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.