I have no idea what is going on, but I like the animation.

hurkaderk said:
I have no idea what is going on, but I like the animation.

It would probably be clearer if I could understand the lyrics. But my best guess as to what's going on is:
The dog is a licensed bounty hunter, searching for "fallen angels" (winged humanoids, who can change into birds I suppose) and other "pests", and runs into a girl who he takes to be a normal human. They camp out, and while the dog is sleeping, she runs off and turns into a bird. During that commotion, the dog runs into her and, not realizing who she is, shoots at her and draws some blood as she gets away. The next night, they see her again in her "human" form, they camp out and she again runs off and becomes a bird. She flies to the top of some building where she yells and blows stuff up. The dog tracks down and kills a fallen angel, and reaches the top of the building the bird-girl is. He recognizes who she is and spares her, and they share a moment as the sun rises. She then flies off, presumably as the dog rethinks his job.

This is beautiful. Just a gem amongst smut.

watsit said:
It would probably be clearer if I could understand the lyrics. But my best guess as to what's going on is:
The dog is a licensed bounty hunter, searching for "fallen angels" (winged humanoids, who can change into birds I suppose) and other "pests", and runs into a girl who he takes to be a normal human. They camp out, and while the dog is sleeping, she runs off and turns into a bird. During that commotion, the dog runs into her and, not realizing who she is, shoots at her and draws some blood as she gets away. The next night, they see her again in her "human" form, they camp out and she again runs off and becomes a bird. She flies to the top of some building where she yells and blows stuff up. The dog tracks down and kills a fallen angel, and reaches the top of the building the bird-girl is. He recognizes who she is and spares her, and they share a moment as the sun rises. She then flies off, presumably as the dog rethinks his job.

I think you're close but feel it goes a little deeper than that.

To me it seems like the video depicts three distinct timeline branches that are each ways that the story can unfold.

The first branch, the bounty hunter finds the bird in human form and, not realizing what she is, offers companionship. The bird, knowing what she is and what it would mean if she gets found out, sneaks away in the night. For some reason or another the bird transforms into her actual form - perhaps it's a time-of-day thing? - which also appears to have a violent reaction of sorts. The hunter notices the explosion and shows up. The bird attempts to fly away and the hunter shoots her out of the sky.

The second branch is broken into two parts with a very brief interlude of the third branch to separate the segments - this is the one where she sneaks away, transforms, lets out a type of "cry of anguish" due to her hating what she is and what she feels to be her fated interaction with the world and it's interaction with her (ie. her voice causes destruction and, due to this power, she is fated to be hunted and killed). In what I would suggest is the "true" ending, the hunter lowers his weapon and chooses to spare the bird even after she almost seems to beg him to end her existence. She then flies away, cue awesome flying animation.

The third branch, as mentioned, was very brief. This is the one at 2:30 where the hunter finds the bird in human form and shoots her dead, a fate that many of her kind likely have already met.

I'm not sure how the lyrics play into the story, or if they do at all. Between a machine translation, as unreliable as they are at properly conveying intended meanings in many cases, the depicted story in the music video itself, of course heavily influenced by my attempt at interpreting the visual storytelling, and a basic understanding of Japanese I get the feeling that it's intended to convey something along the lines of a feeling of "being lost in a void of self-loathing and a fear of what may come to pass." In other words, being trapped in "One's Mind", which happens to be the name of the song in English. The ending may be an allusion to a combination of self-acceptance and companionship helping to overcome that feeling thus allowing one to break free of the crushing feelings of depression and self-hatred that were keeping her in that barred room.

Interesting note: The song's actual name in Japanese is 胸の煙 which is "Mune no kemuri" or "Smoke of the breast", breast meaning chest, perhaps alluding to a "smoke in the chest obscuring what's in the heart" or something like that? The name "One's Mind" appears to be specifically chosen in English. This may be one of those cultural meanings that doesn't translate well between Japanese and English. Not really sure.

I'm probably completely off the mark, this is just how it seems to me, anyway. That said, the song is beautiful and the animation is stunning. It makes for a very enjoyable music video, I really like it.

Talk about overanalyzing things, haha.

[Favorited.]

I don't understand everything that's going on but the way it conveys what's doing made me want to cry.

But I think I understand the general idea?

The ending got me.

The animation is amazing, some of the best I've seen. I don't even want to know how long it took the artist to get it to look this smooth.

Perfection! It tugged at my heart.

DAT WAS SO COOOL!!!

She look really happy to be flying.

What's the character's names? I'd really like to draw art of these!

reian said:
I think you're close but feel it goes a little deeper than that.

Right. I just meant to give a general overview of events without reading too much into it. These kinds of things often depend quite a bit on personal interpretation, I just initially found it extremely confusing until I was able to put down that small little narrative base (I'm sure the whole "fallen angel" thing, the end having her and a bunch of other birds flying up into the sky, and the cigarette brand being 'Peace', have significance too; the way the first act's transformation, which seems to be forced and out of nowhere, differs from the second act's, which seems more deliberate as a result of her thinking of the past, also seems like it should mean something).

reian said:
To me it seems like the video depicts three distinct timeline branches that are each ways that the story can unfold.

Admittedly, I did get Groundhog Day vibes at first, but I think the reuse of animations and backgrounds gave a stronger sense of repetition than intended. It feels like it could do with a couple more establishing shots between the "acts" to make it clear time was passing and things were different (or that things were resetting for the scenario to run again but differently, whichever they meant to imply).

But to me, it feels a bit too disjointed for the split branches interpretation. There doesn't seem to be much reason for the differences in the branches, and the way the third interjects in the middle of the second comes across as a clumsy way to do it. Granted, the lyrics might help with that if I could understand them, but a three-act narrative seems to work better as there is an apparent sequence and progression of events.

The first act plays out pretty much as you describe for the first branch. We see the dog is a hunter of sorts, as he carries a gun and has a sidekick that draws his attention to abnormal things that might be danger. Upon seeing a human, he lowers the gun and offers companionship. During the night, she goes to leave while they sleep, which is where we notice she's hiding that she's not human, her hand is a claw. She tries to run away but instead transforms into a full bird and draws the dog's attention. After the confrontation, the dog loses track of her as she disappears. She's hiding her true self, which sets up the conflict; the dog and human girl got along, but the dog doesn't hesitate to attack birds, which the girl secretly is.

In the second act, later on, we see the girl in human form again and the dog's hedgehog partner walks right up to her, as if it recognizes her from before, and offers her a cigarette... Peace. Unbeknownst to the characters, but the narrative subtext here seems clear: the bird-girl is being given a chance for peace between their kinds. During the night, she walks off to think. She's not trying to run away this time, she's reflecting on things. Her having to hide being a bird, the memories or empathic desire of everyone reaching for a better life that they can't reach, and the other birds/fallen angels (whom have either been killed or are in hiding). She can't show her true self to the dog for risk of being hunted, and all this anguish leads her to transform, fly up on top of a building, and destructively yell out in fear and pain. This is the escalation, things get worse before they can get better.

In the third act, through the destruction, the dog continues his hunt and kills a target (which is also where we see the papers declaring him a licensed hunter, and that it's his mission to hunt down fallen angels). He then tracks down the bird-girl, and recognizing it's the same person he's been camping out with, doesn't attack. The girl wants him to put her out of her misery. She's tired of running, tired of the anguish, and just wants to die. He refuses, and sits with her down for another cigarette... but doesn't have any. There's seemingly no Peace to be had with her. Then, she blinks and closes her eyes. The wide-eyed expression she's had as a bird, resembling hyper-alert prey ready to run at the first hint of danger, drops. She grabs the cigarette that she had been given in the second act, and gives it to him. She returns the peace she had been offered. She stands up, more confident, and opens her eyes, which no longer look afraid or terrified, and are now more focused. Finally, she flies off as a bird, no longer hiding who or what she is.

reian said:
Interesting note: The song's actual name in Japanese is 胸の煙 which is "Mune no kemuri" or "Smoke of the breast", breast meaning chest, perhaps alluding to a "smoke in the chest obscuring what's in the heart" or something like that? The name "One's Mind" appears to be specifically chosen in English. This may be one of those cultural meanings that doesn't translate well between Japanese and English. Not really sure.

There certainly seems to be a theme of hiding oneself, not showing your true self to others (which goes along with 胸の煙, masking your chest/heart/feelings), but through peace and understanding, people can be more open and not have to hide who they really are. I could be off-base on that... the english title "One's Mind" doesn't have the same meaning.

okay, so firstly, i am very confused why she has normal human feet for feet, but bird feet as hands in her human form, but then bird feet as feet and wings instead of arms in her bird form.

secondly, regarding the interpretation of the story, what Reian calls a "third branch"

reian said:
The third branch, as mentioned, was very brief. This is the one at 2:30 where the hunter finds the bird in human form and shoots her dead, a fate that many of her kind likely have already met.

watsit said:
The dog tracks down and kills a fallen angel

if you pay attention that happens in the very same place the hunter found her both times.
and it happens after her cry and shortly before she pulls the hunter's rifle to her head.
that means to me that it was her imagination where she wishes he had shot her back then.

so the story is quite simple:

the dog is a bounty hunter, hunting for "fallen angels" with his hedgehog sidekick.
they find a girl, take her for a regular human, and camp together.
at night she runs away to uncontrollably and violently/explosively turn into her "angel" form.
the dog finds and shoots her as she flies away for her life.

the next day they find her again, probably thinking she just ran away, and they camp together again.
once again she sneaks out.
she recalls her life of, i take, being desired/used (for her destructive power shown later) and probably experimented on along with her kind, some of whom have been killed.
she transforms again, this time on her own, flies to the top, and cries in anguish (showing her destructive power), imagining that it would be better/easier if he hunter just killed her, and waits for him.
he shows up, but probably recognizes her, so lowers the gun and walks up to her.
she asks him to fulfill her wish and shoot her, which he refuses by ejecting the shell.
she calms down, realizes she doesn't have to be afraid all the time, gives him the last cigarette that the hedgehog gave her that day, and flies away confidently (as opposed to flying with eyes wide open before).

the cigarette is probably a sign of friendship. i don't think it's a sign of peace because i have no reason to think the hedgehog realizes that she's a "fallen angel" to make peace with.
so when she receives it, the hedgehog befriends her, but she refuses to actually light it up because she doesn't think she deserves(?) the friendship.
later, returning the cigarette is a form of accepting/thanking for the friendship i guess.

also i just wanna comment that as much as this kind of "hunting sentient creatures down" idea that shows up in various media is obviously awful and despicable... i can't say it wasn't justified in this case. she clearly doesn't control it completely and is very dangerous.
also2 while it's understandable that she doesn't have to fear that particular hunter anymore, i don't see a good reason to be very calm and confident overall.

Whatever the meaning (anyone's guess is as good as mine), this was one gorgeous and jaw-dropping animation!

Honestly I think this itself could make for an entire anime. A movie at least. Holy heck. This could be amazing if produced correctly.

With the bird being capable of that much destruction I don't know as to why it was spared.

I love this. This animator has a great grasp on how to create the feel of movement and makes things feel speedy and weighty when it's needed.

https://www.fortunelyrics.com/zutomayo-ones-mind-lyrics/ i found some english lyrics

e621にはこんなのまで投稿されるんだなw