Urbangarde -- One Piece Shinjuu（ワンピース心中）

 

Urbangarde（アーバンギャルド）is one of the more cleverly-named bands that I've come across ("urban" and "avant-garde") and it's also one of the more intriguing units in the style of music that they deliver. According to Wikipedia, their styles vary from "... from bubblegum pop to 80s style synthpop, punk, progressive rock, chiptune, new wave, goth, industrial and heavy metal." The singers and leaders of Urbangarde, Tenma Matsunaga（松永天馬）and Yoko Hamasaki（浜崎容子）also don't shy away from Japan's social woes in their songs so they have tackled topics such as suicide and teen pregnancy.

One song of theirs, "One Piece Shinjuu" (One Piece Double Suicide) is the lead track from Urbangarde's 6th album (3rd as a major act), "Utsukushii Kuni"（鬱くしい国）which, from the use of that first kanji character in the title, is a pun on "a beautiful country", actually coming across as "a gloomy country". Sounding like a chip-tune theme song to an anime thanks to Hamasaki's melody, Matsunaga's lyrics have the protagonist cheerfully fantasizing a double suicide through various aspects including the proper kimono to wear. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Wednesday Addams to visit Japan. 

The music video for "One Piece Shinjuu" even has Hamasaki doing the deep dive into the water to show off the methods of self-dispatching like a model on "The Price is Right". It might be the final moments before death but dang, one still has to look good. As for "Utsukushii Kuni" which came out in June 2014, it peaked at No. 37.