It’s time once again for me to share what I consider the best Japanese idol songs and videos and all the new that’s important to my favorite indie idol scenes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a real fantastic year. I have already written about the disappearance of a video I liked this year, and I watched some new videos by groups not familiar to me and I wasn’t too impressed. Lineup changes affected some groups I follow, including the graduations of some of my favorite idols. But let me get on with the best idol videos of this year!
SPIRAL MUSIC’s Harajuku Gakuen released two singles this year, both of them a lot of fun to listen to! I couldn’t decide on which song is the best, so I’m including both! “Welcome to Harajuku Gakuen” was released on May 28, 2024, and it’s the group’s most exciting song to date! It’s a fast-paced rocker with lots of electric guitars, a bit of English lyrics and great vocals by all the members. “Everybody’s Summer” was released on October 8, 2024, which is definitely after the summer season. Some of the footage in the video was filmed last year, in Summer 2023, and you get to see the girls in their swimsuits! Both videos are a lot of fun!
ULTRA-C, another SPIRAL MUSIC group, also released a single, “Seishun Shitai”, on October 8, which I have already mentioned in my past two blog articles. The CD single featured three tracks including a song named “Dystopia”, which is another awesome song that came out this year that I love! But as I mentioned in my last article the music video for “Seishun Shitai” was made private after only five days. I also want to mention that ULTRA-C now have nine members. Kurosaki Hana joined the group on December 19. Now I download as many favorite videos as I can, and I’m glad I have this video, but there are probably people who haven’t and can’t see the video now. So, I don’t have a video link for “Seishun Shitai”.
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ULTRA-C (December 2024)
LuCheers is a group I just got into this year. They formed in Nagoya in June 2022 and have two singles. The name of the group is a combination of the Italian word “Lucia” (“Light”) and the English word “Cheers”. The song “Itsudatte Party” (“It’s Always a Party”) is their first music video. Two members of the group in this video have now graduated and six new members have now joined.
RABBIT HUTCH have gone through changes this year. Last year on November 12, 2023, founding member (and my favorite member) Hattori Sakurako graduated, along with Kiyota Anri, who joined in October 2019. This year founding member Goto Hinata graduated on August 18. The group now has five members again, including former amorecarina Nagoya member Amano Natsuki. RABBIT HUTCH released two music videos this year, but after listening to each song twice I can honestly say that the group aren’t doing anything fresh. It’s the same cutesy, energetic pop that they’ve been doing since they formed in 2017. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but the group just seems to be treading water.
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RABBIT HUTCH (November 2024)
After writing the above paragraphs I tried to think of what other videos I wanted to share or what other groups I wanted to write about. Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything else. I don’t think it’s because I’m losing interest in Japanese idols as much as it’s because I can’t find many new groups that I like. However, I am losing interest in some of my favorite groups because my favorite members are leaving these groups and the new songs they sing aren’t to my liking. Hopefully this will change in 2025.
Once again, thank you for reading my blog. Have a great holiday season and I’ll see you next year!
