Weird Choice of The Release Date for Watariroka Hashiritai7’s New Single Syonen Yo Uso o Tsuke

  May 9, 2012

Until the official announce, everyone had worried about that there’s no proper timing to release Watarikoka Hashiritai’s (Warota) new single , it’s announced early in Apr that their 10th single (4th as 7) 少年よ嘘をつけ / Syounen yo Uso o Tsuke will be released on 30th May. right after the release of AKB48’s 26th single 真夏のサウンズグッド!/ Manatsu no Sounds Good!.


Of course this can contribute to Warota members election result in bad way, since Warota members fans can’t concentrate their fortune on AKB’s election single (Manatsu). This also means Warota member, especially Mayuyu will have tough schedule from the end of May to the biginning of June, which may decrease her opportunities to make TV appearance for AKB’s new single in TV music shows etc. But… because sponsor of the election is King Records, the different record lable Warota belongs to (Pony Canyon), it’s natural to think this schedule is the result of marketing battle between the two labels.

Given the fact that their last single 希望山脈 / Kibou Sanmyaku had used for opening theme for Anime Shinchan, and the title song of this new single, Syonen yo Uso o Tsuke has been featured in the ongoing Movie Shinchan and ending theme of the Anime, Warota is understandably popular among children. So maybe Syonen yo Uso o Tsuke‘s sales will be driven by children, who of course don’t buy tons of the same record for the election? No way… actually just keeping Kibou Sanmyaku level of sales gonna be not easy for them given the sales result of Sashiko’s single Soredemo Sukidayo which lost to Nogizaka’s 2nd single Oide Shampoo despite huge promotion throughout mainstream media and uncannyily gorgeous bonus events, Sea Lion Show and Yubi-Matsuri. In short, election has a huge influence on how Ota spends their fortune on each record to support their Oshi-men.

And more importantly, since Warota is a group act, their most prominent weapon to drive up sales is Shake-Hands event (including mini-events), which will definitely be held right after the release. Which will surely reduce their chance to appear mainstream media as well as makes fans of Warota members buy both Warota single and AKB’s single.

Except Wasamin, who has been successfully establishing her career as Enka artist, Mayuyu, Harugon, Komorin, Ayarin and Lovetan… next election will not be easy for them as Mayuyu has been set a bar unfairly high, and other members, who were mostly around 20th~30th in the last election will face rapid catch up from SKE and NMB members as well as team 4 (especially hard for Lovetan-Oshi since she has her solo song as a coupling to NE edition of Syonen Yo Uso wo Tsuke single).

Some may think the 30th May release date means Ogi productions and Pony canyon is confident that they can still hit a good sales number or be leveraged from the election fever, since the title song Syonen Yo Uso o Tsuke actually has a nice tune (and they launched Warota’s official youtube account in Apr!). It may be becasue Mayuyu got a little success for her solo debut single and recent move of AKB to promote her as a next center, she is heavily featured in the MV or I should say Drama portion is exclusively dedicated to her. But it also has more closeup shot on each member and focuses on collective choreo, otherwise this would be almost Mayuyu’s solo track with 6 choruses. In addition, I had somehow felt sort of barrier between early members and new members (Komorin and Wasamin) until the last single, but maybe thanks to Cindy, I don’t feel that barrier from this MV.

少年よ嘘を付け / Syounen yo Uso o Tsuke

MV depicts a story of a little kid who are bullied because his schoolmates thinks he is telling a lie that he saw a UFO (Because Shinchan movie is about space princess… they chose SF theme for the MV). They told him that if he took a picture of UFO, then they’ll believe him.
In the forest he actually saw the UFO but he also encountered Mayuyu as a space alien or something falling down on the ground. To keep promise with Mayuyu, he kept this inccident secert and was labelled as a lier from his schoolmates. But the last Drama portion of the MV depicts decades later, he grown up to be an astronaut motivated by this event.

If I am to add some descriptive words to the title of the song “Boyz tell a lie”, it will be like “Boyz don’t afraid to tell a lie”. The song has massage like lyric telling chidren not afraid to have a odd but strong dream, and it’s a good match to cute melody with bassy disco sound. While title song of previous single Kibou Sanmyaku has featured Showa Kayoukyoku style group chorus, this song more focused on solo part by blurring background and group choreo in hook parts. To some people (very few) who don’t know members well except Mayuyu, this song may seem to be the song of Mayuyu and other no names, but many of other members-Oshi expressed their satisfaction that their Oshi-Mens are really cute and have enough appearance in the MV, though Harugon-Oshi may be really upset about her voice… which ovbiously still in rehabiliation mode.

希望山脈 / Kibou Sanmyaku

But…. think about it! Even though Lovetan, Komorin, Wasamin, everyone displays their charm in the MV, election result is crucial to every member of Warota, except Mayuyu and Cindy, to prove they are still in the game as they are constantly droppng their rank or never appeared in the ranking… It’s the question about which is better for them to have a successful sales figure with Warota singles or higher positions in the general election…. which would never be raised if they release this 10th single in April (but was impossible due to Harugon’s condition).

Watariroka Hashiritai7 Official

Ayarin shows really cute looks in this MV
Harugon, Wasamin and Ayarin are searching for Mayuyu
Cindy and Harugon
Harugon
The kid brought back bread from school meal or he bought it.
Mayuyu is hiding in storage space in his room
Komorin
The kid is totally depressed after bullied by his classmates 
Mayuyu encouraged him and gave him her ring 
He started studying to know more about Mayuyu
Mayuyu has detected by her fellow space tribes
decades later
He has become an astronaut and interviewed by Mayuyu. Though his memory of Mayuyu has erased, he vaguely remember the incident and felt remembrance between the interviewer and a girl he met when he was a kid, and asked her “Have we met before?” But Mayuyu answered “No. It’s the first time I meet you in person.”