Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da

The 50 Greatest Alternative Idol Albums of the Last Decade: #41 – 50

/ DAEMON

When future music historians look back at the history of the genre the English-speaking world, for lack of a better term, generally refers to as “Alternative Idol”, the decade of 2010 to 2020 will be seen as foundational. Underground idol in Japan has been around since at least the late 90s, hard rock composers were penning songs for idol units in the mid 2000s, and indie idol has probably existed since the birth of the idol genre itself. However, it was the year 2010 when the momentum of disparate events would begin to coalesce and eventually define the broad genre we know and love today. That year’s creation and subsequent seismic success of BiS and BABYMETAL would inspire the formation of hundreds of punk and metal idol units. At the same time, the zeitgeist of the early 2010s independently birthed several other less prominent but just as significant influences. Bellring Girls Heart, You’ll Melt More, Especia and others emerged to embrace an edgier and more avant-garde approach to idol, crafting the sounds and sensibilities of post- and pop-punk, new wave, techno and progressive rock into something entirely new. These early groups inspired both creative composers and adventurous music fans to embrace independent and underground idol as an effective medium for expressing almost every subgenre of rock, hip hop and electronica. Over the past decade, alternative Japanese idol has grown into a world class laboratory for the creation of some of the most innovative music on the planet. Continue reading →

I scream, you scream, we all scream for new Zenkimi MVs!

/ Papermaiden

If it’s all my fault, I’ll do this more often; Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da has graced us with two new MVs in two days. While both are to promote their re-recorded albums Q.E.D and Q.E.D. Bi with the current seven members lineup, they switched things up a bit by picking songs that never got an MV before!

The lucky winners are Kimi Kimi Syndrome X and Cult Scream (and, of course, you the fan who is getting two brand new music videos).

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In Keeping with a Theme, I’m Giving You Happiness on Wednesday

/ Homicidol Maniac

Of course within minutes of my having dusted off my hands from the earlier post and congratulating myself on a job well done to toss off some doldrums and do the the kind of post that used to foul up the ol’ Homicidols feed back in the day, Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da is out here with a promo for their other new album of re-re-recordings (“standards,” we used to call ’em), and while it’s quite familiar to many of us I don’t know if it’s all that familiar to many more of us, not anymore, and it’s such a bright and shiny and joyful little romp that, hell, just watch the damn thing and be happy and then go buy Zenkimi’s album:

Believe It or Not, You Can Still Hear the Zenkimi Preview Tracks

/ Homicidol Maniac

You may have seen the news this morning that Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da is releasing another album of re-releases, which is all for the good even if I do personally prefer my Zenkimi to be of the more chaotic variety. There’s an MV coming, too, apparently. But no Zenkimi announcement of music to be released is complete without preview tracks on two-hour windows, which we’ve lately been a little bit less aggressive in grabbing afore they’re gone, but I did get to this morning, hallelujah.

First, the tweet:

Those links aren’t going to do you any favors at this point, I don’t think, but we here at Homicidols Dot Com do pride ourselves on catching these guys before they truly do disappear forever. It’s a service to the late risers and people who aren’t terminally online! I did however restrict the post to just the track we haven’t heard a hundred different times and ways already (if you want that one, here), so let’s go through the motions from here and … you know the good stuff is behind the jump.

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New Year, New Single, Zenkimi’s Gonna Be All Right

/ Homicidol Maniac

Is it okay to call Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da “living legends” when the group may be closing in on a sixthiversary but there’s only one of the originals left? Yes it is because I want it to be? Fantastic.

Living legends Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da, fresh off of a year of causing their many longtime fans to soil themselves in fear that the group may be on the outs, or at least all but completely redefined, dropped their 12th single the other day. That’s a lot of singles! But it’s the first new material from the all-but-completely-redone group, and it’s a great opportunity for a “came out swinging” cliche, not least because saying it would not make me a liar, just an unimaginative nincompoop who couldn’t think of a better way to describe one of Zenkimi’s most ambitious works:

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All the Zenkimi Things

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Following the demise of Yukueshirezutsurezure and some membership turnings-over in KAQRIYOTERROR both building on the absolute tumult that was Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da last year, I think it would be fair for fans to wonder what all might be going on over at Codomomental HQ. Yeah, between akugi and Tokyo Tefutefu there are interesting new things afoot, but this is idol and for all we know they could self-destruct in a matter of of weeks — Tsurezure and Kaqriyo and Zenkimi are much more established quantities. And so it was that when the phone buzzed for a solid 10 seconds’ worth of notifications coming in under Zenkimi’s byline, of course I was a little concerned.

But as it turns out, at least for now, it’s all good! Continue reading →

It’s worth missing some sleep over the new Zenkimi

/ Papermaiden

Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da is finally back from their hiatus, with 3 new members. With the recent Mashiro departure and the pre-hiatus graduation of Yotsu and Akebono, many speculated that the group would be in bad shape. Rest assured their fearless leader did a great job reining in the new recruits.

Let’s discuss their first offering, Insomnia!

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Making Sense of More Change in Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da

/ Homicidol Maniac / 2 Comments

In part ignore the title on this one because I’m not actually trying to make any sense of this news for you; this is my way of working through an unhappy thing in my head and subjecting you to the process via blog post. You’re welcome.

So a couple of days ago, you likely saw the announcement from Zenkimi that, to add insult to injury following their hiatus-and-also-two-members-are-leaving announcement from, what, a month? two months go, dropped the biggest bombshell to date:

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Sigh

/ Homicidol Maniac

A lot of people took a deep breath when this popped out the other day:

I think we all anticipated the other shoe to drop in that timeframe, and last night did/not disappoint: Continue reading →

Aptly Named Zenkimi Blast from the Past

/ Homicidol Maniac

This time last week, while we were putting the final organizational touches on this year’s Best Of crop, two things occurred to me. The first was that this year, for various reasons, seemed to have the lowest high points out of the whole dang run of Homicidols Voting Things (probably because of all the soul-murdering graduations); the second was that Codomomental units were, on the whole, involved in the proceedings but without the same degree of they-could-win-so-much-hardware-you-guys as in past year. And on that second point, yeah, I get it, there’s actually been a good amount of turmoil in my favorite company for the last however long, and it’s unfortunately sort of stifled their mental and emotional presence for folks outside of Japan. I think so, anyway, but I’m also not as elbow-deep in the scene nowadays, so maybe I’m missing things.

Now, on Saturday, while I was taking a few minutes to just cruise around and check out things that I might want to pick up later in the week, I ran head-long into a preview clip for this MV. I didn’t read the tweet, and I didn’t play the clip with audio on, but I remembered that what has turned out to be one of the greatest chika loudol groups of all, Zenbu Kimi no Sei Da, did indeed have an album on the way, and that album was going to be a special one, and you know, I got excited. And I took that tweet and I slapped it into a draft post and I was going to publish for Monday a piece on how excited I was about this album and you should be too.

And then I didn’t do it because that’s reality these days. But I actually remembered to come back to it, and my girl Yotsu was doing what idols do and re-sharing the thing that had already been shared and then it all came together for me, the power and the glory amen: Continue reading →