Happy New Year! How have you been?

I live such a lonely life that I can write this article.

Today I tried a new article. I love and respect English, but I am not very good in English. I am studying English now, and I have found many interesting facts, and I have written some of them in previous articles, the "English is not so easy" series.

But when I thought about what I could do as a Japanese person, I thought that breaking down the Japanese text could also be a solution. In this article, I will break down a Japanese text that would be difficult to interpret as a native speaker. I am not sure who would be interested in this, but please let me do it.

"Shukusei! Loli Kami Requiem" is a song by the Japanese artist Ui Shigure (from Wikipedia). It became famous because of its animation and music, but I thought that even in the chorus, the Japanese lyrics were very colloquial and hard to translate (even Google Translate doesn't work). This time I would like to breakdown the part of the lyrics from a linguistic point of view. I would be very happy if you would use this article for your translation.

The following is the text we would handle:

せーのっ (Here we go!)

触ったら逮捕 (Ah) (Touch and you'll be arrested!)

極 Chu ♡ de 点呼 (Uh) (Intensely cute roll call!)

いちにーさんしー? (ごめんなさーい) (One, two, three, four? (I'm sorry!))

ハァ? ( ﾟДﾟ) (Huh?)

ごめんなさいが聞こえなーい (え〜) (I can't hear you!)

粛聖 ロリ神レクイエム☆ (Reverence!! Lolita Goddess Requiem)

Let's decipher the contents line by line.

せーのっ (sēno)

せーの is a signal used as a shout when several people are carrying heavy objects and singing songs. So it can be translated as "Here we go" or "Ready, set, go" or "Let's go".

This song is only sung by Ui Shigure, so it doesn't seem necessary, but she may have been trying to match the timing of her fans' dance. Overall, the voice of her fans appears frequently in this song, and I think it emphasizes that this is a kind of "idol song". Before translating this song, we should understand that this song is about the relationship between the sadistic idol and her masochistic fans.

Also, the Japanese idol fan dance is specifically called オタ芸 (otagei; otaku performance), and the anime 推しの子 (Oshi no Ko; My Favorite Idol) depicts it well.

触ったら逮捕 (Sawattara taiho)

触ったら is made up of 触った (perfective form of 触る (sawaru; to touch)) + -ら (-ra; if; imperfective form of the suffix る (a common way to form verbs)). It is very confusing, but what I mean to say here is that adding ら to the end of the verb 触る (sawaru; to touch; past 触った) with proper conjugation creates the hypothetical form. So this sentence means "If (you) touch (me)". As a general tendency in Japanese, subjects and objects are often left out and we have to guess from the context. I added "you" and "me" because they are still easy to guess.

逮捕 (taiho; arrest) is used as the noun, but in English I think "(You're) Arrested!" is the similar usage. The whole sentence could be translated as "If you touch me, you'll be arrested." But again, we cannot guess "who" is arresting "you" in this sentence. Maybe she is arresting "you" herself, or maybe someone like a policeman is arresting "you".

極 Chu ♡ de 点呼 (Goku Chu de tenko)

When I first heard this sentence, I thought she was saying "獄中で点呼 (Gokuchu de tenko)," but she is joking by using the strange spelling.

First, let's think about the sentence written correctly. 獄中 (gokuchu; in prison) is a compound word, and we can further divide it into 獄 (goku; prison) and 中 (chu; inside, during). So, together with the word 点呼 (tenko; roll call), we get "roll call in prison. What does the particle で mean? Unfortunately, even I cannot explain it. で means something like "at/on/in" here, so if I were to translate this sentence ultra-literally, it would be "roll call at inside the prison." I cannot explain why, but please keep in mind that such a sentence is acceptable in Japanese.

Next, let's think about "極Chu de点呼!" As I said, this is not the correct spelling. 極 (goku; ultra), Chu (onomatopoeia of kissing?), de (Spanish or French version of "of/from"?), and 点呼 (tenko; roll call). It doesn't make sense. I don't think we need to worry too much about the meanings, but she might give you "ultra kiss".

いちにーさんしー？ (ichi ni san shi?)

This is just the Japanese way of counting from one to four: 一 (ichi; I) 二 (ni; II) 三 (san; III) 四 (shi; IV). Japanese people usually use Arabic numerals, but she uses hiragana, perhaps to make it more childlike. Also, the count ends with a question mark "?" and I think this is because she expects the answer from her fans. We can find it more clearly by watching her performance.

（ごめんなさーい） (gomen nasāi)

ごめんなさい (Gomen nasai; I'm sorry) from fans is a normal way to apologize. But in my opinion, this is only used when you think you have made a serious mistake. If not, すみません (sumimasen; excuse me) is more common.

ハァ？ (ﾟдﾟ) (hā?)

Basically, ハァ？ (hā?) has a similar meaning to "huh?", but in Japanese it sounds more aggressive and offensive. So if you say "huh?" in Japan, almost all Japanese people would mistakenly think that you are extremely angry. In this song, we can see that she looks down on her fans so much.

Also, "(ﾟдﾟ)" is a kind of emoji. It is usually not read and means "confusion".

ごめんなさいが、聞こえなーい（え〜！） (gomen nasai ga, kikoenai)

I thought it was similar to the English "Say hello/goodbye to him. ごめんなさい means "I'm sorry," and by adding が, the whole sentence becomes an object.

聞こえない could be broken down into 聞こえ (kikoe; perfective form of 聞こえる (kikoeru; to be heard) + ない (nai; not), so it means "(I) cannot hear". As a whole, this sentence could be translated as "I cannot hear your ‘sorry’."

粛聖 ロリ神レクイエム☆ (Shukusei rori-kami rekuiemu)

粛清 is a political term that means "to purge. So when a Japanese person hears this word, most people think of executions by dictators like Stalin or Kim. In this lyric, I think it means more like "control/regulation," saying, "You will die if you disobey." Also, as you may have noticed, 粛清 is spelled as 粛聖. This is basically a spelling error, but I think that by including 聖 (sei; saint) she was trying to deify herself.

The problem is ロリ (rori; loli) 神 (kami; god) レクイエム (rekuiemu; requiem). I have given up trying to explain it. Please someone help me to interpret this phrase. I think "Purge! loli god requiem" is the best translation.

This is the end of the article. If you have any questions or any other Japanese text that you have trouble translating, please let me know. I will be happy to translate and explain the text.