Hatsune Miku - Suicide Song

A note on the title: "Suicide Song" sounds alarming, but the track is an ironic, almost slapstick piece from the early Vocaloid scene. The singer - Hatsune Miku - announces a new suicide attempt in each verse (hanging, carbon monoxide, pills) and fails every time because of an absurdly mundane obstacle. By the end she is still alive. If you are looking for a serious take on suicide, this is not it; if you want to understand how dark humour works in the Japanese Vocaloid community, you are in the right place.

Hello and welcome to another article from Suki Desu. Today we are looking at the so-called Suicide Song (Japanese: "Jisatsu Song", 自殺ソング) by the virtual singer Hatsune Miku. The title sets the tone, but anyone who has actually heard the song knows the punchline: nobody dies here. Three grand farewell attempts are announced, and all three collapse in a ridiculous way. The original video - subtitled in Thai - is still easy to find on YouTube if you want to hear the song along with the text below.

The track sits in a long tradition of Vocaloid songs that use shock-value titles for comedic effect. It is not a message of despair; it is a joke built on the gap between the dramatic premise and the trivial failure.

Original lyrics (Japanese)

The complete Japanese original, kept as the song uses it - including its quirks. Some particles and particles-like endings look unusual (for example わたくしわ instead of わたくしは, or 薬お instead of 薬を) but they are intentional and have been preserved.

Click here to expand the text

唐突ですがわたくしわ
今から首を吊ろうと思います
こんなにもやるせない世界かな
とっととお祖母らしたいと思います
でも　ねえ、あれれ
首つるひもがありませんでした
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
首つるひもがなかったおかげで
私はまだ行けている

次こそわですね私わ
二酸化炭素をはかろうと思います
一酸化炭素中毒になりながら
相馬島を眺めたいと思います

でも　ねえ、あれれ
鉛丹のおいるが切れてました
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
鉛丹のオイルが切れて他のおかげで
私はまだ行けている

三度目の正直にわたくしわ
薬お飲んでサヨナラしようと思います
大量の錠剤お水で流し込み
布団でその時お待とうと思います

でも　ねえ、あれれ
水道が止められておりました
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
何て素晴らしい人生でしょう
水道代払い忘れてたおかげで
私わまだ行けて生き延びて

この人生わまるで気まぐれに
理由をつけてわ津ずくのでしょう
おみぐるしいかとわおもいますが
お付き合い願います

アッパぁぱぁーぱっぱ！

Romaji (Hepburn with macrons)

The lyrics romanised in standard Hepburn with macrons on long vowels, so you can follow the pronunciation without needing to read kanji. The English translation follows below.

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Tōtotsu desu ga watakushi wa

Ima kara kubi o tsurō to omoimasu
Konna ni mo yarusenai sekai kana
Totto to osaraba shitai to omoimasu

Demo nē, arere
Kubitsuru himo ga arimasen deshita

Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Kubitsuru himo ga nakatta okage de
Watashi wa mada ikete iru

Tsugi koso wa desu ne watakushi wa
Mado kara jisatsu o hakarō to omoimasu
Issanka tanso chūdoku ni nari nagara
Souma-tō o nagametai to omoimasu

Demo nē, arere
Raitā no oiru ga kirete imashita

Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Raitā no oiru ga kireteta okage de
Watashi wa mada ikete iru

Sando-me no shōjiki ni watakushi wa
Kusuri o nonde sayonara shiyō to omoimasu
Tairyō no jōzai o mizu de nagashikomi
Futon de sono toki o matō to omoimasu

Demo nē, arere
Suidō ga tomerarete orimashita

Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Nante subarashii jinsei deshō?
Suidō-dai barai wasureteta okage de
Watashi wa mada ikete ikinobite

Kono jinsei wa maru de kimagure ni
Riyū o tsukete wa tsuzuku no deshō
Omigurushii ka to wa omoimasu ga
Otsukiai negaimasu

Appapā parapappa!

English translation

A readable English version. Where the Japanese uses a stiff, formal register (watakushi rather than watashi) on purpose, the translation keeps that distance too.

Click here to expand the text

I know it is sudden, but I have decided
to hang myself here and now.
This world feels so unbearably heavy,
so I would like to say goodbye to grandmother right away.

But - hey, wait, what is this?
There was no rope to hang myself with.

What a wonderful life, isn't it?
What a wonderful life, isn't it?
Thanks to not having a rope to hang myself with,
I am still going on.

Next time will be the one, I am sure - I, for one,
plan to kill myself by jumping from a window.
While dying of carbon-monoxide poisoning,
I would like to gaze out at the Souma Islands.

But - hey, wait, what is this?
The lighter fluid had run out.

What a wonderful life, isn't it?
What a wonderful life, isn't it?
Thanks to the lighter fluid having run out,
I am still going on.

Third time pays for all - so I, for one,
plan to say goodbye by taking medicine.
I will wash down a huge pile of pills with water,
and wait for the moment in my futon.

But - hey, wait, what is this?
The water supply had been cut off.

What a wonderful life, isn't it?
What a wonderful life, isn't it?
Thanks to having forgotten to pay the water bill,
I am still going on, still surviving.

This life, as if on a whim,
keeps handing me reasons to keep on going, doesn't it.
I know it sounds awful,
but please bear with me a little longer.

Appapā parapappa!

Breaking down the song

"Suicide Song" is a useful little vocabulary drill, because the same handful of words keep turning up across all three verses. A few worth knowing:

• 水道 - suidō - tap water, water service
• 薬 - kusuri - medicine, medication
• 人生 - jinsei - life, lifetime
• おかげで - okage de - thanks to, owing to

And a few more that show up in the verses themselves:

• 首 (kubi) - neck
• 紐 (himo) - cord, rope
• 一酸化炭素 (issanka tanso) - carbon monoxide
• 中毒 (chūdoku) - poisoning
• 錠剤 (jōzai) - pill, tablet
• 布団 (futon) - futon, bedding
• 水道代 (suidō-dai) - water bill

Now let us unpack a few lines that carry the joke.

首つる紐がなかったおかげで、
Kubitsuru himo ga nakatta okage de,

Thanks to not having a rope to hang myself with,

• 首 (kubi) - neck
• 紐 (himo) - cord, string, rope
• なかった (nakatta) - did not exist (negative past of ある)
• おかげで (okage de) - thanks to, owing to

一酸化炭素中毒になりながら、
Issanka tanso chūdoku ni nari nagara,

While dying of carbon-monoxide poisoning,

• 一酸化炭素 (issanka tanso) - carbon monoxide
• 中毒 (chūdoku) - poisoning
• 〜ながら (nagara) - while, even as

The verse above is also the song's most self-undermining line: carbon-monoxide poisoning is the excuse to sit by a window and watch the view, and the plan only fails because her lighter has run out of fluid.

私はまだ行けている
Watashi wa mada ikete iru

Literally: I am still able to go on.

• 私 (watashi) - I
• まだ (mada) - still, yet
• 行ける (ikeru) - to be able to go, to keep going

It is the same line, almost word for word, in every chorus, and it is also the song's whole punchline.

Context: why the title is ironic

"Suicide Song" first appeared in the late 2000s on Niconico, at the height of the so-called Vocaloid boom, when producers were racing to upload the catchiest, weirdest, most quotable tracks they could make for Hatsune Miku and the other Crypton Future Media vocal synths. The producer behind the song is generally listed as demon223 in the Vocaloid fan databases, and the track is credited as one of the more meme-able "dark" entries in the early Miku catalogue.

What makes the joke work is the contrast between two things. On one side, the lyrics adopt an extremely formal, almost old-fashioned register - わたくし (watakushi) instead of the casual わたし (watashi), and おります / であります style verb endings - the kind of language you would expect from a formal suicide note, or, more often in Japanese internet culture, from a prim heiress in a comedy sketch. On the other side, the actual reasons she survives are trivial: no rope, empty lighter, cut-off water. The dramatic register and the banal obstacles keep cancelling each other out.

There is also a long tradition in Japanese pop culture of treating the topic in this deflective, almost vaudeville way. Vocaloid producers in particular leaned into shock-value titles ("Suicide Song", "Kokoro no Aizu", and others) because the platform's algorithm rewarded attention-grabbing uploads; the actual content was usually much milder than the title suggested. If you are curious about how those titles sit next to the song, the broader discussion of suicide in Japanese media is a useful counterweight, and the piece on Aokigahara, the "suicide forest", sits at the opposite end of the same conversation: a real, very serious topic that the song is not touching at all.

So if you came to "Suicide Song" expecting either a tragic ballad or a PSA, it is neither. It is a comedy sketch set to a Hatsune Miku backing track, and the joke is precisely that the singer keeps "surviving" because the world keeps interrupting her dramatic plans with the most mundane inconveniences.

Conclusion

"Suicide Song" is a small, clever piece of Vocaloid history: a song whose title does almost all the marketing for it, and whose verses are really just a structured excuse to repeat one absurd punchline - watashi wa mada ikete iru, I am still going on - three times in a row. It is a good entry point into the wilder side of the Hatsune Miku back catalogue, and it is a useful reminder that, in the early Niconico Vocaloid scene, an alarming title was often a hook, not a statement of intent.

If you enjoyed unpacking this one, our other Hatsune Miku song translations, including "World is Mine" and the Hatsune Miku take on "The Game of Life", follow the same shape: the original Japanese, the romaji, and a line-by-line English reading. They are a good place to keep practising the vocabulary from this song in context.