Perfume give their first televised performance of “Sumikko Disco”

A screenshot of Perfume [From Left to Right: a-chan, Nocchi, Kashiyuka] performing “Sumikko Disco” on NTV Best Artist with characters from Sumikko Gurashi behind them.

Perfume released a video of themselves dancing the chorus choreo to “Sumikko Disco” looking like The Powerperf Girls. A look which differs greatly from their usual something-somebody-had-to-design-from-scrap-fabrics-left-over-during-a-design-challenge-onRuPaul’s-Drag-Racethe Drag Race. And this seems to be the “Sumikko Disco” look, as Perfume have not only been promoting the song in this look, but also stepped out for their first televised performance of the song in it too. And they look great.

Well, except for Kashiyuka. They really played her with that shirt and that skirt.

Perfume performing “Sumikko Disco” | Video courtesy of prfm-multiverse (taopriest)

As as been the case for the past couple of years, the routine for “Sumikko Disco” seems to pull from Perfume’s older routines. One which immediately came to mind for was “Spice”. Although I wonder how intentional this is.

There is distinct style which Mikiko has. And there is a language that Perfume’s routines have. And given that Mikiko has worked with Perfume for 20 years, it’s inevitable that there would be what appears to be self-referencing to us, but they’re probably just moves in Mikiko’s vocab for Perfume. But also, because Perfume’s singles over the past couple of years has felt reminiscent of stuff they had released before, it’s probably unknowingly having Mikiko draw from those songs.

HENNYWAY.

I really like the routine to “Sumikko Disco”. It’s cool to see Perfume routines with more swag, which is probably a result of Nakata stepping up is Yasutussy and giving Perfume’s songs some bounce again. After all, the music is what infers the choreography.

Perfume also performed “Natural ni Koishite”, which seems to be a song Perfume dust off to bring out around this time of year.

Perfume performing “Natural ni Koishite” | Video courtesy of prfm-multiverse (taopriest)

“Natural ni Koishite” is one of the songs which really put me onto Perfume. And I think the outfits they’re wearing suit the song also. Once Perfume started wearing their Super Sentai stage outfits, performances of certain songs just didn’t hit the same and “Natural ni Koishite” was one of them. So it was nice to see it performed in outfits which better matched the energy of the song and had a fashion edge. After all, the song was for a clothing brand tie-in.

I will never forget when Perfume performed “Take Me, Take Me” in 2018 in them nasty outfits. That shit did not work AT ALL. A look can really make or break a performance.


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