ManaMinoRisa is a group I love, and haven’t seen hardly any of the western fandom even mention. I’ve really meant to do an editorial on them for some time, but I guess this’ll do. They’re a 3-member group that does electronic pop music. It’s not quite as electronic as say, Perfume, but the synth is definitely there with these girls. Interestingly enough, they do have some other similarities to Perfume.
They’ve been around longer than you might think, starting their activities in 2007. They’re also from Hiroshima and attended Actor’s School Hiroshima just like the members of Perfume, as well as Suumetal from BABYMETAL and Nakamoto Himeka from Nogizaka46. Their music is a lot of fun and their PVs are very well crafted. I think this is a perfect PV to show someone to introduce the group.
The first thing you see in this video is how beautiful the girls are, yeah? Seriously, they’re all gorgeous. I have a personal bias for Okayama Minori, the one with the short blonde hair, but they’re all quite pretty. They’ve had a good record of getting great outfits and this PV is no exception. The blue flower dresses they wear in many of the shots are really pretty and quite leggy for a little fan service. Maybe it’s a Hiroshima thing.
This group also likes to play with the gimmicks in their videos, but this is the farthest they’ve gone. Several scenes make use of little puppet bodies that go down to the waist. It’s more or less an “IRL” version of super deformed anime characters. The puppets feature bikinis, which is kinda funny, and elementary school clothes. The “poses” and actions are hand gestured “dancing” along with cutesy idol stuff like confessions, and they’re really fun scenes. They’re also not used in excess which helps the gimmick survive the length of the PV.
The final outfit of this PV is the girls in bath towels. It’s pretty random, but hey, no complaints here right? As for the technical stuff, it’s all nice. There’s not much in the way of camera movement, but it’s not quite stiff either. Instead they rely on camera focus to add some effect. It’s not overworked to an annoying degree and works well for the scenery. The sets are pretty much all simple white rooms which make the colorful outfits stand out more. The scene selections and transitions are very nice.
There is some other choreography to the PV in the form of dance shots. They’re not the most impressive this group has done, but they’re not bad at all. I think that may be my one beef with this PV, though. The lack of action or a visual hook that their past videos have had is noticeable. Sure the puppetry’s cute, but it’s still a bit small scale. See what I did there? In any case, it’s still a very fun PV.
The song itself is pretty typical for the group. In other words, I like it a lot. The vocals these girls dish out are very smooth and pleasant to listen to, and the electronic instrumentals more than satisfy. Simply put, it’s just really good J-Pop with an electronic twist.
ManaMinoRisa’s 11th single drops July 5th.
Watch: YouTube (Official)
Buy on Amazon JP: Type A [Regular Edition]
| Type B [Regular Edition]
| Type C [Regular Edition]
| Type D [Regular Edition]
| Type E [Regular Edition]
Buy on CDJapan: Type A [Regular Edition] | Type B [Regular Edition] | Type C [Regular Edition] | Type D [Regular Edition] | Type E [Regular Edition]
