I Sing For You: Bakamitai, Yakuza, and meaning beyond words
Disclaimer: This contains light spoilers for the Yakuza series of video games. All attempts have been made to avoid specific spoilers and instead make this a discussion of tone. That being said, play Yakuza and specifically support the Western release of Yakuza: Like A Dragon on Nov 10, 2020. SEGA did not pay for any commercial considerations. I just love these games that fucking much.
If you’re a person with a pulse online you have surely stumbled upon the Dame Da Ne memes. Usually a video, sometimes filled with tragedy sometimes not, deep faked into singing the now familiar Dame Da Ne chorus. According to Know Your Meme’s page on the meme while parodies of the song began to crop up in 2018 it’s true emergence has come this year, first with parodies and then the deepfake phenomenon.
If you’re a fan of niche but growing Japanese crime drama video games the earliest you could’ve stumbled upon Bakamitai was in 2012 with the release of Yakuza 5 in Japan. If you’re a Western fan of the series your first exposure to the song was more than likely 2017’s international release of Yakuza 0.
Regardless of how you came to find the song, one thing is almost undeniable. The song connects. Whether in context to the video game or on a standalone platform it’s undeniable that the song elicits an emotional response.
So what is it about Bakamitai that evokes emotion? Is the song, purely by composition, performance of the singer, choice of instruments and more able to convey it’s meaning regardless of spoken language? Am I just simply in too deep because I know what the song is about in the context of the games?
I tend to lean toward toward the earlier choice.
Bakamitai, officially translated as I’ve Been A Fool, speaks lyrically to a longing for an old love. Whether romantic, platonic, or familial is never made explicit lyrically and the narrative of the games make use of the flexibility of this ambiguity to great effect. Whether it’s Kyriu longing for his adopted daughter and dog, longing for his adopter father and brother, or his weird friend who really into RC Cars (Pocket Circuit Fighter, an odd side character who the games give a thirty year story that perfectly symbolizes why these games are so great) Akiyama longing for his days as a homeless man (for reasons that, in fairness, are not explained) or Saejima’s longing for his youth (and his flowing long hair) the song’s flexibility and message of longing and regrets of mistakes applies easily to differing situations.
As I was writing this I sent a link to the song to a friend who I was one hundred percent sure didn’t know about the game and had never played it. I asked them what the song inspired in them and they told me, to no surprise, that it felt to be about longing.
Personally, every time I listen to the song I feel a deep hurt and longing for some of the mistakes of my past. It moves me close to tears and rarely fails to inspire Aristotle’s catharsis in me.
I urge you to listen to the song and form your own connections. Reach out to me. I care so goddamn much about this little song and this little game series.
I’ve linked a YouTube video of the first version of the song I heard below.
Who or what do you sing for?