ACID BREATH Lyrics in English by Janne Da Arc
"ACID BREATH" opens with a warning: "決して行くな 覗き込むな" [never go there, don't peek inside]. The place you shouldn't look is "無法地帯" [a lawless zone], and a clown beckons you in, offering to show "人の表と裏" [people's front and back sides] with "モザイクなしに" [without a mosaic]. That mosaic is the pixel blur Japanese TV and websites put over faces, so the clown is promising the uncensored version of everyone. The singer is covering his eyes but still looking through "指の隙間" [the gaps between his fingers], which is exactly how most of us read the worst corners of the internet.
The world here is "形のない 触れられない" [shapeless, untouchable], full of residents who are "名も名乗らない 哀れな奴等" [pitiful people who won't even give their names]. It reads like a song about anonymous online cruelty, and he calls them out bluntly: do you laugh at "他人の不幸" [other people's misfortune] so your weak self feels "少しは救われた" [a little bit saved]? The line that sticks is "愛のない 言葉は胸に刺さる" [words without love stab you in the chest], and the hurt lasts longer than bleeding. By the end the "毒の吐息" [poisonous breath], the acid breath of the title, threatens to wipe out "夢も愛も希望も" [dreams, love and hope]. It's dramatic in the best visual-kei way, and the clown image is genuinely creepy.
Words to notice: 〜な after a verb, as in 行くな, is a blunt negative command ("don't go"), and イタイ is written in katakana to make "it hurts" feel sharper.
