To begin, I’d like to thank a friend who is helping me a lot with post-production work, specifically adding subtitles to videos and editing covers. I’m talking about Matteo Gabrieli. He is a photographer with his wife Cristina Arbunescu at CMphotoitaly—look them up on the internet, check out their work, and if you need a photography service, hurry up and hire them because they still work at modest prices right now. Don’t miss the chance to book them, and mention my name! They work with any human being in any location and they are also very pleasant, so contact them; it will be money well spent!
The Story Behind “Run Away”
Now, let’s get back to my own work. Initially, when “Run Away” didn’t have any lyrics yet, I had called it “Cinderella Man.” I don’t know why—perhaps I had read it somewhere or I just felt like it, but I gave it that name.
When I decided to add a text, I was inspired by a Commodore 64 video game called “Special Agent,” which had a different name in other versions, but the substance was the same: a static platform game, like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man, where your character moved between floors using an elevator, shifted with somersaults (I still don’t know why!), and had to load files from various computers on the floors while avoiding killer robots. It was a quite complicated game, despite its theoretical simplicity.
At the time I developed the lyrics, I only planned to make five videos per album. Then I decided that every song deserved a video, which meant I had to change the subject. So, I reformulated the lyrics, drawing inspiration from “Welcome to the N.H.K.,” a manga and anime based on the daily life of a Japanese boy struggling with the existential difficulties of managing his life. Specifically, the boy is a Hikikomori.
What is a Hikikomori?
It’s certainly complex to explain, but let’s say a Hikikomori is a young person who, for one reason or another, progressively withdraws from social life, creating a microcosm where they can live protected and feel in control of their own life.
Let me explain better, starting with the reasons. They can be multiple: emotionally absent or inadequate parents, bullying at school, or marginalizing episodes in the workplace, which are then linked to the creation of a parallel virtual life, often in online communities related to certain video games where they excel and are accepted for the role they hold. A serious problem can occur when even this world slips out of their grasp.
Entering the world of such people is very complicated. Forcing them to come out could be a form of violence against them because the external world traumatizes them: too many unpredictable dynamics, few resources, and little habit of adapting and finding solutions to problems, a constant sense of inadequacy, panic attacks… Years and years of psychotherapy and self-help groups would be needed, but who the hell cares? Society doesn’t care about these people; in fact, they are labeled as time-wasters, good-for-nothings, and slackers who don’t want to do anything. Instead, they are just people who have a great desire to enter the social world, but the experiences and misfortunes they’ve had have convinced them that they are inept, naive, and unfit for the outside world.
In rebellion, they have created their own virtual world, and this demonstrates that there is still a desire to interact with others. They try to excel not to hurt others, but to avoid being hurt themselves, proving that they are not sociopaths.
Even in the anime, the protagonist manages to try to re-enter social life, thanks to the great effort and patience of a young girl who sees herself in him. She seeks him out, encourages him, makes herself available, and helps him understand that besides that world inside his room, there is another one outside ready to welcome him. It’s not easy to live in it, but he can always create an opportunity to get involved and carve out his own place.
Anyone who knows people like this and feels the desire to offer support, arm yourselves with patience because for every 100 proposals, they will say no 99 times and yes once, and that “yes” is the only chance you will have to show them the opportunities the outside world offers. You may not succeed in getting through, but it’s worth a try.