WILL-O’

This Is (This) WILL-O”s Last MV

/ Homicidol Maniac

Other than I think one remaining closed fan event, the current system of WILL-O’ is done. No more releases (we already took care of that anyway), nada. I don’t know why I was surprised that they announced one final MV, these things being fairly standard, but I can proudly say that I knew exactly what it would be like when I saw the announcement!

The puzzle’s a really nice touch though

What’s next? Presumably a new regime at some future point, doubtlessly following in the same musical tradition. In the meantime, you may want to get caught up on your WILL-O’ video action, as they’re apparently deleting a ton of stuff off of the YouTube channel at the end of the month.

At Least WILL-O”s Leaving Us with Some Nice Parting Gifts

/ Homicidol Maniac

It really was sad to hear that WILL-O’ is disbanding in a month’s time. They’re carriers of a hell of an idol legacy reaching back to when the loud stuff was pretty much just a chika thing, and chika idol culture hadn’t (to my knowledge, at least) been nearly as mainstreamed as it would be over the ensuing years. Fittingly they have all the hallmarks of a major group writ just a little bit smaller, with great polish and delivery on the kind of songs that most units wouldn’t have wanted to touch a decade ago. WILL-O’ masters that juxtaposition and makes it work for them.

Anyway, digressions and all, the point is that WILL-O has a month of life left, but on Christmas day dropped a whole album of re-recorded material:

With a couple of new singles thrown in to boot! Continue reading →

This Is Both a Review and Not a Review of WILL-O”s Latest in Honor of Their End

/ Homicidol Maniac

Well, gang, I’m super late to the party on this stuff, but I had to do it sometime, and there is literally no time like the present. Maybe it’s still news to you! It certainly was to me when I first found out. But yeah, WILL-O’ is drawing it down and bowing out:

Or, I guess the most accurate way to say it is, they’re going on tour, and then at the end all of the members will graduate, and whether there’s a WILL-O’ after that point remains to be seen (I’ll give it 3:2 odds in favor of “yes”). Still unhappiness though.

The timing of this is super weird to me, too, because, as far as I’m concerned, they released maybe their best-ever record over the summer, and it’s easily one of the best of the year. Continue reading →

Hey, Let’s Look at the New WILL-O’ Video Stuff Together!

/ Homicidol Maniac

It’s 2020 now, and all of this is firmly in the past, but I think it’s worth mentioning the wild ride that WILL-O’ went on over the course of the previous year. A lot has changed in the now three-plus years since Alloy was originally formed, and though WILL-O’ as WILL-O’ is fairly well-established at this point, I think it’s fair to say that change is the most consistent thing about the group. Well, change and doing great rock-related idol work, that is, and I mean that literally because you’ll remember that I held up “POP’N” as my personal favorite song of 2019.

And as that was going on, they were also releasing a new EP to close the year! I kind of forgot about it (it was sitting in my wait-until-an-MV-drops pile), then the MV finally did come a little on the late side, so here I go rhetorically returning the favor! But also they did some interesting stuff in the meantime, so waiting turned out to be smart. Anyway, the MV: Continue reading →

I Really Like Where WILL-O’ Has Landed

/ Homicidol Maniac

This is a little bit on the late side, you guys, but I think you can bear with me wanting to talk about the about-time first single and a few other firsts from WILL-O’ now that we’re almost three years removed from their incidental point of origin in the weirdest on-stage moment in the history of Tokyo Idol Festival and, maybe against all odds or maybe because all associated projects have always been this good or maybe because manager-san is playing the game better than you think or maybe all of it, I dunno, they’re going as strong as ever before and all signs point to an almost unconstrained future.

This is of course all predicated on the MV that they released the other day, for their new (see above) single:

Continue reading →

Happiness This Morning Is a New WILL-O’ Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

I hate this recent feeling out of touch business. Even when I’m relatively on top of things, I’m behind or a half-step off or kind of distracted and/or forgetful. It’s dumb! I include in this just the regular maintenance activities of keeping up with idol favorites and not needing all of the various technical mechanisms available to meet a minimum threshold of awareness and support, at which I am currently a miserable failure. Alas.

I bring this up because I, without checking, felt completely blindsided when WILL-O’, who have the best in-name punctuation of all idols ever, announced details for a new single (their first, which, how) out … like in a week. And then there’s a trailer, for which I definitely recommend looking at the description, which lays out the multitude of versions available for this single, and also you are now warned that this “single” trailer runs well over 2:00 without dedicating more than a few seconds to any one track:

That’s no single, that’s a space station!

(Some of) the art (probably): Continue reading →

WILL-O’, Still WILL-O’, But Like New and Improved

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

After several days of puzzling over tweets and off-handedly remarking things like “oh, I should remember to put that in the Weekender” and “wow, they’ve really come a long way in a short time,” ol’ Maniac here finally pieced together some stuff about everybody’s favorite Idol Formerly Known as Alloy Which Ah Forget It and, oh look, it’s kind of a big deal for them!

So last month, WILL-O’ released some “new” music, which was in fact an old petit pas! song re-updated with the most recent membership of the group that’s as close to a direct descendant of that group as it gets without having the same name, and it was cool and good. They stayed busy, though, as it was just the next round in a series (I love these) of monthly releases that incorporate not just new music, but sort of a soft reboot of the group, still called WILL-O’ but in this guise known as “O’currence”, which was rolled out yesterday at their company’s (Perfect Music) PERFECT SUMMIT.

Whew. You can get most of that from this tweet! Continue reading →

You Can Listen to and Acquire the New WILL-O’ Single

/ Homicidol Maniac

To be filed under “Gee Thanks, Guys!”: WILL-O’, who you may remember as Alloy but who definitely stand out on their own now several months into the new incarnation, have a new single, “Jump!”, available for purchase and streaming on like all of the platforms, so this is your chance:

As with the last dedicated WILL-O’ post, this one is short on content but long on imperative. If you’re a veteran of this whole loudol thing, upon listening, you may find yourself recalling the dearly departed petit pas!, of whom WILL-O’ is a literal direct descendant, and you would be right to do so, as the only differences between this song and the original are: Continue reading →

This Is a WILL-O’ Update Post

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Much like that Under Beasty post from a little while back, this is one that started off as a Weekender item and then ballooned into something more. This isn’t going to be complicated, but it is a whole stack of items, and maybe I feel like being a little extra generous.

Anyway, in their post-Alloy incarnation as themselves, WILL-O’ have a (pretty cool) new look:

And a new logo to go along with it:

Continue reading →

The Once and Future Alloy

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

This is a post that’s taken most of a week to come together, and I have a feeling that it’s still insufficient, so bear with me, don’t get mad if details are left out, and please do enjoy the tracks to follow.

So. Alloy. They’re pretty good! They’ve also dealt with their share of turnover, as one would expect in idol. Par for the course! Also, if you happen to be a fan of Alloy and/or specific members thereof, completely and irrevocably devastating. Why anybody likes idol, I will never understand.

Nonetheless, the whole point of this is that Momoko’s graduating, like imminently, and the group dropped a couple of tracks to commemorate. Last of the current regime: Continue reading →