Kanjanism, the album that defines the group

This year marks Kanjani8’s 10th anniversary and with an landmark achievement comes big celebrations and equally as big career moves. After ten years with Teichiku Entertainment, the group split ways and signed an exclusive record contract with their own talent agency’s recording company, J-Storm, and in return got the chance to release their music on their own ‘independent’ label, Infinity Records. The group had promised a new beginning with bigger and better things to look forward on the horizons.

So far, though, the bigger and better things seem to be release upon release since the label announcement. Between September and December of this year, Kanjani8 would have released a total of two singles (a total of five discs), a full length album (three editions), and a concert DVD/Bluray all within two ~ three weeks of each other. If bigger and better things translates to milking fans of what little they got, then that bigger translates to that debt and the better is more or less the crippling reality that you just wasted your life savings on a boyband.

Regardless of the new ventures the group is now trying to make endeavors on, Kanjanism marks the group’s first release on their (questionably) independent label and acts as a re-debut for the group. The albums theme? Presenting to the people of Japan what and who Kanjani8 actually is. A mishmash of songs of pretty much every genre (except enka, ironically enough), Kanjanism proves to be a decent album with enough bops to make the album worth the 3000 yen. Is it their best album? No. But, considering how iffy Jukebox was, Kanjanism sort of holds its own.

If anything, Kanjanism is more or less the answer to what Kanjani8 is.

• EJ Coaster – The album opens up with a song that seemed to be jacked from SMAP’s rejected demo tape pile. Its in everyday the quintessential Johnny’s song. The chorus bleeds kawaii, the music video is mindless idol fair, and the song is so overproduced you can’t really tell if its actually the group singing or ProTools. But while it contains everything I absolutely hate about Japanese pop music as of late, there’s just something about that the oooh’s in the pre-chorus that just kind of have me bopping along. For some reason, giving the ever so tone-deaf Yokoyama Yuu the bridge actually worked on this occasion. EJ Coaster is the song you love to hate. It’s a selfish indulgence; you want to hate it but its so infectious you can’t and before you know it, you’re horribly screaming ” Let’s enjoy and join jet coaster ” along with them.
• FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN – Written and composed by the iconic RIP SLYME, Fun x 7 is a non-stop attempt at rapping that actually sounds really great considering rapping and Johnny’s isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. I personally love Rip Slyme and have been a fan since 2002, so I am very familiar with the RS5 sound… Needless to say, this song is completely Rip Slyme. Like Rescue Rescue of Jukebox, the song sounds more or less song’s composer than Kanjani8. Even when listening to the way the verses or rapped, I can totally tell who’s line was written by who and who sung it. Subaru and Yasu rapping in the style of PES, the high pitched quirkiness, while Ohkura gruffly breezes by rapping in the low-tone style of SU. But its like a dream come true and I love it.
• Misoji Shounen – Hyadain returns to embarrass Kanjani8 again with this song titled, Thirty Year Old Boys. With nearly all the members now officially in their 30s this year (one member is still enjoying his youthful 20s), this song is a bizarre mash-up of these men singing about how they’re as mentally immature as they were when they were 5. If you loved TAKOYAKI in my Heart, then you’ll love Misoji Shounen. It’s stupid, it’s mindless, and its fun. Though, Hyadain seems to be in a composition rut these days as the chorus sounds too much like the project he worked on for Sukkiri earlier this year.
• King of Otoko – The first of five singles released between Jukebox and this release.
• Masterpiece  – This song serves as the pussy pop track for the album, which seems to be an obligatory addition since Puzzle. Similar to Sorry sorry love, its another dubstep-EDM dance tune which will probably involve overtly sexual dance choreography at this year’s concert. The plus side? It’s light years better than Sorry sorry love, which was more of a wtf than an actual bop. I sort of get a Charisma vibe from the music track but I could also be tripping. (I totes recommend those two badasses btw)
• Kokoro Sora Moyou – The second of the five singles released between Jukebox and this release.
• Hibiki – The third single and only ballad on this album. Quite honestly, this song should have just stayed a single. Ugh.
• Yu – The first of two songs written by members of Kanjani8. Subaru and Yasu contribute to this attempt at California Ska but it sounds more like a song that was intended for AKB48 than ska. The constant random yu’s in the song are just flat out annoying and all I can think of is just the constant Ooooohs and yooooous that just plague every single AKB48 and it’s sister units songs. It’s almost as bad as Soulja Boy except annoying because the kawaii factor is to diabetic levels. As you can tell, I don’t like kawaii.
• ER2 – The fourth single on this album.
• Oekaki – Japanese for drawing, is the second song written by a member of Kanjani8. This song sounds like it got ripped off of the Colors with Kanjani8 Songs for Kids album that doesn’t exist but apparently exists somewhere. In actuality, Ryo Nishikido wrote this song during 10sai. His excuse? He wanted to write something disgustingly cute. Well, he managed to achieve that. To the chorus of a bunch of children, Ryo rambles on about colors and Kanjani8 and for some reason you’re just left either loving it or scratching your head.
• DOYA Gao Jinsei – Written and composed by TOKIO’s Tomoya Nagase, Doya Gao Jinsei just reeks that Nagase-flare in music composition, but its okay because Kanjani8 manages to take this song home. This song sounds like it would be fun to see live due to the opportunities for a jam session at the near end of the song. In some ways, if Kanjani8 had to be a group to dedicate 100% of their music composition to rock, I sort of see this being the sound that they would eventually end up evolving into. Everyone in that group that can play a guitar fanboys the hell out of TOKIO and the potential influence would be incredible.
• Zou – Written and composed by Takahashi Yuu, Zou, or Elephant, is an aggressive song and probably the best track on the entire album in my opinion. Sort of like Bansou from the Namida no Kotae single with lyrics similar to Uchuu ni Itta Lion, there’s an aggressive and desperate approach to the lyrics that seem to bring the whole song to another level. The song is completely carried by Yasu and Subaru, with the rest of the group adding the additional support on the pre-chorus and chorus. It’s a nice and refreshing change of pace from the usual Subaru/Ryo/Ohkura trifecta.
• RAGE – The single that could have been. Used as the theme song for Hina’s World Cup coverage in Brazil, as well as subsequent TBS World Cup coverage, its an alright song. It could have been better, but I guess after hearing the song consistently throughout the summer I’ve pretty much become numb to it. But if I had to pick between this song and Omoidama, I would definitely had picked RAGE… Only because Omoidama pisses me off (for many reasons).
• Omoidama – The fifth single on this album. It can burn in a fire.

• Ice Cream – For the unit/solo tracks, we’re first greeted by the Yasuda/Nishikido pair. Cute, but unremarkable, it gives the fans of this long awaited Yanmar reunion what they want – Ryo and Yasu running around Tokyo eating ice cream, acting cute, and surrounded by kids. Considering that Ryo and Yasu have managed to produce some great tracks together, like Snow White, I found Ice Cream to be a cop out disappointment of fan pandering… because, honestly, the a-typical Ryo/Yasu fan in this country is pretty fucking vapid.

• Ai Love You – Hina is the only member with a solo and I can’t tell if he was serious or fucking around on this song. Needlessly to say, Ai Love You is a bizarre trip into the world of Murakami Shingo embracing his inner charai and taking that 10sai performance to uncountable levels. I don’t think I can honestly get over what he’s actually rapping in that song… I mean… it can’t get any worst than that, right?

• Adam and Eve – I spoke too soon. Yokoyama/Ohkura make up the worst and weirdest fucking pair ever put together. Trying to recreate a TORN part 2, Yoko and Ohkura spend the entire song screeching and whispering (respectively) a song about having sex. That’s pretty much what this song is. Illicit sex and the lyrics really don’t try to hide that fact either. Coupled with the awkward as hell music video and you’re left feeling empty inside and dirty on the outside. It’s not a good feeling. You sort of want to go back to church and confess all your sins. Such things should not come from such bubblelips.

• Michi – The last unit and honestly the only good song out of all the units and solos, Shibutani/Maruyama sing a heartful song with a harmony that can honestly give you goosebumps. Out of all the other songs, there looks like there was an actual attempt here at creating something good. Creating music. Not fanservice. Not crack. Not nightmares. Something legitimate and meaningful. For that, I applaud.

Overall, Kanjanism, is a solid album. I feel that there’s too many singles on the album but considering they’ve probably produced this album within the last three months, I can probably see where they had no time to actually come up with any new material. Though for the price of the album, they should have dropped that MSRP considering half of the album is just released shit anyway.

Musically, there’s definitely been some changes. Usually, the lead vocals have always been Subaru and Ryo but on this album, Yasu has definitely taken a step forward on singing more lead lines while Ryo has taken that step back. Yoko has also made a few steps forward, but honestly, he’s completely tone deaf so I don’t even know why they try to work with that mess. Bridgekura is also pretty nonexistent on a lot of these songs, which is sort of nice. Bridgekura gets old sometimes, you know?

I like Kanjanism moreso than Jukebox but I’m afraid that this more of a sign that perhaps creatively Kanjani8 will taking more a step back in favor of just releasing a bunch of singles and occasionally coming up with a few songs to release an album with. But, honestly, for that why not just release another ‘Best of’ compilation. Oh well.