Hello Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw GENERATIONS defeat Nishino Kana to take the top spot. Kana is back again this week, along with a newcomer. Find out what various staff members thought of the songs that topped the physical and digital charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!

Oricon #1: SEKAI NO OWARI – SOS / Present (not released digitally)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npo1TeJ8938

Ronald: SOS – SEKAI NO OWARI’s last single surprised me and so does this one. It seems as if they’ve stopped the wacky carnival music and gone in a new direction. I’m glad about it. This is a pleasant song. It’s quite calming. It’s entirely in English and I don’t have a problem with Fukase’s pronunciation. His voice sounds good here, very soothing. The piano on this is nice because it livens things up from time to time. 7/10

Present – This is like a decent middle ground between “SOS” and what SEKAI NO OWARI normally does. It does have a bit of those carnival-ish elements, but in a more subdued way. I don’t mind it. Fukase sounds good on it, his voice is a bit more animated here. The song does sound like something I’ve heard from other acts before. 5/10

Single average: 6/10

Ice: SOS – Well, the first thing I notice is that this song is completely in English. It’s sung in a fast tempo with a alternating piano sound between fast and solemn. Fukase sings the song in a very consistent mellow and high tone. One thing I don’t particularly like about the song is that the English words don’t flow together well at all, but I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from people who don’t even speak the language regularly. It was an ok listen. 5/10

Present – My first impression of this song is that they’re trying to do their best miwa or YUI impression. The acoustic guitar is very pronounced through the song. Fukase sings this like you would expect people to do if they had an acoustic guitar, very casual and neither fast nor slow. Overall, it’s a pretty generic song and it’s not likeFukase had a pleasant voice to listen to and especially not in a song like this. 4/10

Single average: 4.5/10

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Recochoku #1 / iTunes #1: Nishino Kana – Torisetsu (Oricon #14)

Ronald: Same review as last week – Dreadful. I can’t with this twee, babyish crap she puts out now. I’ve really and truly reached my limit after these past few singles of the same throwback Taylor Swift crap. I hate this. 1/10

Ice: Same review as last week – Unlike Kana’s usual style of a sentimental ballad, this is a more fun and happy fast tempo’d folk-like song. Kana did not use anything particularly impressive here when it comes to her vocals but it’s mostly stable and consistent throughout the whole song. I did not feel that this was anything particularly interesting as even in the category of fun and happy songs, there are a lot of songs that do the job better. 5/10

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Ronald’s Rank:

1. Oricon #1: SEKAI NO OWARI – SOS / Present

2. Recochoku #1 / iTunes #1: Nishino Kana – Torisetsu

Ice’s Rank:

1. Recochoku #1 / iTunes #1: Nishino Kana – Torisetsu

2. Oricon #1: SEKAI NO OWARI – SOS / Present

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