Inshouha is a J-pop group comprised of Mica (keyboard/vocals) and Miu (guitar/vocals), in their own profile formed vaguely in 2010 in Osaka. After a break for a year, they increased activity in 2013 with their first mini-album and more releases. In analysis of their latest PV BEAM! I was unable to get translated lyrics, but the imagery tells a fairly clear story to interpret. In the vein of their first clip SWAP this PV is an animated tour de force, this time dropping the viewer into a story in progress as we open on the
remains of a decimated city under the track title – BEAM! -
rendered in a stylized logo.
Two shadowy figures walk towards each
other from either side. The style of the animation is a strange
paste-work collage, as we see militaristic command centres watching
the action, populated by animal-men. The ladies mic-check on headsets as the tune starts funky, seen by an over-sized mustachioed Koala General on the black side and the white are
commanded by a Bird being. The opponents are revealed as Mica dressed
in white emitting purple energy beams and Miu in black wielding blue
power. The two run through the ruined city and shoot beams from their
heads at each other, we see them go head to head and the BEAM! title appears in the lower corner.
The
title at the start is standard PV fare, but the reappearance in the
screen corner coupled with the fight already underway are a clear
homage to the commercial breaks of anime. The details of the conflict
are unclear, but from the scope and speed of the action the intensity
is clearly high.
Around 35 seconds in, following this
'break' in the action, the scene changes to a run-down looking
establishment as more animal-men walk by – a wounded dog and a
shirtless hippo. We see the girls in purple and blue, hooded and
playing music in the street. The vocals have a sorrowful quality as the koala gets a shoeshine and
dangles some cash, then strolls away with the bill out as a taunt of
sorts. The scene shifts to the subway and the girls pick-pocket a
tiger, and run joyfully through the streets with their ill-gotten
gains. As they run, the shot pans up to see the city grow up, a
smooth indication of the years going by. The girls are all grown up,
and playing their music in a club now, Mica on keyboards and Miu on
guitar, joined by support drum and bass. We see a headline that
war
is on as a club-patron reads a newspaper, the crowd seemingly thins out from the conflict. There's a bombing, and we see an explosion as
the title comes up again in the corner for an implied ad-break. From
the interaction with the koala as children, the character takes on a
sinister tone and his standing in the plot is well established. The
state of the surroundings in both time-frames shows a world in
perpetual turmoil, but things take an even more serious turn from here.
The girls trudge across a tundra,
accompanied by more animal-men, through a snowy landscape as war
continues around them. The group is stopped by General Koala and his
men, who demands cash ($500 000? Perhaps they're entering America?)
and the girls check their wallets to find themselves lacking the
funds. They're split up, and taken to separate compounds, but
subjected to the same experiments either way via bizarre
“electro-helmets.” There's a training montage, and we see Mica
training with the white-clad soldiers and Miu running through
black-
dressed boot camp. We see them as rank and file soldiers, and the
title flashes again as we see the earth spin in the background and
the two girls saluting from either side. The twosome has been pulled
directly into the conflict that's framed their lives pursuing music,
now serving alongside the animal-men in a battle without clear reason
– perhaps a symbol for the wars of mankind overall.
Near the 1:55 mark the action returns
us to the opening battle, the reason less vague than before. The
girls run and shoot beams at each other in a flurry of action, and
then conjure instruments with their energy. The fight scene becomes a
battle of synth versus guitar, calling to my mind conflict between punk
and new wave. The title appears again, and the scene
shifts us back to history-mode. We see Mica on the front lines saved
from gunfire from a bird-man on her side, and the red thread of fate
appears on her finger and extends to him as he's cut down by Miu's
shots. Mica cries out and grabs a massive gun, firing on Miu, who
wears what appears to be an officer's
Serious augmentations are in store for
the girls, as they're strapped into chairs and a sinister array of
drills, claws and pokers slide into frame to perform some strange
surgery. The music gets seriously dream-like; the command centres reveal animal-men as subjects to the
treatment as well, and the squads are seen marching through the
wrecked city in black and white short dresses. The scene breaks into
the action as in the intro, accompanied by their cohorts on either
side this time. General Koala watches and the BEAM! Title shows up
again for a break in the action. The city battle shows the
instrumental portion, Mica joined by bass and Miu with drums, and
beams fly all
The clip is an entertaining array of
imagery that could be taken as allusion to cartoon conflict, as in
popular anime, or perhaps a commentary on global conflict in general.
The fact that either side subject their soldiers to the same bizarre
treatments make it difficult to cast one as the 'bad guy', but the
koala is a clear villainous influence here. The collaboration at the
end between the sides implies that the war is a sham, concocted by
both sides to further the agenda of control. The animated style calls
to mind their prior PV while being highly dissimilar in theme. The
sounds drive the action, and the end leaves the viewer anxious for
what comes next in this show-within-a-PV. I think the frame after the
last is a pile of over-sized animal-men parts and scraps of a
dual-coloured dress the size of a skyscraper, but I doubt we'll
ever see – making the vid highly satisfying despite the ultimate
fulfillment – they're working together, and that's what counts most
of all. Sign me up for season one!
