Okay, fess up: Who else saw the title “Pinky! Pinky!” and thought the song would be about something along the lines of, I don’t know, some fashion thing or even just something else generally kind of cute, potentially dark-cute, whatever. I ask because I’m going to call you a liar if you try to convince me that you definitely thought it was a reference to a blood oath made via pinky swear and came packed with a video featuring a violent escape from a distopic school?:

Halloween’s still almost two months away!

Can I be honest about something, though? Stuff like this is why I’ve always had a hard time taking the dual iterations of Ladybaby seriously; something’s always felt cheap and trying-too-hard about the whole thing. Frankly, Beard’s doing better with the more earnestly over-the-top DEADLIFT LOLITA, and Rie and Rei always come off best when they’re positioned to take advantage of their strengths (that is, being pretty talented) rather than the old Ladybaby formula. A lot of the video is half-assed, the song is just kind of there (excepting the hook, which I’m going to be stuck humming for weeks) … I don’t know, maybe I’m getting old or something; their work with Oomori Seiko was potentially a big step forward, and now it’s like going back to the beginning.

I’m sure plenty of you all dig it. To each their own!