Make Believe Melodies For May 20, 2025
Written Between Chicago And Kyoto, So Genuinely A Little More Compact This Week
Trooper Salute — “Tenshi-chan Dayo”
The problem with so much smoother, "city-pop” adjacent songs emerging out of Japan (and beyond) over the last decade is a lack of any drama. I get it, wouldn’t it be great if life was smooth and full of good vibes and promises of a bright tomorrow? Yet man, there needs to be something rubbing against all these cheery outlooks and jazzy interludes to make something more than elevated cafe music.
Nagoya band Trooper Salute aren’t basking in the imagined glow of the “Ride On Time” single art on latest single “Tenshi-chan Dayo.” There’s bass plucks, sunny guitar grooves, sparkly keyboard and a general brightness enveloping the song. Yet cutting through all of that are the vocals courtesy of singer Musashi, which flex actual drama in how they go from low-key delivery to higher-pitched delivery come the chorus. Better still is that serves a function — this is a depressing song! All about bad memories swirling around someone’s head as they reflect on the past, represented by the devil and punctuated by a line about how salty their tears taste. Nothing complacent or cool about this, but rather a case study in how the human condition in all its complexity can sound pretty sharp. Listen above.
Yuka Nagase — “Toku Wa Nareru Shikoo No Kiki Tori”
A dizzying peek at a forthcoming concept album (!!!!) from virtual singer Yuka Nagase coming soon. I’ll hold off on thoughts regarding any grander thematic efforts and instead focus on this mini drama. Nagase makes the most of all six minutes here, first leaning on her voice for an opening stretch before letting a barrage of guitar and drums come in to up the sonic ante. What’s especially gripping about it all is how she never lets the song get too wild or out of control from there — the shifts in sound and singing are more subtle, creating a song revealing itself in small details rather than bludgeons. Listen above.
G2BG Featuring killwiz and cat biscuit — “Judgement Day”
One of the tricks of following internet-centric music is being sometimes lost as to what’s actually going on with new projects. G2BG presents itself as a “collective” but the only consistent presence across three tracks is producer cat biscuit so…is this just another moniker for them? Look, this isn’t the week for me to investigate…but “Judgement Day” finds whoever works in this space linking up with killwiz, who delivers an existential-dread-dappled lyrics over a pulsing backdrop, resulting in a club cut built for those stuck in their own heads. Listen above.
Charlu — “My Basket”
Rapper Charlu turns a Aeon-owned chain of neighborhood-centric shopping markets into a meditation on loneliness and the push to get through it on “My Basket.” Part of the charm for me lies in the convenience-focused puns and references spilling out here — listing different forms of cashless payment, thank you! — but the real appeal is the MC’s ability to use this spacious beat to deliver something perched right between sadness and swagger. Listen above.
demipogune — “Mitanai”
“Electro Idolic Funk team” is one way to get my attention, and group demipogune doesn’t let me down with “Mitanai.” What is surprising is how understated the dance-pop song is, avoiding the maximalism I’d associate with J-pop adjacent electro for something a little more spacious and at times approaching a whisper. Yet the rush remains. Listen above.
YOASOBI — “Watch Me!”
One of the things about attending an anime convention — especially as someone there to talk at least partially about Japanese music and assist an artist with a debut US performance — is you end up connecting everything with anime. Though really the last five years already made that a reality, though being surrounded by Japan’s strongest cultural export really gets the ol’ mental gears turning. This particular symbiotic relationship inspires mixed feelings in anyone existing within the Japanese music space, and it’s also an inescapable talking point when approaching YOASOBI, a pair whose global success is fueled primarily by tie-up tunes. Is it good that they’ve sort of just become Sony Music’s go-to opening theme writers, a kind of Sherman Brothers for the Crunchyroll set? Probably not, and if any band has felt pigeonholed by the realities of Japanese entertainment in the 2020s, it’s them.
Yet here I zag a bit — even in this context, YOASOBI can make a really good pop number capturing their own quirks and reflecting everything great about modern J-pop. “Watch Me!” functions as the main theme for the silly-named Witch Watch, about exactly what the title promises. I have not checked it out yet, but the song offers the exact kind of sugar rush I want out of pop, with Ayase’s balance of digi-damaged synth notes and organic-leaning instrumental touches coming together to form a nervously happy melody for Ikura to hop-scotch over. It’s exhilarating in a way good radio hits should be — and really, anime is kind of the J-pop equivalent of HITS.FM or whatever — and a reminder of what a rush the past five years have been1. Listen above.
CUTIE STREET — “Kyu Ni Stop Dekimasen”
I’ll just keep writing this over and over again — the current wave of new idols starting to gain traction (see news below!) owes almost everything to Dempagumi.inc both in terms of sound and aesthetic, and it’s kind of great that the recently finished outfit looms so large over J-pop today. The latest from CUTIE STREET drives home the point even further, offering a kind of dempa-charged interpretation of Eurobeat over which the group can sing and deliver revved-up speaking segments about the importance of keeping on…and staying cute.
What I haven’t considered is how CUTIE STREET and adjacent group’s celebration of all things kawaii feels more and more over the top as these songs continue to up the franticness. In the same way Dempagumi’s entire ethos revolved around idol as salvation from the bummers of existence, “cuteness” for these groups feels less like the Kana Nishino style “ohhhh, aren’t I adorable…and that’s all I need!” embrace and more like fuel that truly helps them zoom forward. It probably helps that the music itself is anything but cuddly, making for a nice tension. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of May 5, 2025 To May 11, 2025
Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.
WEST. — “West Side Soul! / BIG LOVE SONG” (223,811 Copies Sold)
Man…WEST. is so goofy, it’s great. Far more than any other STARTO group repping Kansai, this collective is the only one to me that really gets the goofball humor centered in Osaka and can translate it to its pop presentations. The video for “West Side Soul!” features a member dying, for goodness sake, and assorted efforts to revive him, this is the sort of antics male pop groups should be getting up to more rather than another boring pots-and-pans number showcasing how ~ serious artistically ~ they are. Helping out here is the presence of Osaka funk band Ulfuls, who provide the right soundtrack to these follies.
The other side of this single is pure refuse, the kind of cutesy fan service STARTO has to always provide but never offers anything redeeming.
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Pay $5 USD a month to get an extra post every week…even when I’m traveling all around the world. This week…some thoughts from Anime Central in Chicago, particularly the musical happenings.
News And Views
FRUITS ZIPPER tops the Oricon Singles Chart for the first time with its Yasutaka-Nakata-produced single “Kawaii Te Magic.” Usually, I’d say Oricon fails to tall anyone about what’s happening in J-pop because it has mutated into what amounts to fandom ranking. Yet in this case…that’s actually important! The people who love this neo-idol group have now shown they can get them up to the level of similar female projects out of J-pop and K-pop, driving home how the idol revival is truly here.
JO1 becomes the first J-pop male group to break into the US Mediabase Top 40 Radio Airplay Chart with “Be Classic.” You might remember this as being the same ranking XG made history in en route to catapulting to greater global attention a couple years back. A big development for the group and this side of J-pop2.
New season of DAN DA DAN is coming soon, and AiNA THE END handles the theme for it based off of a new trailer, below.
Andrew Sharp profiles Awich for Nikkei Asia. I have some quotes in here!
One of the strongest arguments in favor of J-pop’s current trajectory is that you can find multiple articles about ONE OR EIGHT performing in North America this week.
Pitchfork wrote about “YAJU&U” lolz. I also did this a couple weeks back.
Make Believe Mailer #141: AI Scream!
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One of the biggest Japanese songs of the year is clearly AI generated. It’s also about cumming.
ROCK IN JAPAN Festival announced its first wave of artists. I probably just missed this but…it’s happening in September this year? Not August? Pretty big development as temperatures keep soaring.
Kim Kahan with a lovely feature about a club near Narita Airport in Resident Advisor.
Frieren coming to vinyl.
Hikaru Utada returns to THE FIRST TAKE to do “First Love.”
If I missed any other news, I’m blaming the wi-fi connection on the Shinkansen, oh my god why is it so bad.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2025 Spotify Playlist here!
My affinity for this song is bolstered by the following super reductive view but ehhhhh fuck it I’m jet lagged and on the Shinkansen — the American pop I heard on the radio / around me while in the States last week was terrible, and glancing at Billboard confirms that it’s pretty bleak. You’re really telling me that weepy stomp-clap crap Alex Warren makes is a hit??? That makes me appreciate Mrs. GREEN APPLE!
Views: Unfortunately accomplished with the group’s worst song, but hey life is funny that way.