Another Oomori Seiko video is upon us, friends, and once again one of the truest maestros of the craft … well, it’s not quite as befitting this site as the last one, and I completely skipped over the video from last week because I just couldn’t, not even tongue in cheek, but I want you to really watch this one while listening intently to appreciate the talent on display.

Update: via @microBun, the song is a cover of this Keyakizaka46 hit, which I didn’t know because I don’t follow the big idol players very closely. You may need a proxy, but it’s pretty cool!

It’s a game of idol bingo! Seriously, watch closely and then honestly report on the number of girls featured herein who you recognized on sight. I gave myself a solid 6 before I cheated and looked at the roster in the video description. Incredible. And we were just joking around yesterday about Idol Jesus and the Seiko Cult and whatnot, but Kerrie had the right of it — it’s like she recruited a whole bunch of loud and indie idols (sometimes the twain met!) to put on an incredible show of her charismatic abilities to lead idol into some ill-defined artistic wonderland.

I have another reason to share more Seiko lately, too, and it’s because her music is idol graduate school; even when she isn’t idoling herself, the woman’s mere presence as a supporter of what idol’s capable of, plus her own abilities as a performer, these are the things that the people transitioning between “I like loud music with idols” and “I like loud music and also idols” need to experience, to understand the real breadth of creativity that gets into this form of performance.

And, of course, this says nothing about Seiko and others as transformative influences on what we see; it’s easy to say “Pour Lui” when the topic of influence comes up, and no, it doesn’t take too long for a person on the ol’ J-pop trajectory to come across at least the name of Oomori Seiko, but to come to appreciate that, to appreciate the fact that she probably made a few phone calls and people were like “I’M BUSY WITH WORK AND SCHOOL BUT YOU NEED ME TO DANCE ON A BEACH SURE”. That’s influence, kids. That’s respect.

Also, I swear it, the vocal melody in the chorus was originally in a throwaway one-week pop hit in like 1996, but I’ll be damned if I can identify why I think that.