OTOKO! OTOKO! OTOKO!

I think everyone knows how I feel about this single. I don't like it whatsoever. Back in around July or so, Sexy Zone officially announced that they would be kicking Marius and Sou out of this single. This single will only focus on the older three members. 'Oh hey~ We're excluding Marius and Sou out of this single! Hope you guys enjoy it! FumaKenShori 4 LYFE!' ... /holds up knife;

** feel free to read my rant here: [ x x x ] 

So let me start off with the title track, “ Otoko never give up ” — which practically translates to either 'Boy never give up' or 'Men never give up.' I swear, this song is by far my most ... I don't want to say hate ... least favorite song from Sexy Zone. Hate is absolutely a strong word. I think I even like 'We can be one' (from their first album) more than this song. And to be honest, I never liked 'We can be one.' I never really liked 'Kimi wa Hanasanai Kimi wa Hanarenai' either.

The song is not very memorable at all. The 'OTOKO! OTOKO! OTOKO!' part in the beginning of the song was completely unnecessary. I'm going to be very blunt right now — This song is absolutely annoying. I'm not trying to be SouMari-biased. But in general, it's a very annoying song. It's kinda on the same level of Berryz Koubou's Asian Celebration for me. Even if Sou and Marius were in this song, I probably still wouldn't even like it that much.

This was a very generic, very lackluster Sexy Zone/Johnny's song. The instrumentals were okay-ish (?) in my opinion. But I've noticed that in Sexy Zone songs, they tend to use a lot of trumpets in their instrumentals. I know that Ina kinda hates it. I don't mind it that much but I wish that they could've down something different. I honestly wait for the day that Sexy Zone gets autotuned — and when I mean autotune, I mean Morning Musume's One • Two • Threee - Help me!! autotune.

In my own opinion, I'm getting three different vibes from FumaKenShori. Kento, while delivering the strongest vocals out of three, sounded like he was totally LOVING this song. He was putting a lot of effort into this song. He sounded a bit too full of himself. (I'm sorry Kento, I know you're not like that in real life!) While Fuma also delivered very good vocals, he looks so done with this song. When I watched their performance on Ongaku no Hi, he just looks so done with everything. Shori was that awkward in between. He's like "Okay~ I'm singing this. Not going to brag .... This is my job. SEISHUN SAIKOU!"

Alright, so now let's talk about the MV. In general, the music video was a whole mash-up os different things. There wasn't really a good sense of fluency/transition between the different scenes. All the scenes looks very broken up. Also, don't mind me for saying this, but I honestly thought that Hello! Project was the cheapest when it comes to music videos. In my opinion, they could've done more with this MV. This MV has so much potential but no, JE decided to be a little cheap and screwed up the entire music video.

I honestly feel a little bit bad for Shori since he got the low end of the stick when it came to the individual scenes. While Fuma and Kento had actual sets for their scenes, Shori was stuck with the CG screen. Also, all he did was run. He was just running. He was running into the sunset! Honestly, I wished that they could've given Shori a real set. Or or or, film him at an actual track field. That would've been really nice.

50% of the MV was absolutely flashy. All three of them had very flash outfits.

These outfits were okay-ish. I honestly think that Shori had the best outfit out of three. At least he didn't look like a balloon. (Sorry FumaKen). JE really love their glitter and sequins and feathers, don't they? Well, they are idols after all. Having glitters, sequins, and feathers on them is a must. Although, they were totally rocking their gray outfits. Within the MV, there were these scenes where the three of them were in a room full of “ 男 ” signs. Out of the entire MV, those were my favorite scenes. They were totally rocking those outfits.

There was no specific dance routine in this MV. 95% of the time, they were just standing at their microphones and singing. No, those hand movements whatever did not count. For me, they did not count. They did dancing a little bit during the music break before the final chorus but that was it. They didn't dancing at all. I don't know, but this was reminding me of AKB's 'Heavy Rotation.' /GASP; HOW DARE I MENTION AKB IN CONTEXT OF SEXY ZONE? /whacked;

So overall, me no likey. Done. End of discussion. Let's move on~

The next song of this single is called “ Keep The Challenge ”. And oh my freakin' god, this is THE SAVIOR SONG OF THIS SINGLE. WHY YOU NO PROMOTE THIS SONG MORE, JE? WAE.  Honestly, if this song was the A-side instead of that other disastrous song, I would've been all over this single. Despite my hate for 3nin Sexy Zone, I would've just bought this single. This just shows how good this song is. Seriously, I'm not kidding.

Similar to almost every Sexy Zone song, they used a lot of trumpets in their instrumentals but I don't care~ This is a very cute, and catchy song~ I don't know. To me, it has that kinda of elegant princess-y ... CLASSICAL! It has that Classical waltz feel to it! That's what I meant. I'm a bit of a fan of classical music myself. So hearing this song makes me happy~ It's a really nice song though. The management should've promoted this song more that other disastrous spawn of Iijima song. “ Keep The Challenge ” is such a pretty song, oh my god.

All three of the members did deliver very good vocals in this song. Kento still kinda sounds so full of himself (I'm sorry, Kento.) However, at least Fuma and Shori seems to be actually enjoying this song. They don't sound so done at all. I actually really enjoyed hearing Shori's voice in this song. He's becoming a very good (not like Oda Sakura-good but like Ishida Ayumi) vocalist. His vocals have seriously improved this past year.

The MV, or image clip as they dubbed it, was filmed here in A'murica. If I recalled correctly, they visited California and went to the Grand Canyon. WHY YOU NO VISIT THE EAST COAST? Oh wait, they did. They went to New York like two years ago? But wait, we have D.C., Myrtle Beach, Disney Word, Philadelphia, Miami, and Boston! The East Coast is fun too! They can film a music video there too. ; - ;

The music video in general was really cute. It was very simple and they didn't go over the top and dramatized it. Okay, maybe they did when it comes to the volleyball scenes and them wiping the sweat of their foreheads. Also ... FUMA. KIKUCHI FUMA. HOW DARE YOU THROW SHORI LIKE THAT. HE IS FRAGILE. HE IS FREKIN' F-R-A-G-I-L-E. DON'T DO THAT TO THE POOR KID. MARIUS, YEA. BUT SHORI, NO. (╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . )

Overall, this is a very nice song and simple MV to go with it. I like this song.

The next song is another B-side and it's titled, “ Asu ni Mukatte Ute! ” This is actually a very unique song style that I have never heard from Sexy Zone as of yet. It really stood out to me out of all the other songs and took me by surprise. This song just stands out so much ... in a good way! It's kinda similar to the situation with Futssu no Shoujo A from Morning Musume's 'Wakuteka Take a Chance' single.

The song has a bit of an oriental/wild west feel to it. It's leaning towards that Wild West feel. I honestly think that this is a good mash-up of the two music styles. I really do like the instrumentals for this song. This is a pretty catchy song. It is catchy as heo. Similar to “ Keep The Challenge, ” I enjoyed hearing Shori's vocals in this song. I think this song really compliments his vocals and makes it stand out the best. FumaKen was just FumaKen. They were just there. Shori was in the spotlight~ Almost as if this song was made for him~

I feel kinda bad for not noticing this song in the beginning. I treated it as just a filler song. I didn't really bother listening to it when I first downloaded the song. But after forcing myself to sit down and listen to it, I came to really like this song. At first, I thought that it was a throwback to ºC-ute's 'The Power' since it sorta had that oriental feel to it. Overall, I really like this song.

The third B-side is titled “ Boku wa Kimi no Subete ni Naritai ”. This translates to 'I want to be your everything.'  I can definitely see someone using this as a title for a fanfic. And that person will probably be me. /whacked; When I first heard this song on ShoKura, it really didn't appeal to me at all. It wasn't that memorable and I kinda dropped it after a minute or so. Eventually, I gave this song a few more tries and it grew onto me. I came to really like this song. It's a very pretty song.

This song feels like it can be an insert song to a drama. A drama OST for a romantic drama~ Sou can be the lead character! (Seriously though. He needs to get his own drama!) The song is quite similar to  since this is a song style that I have yet heard from Sexy Zone. Yes, this is your average pop ballad from Johnny's. However, it gives me a different feeling than before. The instrumental for this song is obviously different. They're kinda leaning towards a jazz-like feel. I can definitely hear saxophone.

I just read the translation for the song and to me, it's a very simple song. It has some very nice lyrics to it and some of them did stand out to me. This is a lyric that stood out to me: 'Even though I’m acting tough, honestly, I want to hold you with these hands right now.' Overall, this is a very nice song~ It's not the best ballad I have ever heard. It still has potential for improvement. However, I enjoyed listening to it. That's all that matters.

And now, all that's left is the three solo songs~ Before I go into detail about them, I'm gonna digress for a little bit. Before these songs were released, I listened to concert rips that was available through Twitter and LiveJournal. Before the songs came out - this was my ranking (from my favorite solo to the least): Fuma, Shori, and Kento. In the concert rip of Fuma's solo song, I heard autotune and I got really excited. I'm an idiot, I know~

So first let's talk about Shori's solo which was titled “ Hachidori ”. He wrote this song himself, similar to 'Onnaji Sora no Shita.' Both song have a similar to feel to them but in all honesty, I prefer 'Onnaji Sora no Shita' over this song. When I first listened to the concert rip, the song wasn't that memorable at all. I guess since it was just a concert rip, it sounded so broken and all over the place. I know for one thing though - this song has a very upbeat feeling to it.

The instrumental for  “ Hachidori ” is no different than the typical instrumental used in any Sexy Zone song. There was a lot trumpets. It has this big band feel to it. Again, I'm used to it. My favorite part of the song would have to be the verses. The verses sounded really nice leading up to the chorus ... and then chorus was not as good at all. I was slightly disappointed me. As said before, this song grew on to me. I don't mind it that much anymore.

Overall, this is a very okay song. I was really hyped up about it since 'Onnaji Sora no Shita' was such a good song and I expected that this song would be the same. This song was practically made for Shori himself. I honestly cannot imagine anyone else singing this song at all. 

“ Love Kaze ” was made for Kento. This song was absolutely made for him. I don't remember if he wrote this song or not. But either way, this song was absolutely meant for the loveholic prince. This song absolutely screams 'NAKAJIMA KENTO, THE LOVEHOLIC PRINCE.' While everyone was fangirling, dying over this song, and screaming how much they loved it, I was casually sitting in the corner - looking out the window going all 'Oh look~ A leaf~ Let's see where the wind takes it~'

When I first listened to it via the concert rip, I wasn't impressed at all. First of all, I had to sit through hearing Kento's English. Kento, please do me a favor and stop trying to show off your Engrish skills. I'm not going to criticize him and say that his English is bad. His English is the second best in Sexy Zone, second to Marius. However, I'm getting tired of seeing him show off his English constantly. I won't deny that this is a very pretty song. The instrumental is very pretty.

But either way, this song is not exactly a favorite of mine. It's better than his last solo song 'CANDY ~Can U Be My Baby?~' but still, it didn't exactly appeal to me. Like Shori's solo song, it grew onto me. But it's still not exactly a favorite. It's a nice song to listen to on a rainy day, that's for sure.

And finally, our last song for the day is “ It's Going Down! ” by Kikuchi Fuma. Oh ... I had so much hope for this song. I was so hyped up about this song when I first heard it.When I first heard the concert rip, I was seriously excited since I heard autotune~ I was all 'YES! Autotune~!' I'm not saying that Fuma's a bad singer or anything. We live in an era where EDM is the popular trend. I like EDM. What do you expect? I wait for the day when JE releases a song for Sexy Zone where the genre is EDM.

Alas, this is JE and I became disappointed in this song. I had so much hope for this song. In all honesty, I did not really like Fuma's last solo which was 'FaKe.' It was okay, but it was nothing more than a filler song to me. It didn't really stand out at all. This song is a step up from that! I really like this song. If you squint, you could see the autotune in this song. However, what really disappointed me about this song is how they constantly changed the pitch (or is it frequency? I don't know) of his voice. It almost sounded vocaloid to me. His pitch kept changing. It's almost as if the people who helped record this song, kept messing with the buttons on the mixing console.

I still love this song. This is a very catchy song. However, after hearing the full studio version, it dropped down in my ranking. So after hearing the full studio version - here is my ranking of the solos (from favorite to least favorite): Shori, Fuma, Kento. Haha~ Shori went up in the rankings~ lol.

So my overall thought on this single .. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. It actually has a lot of pretty good songs on this single! And I do recommend for everyone to listen to them. However, the fact that they literally went as far as to officially kick SouMari out of the single ... I still don't want to buy this single. I don't recommend buying it. I'm not going to rant anymore. I kinda done with Sexy Zone for the rest of the year. You all can do whatever you want. I'm just gonna sit here and wait for this storm to pass.

Yes, I did hear about 'Kimi ni HITOMEBORE.' I'm still debating about whether I should write a separate post for that. I probably won't since my feelings for that single is quite similar to 'Otoko never give up.' I'm not going to hate on anyone. I'm just going to sit down and focus on other things (such as my NSL homework, errrr). We can only hope that one day (probably 10 years from now), Sexy Zone will release a 5nin single again.

Until my next post, jyaa ne~
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Song: “ FIGHT BACK ” by Da-iCE
Mood: Working __φ(．．;)