Nishino Kana – MAKE UP

Nishino Kana promoting MAKE UP

Artist: Nishino Kana Product Code: SECL-750 Release Date: 2009.01.28 Genre: Pop Highest Ranking: #43 Label: Sony Music Entertainment Format: CD First Press: Alternate CD jacket

MAKE UP is Nishino Kana’s 4th single. This single is a follow-up of her 3rd single Style., which was the 2nd ED of the popular anime series SOUL EATER. Kana isn’t really popular despite being her 4th single. It posted at rank #43 in JBOOK (not sure about ORICON) during the first day of release. 3 songs from this single are for the newly released animated movie and series Chocolate Underground (January 31st), which serves as a 20 minute extension to the 13 6-minute episodes on the internet.

Her presence is slowly rising as she performed a TV live on Music Japan last week. She also recently announced her first tour to celebrate her 20th birthday. Best of all, her MAKE UP -First Press- is sold out.

This single is produced by 12 different artists combined, including the well-known Ito Yuna and the recently retired artist, melody..

1. MAKE UP

Nishino Kana promoting MAKE UP

MAKE UP is an upbeat song that is intended for girls with broken hearts. It really provides a sense of motivation. Her cute voice is really addicting to listen and it’s hard to get sick of it. The English that is being added to the song definitely does not sound broken because she previously learned English when she was little and went to America. The use of the vocoder in the middle of the song adds an interesting twist, but I would probably prefer if she sticks back to her normal voice.

The music and arrangement is by Shimizu Shota, Crystal Kay, RSP, ET-KING, and Maeda Kazuhiko.

You can watch her live performance here: link

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2. Kirari

Kirari is an insert song for the movie Chocolate Underground. SiZK from ★STAR GUiTAR arranged the music while the song itself is by Ito Yuna, Sowelu, BENNIE K, TATE＆MARKIE, melody., and Heartsdales.

The background music arrangement is excellent as well as the lyrics and Kana’s voice flow perfectly. Her voice sounds so “angelic” during the ending, that I fell in love with it instantly. However, I can’t really imagine Heartsdales would be involved since they disbanded more than a year ago and they produce R&B and Hip Hop, not ballads like this. BENNIE K, not really, because they’re about the same as Heartsdales. I can see TATE＆MARKIE involved in the non-chorus section while Ito Yuna, melody. and Sowelu would be involved with the overall piece.

This is definitely a good ballad from Kana. Now if the songs were written by her, how would they turn out?

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3. Sherie

Sherie is the only track that’s not for Chocolate Underground and produced by different artists. It is an upbeat and fast-paced song. Definitely a good song, but it kinda gets on your nerves when she keeps saying the name Sherie and over-uses it just to make it sound like it’s flowing along with the background music.

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4. MAKE

This song is probably a random addition. It is the ending song for Chocolate Underground internet anime series (yes, notice how I say series, not the movie). The lyrics are different, ranging from the opening, the chorus and basically everything else. The background music stays the same though. Once again, it is composed by the same people who composed MAKE UP. I personally like MAKE UP better because it sounds more energetic in the beginning and end. The change in lyrics also ruined the flow of one part of the song, unlike MAKE UP which was probably the original version, probably they just become lazy and decided not to adjust the background music.

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Conclusion:

Overall, it’s the best single from Kana. Now only if Sony bothers to give her some publicity, she would definitely become a Top 20 in ORICON weekly. Kana is irresistibly cute and everyone would easily love her voice if they hear it at least once. She has made a significant improvement ever since her first single “I” was released last year, she has so much potential at the age of 19 (she turns 20 on March 18). I hope she will become more successful in the future…maybe her luck will kick in when she turns 20. Happy Birthday Kana!

P.S.

As I’m typing this, MAKE UP has been played 49 times non-stop in repeat. It’s almost as addicting as Perfume – Secret Secret.

Overall Rating:

CD

CD Tracklist

1. MAKE UP
2. Kirari
3. Sherie
4. MAKE

About the author

1337rice is a moderator for Channel-Ai and Nigihana. He spends most of his time listening to music while working on various of things such as photography, writing articles, homework and even during his sleep! His favourite artists include Perfume, Monkey Majik, and of course, Otsuka Ai.