#and none of the channels available to me are showing it 😔

[villapaitapeli]

Some lesser known idol/music franchises

A list of some lesser known music franchises I follow. Not really a proper recommendation/introduction post rather than just some personal thoughts. Also I haven’t properly ‘gotten into’ many of these, just listened to the songs... maybe one day when I have time 💪😔

Akroglam

A neat little audio drama project with a futuristic setting and chill music. Finished in early 2022 and no longer releasing new content. Found out about it thanks to the collab with Denonbu, which is funny since roughly half a year later one had died a hero and the other lived long enough to become a villain (eneftees). I only followed it for the ~6 months before it ended, but it’ll stick with me for a long time thanks to the story, aesthetics, girls and especially the music being so good. I listen to every single one of the original songs (yes, the have covers too which are good as well) regularly, and my most listened ones are Angraecum, Ilusion and True Colors. I honestly can’t recommend this project enough, the whole story and (almost) all of the songs are on their yt channel in full length so do check it out if you’re even a little bit interested. The early chapters have English subtitles too.

Burns Skool

I found out about this one thanks to Taichi You (Chacha in t7s and also has a role in Akroglam!) tweeting about it. I honestly haven’t delved too deep into the story or characters, but from what I’ve gathered it’s elementary school boys making hype music. It’s really nice to listen to boyish female vocals every once in a while, and I was happy to find Fairouz Ai in the cast in addition to aforementioned Taichi. My favorite song so far is probably Gradation Age.

Junketsu Surfinia

A girls love idol project that I found out about thanks to none other than Akina. Currently a very modest sized project and you can kind of hear it in the production of some of the songs, but I really hope it finds its audience and has a chance to grow. The songs are available for purchase on their Booth store even for overseas customers, which was a nice surprise for someone who’s used to jumping through hoops to buy JP releases. The song (Lide On, Akina’s solo of course) even came with a pdf with English translated lyrics.

Charms!!

Another project that releases its story on their yt channel, this time in a more VN/social game -ish form. I’ve read/watched/listened to the earliest chapters and found the setting interesting and the characters very wholesome and cute, so I was a bit disappointed to see they had chosen a pretty safe direction with the songs when they began releasing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that or that the songs are bad or anything, in fact I think the production values are good and have found a handful to listen to (Kesshite karenu hana and  Goodnight Honey for example). Most of it so far just isn’t my cup of tea, but I’ll keep following the project as I really like the format and do think the quality is good.

Idol Bu Show

My most recent discovery. Haven’t really had time to check out the characters or story and all I know it’s apparently about Sengoku-era warlords producing their own idol units, which sounds just the right amount of wacky. I skimmed through the discography and somehow it felt very 00′s overall, in a good sense. The songs also have a lot of traditional Japanese elements as can be expected from the setting. The one song stuck in my head is however eurobeat (Brave Call ! ~& Just Now We come!~). There’s apparently an anime movie/PV of some sort floating around, so maybe I should check that out first if I plan to delve deeper.

LiveRevolt

Apparently this project ended after a lot of drama and setbacks, which is very unfortunate since the early songs especially are really good (my favorites are Aoku Nare and Set Fire). I regret not being able to follow the project when it was still active, since I do like its wilder take on idols. Maybe I’ll check out the manga which apparently has scanlations to ease my pain.

Denonbu

First of all, pirate eveything dnnb until scamco has pulled back the shady eneftee business it’s still attempting with this franchise. Now I obviously wouldn’t be this mad if this hadn’t been such an extremely promising project. During its first year it singlehandedly killed all my hype for a certain other dj girl project just by doing everything from music to character design to interacting with the fanbase better. The second year started off well with consistently good releases and promising lore, until they dropped the ball by jumping on a dying money laundering scam and now I really don’t know how to feel about this project. Guess I’m following the releases but refuse to give them any money and hope they’ll eventually snap out of it. Anyways, if I started listing every dnnb track I like it’d give me a carpal tunnel syndrome due to the discography being all around fantastic, so just go listen to Akina kill it on Itadaki Babel.

8 Beat Story

People always wonder how t7s has lasted so long despite not being profitable but for me 8bs will always be the real miracle. The game itself was outdated even at the time of the release (imagine the earliest version of llsif you can but somehow even clunkier), and nowadays it’s half dead with only a handful of events per year, but somehow still running. However, they keep releasing music, holding lives and continuing the story, which are the most crucial parts of the project, so I’m not worried for its future for now. Being such a small project gives it freedom to do basically whatever they want with the content, which has resulted in pretty ambitious or even crazy stories, and refreshing discography. I also can’t help but respect its occasional unapologetic edginess, mostly carried by the rival unit 2_wEI (Despair is a banger). The main idols also have a nice variety of songs, and I like the gimmick of mixing the 8 girls in different units depending on the song, with no set sub-units. Some of my favorites are BoyFriend, Count It Down and Genjimonogatari.

[languid-meat-puppet]

Can't afford peacock so I'm watching the scores update online like some oldhead watching a sugar ray fight on the ticker tape