Ichiro Yamaguchi shimmies on down with Aoi Yamada in a house of neon for Sakanaction’s “Iranai”

Sakanaction released a brand new single “Iranai” last week, complete with a video of frontman Ichirō Yamaguchi just singing the song in his home studio — which I honestly thought would’ve sufficed for a music video. But I should have known that the band had already gotten Yusuke Tanaka on the blower and shot a music video where Ichiro gets to shimmy and we see the full band.

One thing about Sakanaction, they are going to give you a good music video, and they did just that here. Watchers of the Netflix drama First Love will recognise Aoi Yamada. And Hikaru Utada fans may also recognise her from Hikaru’s performance of “Electricity” for the NHK special Utada Hikaru ~Oshiete! Hikaru-san~ and on their Science Fiction tour. Aoi has such a striking look because of her now signature hair and how well it frames and highlights her facial features. She’s stunning. But the 80s get up she wears in this video REALLY suits her. And the timing of this video is such a cool coincidence, as Kiko Mizuhara showed up to YSL’s show for Paris Fashion week, looking like she came floating down in a bubble from Japan in the 80s before that shit popped, and it suited the shit out of her.

Whilst the video was really fun and looked great. The lighting obsessor in me really wishes that more was done with the set. The way it lit up in time with the beat of the music in the intro was so cool. I thought it was a shame we didn’t get more moments of that, especially during the scene of Ichiro and Aoi gettin’ their Pulp Fiction on. But maybe Yusuke felt it would be too distracting — which I could actually understand.

Sakanaction - Iranai | Victor Entertainment

The first time I listened to “Iranai”, my immediate thought was how much it reminded me of Perfume. It’s not just the 80s vibe — which is not only the core of Perfume’s sound, but was THE sound of their last album — but the chorus. The way it’s sung and the melody of it just feels very Yasutaka Nakata and Perfume. And oddly enough, Yusuke Tanaka — the director of “Iranai”, who has also directed most of Sakanaction’s music videos — has also directed a whole bunch of Perfume’s music videos. And Kazuaki Seki who has shot most of Perfume’s album covers, directed a whole bunch of their tour videos and music videos, has also directed two of Sakanaction’s music videos. And Perfume and Sakanaction have crossed over before, with one of Perfume’s viral TikToks featuring them dancing the routine to Sakanaction’s “Shin Takarajima” and Sakanaction frontman Ichirō Yamaguchi having interviewed Perfume back in 2022.

Sakanaction’s last studio album was released in 2022, and that was just a lil’ 8 track ditty — which fans probably felt somewhat cheated by, given that the album that came before was a double disc album. So, Sakanaction are definitely due to drop some new shit. But whether that’ll come at the end of the year or next is anybody’s guess. Ichirō seems to be having a ball just doing livestreams on YouTube and living his best side quest life as an influencer with all of his brand partnerships. And he’s also been really frank over the years about moments in his life and career where he’s not felt his best. That man ain’t in no rush. And something which is becoming more and more common in Japanese music with artists who have been around for a good while and are able to gig consistently, is the prioritisation of live shows over albums, or even singles in some cases. Ayumi Hamasaki is the biggest example of this. Touring is where the real money is anyway. And you don’t have to go on TV shows and do interviews to promote them, the way you do singles and albums. So, I get it.

Sakanaction had performed a piano version of “Iranai”, which is a VERY different take on the song. But it’s really cool though and definitely worth checking out. I’m always down for artists completely flipping their own songs.