He said, "You know, there are some things you can't turn a blind eye to.
I also have to ask you about the period of restraint that followed the coronavirus.
PUNPEE:Well...it's hard to say in a nutshell.... As for the mindset, it's eating me up, and it's definitely affecting the EP. It's a little bit difficult. I got sick, and even the tour had to be postponed, so that part of it took a toll on me mentally. But I can't really explain it, but I think we all realized something about the future. I can't explain it, but I think each one of us realized something, like "Why did I look away from that? I know it's a bit of a stretch to say this, but I'm also looking forward to seeing what will happen in the future.
I was wondering how you would release the emotional stress of this situation.
PUNPEE:Divergence.... . I have no choice but to sublimate it into songs. I am also saved by my hobbies, you know. Movies, American comics, and so on. I also feel that the happy news of people around me gives me hope.
For example, was there anything you saw or read recently that helped you feel better?
PUNPEE:I wonder... I am not saved at all, but when I watched the movie "Platoon" (*an American movie released in 1986 about the Vietnam War), I realized that I can no longer watch movies with the same feelings as before. I realized that there were so many things in the world that I needed to think about. I realized that there were things in the world that I could not just turn a blind eye to. I still don't know what the way out is, but I was able to realize it by confronting it first.
PUNPEE-san, one of your favorites is the American comic "Watchmen" (*American comic published from 1986 to 1987, which was made into a live-action movie in 2009 and a live-action TV drama in 2007). I think that what is depicted in that work has a lot in common with the present day. There is a part where a nuclear war crisis is averted by using another crisis as a scapegoat, and world peace is restored. But it doesn't quite work out that way.
PUNPEE:. that's what I think. I recently watched the drama version and the comic sequel "Doomsday Clock" and I thought, "If Ozymandias were around now, he might be like this..." I hope he's strong, though. Of course, "Watchmen" is fiction, but it's more fictional in the way that it confronts you with the fact that it's fiction. In my song "Going to Space," I sing, "If the aliens attack, maybe the Earth will be united," but it's not like that, and you are confronted with the depth of the problem and the horror. It's like there's a roof over your head the whole time.
A sense of entrapment.
PUNPEE:It made me think again that I have not been looking at things properly myself. I think we need to think and talk about it properly, and I hope that society as a whole will move in a constructive direction. I will probably have to live with Corona for a long time. I think that entertainment is my salvation in this situation. I can't wait to go to the movie theater and see the latest "Marvel" film. I have no choice but to move forward, despite everything that happens. But if I can do that while learning, then maybe that's all the time I need. That's really what it's all about. This time, the timing was right, and the result was a conceptual work, but I would like to make the next work more relaxed. I hope that many things will have been resolved or improved by then, and that the world will demand such a relaxed album.
