Get Off Easy

City girl with the pretty eyes, sittin' pretty in her disguise. All alone and I don't know why. Looking good like she don't try, sweet talking to paralyze, wouldn't Know she's a dirty dime.

I love that part. But i love this song in general!

City girl with the pretty eyes, sittin' pretty in her disguise. All alone and I don't know why. Looking good like she don't try, sweet talking to paralyze, wouldn't Know she's a dirty dime.

I love that part. But i love this song in general!

The way I see it, the singer is reflecting on a horrible destructive relationship he never should have been in. From the outside the girl is beautiful and perfect, but secretly she's hiding her true self (Story's changing, colors fading/You are nothing more than I thought.) Once he's deep in the relationship, he realizes he's dating a crazy women (i've never seen your eyes so red/Familiar stranger thrust into my bed), who is possibly suffering from borderline personality disorder or actually a psychopath or sociopath, and the only way out is to "kill" her (end the relationship as quickly and viciously as possible to make her hate him.) The lines "I should have killed you when i had the chance/ to get off easy" is his way of looking back and saying "I should have walked away the second I saw you so i never put myself in the position of having to destroy you to save myself.) The news in the beginning is, in my opinion, to just set the scene that one or both of them ended up being victims of the relationship since it says Victim no. 1 was found in the living room.

Now here's a slightly more personal, and somewhat jumbled, interpretation.

I'm a fan of Dangan Ronpa (Not played the game yet but I enjoy the anime and manga), and for some reason, I associate this song with Maizono, Naegi and Leon. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. TO summarize it: 15 students are trapped in an academy for the elite. Students can only graduate by killing someone and NOT getting caught, and are forced to go through court-style trials in order to work out who the culprit is each time a student dies. Naegi is the main character. Maizono and Leon are two of the first three to die. Maizono befriends Naegi & swaps rooms with him one night, allegedly because she's scared (But it's really because she's that desperate to get out of the academy and killing someone without being found out is the only way out. I'm sure she was legit scared as well, but anyway).

Throughout the rest of this interpretation, 苗= Naegi　舞＝Maizono　怜 = Leon. This is just for abbreviation purposes, because I think that just typing L, N and M just as roman letters would be confusing. Apologies if Japanese characters don’t display properly on your computer.

Dangan Ronpa was originally a videogame but has also been an anime and a manga. If there’s not manga!/game!/anime! before a character’s name (e.g. game!怜 etc.), that means whatever it was happened in all three media, from what I remember.

"OK, cameras rolling. We are now in the residence... The first level living room area, wherein victim No. 1 was found. There is evidence of ransack in this room". (苗stepping into his room the morning after 舞 was killed, when everyone else notices she's not there for breakfast. There were slash marks all over the walls and floor from a sword.)

Shut the fuck up! (POSSIBLY 怜 going berserk during the trial, but that doesn't fit with the chronology of the rest of the song or the stories I feel it tells.) • City girl with the pretty eyes (舞) • Sittin' pretty in her disguise (Being an idol, 舞’s public persona is very chirpy and she doesn't really show negative emotions until after the students are forced to watch DVDs giving them a motive to kill). • All alone and I don't know why (In the DVD 舞 is forced to watch, she’s performing with the rest of her group, but then the scene suddenly changes to them lying on the floor. 苗, however, only finds out that’s what 舞’s DVD is after her death.) • Looking good like she don't try (舞 That’s an idol’s job, right?) • Sweet talking to paralyze (舞 writes a note inviting 怜 into 'her' bedroom on the night of the room swap & the fact that any man would be interested in a female idol on some level is brought up at the trial; 舞 sweet-talking to Naegi in the subtlest way possible ) • Wouldn't know she’s a dirty dime (I reckon “Dirty dime” = prostitute in the actual song, but 舞is hardly sexy or sexual so I’m using it to mean she’s not as sweet and innocent as she seems. Even if she was a sex worker, I wouldn't personally refer to her or any other sex worker using derogatory terms)

Story's changing, color's fading (POSSIBLY manga!怜 panicking & working out how to explain he didn’t intend to kill 舞 and was defending himself; both in the immediate aftermath of her killing and during his trial. One panel of the manga shows 怜 literally fading during the trial, but “colour’s fading” could also mean that his mind is near enough blank when he & 舞 are fighting. Whatever the medium, 怜has a pretty massive breakdown when found guilty) You are nothing more than a thought (After 怜 & 舞’s deaths, another character called Kirigiri goes into苗’s room and talks to him about 舞. Although 苗 is affected by their deaths, he doesn’t show it & just carries on as best as he can)

[Chorus]I've never seen your eyes so red (In the anime Where They Cry, the female character’s eyes turn red and catlike when angry. Although 舞 doesn’t do this when she & 怜 are fighting – and those characters in Dangan Ronpa who have red eyes have red eyes all the time anyway - I imagine manga!怜 thinking that he’s never seen manga! 舞act so aggressively.) Familiar stranger slips into my bed (舞 & 苗 knew of each other in middle school before being locked in the academy but didn’t speak back then, hence ”familiar stranger”. 舞 slips into 苗’s bed because of the room swap) I should have killed you when I had the chance x2 } To get off easy } (舞 thinking of all these lines. Right up until her death, she’s hesitant in killing and in framing 苗 as they're both very friendly to each other. Manga!舞 chose 怜 as he was - from what I remember of the manga - the only other student she had any real chance to get close to.)[/chorus]

• Only pretty on the outside, }/Full of nails on the inside, }(舞 puts 怜 in the frame with the dying message she writes and befriends 苗. Manga!怜 thinks 'Bitch!' and similar things about 舞 during the trial) • I guess lust is blind (Replace ‘lust’ with something else less sexual bit still potentially leading to lust on 苗’s part for 舞) • (I cannot feel) • Red nails and a butcher's knife (In 舞’s case, it’s "plain nails and a kitchen knife", but anyway) • I don't care cause she's looking fine (Manga!怜invites 舞 for a meal in the cafeteria to talk music with her as he wants to become a rock star. However, this is LONG before 舞’s death) • She's a good way to die (Not true! 怜 is absolutely petrified when he finds out he’s killed 舞 and his terror is palpable throughout the trial. He screams for his life right up until his dying moments in the game and the anime too.)

[Chorus]

Next time I won't be so weak (苗 made it out alive from 舞’s betrayal) } x3 I made it out alive } x 3 Next time I won't be so weak

Story's changing, color's fading, (Another potential interpretation of that line is that everyone accuses苗of killing舞initially) You are nothing more than a thought

[chorus] – see before

I thought all girls wanted fellas to take them to fancy places and spend lots of money (irrelevant)

I'm SURE that this song was inspired by an actual murder case of some kind, judging by the sample at the beginning of the song.

"OK, cameras rolling. We are now in the residence... The first level living room area, wherein victim No. 1 was found. There is evidence of ransack in this room".

However, I think this song's title is a double-entendre. "Get off easy" can mean to orgasm easily, to get away lightly from a bad situation, or to be given a sentence that's not as heavy as the crime committed would warrant.

I'll post what comes into my head personally in another post as two smallish walls of text are better than one enormous one, I think.