It was clearly inevitable that we’d have to review this single, especially after Akanishi Jin took the plunge from KAT-TUN and decided to go solo. So how did he do?
Statistically, Akanishi Jin did great. His single was released last week and has reached #1 on the Oricon weekly charts with 217,000 in sales. He is also the first male artist to break 200,000 sales in the first week since Yusuke’s “Himawari” in March 2009.
Maybe it’s me, but I was totally hoping for some fun beats and talks of something sexually driven when listening to his stuff. Maybe “LOVEJUICE” and “Pinky” have rubbed off on me too much. But deep inside, I knew what I was in for. After all, these songs have already been performed live before… when he was still in KAT-TUN.
As soon as I started playing “Eternal,” better yet, as soon as I heard the title “Eternal,” I knew this song was going to be somewhat meaningful. As it turns out, it’s a ballad and Akanishi Jin and Yamashita Tomohisa (Yamapi) had already performed it as a duet before. It’s obviously very sweet just by listening to it. You don’t even need to understand what he’s singing to get the song. But after reading a translation, you realize that it’s a man singing about his lover and how special she is and how difficult it is to sometimes express his feelings to her. It’s a cute song. Nothing I’d particularly listen to more than a few times. Maybe it just needs time to grow on me.
The second song on this single is 「ムラサキ」 (Purple). Akanishi Jin has actually performed this song years ago when he was still in KAT-TUN so I guess finally releasing it is a good idea. I listened to this song one time through and I couldn’t tell what it was about. After reading the translation and getting a better idea of what the song was about, I didn’t feel that Akanishi expressed this feeling correctly while singing. I do feel his vocal ability has improved but this song wasn’t for him. He reminisces that purple sunset they saw together but he only saw sadness in her face as their relationship crumbled. I didn’t really feel the emotion that should’ve been conveyed in this song as I did in “Eternal.”
Akanishi Jin has also released the music video for “Eternal.” I’m not gonna lie, I hated it. He kinda just walked around emotionless and you can barely see his face under that hood. He also mumbled the lyrics of the song so I couldn’t even tell if he was supposed to look like he was singing or what. Definitely a throw off from what the song is about. Maybe this would’ve made a better video for 「ムラサキ」.
In a nutshell, this single is a release of two songs he never got around to releasing. I guess better late than never.
Watch the music video for “Eternal!”
Watch a live performance of「ムラサキ」 !
And just for fun, I’m throwing in an Akanishi Jin favorite of mine, “Ha ha!”
