29 March 2012

Hey! Say! JUMP - Hitomi no Screen PV review

Quitting the debut theme, if mostly because I mainly have Hey! Say! JUMP PVs so I want to try to spread them out a bit.

Hitomi no Screen was a long awaited single for the group and it was a rather strong comeback. I rather like the song and with the previous single Mayonaka no Shadow Boy it was the start of the group heading away from the more cutesy songs and to something more mature. Which is something the PV does well to show with a cool image.

The cleanest dirt covered boys ever.
 From the first frame you can see that they were going for a serious atmosphere. Of course how serious you could take some of the boys, even with "dirt" smudged on them, probably varies by viewer. But the simplicity and lack of color help build on all that.

Yamada tries to make himself look older.
 By now Yamada Ryosuke was the definite center so no surprise he is the first to get a solo shot. But this song is the theme song for the drama he was starring in, Hidarime Tantei Eye, and that is something I will be getting to in a bit.

Cute!
 The PV overall is pretty simple. It goes back and forth from the action scenes to either solo close up shots or group shots of the boys with this background. One of the nice things though is that you do not have to wait until the half way mark for members like Okamoto Keito or Inoo Kei to get their solo close up shot.

Not the most observant of swordsmen. 
 The fight scenes are the only thing close to giving this PV any kind of story line, which considering that there are no dance shots is rather needed. Though one would wonder why they chose to do a ten to one battle.

The white wind of evil.
 Bot of course the mystery swordsman they are fighting is no ordinary man. I can only guess he is either meant to be some kind of demon or magically/mystically empowered or something.

I spy with my little eye...
One thing I have liked about HSJ PVs is that if they have a tie-in they make a little nod to it in the PV. For Hitomi no Screen we get this close up of Yamada's eye, which is the same eye his character uses to see clues with in the drama, to view the enemy.

Why does Yuto look like he's wearing an evening gown here?
 While I like most of the black outfits in the PV the faux fur is highly questionable.

Daiki realizes that he's still the shortest member of the group.
Not sure how they decided what members would be in which group for this PV, outside to the few sub-unit group shots. But it is nice to see a good array of group members get decent screen time, especially looking back at these PVs after the more current Yamada heavy PVs.

CHARGE!!                                         RUN AWAY!!
 And we finally get the boys starting the assault after posing for about half of the video.

Why do they hide him in the back?
 I rather like these shots, I do not think any of the boys manage to look bad in these, outside of some of the more unfortunate outfits.

Looking cool since Hey! Say!
 And of course it is not a HSJ PV review from me without a gratuitous Takaki Yuya screen shot. I'm just a little shallow like that.

The empty air never say it coming.
 The actual sword battle is fun to watch. Not the most extensively choreographed of sword fights but it does well to use everyone and the boys do well to pull of what they need to do.

Samurai boy.
 Of course since this is Yamada's tie-in he gets the coolest of shots. Not to mention the lion's share of the solo shots, but again, his tie-in so it makes sense.

Probably should have had a wizard in their party.
 I do like that he actually does not instantly defeat the enemy after everyone had their turn. I think that would have been a bit too much.

Plz do not be groping the defeated Yamada, Daiki.
Not to mention it helps strengthen the idea that HSJ is a group together. I really like how Yamada falls back to them as they wait for their next shot.

Everybody charge, except for Yamada who just needs to not trip.
Regrouped everyone makes another charge, in slow-mo of course to make it all seem the more dramatic. It looks nice either way, IMHO.

No one does moody stares like Johnny's do.
Then it all ends as it begins, so one can only assume they won in the end after uniting and all that. Either that or they are standing around looking cool despite being beaten by the phantom man.


Even though the PV does not offer too much with what is going on, it does have an easy to understand plot and I love the cinematography for it. Not only that but all the boys managed to look cool, even though all of Hey! Say! 7 are still well in the cute-zone for me. While the PV is Yamada heavy I think it also does a good job of making sure all the other members get their little moments which I appreciate.

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