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Here’s NELN’s Entry for Song of the Summer

/ Homicidol Maniac

I’ve been on the lookout for good summertime best-of candidates around the idolverse the past few weeks — our pal N.FENI sort of stole a lot of that thunder though — and frankly coming up kind of short. Am I crazy? I feel like it was normal in the past for even the alt/chika scene to get a few good candidates (even if they were piss-takes) into the mix, and this year just not so much. Pandemic? Olympics? Everybody forgot how calendars work?

Anyway, not a whole lot has happened this week, but our well-loved pals in NELN did drop an album the other day (stuff we know, though), and along with it a new single that … no, screw it, I already ruined the pun.

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New Finally Things to See and Hear

/ Homicidol Maniac

This is a very fast post because someone forgot that he needed to be somewhere very early this morning, though I don’t think anybody’s going to mind! You’re here for idols, not Maniacs!

So you remember Finally, yes? Recent-like debut and all that? Well here they are with their second song/MV and if you’re into piano-driven rock songs with nice hooks like I am, you’re going to dig it:

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Oyasumi Hologram Lives!

/ Homicidol Maniac

Last year’s devastating loss of Hachigatsu-chan felt like it would be curtains for Oyasumi Hologram. Yes, it was clear that the project would have some legs going forward (those videos of Kanamil and Ogawa made it clear), and arguably OYSM could have become a solo project of Kanamil’s and probably nobody would have batted an eye. And frankly, any continuation was going to be a good one, and so really could have come in any configuration. This, though? This goes far beyond anything I would have expected.

The “OYSM5” name they were using for the gig should have been the deadest of giveaways; also, hi Janice

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I’ve Now Seen Enough to Know That I’m Looking Forward to the New BiSH Album

/ Homicidol Maniac

I think I figured out a pattern when it comes to BiSH in their “officially a big deal” era — the more seriously a release is treated by the group, the higher the likelihood that it might actually be kind of butt. Take for example Letters from last year. Yes, it did very literally top the charts; on the other hand, the only sentiment I got from fans in this particular circle was that the record was a disappointment. A win for WACK and Avex for sure, maybe less so for us. But when the announcement about GOiNG TO DESTRUCTiON landed a few weeks ago, I got a truly giddy feeling: Here was the BiSH that I love most, on the one hand playing into their old chaos merchants persona while also taking the same to a ridiculous level as a send-up of the self-serious approaches they’ve more recently taken to some of their bigger releases:

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Hold on to Your Butts for the End of the Month

/ Homicidol Maniac / 3 Comments

NECRONOMIDOL may seem more unintentionally chaotic than usual over the past year, but they’re still going strong and are about to celebrate their seventh (!) anniversary on July 27. Not bad for a project that a lot of people not named Ricky Wilson probably thought wouldn’t make it to the stage, let alone global touring and distribution and stuff.

For that anniversary, a special video is coming our way. This is just a taste:

Entities of darkness! The underworld! Blackened thrash! This is going to be very good, gang.

Surprisingly Nice ASP

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

If you’d genuinely like to know the original title of this post, please see the footer

Definitely didn’t expect to get another ASP MV so in the wake of their debut album (now more than a full month old), but gift horses and mouths and all that, so of course I joined many among you in excitedly clicking that link when it dropped yesterday. And then, like many among you, I watched first in confusion and then rapt horror! Oh, and the song is a delicious and powerful anthem that I think we’re only going to grow to appreciate more and more over time!

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I Don’t Know What to Write about This MAD JAMIE MV but Feel Kind of Obligated to Do Something with It So Here

/ Homicidol Maniac

I meant what I said and all, but damn if it doesn’t feel like a stretch to try to build some kind of halfway-useful commentary around every little thing that every dang idol project does all the time. Sometimes a thing is just a thing! A song can just be a song and taken on its own merits without tortured references to other acts; sometimes an MV is just a fun and creative multimedia way to get more content out to the world (and maybe earn a bit of money from views). And really, MAD JAMIE here is still in that growth phase when Uncle Moneybags behind them is going to make things happen anyway, what else do we need to talk about?

Actually two things: I can totally see this song being quirky-cult-summer-single popular in like 1999, and also I have this somewhat uncomfortable remembrance of DEEP GIRL all of a sudden. Let’s pretend that didn’t happen and instead congratulate MAD JAMIE on doing another thing in a likeable way!

Enjoy this promo clip as well:

Let’s Celebrate AKIARIM’s Anniversary with Them

/ Homicidol Maniac

Imagine having to debut as an idol during pandemic lockdowns. Idoling, as an industry, was unsurprisingly able to adapt to full-time virtual performances and lots of livestreams and the like, but those things are all much easier when you’re an act that people know about. Something with fans, like. Much less true for something that has been building toward a first public appearance but hasn’t so much as stepped onto a stage with an audience yet! Obviously a lot of units went on hiatus basically before they even officially launched; others went ahead and did what they could and made the most of it, and frankly those feel like the ones that made the smart decision.

This does bring us to AKIARIM, yes, who had a debut pretty much just as things were starting to go completely haywire but stuck it out and made it work after hitting the pause button and re-debuting in the summer after things had settled down a bit. Hence the anniversary tour and various other festivities all happening now! Among them: Continue reading →

“The new akugi MV is emotional whiplash” — @DaeMetal

/ Homicidol Maniac

We’re a little late in delivering here due to wires getting crossed, but, even almost a full week after its release, the latest akugi MV can really only be summed up by the above-referenced statement by our very own Daemon. And uh:

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This Is a Short Post about Wonder Lander

/ Homicidol Maniac

It’s possible that no unit in idol has, over the now nearly five years of Weekendering, made more appearances as the Idol in Focus than Wonder Lander. Which is a huge shame, actually! Wonder Lander’s a cool group. It’s just that we usually get material from them in little bits and pieces, so maybe but annually do we actually make a whole-ass post out of them. This is one of those times!

And the occasion is that there are some newer tracks that I’ll share from various sources so it’s easy to follow them on many platforms!

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