Opera Singer Reacts: "Ups and Downs" - Slayer's Theme from Guilty Gear Strive OST 

"My lovely wife is waiting, let's make this quick." -Slayer

My favorite thing about Slayer is that he's the ultimate Wife Guy. He and his wife are both immortal, both take their marital vows *very* seriously, and they are both obviously, disgustingly, embarrassingly in love with each other. They are the couple you can't bring out to dinner with the rest of your friends because they'll spend the whole night telling each other how cute/handsome/sexy they think the other is, and always seem like they're five seconds away from making out in public.

Fun fact: part of the reason Slayer doesn’t struggle with bloodlust is because his wife is immortal and perfectly happy serving as a meal for him. In older games he’d drain her dry at the start of a match.

Opera singer Shocked by jazzy piano Vampire dazzles you *DANDY!~~*

fun fact: when slayer wins a game, he takes his wife by the hand, poses, and recite randomized haikus. they went SO hard in pushing the image with him and it goes a long way for how iconic he still is

7:27 funnily enough he may actually be talking literally about his wife Sharon. she's an immortal woman due to a coding glitch in the fabric of reality (im not kidding). she has been shown being capable of literally emanating blinding light and is completely immune to any debilitating effects/ illnesses and is incapable of carrying parasites of any kind . she also gets violently jealous when slayer talks to other women

Something I love about this song is that unlike many other Strive songs is that it doesn't evolve over the course of the song. Most other Strive songs the music matches the characters backgrounds and how they were able to develop and grow as people. You hear it in tons of the themes, Bridget, Elphelt, A.B.A, Baiken, Ramlethal. The music eventually has an audible point of overcoming and acceptance, you hear it with either tempo or key changes, or reprisals. Slayer's theme does not do this. Why? Because he's a vampire dandy. For pretty much as long as anyone in the series has known him, he has not changed. He is content and has long since figured out how he wants to live. So his song likewise, keeps a steady measured pace through out the whole thing. His song isn't about him changing, it's giving you advice on what is really important so you can reach that level of Dandyism he has.

Guilty gear is very captain bones approved

There are two main ways I see people interpret this song. One is that slayer as a vampire has grown old and can’t enjoy the things that he used to like watching the sun rise, but he reminds himself that life has both ups and downs. The second way that many people interpret it is that in the song slayer is talking to two of his students Zato-1 and Nagoriyuki. Zato is blind so he can’t see the morning sun and he can’t feel emotions “the heart turns into stone”. While in the second verse Nago, a vampire swordsman, enjoys fighting (much like slayer) but he’s become so strong “What he missed is that he cannot be overthrown,” that he can no longer enjoy the thrill of battle because he’s too powerful. Slayer reminds them how life is a journey not just a destination.

The song's piano notes feel like Slayer, despite being so immensely old, powerful and elegant, still doesn't lose an almost childlike joy of life and it's many aspects and spreads the message to others Also, the "others" here are most likely Nagoriyuki and Zato, who are his pupils in Dandyism and both can really use this advice

COULDNT EVEN JACK MY DANDY TO THIS, I BURST IMMEDIATELY, CLEAN UP IN ISLE, MY NEUTRAL!

Slayer is a fascinating inversion of the typical vampire. So often they’re characterized by emptiness and an inability to follow the voids in their hearts, but Slayer manages to be a vampire with a fulfilling life and positive worldview. I think, perhaps, he realizes how lucky he is to have found a wife who is immortal.

Truly 𝒟𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓎.

Slayer is deeply connect to both Nagoryuki and Zato1, he was friend, master, life coach, and even father figure for both (he is Nago's vampire "parent"). And they deeply respect him. You can see some "dismissiveness" when he talks with them about their struggles, which both are prone to think too much on their present problems, but he too highly praises them for the men they made themselves to be, and they in return are grateful for having this role model to which they can find counsel and follow his steps in their own unique ways.

The format change to a kind of listen-along before the majority of analysis is great, it's fun to jam along especially with pieces so full of joy like this one. As a longtime Slayer player this was such a glow-up, both the new look and the track, glad you enjoyed it!

As far as I know vampires in Guilty Gear are unaffected by daylight, and their only weakness seems to be need to drink blood to survive.

🧛❤🗣️🗣️MY HEART TURNS INTO STONE🗣️🗣️❤️🧛 ⬇️↘️➡️ P

LET'S GOO MY FAVORITE THEME! (a side not that just came to my head, the next time you have Dan Graser on the channel, you should absolutely play him The Face of The Deep from Risk of Rain 2, it'll blow him away)

2:01 What so often gets overlooked is that oftentimes, one of the best instruments you can use in songs like this is, ironically, silence. Even just a moment's pause can catch you so off guard, and when used right makes the song impact just that much more. I think Ups and Downs is a phenomenal example of that.

Dandyism is backÑ

One thing to note is that the lyrics in these videos are not always correct. Naoki is not the greatest at pronouncing english, so it becomes a guessing game of what it is sometimes. The line "My friend enjoys courage for the plate, holding a platinum knife with soft fire glow. But his eyes did not shine. What he missed is that he cannot be overthrown" is really "My friend enjoyed Paradise for the Palate, holding a platinum knife with sapphire gloves. But his eyes did not shine. What he needs is an economic overthrow"

12:29 Slayer is the only one to not get scared by Dizzy's IK in xrd rev 2, where he just shrugs as the nuclear level blast goes off in the distance behind him. Everyone else, even beings as powerful as Sol Badguy will show at least a little fear (or arousal, in the case of Ky Kiske).

I was wondering if you were gonna react to this after seeing Jack-a-Dandy in your most recent non-gamer video. Excited!

The first couplet is actualy zato-1 oriented. Zato became possessed by his forbidden spell (the demon) and is now immortal and has lost his sight. His theme is about how he forgot how people around him looked and how sad and depressed he is about it. Especialy because it will last forever. In slayers theme the first couplet is his storry. Followed by slayers advice on hw to enjoy an immortal life. Second couplet is about nagoriuki. He love fighting. He eat courage by the plate as he try to find powerful foe that dare to challenge him. And use a platinum sword to fight. But he has transformed into a vampire by slayer. And he now cannot be defeated. And so what he enjoyed. Fighting. Has become dull to him. As he is now immortal. No thrill. And again slayer give him advice. Last part is just slayer tho. And how he love his lovely wife. And that he doesn't engage in every fight humanity is having. As he shouldn't always carry humans to victory and let them grow and have a purpose. BTW vampire in guilty gear are actualy immortal, to a certain extent. Both slayer and nago just wait on the ground when you defeat them instead of being knocked out. If I remember right. And don't care about the sun. Slayer's wife is also immortal. And she supply him with all the blood he need as it doesn't affect her. They also come out their castle to go "people watching" as one of their favorite things to do.

Man, I love this song so much - I've been listening to it repeatedly since it was released a month or two ago, and it's such a jazzy banger! (Also, DANDY!)

Slayer is genuinely up there as one of my favorites characters storywise. He's up there as one of the strongest characters, but with his beliefs he favors a fair fight, so he nerfs himself immensely. I also find it funny how Daisuke basically wrote him to be the antithesis to the common vampire in media. He's not bloodthirsty, can vibe in the sun like normal, is adorned in crosses, and wears silver. As far as I'm aware there's no mention of garlic, but I've seen the community joke by saying he's probably fine with it, but just doesn't like the taste or smell lol. They really hit it out of the park with his strive theme and it quickly became a top favorite (granted they keep doing that). Edit: Oop almost forgot, he also isn't affected by stakes. In a past cutscene where he fights Bedman he gets triple impaled by the bed's claw and just walks it off like its nothing.

THIS is the stuff of bedtime stories.

Fun fact: This song isn’t actually about Slayer! This song is a lesson to his protégés, Zato-1 and Nagoriuki, who are both also practitioners of Slayer’s philosophy , Dandyism. The first verse is to Zato, who is quite literally blind and can no longer see the sun. Slayer is imparting to him that he’ll get used to it and to not be upset about it, because Slayer knows what it’s like to see and know things that go away. The second verse is to Nagoriuki, who was turned into a vampire by Slayer himself. Nago has never lost a fight, and this gets to him, because he’s grown so tired of winning. Slayer is telling Nago that even though he can’t lose, he should still strive (lmao, pun unintended) to be the best man he can be (to let his eyes shine). Then, finally, the final chorus is to both of them. “Heartbeat stopper, bedtime story Sometimes you have to play supporting roles! But what matters is that your eyes shine! In the moment.” Slayer is telling both of them that sometimes they won’t get the spotlight, and even if that’s the case, they should still give it their all, as true believers in Dandyism.

Love how his theme is classy Immortal man telling us to enjoy the journey that is life with it's ups and downs 😮‍💨🔥👌🏾

new vid structure of doing a full unbroken reaction and analysis afterwards works pretty well, good stuff

"Surrounded by precious things the heart turns into stone" It is, as I understand it, more along the lines of Slayer's philosophy as opposed to other vampires and long lived monsters. He doesn't get bogged down in surrounding himself with possessions. He lives for people and experiences and he stays moving. And that way he avoids becoming the broody, calous, self-serving monster of myth. He stays his positive, Dandy self.

He feels like such an uncle to the majority of the Guilty Gear cast, especially the other Assassins. He loves Millia, and Venom, and even Zato despite his crimes, he just views them all almost like his children of Dandyism. In Strive when Slayer and Nagoriyuki were reunited, Zato spotted them and he got jealous of Nagoriyuki, and wanted to assert himself as the true inheritor of Dandyism by dueling Slayer, to which Slayer was obviously thrilled. Zato lost but Slayer said he was finally able to go all out against him which made him extremely proud of Zato. It was really cool to see this development from Zato, because up until now the only thing that's really managed to bring his emotions back out since his resurrection has been Millia. It was also cool to get confirmation that Nagoriyuki (another vampire in the series, this time a dandy African samurai vampire! Implied to possibly be Yasuke from real life Japanese history) was indeed turned into a vampire and trained by Slayer. Slayer admits to being pretty irresponsible back then, but Nagoriyuki, despite his jadedness, is thankful for the opportunity to see so much of human history. I can't overstate how powerful Slayer is btw. More people have gotten closer and closer to matching him over the years, some have even debatably surpassed him, but it's still just comical how strong he is. In actual gameplay you can tell he's holding back in some attacks, and yet those attacks still do a ton of damage, and if you defeat him he doesn't pass out on the ground, he just lays there elegantly and gives your character a funny stare. In Xrd, Dizzy's instant kill is one of her wings firing off a blast powerful enough to cause a huge mushroom cloud miles away when it misses, and most characters react to that by being terrified and then surrendering, but Slayer just shrugs and bows out. His own instant kill in that game is him uppercutting the opponent so hard that they break the laws of physics, flying fast enough to exit the milky way galaxy in seconds, all while Slayer recites a randomly generated haiku from a pool of possible lines.

Guilty Gear music is a delight I think it's something I have always valued regarding what Arc and their team can cook up regarding the music of fighting games and games in general. Naoki's voice helps with that too, idk why but something about a man from another country speaking in English for a rock song kinda blows me away. Regardless of me tooting their horn I love Guilty Gear and the music they bring. Of course Slayer is no expectation and I think a lot of this music should be studied as its so different from what people are "use" too and thats why it is so captivating to almost any audience because it's very genre breaking nature. As you have stated before Guilty Gear is a Genre and I couldn't agree more with that. I am pleased to see more Guilty Gear on the channel as well as showing others this music as well. It's important that it's shown. Because if every generation can get behind it, then it truly is excellent.

Hey man! Just wanted to say that I really like that you listened to the whole piece before analyzing it.

Dude this song just makes me so happy, everytime I listen to it I smile

love the GG reactions

This song makes me feel like I see a friend and know that they have had a great day, disregarding my day, and feeling happy for them. Odd way of putting it but it's what my mind thinks about while listening!

Bruh, it squirms in your heart, as you vanish into the music! XD

One interpretation is the the first and second verses are him talking about his two pupils, Zato and Nagoryuki, respectively

The dandiest man to ever do it. Always loved how Slayer is canonically so unbelievably overpowered and it's shown in gameplay by how he just NEVER takes anything seriously. When you beat him does he get knocked out? No . He just casually lays on the ground. Oh you pinned him to the wall? He just chills there with his arms crossed. Hell, his blocking animation in every game has always been him just playing rock paper scissors haha and of course getting hit by him is always terrifying cause of how much damage he always puts out. If there's ever a character that truly embodies the word "Chad", it's definitely Slayer.

really enjoying this format where you listen through once first then break everything down

I just got ggst and I became a Slayer main instantly. I love his theme and its even cooler to see Marco review it! You're the goat Marco!

i like the longer video style, always here for guilty gear reacts!

Pilebunker!!

I've been waiting for this to happen, I was super happy when I saw this show up on my searching page. Also, nice video! ❤

I'm so happy Slayer came back, not even for the gameplay or anything but he's such a good and fun character by himself

Those little details you brought up, throughout all of Strive's soundtrack, make for a particularly textured experience. I think my personal favourite is during Love The Subhuman Self, where the guitar lead-in at each chorus starts earlier and gets more aggressive as the song goes on.

Loved this way of breaking down music by the way! was great to get your uncut first impressions then going into your more indepth thoughts ^-^

You're right with The beginning of the song making slayer sound like a badass because he is being a vampire and living as long as he has he is strong and like you read in the wiki he is pretty chill and likes people and is madly in love with his immortal (but not a vampire) wife he's basically that friend that is chill gets along with everyone but when it comes to a good fight he's gonna enjoy it and lay down the smackdown

This song really does just put the joy of the world and living into your heart! I know it has been a while since you've done anything with Reverse 1999 but their recent patch just featured an opera singer who even sings in some of her voicelines. Curious to see your thoughts on the music, setting and the operas featured. Other than that great analysis as usual Marco and looking forward to more :)

My favourite interpretation of the lyrics of ups and downs is the one I heard from the guilty gear youtuber GekkoSquirrel. In his idea, the theme is slayer giving his advice of being an immortal untouchable vampire to his disciples of dandyism Zato and Nagoriyuki (Zato you've covered on the channel so you should remember him). The first verse is of Zato's troubles, in his ritual to summon eddy he's been blinded and can't see beautiful things like the sunrise anymore and after his resurrection he can't enjoy the beauty of the world (other than love). The second verse is of Nagoriyuki's worries, as a samurai he is always seeking worthy opponents and testing his skill to be able to become as strong as possible, eventually though he is running out of strong foes to fight mainly due to him being as strong as he is and feels as though battle isn't improving him and he's ran out of worthy opponents. The chorus is Slayer's advice to both of them, they should enjoy their existence with ups and downs, respecting the journey not the destination.

*DANDY!*

Honestly, I do like getting to jam at first for a while. Rather than having to pause for an always each time, you just get to have fun with some awesome music, and then go over it after. Plus it helps to preserve the natural flow and momentum of it. To immerse yourself in it. You don’t analyze by tearing it apart, but diving into it. And diving into music and exploring it, you are exceptionally good at.

The word you were looking for when addressing the seductive appeal of the piano is DANDYISM

Idk if you noticed or anyone else noticed: When the song says “sometimes you have to play a supporting role” the overdrive/lead guitar kicks in not as the main instrument, but as an accompanying background instrument.

Slayer is the book definition on how to make a good guy vampire

YAAAAAAY I was so excited to see this pop up in my recommended!!!!

Man I love Ups and Downs, every character has some deep philosophical delve into their backstory or arc but Slayer is just here to have a good time :D

Quite amazing that they built a game around that soundtrack.

I am absolutely in awe in how much you can discern emotion and character quirks just from the music alone.

Slayer has some of my favorite animations in any fighting games.

Funny fact about Slayer In Guilty Gear Xrd, Johnny, a leader of “Jellyfish pirates”, has a “coin” resource. He uses them in combos, kinda like throw and hit them to deal more damage. They are not infinite, so he can steal personal stuff from opponent to use them as a “coins”. Every character has a unique type of item, that is related to him. Millia has a shampoo, cause she uses her magical hair as a weapon, Potemkin got pencils, cause he likes to draw and etc. So, Slayer has a «100% sun protection cream», that gives us a clue, how he can resist sun rays.

It is not suaveness, it is not elegance. It is dandyism, my friend. 6:48

This song has become my most played song over the course of the past 12 months (and yes I am a slayer main)

Always great to see you reacting to more GG stuff, I would LOVE for you to react to some older GG songs, like Ride the Fire! or maybe N.S.F.W

I would love a 90's sitcom with slayer as the main character.

It's great how they went completely in a Jazz direction with his theme this time, his two previous themes (Haven't You Got Eyes In Your Head & Jack A Dandy) are more in a prog direction with saxophones. They both are great tracks but this really does capture that Slayer is just this dandy guy who is just interested in living more than anything else. Also as others have noted in the comments, he is the ultimate wife guy.

"For one, the iron will to keep one's life or death out of bounds of consideration." "For two, the art of molding that iron will into shape, and the pride that it brings." "For three, what truly decides a battle. Not will, pride, victory, life, or death, but that which delivers those in peril and preserves those in privilege. That is to say..." "Dandyism"

if you havent already youve got to do requiem i-nos theme its a really great one for someone like you who looks at both the instrumentals and the lyrics

My grandma used to have this old fancy record player that she put in the living room and this song makes me feel like a kid again since this is the type of jazzy frank sinatra music she would have playing constantly

Without the lyrics on screen I heard "heartbeat stopper" instead of "hardly the stuff of" and personally like the misheard more.

Slayer, Hellsing's Alucard, and Dio are part of my dream blunt rotation. And Nagoriyuki. If you cant tell i really like vampires

made it just in time

New guilty gear ost analysis just dropped ? This is a great day

Buried the lede here, but Greg is coming back? Let’s go, meatballs!

Slayer is so badass that even when he loses he doesn't actually lose. When his HP is decreased to 0 and he just lays down like "Wow good job I'm satisfied now"

When Slayer finally got English voice acting, his voice turned out to straight up just be Sean Connery. It was perfect.

Hi Marco, Here's a recommendation for a pair of soundtracks I know you'll enjoy reacting to. Ender lilies and ender magnolia. If you want to know why I'm confident you'll like reacting to this series ost, the composer for this series was also the composer for Arknights image song, grown up's paradise. The creator in question is mili.

i love your analyzation of music and it really hits the mark. Guilty gear GekkoSquirrel does the lyrics analyzation from lore perspective. I would advise (if interested in song meanings) to watch his videos some really say what i want to hear

This song is great, but when you hear it like 30 times in a row because youre in training mode waiting for ranked matches it can get kinda old. But no doubt about it, its a fun track.

Funniest thing is this man dont have downs, he is always winning.

Bro canonically never lost a battle in his entire life, and he's an ancient vampire that's been living for hundreds, if not thousands of years

My personal ideas about the theme and meaning is that the first quotes about the sun and being unable to see it is in reference to zato , and the second part with the man with a platinum knife is nago the black samurai vampire, and him taking a backseat is him taking responsibility for their issues and helping them through them, since alot of zatos problems relate to the assassins guild, and slayer is the one who turned bago into a vampire

I've been maining Slayer for years, literally 1000% my favourite character in GG. His theme? Banger. His look? Banger. His playstyle? BANGER.

Elegance? I think you mean Dandy-ism

Lets go more guilty gear! I dont play as much as i used to (all my time to play fighting games rn is being spent on tekken lol) but i still gotta check in for all the dlc characters JUST FOR THE MUSIC Daisuke amazes me every time, i swear

God such a great song! One of the few thats more simplistic then alot of the others

When he hit that "Journey" note I was like ❤

I’m convinced to get this character 🌹🦇

I don't know musical terminology, but the second piano solo is one of my favorite things ever. It's played like it could resolve at like 6 different moments, but it keeps pushing and climbing forward and up

You should do a video about “Muzan vs Hashira” from the new demon slayer session 4 soundtrack

What an absolute bop

I still want to imagine that slayer has an uncle fergus whom he bickers with

Lave it to Guilty Gear to surprise you that was alot more Swing than I was expecting.

Banger after BA-NNG-ERRRRRR!

Slayer is a vampire that is a symbol of dandyism, having that be his main principle as a sort of mix of chivalry, poetry, and being laid-back

Slayer is man who's lived for over 500 years, and seen just about everything. He's not just a Vampire, but the founder of the Assassin's Guild. But he's long since moved past all of that. All he cares about is living a fine life with his curiously immortal wife, writing poetry, and teaching the next generation. Despite being a vampire, he doesn't look down on humans. In fact, he finds them fascinating. The way humans are able to do so much, good and evil, with such little time on Earth is endearing to him.

Check out Degenerate by Starset! It's a song about Anti Ai, same with the music video (All the art is made by people, paid and everything. But made into Ai so it can have a bit more presence)

My favorite interpretation of this song is that Slayer's students - Zato and Nagoriyuki bring up problems with their life in the verses and Slayer gives them advice in the chorus. In the first verse Zato is talking about how his darkness was pierced, probably referring to his life turning around after being revived (and possibly Millia as well) but he struggles since he's both literally and mentally blind as he's missing his emotions. In the second verse Nagoryuki talks about how he loves fighting but since he's reached the top and (supposedly) can't be beaten he feels empty. Slayer responds in the chorus by telling them to enjoy the moment instead of worrying about the outcome so much, which is very sweet in my opinion.

It's just so DANDY!