Ijime, Dame, Zettai (イジメ、ダメ、ゼッタイ, "Bullying, No Good, Absolutely”)

Once again I find myself struck by how suitable this week’s review is to real life events. In a week where the forum was griped by ’teasergate’ there is no better song to be discussing than Ijime, Dame, Zettai.

IDZ’s message is quite clear, bullying has no place in the modern world and should not be tolerated by anyone, anywhere. Bullying can take many forms and rears its head online, in schools and in the workplace, no age limits need apply.

“Sometimes you get hurt, sometimes you hurt someone and we all get badly hurt.”

Su-metal sings this line during IDZ’s first chorus and so became the case for us this week. I will not be discussing the issue directly after the instructions in /u/Spifffyy’s summation of events however I feel it highlights what can be music in general’s greatest strength, as well as it’s most telling weakness.

Music can illicit an emotional response unlike any other medium. Both directly and indirectly music moves people to think, to feel, to laugh and cry, to fight and feel like they can fly. Just as listening to a soaring ballad can bring you to tears, joining a fervent fandom can whip up damaging vitriol. First came Elvis, then The Beatles and The Stones, followed by The Spice Girls and now Justin Bieber, musical merits aside these artists have polarised nations and touched millions of fans world wide.

Beatlemania and Spice Mania were aptly named as that was exactly what they brought, manic behaviour. Mania as a mood can often be euphoric, as seen in many music fans. It can however escalate into darker, more violent behaviour when these same manic people feel threatened. When we experience a close, often intimate connection to our heroes, threats to the idyllic pictures we draw in our minds can cause us to act irrationally. This is sometimes manifested in the aggressive bullying of those who seek to threaten that which we have become so invested in.

In January 2016 Metro reported the abuse received by Saira Khan purely due to her referring to One Direction’s Harry Styles as “a sweetheart” for popping into a taping she was doing and then inviting him to be on her UK panel show Loose Women.

This kind of irrational, hurtful behaviour is inexcusable and damaging for all involved. Not only is the intended target hurt but often also the one who was supposedly being defended. Finally the attacker is also being poisoned by their manic behaviour which can lead to serious consequences both health wise or indeed trouble with the law. In the example above, Saira Khan is obviously upset by the vicious attacks on her and One Direction’s reputation is damaged. The perpetrators also risk potential police investigation due to their actions. Nobody wins, “…we all get badly hurt.”.

It is this senseless nature that Babymetal hopes to remove from the world with their message of love and support. “Let your pain and sadness all go outside! It's okay because I'll protect you.” Su-metal goes on to sing. This positive message is one of the most admirable things about Babymetal and their global branding and mythology. The ‘metal resistance’ they have built is all about putting your best foot forward and fighting against the wrongs of the world to make it a better place for everyone. They promote togetherness, “We are the one, together” Su-metal sings on Metal Resistance’s ‘The One’ and they engage in a feel good narrative, of respecting those around you and having the strength to face and overcome any obstacle.

IDZ is the track on Babymetal that most fully embodies this philosophy. It is a soaring epic with power metal overtones and Dragonforce like solos dotted throughout. Su-metal is prominent throughout with some of her best vocals on the album. Moa & Yui appear almost exclusively to shout out the defiant calls at the end of each chorus line (though I will say the first time they shout “Bye, bye” that is one of the cutest moments on the album). They have a much bigger presence in live performances where they play out a theatrical, choreographed battle in time to the music.

It starts with a delicate piano that runs on underneath throughout before Su-metal comes in softly humming along to the melody. As this dies away the guitar burst out the speakers, fast and intense. Su-metal howls out into a hypothetical night sky as a lead mini solo plays us into the verse. Su-metal sings with precision, perfectly pronouncing each word with care to ensure her message is clear.

The guitars are resolutely machine gun fire in their speed from verse to chorus but are augmented with slower rhythmic chord strums to fill out the chorus sections. It’s a large, all encompassing chorus with a killer hook. Su-metal is powerful and forceful with her words as an anthem of this type demands. The choreography compliments the music perfectly as the girls punch out in time to the hits of guitar and drums.

As with many of the songs on this album, with Moa & Yui being so young their voices are somewhat light here and they sound every bit their young years. In songs with the gravity of IDZ this can be a little jarring with the depth and power of the instrumentation alongside the power of Su-metal. They fit best just before the four minute mark where the piano takes centre stage again and the three girls speak out, word per word, their defiance to bullying.

The song then goes all out power metal with a growing, furious solo that sprawls out over the song before slipping into another chorus. It ends as proceedings are drawn to close with a key changed chorus and frantic, sudden finish.

MV

I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with the video for IDZ. There are many things it does well but it is also very inconsistent and at times cheesy. It has two basic ideas flowing through it, a reasonably well done atmospheric performance piece involving the girls and occasionally Babybones and a less well done narrative portion involving a stereotypical looking metalhead being bullied by stereotypical looking hip hop fans.

The first thing that strikes you about the IDZ MV is that there has been a significant increase in budget from the previous videos. Gone are the small one room sets, basic filters and cute but ultimately dodgy CGI. These have been replaced with large open landscapes, intricate and detailed set dressing and passable fire and lightning graphics. In fitting with the epic nature of the song the video when starting doesn’t fail to disappoint. The lighting throughout the video is also excellent with many warm tones and perfect highlights on the girls faces.

For the first half of the video the girls basically do their stage performance, just in a more atmospheric setting. This is great for Moa & Yui who have plenty to do as they play out their little on stage drama but it leaves Su-metal at a bit of a loose end as she basically spends three minutes just standing about while singing. While this is fine on stage for an MV it would have been nice to have her engaged a little more.

As I mentioned earlier their is a metalhead protagonist in this video but he only pops up at the very beginning, dotted around the middle and then the end of the video. He’s almost a bystander, which given he is meant to embody the spirit of the song’s message is a little lacking. To me it would have made more sense for Su-metal to play this part intercut with the performance sections. They could have maybe set these scenes in a school (Su could have worn the uniform from the Headbangya video as a wee call back) and further pushed the anti-bullying message to their peers.

After the halfway point we begin to see Babybones backing the girls in their performance set and Su-metal gains a microphone enhancing the performance angle. This is a clever move as the latter part of the song is very guitar solo heavy and a song of this type in this genre has to make the most of solo’s of the kind that feature here.

It is however a bit of a double edged sword. As i’ve said before, for me Babybone’s actors have a tendency to over act and they certainly do that here (especially the guitarist to the viewers right of the drum kit) which takes me out of the performance a little.

Moving into the four minute mark fire erupts all around our young performers as we see Moa & Yui take up guitars to mime along to the solo that dominates the next minute of the song. I’m in two minds about this. It’s certainly cute to see them shred and for a good thirty seconds they just about pull it off with quick, far away edits. However as time goes on they begin to focus more on their actual guitar fretboards and the deception is all too clear. For detractors it’s more ammo to fire and for fans it’s a cute piece of playful video, you can take it either way. I tend to flip dependant on my mood, sometimes I love it’s fun playfulness other times I think it misrepresents the girls.

Eventually as the song comes to a close a member of Babybones uncharacteristically begins to stand in front of the girls as he rocks out on the guitar. With the final note he rips off his mask to reveal he is the slighted metal protagonist from earlier. This is an unsatisfying ending however as we don’t see him stand up to his tormentors from earlier. We do see him standing back up to ‘battle on’ as it were but this is an incomplete message. With bullying you need to not only send out the message that it’s important to keep your head up but also that action needs to be taken. What that action is can be up for debate, but ultimately the video only gives the message to “not let them get to you” but doesn’t provide resolution. For all we know after enjoying himself rocking out at the end, the next day he could get bullied again.

Overall it’s not a bad video but I feel with a few better decisions it could have be a great video to match the song it represents. There is a lot of fun touches and it does have atmosphere it’s just let down slightly by a narrative aspect that is not fully realised.

So what are your thoughts, does the video do the song justice and could IDZ be the best song on Babymetal given its inspiring message? Share your thoughts in comments below!

Note: I originally said I would be announcing the results of my Wembley competition in this post but due to an unexpectedly busy afternoon this will be announced in a separate post later tonight

Part 14 on 20/03/2016, brings the penultimate issue looking at Road of Resistance. So until then…

See you!

You can find the earlier instalments of this series here:

Part 1 Babymetal Birth, Babymetal Death

Part 2 Megitsune

Part 3 Gimmie Chocolate

Part 4 iine!

Part 5 Akatsuki

Part 6 Doki Doki Morning

Part 7 Onedari Daisakusen

Part 8 Song 4

Part 9 Uki Uki Midnight

Part 10 Catch Me If You Can

Part 11 Rondo of Nightmare

Part 12 Headbangya