What is the meaning of それにつけても?


Hello to all the community,

As a part of my autodidact learning, I am currently studying different kind of
Japanese sentences in different situations. For now, I am trying to understand
the lyrics of the opening song of the anime Captain Tsubasa (from 1983). More
than a translation, I try to figure out the meaning of words and grammar to
get a true understanding of the language.

The song I am currently studying is 燃{も}えてヒーロー by Hiroshi Uchiki. I could
understand the first sentences by myself and my own researches, yet I am
getting quite stuck on the following sentence : それにつけても俺{おれ}たちゃなんなの. This is
translated as "Despite that, we are here", but I don't understand from where
this comes from...

All I could find about それにつけても is the meaning of "anyways", and this may come
from the grammar ...につけ(て), possibly from the verb 付{つ}ける, this grammar having
the meaning of "every time I do...", "as soon as I do...". From there, I can't
find the relation between 付{つ}ける "to attach, to stuck" and the given
translation of "Despite that" or even "anyways". Moreover, 付{つ}ける is a
transitive verb and do I don't understand the に particle here, targeting それ.
Maybe am I seeding from the wrong verb ?

I am also in trouble for the second part of the sentence : 俺{おれ}たちゃなんなの,
translated as "we are here". If I could figure out that 俺たちゃ is a plain and
spoken way of saying 俺たち "we, us", the なんなの part gets me confused. Here I
guess we have 何なの, a shortened form of 何なのですか, meaning "what is it", with a
certain emphasis or interest towards the question. So if I get all altogether,
I may try a rough translation of "what are we ?" (probably in the meaning of
"what do we represent in this world ?"

Overall I get for それにつけても俺{おれ}たちゃなんなの a translation of "Anyways, what do we
represent in this world ?" which is very far from the declarative "Despite
that, we are here".

Does anyone have a better understanding of this ? To get the sentence in
context, we can use [this
website](http://captaintsubasa.wikia.com/wiki/Moete_Hero).

Please forgive me if the question is not properly asked, as I am not English
native, which is a language that I am also currently studying.

Thank you in advance for your precious help !




それにつけても is a set phrase used to introduce a topic that is different from but
related to the current one. それ refers to the current (old) topic, つける means
attaching. も implies what the speaker will say is not totally new but _also_
related to the current one. A literal translation would be something like
"attaching to that (topic), ..." or "also as a continuation of that, ...".
Basically it's just a rare conjunction, so it can be translated as "anyway",
"at the end of the day", "after all", "be that as it may", "that reminds me",
"but then", "by the way", etc, depending on how it's related to the previous
topic. Note that this is fairly rare in real conversations.
[それにしても](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%9D%E3%82%8C%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82)
is similar and is much more common.

Regarding 俺たちゃなんなの, it's a contraction of 俺た[ち
**は**](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23516/5010)何なの(か), or "what are
we?". You can forget "we are here", which is simply wrong. And "represent in
the world" is probably not a good word choice even as free translation,
because this "what are we" implies they are small and pitiful beings (see
below).

> それにつけても俺たちゃなんなの ボールひとつにキリキリ舞いさ  
>  But then, what in the world are we, being swayed by just a ball?  
>  After all, we are at the mercy of only one ball, what kind of existence are
> we?




それにつけても is a set phrase used to introduce a topic that is different from but
related to the current one. それ refers to the current (old) topic, つける means
attaching. も implies what the speaker will say is not totally new but _also_
related to the current one. A literal translation would be something like
"attaching to that (topic), ..." or "also as a continuation of that, ...".
Basically it's just a rare conjunction, so it can be translated as "anyway",
"at the end of the day", "after all", "be that as it may", "that reminds me",
"but then", "by the way", etc, depending on how it's related to the previous
topic. Note that this is fairly rare in real conversations.
[それにしても](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%9D%E3%82%8C%E3%81%AB%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82)
is similar and is much more common.

Regarding 俺たちゃなんなの, it's a contraction of 俺た[ち
**は**](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23516/5010)何なの(か), or "what are
we?". You can forget "we are here", which is simply wrong. And "represent in
the world" is probably not a good word choice even as free translation,
because this "what are we" implies they are small and pitiful beings (see
below).

> それにつけても俺たちゃなんなの ボールひとつにキリキリ舞いさ  
>  But then, what in the world are we, being swayed by just a ball?  
>  After all, we are at the mercy of only one ball, what kind of existence are
> we?

