17 November 2011

Sexy Zone - Sexy Zone PV review

I guess taking up reading blogs for other idol groups has rubbed off on me as I've decided I'll give doing a PV review myself. And since Sexy Zone just happens to be the first group I actively follow to release one they get to be the first as I do a quick review of their PV. Of course I've already covered my thoughts about the song itself in several other posts about the group so I'll be skipping that and just focusing on the visuals.

So here goes my first PV review with Sexy Zone's debut PV for their debut song, Sexy Zone.

He's here for your soul.
Johnny's really is making no attempt to hide who they will be promoting most with this group.

Shori watch out! The pedos are coming for you!
This scene just creeps me out. I know it's probably just Sato Shori's hand/arm superimposed over his close up shot and is supposed to show them reaching for the sky and all that but it just comes off as creepy to me. Maybe because they did this so cheaply.

Screen Shot from Final Fantasy ∞
So we've gone from outer space (NEWS), to the futuristic cities with glass elevators (Hey! Say! JUMP) to random floating crystal island with giant disco ball in the sky now with Sexy Zone. I think the 2015 group should totally be riding dragons or have wings or something for their PV.

How epic would it be if the roses were the fire flowers from the Mario games?
One thing that needs to be dropped fast for this group, but probably won't, is singing into the roses as if they were mics. It just looks so awkward and the roses tend to cover the boys' faces, which is probably the bigger crime as they are pretty adorable.

Sitting on a cheap set like a boss.
And it's Nakajima Kento, my favorite of the group as it stands right now. I do like he has lead vocals between the older two as his tone is pleasant to me.

Mighty Morphin' Time!
And the costume change, which looks more like they decided to throw colored jackets over what they were wearing before. Heaven forbid Johnny's actually give a decent budget for any of these debut PVs. Though they seem to have messed up the colors for all the members outside of Shori and Kikuchi Fuma going from what colors they had associated with them from their debut performance costumes.

Roses, as tasty you would think.
As silly as the flower holding was the rose in the mouth does manage to top that. And this scene shows another thing I don't like about this PV, the white on white, or off-white. Everything just blends together and is a pain to look at. Color contrast is your friend.

Shori wants you! To buy this  CD.
There's this glass room they are also in for the PV. I really have no idea what's going on with that. But I do kinda like this scene with it when they are all pointing in different directions, even though it's yet another way to show that Shori is the group's center as he's the one pointing straight at the viewer.

Yo Marius and Matsushima Sou, cuter than you.
I did find this part pretty cute with the two youngest getting their moment with their spoken line in the song.

A star on the rise.
And another Nakaken screenshot just because.

So glad he dropped trying to look "sexy" in this.
And Fuma, who may not get as much attention as leader Nakaken or center Shori but still manages to stand out if for the fact he's the only other member that sounds like he's gone through puberty. And it helps that his and Nakaken's voices sound pretty good together, which is probably partly because of singing together as the lead members of B.I. Shadow.

I wonder if they will have to give his lines to someone
else when his voice is breaking.
One of the nice things about this PV was that I was finally able to figure out which of the younger members had the solo lines and I was surprised to see that it was Matsushima Sou. I know that it was mentioned somewhere his skill was his voice but since I hadn't been able to tell he had those lines I wasn't sure how accurate it was. But it does look like the kid can sing and it'll be interesting to see if puberty will be kind to him and he'll sound as good after his voice drops.

Is it just me or does he kinda look like a mix of Matsumoto Jun and Imai Tsubasa?
Of course the real star of the PV is Shori. I would like to see more from him in the future but he just has the kind of appeal that makes you notice him even if he isn't shoved in your face like he is with this PV.

Marius, pedobait for many years to come.
I rather like these close up shots they all have at this part of the video. Though it doesn't save it from being rather boring as it mainly just switches back from close ups, dance shot and the glass cage, which is mainly dance shots.

Seriously, what were they thinking with the head spinning here?
The interlude is where we can see some of the back dancing Juniors bust out some moves but I really feel it should be SZ showing off their dance skills instead. And the break dancing/head spinning kid seems so out of place and he ends up blocking the view of SZ.

Yay for Nakaken/Fuma double center!
As my bias is towards the older two in this group I really liked it when they go to this group formation. Would like to see more of this in the future, though it will be interesting to see how the formation changes as they all grow as by the look of things Marius may end up being the tallest of the group seeing as he's about Sou's height even though he's two years younger.

So how are they supposed to get down from there? In fact
how did they all get up there in the first place?
And the final shot is really nothing great. It's just a better view of the floating island. I think I would have preferred it if they did another standard end shot of a group close up but honestly with how lackluster the video is I don't think it would matter too much.

To sum up, it's not the kind of video I want to watch a lot. Even though there are some things I like they aren't enough to counter the things I don't like or how boring it is. Perhaps I've gotten used to PVs with some plot that these kinds of PVs that are just scenes slapped together don't do much for me. But I don't think it's much worse than the other Volleyball debut PVs I'm familiar with, NEWS and HSJ's that have a lot of the same issues as this one does. If anything this should make their next PV easy to be a step above this so I'll be looking forward to that.


Then in some news for the group today the got the #1 spot on the Oricon charts if by a few hundred copies. But that does bode well for them. Also they will be doing two hand shaking events now in December, the original Christmas day one in Tokyo and now one on December 23rd in Osaka.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder why most of debut PV's for volleyball groups have white as main colour?
I guess it's for the "clean" and "fresh" image they're having?

Anyway, I think these kids are so adorable! I want to adopt them all! *__*
I still remember one of the first SC's (if not the first) Nakaken appeared in, and now look at him~ *wipes a tear*
I hope they manage to get better sales to stay around.

They even added CM for this single on J-net.

The PV is typical for volleyball groups.
But I find those flowers very annoying. If they want to promote them, their faces should be visible so people will remember them :/


Is it just me or does he kinda look like a mix of Matsumoto Jun and Imai Tsubasa?
I though of Tsubasa when I saw Shori in this PV. I didn't see any MatsuJun, but looking at the screenshot I think I know what you mean. He also reminds me of Takahata Misaki in a way.. IDK.. maybe it's the eyes..?


Seriously, what were they thinking with the head spinning here?
They were probably trying to go for the cool "street" (or how to call it in english) image, but kinda failed, as the boy isn't all that good in it yet. Hopefully he'll improve with each performance ^^

Chiima said...

Ah~ I love your post XD It was really funny, and I loved that you thought the flying castle thing looked like it was out of Final Fantasy, because when I saw it, it reminded me of a Kingdom Hearts place to be honest, but I didn't bother to mention it XD

The only ones I want to adopt/marry is Marius (adoption) and then marry my new found lover Nakaken, because Ryosuke doesn't want me D;

This is such a fun review XD DO MORE DO MORE *___*

Ani2 said...

Wow thank you for your interesting and fun post ! Really enjoyed reading it ^^

Already at the very beginning, Shori is the only one whose face is shown directly and longer than the others. He really IS the star of the group , no doubt about it. I don´t mean that the others don´t shine as well, but JE make it very clear whom they´re pushing the most.
It will be interesting to see how it will turn out in a few years.

I especially like the closeup-shots by Kento. He isn´t only beautiful but also seems to be comfortable with the camera. But Shori has this kind of noticeable look, I really like it!
I think all 5 boys did a good job in the PV and especially for the younger 3, since it´s their first PV shooting, I thought they did really great.

Oh , so you think Shori looks kind of like Tsubasa too?
I thought this since Shori cut his hair. There are moments where he totally reminds me of Tsubasa in the younger years.

The making of was nice but too short for my taste.

Chris said...

Well the PV is as expected cheap-made but it´s not bad at all.
A bit disturbing were all the Juniors around them and who were dancing in front them. Also the roses, I hoped that they wouldn´t shoot with them, but seems like it´s getting their trademark for their debut single.

I know that Shori is just 15 but omg, this boy is so handsome and he will become such a hottie!!
In the PV jacket shooting, he posed so cool and hot ( I really feel like pedo for saying this but I can´t help it), he´s a natural talent in posing as well.
Kento is totally ikemen as well!
He really knows how to pose in front of the camera and looking the best.
And Marius, he´s such an adorable boy, he´s so cute XD

Talkin about cheap-made debut PVs, Kisumai´s PV didn´t look cheap at all,also KAT-TUN´s. In fact I thought those were really cool.
Why is it that Volley debuts are more cheaper made? Or is it just my imagination??
I don´t know but Kisumai´s debut was really huge compared to SZ´s, and I don´t mean only the PV.

Thennary Nak said...

@ Anonymous

You know I forgot about the whole white outfit thing until you brought it up. But I would assume it's for the same reasons you give too.

I'd love to adopt them all myself. And I remember the first time seeing Nakaken on SC too and just knowing he was destined to be a star. I'm so glad he's well on his way now with this debut.

I guess the roses are kinda like Kis-My-Ft2's roller skates, something that's gimmicky for the group to set them apart from the other groups.

I think it's the eyebrows that get me thinking about MatsuJun, but he does look more like a young Tsubasa than anything.

Ah yes, Johnny's love of hip hop even though they never come close to truly incorporating it in anything they do. Which even makes the kid seem more random as there's nothing else vaguely hip hop in this PV.


@ Chiima

I'm glad you enjoyed the review. I find humor just comes naturally when it comes to looking at Johnny's PVs.

I'll probably keep doing them for the groups I follow, which means Kis-My-Ft2 will be next as they are the next listed to be releasing a single.


@ Ani2

I'm sure it won't be long before fans start complaining about Shori hogging the spotlight in the group. But honestly he comes off as the kind of member that will attract fans to the group so there's a good reason for it.

Even though there's a lot of attention paid to Shori I think it's going to be Nakaken that's going to be the main draw for a while as he'll be able to do a lot more with his acting skills because of his age. That and he is easy on the eyes and has that same kind of appeal as Shori.

It's really hard for me not to see the resemblance between Shori and Tsubasa now that I see it. It kinda makes me want them to do somethng together where Shori gets to play the younger version of the same character of Tsubasa's.

I don't feel too bad not getting the LEs with the DVDs. Like you said the making of was rather short and I would have liked to see more of the boys' interaction but I guess they're still getting to know each other so hopefully later making of's will be worth having more.


@ Chris

I keep forgetting how young Shori is when I'm just looking at his face, taking the rest of him in though he does still look rather young though.

I think in the cases of KAT-TUN and Kis-My-Ft2 they were two groups Johnny's knew would sell well because of their large fanbase so they probably felt they could afford to give them a larger PV budget as they would get the money back easily. These Volleyball units don't debut with that guaranteed fanbase so Johnny's probably figures they shouldn't put as much money in them if they don't sell well so they aren't put out of too much money. But yea, the existing groups that go on to debut do get much larger debuts than these groups and I really think that's the reason why.

Anonymous said...

Exactly my thoughts, lol! Agreeing with everything in this post! I watched the close-up version of the PV before I saw your post, and Shori looking like a mix of Tsubasa and MatsuJun was exactly what came into my mind while I was watching it, haha.

Rei said...

I personally love this PV as it adds up to the pretty aura of the song... I just wish they stopped using the "s" word throughout the whole thing XD and as for the difference in height between Marius and Sou, I don't think Marius will end up the tallest, it's just Sou who's really short XD These two are definitely my favorites and I hope that they get some more duet parts in the future :3

Misa said...

LOL you´re right! I never noticed that hand that is reaching towards Shori. Omg, it really looks creepy XDD

Thennary Nak said...

@ todsen

It's nice to know I'm not the only one that sees that.


@ Nakaha Rei

That word just remains very awkward when used with this group. Cute would be a much better fit.

Well I guess in a few years we'll see about the height thing. I could be wrong as I don't think I would have ever guessed a small kid like Nakajima Yuto would have ended up being as tall as he is.


@ Misa

It is, and it doesn't help that it looks to be reaching more for him than the sky.

Leeah said...

I'm new to this group, and I really liked your review. You have humor LOL I loved how you wrote under each pic. My fave one was the "Mighty Morphin' Time!" Lol

Btw, Nakajima Kento looks very familiar...almost like the friend from Koishite Akuma and the younger brother in another dorama with Horikita Maki & Ohkura Tadayoshi....hm...omg if it's really him, I'm gonna sqeal with happiness haha