[Review] Namida no Kotae (涙の答え) by Kanjani8 (関ジャニ∞)

Hello my lovelies,

Since I became interested in the Japanese entertainment, it came to no surprise to me that many of the single released by an artist is an accompaniment for a movie or a tele series one of the member or even the artist(s) themselves are starring in.

Namida no kotae (涙の答え) is the latest single by Kanjani8 (関ジャニ∞) for the movie To Cry 100 Times (１００回泣くこと), it’s their 24^th single and it is very very cheesy, but it fits right in with the movie it’s accompanying.

Namida no Kotae (涙の答え) working poster

Like any other Johnny’s Entertainment boybands, this single was produced with 3 different versions:

For the title track, namida no kotae, it is not their finest song. Although Kanjani8 can pull off certain ranges of genre, ballad is certainly not their strongest. Idols are not the best singers in the world of the entertainment industry, but I have heard much better songs by this band in the past.

The promotional video (PV) or music video as they call it in the western world, however is not that bad. The full video runs for 8 minutes or so (30 Second From Mars anyone?) and the song itself is around 5 minutes. This time the PV actually has a plot and a story behind it. Not something super original but it beats the singing and standing up being all dolled up and dancing out of sync any day.

The PV however, have little or if there are any linkage with the movie itself. And the 8 minutes PV actually satisfies me more than the movie itself. Was the PV that good? No. It was not bad, but it was much better than the movie itself for me.

Moving on to the other songs on the single. For the limited edition A the B-Side song is Royal Milk Story (ロイヤルミルクストーリー). This song is not memorable at all. Just like a filler song in an album because and album has to have a certain amount of songs and there were not enough good singles to make an album.

As for the limited edition B is Bansou (ばんそう). Bansou is the very typical boyband song that again act more like a filler rather than a B-side song.

For the regular edition, the B-side songs are both Royal Milk Story and Bansou and also an addition of 8^th ANNIVERSARY Single’s remix (∞th ANNIVERSARY Single’s remix). The Remix goes on for more than 20 minutes. All I can say it’s a good work out accompaniment song. It starts off slow beat per minute (BPM herein) song and the BPM rises has a nice mix of BPM through out the middle and the BPM slows down towards the end.

All in all this single is not too bad, but there’s noting to rave about either. I’m giving this single a 3 out of 5 (3/5) for the nice 8^th ANNIVERSARY Single’s remix and also the main song Namida no Kotae. Fans would absolutely love it, and haters going to hate it, but it was not bad for a J-Pop single.

Love and Kisses,

GWRL