Temptation of Thanatos – into the night – Yoasobi

タナトスの誘惑 Thanatos no Yūwaku by 星野舞夜 Hoshino Mayo

‘Into the night’ is the debut song of Yoasobi and the video on YouTube is played more than two hundred million times. Yoasobi creates lyrics based on novels and ‘Thanatos no Yuwaku’, the temptation of Thanatos in English, is the original novel of ‘into the night’ The summary of the novel is as follows:

Summary of the story 

‘Good Bye’ a main character received a message. It was from a lady, he had a crush on at first sight. Only those two words were enough to explain what she meant to convey to him. It was her fourth time trying to commit suicide by falling off the rooftop of an apartment. Their first encounter was also at the place and he saved her from committing suicide. It is said that there are two types of people: Humans who are inclined towards life – governed by ‘’Eros’’ and humans who are inclined towards death – governed by ‘’Thanatos’’. She was no doubt of the latter even though the majority of people belongs to the former.

She messages him every time she attempts the suicide and waits at the very edge of the rooftop  behind in front of  the fence and he has been thinking that she wants him to stop her. However, this time he started to wonder he might have been preoccupied by misbelief and ended up misinterpreting the ‘Good bye ‘.

She says she can see the angel of death, which can rarely happen with those being controlled by Thanatos – the desire to die, and she wept every time he denied the existence of the angel of death. According to her, the angel of death materialized in the most ideal appearance for the viewer. Her facial feature upon gazing at the angel was like a girl falling in love with someone.

Once he arrived at the spot, he grabbed her hands and try to discourage her, but she refused it and told him that the angel of death is calling her. Their conversation continued for a while and then she said “I am fed up with the situation “. It was the moment that his patience cannot bear the situation anymore. He detested the way she was captivated by the angel and she did not love him the way he wanted. Then she added “I want to die immediately “ and he snapped “ So do I “.  At this moment, he finally figured out that she wanted to bring him to the underground together rather than being discouraged.

He has been exploited by a sweatshop and his face was filled with fatigue after the labor. Only when he is with her did he show a look of happiness. She loves the expression and ironically feels sad to know that she can no longer see it, but she still believes she appeared in front of him because he wished.

When their hands are tied, she thought her duty was discharged and they are moving into the night :

Seize a move, you’re on me, falling and we were dissolving.

You and me, skies above and wide, it brings on the true night on me.

Tonight, don’t ever lose sight of me and let go.

You and me are running through the night in dark, I’ll take you.

My thought 

I did not know about the original novel when I first listened to the song. Indeed, the song can be enjoyed without knowing it as the melody is rhythmic and the voice of the vocal is attractive. However, after reading the novel, it becomes clearer that the lyrics describe his inner contradiction that he encourages himself to hang on the situation while it keeps him down and suicide seems the only way to get out of it. This is a controversial topic in Japan as some people are continuously overworking, cannot see a hope, and eventually commit suicide. Even though the best option is turning around the predicaments, unfortunately about 20 thousands people committed suicide in 2020 in Japan. Currently, Japanese government and companies are seriously advancing the Work System Reform project and I hope this will save a lot of Japanese employees from too much pressure at their workplaces.

‘Into the night’ Official YouTube Video

English version of ‘Into the night’ can be watch from the following link:

Original version ‘夜に駆ける‘ can be watched from the following link:

YOASOBI「夜に駆ける」 Official Music Video – YouTube

The summary of another Yoasobi’s song RGB is in the following link. 

Yoasobi ‘RGB’ summary of the original novel by 小御門優一郎