Okochama Sensou, or "Children's War" if you prefer the English title, is a song that's upbeat to the max.
Sweet Art Link: http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/wSZbbFQBGdE/maxresdefault.jpg
How upbeat is it? Well, whenever I write these reviews, I always listen to the material while composing my thoughts. However, this song was just so insanely catchy and distracting, that I got absolutely nothing down that made any sense whatsoever.
Of course, just being catchy and distracting doesn't make a song good. A good majority of the songs that are popular in the USA right now (2014) are catchy as all hell and get stuck in my head for hours...but that doesn't mean they're good. I often find myself grinding my teeth, trying to get those infectious beats out of my head so that I can get work done.
Children's War is not one of those. Though I can really get into the solid bass line and top-notch tuning of the Kagamine twins, the tune never attaches itself to my mind for very long. I know that the definition of a "catchy song" contradicts what I just said, but screw it. Any song that engages me while I'm listening to it, and leaves me alone when I'm trying to concentrate is a good song in my book.
I haven't really gone over the song itself in any sort of detail yet, so before I digress again on some other wild tangent, lets start the review. Giga-P is a producer who I've not had the pleasure of listening to before. He sings (and pretty well too), makes covers of other songs using Rin and Len, and creates original compositions like the song I'm talking about right now. He's not world-class by any means, but I enjoy his work.
Children's War, in my opinion, sells itself with the tuning. Rin and Len are portraying children in a very juvenile quarrel. They go back and forth, mocking each other in a no-holds-barred elementary school style one-up contest, each trying to out perform the other. While its stated in the beginning that they are the heirs to a wealthy family, the object of their fight isn't really clear until the middle-end. I figured that they were just typical siblings competing over who can eat the most, or be the fastest to the car or whatever. At the end though, we find that they're competing over who can be the most polite. The irony is stunning and it brought a smile to my face.
Oh yeah, back to the tuning. It really sounds like a brother and sister yelling at each other. By nature, the higher registers of Rin and even Len sound harsh without expert tuning skills, but in this song, that actually fully works to the song's advantage. Kradness did a cover of this song, and while I LOVE his voice, for the meaning of the lyrics, I'd still have to choose the original.
The music is pounding. Fantastically so, I might add. However, a lack of a real tune drops my rating for this song. It has clear, crisp beats for the verses, and a high-intensity electro-fest for the refrain (as is the norm for pop songs these days), but not a lot of variety or originality. A song doesn't need to be original to be good, but originality is definitely a plus that I'm always looking for.
7/10
A solid listen for anyone trying to stay awake or in the mood for some loud, upbeat, pulse-pounding Vocaloid music.
Until next time!
ROCK ON, FELLOW VOCALOCONNOISSEURS!
