This is it. The final task to put that last nail in the coffin of the year that was 2025.
The greater Homicidols community had their collective say about what were the best releases and moments of 2025 (congratulations to NEO JAPONISM!), but now, it’s Team Homicidols turn to voice our unfettered opinions. While we may not always be objectively correct, we do keep the site running and pay all the bills so it’s only fair. So, before we turn the final page on 2025, we wanted to make sure that there a were a few things written down for posterity. Such as:
2025 was the Year of RAY
It is hard to dispute by any objective measure that RAY had the Best Year Ever. The unit’s fourth album, White, was not only the best album of the year by the only measure that matters (aka Homicidols Best of 2025), but the best of their storied career.
Earlier in the year, RAY also released one of the most refreshing EPs of the year in Seasons. Featuring one song for each of the year’s four intervals, the EP introduced us to two of the top tunes of the year (that would also make it onto White) in “Upside Down” and “sunset hurts.”
On the performance front, RAY also pulled off two of the best live shows of the past twelve months. The first was their extraordinary one-man from last December, Zenbu, hana hana to utai, shinu (rough translation: “everything, flowers flowers and singing, dying”) whose hypnotic and violently percussive climax is memorialized in their mesmerizing “Sea of Tranquility” PV.
Their second peak performance of the year came in September with their spectacular one-man, GROOVE! GROOVE! GROOVE!, where they were brilliantly backed by three live drummers.
They also produced one of the best MVs of the year to accompany “Tentai,” the seven minute masterpiece that closes out the aforementioned landmark album, White.
All in all, the RAY has elevated their delivery of world class shoegaze, dreampop, post punk, and noise to an extraordinary level and are pushing, not only the boundaries of live idol, but of artistry.
zerobansen to yoakemae had a Breakout Year
While RAY represents the current peak of idol artistry, they are not the only ones with such ambitions. zerobansen to yoakemae, a comparatively new unit, also achieved some extraordinary artistic achievements this year, but with a much more visceral approach. Where RAY is the sun and the air, zerobansen to yoakemae is the blood and the earth. They made their intentions for 2025 apparent early, dropping “Kataku”, the first of several cinematic MVs released over the course of the year, on New Years Eve.
Their debut album, Kawaramachi Hydeout, also ranks among the best of year, delving into both the disturbing and the sublime in a tone that’s sometimes playful but never naive. It’s an extraordinary first outing for young unit we hope to see great things from.
BEST REBOOT of 2025
ponderosa may bloom
Nothing made us happier than to the see the resurrection of ponderosa may bloom in 2025. With founding members Kaname and Misa being joined by fresh voices, Kureha and (just recently) Rei, the dream pop unit picked up right where they left off, evolving a unique sound that plucks at nostalgia while also feeling very much today.
BEST COLLABORATION of 2025
YURAPICO x Homicidols
Inexplicable iced out of the community nominations for Best Collaboration of 2025, the joint venture between the Most passionate Idol in the World, YURAPICO, and the World’s Worst Idol Blog, Homicidols, succeeding in creating what have been universally hailed as the GREATEST T-SHIRTS EVER MADE!!!!
BEST FRIEND of HOMICIDOLS
Indie pop + idol vocal band fedress, has been around for a few years, but just released their first album in 2025 including standout single , “Tabekake no Donut” which posits the universal truth: “There is no such thing as a half eaten donut.”
BEST ALBUMS of 2025
RETRORAIN, Revelation
2025 saw the emergence of the next generation of hard and alt-rock idol units and, with their debut album, Revelation, RETRORAIN proved themselves to be at the top of that class. From the blistering pop punk of the opening track, “Clove Butterfly”, to the pounding, digital funk of best-song-of-the-year candidate, “To Hell Together,” to grungy guitar ballad, “Rising Sun,” every track is memorable and demands replays.
My Criminal Lovers’, DOGMA
In a genre where more and more units are leaning away from punk and metal, post-hardcore unit My Criminal Lovers’ proved that there is still a new class of idols who want to rock your face off.
CHEMICAL X, CHEMICAL X
Our favorite pop punk unit, CHEMICAL X, released a self-titled album showcasing their extraordinary catalog. The collection spotlights their style of hook heavy immediacy mixed with a sharp and sincere emotional edge giving them an irresistibly addictive quality.
BEST EPs of 2025
Akatsuki, All My Right
When ANTITHESE rebooted as Akatsuki early this year, they didn’t just change their name and concept. They emerged in on entirely different level entirely. We have rarely seen a unit glow up like this, and All My Right is the definitive proof.
BELLRING Girls Heart, Majestic Baby
Since the Crow Girl’s resurrection in 2022, they have been tearing up live houses on a regular basis, but primarily on the strength of their historical catalog (which, in all due respect, provides several bricks in the foundation of the entire genre). While the production of new music has been sparse, their new EP delivered in 2025 reminds us of why they are such a foundational unit in the first place.
YA’ABURNEE, TCHOTCHKE
YA’ABURNEE worked overtime in 2025 to remind us that the world is bleak and godforsaken, and none of those missives were more chaotic, noisy, cute, and fun than TCHOTCHKE.
BEST SONGS of 2025
NEKIRU, “Memories”
Farfromsleep: Korea’s longest-serving live idol veterans NEKIRU have had maybe their strongest year to date, with releases ranging from the driving synth lines of “Highway Drive” all the way to the focused guitar assault of “Neo Gravity”, all while picking up another group reboot along the way. The undoubted standout however is “Memories”, a collaboration with idol production royalty Azuza Suga and Mikirechan. Carrying their unmistakable dreamy melodies with more punk urgency than you might expect, it’s an immediately captivating combination.
ponderosa may bloom, “Calling”
Cal: The current line-up for pmb might be one of my favourite idol groups in a long, long time. They have a kind of 4AD vibe that you just aren’t getting anywhere else with idol groups right now, or hell even most bands. “Calling” is more melancholic, less upbeat than “Flowline,” but it showcases everything that’s good about the group as they are now.
Quubi, “shed your skin.”
Daemon: 2025’s best song to break things to.
BEST MVs of 2025
Pinponpanpon, “Maidnight Ravers”
Farfromsleep: I’d argue that no other group on this list has had a visual impact this year of quite the same magnitude as pinponpanpon, who took the momentum from this algorithm-bomb of an MV and ran with it to grow a rapidly expanding international fanbase through their constantly updated (and consistently translated) YouTube channel. And what an MV it is, immediately setting out their stall of scrappily stylish hyperpop gyaru energy with barely time to catch a breath. Fresh, fun and infectiously exciting, I haven’t had an idol group demand my attention so expertly since peak-era Planck Stars.
kinopo., “and today” LIVE
Daemon: Contender for best song, best live performance, and best MV all-in-one right here:
YA’ABURNEE, “KAZASHITE”
We have never before seen YA’ABURNEE outdoors, much less in the full daylight, but no worries, the group isn’t taking a turn towards the light is this stellar MV. “KAZASHITE” is all about the unbearable pain and sadness of loss.
Kimiiro+Synchronicity, “Wandering ad nauseam”
Kimiiro+Synchronicity definitely grabbed out attention with one of the most creative an emotionally effective MVs of the year. We could do with far fewer MVs shot in warehouses or baroque mansions and more like this.
YURAPICO, “Pretend”
YURAPICO enlisted the help of Gomes (MAZE) for this cinematic MV for Best Single of 2025 nominee, “Pretend.”
Shitsuji to Meido, “Headshot Mission!”
We will end with the most fun MV of the year from the most refreshing debut of 2025: Hauki and Masamune Usui’s butler and maid duo, Shitsuji to Meido take on a mob of wolves anime style.
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