The children are suffering and struggling with the today's world where there are no walls to secure them from complicated collisions of minds. They are still obliged to be alive. Listen to their cries of the hearts, to the world.
It was another group that I was planning to make a stand alone post for, but Minna No Kodomo-chan forced themselves in today's article. The reason is the release of their first full length album, A World without Walls.
Minna No Kodomo-chan is an Idol group formed in August of 2016. They generally fall into the Yami-Kawaii (Dark-Cute) category of Idols, which relates more to the image they project but also their dark -almost suicidal- lyrics. Until now they had released four singles and one mini album. The members are Cinnamon (blue) and Honoka (pink).
The thing that stands out in their appearance is the boards they carry in their backs, which they describe as walls. In the beginning they featured the colours of the members as well as a cartoony vampire image of the corresponding member. After their One-Man-Live earlier in the year, they changed them to a more abstract design. Its meaning also changed, from walls that prevented them to relate to the world, to walls that protect them from the absurdity of modern existence.
Minna no Kodomo-chan - Nakunaruwatashi
In order to promote their album they made a video for Nakunaruwatashi (亡くなる私, I am gone). In typical Minna No Kodomo-chan fashion, it features dark, disturbing imagery and visuals that induce an artificial LSD trip. It also marks a change to the appearance of the members, from Dark-Cute to Dark-Beautiful. The childish naivety is gone and it is replaced by a more mature and Gothic aesthetic. It is a pretty bold change for Idol standards but it is more suited to the image they project as a group and it will definitely help them explore more themes in the future.
Musically it is a mix of psychedelic electronic music and Doom Metal that creates an atmosphere as trippy as the visuals of the video. This song was also featured on their mini album. It stood out in that CD not only for its sound but also because of the vocal delivery from the girls. Here it is a bit changed but more on those changes in the next segment.
A World without Walls album
Source: Group's Official Website
It's a new album, with ten tracks but most of the songs are familiar to the fans from their previous releases. All six songs from the mini album are here and one of the new songs has an official live video. All those songs though, have been re-recorded with improved arrangements. The previous arrangements had a raw, straight approach in the music. Also, songs with different style sounded completely irrelevant to the others.
Now, everything is more refined. All the songs have a similar sound, despite the different styles of music and new instrument parts have been added, especially in the guitars. To be honest, for me who has listened to the older songs a lot, the new recordings sound a bit strange (what is that guitar doing here?). But I am sure that new listeners won't notice anything peculiar. And despite the familiar music to me, I feel that there things to explore in these new arrangements.
All in all, it is a great album that both closes the first period of the group's existence and it open the way for what is to come in the future.
The album is available on Spotify, Apple Music, etc
My Introduction to Minna No Kodomo-chan: I Wish I were Dead when I Wake Up
In the beginning of 2017, as I was watching videos from my favourite groups and discovering new Idol Metal music, a certain video began appearing in the suggestions of YouTube. It was a group that I never heard of before and the song title was a bit too strange. After a few times I decided to see what is this all about.
The video is like a post-apocalyptic, dystopian movie. Although shot on a shoe string budget, it creates perfectly an urban scenery of filth and decay. Of course, the Japanese are masters in creating unsettling imagery. There is nothing unexpected in that regard.
What is unexpected is how can these two cute girls perform such disturbing acts, so convincingly. This thing could easily become a parody. But no, their stern expressions and their all natural acting, in conjunction to the dystopian scenery, makes life appear bleak and pointless. Exactly like the title of the song! Not to talk about the contradiction between this dark aesthetic and their cute looks and costumes. The perfect introduction for such a new project.
After this video, they almost disappeared from the foreign fans' radar for a while until recently, where they seem to have initiated a big push forward.