Plastic Love Plastic Love

With sudden kisses and burning looks...

まなざし means gaze or look, and is more charged than a plain word like 目.

...please do not throw the love program off course.

プログラム makes love sound structured or scripted. That loanword is an important part of the song's tone.

Input meetings and partings skillfully...

打ち込む literally means inputting or typing in. It keeps the mechanical metaphor going. 上手に suggests skilled handling.

When the time comes, it ends. Don’t hurry!

〜ば here sets a condition: when the time comes, it ends. The English tag keeps the line brisk and controlled.

Ever since that day when love wounded me...

愛に傷ついた means being hurt by love itself. It is direct but still slightly elegant in tone.

...I’ve gone on living a life with day and night reversed.

昼と夜が逆 means one's daily rhythm is reversed. It is a common nightlife image.

While dancing the night away at trendy discos...

踊り明かす means dancing all the way until morning. 〜うちに means "while..." or "in the course of..."

...this is the spell I learned. I’m sorry!

魔術 is stronger and more crafted-sounding than a plain word for magic. It suggests a learned technique or spell.

Please never love me seriously.

決して strongly intensifies the negation: "never." It makes the prohibition firm.

Love is just a game; if you enjoy it, that’s enough.

なんて can sound dismissive or reductive: "as for something like love..."

The flashy dresses and shoes that decorate my closed-off heart...

閉ざした心 is a closed-off heart. 飾る means decorate, so the dresses and shoes are described as outward covering.

...are lonely friends.

孤独な友達 is a compressed phrase. Grammatically, the flashy objects from the previous line are being redefined as "lonely friends."

The people who invite me out are always ironic that way.

皮肉なものね is a conversational way to comment that something is ironic or bitterly typical.

For some reason they resemble him; they overlap with my memories.

重なり合う means overlapping with each other. Here memories and present impressions are blending together.

Even if I drop my glass and suddenly tear up...

涙ぐむ means to fill with tears or become teary, not fully burst into tears.

Please do not ask why.

尋ねないでね is a fairly soft way to say "please don't ask," but it still closes the subject.

Late at night on the expressway, around the time I fall asleep...

眠りにつく is a gentle expression for falling asleep. It sounds slightly more literary than plain 寝る.

Only the halogen lights shine strangely.

妖しく means strangely, eerily, or seductively. It gives the light an unsettling tone.

That I am a woman cold as ice...

氷のように is a straightforward simile: "like ice." The quote marker だと suggests reported judgement.

Even if I hear whispering voices say that, don’t worry!

声がする means "a voice is heard." The English tag changes the rhythm and keeps the city-pop register.

I’m just playing games.

The ending shifts fully into English slogan-like phrasing.

I know that’s plastic love.

Using English here keeps the phrase polished and slightly distanced, which suits the title.

Dance to the plastic beat.

plastic beat extends the title image from love to rhythm and atmosphere.

Another morning comes.

The final morning line suggests another cycle beginning rather than a dramatic conclusion.