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sleepyorangejuice · 2 months ago

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It’s been literal months, and I’m certain there have been many great analyses already posted about Bake no Hana, but I am up in a cold sweat, waiting for an opportunity to info dump when it hits me… just make the opportunity yourself!

So this is officially a very unhinged and unplanned analysis of BAKE NO HANA because it’s been eight months and I’m still not over this song!

Specifically I’ll be focusing on the intention of having certain characters sing certain lines, and their delivery. Also some gushing about the musical composition and drawing parallels to the event story.

I will never forget the first time I heard this song, it fit perfectly with the feelings I was experiencing going through that fucking RINGER of an event story and it leaving on a cliff hanger? I’m still not over it, sega. Eight months and I’m still getting chills.

What interests me the most about the opening of this song, is that it uses a very familiar progression of notes, which you often hear in horror or suspense films right before something terrifying is revealed. For example, there’s a killer inside of the protagonist’s house, and they hear something coming from behind a door. As they reach out to turn the door knob, you hear the music building until the protagonist opens the door, and BOOM! Murder happens.

I think it’s interesting how Bake no Hana uses this instantly; it gives you no time to process what’s happening. It’s the song letting you know that you should be on edge. Then, just as it reaches a musical climax, the suspenseful music abruptly stops.

To me, I immediately want to make a connection to the event story. The entire event is about Mizuki gathering the courage to come out to one of her friends. The entire time is spent building up her anxiety, and showing just how much her friends mean to her. It’s this fluffy little trip to the school festival, but you most definitely notice the stakes of the situation getting higher as the day goes on.

You think, probably naively, that this story will end with Ena and Mizuki talking on the roof top, in which Mizuki confesses her secret, and Ena accepts her with little fanfare. But there’s also the part of you that’s scared, especially if you’ve seen the untrained cards for this event. Something bad is about to happen.

The moment we were all waiting for, that this event was building us up to, is taken away from us. It’s taken away from Mizuki and Ena. The suspense that was building from the start abruptly ends in a slightly unsatisfying way. The pay-off to the suspense is never given. You’re thrown into the reality where people are ignorant and often cruel, where the character you’re rooting for disappears from the story.

Yeah uh, not even three seconds in and I’ve written like three paragraphs. I’m awesome at parties, clearly.

The music breaks into these foreboding instrumentals, like the song can’t decide if it wants to linger, or let go. Does it want to be slow, or fast? You can’t catch up. Just when you think you know enough about the melody to predict it, it changes again. It berates you; it’s constantly moving. The same, “horror movie sound effect,” comes back, halting the instrumentals, all except the barest of strings everything else was building upon. The bones of the song. Prepping you to be vulnerable and afraid for what is coming next.

✨vocals time✨

“What are those eyes? Ah, of course it’s those eyes.”

This is sung by Mafuyu. Immediately, you can tell the, “narration,” of the song is just as confused as you are. Like they were dropped here with no preparation. They immediately ask a question, then answer it right afterwards. It’s frantic and disheveled.

The, “eyes,” they’re referring to are pretty straight forward; outside perception. Mizuki, and Mafuyu too, struggle with how the world perceives them. For Mizuki, it’s the judgment. She grew up in a family where she was safe to express herself, but the moment she tried to show her true self to the world, she was met with confusion, judgment, and harassment. Her peers considered her, “weird,” and even the few who seemed supportive initially, talked about her behind her back, calling her, “Attention seeking,” and if she were to just act, “normal,” things would be so much easier for her.

Mafuyu got so caught up in being everything her mother wanted her to be, that she forgot entirely who she used to be. She lost everything that was behind her, “Mask.” Her story is about her finding who she is behind all the suffocating expectations that were placed on her. Both her and Mizuki are shackled by the way people perceive them, though for different reasons. (Fucking love transmasc Mafuyu though that’s my son)

So of course, Mafuyu is the one to sing about these eyes. The eyes they’re constantly disappointed by. They should be used to people not understanding them by now. Why would Mizuki ever expect anything besides judgement? The horror of being seen. The horror of being known. By both her classmates, but also her friends.

In nightcord, she’s been able to control the way she’s perceived. Because they met online, Kanade, Ena, and Mafuyu have no idea that she’s trans. She’s able to create this perfect image of herself; a carefree, feminine, cis girl. And now, willing, she’s going to end that fantasy. She’s letting go of her persona, and therefore, giving three people she trusts control over her perception.

Jeez, I’ve been yapping for too long. Time to move onto the second part of this line.

“This isn’t my first time, Y’know?”

This is sang by Ena. It reads to me as Ena drawing on her past experiences with cruel men. Mizuki ends up being outed by some very rude male classmates, and they compare Ena to Mizuki, and ask if she’s, “like that,” too. Ena, who posts selfies online, has probably gotten hate comments before. A woman can’t seem to post online without her appearance and femininity being questioned.

It’s not the first time she’s heard stuff like this.

This also probably refers to Mizuki hearing comments like this before. It’s just part of her life. She’s, “used to it,” or rather, she’s resigned herself to it.

“What’s with those eyes? C’mon, stop it!”

Again, the narration is getting desperate, and afraid. They’re beginning to panic. What really stands out to me is the use of, “C’mon.” It’s sort of a friendly chastise. It’s reminiscent of how Mizuki usually deals with any bullying or invasive questions. She tries to de-escalate the situation. She tries to be friendly and casual, to avoid any conflict. But clearly, it didn’t work. Sometimes, you can be super nice and civil, and you’ll still essentially be talking to a brick wall, if the person you’re talking to wasn’t interested in your humanity in the first place.

Kanade sings this line, and if we interpret it through her, it can be seen as her realizing her friend’s been facing prejudice the entire time she’s known her, just under her nose.

“It’s just so cute, but that flavour of sin.”

I wonder who sings this one, lol? It’s Mizuki. Her character is often defined as being cute. She likes cute things, she likes dressing cutely. It’s who she is; she loves it, and it feels good. But because of all the people who deem her expression and identity as, “wrong,” she’s been conditioned to suppress these feelings, and feel guilty every time she doesn’t. A lot of people view being trans and gay as a sin, yes, even in the year of our lord and saviour, 2025. The wording is intentional. The religious symbolism is intentional. Even when she’s enjoying herself, she can still taste the sin on the back of her tongue.

Mizuki’s vocals trigger the pre-chorus, like now that she sang during the verse, it’s tainted now. The song must hurry along lest it lets her finish a thought. Her voice gets taken away from her in the event story, so of course every time she speaks in this song, it tries to silence her, or drown out her voice with someone else’s.

“It’s off, so off, it’s crumbling.”

This is pretty self-explanatory and sung by Kaito. Mizuki’s ideal coming out moment was from taken her. The image of herself she crafted for niigo is crumbling, and she couldn’t even partake in it’s destruction. The moment is, “off,” it’s not how it should be.

“It’s off,”

Pretty much as soon as Kaito is done singing, Ena rushes in, interrupting him. I love this delivery so so so much. It encapsulates how Ena was feeling during this moment. She’s frantic and desperate, because now that she knows, she’s finally comprehending the gravity of Mizuki wanting to tell her this, and how much her reaction to this information must matter to Mizuki. But shit, she’s so caught off guard. Her perception of reality has been flipped in such an abrupt, cruel way. They’re saying all these horrible things about her friend, but she can’t do anything. She’s frozen. She’s helpless. She tries to amend her reaction, but it’s all so fresh. She can’t say the right words; it comes out rushed and clumsy. This is the first time she sees one of her best friends cry, and she isn’t able to comfort her. In just two words, you can hear the pain in her voice. She’s panicked and scared. THE VAS ARE SO TALENTED MAN THEY ALL DO SO WELL IN THIS SONG

“I’m about to lose my mind.”

Mafuyu finishes this lyric, and again, her va’s delivery is spot on. Unlike Ena, who sounds rushed and filled with anxiety, Mafuyu sounds foreboding. Her voice is tense and gentle, a quiet warning gone unnoticed. In past events, Mizuki has told Mafuyu that sometimes, it’s okay to run away. In fact, sometimes it’s necessary. Mafuyu needed space from her controlling mother. But here, Mizuki is running away exactly when she shouldn’t. She’s isolating herself from the people who love her after a traumatic incident. Mafuyu, who can be naive about a lot of things, and isn’t exactly what you’d call, a person that’s in touch with their emotions, can be very perceptive with her friends, and what’s going on for them internally. I feel as though she on some level, knew that Mizuki was running from something she needed to face. She sees both her and Mizuki as being similar people. They both have masks. In her delivery, it felt like a prediction. In her heart, she knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t do anything to help her friend with the information she had. She’s resigned.

“I’m collapsing with my one secret.”

This is sung by Kanade. Since the lyric is pretty straightforward, I’m focusing on her delivery. Kanade sounds concerned and confused. And really, that’s all she has. Unfortunately, by the end of this event, her and Mafuyu are still completely in the dark. They don’t know Mizuki is trans, and they don’t know that something so traumatic happened to her. They don’t know how fragile of a state she left in. They don’t know she’s ostensibly, suicidal right now. This ignorance isn’t bliss.

“I’m breaking down, l’m sorry.”

☹️

Mizuki’s little, “gomen,” KILLS ME EVERY FUCKING TIME, SOMEONE GET HER A HUG, STAT!

I don’t have much to say about this line otherwise. It really just sums up how Mizuki feels like she is the thing that needs to be apologized for. It feels like the situation is her fault to begin with. If she wasn’t the way she was, she wouldn’t have put her friend through that. If she wasn’t the way she was, those boys wouldn’t have been cruel to her in the first place. She’s sorry that she wasn’t strong enough to truly face Ena. That this was all that it took for her to fall apart.

And once again, after Mizuki sings, the song quickly shifts. CHORUS TIME!!

The intensity returns, it’s upbeat, you wanna dance, but you’re crying, so you’re just kind of bopping around with a comical frown and tears rolling down your face???

“Without seeing it, you can’t understand it, right? It’s just like a flower of transformation that had bloomed.”

Oh shit, and now you’re crying harder, except actually, you’re me, I’m crying.

This line is just SOOOOO full of trans metaphors and context. “Without seeing it, you can’t understand it, right?” Immediately I’m thinking about the strange obsession people have with trans people’s genitals. What’s in your pants, though? Are you a girl or a boy? Prove it, why don’t you? Without seeing, “it,” you can’t understand, “it,” right? Here is an arbitrary way to classify people. They just wanna know, “the truth,” right? And they can’t with all these girls becoming boys and boys becoming girls. Anyone could have a penis these days! XD

A less general take is how in Mizuki’s friendships with the members of Niigo, there is this, “invisible distance,” between them. They only know so much about Mizuki, because she’s been keeping this integral part of her identity hidden. She knows deep down, that her friends won’t be able to truly understand her, unless they see her true self.

Now, onto this blooming flower of transformation. The language is so. Intentional. Oh. My. Gods. So, in the trans community, there is a term reserved for closeted trans people, or trans people who have yet to realize that they’re trans. These people are called, “eggs,” because the egg has yet to crack. There’s a lot of sweet stuff, you know, you’re finally coming out of your shell, you’re being born again, this time, as your true self. “Blooming,” is also a term used for people entering their adolescence, you know, “late bloomer,” you’re finding who you are, and becoming that. Safe to say, flowers also get used as a metaphor for transition. An, “egg,” could also be a, “bud.” This flower of TRANSformation has bloomed, even if you didn’t want it to.

Kaito and Kanade sing this line together. If we see it through Kanade’s perspective, yes, of course she doesn’t understand what’s going on, Mizuki hasn’t told her! And of course I’m gonna mention Kanade’s flower motif, of course she would sing this line!

“I can’t say anything else, but I can’t erase it, no matter how ugly my makeup seems like.”

Yep, this is Ms. Ena. No Kaito helping her out, just Ena, and I think, entirely from her perspective. This is generally agreed upon, and before I start, I gotta mention that without a bunch of other fans interpreting and sharing said interpretations, I’d still be stuck on the second half of this line. I’m not leaving it out just because it’s been said before, no, I’m putting it here because I THINK THEY’RE ALL RIGHT!

“I can’t say anything else, but I can’t erase it,”

This is referring to Ena’s reaction to Mizuki being outed. She wasn’t able to say anything to reassure Mizuki, or even stand up for her. She can’t take back her silence, she can’t erase it. Somehow, it was worse than her blurting out her first thought.

“No matter how ugly my makeup seems like.”

So again, thanks to everyone who pointed this out, but the, “makeup,” she’s referring to, is her expression. Specifically the one in her untrained card. She didn’t mean to let the shock show so blatantly on her face. She may, “seem,” scared, disgusted, even, but that’s not how she truly feels. She was just caught-off guard. But no matter how much she regrets it, she can’t take back her initial reaction. Her face is forever burned into both Mizuki’s and our minds for eternity.

“Without seeing it, you can’t understand it, right? It’s just like a flower of transformation that had bloomed.”

This time, Mafuyu accompanies Kaito. Her va absolutely kills this line. She sounds so desperate and heartbroken. Coming from Mafuyu, we can again draw a connection between Mizuki’s identity blooming, and also Mafuyu’s. Mafuyu knows how painful it is to reveal your true self, and additionally to have it be rejected. This is her empathizing with Mizuki’s situation. She’s singing from a place of her own pain, but also her inability to comfort Mizuki, and the pain that comes with being a sitting duck.

“I can’t go back to being a bud again.”

One second,

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, I’m done. So, Mizuki sings this. I’ll bring the egg/bud comparison up again. She’s already bloomed. You can’t go back inside of your broken shell. You’ll know, part of you, forever, and it will torture you. Mizuki tried this in the past, during middle school. She kept her hair short, wore the boy’s uniform, and didn’t express any of her femininity in public. Living like this sent her into a deep depression. Eventually, she decided to openly present as a woman. Despite her fears, life was too painful pretending to be someone she’s not. The alienation from her peers hurt, but not as much as forcing herself to be a man did. She really can’t go back to being a bud again; it almost killed her.

Her va whispers the line over her singing, creating this really uneasy feeling. Mizuki is telling you this horrifying secret.

And what does the music do? Cut her off, of course! We’re back to what we heard at the beginning of the song, the instrumental interlude, if you will. And it’s just as violently in your face as it was the first time.

“What are those eyes? Of course it’s those eyes.”

Oh, and it’s Kaito’s first solo line. He’s not just echoing what the others sang. Ironically, it’s a line we’ve already heard before, but I still think it’s significant.

But, instead of continuing with the next verse after this one, Mizuki interrupts. This completely changes the course of the song. The intense banging we hear in the interlude comes back with her.

“If that’s so, then disappear! Everyone, just disappear!”

And with the end of her line, that constant noise is taken away. It disappears. Coincidence? I think not! The chaos of the instrumentals represents not only Mizuki’s loud, repeating, all-consuming thoughts, but also the voices of all the people that have ever judged her. She recalls vividly a little boy calling her weird in elementary school frequently, as well as other comments throughout her life. She tells them to disappear, and her head becomes clear.

But, if, “everyone disappears,” that means the people she loves too. Her big sister, her parents, Rui, An, Ena, Kanade, and Mafuyu. All of these lovely experiences she’s had, and all the people that do accept her, would be gone too. Is she willing to sacrifice them, just to never experience all the hatred again?

“Just disappear.”

Between these lines, you hear a melody of beeps. It reflects the process in her head, realizing what everyone going away would really mean. And when she says it again, her voice is weaker. It has less force, and Kaito is singing it with her. Kaito is frustrated both by Mizuki, and for Mizuki. Kaito is the most expressive vocaloid when it comes to anger. He’s angry because he knows the members of Niigo are being wronged. Even as Mizuki is beginning to regret what she said, Kaito is doubling down. Because no, she should be mad, she should want all these horrible people to disappear.

“Just disappear!”

With Kaito’s reassurance, she says it again, this time, with more power, and all by herself.

She says it once more with Kaito.

But with so much time to think between what she’s saying, she realizes something. She’s alone now. Maybe she has Kaito, but he’s virtual. And for all these verses, the rest of Niigo have been completely absent.

“Stay with me.”

She changes her mind. The thought of being alone is so terrifying. She wants to be with her friends. She loves them. She’s been so lonely. And for once, the song grants her wish. It listens to her.

“Without seeing it, you can’t understand it, right? It’s just like a flower of transformation that has bloomed.”

The chorus comes back, but this time it’s gentle; it matches the slower pace of the previous verse. The instrumental is bare, reminiscent of a lullaby, and Mizuki’s best friends sing to her in a beautiful harmony. They love her. She’s trans, and they still love her. They want to be her friend. They’re kind to her.

But the harmony turns daunting, and Kaito joins in, quickly bringing back with him the rest of the song. The banging, the loudness, the fast pace. Her friends are so kind. They still love her. And that is a sickening thought to her. The idea of their kindness is suffocating, because she believes she doesn’t deserve it. She doesn’t want to cause them trouble or be a, “special case,” she wants them to treat her the way they did before. She wants them to be ignorant, because there’s security in the lack of knowledge. Even when they’re supportive, Mizuki can’t stand it. She, “ruins,” it.

“I can’t say anything else, but I can’t erase it, no matter how ugly my makeup seems like.”

Ena sings this line again, but with Kaito too. Kaito also feels useless in this situation. He seems to be hurting things rather than helping. He’s just as clueless and regretful as Ena. Niigo Kaito is very blunt and straightforward, but I think he has an idealized view of the world. He’s usually justified in his anger, and it comes from the right place. However, he doesn’t consider the consequences of say, Mafuyu standing up to her mother, or how painful the experience was to her. It was also dangerous, even. Same with Mizuki. Kaito wants her to stop running and live her truth, but he barely considers that the situation may go wrong, and put her in danger.

I think it’s also super interesting to compare Niigo Kaito and Ena. Ena struggles with her anger. She has outbursts, can be judgmental, and is quick to argue. She plays a similar role as Kaito in Mafuyu’s story. She’s a bit harder on Mafuyu than the other girls, but deep down, she still loves her friend. She’s more angry at Mafuyu’s refusal to leave her situation, rather than Mafuyu herself. In this way, her and Kaito are really similar.

“If you can’t seem to understand the future, then this flower of transformation will disappear soon enough here.”

Mizuki and Kaito sing this line together, and alteration of the one before it. By singing this with her, he seems to finally understand how desperate this situation is. He’s voicing her thoughts, but he’s also pleading so others can hear them. Compared to Mizuki, who is at her limit and filled with sorrow, Kaito shows this is a cry for help. He’s got really good tuning in this song. Mizuki is practically yelling with her lines, full of despair and anger. Gods, her va is so talented!!!

Right, the lyrics. If people can’t accept that things are changing, that everyone is different, that gender might not be as cut and dry as it was created to be, children, adults, real people will die. Hundreds die every year. Mizuki could be one of those people. She recognizes this, and is begging all these people to stop through this song. She doesn’t want to disappear, but it’s become too painful.

“As if I am made to end the curse of being born, I’ll stop breathing now.”

Yeah, this one hits hard. When just your existence feels like a curse on everyone around you. Clearly, it’s not the world that is wrong, it’s her. So she’ll just stop breathing, if that’s really the case.

“Agh, I’ve had enough!”

This is purely Mizuki again. I can’t really elaborate. I’ll just say she sings, “agh,” really nicely? XD

Yes, this is cut and dry suicidal ideation. And since she’s had enough, the song is like, “fair, I’ll end now,”

So the same instrumental interlude plays, and this time around, it especially sounds like the firing of guns. And it ends with the strings.

…

I have lots of thoughts. To this day, Bake no Hana is my favourite of the commissioned songs for this game. The music, the lyrics, the composition, they’re all great, and fit the event perfectly. With how hard-hitting Mizu5 was, they definitely needed a song that had the same effect. And, well, they succeeded. Thanks for reading if you made it all the way down here <3

#Bake no Hana #mizu5 #mizuki akiyama #nightcord at 25:00 #niigo #ena shinonome #kanade yoisaki #mafuyu asahina #niigo kaito #mizuena #im promoting the yuri agenda even when its not explicitly mentioned #trans mizuki akiyama

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