Sunday 14 March 2010

小池雅也 news trio, coming your way!


小池雅也 (KOIKE masaya) hasn't been involved with MOSAIC.WAV too much recently, but don't let that fool you. Big Brother's been a busy beaver (tongue-twister GET!) these past few months, but he's usually fighting from the sidelines so it's a little hard to keep tabs on him. It doesn't help that he barely ever says anything news-worthy on his blog and that the 4-EVER website hasn't been updated in nearly 3 years. Regardless, aniki fans have three new reasons to be excited these days, so let's dive right in.




「 トロピカルKISS」 is yet another eroge full of boring everyday situations, but the interesting part here is that Koike wrote both the OP and ED themes, as well as provided BGM for the entire game. As you can tell from the Youtube preview, it is cheerful and definitely heavy on the steel drums, which fits the whole tropical theme. Now despite the game being TwinkleSoft's first effort, it was billed as a high-quality game when it came out in September 20009 and it certainly looks the part. In fact, for Lantis to distribute the single, you can be sure that big promotional monies are being thrown around for this title (so expect a sequel).

So who's singing the opening song? That would be でんぱ組, a brand-spanking new unit made up of four lovely DearStage girls. You read that name right, denpagumi (loosely denpa group). They are 100% unabashedly going for the 1-2 punch with this name, which is either refreshing or daft, depending on your opinion. Official Denpa no Sekai position: I am loving every fucking second of it, and it would be a crime against humanity if the denpagumi girls don't get a shot at a full-length album.




Which brings us to the ending theme 「Star☆tin'」, which was not only also composed by Koike, but performed by his new protégée 月宮うさぎ (TSUKIMIYA Usagi (yes, usagi as in rabbit)). Together they form ULTRA-PRISM, which they describe as 2.5D POP, but there's definitely a lot of denpa (their description, not just mine!), cheery picopico as well as typical Idol stuff thrown in for good measure. The fact that Usagi is a former Happy! Style member, yet such a hardcore otaku adds a nice touch of silliness to the whole thing. The following video will give you an idea of what the new unit is shooting for.




There's a good chance these songs might remind you of UNDER17, that's because ULTRA-PRISM is meant to be a "reboot" for old chap Koike. Their debut mini-album "Inspiration" was actually released at C75, but hasn't seen much exposure outside of a couple great articles on MOEYO! and GETCHU. Honestly, if it wasn't for the split CD with denpagumi, I probably wouldn't be talking about ULTRA-PRISM right now, and that would be a damn shame! Look forward to more ULTRA-PRISM coverage in the near future... *hint* Usagi is a bit of an anglophile.



Finally, GWAVE recently announced a new U single featuring two songs, the OP and ED themes to FrontWing's upcoming fourth entry in their 「魔界天使ジブリ-ル」 eroge series. No samples so far, but U has been in charge of all previous theme songs, so you can get a pretty good idea of what these should sound like based on prior art (Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3). Although U will be at the helm, as she usually is, Koike will provide guitar solos to these tracks, as he usually does. The release date is April 23rd 2010, but FrontWing will most likely release the opening video well before that. Stay tuned for more LA LA LA LA LA LA LAs!

3 comments:

Christelle said...

Too-much-information

でんぱ組.inc girls are cute... and very fond of twitter too xD

BTW, Tsukimiya Usagi is not a former member of H!P, she was in HAPPY!STYLE, a small (and underground) group produced by UP-FRONT AGENCY (which also produces Hello!Project). H!P wikis are never reliable ヽ(o`皿′o)ノ.
When she got in I remember seeing pictures of her doing cosplay...
ULTRA-PRISM is great news.

Anonymous said...

What do you mean, TMI? That's usually for bad things.

But thanks for the correction! I'm not really schooled on the whole idol agency thing/scene, just music.

She seems to have a huge latino following, any idea why? For instance, this cosplay blog: http://usagikoya.blogspot.com/

Christelle said...

I'm sorry, I didn't know that expression had a negative connotation in English. There's a lot of information, good information xD!

About the blogs, I don't really know why, but idols are very popular in Latin America in general. In fact, I'm from South America xD, though not living there anymore. Tsukimiya is probably popular because of her cosplays and her relationship with H!P...in Mexico for example, they LOVE H!P.