脱獄 (Datsugoku)

Background
"It’s been a while."

- Author's comment

"Jailbreak" is an original song by Neru. The boys in the video are named Kawasemi, who has orange hair and turquoise eyes, and Kuina, who has black hair and orange eyes.

Based on the PV, the song tells the story between the boys in a fictional dystopian city enclosed by an artificial cage. It starts with Kawasemi walking towards a plane, determined. Then it flashes back to his childhood.

As childhood friends, Kawasemi and Kuina 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" really meant. And so Kuina muttered to Kawasemi, "Let's escape," and then grabbed Kawasemi by hand to run. The then shy and timid Kawasemi always followed Kuina’s lead, 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 warmth and love 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.

After they have grown up, Kawasemi becomes alone in this pursuit. Going back to the present, standing in their childhood base, Kawasemi reminisces a faraway memory when Kuina braggingly showed him his blueprint of a plane, which Kawasemi now thinks was “ridiculous” and merely a “child's fantasy” as he picks it up in his hands before a plane model and the other designs left from their childhood. Now, drawn by the past Kuina who is waving to him, Kawasemi finishes building the plane himself, and standing before his eyes is the plane from that memory. Almost getting caught, Kawasemi seizes a brief moment and escapes in stealth through the decadent ceiling as the buzzer sound grows faint amidst the shouting police and firing commands. Then, realizing that it is Kuina who finds him and is standing right before him with his gun pointing at him, Kawasemi smirks. Kuina has left him and their dreams to join the police force. Meanwhile, 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, determined to fly the plane––to push down the rusty throttle with all his strength as if going to break his bones––and break through reality at this very moment, Kawasemi cuts Kuina's blindfold––a part of his uniform––by throwing a knife at him and then mocks his inability to "see," puts on his goggles 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 childhood.

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 tragedy. On the plane which is carrying Kawasemi, the warning signs and error lamps flash nonstop for an unknown factor. 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 seeing how Kawasemi wanted to reach the sky regardless of the heating of the engine and the fate of the fuselage, astonishes Kuina with the greatness of the spacious sky and triggers Kuina's childhood fascination with it. As Kuina, standing still in the same place, watches the plane exploding in the faraway sky, Kawasemi thinks that it's fine this way even if his body will get blown away somewhere unknown, and his pair of goggles descends 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, with 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––presumably Kawasemi's internal dialogue towards Kuina––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 lines might also relate to the fact that after Kuina has grown up, he gives up on his dreams for the sake of survival and lives like a puppet by joining the police and covering his eyes with the blindfold, which is later shown to be taken off symbolically when the sight of Kawasemi risking everything just to reach the sky reminds Kuina of his fascination with the sky––as seen by his eyes back in childhood.

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 meadow 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. It is featured in the albums My Name is Love Song and Kagaminext.