Month: February 2018

Times I Went “Oh Hell Yes!” While Listening to an Idol Group for the First Time, Ranked

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

When Tsurezure dropped their “Paradise Lost” MV the other evening, I sat in and enjoyed it in much the same way as other people. Then I clicked to another tab while the track finished up, and YouTube did what YouTube do, and I was immediately left with the same incredible feeling of hearing The Idols Now Known as Not Secured, Loose Ends for the first time, and thinking that this was a group that was going to eventually blow the hell up.

And I thought, hey, you know what’s awesome? That feeling, of hearing or experiencing a new thing, and getting that sudden jolt of … of a lot of things! It can be awe or fear or adrenaline or or or. But when you hear the thing, and your response is along the lines of “OH HELL YES,” that’s a good thing.

Here’s a non-exhaustive, barely sequential ranking of times that I heard a thing for the first time and went “OH HELL YES”: Continue reading →

I’m Down with New AIBECK

/ Homicidol Maniac

What a busy morning! I’m going to do stuff for today, I swear it, but time is of the essence and … say, do you know what’s a great and easy thing to do? I can share the new AIBECK track from Soundcloud!

“FLASH BACK” … I wonder what they’re flashing back to? When An’z was Twittersponding in English? When they were hell-bent on getting into TIF despite being just a few months old and, you know, chika as hell? There’s another thing, but I won’t say the thing because it’s a really good pun and I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste it here? Sure.

The song! It’s just a demo version, but that’s fine, it’s not “just” anything other than well-executed J-rock, which is exactly what it claims to be, with the only real exception being that it’s a song performed by and ostensibly tweaked in favor of idols. I’d give it a high five!

Producer-san is down as well, but also has a specific goal in mind for future work:

I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see that last part, actually.

Let’s Get Down with MAJESTIC MATES

/ Homicidol Maniac

Time to pick up that New Year’s resolution again! Yes, I refer to Let’s Do More Stuff With Idols That We Haven’t Done Stuff With Yet, the largely fruitless endeavor by which I see something, dress it up, share it and have it get ignored by all but a dozen or so people because … well, we all got stuff to do, and goodness knows that I ignore my share of things. Godspeed to you, good people. Don’t let idol define you.

Anyway! Down deep from the foulest, ugliest, least-well-cleaned depths of Maniac Mansion comes a new video of a not-new unit that is nonetheless putting out new stuff


The guitars get so crunchy!

That’s MAJESTIC MATES (Twitter). Like I said, they ain’t new, but have been going for a couple of years at this point, (I believe) out of Osaka — which, of course I’m going to like them, I’m drawn to Osaka / Kansai idols like buttered toast to dirty floors.

I actually kind of got into them a while ago and, like so many other things that enter the drafts queue and never escape, I completely forgot about them. But check it:

My goodness, they’re like what I wish Osaka Shunkashuto were still like.

They just finished releasing this long-ass series of live videos; no I do not completely follow:

There doesn’t seem to be a release on the horizon, but this is happening:

I feel like throwing some weight behind this unit, for some reason; yes, the vintage Syukasyun vibe might be part of it, but I also appreciate a unit that’s willing to do a ton of work just for the sake of it. The least we can do is make them (relatively, scene-specifically) famous.

It Has Finally Happened; The Loose Ends Are Secured

/ Papermaiden

It seems like Judge Judy gifs are good at summoning the idol gods (by which I likely mean producers): my dearest Yukueshirezutsurezure has finally released their first single in six months and it’s accompanied by a timely music video:

And it appears I sacrificed the accuracy of my colour vision to get this MV because their outfits are red. *Nervous laughter* As an Ultramarine through and through, I am now worried the fandom will change name to “The Garnets?” Continue reading →

These Are Babymetal’s U.S./European Tour Dates

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

Just announced this morning (or like midnight in Japan):

Southerners, especially Texans, be happy. Everybody else, prepare for the wonders of Columbus! Continue reading →

Oshi Digest #28: Melody

/ Homicidol Maniac

OSHI IS RECORDING!

I know that we all want it to be another new track for NECRONOMIDOL, but let’s be frank — we all know that it’s cover for a summoning ritual that can only be discerned by human minds if you play the entirety of “STRANGE AEONS” backwards, on vinyl, which you will protest is impossible as there is not only not a vinyl release yet, but the single came in two versions and the only way to have all tracks in one place is to do the digital download. THIS IS PRECISELY THE CHALLENGE! It is also why Oshi is incredibly disappointed in our efforts so far; there will be suffering. Sweet, glorious suffering. Continue reading →

I’m Very Interested in This New Zenkimi Single

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

More and more, because there’s an ever-increasing number of idol things to do and decreasing availability of ol’ Maniac when it comes to talking about them, I like to shunt announcements about singles and the like straight into the Weekender. There are exceptions, of course, based on either the general level of popularity of the project in question, or the importance of the release (so-and-so coming back! or final release! or something), but are announcements about new singles (and even most albums) really all that stupendous? They are not.

Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da is one of the regular exceptions. They aren’t the most popular of the idols that usually grace these pages, but they are fairly popular, and Codomomental as a company is probably the strong #2 in terms of chika-focused management companies. It’s a neat enough situation that, against all odds, the group who first caught attention by dropping a thunderous denpacore song on us and then graced it with an MV of human suffering and cannibalism has risen to the point that the things they do have real weight. Like, there are a handful of idols, period, who can count on their videos cracking the 100k boundary on the reg, and Zenkimi’s been doing that for a year.

Anyway, their sixth single is coming, and you should be aware of it for all of the right reasons, but knowing that also puts me into a contemplative mood. To whit:

Continue reading →

March Will Bring Us HIMEGOTO ZETTAICHI

/ Homicidol Maniac

I hate forgetting about idol units. I particularly hate forgetting about idol units that are part of stables that I happen to appreciate, like Daichi’s A-minor; shorn as it is of Guso Drop and kinda-sorta Saki and Fumimi (and whatever in-between world Zekkyou currently inhabits), there’s still more there than just Chikeblo. And that more? HIMEGOTTO ZETTAICHI!

But did I forget about them? Kind of. One of you kids were sharing them on Facebook the other day, and I made myself a literal head-slap moment because, wtf Maniac, don’t you remember how much you appreciated one of the most disturbed-yet-accessible units out there?

The news is, they’re putting out a single, with a still-indeterminate release date:

The general details:

I have to say, I dig the black/white plus/minus concept. The music’s pretty solid, too; there’s something about the juxtaposition of Daichi’s harder-edged songwriting and very kawaii voices that’s exceedingly extra, and I enjoy extra when it’s properly applied.

This post was held up for a minute because their one-man was over the weekend, and I wanted to see if anything would come of it, like … another one-man!

There’s also something about getting drunk with the members; what the heck is the legal drinking age in Japan?

The one-man:

PassCode Duel! A Very Short Preview vs. a Very Short Review

/ Homicidol Maniac

The other night, despite my desktop notifications being very quiet, my phone blew up with: ZOMG PASSCODE UPLOADED A NEW ALBUM ON SOUNDCLOUD!!eleven! I had gawdawful network, so I waited to get home and a chance to possibly even snag some code from the app to share with you lovely people, only for Soundcloud to be all “ha ha ha, you live in the wrong country like a big dork!”

So in response:

It took a few days, but senpai came through, and — if you’re one of the roughly 22 people who are aware of PassCode and haven’t yet downloaded Locus because you’re in a coma — you can get that preview that you so badly need: Continue reading →

Yes, Ladybaby Will Live

/ Homicidol Maniac

They teased us a little bit a few days ago, but now it’s official:


One of you kids who’s a big Ladybaby followers, please and thanks with the explanation for the dates

Continue reading →