What a weird thing to say! But let’s face it — the move to Avex hadn’t been kind to fans of Osaka Shunkashuto (aka MAINA and the Seasons) and their hellaciously upbeat rockin’ takes on, well, rock and R&B and whatever they felt like. Technically, it goes back to their FUJIYAMA PROJECT days, but I guess Avex realized, too, that SSFW has a best look. After subjecting us to some (frankly) really boring material for their first major release, they gave us back that harder edge on “SPARK!”.

Would their first Avex album keep it going? Well, if idorock if your thing, absolutely:

I was pleasantly surprised to see a full album trailer out, too, with plenty to embrace:

That’s what I’m talking about. We can obviously only get so much from clips of each song, but that sounds like exactly what we’d want from SSFW (save, like, for something on the same level as “Baby Crazy”). And after all but writing off one of my favorite idol things of all time, I’m willing to tentatively embrace them again.

While we’re here, can we also acknowledge those incredible outfits and also how they’ve been doing some version of this for how long as effectively this group, with practically no attrition? That’s really remarkable.