NYC boys - NYC PV review

Going on with the theme of debut PVs tied to volleyball events, today it is NYC boys' NYC PV.

Even though I enjoy NYC for the most part (Wonderful Cupid though will always be a black spot for me with them though) I do wish they stayed as NYC boys instead. Even though the members of B.I. Shadow lived up to their name (Boys In Shadow) with NYC boys, it was still nice to see them there as they were some of my favorite Juniors and having more members that were not members of another group in the group made more sense to me. But that is all water under the bridge as far as things go these anyway I guess.

I do enjoy this song and I think it is one of the better songs NYC is attached to. I rather wish they kept singing these kinds of songs as it is fun and energetic, two things I connect to the younger junior groups. Of course the English makes little sense, especially with them being New York City boys when there is no real connection between the group and the city outside of the fact Nakayama Yuma's, Yamada Ryosuke's and Chinen Yuri's initials of their last names are the same initials of the city name. But it is Johnny's so common sense does not rank very high with group names.

Dancing, or still practicing his pitch from Battery?

We start off with solo shots of NYC dancing. I rather like the street clothes of the boys in the PV, and I guess we should be thankful the group is not that big so the more questionable outfits sometimes seen in Pvs were not present.

The original 3/4 split group.

We get the first group shot and egads, that is a lot of yellow being all glaring. One could argue they were trying to have all the primary colors covered with the red and yellow for outfits and the blue lighting/stage, but I do not think there should be any outfit with that much yellow. Yellow is just one of those colors that is hard to take a lot of, IMHO. And what is sad is that B.I. Shadow were stuck with those outfits for some time for their performances.

Rule of Johnny's 56: Make sure everyone is wearing something worse than your front boys/men.

 I like the NYC outfits much more, even with the typical Johnny's skirt with Yuma and Yamada wearing a dead bird around his shoulders. Chinen easily has the most stylish outfit but it would not be Johnny's without those other two.

Someone forgot to tell Nakaken the funky chicken was dropped from the choreography. 

 Love that even though they are pretty much back dancers B.I. Shadow do have these scenes together. I really like their outfits here. Not a fan of the blur line at the bottom but that will be a minor quibble.

Sorry Yamada fangirls, I can't get past the cute.

 Of course NYC all get rather frequent solo close up shots throughout the PV. But who can be surprised about that? But they are all looking rather nice and reminds me why I have Yamada and Chinen stuck being cute-zoned for me.

The always awesome, Nakaken.

I was glad to see that B.I. Shadow did not get shafted for this PV when it came to screen time. I think the Kis-My-Ft2 PV directors could take some notes from this PV about how to do a decent 3/4 split.

And as weird as it sounds but I am surprised with how young Nakajima Kento looks. It is not like he was one of those Juniors that looks much different from when he joined but there is still enough of a difference to notice. I am really glad he debuted as he has always had the knack for being able to light up any stage he is on.

Looks like he's ready to bolt for the exit as soon as he can.

Oh, Koichi Yugo. So awkward and non-Johnny's like still, but always cute. Though much of that awkwardness is hidden in this PV. But I am really glad he is still a Junior as I think he still has potential, he just needs more time than someone like Nakaken. He has just come such a long way since these days.

With all the adorableness of puppies and kitties. 

I do not think I will ever be able to see Chinen as anything but that little fourteen year old he once was. Even if he has grown since then he just has that baby face I do not see him ever out growing. So he will be forever cute-zoned for me.

You know it's cheap when the Juniors only have T-shirts for their outfits.

I guess I should actually say something about the PV, but honestly there is not much to say. It is very simple and probably the cheapest volleyball PV yet. It is basically the one set that is used in all the scenes and a dance. If anything sells this it is basically if you are a fan of the members of the group and the energy of the boys.

Yamada seems too into this move.

 At least it has the weird dance moves that are in all Johnny's dances. Though I wonder how much they all practiced before the PV as there is a great lack of dancing in sync going on throughout the PV, especially all those back Juniors.

Why so terrified Yuma?

 The gathering around Yamada for the "kiss" line in the song is kinda goofy but at least it gives them something simple they can do to add some variety into the performance.

What are you doing Hokuto?

 This is a cute scene with the boys running up the stairs of the set. They all look so happy and fall right into cute boys doing cute things territory for me.

NYC boys have become masters of hiding.

And suddenly the Juniors are there with them up there. This is another good PV to play spot-the-Junior in, though maybe a bit harder to do with the shear number of Juniors and how rare it is for them to get enough focus to see a face clearly.

Westside, representing!

And I am going to be a little bit biased here with Yuma. He is my favorite from the group and it amazes me that he is the youngest member of NYC when he looks the oldest even back in 2009. He is clearly a star in the making, IMHO, and I hope Johnny's figures out what they will do with him now that he is 18 and out of high school.

Yamada, cooler than all of you.

 Honestly I rather like these solo shots of the NYC boys. With a PV like this I think the best thing to do to keep it from feeling like it is dragging is to give it all the cuts this one does. As an energetic song like NYC should have a PV that at least looks as energetic.

Yuma has such a swish-y outfit.

 One thing good about the NYC portion of the group is that they do make it rather equal for who gets screen time, solo lines and so on. If only Hey! Say! JUMP could be that equal with their lead singers in their songs.

A.B.C-Z aren't the only ones that can do back flips. 

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Chinen has a gymnastic background. I miss him doing all the spins and acrobatics from the early days, though I guess he pulls some of it out for concerts. but even then it seems to be becoming a rarity.

Fight for the right to wear sparkly costumes with skirts and feathers!

Like how they end up with a little army of Juniors to lead. Though they look very off center there on that top level on the stage, but that is probably from the fact that they are still actually dancing there.

Jumping to my dreams~ ... Wait, wrong song.

 I like the jumping part, though I kept worrying about how they were landing without hurting themselves. I can only assume they had a cushion pad or something off screen for that.

Adorable karate boy.

Now Matsumuta Hokuto has definitely grown quite a bit since this. But still cute, though I am unsure if I like his hair this long or shorter as he has had it since.

Kamehameha!

 What can I say but Kikuchi Fuma is also just cute in this PV. I think it helps that he is not trying to make his "sexy" face which just looks awkward. He needs to grow a bit more before trying to pull that off.

Zooming out would be nice here.

Do not care much for the end pose if just for the fact the camera does not try to capture the full thing which makes it look weird with Yuma, Chinen and Yugo getting cut off at the bottom.

Overall I like the PV, though it is mainly because I like the members of the group. Otherwise not much happens but at least the boys look as energetic as possible which helps brings out the energy of the song. And it has the plus that while B.I. Shadow are far from the ones getting the main focus in the PV they still get some.

It is a bit sad to see BIS together as there is no way they will be doing that any time in the near future. The only chance would be for Yugo and Hokuto to debut in another group and at some concert that will have them all together for years down the road. But as they are all at least still in Johnny's there can be some hope for that, and I really would like to see the other two debut.