One of the more emotional bits to emerge over the last little while was this MV, out as final promo for the final release for DESURABBITS before they disband forever. In context, while the song is in a lot of ways a very nice modern idol song and in every other way DESURABBITS to the core, really the most important thing about it is its emotional heft and the special place that DESURABBITS has in loudol history.
But first, MV:
@homicidols Anything to say about the announcement that DESURABBITS have decided to end next June after 7 years without ever changing a member like most idol groups do. That must be some kind of world record achievement for a Japanese idol group? https://t.co/VMKpCJElRT
— youthinasia (@youthinasia_) November 13, 2020
Yeah yeah, give me a minute. Continue reading
The other night, as you know unless you do in fact currently live under a rock or perhaps spend your energies elsewhere, LADYBABY had their final live. Folks have been responding to it and reacting to it and writing about it and doing that whole thing, as is appropriate, but I felt like the whole thing really was best summed up in a few official photos:
活動休止ラストライブ"REBURN"終演。
ご声援ありがとうございました。 pic.twitter.com/KEN9vb3Hiq
— LADYBABY (@ladybaby2015) January 13, 2020
It wasn’t enough to just go out with a farewell one-man, though; they gave us one final parting MV, and while it’s usually trite to even think the phrase “saving the best for last,” you’ll be hard-pressed to convince me that it isn’t exactly the case here: Continue reading
LADYBABYより活動休止のお知らせ。
LADYBABYは、2020年1月13日の恵比寿リキッドルーム公演をもって活動休止いたします。
詳しくは公式サイトをご確認下さい。https://t.co/m8Er8MJPPJ#LADYBABY— LADYBABY @1/13恵比寿LIQUIDROOM (@ladybaby2015) October 29, 2019
What the ever-living hell is going on in the world of idol? Continue reading
Few things in life as half as joyous as fun surprises from the things that aren’t your absolute favorite, but you root for anyway. So is the case with this new one from the Idols Formerly Known as Both Deathrabbits and Desu.Rabbits, DESURABBITS: My fraught history with this remarkable project needn’t be revisited except to say that I was basically not a fan but grew to be converted to an overall supporter, and so the advances that they make along the way always leave me feeling genuinely happy for them. And why not? They have a completely unique style, they’re well-regarded in the scene and they are, ultimately, clearly having a great time with what they do.
So imagine my face yesterday when this happened:
Now where have I seen that church set before?
Did I miss something out there? There’s been a definite feeling that LADYBABY was about to do something significant — and I very Mandela Effectively could have sworn that I’d seen an announcement for a new single in the last few days — what with the ExEx gigs going down and, I don’t know, more chatter than usual on their channels? Something was up.
It turns out that something is a new MV! With a great big contribution, performatively and creatively from Emily and from HAJIMETAL, and Rie’s fingerprints all over the production. And what a trip it is:
Ladybaby is coming back to the ol’ USA. Such was the news that came out yesterday. Management of course tweeted about it, as did the host event, Anime Matsuri. I was like, oh man, you should blog a post for that! And then the messages started. Hoo boy, they were not good messages! People who know about things are displeased about this event and displeased about Ladybaby being at it! I of course am an ignoramus, so you only just now get to enjoy this sizzling take.
First, to recap: Ladybaby will be at Anime Matsuri in Houston in June. Are the members excited?
LADYBABY’s sort of surprise-springing this digital single on us, but I doubt that too many people are going to complain. This is a group that’s pretty much always done what they wanted, and damn the man, like they exist within this idol milieu but also somewhat apart from it. Frankly, more groups should probably operate that way!
I don’t have enough cultural context to make this work in my head, and would therefore appreciate some tutorial about why I’m wrong, but let me preface this by noting just how high my eyebrow arched when I looked at the description stuff and saw “KAWAII-DEATH” and “something something Showa era songs.” Like I don’t get entirely where they’re going with that, but … well, I presume that this is what that means:
Don’t take the title as flippant, friends: I was very limply trying to figure out what the heck was going on with this release because, you know, Ladybaby hasn’t announced a new record or anything, and nothing in the dang announcement suggests that it’s a digital single or anything. It took me a minute to realize, hey, this is from that single they released a little while back, the one with the Ladybeard collaboration, and they’re just now getting around to releasing video for it.
As a chronic procrastinator, I can relate. And as a person who can do math, I can see one thing from Oomori Seiko and then another and see a light bulb, you know? It makes its own kind of sense.
How do you people do it? I only went to Hyper Japan for one day, not even for the whole event, and I slept for 12 hours and I lost a quarter of the skin on my feet! How you people manage to go for three days and not die is amazing.
My intentions for Hyper Japan were kind of thwarted; I applied for a press pass a long time ago with the intention of interviewing DEADLIFT LOLITA, but when I didn’t hear back from them within a week I figured “well, no harm in going normally,” bought my tickets, only for them to respond just a couple of days before the event with my pass. “Is a chat with Deadlift at least still on?” I asked. “Nope” they replied. But you know what my press pass did entitle me to at least? Special VIP access to the very front of the stage for photography purposes and by gum am I going to take advantage of that!
Prepare for lots of photos! Continue reading
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