Festive Major

OCHA NORMA – “Omatsuri Debut da ze!”

Track two of OCHA NORMA’s major debut single is really the only “new” song of this release, with the lead track, “Koi no Crouching Start,” having served as the opening theme for Mayonaka ni Hello! since January of this year. As such, “Omatsuri Debut da ze!” feels like the first chance to see a different side of the group and to assess how far they’ve come since January.

Musically, I feel like I’ve been here before. Recently. Let’s see, a new H!P song with a Japanese festival theme? Check. Seamless incorporation of traditional instruments into a modern idol-pop arrangement? Check. Written by Hoshibe Sho? Check! Well, maybe not all that recently, I mean, it’s been a whole ten days since I wrote about Tsubaki Factory’s “Idol Tenshoku Ondo,” and the nuts-and-bolts analysis from that review applies to “Omatsuri Debut da ze!,” as well.

[The] arrangement deftly integrates modern pop instruments into a traditional Japanese soundscape, and Hoshibe’s lively composition likewise works traditional Asian pentatonic melodies across contemporary pop key changes in a way that smoothly ensures that the traditional is given both deference and proper respect.

Great, now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the video. Just (half)kidding, there are some differences of note, mainly that the musical arrangement of “Omatsuri Debut da ze!” is a bit less campy than Tsubaki Factory’s offering, although still solidly on the playful side of things. OCHA NORMA as a group appear to have improved their singing measurably since their introduction late last year, and while it’s always dicey to judge vocal performances from professional recordings, the group’s recent performance at NATSUZOME 2022 confirms this notion. As with Tsubaki Factory, I was skeptical that OCHA was ready for the Big Leagues and I’m happy to have once again been proven wrong. They’ve improved a lot.

The video is amusing, boisterous fun that pushes the group’s theme of “entertaining you from the comfort of your living room” explicitly. Sharan Q drummer/general Hello! Project emcee Makoto and current H!P Kenshuusei member Hana Goto have cameo roles as father and daughter watching OCHA’s performance on TV, until the group crawls through the set, Sadako style, to bring the show literally into the living room. Idol hijinks ensue, and a great time is had by all. The sets, like TF’s, are cartoonishly cheap to maximize the whimsy, and combine with the music and performance to create a near-perfect package.

This is the debut I was hoping for, and while I appreciate Up Front for saving OCHA’s best for last with this single, I’m still kind of annoyed that “Koi no Crouching Start” was included as anything other than an extra track. We should’ve gotten two new songs, not one paired with a six-month-old drama theme. Also annoying is how UF seemingly went out of their way to sabotage OCHA’s debut at every step of the release process. One day after the video for “Koi no Crouching Start” dropped, they released the video for TF’s “Yowasa ja nai yo, Koi wa,” — the follow-up to their massively popular “Adrenaline Dame” — effectively smothering all buzz for the debut of their shiny new idol group. Then “Omatsuri Debut da ze!” had to follow TF’s very similar festival-themed “Idol Tenshoku Ondo” by two weeks, eroding the novelty of the concept for OCHA and ensuring comparisons between the two. We don’t get these traditional sounding songs all that often so it’s a treat when we do, but it’s the rarity of treats that make them special.

This is all short-term nit-picking, though, because “Omatsuri Debut da ze!” is superior to “Idol Tenshoku Ondo” by nearly every measure in my estimation, and I think it will only grow in stature over the long-term. In fact, while OCHA NORMA’s debut single was handled less than optimally at the outset, both songs are great, so the annoyance engendered by the fumbled kick-off will fade by the time their sophomore single arrives, and I will likely look back on it more fondly through the soft-focus lens of elapsed time.