A Welcome Surprise from No Suprises

/ Homicidol Maniac

So as mentioned in the Weekender, after a long and butt week in idol in which very little of real interest happened, engines started to warm up a little bit yesterday, and we got something that those of us who are pro-POPiD could be excited about. Yes, it should come as … no surprise (haw) that the Idol Formerly Known as PiGU, called (ahem) No Surprises now and having none of the old PiGU membership but definitely having inherited their Twitter account, dropped their first single, “proof”, the other day (venue-only?), and along with that came this MV:

This post-PiGU project was, of course, going to be carrying over quite a bit of PiGU, and every little bit of what we’d seen from them so far suggested the same. Here, the best evidence yet, delivers in a way that … surprised (heh) me. There’s that little maturation in the sound — which, yes fine, it’s one song, but bear with me, until they turned dark, all of OG PiGU’s punk work was on the brighter end of that spectrum, and no I’m not buying this as “emotional blues rock” just yet — but moving with it is a complete makeover in the group’s look. It’s a good move, frankly, an aesthetic shift without needing to be revolutionary.

This is how they’re described on the official site, which is amazing:

The world’s first, idol group with blues-based musicality / members living in cities in the world come to Japan on a space-time mobile system and perform live activities.

Of course, No Surprises being the official post-PiGU doesn’t mean that actual PiGU (or, in this case, Re:PiGU) isn’t also simultaneously active, and in fact on the same dang stage in the same dang venue and actually being a PiGU carryover (legends!), isn’t also up to things, and what better way to check up on that than in a perfectly PiGU context? Rino, Keikarin-turned-Gimi-or-whatever, what say you?

Such a high level of detail!