Cinnamon of Minna no Kodomochan has been incredibly busy of late. Not only has she been conducting the in-store events and other duties associated with promoting her latest single, “The Final Blinkings”, but she has been personally illustrating each and every CD being sold in record stores around Tokyo. In between all of these activities, performing her birthday live, and preparing for the next round of the Artists’ League competition where Kodomochan are appearing as a referee’s choice, Cinnamon very graciously agreed to carve out some time to do an interview with us.
Minna no Kodomo-chan
Minna no Kodomochan are Back with a Bleak and Brilliant Single, “The Final Blinkings”
Minna no Kodomochan have been relatively quiet during the pandemic period. Sole member Cinnamon has kept busy with almost-weekly online cheki sessions and some appearances as a solo idol. She has also performed a handful of lives fronting Kodomochan over the past two years or so, but other than last December’s single, “Don’t Lie About my Existence”, we’ve not seen any new music in quite some time.
That all changed last midnight when Everyone’s Children blessed us with, “The Final Blinkings”, an hypnotically lurid piece of dark wave and doom metal accompanied by an equally mesmerizing, yet disturbing, MV.
The 50 Greatest Alternative Idol Albums of the Last Decade: #31 – 40
Welcome to week two of our latest project where we blatantly rip off Rolling Stone’s Greatest of All Time lists. These imperfect and perpetually recurring features from the Gray Lady of rock journalism have a special place in my heart. As a young teen who only knew David Bowie from “Let’s Dance” and Labyrinth, my first browse through Rolling Stone’s inaugural best rock album list introduced me to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The encounter was genuinely life changing.
Hopefully, through this exercise of recognizing some of the most influential underground, indie and alternative idol albums of the last decade, you will not only encounter many of your personal favorites, but make some new discoveries as well.
Honoka Announces Departure from Minna no Kodomochan
Minna no Kodomochan has lost a child. Following an understandably emotional encore at their tour final Thursday night, Honoka announced her retirement from the unit. This was the first time Honoka had been able to appear on stage for the current national tour after a neck injury in July. Honoka assured fans that her physical state was good and her rehab complete, but she would still have to give up being a child.
https://twitter.com/kodomochan_hono/status/1167084813230043137?s=20
Kodomochan management officially confirmed this morning that the group would be moving forward with Cinnamon. Continue reading
Your Homicidols Weekender #145
It’s backwards week here at Slodicimoh where lot’s of newbies (and Sari) made the front page while the A-listers are populating the weekender. Also, don’t forget that the Friday Fun is never limited to Fridays… you can join in at any time!
First up, the best news in for-freaking ever: Honoka will return to performing with Minna no Kodomochan at their tour final on 8/29.
https://twitter.com/kodomocafeid/status/1164526643769040897?s=20
Congratulations to Fruitpochette for hitting their crowdfunding target!! Now we have a single, MV and nation-wide tour of Japan to look forward to.
https://twitter.com/fruitpochette2/status/1163698090819276801?s=20
Art Mirrors Life in Minna no Kodomochan’s Latest Single, “rikaku”
Minna no Kodomochan’s new single, “rikaku” (meaning “separate”) is significant in a number of ways. Stylistically, it is the most slow and measured of all of their songs, practically a lament. It is also their first solo, with Cinnamon providing both the main and backing vocal tracks. The song’s lyrics, which speak of being alone and confused, are also written by Cinnamon who is currently conducting their nationwide tour on her own while her partner (and Kodomochan’s principal lyricist) Honoka recuperates from injury.
みんなのこどもちゃん
５カ月連続リリース第四弾「りかく」
作詞 しなもん
作曲 Jin Tanaka (BACK DROP BOMB)https://t.co/k7lJ9oNWto— みんなのこどもちゃん (@kodomocafeid) August 10, 2019
Cinnamon has admitted that the song reflects the uneasiness she feels performing without Honoka. For her part, Honoka has said that “rikaku” has become her favorite Minna no Kodomochan song. Honoka has previously been responsible for all of Kodomochan’s lyrics except for “Song of 15” on Walls, Cinnamon’s only other songwriting credit.
Idol Finds a Way
Read that in your best Goldblum voice
Well, I had a nice and happy and upbeat piece to get out this morning, but what to my awakening eyes did appear but absolutely the last tweet in the world that I ever wanted to see:
みんなのこどもちゃんから
皆様へ大切なお知らせhttps://t.co/IYjC60brzc pic.twitter.com/WOleJspPCU— みんなのこどもちゃん👁 👁 (@kodomocafeid) July 24, 2019
If you’ve done this whole idol thing for very long, you know what those messages mean: Nothing good. And in this case, click through and read to your heart’s content the short version of how Minna no Kodomo-chan, two-time Corenament champions, a project of epic and astounding vision, is being brought low and, goodness knows, possibly all the way out by the ongoing health concerns of Honoka. Continue reading
New Month, New Music from Minna no Kodomochan
I love this! The first of the month used to just mean handing over my rent check and making sure all the utilities got paid. These days, it also brings a new song from Minna no Kodomochan, one of the most musically adventurous chika idols who just happen to be hitting everything out the park recently.
You can get the song from other outlets here: https://t.co/MCpbeZzVOH
“Soliloquies” is Kodomochan’s attempt at a light, breezy summer song with acoustic guitar strumming and popcorn keyboards. Of course, it is Kodomochan and quickly evolves into frenetic dissonance, but it never loses any of its warm charm. Continue reading
Minna no Kodomo-chan Kicks off Summer with an Inexplicable Home Movie
I knew there was a reason to get out of bed today!
I don’t know if 2019, for idol, can truly be salvaged. After the huge run of beloved personalities and groups hanging it up just in the first quarter and a sudden paucity of particularly great releases, here we stand at the unofficial gateway to summer needing some kind of savior. Might we remember the year for the two BiSH EPs-turned-album? What about NECRONOMIDOL’s upcoming record? Or maybe something out of left field, yet to come?
Or maybe what two-time Corenament champions Minna no Kodomo-chan, who got me so very eager to see what they were going to be able to do with five straight months of new music when they … announced that that they were releasing five straight months of new music. Have mercy. You’d think that idols who consistently dominate the international popularity contests epic athletic contests annual contests that I definitely don’t rig Corenament would have just this enormous battery of digitized content for we humble gaijin fans to embrace, but it’s just not true — the best way to describe MV releases from the Children is “semi-annual.” (Or at least that’s the case for their history so far!) Rather, as we learned with “The Walls” a couple of weeks ago, they hold those cards close so as to unleash their full power at opportune and always impressive moments.
So this string was going to be special, you know? With five months of fresh material in the offing, it’s reasonable to hope that at least one track would get video treatment. And, brother, that hope was not in vain, though you may lose all hope by the time you reach the end:
Minna no Kodomochan Launch Five Months of New Music with “wall”
Kodomochan, fresh off of their back-to-back Corenement championships, has released the first deliverable of their recently successful crowdfunding campaign. As promised, from now until September, Everyone’s Children will bless us with a new song each and every month.
May’s entry is the minimalistically titled continuation on the group’s core theme: “wall”
“What potent blood hath modest May.” ― Ralph W. Emerson
The doom metal pacing is is a perfect set-up that drives right into a synth-pop transition to… more metal. It’s like Iron Maiden invited Flock of Seagulls over to jam (think “I Ran” meets “Run to the Hills”). Like many Kodomochan songs, it contains a glorious aural revelation that is worth staying around for before devolving into a reckless and manic finish including one last metal drop. Continue reading
