You Review Things: RAY | “Pink”

Once again actually by Viz Major!

When ・・・・・・・・・ (vocalized as “Dots” or “Dots Tokyo”) emerged onto the idol scene in late 2016 with their shoegaze music and unorthodox presentation, it was a surprisingly much needed breath of fresh air from the saturated market of overcolored aesthetics and systematic cheerful, yet often contrived, songs predominant in idol culture. Along with this new approach to the genres of music that idols perform, the group attached an eccentric mythos to their profile, implementing things like all members are named ・(a single dot) but have nicknames that change every so often and go by themes such as vegetables or even infrastructures (one member was nicknamed “Konbini”, the Japanese word for “convenience store”). Visors were worn over the eyes of the members to conceal their identities, which established them as both an innovative and mysterious idol group. They quickly gained fans in not only the idol spectrum, but also among fans of shoegaze and indie rock outside of the J-pop music sphere, and in 2018 released their debut album『 』(a title with no words but actually 9 half-width spaces), which proved to be one of the best albums of that year. Unfortunately, the following year the inevitable fate which many idols have succumbed to was met, and the group was dissolved after performing a final one-man live at Tokyo Kinema Club on March 24, 2019. Continue reading

You Review Things: The Babymetal Graphic Novel!

Here at Homicidols, the only thing we love as much as idols is throwing people into an experience they’ve never had before and get their raw impressions. In this case, our reviewer dived into the freezing waters by himself and we just came by with towels and a warm drink to pick him up. Friday Fun resident contributor Salem Black has graciously accepted to write up a review of the Babymetal comic (Oh? My earpiece is saying it’s a graphic novel). Please enjoy his foray into an unfamiliar medium.

 

Ok, so I been asked to review the Apocrypha: The Legend of Babymetal comic, I mean graphic novel, by virtue of having ordered a copy. I must admit from the outset that I’m no reader of manga or graphic novels, so I thought I would review this coming from the perspective of a Babymetal fan who will basically buy any merch sold in the West, aside from those t-shirts they sell to coincide with the release of everything and anything, like the official t-shirt of this novel, which I didn’t buy and why I had to read it in the nude (lie).

It’s thanks to Babymetal I discovered this very website and all the wonderful groups it’s brought to my attention since. Just think, if I never spotted a 2016 article about Babymetal performing at some festival in the UK on the BBC website, I would have missed out on so much fantastic music and never got the chance to experience the spectacle of watching Babymetal in front of 50,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome and the strange anticlimactic mood that filled the dome after they failed to make their big announcement at the end of the show. Speaking of an anticlimax, lets see what this comic, I mean graphic novel, is all about! Continue reading

You Review Things: Yanakoto Sotto Mute | “MIRRORS”

In the spirit of elevating more of the very smartest voices among us, I asked Babymetal megashow-attender and Corenament almost-winner DaeMetal to share his impressions. As one of the few people alive who may love YSM more than me, I’m sure that this will be a completely unbiased exercise. Take it away, Mr. 444!

One of the primary goals of my most recent trip to Japan was to witness as many Yanakoto Sotto Mute lives as possible. I was fortunate enough to catch them three times and was happy to confirm that they are, in fact, the real deal; as Maniac dubbed them, “the idol unit that was born perfect”. Not only can they pull off their vocals live (quite a feat considering the demanding range and complex harmonies of their compositions), but their performances display an emotional range in their songs that isn’t evident from just listening to BUBBLE, their first and utterly brilliant album. Yanakoto Sotto Mute are one of those rare groups whose live performances dramatically enhance the songs, giving them additional dimensions beyond the definitive perfection of a studio recording. For those of you in the Western Hemisphere who haven’t begun making plans to see their overseas debut at East Meets West Fest in August, I encourage you to do so. Seeing YSM live is a bucket-list-worthy event. Continue reading

Here’s a Cool Fan Review of Kamen Joshi’s Latest Single

Or, more specifically, the receipt and unboxing (so to speak) of “Personia / ISUMI,” which just barely failed to make #1 for the Mask Girls’ second consecutive chart-topper, but is still pretty good.

This is from Indonesian fan of the site Rino:

Continue reading

You Review Things: DISDOL | “HARERUYA”

Dofphoto has another gift for you! And very well-timed, as DISDOL crept a bit into the wider homicidol consciousness over the past week, and darn it, that makes me happy. Personally, I’m dying to know if HARERUYA is any good.

My first experience with DISDOL (they were called Dissenter Dolls back then) was back in March 2015, which I’m pretty sure was their debut on stage. There were four girls and they only had two songs, which were “Jolly” and “Miraibana,” the latter being the track that caught my attention. So like anyone would do, I followed them on Twitter. A few demos of new tracks were uploaded to Youtube and it seemed it wouldn’t be long till DISDOL were in the studio. Continue reading

You Review Things: Party Rockets GT | “Time of Your Life”

Cover of Party Rockets GT's Time of Your Life album

A few weeks ago, our pal dofphoto was like, “I can do reviews” and I was like “show me” and he was like “okay.” I’m not rescinding the pleasure responsibility necessarily, but I also know that other folks have a tendency to get music that I don’t, and Homicidols.com is nothing if not service-oriented. And so, after some negotiating, here’s dofphoto!

I have a long fan history with Party Rockets. In particular, Yoshiki Haruka. From the dark back part of the stage, Haruka stepped out into the light and took control of what could have been an international rock/pop group. Unfortunately, the trend for graduations within the Party Rockets camp left Haruka and Fumika abandoned to the point that Fumika publicly cried, voicing uncertainty about the future of their beloved group and the fantastic songs they would leave behind. Continue reading