My friend Seba Rashii wrote his post about this artists latest album in a color that matched, perfectly, the colour of it's packaging.
But, as someone completely different, I'm not going to do that. No, none of that gimmicky colour coding for Le Monsieur, Non, Le reviewer is strictly a serious embodiment of critique. Stereotyping? Yeah, tell me about it! Asides from stereotyping and pretending to French - or am I?- the review of Shiina Ringo's latest video compilation will begin in the next sentence. See, I was looking forward to volume four of Seiteki Healing, the same as I look forward to anything Shiina Ringo related. And I wasn't disappointed, too much, either. Except that, well, these videos are just a little too much on the normal side for a Shiina Ringo release. There is nay a burnt out car in sight, cats don't turn into machine guns and the sexual side of nature is definitely on the cards in the first of videos, Shun. Well, it's more like very obvious visual flushes of innuendo that amuse in a clever way more than shock. Still, though, it's a nice, simple clip that is very fitting to the song itself.
Next up is the much debated on Electric Mole Forums, Ryuukou. (Not Hayari, Ryuukou!) Well, it's about fashion and indoctrination at the temple of fashion and beauty, and the video features the cat walk strolling Shiina Ringo singing with Mummy D. The opinion? Well, I like it. But out of the five it's probably in the middle of the overall ranking. Next up is Irokoizata, probably the weakest of the collection simply because it lets the song down by being too tied to it's content, rather than trying to make some new ideas for itself. Still, not too bad though, although it does loom extremely close to the cheap look , which is not how a Ringo clip should be at all.
Ariamaru Tomi is clip four, and is definitely one of the most effective of the collection in it's simplicity and focus. Objects float out the sky, ranging from cars to balloons to animals and it works very well. Eerily reminiscent, in fact, of a Love Psychedelico video! If only all the videos had looked this good, production wise.
But, hold the presses, here's the last clip of the collection, and they've saved the best for last! One of the best tracks off Sanmon Gossip, Tsugou No Ii Karada deserved a nice video, and with this animated homage to Disney and their copiers it got the best video of the set! If Shiina Ringo dancing with hatstands and mirrors does it for you, you'll love this very cute video with a message. The fish choir and dancing pillows are definite highlights for this reviewer!
All in all, a nice if cheap looking set of videos. Blame the credit crunch, I say. Shiina Ringo said in an interview that she let the directors play, and they did well with most of the work here. But next time a better budget would be very helpful if we're to maintain the quality of previous releases. Also, where were the funny adverts, clips etc? Next time, please, Virgin Records should give more to work with than one thousand yen and a blue screen!
3.5/5
Le Monsieur
1 旬
2 流行
3 色恋沙汰
4 ありあまる富
5 都合のいい身体
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