I Like Where This Is Going

Hi everybody! It is late in the day for a blog, but after brainstorming with my youngest over the meaning of the lyric video (Why didn’t they have these back in MY day?!) for More Joy, I was inspired!

This morning, I sat down to watch it the first time, and decided the video was nutty. Fun, colorful, and nutty, but still nutty. I made a note to watch it again with my youngest. She is very into Anime (or animation of any and all kinds), and I figured if anyone would be able to talk me through, it would be her. I wasn’t wrong.

After watching it this afternoon, we were able to really see a sort of story that did not immediately reveal itself to me earlier in the day. Oddly (remarkably?) the video really does sort of unfold into a very relatable and familiar story. As my daughter pointed out to me, the dragon finds the guy standing by himself. It greets him with a kiss, and that seems to encourage the human to follow the dragon to the train, where they begin a journey to some sort of mystery place. Along the way though, they find others that are also alone. It’s not a coincidence that none of them are like the others – they are all basically misfits, at least by our societal standards, in way or another. What I liked though, is that it wasn’t always the dragon finding the others. In one instance, it is the human who finds another creature with wings, treats them with kindness and convinces it to come along. In turn, that winged creature finds a sort of robot or UFO thing that she then befriends.

They all ride the train together to a place where, of course, the band is playing along with Chai. To me, this concert symbolizes joy, and so these four “misfits”, so to speak, arrive at this special place to find many others. I’m struck by the fact that they’re all completely different (and even the few that seem to be like one another are still outcasts). So while they might be the misfit, loner or outcast in their normal, everyday lives—when they’re in this very special place together, it doesn’t matter. They’re part of the crowd. The family. They’re accepted, liked, and even loved, for exactly who they are.

Interestingly enough, the band isn’t even front and center in this video. They’re the backdrop for everything else that happens. The soundtrack, and yes, the joy.

Even the seemingly completely crazy ending makes sense to me. The clown with the two TV screens as heads is attacked by someone definitely from the “outside”, and the dragon puts an end to that rather quickly, shutting that person down as quickly and soundly as possible.

If this isn’t like our fandom, then I really don’t know what is. I hear the same story over and over from Duran fans. We all felt alone at one time or another until we found our people here. The band is our soundtrack, our playlist, and definitely a source of joy for all of us (Something I think we could all use more of right now). Once someone is in our family, so to speak, we do not take kindly to outsiders attacking them.

The whole video reminds me VERY much of the meetups we’ve hosted, the ones we’ve been to, conventions we’ve attended, ones we’ve organized, and all sorts of in-person events I sincerely hope we have again. So often I hear of people tell us that we were kind to them. We welcomed them in when they thought they were alone, and then they went off and found other friends. That is the story is being represented, however abstractly, in this video.

I didn’t get it this morning, and I’m so glad I watched it a few more times. This too is just like anything else this band does. There is just so much more than goes on beyond the surface. It would be so easy to see the video as nothing more than nonsensical fun, but for those who choose to look—everything you need to know is right there. This video is about us. It is our story.

I sure hope they play this live and that I’m around to experience it.

-R