Kenshi Yonezu -- Kanden（感電）

Another J-Drama that has been getting a lot of hype on TV Japan these days alongside "Haken no Hinkaku"（ハケンの品格...The Pride of a Temp） is the TBS show "MIU404". Its catchphrase is "You only have 24 hours...catch the perp before anyone else!", and I think it's about this police mobile investigative unit of motley characters that has been given short shrift by every other department as they try to grab the bad guys.

Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）is the fellow behind the cool and funky "Motivation", the theme song for "Haken no Hinkaku", and "MIU404" has singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu（米津玄師）providing the funky and groovy "Kanden" (Electric Shock). Up to now, I've had three of his creations on "Kayo Kyoku Plus": one serious, one for the kids, and one fairly inspirational.

But with "Kanden", Yonezu has something light, jazzy, bouncy and danceable as if the title truly wants to get you off your feet in a hurry. Written by Yonezu and composed by him and composer Yuuta Bando（坂東祐大）, it's another song by him that stands out from the other three which in turn stand out from each other. The music video is also quite the treat with the singer himself looking like some muscle for a loan shark in Tokyo as he plays around with some mirror-men that could have been bred by Reynolds Wrap. J.J. Abrams would certainly appreciate the last minute. Incidentally, the video was filmed at Tokyo's Toshima-en amusement park and some parking lot in Shibaura.

Taking a look at the lyrics and from what I've seen by one other YouTuber's attempt at translation and one person's commentary on the song, they seem to be about some young kids trying to live life large for the moment since there doesn't seem to be much to live for beyond that.

"Kanden" was released as a digital download single on July 6th for which it hit No. 1 on the Oricon digital charts. It's also available on Yonezu's 4th major album "Stray Sheep" which is due out on August 5th.