I Could Not Be More Excited about the Return of NEO JAPONISM

/ Homicidol Maniac

Everybody’s done the heartbreak thing this year, it seems. Groups and individual idols have dropped like flies, literal icons of the business and the tiniest of unknown chika acts as well closing up shop or undergoing massive changes almost as if they all know something we don’t. I’ve personally had my share of blank-eyed staring into the distance at one bit of news or another, and one that I definitely didn’t make enough hay about when it happened was NEO JAPONISM.

For about a year, they were arguably my favorite thing in the business, this hard-rocking, all-out unit that didn’t pull any punches and seemed to make a mark every time they released something into the world. They were just a really fun group to follow, although harder in a lot of ways to love right because there was so much else going on. But did I miss a chance to lavish praise on them? Absolutely not. And so earlier this year when the ~original~ group disbanded in the kind of mass graduation that has been so typical of 2019, I was kind of floored. Unlike all of the other instances, though, manager-san immediately set the record straight and announced that NEO JAPONISM as a thing wasn’t going anywhere, and there would be a reboot on the near horizon. That gives one hope, which gives one optimism, and when little bits of info started to trickle out, it started to become real.

And that’s where we land now! Here are the members:

And very excellent more info:

New members! New music! And what a new concept.* The re-debut track (please give me more of them too, thanks) I think sums it all up very nicely. Just listen to this shit!

I love how it’s very modestly tagged “Rock”

Here are the lyrics, which are completely inconsequential as far as I’m concerned:

Good lord. This glorious, beautiful demolition of a project is back. I want to run directly into a brick wall and, after recovering from the massive craniofacial injuries likely to result, smash the crap out of that wall with a hammer instead. Or maybe just go do wind sprints or something. This is that dirty, aggressive idolcore that I love so much and has been largely missing from the scene for a while, just a straightahead destruction. What a damn song. And very aptly named, as I’ve followed its the implicit imperative in its title like six times just in the drafting of this post!

Welcome back, NEO JAPONISM. Please don’t ever go away from me again.

*For real, the group’s entire history has been Internet-scrubbed; they’re committed to this new direction