Actually, I’m not sure what’s even what anymore in the world of Alice Project. Other than throwaway references to graduations and goddamn tragedies here and there, I haven’t had a post dedicated to any part of the PARMS family in almost two years. It’s not even for reasons that you might suspect, either — the whole collective just seemed to stop doing new material, and though there was no shortage of stuff in their orbit, there was a shortage of what I really have this website for. So, ergo, no Alice Project.
And then this thing dropped out of the blue yesterday!
If I hadn’t managed to alienate the hardcore fans of theirs who used to frequent this jam back in the early days, maybe somebody can put this whole thing into perspective and context. For now, near as I can tell, it’s the first time that Kamen Joshi — which, you’ll remember, was the internal supergroup at PARMS, not its own thing — has been assembled in quite a while. Even their notorious Twitter account has been out of action since more than a year ago! So, I draw conclusions. Also, this is the first time that Easter Girls were added to the mega-lineup, near as I can tell.
Also, and I can’t stress this enough, for all the often-well-earned criticism of Alice Project, the fact that Igari Tomoka is out there, still part of the group and getting a featured spot in a video as jam-packed as this, is a wonderful thing for disability visibility. Like sure, I get the business model and that she’s in arguably and even more exploitative situation than usual under the circumstances, but you’d think that friggin’ paralysis would all but eliminate a person from idoling, and she’s out there proving that it can be done, and that wota can support good things.
Anyway, like all things Alice Project, the whole thing’s an absolute smorgasbord of visuals and mass choreography that would make Esther Williams jealous. The song itself is probably a little too heavy on the idol and a little too light on the heavy to have me coming back the way that, say, “GENKIDANE” did, but fine, they’re doing this without I think any of my old favorites from the group at this point (weird not seeing Anna in the red mask!), so am I really going to get that invested anyway? I am not.
This wasn’t an official Catching Up post, but now I feel like we’ve caught up with Kamen Joshi!
