Kyary Pamyu Pamyu & Sai and Co [[[[

Well, now! Kyary’s definitely getting her groove back with “Sai & Co.”

I missed this, which means I’m at least three months behind on my Kyary kyoverage.  (Hey, kyome on! Her previous video was “Crazy Party Night”, fer Pete’s sake. Don’t judge me!)

Yasutaka Nakata’s music here is bouncy and totally acceptable as a Kyary vehicle, even it it may not be up there with his best Kyary tunes. The visual work is superb, especially with the scaled figures, the kyolors, the set, the kyoreography, the overall imaginative explosion, and Kyary as giant stick figure manikin drummer. The pastiche of tropes suggest that Kyary’s going Pixar on us, though maybe not full Pixar. Think Toy Story meets Monsters Inc. meets “Babes in Toyland” meets Amazon Prime meets . . . Gravity? You decide.

And Kyary looks kyute! Especially in the knee length China dress for the ramen bowl dance at the end. Our International Kyary Kyuteness Index (IKKI) approaches “Fashion Monster” and “Furisodeshon” levels. You go, Kyary!

Lyrics in English, Romanized Japanese, and all Japanese can be found on tumblr here at kyarychan.

It must have been a challenge, given Kyary’s kyaracteristic wordplay, to make the translation work. “Saikou” is “highest” or “best,” but writing the title as “Sai & Co” (with the video working on a factory/shipping center premise) means that the “Co” also plays on “company” (Sai & Company, Inc.). kyarychan translates this as “The & best” in the lyrics . . . but that just plain doesn’t make any sense!

But let’s not get too picky. I’m not sure I could have done any better. Heck, I can’t even write Sai & Co properly in the title, because my theme (Vertigo) doesn’t allow ampersands; it turns them into turntables. I retaliated by putting in left brackets, which turn into falling men.

Be all that as it may, this is definitely two thumbs up! Welcome back, Kyary.