I’m Very Interested in This New Zenkimi Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

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:

On its own, this is the kind of announcement that you sit up a little bit straighter for — Zenkimi, for all of their musical profligacy, for how prolific the entire Codomomental family is, hasn’t ever had anything approaching a bad release; maybe a little well-worn in terms of style, and some recycled moves, but all in all nothing bad. I’d be lying if I said that I don’t sometimes worry, though, that Zenkimi would not only run out of steam, but would exhaust their direction along the way, and:

It’s not the one-man that has my attention (but also, the one-man), it’s the near end result of what, retrospectively, has been a long, drawn-out process of smoothing down the edges. Zenkimi has always had feet in a few worlds at once, but the yami-kawaii bound it together, made it make sense. When I look at this image, though, I see way less yami and way more kawaii. Mashiro looks positively healthy!

I’m not trying to say that I think they’re giving up on the whole what-makes-Zenkimi thing, just that I’m curious about where they take it from here. Just when it seemed like syva and GESSHI and the rest of the team had settled into a neat groove for Zenkimi and NSLE, they started to smash those grooves together and spat out Kaqriyo Terror Architect, effectively inventing Codomocore along the way and giving each group its own core take on the sound.

Now watch it be a very typical This Is A Single Release By Zenbu Kimi No Sei Da. We could all have a nice laugh over that one.

One thought on “I’m Very Interested in This New Zenkimi Single”

  1. Good thinking. It seems to be a law of show business that popularity brings pressure to appear in a certain way. Artists (managements) will have to start considering how to maintain the nice situation, which often is to first start repeating the popular tricks, then gradually smooth down the edges a bit more.

    How about speculating that what is coming from Zenkimi will be an all family-friendly and dismaingly healthy attempt to make them a relatively big hit. The more twisted side of the Codomomental masterminds will be focused on Kaqriyo stuff. I think it would make very much sense business-wise if the company had one group inclined to appeal to the ”masses” and another as unappealing as possible, which appeals to those fond of the unappealing.

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