There’s been a flurry of activity in the Kyary universe, and I’ve been limping into action to keep up with it. There is no video for this song yet, so this is just audio, but it shows the cover for the just released album Nanda Collection. The song is Noriko to Norio (Noriko and Norio). Noriko is a girl’s name, Norio a boy’s name (like Patricia and Patrick).
This crazy, lopsided, hypnotic lullaby seems to be influenced by Indonesian Gamelan music, or at least that’s what I seem to be hearing: the rhythm, the timbre, the same pentatonic scale (do mi fa so ti). With an Okinawan sanshin thrown in there, too.
Lyrics:
Nori nori norikaeru
Nori nori norikaeru
Nori nori norikaeru
Nori nori nori nori yoAtchi no hito wa kotchi ni oide
Sotchi no hito mo kotchi ni oide
Kimi no basho wa dono atari?
Sotchi no hito mo kochiragawa e oideFu~uū
Noriko, Norio
Atchi no hito wa kotchi ni oide
Sotchi no hito mo kotchi ni oide
Arara moshikashite kigatsuichatta?
Kimi mo horara kochiragawa e oide
What does this thing mean in English?! With the first verse there’s kyaracteristic Kyaryan wordplay on the word “Nori”: “nori” means ride, “norikaeru” means transfer, and then there’s Noriko and Norio. Anyway, here’s a crude and tentative translation.
ride ride transfer [alternative: Nori Nori Nori frog]
ride ride transfer
ride ride transfer
Hey, ride ride ride ride!People over yonder, come over here
People over there, you come over here, too
Where is your spot?
People over there, come over to this side, tooFuuu
Noriko, Norio
People over yonder, come over here
People over there, you come over here, too
Uh-oh. You over there, did you catch on to my trick?
Hey you, come over to this side, too
A lot lost in translation. Or maybe not? Here’s the same song adapted for a campaign for au (a mobile phone service). Additional wordplay: “kaeru” (in “norikaeru”) means change but “kaeru” also means “frog.”
And as an extra special Kyary bonus, here’s a totally different song adapted to a KFC Krushers CM I had not seen yet.
Hypnotic poylchromatic hallucinogenic lullaby is the perfect formula for Kyary. Good to see her getting back to it.
Exit question: Are Kyary’s 15 minutes just about up, or is she just getting started?
What Do You Do for an Encore? 
I love the way this rolls off the tongue: “Hypnotic poylchromatic hallucinogenic lullaby”. When I get my big break will you write an awesome-sounding blurb for me? 🙂
Of course!
The vibrant prose of this fresh, new fictional voice is not easy to describe; it breaks upon the readerly consciousness like a quadrophonic polychromatic lullaby, drawing one in, and never quite letting one go . . . deeply compelling . . . stubbornly evocative . . . wickedly engaging . . .
By the way, did you see you have some competition in the “like” space here (thanks, by the way!).
Don’t worry about Angie and Naomi. They’re bots.
Around here, we follow the hypothetical arty jazz album cover principle. We don’t write blurbs when you get your big break. We write um before you get your big break. Just so they’ll all be lined up and ready.
You’re so good! “wickedly engaging” – meow! Love it!
Did you like that? We can come up with more adverb/adjective combos in time for your book launch!
. . . the protagonist is alarmingly sympathetic . . . vivdly electrifying prose . . . electrifyingly vivid narrative . . . the plot is both wickedly engaging and engagingly wicked . . .
Amb, I’ve almost got it to the stage now where we can perfect a book blurb algorithm and automate this whole process. What do you think?
1) Pick any element of fiction, for instance, “characters”
2) Pick two contradictory adjectives, for instance, “hilarious” and “poignant”
3) put either in front of the other, and change the first to an adverb, like “poignantly hilarous” or “hilariously poignant”
4) Add to the literary element in a sentence fragment with elipses “. . . characters that are poignantly hilarious . . .” or “. . . characters that are hilariously poignant . . .”
5) Alternately, use both pairs together! “. . . Amb’s characters are at once poignantly hilarious and hilariously poignant . . .”
Repeat steps with different literary elements, then paste them all onto the book cover!
Now THAT seems like a very sound strategy to me! I like it, I like it a lot.
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You have a gift here with your blurb algorithm. I will have to practice and see what I come up with. Thank you!
Thanks, Fannie! If we get a programmer, we can get instant book blurb app up and running. Which would be really cool because it would be, like, zero exertion.
Now that would be something.