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Rolling Girl (song by Hatsune Miku)

Information

"Rolling Girl" (ローリンガール), was released on February 14, 2010, and peaked at number 2 on the VOCALOID weekly charts in its first week of release. It was produced by wowaka and was her 9th song. The song has over 7 million views on Nico Nico Douga and over 3 million views on wowaka 's official YouTube channel. The song was a huge success upon its release and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in less than three days.
Rolling Girl remains one of Wowaka's most listened to songs and a fan favorite.

Producer's Comment

This time, I made a song about falling and rolling. It's been a long time since I've made a song with a band sound.

Song Information

wowaka (music, lyrics, artwork, video)
Hatsune Miku (vocals)

Girl Who Rolls has been featured in the following books:

Solo Piano Yasashiku Hikeru 2 collection. (piano score)
VOCALOID Best Selection Series. (music score)
VOCALO☆Soundtrack

the following albums:

EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Supernova 2
EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocalogenesis with Hatsune Miku
DISCORD OF THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS
Unhappy chorus
VOCALOID Super BEST -impacts-

and the following concerts:

Hatsune Miku (Mikupa) Live Party Live in Tokyo, Sapporo, Singapore (2011), Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taiwan (2012), Sapporo, Kansai (2013)
Snow Miku live! 2018, 2019
Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai (Tokyo, Day 3)

Rolling Girl also appeared in Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- (series) None Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade None Miku Flick, Miku Flick02 . Her appearance in the Project DIVA series is notable because it is among the top-ranked songs with an extremely difficult note chart. Many videos online show tutorials on how to ace it.

Words

Kanji	Romaji	Translation
That's how it is, that's how it is	I'm sorry, I'm sorry	once again, once again
「私は今日も転がります。」と	"watashi wa kyou mo korogarimasu"	"Here I am riding again today"

Interpretation

"Rolling Girl," like all of Wowaka's songs, has abstract but empowering lyrics. The song is about a lonely girl who rolls, unable to reach her distant dreams, and who eventually stumbles, falls, and then keeps rolling. Several times in the song, someone asks her if she's had enough, and she replies that she's just holding her breath for now, but she still has a long way to go. Some fans have thought that holding one's breath is a metaphor for death and have associated the song with suicide, but the biological purpose of holding one's breath is to conquer fear, to calm oneself when panicking. Rather than choosing death, she prepares to keep moving forward. It's only at the end of the song that the unknown supporting character opens a question-and-answer monologue to herself, saying, "Are you done? You've had enough, you're tired, aren't you?" " and instead of the answer "I hold my breath" being in quotation marks, the "narration" indicates that her breathing stopped, perhaps meaning that she continued to ride (which in context means following her unattainable dreams) until she died.
The changes she undergoes over the course of the song are subtly presented in the lyrics. At first, she gives up early, looks for what she did wrong, and starts riding again. Later, she rides without worrying about making mistakes. Whatever happens, happens; sometimes mistakes happen when you ride downhill, she realizes. Twice in the song, it is mentioned that she rides by piling (Japanese term: kasanenagara) something: first, she accumulates meaning in words, then she accumulates meaning in silence, and in the last verse, she rides by scratching smiles (Japanese: kanadenagara) into words. What this might mean is open to interpretation, but the implication is that she has found music that puts a smile into words. Considering that right after this moment she comes to her supposed death, this could be seen as her finally finding what she had been riding for, and thus being able to rest in peace.