Idol Watch #14: July/August 2022
Rounding up the best idol songs from the past two months, featuring i☆Ris, Batten Shojotai, PAPIPUPEPO WA MUZUKASHII and more
Hi! Welcome to Idol Watch, a bi-monthly companion newsletter to This Side of Japan that’s all about Japanese idols! You can check out past months from 2022 here: January & February / March & April / May & June
The visual component of idol plays into the identity of a group as heavily as the music. The look of a group lets a potential fan in on what their music might sound like, and the chosen theme of their fashion establishes the unit’s worldview and personality before one hits play. If the costume is striking enough, it can immortalize a certain period of history. The styling of an idol group is an essential piece to the puzzle, and so we decided to dedicate this space of the column to discuss some of the best idol costumes out there. We narrowed our choices from the 2020s, but it still provided a wealth of options. Here are six of them that we love:
Migma Shelter, ALICE (2020)
Designer: kinokopink
Idol concepts based on Alice in Wonderland are nothing new. For as long as idols have existed, there have been groups doing their own versions of the classic fantasy novel. So when MIGMA SHELTER announced that their first full release was going to be based on the book, it was exciting to see how the trance idol group’s own take on the concept was going to be. The album was excellent on its own, but the visuals and costumes that were used to promote it were just as amazing.
Styled by kinokopink, the ALICE costumes have the staples of what you’d think Alice In Wonderland-based costumes should have: clocks, capes, Victorian-style silhouettes, etc. Instead of the light blue one has come to associate with Alice, the costumes use MIGMA SHELTER’s signature color to its fullest, with a deep-green base accentuated only by ribbons representing each of the member’s individual colors in true idol-group fashion.
Migma Shelter’s costumes have always played with symmetry, and this time is no different. With the six-member lineup, the costumes were split into two types of costumes: Mimimiyu, Tamane and Brazil are donning pairs of shorts and short-sleeved costumes while Yubune, Rere and Nananara are using a more classical version with long sleeves and longer skirts. There are capes present in both types of costumes, but the ones used with the short outfits seem more flowing and longer. I’d like to think this symmetry was used to reflect each of the members' personalities on stage, the more feisty members using the shorter costumes while the other half uses a more toned-down, a little bit more traditional version of it. —Myrna
Myrna is an avid music fan that focuses mostly on underground idols and K-pop. She constantly blabbers about it on Twitter. She previously collaborated with us for The Conversation: Bellring Shojo Heart.
Momoiro Clover Z, Weekly Young Jump Volume 26 (2020)
Stylist: Shihomi Seki
The idols of Momoiro Clover Z have now aged into the latter half of their twenties, but they’ve yet to retire the flashy choices of wear when it comes to their stage get-up—they are performers after all. Even if time comes for them to dress it down, though, you can rely on the future outfits for Kanako Momota, Shiori Tamai, Ayaka Sasaki and Reni Takagi to adhere accordingly to their image colors of red, yellow, pink and purple, respectively. The styling for the photoshoot of their spread in a 2020 issue of Weekly Young Jump magazine is a case in point: no matter how casual their wardrobe, their precious colors will follow into the inspiration.
Image colors as a traditional practice has yet to die out. You will see a couple groups in this list alone who don a series of monochromatic costumes. It’s hard to mistake a performer as anything other than an idol when she’s dressed in this specific styling, but this same distinct look can also establish a certain image to the group, likely one that’s bubbly and naive in personality. A want to assume an alternative identity that subverts the traditional image is partly why a group like MIGMA SHELTER, above in this list, might decide to bend the trope and include the concept more subtly into their costumes.
Momoiro Clover Z’s embrace of their colors, meanwhile, display a sense of pride in their roots as an idol. The dressier wear in the Young Jump photoshoot suggests that they still want to act their age, with their day-job uniforms hung up as they throw their own party. But even in off mode, they’re recognizable as the idols we all know through the chosen color palette. The idea stays consistent to their teenage years that found them in sentai-like color-coded costumes. The execution of current-day outfits for Momoiro Clover Z show the four have aged gracefully as idols, their identities staying intact no matter the styling. —Ryo
And here are 10 new idol singles I loved from the past two months!
“Time Jackerz” by OWV [Universal Music]
K-pop as a stylistic reference point seems almost inevitable when it comes to OWV, a group made of former Produce 101 Japan contestants, but “Time Jackerz” is a rather peculiar case even to their standards as the group looks to a very specific record for inspiration. The buzzing synth riff resembles that of SuperM’s “Jopping,” and the epic sweeps setting the stage for the chorus operates in a very similar manner as the SM supergroup’s novelty hit. OWV smartly acknowledges it’s a fool’s errand to attempt mining a phrase as gloriously silly as jopping. They come up with a hook endearingly cheesy enough to compete, though, and like their influences, they wear it proudly as the centerpiece to a banner anthem.
Time Jackerz is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Heartbreaker” by BUGVEL; “Password” by INI
“Kounominato” by Batten Shojotai [BATTEN]
Batten Shojotai has been branching out this past year from the jovial funk that riled up their previous LP, Fun, to embrace more graceful synth-pop. The group’s elegance is on full display on the production of “Kounominato,” starting from its leading synths with its gleaming surface like ocean water reflecting the blinding sun, and the idols maintain the poise as they tackle a set of busy verses. For all they sound unbothered, the lyrics underneath the commotion suggests otherwise: “Feeling summer night, it can’t end just yet,” they sing in the chorus after restlessly scheming to get together again with the one. Batten Shojotai try their best to keep cool, but they can’t help but stress about the ticking clock.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Jet Coaster” by femme fatale; “Kogetsu” by fishbowl
“Watashi No Prism” by Isshunshikanai [EASEL]
Isshunshikanai harp on the preciousness of the here and now throughout their debut album with their namesake of a phrase, which translates to “only a moment,” threaded throughout as an unofficial central theme. The idols urge to admire and take in the big blue sea in “Watashi No Prism” for a beautiful season like this may only come once. The chorus takes an interesting turn, though, as the idols try to keep the beauty all to themselves: “Just for right now / this world / is mine and only mine,” they declare as the nostalgic string arrangement strolls by. Their display of selfishness may be out of character yet understandable: they know well after all how the most treasured moment can instantly slip away.
Isshunshikanai No First Album is out now. Listen to the album on Spotify.
See also: “Tsukuttekumitatete” by LINKL PLANET; “Miraiiro No Hana” by Namie Joshihatsu Kumiai
“Queens Bluff” by i☆Ris [Avex Trax]
i☆Ris go through not so much a makeover than a full-on reboot in their tie-up theme for the anime Kakegurui. “Queens Bluff” eschews the orthodox anison sound—power pop smothered with blindingly bright arrangements of synths and strings—familiar to the seiyuu idols for a sultry R&B cut once heard by the likes of predia, who inform the song’s sound but also its personality: gambling seems to conceptually evoke a regal, slightly risque image similar to what the so-called “adult idols” embodied as their main aesthetic. i☆Ris fit right in to their new get-up, the obligatory references to the gambling anime notwithstanding, as if this has been their style all along.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Black Ghost” by Hina & Taki (from FAKY); “melt blue” by NightOwl
“Ikkenya Sumitaina” by PAPIPUPEPO WA MUZUKASHII [PPPPP]
The idol song as a format tends to excuse some of the most out-there ideas as a feasible conceit for a pop song, and the latest single from PAPIPUPEPO WA MUZUKASHII is a case in point. “I want to live in a house / I don’t want to set up a loan,” goes the nagging titular hook along an equally obnoxious EDM beat, and the group spends the rest of the song daydreaming out loud about what they’d do if they can strike rich enough to actually own a piece of property. Though the idols aren’t fully ignorant to the novelty of it all, they rap their verses with conviction, and the commitment to the bit overrides some of the arising irony. Plus, it helps it’s built around one earworm of a melody that justifies the song regardless of what’s sung on top of it.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “BEAT FIRE!!” by FariaClown
“pulse” by Ringwanderung” [DISKUNION]
Ringwanderung have dipped their toes in a fair share of sliced-and-diced production familiar to the world of VocaloPs, but “pulse” is an intense whiplash even by their standards. (And to drive home how transparently Vocaloid-tailored the music sounds, the group’s YouTube account hosts a Hatsune Miku version.) Turbulent as it feels, or perhaps bouncing off of the very turbulence, the single is also a more playful entry than the maudlin affairs of the group as well as arranger Mumei’s own catalog. As the idols let their voices hopscotch across the speedy pianos, they concentrate not so much on hitting the right notes than mimicking the sudden bends and turns of a Vocaloid synth. The vocal-tweaking adds its own personality to the track while the music continues to weave one breathtaking arrangement.
Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp.
See also: “Kirigunia” by CYNHN
“kassai” by POPPiNG EMO [self-released]
Like many of POPPiNG EMO’s songs, “kassai” shows off the group’s dedicated study of the punk idols coming out of the WACK camp. While the guitars reach for metal in sound than the scrappy punk heard from the likes of BiSH, the group follows its influences by wearing an all-or-nothing mentality and an urgent voice that bursts out of the seams come the grand chorus. “I always, always think this will be the last time / the voice from you and I, let it ring,” they shout as the instruments crash into noise, embracing the idol-as-struggle narrative popularized by WACK. The group have been smartly uploading live performances of their latest singles instead of pure audio. It’s easy to imagine that meta chorus coming fully alive when they shout it atop the big stage.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Hey boy hey girl” by BiS; “BURNING PRIDE” by PIGGS
“Redo” by MIGMA SHELTER [AqbiRec]
MIGMA SHELTER have spent these past few years maximizing the psychedelia of their hard-trance dance-pop, but it’s about time they brought back a more aggressive edge to their techno and showed their teeth. “Redo” turns serious as soon as the buzzing bass line kicks in, and the idols fill the track with numerous kiss-offs to a no-good lover. They get into the performance, their vocals snapping with sass, and the bottled-up emotions spills over come the last third. “Don’t you know you make me sick,” the group finally sing as the beat pounds away, but they’ve already done enough damage to make the message clear.
Redo is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Hishoku No Yoake” by situasion
“Amaterasu” by RILISREVERSE [Increptions, Inc.]
It seems unfair at this point to drag the group’s maudlin past as HAMIDASYSTEM into a discussion of RILISREVERSE when they excel at singing emotionally earnest songs like “Amaterasu.” The scrambled piano riff might still invite the perception with its close proximity to VocaloP tracks that candidly lay out a restless, if not depressive mind on the page. If the music sets an impression of a downtrodden personality, it only makes the optimism in the chorus more unexpected: “Holding on to hope will light your way,” the idols close the song after embracing their own self-encouragement in hopes to will it into existence.
Best wishes is out now. Listen to the album on Spotify.
See also: “Twinkle Tears” by Eisei To Karatea
“Wanna Dance” by ExWHYZ [Universal Music]
Even the members of the group are struggling to keep up with EMPiRE switching their name to ExWHYZ. The group’s musical identity, on the other hand, remains intact in their re-debut, “Wanna Dance.” If their reboot sounds sharper than where they last left off, the quality might partly be the result of collaborator Shinichi Osawa being on a hot streak this year. The producer supplies the WACK idols with a solemn electro-house beat familiar to his latest album as Mondo Grosso. But as the group’s performance in their farewell album as EMPiRE attests, the six would have slid in anyone’s brand of sleek dance-pop with ease. A veteran at the helm, throwing in a rubbery electro bass line, is just the icing on the cake.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Platinum Rhythm” by SYUNKASHUNTO OSAKA
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