In between The Bias List‘s more sprawling countdowns, the end of the year is a great time to spotlight some things that don’t quite fit into my established posts. And sometimes, these things arrive at the very end of the year.
Buzz Rhythm Live ’23 was a three-day festival in early November, tied to a popular Japanese music show. Recently, they aired all three days — including personal favorites like Queen Bee, XY, Nogizaka46 and The Rampage (among many more). However, it was Ryugujo’s set that blew me away.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. I’ve heralded them as the most exciting group of 2023 more than once on this blog, and that becomes more apparent with each move they make. The group was formed on survival school series “Year 0, Class 0” (unsurprisingly, my favorite bit of programming all year) and is mentored by Queen Bee’s Avu-chan. She also writes their music and is the driving force behind their overall concept and image.
It’s almost frightening how much these guys have grown in just over half a year. If their trajectory continues at this pace, there’s no telling how far they could go. This set has them performing every single song they’ve released thus far (plus a fierce cover of my favorite song of 2023) in front of their largest audience yet. Their music is a hodgepodge of traditional idol pop, punk rock attitude and musical theater. All of that, plus more, is on display in these twenty-five minutes.
Having followed the group since their inception, I’m just so impressed with their stage presence, vocal character and — most of all — power of expression. There’s a palpable sense of humanity in their performance, which feels so much more refreshing than smoothed-out, filter-driven perfection. They’re clearly pulling from Avu-chan’s bag of tricks, but it’s so exciting to see that presented in the framework of a boy group. Somehow, the eccentricities feel even more compelling within these constraints because we’re watching the norm be pulled apart bit by bit.
Anyway, I encourage you to give the video a try whether you’re already a fan or not. You’re probably going to be hearing a lot about Ryugujo on this blog because I find them such an exciting prospect. They’re the act I’m most excited about at the moment.
To play the video, just click on the image below. I promise there’s no spam or virus! WordPress just doesn’t allow me to embed videos from Bilibili (unfortunately).