I was expecting Cha-Cha music... Sexy Zone's 'Cha-Cha-Cha チャンピオン' Single Review!

Whoa... It has been way too long since I last reviewed a guy group. Sorry, not sorry? To be honest, the reason why I probably haven't reviewed this single until now is because I didn't care. I absolutely didn't care about the single at all. And now today, I'm forcing myself to sit down and listen to this single. Will I like it? Will I hate it? Read the review to find out! /whacked;

SPOILER ALERT; I don't like this single at all. /whacked;

♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫

As said before, I absolutely did not care about this single whatsoever. No fucks were given about this single (Oh my god, excuse me for my language). I literally went "Meh" when I first heard this single was announced. I found that recently, this summer, I have been so not up to date with whatever's happening with Sexy Zone and ShoKura. I just don't care anymore. Part of the reason is that I kinda knew ahead of time that I will be disappointed, and I was.

- - 01. Cha-Cha-Cha チャンピオン - - 

When I first heard the title for this single, the first thing that came to mind was "They're gonna dance the Cha Cha Cha?（＊〇□〇）……！Yes!" I kinda had my hopes up for this song but I knew that in the end, I would be disappointed. And I was. They didn't dance the Cha-Cha-Cha at all. This song wasn't Cha-Cha music. 'Cha-Cha-Cha Champion' was a song used for the Volleyball Championship (I believe? I'm not too sure) and it's another typical "Do you best!" motivational songs. My first initial reaction when I heard that song was that it was so boring for me. It was really, really boring for my taste. I immediately forgot about it five minutes afterwards.

As always, let's start talking about the music video. Oh, you think Hello! Project music videos were really cheap and bad? Oh, you think the graphics for Hey! Say! JUMP's 'Chau#' was really bad? Oh no, this music video for 'Cha-Cha-Cha Champion' will prove you wrong. I really thought that after the seeing the graphics done in Hey! Say! JUMP's previous music video, that it can't get any worse than that. It did. You know those really old graphics you would see as a screen saver for maybe windows 2000? Those are the type of graphics (not exact, somewhat similar) that you would see in this music video.

Yea, those graphics could've been better. Or, maybe they should've had an actual set and filmed in a tiny school stadium. If they were to any actual set or filmed in a actual location, I'd imagine the music video to be similar to 'Seishun Collection.' That would've been really nice and made the music video 50% better. Oh well, one can only dream. Now let's focus on the other aspects of the music video. If you read my previous reviews, if the dance shot is good than I can tolerate the rest of the music video. The dance shot was... ehh. It could've been better. It's not a very memorable dance in my opinion. Although, the music break was kinda good (in terms of dance). Meh.

As for the outfits of the single, I actually really love the outfits. The group had two outfits for this single: casual and the yellow iconic outfits used for promotion. Oh my god, there was so much yellow in this music video. Yellow is least favorite color. There were lots of primary colors. Reds and blues mostly, with some pink and purples. It was too much for me. /whacked; I do love the design for the iconic promotional outfits. It suits the FumaKenShori. Shori looked amazing. The other outfits were simple but good. They didn't go over the top with those outfits so I'm okay. The casual outfits were also pretty good.

I know what you must be thinking, "Marius and Sou are featured in the music video! You should be happy!" As much as I want to be happy about SouMari being in the music video again. It doesn't necessarily feel the same as how they were before, back in May 2014. I've gotten so used to not seeing those two featured in releases... It feels weird to see them suddenly being shoved back in. As a whole, this single is another 3nin Sexy Zone. But seeing Sou and Marius shoved into the music video as back up dancers... I don't know. It doesn't feel right. I don't know. Also, with all the Juniors being included... the music video looks so crowded.

I didn't particularly like the individual groups scenes. It was just so much bad graphics and you all know how I really don't like it. The only scenes that I like from this music video was the close-ups and that wasn't enough to save this music video. /sigh; Overall, I don't like this music video. This is just a poorly made video. The worst I have seen in quite some time. Yikes. Nonetheless, let us move onto the song. I'm still quite disappointed that this didn't turn out to be a cha-cha song. It would've been interesting to see Sexy Zone struggle to learn the cha-cha-cha. Oh wells, one can only dream.

As said before, my initial reaction for this song was that it was absolutely boring. There was nothing memorable about it. It was your typical "Do you best! Try new things! Don't be afraid to take risks! Everything will be okay!" motivational song. I didn't even bother trying to find the translation of the lyrics, I already knew what the song was about. There wasn't really anything original about the song, to be honest. I always end up skipping this track whenever it starts playing on my mp3 player. I want to delete it but I can't bring myself to do so.

Yes, FumaKenShori did deliver very good vocals as always. Shori's vocal ability is improving as time progresses. And we all know how FumaKen have always been the best vocalists of the group since the start. That's the obvious; that's a given. Also, it's nice to know that SouMari are able to sing during live performances. But even all of that, nothing can save this terrible song. I don't like the rapping at all. It was just really awkward. The only part of the song that I actually liked was the two verses after the music break. That's it.

Overall, I did not like this song. It's boring. It's not memorable. This song will never grow onto me. I am not happy with the music video. I am not happy with the song either. Oh dear, this review has already gotten off to a pretty bad start.

- - 02. シーサイド・ラブ - - 

When I saw the tracklist for the single, I thought 'Seaside Love' would be the saving grace of this single. Similar to how 'Keep The Challenge' was the miracle song of their 'Otoko never give up!' single, I thought this song will be the same. Again, I ended up being disappointed. When I first listened to this song, I immediately skipped to the next track after exactly 25 seconds. I couldn't bring myself to finish this song. Despite the pretty song title, this song is not good. I have to force myself to sit down and listen to the entire song. /sigh;

While the music video for 'Seaside Love' is better than the other one. I'll be very blunt here. I find this to be another really boring music video. There's absolutely nothing memorable about it. The overall video was filmed with a slightly grayish blue hue. We basically have FumaKenShori just singing and walking around the (empty) beach. There's some scenes of them on a boat and in a house. I don't care. There's no dancing whatsoever. They're just standing most of the time. The only thing I liked about this music video was the outfits. And yea, there's some pretty scenery shots due to nice camera angles. But overall, this is an underwhelming music video. Absolutely boring. I won't go into more details about the music video because I feel like it's not worth talking about any more.

While it's obvious that all three members delivered very good vocals, the song is just as boring as the music video. There was absolutely nothing memorable about this song. The song had such a pretty song title but it was wasted on a such a boring song. I had to force myself to listen to the entire track without skipping. And even after listening to the entire track, I don't like it. There's nothing else I could say about this track aside that it's boring, not memorable. Wow, I'm being very cruel and blunt here but really, the negative outweighs the positive for me. /whacked;

- - 03. だって太陽は君なんだ - - 

YES. YES. YEEEEES. FINALLY, THE SAVING GRACE OF THIS SINGLE.

Whether this song was sung by all five members, or just FumaKenShori, I don't care. This song is the saving grace of this single along with the last B-side, which I will go into more detail about later in the entry. Out of all the songs in this single, I would have to say that I listen to 'Datte Taiyou wa Kimi Nanda' the most. It truly is a good song. I have yet to read a lyrics translation. But I can already tell from the instrumental that it's a very cheery, upbeat song. It seems like a pretty happy song, in my opinion. I love this song. I really really do love this song. There really isn't anything else I can say about this song. There are good vocals. It's upbeat and happy. It's a song that you can dance to.

There is nothing else I can say about this song other than the fact that I'm really happy about it. It's super catchy. This is literally the saving grace of this single. Why isn't this the main A-side? Why didn't this song get a music video, hmmmmmm?

- - 04. ドシャブリ Rainy Girl - -

Finally, we're at the last song of this single which is 'Doushaburi Rainy Girl' which is also another saving grace song of this single. I love this song as much as I love the previous track. In my opinion, from my observation, this song isn't as popular as the first two tracks. I would like to think that this is a 'hidden gem' song from Sexy Zone. It's a good song, but won't be performed much in concerts and other live concerts. (Unless someone wants to prove me otherwise).

Off the get go, this is your usual cheery upbeat song. It has a very happy sound to it. I'm pretty sure that this song will cheer you up on a rainy day, get it? /whacked; I may be wrong but I do believe that this song has been performed once in Sexy Zone's concert this year. I remember seeing paparazzi photos of them wearing large, colorful rain coats and some were holding umbrellas. It's not as catchy as 'Datte Taiyou wa Kimi Nanda' but it is really a good song. I still don't know whether all five members sung or it was FumaKenShori. Nonetheless, there was good vocals in this song. Shori's speaking lines were cute. Yea, they were really cute. ♥

Overall, it's really a good song. I really do hope it's performed more live like in their concerts or even on ShoKura. I have a good feeling that the performance will be funny and goofy and that they're all probably gonna wear colorful rain coats and such. I really want to see this performance. They better not ruin it for me like what they did for 'Ghost ~Kimi wa Maboroshi~' /whacked;

♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫ .♥.•* ★¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.•´♥ ♫

So that's all for my review of Sexy Zone's latest single. As you can see, the first half was pretty negative.. But it's my own opinion. If you like the single, that's fine with me. Yes, I do know that they had solo songs for this single which was only released on the shop versions. However, I will not be reviewing that. I chose not to. Also, I'm sorry if this review doesn't seem that good. I'm fairly sick at the moment.. Perhaps, in the future when I am better, I might do a take two on this single. Maybe I'll think differently about some stuff. Who knows.

Well until my next entry, jyaa ne~

MUSIC; トリセツ / 西野カナ
MOOD; I must finish entries... Being sick is no excuse ___φ(・ω・｀ )