Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

NEWS -- KAGUYA





I usually don’t care for Johnny’s groups aside Arashi () or SMAP (when I’m in the right mood for KimuTaku [木村拓哉] and his “friends”, of course), but I came across NEWS’ “KAGUYA” and just had a serious reality shock: this song is pretty nice.

Musically, it’s a song that fuses traditional Japanese elements with electronic dance music, which, per se, is not that innovative at all. However, it results in a cool and energic song that loosely reminds me of the best moments from Korean boybands (SHINee, I’m looking at you).

Visually, I wasn’t expecting such a pretty, yet simple, music video, so it was a second reality shock. It’s all courtesy of famous visual artist Mika Ninagawa (蜷川実花), which was also responsible for AKB48’s or infamous “Heavy Rotation” video in 2010, and the visual design for Megumi Hayashibara’s (林原めぐみ) “Vintage White” compilation in 2011.

As I said, the video is simple, yet beautiful, with all the colors, traditional Japanese elements and homoerotic feel. Also, even though the guys aren’t the most amazing dancers in the world, at least a couple of them are charismatic. In fact, the blonde one, Yuya Tegoshi (手越祐也), keeps flirting with the camera through the whole video. Well, all of them are trying to flirt with the camera, but Tegoshi and Takahisa Masuda (増田貴久), the boy with a round face, are the ones who succeeds it in a more natural and suitable way. I liked it, even though I didn’t quite understand how the homoerotic appeal was related to the overall theme, which was the Princess Kaguya tale. In the end, it’s probably just insipid fan service for the fangirls.




“KAGUYA” was released as a single in January 2015, reaching #1 on the Oricon charts and selling 150,052 copies. Lyrics were written by MOZZA, while music was composed by take4. As for the arrangement, CHOKKAKU was the responsible.

Source: jpopasia.com

3 comments:

  1. "Kaguya" does strike me as having some of that "Boys' Love" flavour in the video. I've leafed through some of Ninagawa's photo essays, and the video looks as if it popped out from one of those books. There's also a bit more muscularity in the music when compared to the average SMAP tune.

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    1. SMAP is always our lowest point when it comes to Johnny's, hahaha. Buti I'll repeat myself here, nothing is worse on Johnny's world than Sexy Zone. Even SMAP released a single I liked earlier this year.

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    2. Duly noted on Sexy Zone, then. I will probably then have my New Year's breakfast at that point. :)

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