Jpop: Top 10 of the first quarter of 2016

The jpop top 10 this spring has a mixture of stylish and nerdy, sometimes even in the same video,d epending on your taste. Being me, there is a bias towards the otaku favorites...

First the five follower-ups.

15. Perfume - Flash. Live, the queens of japanese electronic pop rule. Not live, it becomes to static.

14. Dempagumi.inc - STAR☆TT Shichauze Harudashi ne. A must watch video.

13. exist†trace - Dream Rider. Whatever old fans says, these girls still rocks!

12. SKE48 - Chicken LINE. Their latest single has a great Blade Runner reference.

11. Suiyoubi no Campanella - Chupacabra. The 'it' group in Japan right now. Crazy and cool as usual.

And so, we come to the best of the best, top 10;

10. Ladybaby - Renge Chance!. A heavy metal - trans - jpop celebration of noodles. Of course. Welcome to familiar jpop territory.

9. Diachi Miura - Cry & Fight. The dancer and singer is back and this time he focused on the dance number, but the song is pretty nice too.

8. Faky - You. They have delivered stylish looks and poses from the start, but this is the first song that actually felt better than average.

7. Dark DPG - Forever 88. The evil sister group of Natsu no Mamono, they delivers some fun idol songs that is great fun and cosplay to die for (die of?).

6. Natsu no Mamono - Tokyo Moso Forever Young. Well, having seen Dark DPG (above), Natsu no Mamono is a natural companion, with about the same levels of wild dressups and singing, so charming I can't get enough of it.

5. FEMM - PoW! and L.C.S.. Pow! gave us what we expected and L.C.S. gave us something new. I honestly think they need to evelve their concept for the third cycle, but for now this is still great in all its graphicness.

4. Sasanomaly - Synesthesia Ghost. Formally a video of 2015, this had to be here as it has a visual style that's unusual and perfect for the song it illustrates.

3. Metafive - Luv U Tokio. This is what the campaign Cool Japan would want to convey, a modern day metropolitan suaveness.

2. Babymetal - The One and Karate. The princesses of jpop metal are back! Suzuka's singing in english on The One gave me goose bumps the first time I heard it - finally they have that perfect live ballad, and Karate is another great song too.

1. Niji no Conquistador - ↓Alien Girl in New York↑. Yes, I know, it is a idol group, and the song is in some senses a run-of-the-mill idol song. But. But! They deliver it with personality, and the song actually is quite well constructed if you listen to it. All in all it is the perfect combination of typical jpop - charming, nerdy and special.

Jpop: FEMM - L.C.S.

FEMM has released the video "L.C.S.", the follow up to "Pow!" and the second of the two previously unreleased songs on their first album "Pow! / L.C.S. + Femm-Isation", released this month. I'm not sure what the acronym stands for but it could well be "Local Coordinate System" if I was to judge from the video, again a well defined and thought through concept performed by the 'dolls' of FEMM.

• FEMM - L.C.S.

Jpop: FEMM - PoW!

Stylized due FEMM from Japan was my favorite Japanese act in their debut year 2014, with an extremely high output of high quality videos and all of them in english. Now they are back with the new "PoW!" and it continues in the same great fashion. This time the theme is comics, and I would say in an American setting from the lyrics and visual cues. The whole project of FEMM is obviously geared towards the international/American nerd scene and as such may feel a bit too obvious this time (pretentious) but in the end I love it for its quality of delivery.

• FEMM -  PoW!

Jpop: FAKY

Usually, some groups just don't do it for you until you get some kind of odd angle on them. Dance jpop group Faky is like that. It wasn't until this new japanese version of "No Boyfriend" that I get some feel for them. Even though they've done their best to feel updated this cover was still more interesting.

• Faky & FEMM - Japanese version of No Boyfriend
• Faky - Afterglow
• Faky - Better Without You
• Faky - Girl Digger
• Faky - The One

Jpop: Top 20 of 2014

I usually let each song stand by itself in my top lists, but this year it would have made for a bit less interesting list as two groups would have dominated the lists with 7-8 tracks between them. I am of course talking about FEMM and Sakanaction. So instead I have let them get only one spot each, which of course those two competed for the two top positions. Look further down for the result.

The runner-up's were:

26. L-Vokal ft X-man - Alien. This rap is really worth listening to. That means much coming from as I usually don't like rap.
25. Inshow-ha - Beam! I'm just saying, don't miss the video.
24. Juice-Juice - Naked, Naked, Naked Kiss. A very solid idol performance and fan pleaser.
23. Dempagumi.inc - Chururi Chururira. Nerd Bonanza.
22. Faint Star - Like spilled water.
21. Ken Hirai ft Namie Amuro - Grotesque. Two veterans in a professional looking video.

Which such fine songs outside the top, the final 20 was obviously hard to select:

20. the telephones - Hyperjump. Screamy but catchy, the telephones makes music of a kind that I would more expect to hear in England.

19. Sakai Yu - Summer Again. Sakai Yu sings about dreams and fantasies in a very charming way.

18. Urbangarde - One Piece Double Suicide. The indie band with its charismatic (in a dark way) singer does a happy piece about suicide. Go figure. ;-)

17. Oresama - Ookami Heart. The video is pure 80s animated gold, and the soundscape matches it perfectly.

16. Tokyo Girls Style - Cross-Movie. Well, I will have to confess I just love the gothic video, but the song is pretty good too.

15. Existtrace - Spiral Daisakusen. Really well done mix of rock/punk/pop and I feel somehow ...respect... for this group.

14. Tanaka Alice - Chicks and Nerdz. Cool like in cool anywhere in the world, in a teenage way.

13. Mamadrive - Onna no Ana. A combination of withheld aggression and guitars made this song memorable.

12. Charisma.com - Hate. Most aggressive song this year as it comes from two japanese girls. The contrast is very attractive, as their delivery is very believable.

11. One Ok Rock - Mighty Long Fall. Lot's of english lyrics and an international emo rock sound makes this (yet) another hit from the rockers of Tokyo.

10. Denki Groove - Missing Beatz. And the winner of best video concept goes to...the singing heads on the back of a car is just so impressive in its simplicity while perfect for the song.

9. Passepied - Matatabistep. The singing of Natsuki Ogoda is slightly infantile as usual, but it is done for a reason as it matches the synths very nice.

8. Berryz Kobo - Love is always inside you. Berryz Kobo may be disbanding soon, and this is the song I will remember them for, a unsually cool idol song, more of a fighting anthem.

7. C-ute - Love take it all. Yes, C-ute is probably the cutest and endearing jpop girl group that I know of, but this disco pop song is also quite well done and a very good example of the charm of C-ute.

6. Suiyoubi no Campanella - Kung Fu Lady. The odd duo with the fascinating singing style, this is their hands-down best song. Charming and nerdy, while still very harmonic.

5. Especia - No1 Sweeper. This is possible the group that I know of that best pulls of 80s retro in a way that actually, while drawing on music from old, still makes the music their own.

4. NeoBallad - Hachinoe song. This combination of electronica and traditional japanese singing is like kryptonite for me. In a good way. I'm just melting.

3. World Order - Have a nice day. This song talked to my inner otaku, seing them visit the nerd Mecca of Tokyo, Akihabara. Having made the pilgrimage there myself two times, I was reminded of how much I love nerdy things and Japan, making me even change the name of my blog.

2. Sakanaction. Its the gentle but still very empathic voice and sounds that make Sakanaction so likable. They may not be the ones you imagine for the big arenas (but they are!), but rather they are meant to be listened to in your everyday life, like a really good friend.

1. FEMM. Debuting in the beginning of 2014, this duo, this phenomena already has more high-quality videos and songs -in english- than most artists amass during their whole career. Obviously Avex is pushing them hard for an international career, but it is still impressive.