Ryu ga Gotoku: Pure Love in Kamurocho (English)

Japanese title: 神室純恋歌
Romaji: Kamuro Junrenka
Quite the classic we're having today. Have to say, it was quite hard to translate considering that I usually have some requirements for the quality. Sooo get ready for tons of notes:
女は裏がある: Translating this literally doesn't work, at all. The meaning is essentially that there always is a catch.
建前？本音さ。 : In Japanese society there a noticeable difference between tatemae and honne. Tatemae is how you act in public situations or the face you want people to see, whilst honne is what you really think.
Closing statements:
I love this song, of course when I heard it for the first time a few years ago I did not understand anything, yet thought it sounded really pleasant. Now, I like it because of the mix between honesty and pretense that is in it, or maybe rather the ambiguity as to what their relationship actually is. The characters keep going from being really straight about how it's "love for a price", "an imitation of affection", etc, yet ultimately they feel so taken by their feelings that all of that disappears. It is "their fate to be illuminated by the neon streets", they're not like everyone else and "can overcome anything". We never get to know in the song whether it's true love or just an illusion summoned by money and the cabaret business, but judging by how every hostess relationship ends in the games... we can certainly guess.
edit: And there is no doubt that this song is about a customer/hostess love story, as the kanji for man and woman 男女 have been replaced with those for customer 客 and the kanji used in キャバ嬢 (hostess), although the pronunciation remains the same.

Видео Ryu ga Gotoku: Pure Love in Kamurocho (English) канала Damike