Speculation on Why Sakiko Composed “Imprisoned XII” with a Beautiful Melody: Focusing on Its Similarities to “Ningen ni Naritai Uta”
I think the reason Sakiko composed “Imprisoned XII” with such a beautiful melody is because of Sakiko’s characteristic way of composing music: transforming the rawest and most vulnerable emotions of others into music. In that sense, the song closely parallels CRYCHIC’s “Ningen ni Naritai Uta
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First of all, both songs share the same fundamental contrast: the lyrics themselves are extremely heavy and emotionally naked, yet those emotions are placed on top of beautiful, melodic music. “Ningen ni Naritai Uta” expresses Tomori’s desperate confession of wanting to become human, a light pop sound. Likewise, “Imprisoned XII” carries Uika’s desires, obsession, and hidden true feelings through a beautiful melody. In both cases, the songwriter’s deepest and darkest inner emotions are transformed into “beautiful music.”
The structural parallels are also striking. In “Ningen ni Naritai Uta,” Sakiko reads the notebook containing Tomori’s true feelings and spontaneously turns them into a song. In “Imprisoned XII,” Uika’s brutally honest lyrics are exposed to the group chat by Nyamu, and after seeing them, Sakiko composes the music. In both situations, someone’s hidden inner feelings are revealed regardless of their own intentions, and Sakiko receives those emotions and converts them into music. The structure is essentially the same.
What makes “Imprisoned XII” even more significant is how different its production process is from the usual Ave Mujica style. Previously, Sakiko would generally compose the music first, and Uika would later write lyrics for it. However, in “Imprisoned XII,” Uika’s lyrics existed first, and Sakiko composed music in response to them. This closely mirrors the structure of “Ningen ni Naritai Uta,” where Tomori’s inner feelings came first and Sakiko layered music onto them afterward. Because of this, the similarity between the two songs is not merely atmospheric; the very structure of “Sakiko responding musically to another person’s emotional confession” is being repeated.
From a production and performance standpoint, “Imprisoned XII” also moves in a noticeably different direction from traditional Ave Mujica works. As mentioned in interviews, the performance focused less on large-scale theatrical worldbuilding and more on “conveying emotion directly through the song itself.” The members’ exchanged glances and the simpler staging were intentionally designed to resemble MyGO!!!!!’s emotionally grounded style of expression. This further reinforces the interpretation that “Imprisoned XII” is not simply another Ave Mujica-style masked performance, but rather a song that exposes hidden inner emotions through music. At the same time, it strengthens the possibility that “Ningen ni Naritai Uta” and “Imprisoned XII” were intentionally designed as parallels to one another.
Because of this, I see Sakiko not as someone who composes music by judging the morality or righteousness of emotions, but as someone who responds to how honestly and unguardedly a person reveals their true self, and then sublimates those feelings into music. In that sense, the reason “Imprisoned XII” was composed with such a beautiful melody despite the nature of its lyrics lies in the very essence of Sakiko’s identity as a composer.