NYC - Haina! PV review

I meant to do a review of this PV much closer to the release date of the single but kept pushing it back in favor of other things. Since things seem to have slowed down a bit I figured I should go ahead and do the review now.

Haina! continues the trend of NYC's songs all sounding a bit retro. But I think in this case it works out well as it is the kind of song I can picture myself wanting to listen to during the summer as I laze around. And more importantly it is a much better song than Wonderful Cupid.

There are basically two main locations for the PV, in front of a temple and at a Japanese summer festival. When the boys are in front of the temple they each have a happi coat in the color that has been designated to them since they became a trio.

The summer festival location shots are mainly slice of life shots, where it is the boys just doing the typical things one does at a summer festival.

Eventually the boys are joined at the temple by a crowd of youngsters, seeming to age from little kids to teens. They just stay in the back ground and do parts of the dance.

We also gets some shots of the trio just sitting around and singing. Not the most exciting thing in the world but the boys try to be interesting by doing hand movements.

Of course being a song about summer it has to have all the traditional Japanese summer associations. So there is eating of shaved ice, and even the shaved ice is color coded for the boys.

I have a bit of a love-hate deal going on with the close ups in this video. For the most part the boys look fine but for some they are a bit off. Though when the boys do something more than look at the camera and sing they are pretty fun.

Of course what is a NYC song without silly dance moves. But at least these seem much easier to remember than their usual fare.

This will never stop looking cute to me. And I like how they use it in the choreography.

Yuma ends up mostly blocked by the others for the end pose, but thankfully being taller than the other two he can still be seen.


It took me a while to warm up to the song but I do enjoy it. I do have to be in the mood for something a bit mellow though. But like I said before this is a much better song than Wonderful Cupid and I am glad they released this.

I would like to point out that I think slower songs like this fit Nakayama Yuma's voice well. He sounded good throughout the song and his solo lines were a highlight of the song for me. I do hope he gets another solo song to release as I love Glass no Maho.

So not a bad song from NYC. Though I am more excited about the fact that the B-sides of the single have a more mature sound to them than their past songs. And with We Can Be Heroes sounding less than kiddy fare I think it is clear that Johnny's is finally ready to let the boys start singing something a bit more reflective of their ages.