る" (Knowing loneliness, I come to know love). You only understand love once you have been lonely. Then the logic gets sweet. "五感 働いて 君を救う" (With all five senses at work, I save you), and "それはつまり 僕も救う" (Which means I save myself too). Helping you and helping me turn out to be the same thing, because "結局僕らは人と人" (In the end, we're all just people).

The chorus is the part that sticks. "I love you の先へ" (Beyond I love you) is a lovely bit of mixed English and Japanese: の先へ means "to what comes after", so the singer wants to go further than the words "I love you". Then comes the relief of "僕はもう独りじゃないね" (I'm not alone anymore, am I). That ね at the end is a soft "right?", like he is checking with you and smiling. And "Upbeat で闇を晴らして" (Clearing away the darkness with an upbeat) is basically the song describing itself.

It is not all sunshine, though. The verse admits that "生きることのひどい痛みには意味があると信じてる" (I believe there's meaning in the awful pain of living), and the word やるせない in the next line is a great one to learn: it is that heavy, helpless, nothing-I-can-do feeling. The answer the song gives is cheerful stubbornness. "僕は僕をただ更新して" (I just keep updating myself) sounds like a phone software update, and I love that. "雨に唄ってスイングをして" (Singing in the rain and swinging along) nods to the old film Singin' in the Rain, and "希望とシェイクハンドして" (Shaking hands with hope) borrows the English "shake hand" straight into Japanese.

By the end the title makes sense: after "繭に包まれた人の夢" (A person's dream wrapped in a cocoon) and "鏡を見つめ直して" (Looking into the mirror once again), he arrives at "真新しい自分" (A brand new me). Out of the cocoon, brand new.

Snow Man turn a bad day into a party invitation here, and the whole song is basically a friend dragging you off the sofa. It opens by telling you that happiness is simpler than you think: "大丈夫 実は単純で" (it's okay, it's actually simple) and "近くにあるのが happy で" (happy is the thing close by). Even taking a detour counts as a win, because "寄り道しちゃうくらいで / プレミアムなんじゃない?" (just wandering off the path is kind of premium, right?). Then the singer admits he gets it too: "感情はジェットコースター" (my emotions are a roller coaster), and he blames it all on love.

The chorus is the fun part. "僕のところにおいで" (come over to my place) and "いいよ 手ぶらでおいで" (it's fine, come empty-handed) are lovely everyday Japanese: 手ぶら literally means "empty hands", and it's what you say when a guest doesn't need to bring anything. The only rule is "Love だけ忘れないで" (just don't forget the love), and the door is left open with "扉の鍵開けとくよ" (I'll leave the door unlocked). Watch for the made-up word プレ味 in "プレ味だね" (that's premium flavour), a cute shortening of プレミアム plus 味 (taste). There's slang too: とりま in "とりま 笑っちゃえば" (for now, just laugh it off) is youth slang for とりあえず, "for the time being". My favourite line is the silliest one: "オハヨー! 起きただけで最優秀賞" (morning! you get the top prize just for waking up). It's a bit much, and that's exactly why it works.

Moonlit by Naniwa Danshi is a sweet, wide-eyed crush song, and it does not pretend to be anything cooler than that. The singer touches someone's cheek and just stares, then admits he can't even read his own feelings until a friend points them out. That little jolt of wait, is this true? is the whole engine of the first verse.

The central image is the evening moon (宵の月, yoi no tsuki, the moon you see early in the night), twinkling and swaying the way his thoughts do. Watch for the soft sound words きらり (kirari, a sparkle) and ゆらり (yurari, a gentle sway): Japanese pop loves these, and a plain translation flattens them. He brags a bit too, saying he could find her straight away even if she hid in an empty amusement park, like magic. It is a little much, and that is the charm.

The details are lovely and specific: out-of-season fireworks, bittersweet chocolate, and the moment he can't manage to say goodbye, waves at her back, and she turns around. By the end the night is over and he is asking the moon not to fade, because he wants to keep gazing. The English hooks about love being a treasure are simple, but the Japanese lines underneath are where the real feeling lives.

This song is a pun machine, and the pun is spelled out in the first verse. Hold "右手に「ぱ」" [in your right hand, "pa"] and "左手に「わ」" [in your left hand, "wa"], put them together and you get "パワー" [power]. Do the same with "this" and "that" and you get "らぶ" [love]. The endless "papa wawa" chant is just those two syllables bouncing around, so the whole chorus is the word power broken into pieces.

Then it goes full list mode. "パパパワー ママパワー" [dad power, mom power], grandma and grandpa power, the person you like, and my favourite stretch: "ごはんのパワー おやつのパワー" [the power of meals, the power of snacks] and "おふろのパワー すいみんパワー" [bath power, sleep power]. It is a bit much, and that is the point. Everything small in your day counts as fuel, all added up into "フルパワー" [full power].

The verses treat feelings like a phone battery: "充電まっててね" [wait while I charge] while she stores up "愛" [love] and "好き" [liking]. There is also a cute writing joke for learners. Take the little circle off ぱ and it becomes は, so "あわせて「はわ?」" [put together, "hawa?"] turns power into "ゼロパワー" [zero power]. Watch for "お手を拝借" [may I borrow your hands], a set phrase Japanese people use before a group clap, which here slides into wanting to hold hands.

The title 結び means "a knot" or "a tie", and Ayumu Imazu builds the whole song around one image: the red thread of fate. In Japanese folklore, people destined for each other are tied together by an invisible red string, and here he sings "君と紡ぐ赤い糸を" (the red thread I spin with you). The nice twist is that this thread is not perfect. It gets tangled and pulled loose, "絡まっては 解いて" (getting tangled, then untangling), and he is honest that the world the two of them make is a bit of a mess: "お世辞にも" / "綺麗とは言えない" (even to flatter it, / I can't call it pretty). The song opens with him admitting he keeps failing at the same thing, "なんて これで何回目" (how many times is this now), wishing he had just been more honest.

My favourite part is the second verse, where he decides a few loose ends are fine: "少しほつれたくらいが" / "愛しくて" (a little frayed is just / what makes it dear). Then he picks up the thread that came undone once, "一度は解けた あの糸を" (that thread that came loose once), and ties it again with a smile. The ending stacks phrases in quote marks like little moments in a relationship, from "二人の '初めまして'" (our "nice to meet you") to "'明日またね'" ("see you tomorrow") and all the way to "'来世まで'" ("until the next life"). That last one is a big promise for a pop song, and he sells it.

IGNITE by JO1 is a pep talk shouted through a megaphone. The whole song is about getting knocked down, refusing to stay there, and turning that frustration into fuel. The title word comes back again and again, and by the end the group is just yelling "Ignite" like a war cry.

The chorus is the heart of it. JO1 sing about taking hold of their despair and turning it into a light:

"握り締めた絶望を" [the despair I clenched in my fist] "消えない灯火を" [into a flame that won't go out]

I love that image. Despair is something you squeeze in your hand, and then it becomes a torch instead of a weight. Then comes the blunt order: "吼えろ revenge now, revenge now" [roar, revenge now]. The verb 吼える is how an animal roars, so this is far louder than a polite "speak up". The "revenge" here is about proving doubters wrong, and the lyrics never aim it at a person.

The verses are full of fighting talk. "拳叩きつけろ" [slam your fist down] is aimed at "黒く染まってく世界に" [a world that is turning black]. Later there is "四面楚歌 浴びる重圧に" [surrounded by enemies, under the pressure pouring down]. 四面楚歌 is a great idiom to learn: it literally means "Chu songs on all four sides" and comes from an old Chinese story about a general surrounded by enemy troops. In everyday Japanese it just means you have no allies left. JO1 answer it with "抗い続け still on my feet" [I keep resisting, still on my feet].

There is a softer side too. "愁帯びた感情も" [even feelings tinged with sorrow] is followed by "そっと 受け止め合って" [gently accepting them for each other], so the fight is a group effort. And near the end they admit "答えはずっと分かっていた" [we knew the answer all along]. It is a bit much in places, sure, but that is the point. "ストレートパンチ OK, let's go" [a straight punch, OK, let's go] is the kind of line you sing with your fist in the air.

Yorushika turn the singer into weather here. She says it straight out: "私は青い風" [I am a blue wind]. The whole song is a gust tearing across a grassland, and the title line keeps coming back like the wind itself: "雲を抜け風下へ私だけ" [through the clouds, downwind, only me]. Listen for 抜け (nuke), "passing through", stacked over and over: through the grass, through the flowers, through the sky, and finally "今を抜け 風下へ私だけ" [through the present moment, downwind, only me]. It is a great verb to learn, and by the end you will never forget it.

What I love is how lonely and wild it gets. She stares at someone and says "貸せ お前の白い羽根" [lend me your white feathers], which is blunt and a little rude, since お前 is a rough way to say "you". Then she admits "とうに空っぽ" [empty long ago] about her own eyes. The rain is a passing shower she orders away with "片時雨 早く往ね" [passing rain, get lost already], using the old-fashioned verb 往ぬ, "to go away". And the ending is pure dawn: "朝ぼらけ 待ちぼうけ" [the grey of dawn, left waiting], with "ただ濡れた魂の匂い" [only the smell of a wet soul]. That last image is so odd and so specific that it sticks with me every time.

BUDDiiS open this one by addressing every galaxy, the whole universe and all of humanity, then announce that a love black hole warning is in effect: "愛のブラックホール警報 発令中!" [A love black hole warning is now in effect!]. That is the scale the whole song works at. Love here is "megaton class", it breaks the speed of light, and it heads for the edge of space. It is loud, silly and completely sincere, and I think it is great fun.

The jokes are worth slowing down for, because a translation flattens them. In Japanese, the English letter "I", the word アイ (ai, which sounds like 愛, "love") and "AI" all sound the same. So when he sings "愛するアイ AI じゃないわ ココロがあるんだ" [The ai I love isn't AI, it has a heart], he is playing on all three at once. He also wants the two of them to chase pi together and never let it end, and asks for more love even past 314 trillion, a nod to the digits of pi that people keep computing.

The middle section is a numbered list of shout-outs, from "you're a miracle star" to the gloriously random "ネコは宇宙" [Cats are the universe]. Then the chorus keeps landing on one kind idea: "みんな違って そう みんな素敵!" [Everyone's different, yeah, and everyone's wonderful]. Useful word: チャラ (chara) means wiping a slate clean, so "わっはっは! って笑えば 全部チャラだ" [If you laugh "wahaha!", it all gets cancelled out] says a good laugh erases the bad stuff. And "昭和も平成も令和も馬鹿騒ぎしたい everybody!" [Showa, Heisei and Reiwa, I want to party with everybody!] names Japan's last three imperial eras, so he is inviting every generation, roughly 1926 to today, onto the same dance floor.

Lienel's "愛のダバダ" is a love song that refuses to calm down for even one line. It opens with the singer wanting to love "バカみたいに" (like an idiot), and from there everything gets bigger. Shooting stars hit a "大渋滞" (huge traffic jam) because he has so many wishes, and he promises "ワールドクラスの愛をあげる" (I'll give you world-class love).

The best bit is the fake awards show. He announces "僕らの授賞式" (our awards ceremony) and then hands out prizes like "最優秀顔面賞" (Best Face Award) and "最優秀天然賞" (Best Airhead Award). 天然 literally means "natural", but as slang it describes someone sweetly scatterbrained. She wins everything, and then comes the punchline: "「あ 夢か」" (Oh, it was a dream). That line made me laugh.

The chorus is pure overflow. "ダバダ" is just a scat sound, but "もうナイアガラ" (already Niagara) compares his love to Niagara Falls, and "君はヴィーナス 僕はモブ" (you're Venus, I'm a mob character) uses モブ, borrowed from "mob", which in anime talk means a nameless background extra. Later he says fortune telling and "MBTI" (the personality test) don't matter at all, and blames his missing sleep on "セロトニン" (serotonin) and "ドーパミン" (dopamine). It's a bit much, and that's exactly the point. It ends simply, asking her to "ぎゅっと抱きしめて" (hold me tight).

"相思想愛" is DXTEEN taking a love song and turning it into a vow, and they commit hard. The title plays on the idiom 相思相愛 (two people in love with each other), but swaps the middle character for 想, "to think of someone", so it reads like thinking of each other, loving each other. The chorus opens with "一生涯 相思想愛" (a whole lifetime of mutual love) and promises "この恋は終わんない" (this love won't end). That 終わんない is casual speech for 終わらない, the kind of contraction you hear in real conversation, so it is worth learning.

What I like is that the song is not all fireworks. There are small, real moments: two people texting "'会いたい'" (I want to see you) at the same time, or the singer realising that just hearing "君がふと語る未来に僕がいる" (I'm in the future you casually talk about) is enough to give him a dream. He also admits he gets jealous: "君の話は全部 聞きたい" (I want to hear everything you say) but "でも過去の恋は聞きたくない" (but I don't want to hear about your past loves). Honest, and a little needy, which makes it cute.

Keep an eye on "いつもぶっつけ本番" (always doing it live, with no rehearsal). ぶっつけ本番 is an idiom for going straight into the real performance without practice, and here it means they are figuring out love as they go. He also wants "'ふたりなら'" (what works for the two of us) rather than "'普通は'" (what's normal). The ending gets sweet with "きらり ふたり いま両想い" (sparkle, the two of us, in love with each other now), where きらり is the sound of a twinkle and 両想い is the everyday word for mutual love. Is promising "春夏秋冬 100年後も" (spring, summer, fall, winter, even 100 years from now) a bit much? Absolutely. That is the fun of it.

Da-iCE took a word that usually describes a calm, sunny spring day and turned it into a promise. うららか means bright, mild and peaceful, and here it is how the singer wants this relationship to feel forever: "うららかにずっと" (Brightly and calmly, always). He opens by choosing the person over destiny, which is a sweet little flex: "運命より 君と選ぶ今日がいい" (Better than fate is the today I choose with you).

The lines I like most are the small, slightly embarrassing ones. He reacts to every word she says with "一喜一憂", an idiom for swinging between joy and worry over each tiny thing, and he notices that their favourite views and even their verbal habits have started to match. Then the chorus goes full wedding vow: "健やかな愛も 病める愛でも" (In healthy love and in sick love too) is lifted straight from the Japanese version of "in sickness and in health". There is also a cute pun in "アイも変わらずに", where アイ sounds like 愛 (love) and the phrase 相変わらず means "as always". Is it a bit much? Sure. But closing on "百年後も僕と" (With me, even a hundred years from now) makes it hard not to smile.

BE:FIRST's "It's Not A Bad Life" is a shrug and a snarl at the same time. The English hook, "If I die, I die", sounds careless, but the Japanese verses show a guy who has stopped asking anyone for permission to be himself. Early on he asks "誰が決めて誰が裁くの?" (Who decides, and who judges?), and he is openly mocking the idea that ordinary people get to rule on right and wrong.

The scars are the point. He talks about "傷だらけの背中には" (on my back, covered in scars) where "刻まれた愛とプライド" (love and pride are carved). He admits his real self isn't pretty, that what's under the skin is not something you show people, and that lies left alone fester like an infected wound. That image is a bit gross, and it works. Then comes the line I love most: "檻の外で生きる獣でありたい" (I want to be a beast living outside the cage). The verb 喰らい尽くそう in "光も影も 喰らい尽くそう" (let's devour it all, the light and the shadow) is a rough, hungry way of saying "eat", so he swallows the good and bad in himself whole. By the end he drops the need for stability and decides to push his love through, which is why "Everything is alright" lands as a choice rather than a comfort.

M!LK's 好きすぎて滅！ is a love song turned all the way up to cartoon volume. The hook, "マジ ぎゅんぎゅんぎゅん" (seriously, pounding, pounding, pounding), uses ぎゅん, a sound word for that sudden squeeze in your chest, and the title line "好きすぎて滅!" (I love you so much I'm doomed!) borrows 滅, "destruction", in the way fans say a crush is literally killing them. The narrator is not subtle. He claims "その笑顔が海馬をジャックする" (that smile hijacks my hippocampus), which is a very nerdy way to say he can't stop thinking about her, and he compares the two of them to "牛若丸 楊貴妃" (Ushiwakamaru, Yang Guifei): Ushiwakamaru is the childhood name of the legendary samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and Yang Guifei is the famous beauty of Tang dynasty China, reborn here as a modern couple.

The best part is how seriously he takes his own panic. "ああ キミがノンフィクションだなんてさ" (ah, to think you're nonfiction) treats her like a character who somehow walked out of a story, and "理性持たない 心臓持たない" (I can't keep my reason, my heart can't take it) is a handy pattern: 持たない means something can't hold out. Listen for ゾッコン in "四六時中 ゾッコン中" (twenty-four seven, I'm head over heels), a slangy word for being totally smitten, and for the over-the-top math of "80億分の1の奇跡" (a miracle, one in eight billion). In the middle of all that drama there's one sweet, plain wish, "ただ健やかに 生きていてね" (just live a healthy life, okay?), which is a lovely thing to hear in a song this loud.

This is YOASOBI's song about the perfect pop idol, and it is sneakier than it sounds. The first verse is a press conference: fans fire questions like "今日何食べた?" (What did you eat today?) and "好きな本は?" (Your favourite book?), and she dodges every one with "それは内緒" (That's a secret). She is called "完璧で嘘つきな君" (you, perfect and a liar), and the song loves her for it. Then the mood flips. A jealous bandmate snaps "我々はハナからおまけです" (we were just the extras from the start). ハナから is slang for "from the very beginning", and the line is so bitter it's funny.

The best trick is the word アイ. It's the idol's name, Ai, and it sounds exactly like 愛 (love), so "嘘でもそれは完全なアイ" (even if it's a lie, it's perfect love / perfect Ai) means both at once. The song comes from the anime Oshi no Ko, which is why "ルビーを隠したこの瞼" (these eyelids hiding a ruby) and "綺麗なアクア" (beautiful aqua) slip in: Ruby and Aqua are her secret twins. In the last verse she admits "誰かのこと愛したこともない" (I've never loved anyone) and keeps saying 愛してる (I love you) anyway, hoping the lie comes true. Then, finally, "これは絶対嘘じゃない愛してる" (this is definitely not a lie, I love you). After a song full of fake smiles, that last line lands hard.

The title is a pun, and it's the whole song in one word. とくべチュ glues together 特別 (tokubetsu, "special") and チュー (chuu, the cute Japanese sound for a kiss). So the hook, "とくべチュ して?" [give me a special kiss?], is the singer asking for a kiss that belongs only to her. And she is not shy about the bar being high: "Oh baby「I love you」じゃ足りない" [Oh baby, "I love you" isn't enough]. She doesn't want to be loved, she wants to be number one, and "一番 大事がいい" [I want to be the most important] says it flat out.

What makes it fun is how sugary and a little bit intense it gets. The world is "ゴミめいた この世界" [this trash-like world] and he's the one pure thing in it. She wants a "ほどけない リボン結び" [a ribbon knot that won't come undone] and asks him to "小指 キュッて縛って" [tie our little fingers tight], a nod to the Japanese idea of the red string of fate tied to your pinky. キュッ is a sound word for something pulled snug, worth learning on its own. Then she goes full dessert: "イチゴみたいに 座ってもいい?" [can I sit there like a strawberry?], picturing herself as the strawberry on top of a ショートケーキ (Japanese strawberry shortcake). It's adorable right up to "苦しいのが好き" [I like it when it hurts] and her insisting this is not 束縛 (sokubaku, controlling someone in a relationship). Possessive? Very. But it's sung with such a straight face that you end up grinning.

Pretender is a breakup song where the breakup never quite happens. The singer knows from the first line how this love story ends: "君とのラブストーリー それは予想通り" (my love story with you, it went just as I expected). Once it starts, it is "ひとり芝居" (a one-man play), and even standing right next to her he is "結局ただの観客だ" (in the end, just an audience member). That theater image is the whole title. He is the pretender, acting out a romance only he is in.

The part I love is how stubborn he is about letting go. He wishes for another timeline, "出会える世界線 選べたらよかった" (if only I could have chosen a world line where we meet). 世界線 (world line) is a sci-fi word Japanese fans use for alternate realities, and here it is a very nerdy way to say "in another life." Then the chorus admits the hard truth, "君の運命のヒトは僕じゃない" (the person you're destined for isn't me), and immediately caves: "でも離れ難いのさ" (but it's hard to leave). Watch the wordplay in "痛いや いやでも 甘いな いやいや" (it hurts, no, but it's sweet, no no): いや means both "ugh/no" and sets up the back and forth of a guy arguing with himself. After all that confusion, the only thing he is sure of is "「君は綺麗だ」" (you are beautiful), and by the last line it has grown to "「とても綺麗だ」" (you are so beautiful). It is a bit much, and that is exactly why it works.

M!LK's "イイじゃん" is a pep talk set to a bouncy beat, and the title does most of the work. イイじゃん is casual Japanese for "that's great" or "isn't that nice," the kind of thing a friend says when you show them your new haircut.

The verses are sweet and a little earnest. The singer promises "どんな時も味方でいるよ" (I'll be on your side no matter what) and tells you "誰かの為に生きないで" (don't live for someone else). He even makes room for bad days: "俯いた顔 その涙も 唯一無二さ" (your downcast face, even those tears, are one of a kind). There's a small jab at the times, too, an age where "何もかもがレッテル貼られる" (everything gets a label stuck on it). レッテル comes from the Dutch word for a label, and here it means being pigeonholed.

Then the chorus turns into pure hype, and it's packed with slang worth learning:

• "あれ 今日ビジュイイじゃん" (hey, you're looking good today). ビジュ is short for ビジュアル (visual) and means your looks, straight out of idol fan talk.
• "盛れててイイじゃん" (you look extra good, nice). 盛れる is selfie slang for coming out looking better than usual in a photo.
• "見惚れてるんじゃん?" (you're totally staring, aren't you?), a cheeky tease.

The second half gets more personal. "最近自分を好きになれてきた" (lately I've started to like myself) is a nice admission from a group singing to fans, and "画面の奥 見つめている" (staring out from behind the screen) feels like a nod to people watching them on their phones. The last choruses swap looks for nerve: "夢追ってイイじゃん" (it's fine to chase your dream) and "やっちゃってイイじゃん" (go ahead and just do it). It's a lot of compliments in a row, and that's the point.