HKT48 is by far the flagship of my *48 fandom these days. *46 for life overall, but HKT is a wonderful group too. I’m not the *48 fan I used to be by any means, but there is still fun to be had in the empire and I’ll more than gladly partake in it. While the song may be only slightly above typical modern AKS fare, this PV reminds me of an old favorite in every awesome way.
The PV starts us off with a new center. Relatively new member Matsuoka Hana gets a chance at the limelight in this one. This is pretty awesome. She’s a really cute girl and pretty fun on “HKT48 no Odekake” from what I’ve seen. She has a wonderful Tomonaga Mio-like smile, too. Anyway, our new center introduces us to the outfits of this PV, which are these multi-color, sparkly one piece dresses. They’re quite nice to look at and feature similarly decorated headphones for most members. These colors aren’t bright, so the sparkles don’t over-saturate the scene. They’re some of my favorite outfits from this group in a good while.
The PV borrows a little atmosphere from the likes of “Koisuru Fortune Cookie” in that it makes generous use of random people on the streets, ranging from railroad workers, to shop owners, to a surprising number of gaijin, to even wrestler Tiger Mask (thanks Garry). The goofy PV story behind this appears to be the girls are looking for “wota waves” and for people to show them their “calls”. These scenes are a lot of fun, and really add a festive atmosphere to the video. I’d make a joke about the Church of Wotatology, but I wouldn’t want to offend anyone’s religious practices. Luckily the focus is indeed on the interaction rather than the silly story and “call detector” props.
Despite the focus on these street shots, they manage to also sneak in a good dosage of member solo and dance shots. It honestly feels like the perfect blend and it’s surprising just how much content they managed to get into the five minute PV without anything feeling crammed. These shots take place in an epically decorated studio with colors in line with the outfits. It looks really nice.
Adding to the decor is a pretty extreme dosage of aftereffects and CGI. In this regard, the PV reminds me of “Suki! Suki! Skip!” in both the level of post-production, and the quality of it. The CGI in this PV is perfectly integrated. It interacts with, hides behind, and bounces along with the shots seamlessly. The way it gives extra life to already lively scenes without being in the way is awesome. I was tempted to say it’s not obnoxious, but it absolutely is in a super fun way. The production behind this PV is the best I’ve seen from AKS in some time.
The song itself is good. I think it’s a step above typical AKS fare, even though it does have a lot of the modern day AKS trademarks. The instrumentals sound like a countless amount of other songs from the brand, but they’re nice enough to listen to. The vocals are very chorus centric, and it’s hard to hear much of anyone’s voice in the mix, but they sound okay and there are a select few moments of some solo lines. It has a nice energy to it, even if it’s not the most technically intricate song. This is a pretty good one overall, but the video is the clear winner here.
HKT48’s new single dropped September 7th.
Watch: YouTube (Official, Short. Ver., Region Locked) | DailyMotion (UNOFFICIAL)
Buy on Amazon JP: Type A [CD+DVD]
| Type B [CD+DVD]
| Type C [CD+DVD]
Buy on CDJapan: Type A [CD+DVD] | Type B [CD+DVD] | Type C [CD+DVD]
