Akuri Onishi, Marie Uchida, and Ayaka Ohashi---Three new albums with must-see music videos that will blow away your May blues! Seiyu Artists Bulletin May 2022

In the May 2022 issue, we pick up three works by Akuri Onishi, Marei Uchida, and Ayaka Ohashi.

This month's issue opens with a music video, which is a necessity for artists when promoting their music, not to mention a very important part of their artwork as a method of expression that visually complements and raises the image of the work and sometimes expresses their intentions more clearly than lyrics or sound. Based on this premise, the music videos for the songs released in April 2022 were all particularly conceptual (although written in a cool way, most of them were greedily "funny"), so I would like to introduce them all together to blow away even the depressing May illness. I'd like to introduce them all together to blow away even the dreary May illness.

Akuri Onishi's 3rd single "Jellyfish na Kimi e" (released on April 13)

If you want to ask people for help, shouldn't you kneel down and put your forehead and hands on the earth!" . There could be no harsher words to use against the object of one's request for help. These are the memorable words of the heroine Kara, played by Akuri Onishi, at the beginning of the TV anime "This Healer is a Pain in the Ass". Contrary to her cute visual, she is dark, tongue-in-cheek, and frighteningly so on ......, and yet she sometimes makes a good argument without being told what to say or do.

The opening theme of the anime is "Jellyfish na Kimi he" sung by Ms. Onishi. The lyrics were written by Shunryu Onishi, who had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to provide music for the song, and it is his signature rock and catchy tune. It would be hard to find an artist whose face comes to mind so clearly just by listening to a single phrase. According to Mr. Onishi, this time the song is a big "free speech" song. The lyrics of the song are full of romantic comedy elements, but there is no mention of romance in the anime that the song is tied up with.

Onishi-san's appearance in the song, however, is just as cute as one would expect, if not cuter. In this music video, a love teacher is giving a completely unhelpful love course to a female student who is struggling with love and who appears in her fantasy. I can't thank Onishi enough for this music video, as her facial expressions change from one innocent and comical expression to another. In addition to the various facial expressions, the winking scene, which Onishi says he is not very good at, is also noteworthy.

The highlight is her ad-libbing using many props, such as using a brush as a microphone in a bathtub, and using a thick book as a building block. In this scene, Onishi is trying his hand at "props comedy" while the camera is still rolling. In the video, you can catch a glimpse of Onishi's usually quiet, but actually comedy-loving, and above all "gag-sense" oriented, outspoken personality.

The English phrases that form the catchy atmosphere of the song are scattered throughout the video, and Onishi's "flip art" is increasingly evident.

As I was thinking of past music videos that brought out the fun of the voice actors' real faces in a more intimate way than usual, I was reminded of "Hurry Love" (released in June 2020), the title track of the second single by Onishi's labelmate, Azumi Wakei.

The lyrics to "Hurry Love" were written by Shunryu, arranged by Sizuk, and music video directed by Hideo Kawatani, the same lineup as this time, and the song itself is a song about love counseling. When a voice-over artist opens a "love counseling service," their backup is a force to be reckoned with. Please check it out as well.

Marie Uchida's 13th single "Kikoeru? (Released on April 20)

The title song of Uchida's new single, "Kikkou koeru? is the ending theme song of the TV anime "Shakusan-san wa Younen Ghost ni Kurenai ni Heal ni Saitai" in which she plays the role of Ms. Kurahashi. The song is the ending theme song for the TV anime in which she plays the role of Ms. Kurahashi. Junichi Sato (fhána) wrote and arranged the music, and Hideki Hayashi, who is the main writer of fhána's music, wrote the lyrics.

Without giving such an impression, Sato's style is still present in the song, as in the way he asks the vocalist to have a sense for difficult melodies, and the way the song settles down in the middle of the chorus and then takes another step forward.

The music video for the song has a dreamy taste with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a whitish filter, reminiscent of nostalgic Heisei retro music. A large stuffed bear also appears in the video, but this one was originally small, the size of the palm of your hand. The bear is shown working with Ms. Uchida and gaining her confidence, which is perhaps a reference to the "company employee wants to be healed by a young ghost. This is probably a reference to the "ghost" that heals people in the song "Shakushochu-san wants to be healed by a young ghost," and, as the lyrics suggest, to her other self that supports her.

From this point on, I would like to discuss the relationship between the colors of "blue" and "red" in this music video. First of all, the blue color is a common color for both the outfit that Ms. Uchida wears, which looks like her casual clothes, and the ribbon of the stuffed bear, which is a metaphor for her "inner voice". I would like to assume that the blue color is used to depict Ms. Uchida and the stuffed bear as communicating with each other. The blouse recommended by the stuffed bear at the clothing store, the pom-poms used to cheer Ms. Uchida on at the batting center, the electric guitar and snare drum played to enliven the song, and the title text of the song "Can You Hear Me? in the title text at the beginning of the song, all use the color red.

If we were to give a contrasting structural meaning to these two colors, we might position blue as the past self and red as the confident future self. As the contents of the stuffed animal were revealed toward the end of the performance, the person who was inspiring Ms. Uchida was none other than herself. If so, the stuffed bear was encouraging her to be honest about her desire to "change," or to discover her own charms that she was not aware of. The "Johari Window," as it is called in the field of psychology, may be an easy way to grasp this image.

There is only one place in the story where such hidden true feelings were faintly expressed from the beginning of the story. It is Uchida's "red nails. The reason why the color red was used for a small part of the body, the nail, which reflects a certain sense of beauty, can be found at ....... Now that I have written this, I hope you can see some meaning in the role of color in this music video. Again, of course, this is my own interpretation.

Let me digress.

As the contents of the stuffed animal were revealed at the end of the music video, I would like to explain again that the person who inspired Ms. Uchida was not anyone else but herself. The person who understands her most deeply and can support her most is herself. The song and music video may contain such a message.

This imagination is probably not mistaken, as Ms. Uchida's statement, "In today's world, we are forced to do our best on our own, and it is difficult to hold hands with someone else. For more details, please refer to the following interview.

Ayaka Ohashi 11th single "Be My Friend! (Released on April 27)

People's worries are never-ending, and just when you think you've finished talking to yourself, now you want to make friends. The title track of the new single "Be My Friend! sung by Ayaka Ohashi.

The song is the opening theme song for the TV anime "The Strongest Demon King in History, Reincarnated as Villager A," in which she plays the role of Sylphy Melhaven. The heavy and metallic sound, which has never been on Ohashi's track list before, was created by Kanata Okajima, MEG, and Hayato Yamamoto. The songs even show glimpses of an alternative style, with vocoder-assisted rap parts interspersed throughout the songs. As one would expect from a rapper making her debut as "Ayaka Ohashi a.k.a HASSY" on "Hasshy Day," August 4, 2021.

This music video is the most "problematic" work in this report. Seeing is believing. First and foremost, please play the video.

What do you think?　If it were not for the lip-sync to the lyrics, you might suspect that you had accidentally played the wrong video.

The opening shot is an invitation to a drinking party, perhaps "For those of you who can't make friends! and perhaps an invitation to a drinking party. But we can imagine that Ohashi-san is making an effort to make friends in this video. From the ladder training just before the workout, to the push-ups that must have awakened some ability in the body, to the squats captured in a surrealistic pull-out angle, ......, where is the common sense friend-making we all know and love in this world?

After that, Mr. Ohashi continued to train his mind and body in preparation for the coming "day," but at the crucial drinking party, the circle of conversation had already formed, and he had a hard time getting along with those around him. Sitting uncomfortably between people, he wonders which side of the conversation he should join. Everyone has at least once had the experience of having their stomachs churned up, thinking, "I don't really have a place in either of these topics. ......

While this music video has such points of sympathy, it leaves the viewer feeling left out, especially in the "ascetic monk" part in the first half of the video, and yet, perhaps due to Mr. Ohashi's personality, the indescribable surrealism naturally becomes a habit (my favorite scene is the push-up scene at the beginning). (My favorite scene is the push-up scene at the beginning.)

Both the sound and the images of the tracks are at the extremes, and there is an exquisite but too great "distance" between the two, which made me feel indescribable in a good way. Music and images really do move people's hearts. Mr. Ohashi is indeed living too far ahead of his time.

(Text by Kota Ichijo)

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