Jpop: Top 10 of third quarter 2016

There hasn't been *that* much jpop that caught my eye this quarter, but what there was, was good.

10. Daoko - Daisuki. The third video is the coolest, with industrial robots making it all interesting.

9. Charisma.com - Moya moyashite. This video which makes the duo look almost native manages to return much of what made me like them from the beginning.

8. Yumemiru Adolescence - Leadership. Film everything on a 45 degree slope - that's enough to create something new to lift a whole video.

7. Devil No Id - Eve. Basically trying to momic Babymetal, the initial song still has promise, and they may still eke out something of their own.

6. Wagakki Band - Strong Fate. The classical instrument band cum japanese fantasy cosplayers delivers another diorama of dramatic role play and music play.

5. Daoko -  Moshimo Bokura ga GAME no Shuyakude. The second of the three videos/songs from her triple single is the best, celebrating computer gaming.

4. Passepied - Hyper Realist. One of the best tracks by this stylish band.

3. Reol - Give me a break Stop now. We finally get to see Reol and she is such a cool young lady, with a great track.

2. Czecho No Republic - Dream Beach Sunset. The humor and retro electronica is pitch perfect.

1. Taemin - Sayonara Hitori. The video is almost too much of everything, but the glorious romance and passion combined with Taemin singing in Japanese works perfectly.

Jpop: Top 10 of the second quarter of 2016

This quarter's best videos has a definite tilt towards the electronic and and synth-retroesque, but there is still place for some wild visuals and idol groups.

10. Natsu no Mamono - Demon Bom-Ba-Ye, Awakening version (魔物、BOM-BA-YE 〜魂ノ覚醒編〜). The super charming cos-playing gang of five is back with another great fan-service video of craziness. Looove it!

9. Frederic - Only Wonder (オンリーワンダー). They have found their sound it seems and they are sticking to it. Well, it works and so who am I to complain.

8. Naomirusty - La Niña Night (ラニーニャ夜). A naive styled 80s retro song with just the right balance of emotion and instruments to make it work so well as it does.

7. Haraeki Stage Ace - Rockstar. Basically a rather simple uptempo jpop song that we have heard before, but the focus and clarity makes it well worth listening to.

6. Tokyo Girls Style - Reflection ( リフレクション). The girls has a presence in their videos that few idol groups manage, a kind of soberness amid all the usual dancing and singing.

5. Sasanomaly - Re:verb. This is visually the best video all hands down this year so far, where director Atsushi Makino continues to use the excellent arts&crafts themes as before.

4. Cicada - Yes. Akiko and her band delivers with confidence a soulful and soft song that makes me relax.

3. Oyasumi Hologram - Neuromancer (ニューロマンサー). Drawing trongly visually on Harajuku-stylish looks and image, the duo delivers emphatic electronic pop that uses dissonance to enhance the beat.

2. Stereo Japan - Dancing Again. This could have been a run-of.the-mill girl idol band, but the production and the funky drops in the middle sections are just lovely ear candy for me.

1. Have A Nice Day! ft New World's Girlfriend - New Romance. The emotion and sound landscape actually makes the broken english an asset here in this great retro piece.

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.

Mandopop: Top 10 for the first quarter of 2016

As usual for mandopop, the top songs is an odd mixture of foreign influences, humoristic videos and local KTV songs. And some songs that actually would work outside China. ;-)

10. Wang Rong - Mr High Heels. For Wang Rong, this is an understated video made in connection to the transsexual comedy Mr Highheels, but it is still rather humorous.

9. Da Zhang Wei - Shout Shout (咻一咻). One of the catchier songs released around the Chinese New Year this february, Da Zhang Wei has done several fun videos before.

8. Sophia Wang - Versailles Tears (凡爾賽之淚). The new song from Sophia Wang sounded just like a modern fairy tale, you can just imagine it being the theme song for a romance.

7. One Two Free - Kiang. These two guys are really cool and funny at the same time, and the song named after the worlds larges wild ass is just that,

6. Zhengyue Shiwu - Little Grape (小葡萄). Released at the time of this year's Lunar Festival, the group with the same name made precisely the kind of KTV (Chinese karaoke) song that is a kind of guilty pleasure for me - catchy, charming and quite cheesy.

5. Jeannie Hsieh - Boom Boom Par (蹦X趴). Jeannie have done videos best described as saucy and fun, and this one may be her best so far, tha cat theme and the bad engrish (Foremost of course "Come some of the music") just made this video being replayed quite often.

4. Mao Ze Shao - Shake your ass & Naked. This woman haven't gotten that much attention but oh does she have songs with rhythm and swing! Albeit simple videos, the songs are both great.

3. Leah Dou - Brother (兄弟). Being a daughter of a HK star (Faye Wong), she may have an easier way towards getting attention, but she very much stands on her own feet as an artist.

2. No Party For Cao Dong - Mountain and Sea (山海). This band definitely delivered the most fresh sound of the top 10 songs, and I really hope they will continue do so.

1. Milk@Coffee - We're missing just a little (我們只差一點點). This song sounds what I would call "Old School", but the reminiscing melancholy being done to perfection with this sound is just what makes them my number one this spring.

Jpop: Top 20 of the fourth quarter of 2015

With a few exceptions, this last quarter of 2015 seems dedicated to the odd, the different and the ugly, which is in some sense is just business as usual for what makes me love the japanese music world.

20. Riemann Mic - Re: Gokun OK. If nothing else, I liked a lot of "ugly culture" videos this autumn, with aesthetics that one would maybe think is un-Japanese, but they are very much a part of Japanese culture, believe me. ;-)

19. Inshow ha - Pretty. The life-size ice copies gimmick aside, this is very much the sound of Inshow ha again, in a good way.

18. Daoko - ShibuyaK. A rather new and young aquaintance but then she also has a very fresh and interesting take on the jpop sound.

17. Suiyoubi no Campanella - Ra. It is obvious that this video shows that SnC is getting more and more recognition for their music as it is their most expensive and visually impressive video be far.

16. Suiyoubi no Campanella - Medusa. If 'Ra' is carried by its visual strength, Medusa is more a meld of a sound and vision - yes, a typical good SnC video in other words.

15. AoA - Oh Boy. First single from their japanese debut this song and video delivers all of what the fans expects in terms of looks, choreography and sound, but I find it slightly repetitive in the long run.

14. Crayon Pop - Dancing all night. Their second japanese single is actually one of their better songs the last year, and the video shows of yet another of their excellent and nerdy dance numbers.

13. 0.8Syooogeki - Words of rainbow color. Both very beautiful *and* very punk, that is a feat in itself. Love this video.

12. Sloth - Bi Bi Bi. The video is on the trashy side, but that just suits the Serebro cover perfectly, with Tokyo rapper Sloth managing to make the song even more addictive.

11. Rip Slyme ft Chay - Jump. The sounds of this are really cool and modern, combinating perfectly with the video.

10. Beddo In ft Ijiri Okada - C-tone beauty-eggplant. It seems I have managed to dig into  more than average of ugly videos these last few months...this is another one. Charming in all its burlesque.

9. Tokyo Karan Koron - Spice. Her voice! Those guitars! So harmonic and sweet.

8. BoA - Lookbook. Yet another good song from the queen of asian pop.

7. Asakura Saya ft Gomess - River Boat Song. Super charming Saya involves autistic rapper Gomess to reach even further with her very personal take on traditional japanese enka songs.

6. 5572320 - Ponpara Pekoruna Papiyotta. This video is so very much an indirect tribute to Queen, with its pompous and crazy video and arrangement. So impressive.

5. Asako Toki - C’est La Vie ~Onna wa Ai ni Isogashii~. Asako Toki's jazzy voice is a golden jazz voice and here it comes perfectly to its right, creating a small soft universe with her singing.

4. Mizuki Nana - Super☆man. She has already made several popular songs for animes and such, but this song cought my eye for being so positive and just happy, which felt refreshing and perfect for Mizuki Nana.

3. Osaka Syunkasyuto - Furo the King. Singer Maina is so impressive in her cover och Rainbow's original song and this video version is so completely crazy and captivating!

2. Rebecca ft Charisma.com - Friends. Yep, two covers for top three, but the new version of this song is all about the nerve of the song and the contrast between Rebecca's and rapper Itsuka's singing, it just takes the song to the next level.

1. Frederic - Owarase Night. A close fight but the guys of Frederic won this on creativity, and I really love their sound.