脱獄 (Datsugoku)

Background
"Datsugoku" is an original song by Neru featuring Kagamine Rin.

Based on the PV, the song tells the story between two boys in a fictional dystopian city enclosed by an artificial cage.

The PV starts with Kawasemi (who has orange hair and dark turquoise eyes) walking towards a plane, determined. Then it flashes back to his childhood.

As childhood friends, Kawasemi and Kuina (the black-haired boy with dark amber eyes) were born into the city that reeked of gasoline which was isolated by the dull city wall, ignorant of even the color of the meadow. Determined to change the situation, Kuina once told Kawasemi that waiting for salvation would do nothing but make them get better at Monopoly, with a smirk. Hearing the screams of the mass from the gunshots of the government's police force, they wondered what "life" meant, and so Kuina whispered to Kawasemi, "Let's escape." The then shy and timid Kawasemi always followed Kuina, the confident and determined "leader" of the two. Led by Kuina, together they used to plan their escape scheme. They dreamed about the world beyond the railings, in which they thought love and warmth must have existed and used to look up to the sky, fantasized innumerable times of flying out the shut window to reach the world on the other side.

The first half of the song is narrated from Kawasemi's perspective, while the second half near the end is told in Kuina's point of view.

As they grow up, Kawasemi becomes alone in this pursuit after Kuina has left and joined the police, each going their separate paths. Back to the present, standing in their childhood base, Kawasemi is now reminiscing that once a long, long time ago, Kuina braggingly held up and showed him his blueprint of a plane, which Kawasemi now thinks was “foolish” and the product of their “childish fantasy.” Now tempted by the past Kuina, standing before his eyes is that plane. Almost getting caught, Kawasemi escapes in stealth from a tiny crack through the decadent ceiling as the buzzer sound grows faint amidst the shouting police and firing commands. Then, realizing that it is Kuina who has found him and is standing right before him with his gun pointing at him, Kawasemi smirks. Kawasemi has grown up to be confident and vigorous, much like Kuina in the past, whereas Kuina has become sullen and restraint. Looking back at how they used to talk about their dream of looking down at the garbage-like city from high above the cage, decides to transcend reality, Kawasemi cuts Kuina's blindfold––a part of his uniform––by throwing a knife at him, mocks his inability to "see" and challenges a chase. Shocked and then vexed, Kuina runs after Kawasemi up the stairs of the building which they used to play in. During the scenes of their encounter, it can be captured that the pair of goggles Kuina used to wear with Kawasemi is attached to his belt, indicating that he has never forgotten their dream.

At last, Kuina reaches the rooftop. Under the pressuring gale which blows his cap away, he sees the tail of the departing plane, and an engine sound signals the incoming danger. An inexplicable error has occurred on the plane which is carrying Kawasemi. Yet Kawasemi’s determined visage stays unaffected as he continues to elevate the plane in the sky, eventually breaking out the cage. The moment the plane falls and explodes, Kawasemi grins triumphantly but with tears falling down his cheek, while Kuina's eyes water as he witnesses the death of his childhood friend in despair. And Kuina's childhood admiration of the vast sky––how great it is, able to make one wanting to trip into it regardless of the heating of the engine and the fate of the fuselage––comes back to him. As Kuina, standing in the same place, watches the plane exploding in the faraway sky, Kawasemi thinks that this is good enough for him even if his body will get blown away somewhere unknown, for it is just how it is, and his pair of goggles falls before Kuina. The PV thus ends with a shot of Kawasemi and Kuina’s belongings––the designs they drew and the plane model they played with in childhood and Kawasemi’s goggles atop Kuina’s police cap––placed together on the windowsill they used to play by.

At the beginning of the PV, right before the childhood flashback, a line stating, "We are supposed to be joining in the same sky here, yet we have been going in separate directions since not knowing when," is shown flashed. And separate lines together saying, "If to turn a blind eye to the things surely captured by these eyes back in childhood is what it means to become an adult, then I don't mind staying a child for life," are flashed at different points of the PV, after the grown-up Kawasemi has encountered Kuina.

The names of the characters, "Kawasemi" and "Kuina," are names of birds, with the common kingfisher–– "kawasemi (カワセミ)" ––being a kind of bird whose flight is low and quick and the water rail–– "kuina (クイナ)" ––being a kind of bird that is poor in flight. The characters’ color schemes are based individually on these two birds as well. It is also worth noting that the moment Kawasemi dies, a symbolic scene of bright blue feathers––a common feature of the common kingfisher––falling before an opened "cage" in which stands a shook Kuina is shown, meaning that Kawasemi is free and gone.

The flower dandelion appears as well in the scene where young Kawasemi and Kuina dream of the ideal outside world and at the end of the PV, presumably symbolizing hope and freedom, though according to Japanese sources, the dandelion's flower language is "oracle of love," "oracle," "sincere love," and "farewell." The grassland in the PV is always portrayed orange because, as mentioned in the lyrics, Kawasemi and Kuina have never gotten the chance to learn the color of the meadow.

This song has entered the Hall of Legend and is featured on the albums My Name is Love Song (マイネームイズラヴソング) and EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Kagaminext feat. 鏡音リン、鏡音レン ―10th ANNIVERSARY BEST―.