Ladybaby

And Thus Goes Ladybaby Gentle into That Good Night

/ Homicidol Maniac

The other night, as you know unless you do in fact currently live under a rock or perhaps spend your energies elsewhere, LADYBABY had their final live. Folks have been responding to it and reacting to it and writing about it and doing that whole thing, as is appropriate, but I felt like the whole thing really was best summed up in a few official photos:

It wasn’t enough to just go out with a farewell one-man, though; they gave us one final parting MV, and while it’s usually trite to even think the phrase “saving the best for last,” you’ll be hard-pressed to convince me that it isn’t exactly the case here: Continue reading →

This Is How LADYBABY Ends

/ Homicidol Maniac

I won’t get into how this MV landing yesterday set off a wild few minutes of me only half-remembering any of the details related to LADYBABY’s upcoming dismantling except to say that it’s funny in retrospect, but also, man, their end-of-life period caught up to us pretty quickly, didn’t it? We still have a month and change until the final live and farewell re-recording album, but yeah, it’s time to start to wind things down. And what an oddly appropriate song to do it with!

If this is the last thing we ever get from Ladybaby*, isn’t it interesting how it’s the least Ladybaby thing they’ve ever done and the most conventionally idol? I kept waiting for something — anything — more in tune with how the group has all but always functioned, and ne’er was there a whiff of a growl or chant or anything. This is not to say that it’s LADYBABY going out with a whimper or anything (it’s a very nice song), just that it was not the foot forward that I expected at this point.

There’s almost no way this is the very last thing from them, though, and I expect that we’ll be treated to one more true-to-form LADYBABY video that more clearly explicates the content of that farewell record, and leaves a more conventional aftertaste.

LADYBABY Love You, but Have to Destroy You

/ DAEMON

I promise that I will never look away again.

On Team Homicidols, we’ve been distracted a lot lately by art house groups and hi-concept math-punk units or idols that make you stare at your shoes and weep.  But now that we gazed so hard at ・・・・・・・・・ that they vanished back into the ether from whence they came, it might be best to sink back into basics for a little while. Like a nice, simple “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” blend of J-pop and Metal.

I wonder what LADYBABY has been up to?

DAAAAaaaaaammnnn… Continue reading →

So LADYBABY Just Took Me for One Hell of a Ride

/ Homicidol Maniac / 1 Comment

Did I miss something out there? There’s been a definite feeling that LADYBABY was about to do something significant — and I very Mandela Effectively could have sworn that I’d seen an announcement for a new single in the last few days — what with the ExEx gigs going down and, I don’t know, more chatter than usual on their channels? Something was up.

It turns out that something is a new MV! With a great big contribution, performatively and creatively from Emily and from HAJIMETAL, and Rie’s fingerprints all over the production. And what a trip it is:

Continue reading →

So Maybe Don’t Go See LADYBABY in Houston

/ Homicidol Maniac

Ladybaby is coming back to the ol’ USA. Such was the news that came out yesterday. Management of course tweeted about it, as did the host event, Anime Matsuri. I was like, oh man, you should blog a post for that! And then the messages started. Hoo boy, they were not good messages! People who know about things are displeased about this event and displeased about Ladybaby being at it! I of course am an ignoramus, so you only just now get to enjoy this sizzling take.

First, to recap: Ladybaby will be at Anime Matsuri in Houston in June. Are the members excited?

Continue reading →

This New LADYBABY Is Beyond My Comprehension

/ Homicidol Maniac

LADYBABY’s sort of surprise-springing this digital single on us, but I doubt that too many people are going to complain. This is a group that’s pretty much always done what they wanted, and damn the man, like they exist within this idol milieu but also somewhat apart from it. Frankly, more groups should probably operate that way!

I don’t have enough cultural context to make this work in my head, and would therefore appreciate some tutorial about why I’m wrong, but let me preface this by noting just how high my eyebrow arched when I looked at the description stuff and saw “KAWAII-DEATH” and “something something Showa era songs.” Like I don’t get entirely where they’re going with that, but … well, I presume that this is what that means:

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Ladybaby Delivers New Video for an Old Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

Don’t take the title as flippant, friends: I was very limply trying to figure out what the heck was going on with this release because, you know, Ladybaby hasn’t announced a new record or anything, and nothing in the dang announcement suggests that it’s a digital single or anything. It took me a minute to realize, hey, this is from that single they released a little while back, the one with the Ladybeard collaboration, and they’re just now getting around to releasing video for it.

As a chronic procrastinator, I can relate. And as a person who can do math, I can see one thing from Oomori Seiko and then another and see a light bulb, you know? It makes its own kind of sense.

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When Ladybaby and Ladybeard Got Back Together for a Minute

/ Homicidol Maniac

Ladybaby’s renewed, Rei-less form didn’t, I think, need to call back too hard to the group’s point of origin — it’s written all over everything they do, ever — but given that what seems like a fairly successful first release includes a third track, and hatchets can be buried and money made, it’s clear that we could all live our best lives if the updated roster could maybe get together with ol’ pal Ladybeard for an MV.

The trailer is here. I stared at my screen and contemplated whether to post now or wait; my dedication to the gods of chaos won out.

I have no comment whatsoever.

The New Ladybaby New MV Has Finally Arrived

/ Homicidol Maniac

How long ago was the Showroom or whatever live recording of the newly reformed Ladybaby’s first single hit the Idolnet? It’s been a few weeks, right? I’d nearly forgotten about it save for those wondering aloud online if the release had happened (soon!) and if there was video (also probably soon!). Me, like how I’ve been avoiding the new PassCode single like the plague until something official arrives*, I stayed away from recordings of all types because I wanted one, pure, this-is-what-we’re-doing-now full-on multimedia assault. And today, Ladybaby finally delivered:

What a weirdly put-together song! The way that thing was going, I thought it was going to crescendo toward something other than an idol death pop kind of chorus; I also expected less … pick-me-up lyrics. The overall sound (minus the harsh vocals) reminds me of something that OG Himekyun Fruit Can might have done; structurally, is anybody going to get mad if I say that I thought of Kamen Joshi? Yes? Great. “Growly days” for the win, then! Continue reading →

There Shall Be No Further Mockery of Death Vocals in Ladybaby

/ Homicidol Maniac

So, Ladybaby, as you recall, began life with the Beard himself adding growls and screams and the like to what was usually otherwise a jangly mess of sounds from a drunken night in Akihabara. Sometimes a delight! Following his departure, though, the mechanical add-on harsh vocals seemed like some kind of rude joke; they got the point across, but with none of the pizzazz unless you’re very easily impressed.

When the group underwent its complete re-tool following the falling-out etc. between Rie and Rei*, one could be forgiven for thinking that the old way of doing things was going to be politely left aside. The piped-in death growls were kind of ha-ha cheesy at first, only to become just-plain cheesy in short order, to the point of ridiculousness, so songs that just skipped that whole bit and instead tried to actually be good songs, they were way more enjoyable; I mean, I know that people loved the hell out of “Pelo”, but I’m still overly partial to “LADY BABY BLUE”, which is as far a departure from “Nippon Manju” as you’ll find this side of a Negicco ballad.

And then they decided to let in this girl: Continue reading →