poppochan | [Song Interpretation] 死ぬとき死ねばいい/ I'll Die When It's Time (Reply)

Content warnings for this entry:

Mentions of suicide attempt
Mentions of blood

Japanese listeners have been sharing their thoughts on the interpretation of I'll Die When It's Time, so I thought I'd translate them for a better understanding and to set the contextual nuances that are littered throughout the song. As Kanzaki Iori has mentioned, this is a direct sequel to 「Ano Natsu ga Houwa Suru」.

This comment on Kanzaki Iori's original upload sums up what most listeners are taking away from this song:
The boy who survived in「Ano Natsu ga Houwa Suru」has grown up into an adult. Time and time again, he's thought of the girl who died. He once thought of dying, but now he wants to live, and he wants to keep moving forward.

Other interesting things listeners have pointed out:

In the Japanese language of flowers, the houzuki primarily means "deception", "lies" and "partial doubt".
In the MV, visual references can be found to events mentioned in「Ano Natsu ga Houwa Suru」At 0:56, the boy's falling glasses can be seen, and throughout the video the boy and girl are seen walking on the railroad. At 3:45 the girl's blood when she cuts her neck splatters onto the boy's face.
It has also been noted that the boy in the MV is likely modelled after Kanzaki Iori himself; he is known to wear glasses, and Kanzaki himself has revealed in his self-liner notes that「Ano Natsu ga Houwa Suru」was written based on his own life experiences.
The last stanza of「Ano Natsu ga Houwa Suru」contains a line that says "sneezing at the end of September, and repeating the smell of June"; this parallels the stanza in「Shinu Toki Shineba Ii」where the boy remembers the smell of grass at the start of summer (June), and sneezing at the end of summer (September).
Two contrasting 6-word phrases are used in this song:

人生発展途上 (人生 life + 発展 progress + 途上 on the journey)

人生満了未遂 (人生 life + 満了 terminate/end/expire + 未遂 attempt)

Their full lines translate respectively into "As we proceed on our paths of life" vs "To us who have attempted to finish this life".

The title carries this nuance:

"Even if you want to die, even if you want to live,
Somehow or another, people will die someday, so
It's fine if you stay alive now, right?
Try living on, for a little while longer."

Here's the comment that truly sums up this entire song, for me:

You died, and I don't want to believe it.

But for the sake of moving forwards,
for the sake of living on,
I can only trust that I'll live until it's time to die,
and keep moving forwards.

I'm sorry I couldn't save you.