Nishino Kana - Distance
From: "Distance" / Release: 2/9
Typical "watch the performer perform the song" PV - boring. Although the visuals are very pretty, they get old really fast. There's only so much sparkle/shine/ribbon CG that I can handle, okay? It has a lot going for it: the color is nice, the "sparkle cage" is different, and Kana looks and sounds great. But without something to tie the video into the song more closely, the video itself is just mediocre. The song, though - wow. Until now I hadn't found anything that I liked - REALLY liked - by Kana, but this is a good, solid song. She's not making the mistakes of her past anymore: if those are synth strings, they're far enough in the back of the music that you can't tell. Her English pronunciation is solid. I'm sure that the video, in its own small way, helped push the song, but it did little to display Kana's creativity or make her seem more interesting as an artist.
MiChi - LOVE is.
From: "LOVE is." / Release: 12/22
Sadly, this is another variation on the "watch the performer perform the song." The entire PV is high speed shots of MiChi as she moves around the set, and as the set is put together around her. The opening scene with MiChi, where she walks into the "bedroom," I thought that it was trying to convey a sense of how love makes you feel like everything is sped up around you. The form of the video, with the high speed shots, also works well with the fast pace of the song. But I was fooled. After she got my hopes up, MiChi dashed them: she spends most of the video sitting, talking, and looking really, really ugly: the lighting on her is terrible and makes her skin look sickly yellow, and she's shot from slightly below rather than straight on or from slightly above, which does bad things to her face shape. Although I love the song, the PV is just sad and yucky and disappointing.
MiChi LOVE is. PV
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Ketsumeishi - Ballad
From: "Ballad/Kimi to Tsukuru Mirai" / Release: 1/26
Finally a truly artistic PV! "Ballad" is a "couple" montage video, but with an alternate ending where the couple breaks up after what should have been a great vacation. I like the twist, but sadly the PV isn't all that it could be. In terms of camerawork, there's a lot of great photography, with mirror shots so that we can see the eyes of the actors. In terms of acting, I haven't seen better - both lovers look genuinely comfortable with one another during the happy scenes, and genuinely uncomfortable during sad scenes; there's a lot of skillful eye contact avoidance and ugly crying during the fight, and their connection at the beginning and pain at the end feel organic. In terms of the action, the PV is very lean: there's nothing there that doesn't work toward to the plot. But in terms of plot it's even more lean than a Japanese novel. They suffer a terrible break-up at the end, and there's no clue as to why. Although there are hints of trouble in paradise, it's nothing you'd think would lead to the (highly subtle and Japanese) blowout at the end. Even if you don't know that all the hand-holding they do would be out of the question for a first or second date in Japanese culture, the acting is good enough that you know these two aren't just getting out of a young relationship. In some ways, I like the not knowing: it almost seems to say that you have to cherish the love that you have, because love can be fragile, making the message more universal. But what does he say to her that makes such a bad breakup? "I have a wife back in Tokyo?" "My work will always be more important than you?" "I took you on this awesome vacation to tell you we should break up?" It must have been earth-shattering, but we never find out, and I can't handle not knowing.
ケツメイシ - バラード [PV]
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Itano Tomomi - Dear J
From: "Dear J" / Release: 1/26
Here's my favorite interpretation of this video: Tomomi Itano is an android - a sex-and-dance-bot, to be specific - who was sent into this world to destroy it. She distracts women and Japanese men with her incredible dancing, and all other races of men with her sexiness. (Japanese men, of course, can't be distracted by sex.) In order to begin her destruction of humanity, she poses as a pop singer then proceeds to burn buildings to the ground using the trappings of human avarice against them. Sweet! Unfortunately, I think a more accurate interpretation is that some music exec decided that all a good PV really needs is dancing and fire, and so that's what he ordered up. Admittedly, you can't take anything away from the dancing: it's flawless as a Korean boyband. But the flat emotional performance from Tomomi leaves something to be desired, and the random, carelessly set fire gets on my nerves.
Tomomi Itano ~ Dear J - MyVideo
Brown Eyed Girls - Sign (Korean Version)
From: "Sign" / Release: 1/17
I'm super impressed with this PV. Although it's not in the "high art" category, it's a very beautifully crafted video with a solid plot. A man is getting the crap beaten out of him by a approximately one million guys in suits. The four members of Brown Eyed Girls appear occasionally, as though to cheer him on, but their faces are strangely lifeless. The shots they're in, it's clear that they're not truly there: the lighting changes, the filter on the camera goes a little misty, and the million bad guys disappear. Also quite strangely, almost all the members have blue eyes. These shots are juxtaposed against shots of the man being mercilessly beaten, and in term mercilessly defeating the guys who have been beating him. After defeating them, he hobbles into a building to find a gentleman who I can only describe as The Final Boss. And Final Boss is a sadistic fuckhead: he has all four of the Brown Eyed Girls in huge tanks of water to struggle and fight until they drown. Our guy stabs Final Boss to death - and Final Boss seems to welcome it - then goes to free the girls, but isn't in time to save even one of them. In the last shot, he looks up, and you see that our brown-eyed hero now has one blue eye. Oh, snap! Is it because he didn't save them and now he's dead inside? Only a few things about this PV bother me (mainly, how fast Final Boss was defeated), but everything else is wonderful. The music is good too, and other than the rapping sections is very fast and fun to listen to.
androp - mirrordance
From: "door" / Release: 2/16
"mirrordance" is a pretty basic PV: a lot of black and white shots, cheap effects, and not a lot of action. But for all that, it's pretty good. The purpose of this PV is clear: to underline that "mirrordance" is a love song. Almost every shot of the PV works towards focusing your attention on the girl, and highlighting her when she seems about to disappear. It's sweet and effective, showing you that, as far as the narrator of the song is concerned, she's the only thing that matters. Unfortunately, there's a certain amount of the video that's just made up of quickly flashing or brightly colored shapes that don't mean anything in particular. Although the effects point clearly to the girl when she's visible, it's easy to check out from this PV when she's not on screen because your brain gets tired trying to process the nonsensical stuff and tries to throw the girlfriend out with the bathwater. It's not bad by any means, and I recommend it. It's just not as good as it could be.
SuG - CRAZY BUNNY COASTER
From: CRAZY BUNNY COASTER / Release: 1/12
A very quirky video, but boring in the end. Takeru finds a weird cute/creepy amusement park where he and the rest of SuG play their instruments and ride the "Crazy Bunny Coaster." It's right on the very of being a "band playing the song" PV, but even the parts that aren't are just designed to be a visual overload in pink/blue/grey with quick cuts and copious use of high speed. The CG is pretty bad, and in the end I found myself comparing the design (though not the content) to Kimura Kaela's "A winter fairy is melting a snowman," and we all know how I feel about that. Also, I know that SuG is visual kei and that VK tends to have really weird outfits, but Takeru's grey spiky dress thing is just too ugly for words. The song is energetic, which is always nice, but it's in the "triple shot, quadruple sugar coffee" kind of way, which is less good. There is a high point to the video, though, and it's the band itself: rather than looking like they're just working their 9-5, they all look super excited to be playing and recording a PV. They're acting more like a new formed or newly signed band than a band that's been around for 6 years and pro-level for 2. It's refreshing and the PV deserves a look if for no other reason than that. (Sadly, the PV was deleted off the usual channels, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I'll keep looking and add back when I can find it again!)
Aqua Timez - Mayonaka no Orchestra
From: "Carpe Diem" / Release: 2/16
A pretty face, with very little behind it. The visuals in "Mayonaka no Orchestra" could easily compete with those in "Distance" in terms of sheer gorgeousness: it's a beautiful CG forest, mountain range, and seascape in a palette of blues, purples, and yellow that appears to be made of carefully cut and arranged paper pieces. (Think "South Park," if it was marketed to 13 year-old girls.) The band plays their instruments and Futoshi wanders through the fictional landscape with a butterfly companion...but a little less gay than that sounds. But that's all there really is to the PV: 6 minutes of pretty visuals, and they aren't enough to carry the PV on their own. There's no plot, no novel aspect that makes it really stand out. The song itself is very pretty, but too long: I found myself expecting it to end at 4 minutes, and instead Aqua Timez went for a late-game key change. Then I found myself expecting the end at 5 minutes and 5 and a half minutes, but instead it went on. Someone needs to teach this band the fine art of not dragging the song out until it's dead.
THE VERDICT
- Died Honorably In Battle:
- Nishino Kana - Distance
- MiChi - LOVE is.
- Tomomi Itano - Dear J
- androp - mirrordance
- SuG - CRAZY BUNNY COASTER
- Aqua Timez - Mayonaka no Orchestra
- Lives In Glory To Fight Another Day:
- Ketsumeishi - Ballad
- Brown Eyed Girls - Sign (Korean Version)
