This was pretty great. First off, I really like the song, the guitar work especially. That little guitar riff throughout is awesome. And despite having a lot of repeated stuff, like the aforementioned guitar riff, or how everyone he sings "Hey Boy", I think the song does a good job of not getting boring, like the do-re-mi part adds a good bit of variety to it, without feeling out of place.
The video is also great. For starters, I love Naoki Urasawa's artwork. But I also like how well this syncs up with the song itself, something I always look for in a music video. There's the obvious sync ups with the boys playing their makeshift musical instruments, the highlight their being when they use like coke bottles on their "guitars", got a chuckle out of me, but there's other great little things. I love that whenever the do-re-mi part comes up, the main boy is walking on some piano to simulate it. Of course, the first time it's actually a piano, the second time it's a crosswalk, which functions visually the same. The crosswalk also ties in with the Abbey Road reference that precedes the first piano. It's like the Abbey Road reference is their to showcase what might've influenced the boy to pursue music, the adults he might want to emulate, and then the second time they are adults, walking down the same road but not as the musicians they aspire to be, seemingly as 9-5 office workers.
Obviously it seems the one singer is actually the main boy, and this is him reflecting on his journey to get to this point. From them having that seem stick, to them doing the same kick move, and I think it gives a nice vibe to the song I guess. Lyrically it seems like the song is about trying to keep the boy he was in his youth alive today. Or maybe just an encouragement to any youth to keep singing, but with the context of the video my first reading is one to self. 7/10, but pretty close to an 8/10.
|