Mandopop: Li Yuchun - Sense of Presence (存在感)

Cool Chris Lee, or Li Yuchun as is her real name, released some really nice songs last december, with the production being really top notch, and "Sense of Presence" continues this, with a fleshy sound and fashionista - ish video.

• Li Yunchun - Sense of Presence (存在感)

Jpop: Ladybaby - Renge Chance! (蓮華チャンス！)

No, this is not a bad taste copy of Babymetal. Well. The three members of Ladybaby may be riding on the waves that the idol metal girls of Babymetal has created, but Ladybeard has its own distinctive style that is one part beard, one part scream metal and one part kawaii Japan. This time around they have released two videos for each of the songs from the new single! The first song "Renge Chance!" is an ode to Ramen noodles (You can see the producer from many Dempagumi.Inc videos have been a part of the creation), and the second "C'est si bon Kibun" has been inspired and produced by clothes designer Higashi Kanae.

• Ladybaby - Renge Chance! (蓮華チャンス！)
• Ladybaby - C'est si bon Kibun (セシボン・キブン)

Jpop: Faky - You

I liked the Faky's latest cover, and "You" is another song where they try to deliver modern mainstream pop, which it is in a Japanese idol context I suppose. Nice pictures from Tokyo too.

• Faky - You

Jpop: Masatoshi Hamada/Hamada Bamyu Bamyu

This is really a kind of Japanese internal joke as you really have to have a knowledge about Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and her wild style and prescence in modern japanese pop culture, as Hamada Bamyu Bamyu is a parody of her by comedian Masatoshi Hamada. And of corse, if you make a parody of something looking like hallucinations, it has to be crazy. Which it is, but it also a kind of celebration of Kyary as Masatoshi has used both her stylist (Sebastian Masuda) and songwriter (Yasutaka Nakata) in the production. ;-)

• Hamada Bamyu Bamyu - Nandeyanennen (なんでやねんねん)

Jpop: BoA - Lookbook

After the success (and quality) of BoA's "Kiss My Lips" earlier this year, I was careful with expecting more of the same this year, but here is "Lookbook", her 39th (!) single in Japan, and again she shows of her star quality both in singing and dancing. The theme is obviously fashion, with both obvious visual que's but also lyrical references like the title (a lookbook is a collection of photos etc for a model) or terms like OOTD. A nice EDM track really.

• BoA - Lookbook (Shorter YouTube version)
• BoA - Lookbook (Full version, slower loading)