Club Under Construction: Discussing Bandai Namco's New Denonbu Project
Club Under Construction: Discussing Bandai Namco's New Denonbu Project
Hannah and Ryo talk about the concept, the music and artists involved in the new not-idol, not-rhythm game project by Bandai Namco
Hi! Welcome to This Side of Japan, a newsletter about Japanese music, new and old! You can check out previous issues here.
There is no newsletter for this Wednesday. I want to reserve some time to prep for my year-end list, but I also want to just give myself a little break from This Side of Japan. I still wanted to provide some content for you to read, though, so I put together a fun discussion with my friend Hannah about Denonbu, a project that we’ve been both excited about. You can also check out the music being discussed in this Spotify playlist. Happy listening, happy holidays, and see you in December!
Is it an idol group? Is it a rhythm game? Bandai Namco introduced their latest project Denonbu with more question than answers. But what has proved to be certain since the initial rollout is that this new franchise has been the hub for a series of exciting new dance-pop collaborations between voice actresses and hyped electronic-pop producers.
Bandai Namco has been calling Denonbu a “character project” for now, leaving its identity ambiguous to perhaps develop and tweak the concepts as it grows an audience. The franchise introduces Denonbu, literally Electronic Music Club, that has formed in different fictional Tokyo high schools in response to the mainstreaming of dance music culture, DJ culture and dance-music show business in the near-future. It’s still early in its launch, so they’re barely rolling out all of the central 2D characters. Though it shows much potential to spread its contents into a game, anime or any other media, Denonbu so far has been sticking to music.
The roster of producers has been impressive. While names like Yunomi, Moe Shop and Snail’s House seem fit for this kind of job with their sugary electro-pop already frequently presented with colorful anime imagery, acts like Kenmochi Hidefumi, Tofubeats and Pasocom Music Club stick out as outside faces. As if to link the project to its Bandai predecessor Idolm@ster, it also brings Takafumi Sato and Taku Inoue who turned in notable hits for the rhythm-game franchise. (This Side of Japan previously covered Taku Inoue’s contribution, “Mani Mani,” in issue #20.)
I’m joined by my dear friend Hannah, who introduced me to Denonbu, to discuss this exciting EDM-pop franchise. We talk more about what exactly Denonbu is, the talents involved in the project, and of course the great new music being produced.
And so you can get even more information about Denonbu directly from the people involved, I translated an interview on Ototoy with Asobinotes producers Takuya Negawa and Hiroaki Ishida about the project from the music, concept to what they have in stores for the future. You can read the translated interview here.
Hannah/Angry is a hobby writer and likes sharing her very vocal opinion on everything entertainment both on her Twitter and Selective Hearing as well as the Arama! Japan Podcast. Aside from listening to way too much K-pop and J-pop/rock music, she frequently reads trashy light novels, manga, webtoons and web novels.
Ryo: It’s been about a month since I’ve discovered Denonbu per your recommendation, and while I enjoy pretty much every piece of music to come from this whole project so far, I still have a hard time understanding what it exactly is—or who they are?
Bandai Namco pitches it as a “character project” based on dance music as a theme. The project already has a fleshed-out background concept of this near-future where dance music, DJ culture and the dance-music show business have been embedded in everyday life so much that high schools have begun to form clubs around them known as Denonbu, or Electronic Music Club. Each group of animated 2D characters inhabit its own in-project universe based on Tokyo districts such as Akiba and Harajuku, and they each are given dance-pop songs of a distinct electronic subgenre fit for their respective district. But there are not yet any details from Bandai that suggest this is some kind of rhythm game nor has it gone far enough yet in the realm of 2D idols to say this is an idol-group project.
So how do you make sense of all this? What do you think is the easiest way to describe Denonbu as a music-related project?
Hannah: This sense of ambiguity as to what sort of project it’ll evolve into is actually something I’ve started noticing as of late—where lots of companies will announce the launch of a new project without any clear details as to what it’ll be about. This is probably due to the overwhelming success of franchises like Hypnosis Mic where you had years prior to either a game or anime despite not really getting anything besides the music and drama CDs (the concerts were seen as extensions of these both).
Personally, I see Denonbu as almost a continuation of this 2.5D ani-song idol group-meets-the very best of Bandai Namco’s producer connections that they’ve cemented over the years through the myriad of songs they’ve commissioned for Idolm@ster, and thus far they have not let me down yet (knocks on wood to hope this continues!!).
Ryo: This way of doing things feels all new to me. It looks like Bandai is doing it sort of backwards from what I am used to. Traditionally, one would announce the product, be it a music act, a game or a show; plan out the concept; and then attach the fitting music to it. But with Denonbu, from how it looks so far, it resembles the result of a brainstorming session expanded upon a piece of music; it kind of looks like how you might imagine an entire imaginary rhythm game level for a certain electronic-pop song because the feel of the music matches that kind of video-game environment. The characters and their respective districts, too, seem built as personifications of the commissioned music.
You mentioned Idolm@ster—another Bandai franchise and definitely a predecessor to Denonbu—but have any of the producers involved worked on that franchise? Have any of them worked with Bandai before?
Hannah: Yeah, it's something that quite frankly was rather shocking to me when I got back into the anime music scene 2 years ago—the idea that you could basically prototype an idea and market it even as it was unfinished to the public. It almost feels like now, the standard seems to be releasing an amorphous musical idea or concept and only after announcing it, developing the franchise while continuously getting that constant stream of feedback from the public.
Two of my favorite producers (of my rather surface level) involvement in the Idolm@ster franchise are for sure Takafumi Sato (BNSI) and Taku Inoue. While he’s created a number of songs, the former for me will forever be known as the notorious mastermind behind the legendary “Otahen Anthem” in Cinderella Girls (released this year). The latter might as well be the face of Idolm@ster for me—he’s behind hits like “Radio Happy,” “Hotel Moonside” and “Crazy Crazy,” all of which are my go-to songs when I list out my Idolm@ster favorites.
“Mani Mani” by Kazuno Shinonome (produced by Taku Inoue)
Hannah: There’s also a number of notable new collaborators on the composer list too. Top on my list are Kenmochi Hidefumi (a member of Wednesday’s Campanella), Moe Shop, and SigN (one of the members is a prominent arranger of songs such as Produce 48’s “Suki Ni Nacchaudarou?” and Nogizaka46’s “Kaerimichi Wa Tomawari-shitakunaru” along with writing AKB48’s “Teacher Teacher” among other songs).
In a way, I found the marketing for this franchise notable in that it really seemed like they were pushing both the voice actress cast (which is not that unusual) alongside their composer list (which was a bit more unique). It almost reminds me of the second season of Last Idol wherein it was almost like a producer vs producer survival show—it's something that I hope Bandai chooses to continue when the franchise itself takes off.
Ryo: A competition among the producers—now that’s an exciting idea! The concept behind the different districts can also encourage that if that’s something Bandai wishes to do. Denonbu is based on high-school clubs of different areas, so by nature, they are in at least friendly competition against one another.
How the producers provide the personality for each area via music is really interesting because it comes to show just how much each Tokyo district in real life has adopted its own musical identity. Like, of course the sugary, helium-vocal electro-pop of Moe Shop would befit one of the Harajuku girls. Though the music of the Shibuya area is not out yet, I have a feeling it’s going to sound a bit retro and jazzy; maybe Tofubeats is going to be responsible for one of the tracks. (Edit: the Shibuya tracks are out now, and they’re produced by PSYQUI, Aiobahn and YUC’e.) I don’t know much about Minato or Shinagawa, the wards that Azabu is inspired by, but just from the roster consisting of Pasocom Music Club and Kenmochi Hidefumi, I can tell it’s more of the fashion-forward, almost hipster group of girls. Do you have any particular favorites so far? Any you are excited for?
Hannah: For sure! The idea that we finally have people behind the curtain working together in that sense of friendly competition with each other is just awesome, and I am all about that—particularly if that brings even more songs for me.
It says a lot I think that it is incredibly hard for me to pick a favorite release. I nearly cried when I first heard “Itadaki Babel”—the Wednesday’s Campanella feels were everywhere—and “Haiiro no Kokoro” was simply sublime. I’ve been told by Azuki Shibuya fans that this is the first time many of them have heard her sing in this sort of voice as well, which is a really pleasant surprise. I am of course a huge sugar idol person as well, but it honestly is very hard to pick an exact favorite. Each release seems to one up the last, so I’m almost anxious to hear the final group drop just to see if they continue this trend of solid hit after solid hit.
“Itadaki Babel” by Tama Kurogane (produced by Kenmonchi Hidefumi)
Hannah: What makes the next drop so interesting is that Shibuya is Nijisanji, the trio of virtual YouTubers, as voice actresses (which garnered a lot of hype from both Japanese and international press) and so I’m curious to see how that will translate into both the music and the art (we don’t even have character designs for them yet!).
Ryo: Yeah, with “Haiiro No Kokoro,” I was wondering what kind of song Pasocom Music Club would make because they’re still fairly new turning in outside commissions especially for the idol industry. It’s nice to see that their mellow computer funk from last year’s great Night Flow doesn’t need much tweaking to fit in the Denonbu universe.
You mentioned how Azuki Shibuya, the voice actress for Ginka Haijima who sings “Haiiro No Kokoro,” doesn’t usually sing this sort of music. Do any of the voice actress involved in Denonbu work with music like this or are they also adapting to something new to them as well? Were you familiar with any of the voice actresses before their appearance in Denonbu?
Hannah: So this, like many an anime fan, was what first drew my attention to this even prior to any of the formal announcements about the franchise. I wouldn’t consider myself as big of a seiyuu fan as some of my friends are, but I definitely have several that I quite like, and several are a part of this.
It was only after the concepts were announced that I realized just how fitting some of these castings were. The Akiba area girls are all voiced by three actresses who are associated with Dear Stage—a perfect choice when you’re really thinking about which idol groups represent “Akiba culture.” Both the Azabu and Harajuku areas are voiced by actresses who have been a part of other 2.5D franchises from anime like Aikatsu! to the one of the largest of them all, Love Live! Sunshine!! Seeing two voice actresses who are not just idols in their other roles but also pretty good at DJing in real life (Komiya Arisa and Shibuya Azuki) was pretty exciting. As part of the original group of 48g fans who tried to fight for Maho (Yamaguchi, formerly of NGT48), Hasegawa Rena is someone I would very much be willing to go to town for (context: she was part of the two that got forced out with Maho because of how much they stood up for their friend during that time).
The trio that garnered the most attention of course was the Nijisanji trio. All three are prominent virtual YouTubers, so it would be really interesting to see how that translates into their music.
Ryo: Hopefully Denonbu can be good exposure to the involved producers for the anime crowd. Coming to this project from the music side, I am certainly now curious about all of the seiyuus and different franchises they are part of, so I can only hope the opposite is happening where anime and seiyuu fans are being curious about the music of, say, Kenmochi Hidefumi and Pasocom Music Club—one can dream! Honestly, as far as extra-musical content goes, as long as Denonbu continues to release quality singles, I don’t even care all that much if nothing of note materializes besides the music. Denonbu has been excelling as a hub for great dance-pop collaboration this year between seiyuus and producers. Anything else it plans to do is just bonus.
The next issue of This Side of Japan is out December 9. You can check out previous issues here.
Need to contact? You can find me on Twitter or reach me at ryomiyauchi9@gmail.com