Single Review: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Focus Focus

Pussy Pam is back with a new song. And maybe the title is a mantra or a call to the universe. Because focus is what Kyary and Nakata need right now.

Kyary’s post Candy Racer singles have been a bit middling. They’ve not been bad. But they’ve not been great either. “Kuru Kuru Harajuku”, “Genjitsu-Touhi” and “Focus Focus” at least feel like they are cut from the same cloth — which makes it fitting that all 3 singles lazily feature cover arts from the same photoshoot. But whilst I dig the consistency, they are still kinda middling. As per “Kuru Kuru Harajuku” and “Genjitsu-Touhi”, “Focus Focus” feels like a song that Kyary and Nakata planned to go back to in order to fill in the gaps, but never did, because they couldn’t figure out how to.

My theory on why these songs feel like they’re kinda neither here nor there is that Kyary is unsure of what her creative angle is at this point in her career. And Nakata is throwing ideas out of what her sound could be, but is also unsure.

When Kyary approached Nakata, she was already a product. She had a brand, an aesthetic and a clear creative point of view. So it was easy for Nakata to create music that fit that. And it also provided an outlet for him to be more kooky and fun and at a time when his sound leaned cool and ‘cool’ was his reputation. And even with Kyary he never really lost his cool factor. Because even when he was being silly musically, that shit still sounded cool. And the fact he wasn’t trying to be cool WAS in fact really cool.

Nakata’s music for Kyary felt like he was scoring for the movie that was her career. But as time went on and Kyary’s career shifted, her popularity waned, she got older and she became less of a character — her creative point of view and who Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is felt less clear. The world of Kyary was a lot less vivid, so it became harder for Nakata to score for it. This isn’t a brand new frontier for Kyary and Nakata. They’ve been here for a while. Being here is why Japamyu and Candy Racer turned out they way they did. Two albums where you could hear Nakata sorta had a direction, but didn’t fully commit to it either time, because Kyary was still in this place of figuring out who she was / is and didn’t seem to use Nakata’s musical direction as a guide. The sound and theme of Japamyu really should have been video game music and chiptune. And Candy Racer should’ve been a 90s dance pop album. But that’s a whole other post.

I think a problem with Kyary’s music is that much like Perfume, Nakata doesn’t seem to have much of a direction for it sonically. Songs like “Focus Focus” sound more ‘grown-up’ compared to what we got on Moshi Moshi Harajuku, Nanda Collection and Pika Pika Fantajin. But we got songs like this on Japamyu, which was a snapshot of Kyary crossing over from young girl into young adult. So “Focus Focus” makes Kyary and Nakata feel like they are both kinda stuck. Something that Nakata used to do with Kyary’s music was to write songs about things she was experiencing and going through. Each album and string of singles feel like they were chronicling Kyary’s life as she was experiencing it. Kyary had a baby and got married since her last album. So to have a song about cameras with no camera tie-in feels so odd and random. Where is the song about Kyary being a mother? Looking after a child? Being a wife? And it doesn’t have to be heartfelt, deep or even very true to life. Even if the song is fictitious and dramatises everything, it is something relevant to her which also feels new for us, is still on brand and fun and gives Nakata something to work with. But, nope.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Focus Focus | ASOBIMUSIC

“Focus Focus” also suffers from Nakata’s structure-itis, which has been a problem of his productions for the past decade. Nakata’s songs start and then they end. There is no real journey you’re taken on through a lot of his productions anymore. “Focus Focus” is 4 minutes long and yet it doesn’t really go anywhere. It has a verse chorus verse structure and a bridge. But the bridge — whilst promising — feels kinda empty and delivers no real pay off. And there is no real build up to it either. So, it just…arrives and then meanders and then…it’s gone.

One thing about Nakata is that his production is always going to be decent enough. Even the songs he’s produced that I didn’t particularly like, I could never say that they were badly produced. “Focus Focus” sounds good, but I know it could sound better and that Nakata could easily do better. There is a really good song here, but this version that we ended up with feels a bit half-arsed. The song feels like it’s always at a 5. And when it tries to go for an 8 or a 9 with a cute breakdown during the bridge, it just can’t get there and bottoms out at a 6.

Kyary is also in that place that Perfume were in for years, where Nakata just isn’t caring enough about vocal production. And it took Perfume working with somebody else to produce their vocals to give us something a bit different, which is closer to what we should have been getting years ago. Kyary needs to be doing more with her voice. She can’t be out here singing songs in 2026 the same way she was singing them in 2011. And Nakata can’t be taking the same vocal approach now that he was taking back then either. There is SO much space in “Focus Focus”. And if Nakata is unable to fill it with music, then he should fill it with Kyary’s vocals. Her whispering ‘Focus, focus’. Her singing layered ‘Ahhhh’s. Chop the shit out of her vocals. Hire a DJ to scratch that shit. SOMETHING. Like, Nakata used to be good at playing around with and manipulating vocals in a way which gave his songs breadth. I don’t get why he acts like he can’t do that shit anymore.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Focus Focus | ASOBIMUSIC

Nakata does his strongest work when he has a theme to work with. So this whole ‘Let’s just make random songs approach’ doesn’t really work when you have Kyary who isn’t sure of where she’s at creatively right now and is looking to Nakata. And Nakata doesn’t really know either, because he’s used to Kyary giving him something to go on. So “Kuru Kuru Harajuku”, “Genjitsu-Touhi” and “Focus Focus” have this sense of ‘Well, I guess’. And that’s how I feel about “Focus Focus” specifically. It’s fine, I guess. The song is not bad by any means. It grows on me the more I listen to it, and the music video made me like it a bit more. But every time I listen to “Focus Focus” I’m left thinking, ‘This needed to be so much more’. Kyary and Nakata feel like they’re stuck in place. And they need to focus focus on where they’re at individually and together as creative partners to figure out how to move forward.

---

💿 Album reviews: Nanda Collection | Pika Pika Fantajin | Japamyu | Candy Racer
📀 Special Edition: Super Pamicom