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HINOI Team seems to be a newcomer in AVEX Traxs lineup and have so far only released two albums, both of which would have hardly made up one whole if combined. Worse yet, only one of their songs is original (King Kong). From the legendary Night of Fire to the ancient (1989) Sing Na Na Na they seem to be hell bent on creating a "ParaPara version" of the good Eurobeat classics.
This time around I'll do a short review of two music videos, based of NIKOs Night of Fire and Tri-Stars Ike Ike.
HINOI TEAM
Hinoi Team - Ike Ike
I first heard it on the Euromach series and I loved it and it got stuck in my head. So it was only natural that I recognized when I heard it (or rather HINOI Teams version of it) as the ending song in the anime Ichigo 100%, this was also the first time I got in contact with HINOI Team.
The first thing you notice about this video is that the budget, that is next to nothing. The whole thing somehow screams cheap and the terrible CG lights that pop out don't really help improve this feeling. However the good looking girls from HINOI Team do a fantastic job at reverting your vision. This being a ParaPara version they are of course doing the standard routine but the camerawork, or rather the speed of it, makes it look less stupid than usual and that I appreciate.
Moving on to the thing that matters, the actual song. I really liked the original Ike Ike and I must say I like this one just as much, if not more. The Japanese lyrics they replaced the original ones with sound really good (even if I can't understand much) and it's almost scary how well they go with the original melody. But most importantly they have managed to retain that awesome explosive hi-energy happy go lucky feeling of the whole thing, and in Eurobeat, thats half of the job done, right? They haven't done much to the melody itself, probably speed it up a bit but thats about it. It's not such a bad thing though.
8/10
HINOI Team with Koriki - NIGHT OF FIRE
Even if this ParaPara version of, the now almost legendary, Night Of Fire can't match the level of NIKOs original, it is still however, even if for nothing else, worth watching just because of the incredibly hot members of HINOI Team. Their "arabic harem" outfits really work, at least for me.
Then we have this Koriki character, who I would have done fine without. He doesn't really work as a comedic relief or for what ever reason the people at AVEX Trax decided to have a fat half naked guy screaming something from time to time (mostly "yeah") in the otherwise decent performance by HINOI Team. Not to mention his "talks" in which he sounds (and acts) like he is drunk, surely someone was running out of ideas? The contrast between Koriki and girls is in fact so large that it almost hurts.
On a more technical note the fast cut camera work, like in Ike Ike, helps the otherwise lame ParaPara dance look kinda cool, even to me. Then we have the budget which is of course not highest possible (yet probably higher than in Ike Ike) but again I assure you, you won't be looking at the CG, the set or Korikis outfit.
As for the song, it's about what you'd expect after hearing their version of Ike Ike. The original lyrics have been replaced with Japanese ones that fit the original melody surprisingly well. The music has probably also been remade but with such conservatism that it's almost impossible to notice. If anything, I'd say the synth has been toned down.
If I were asked which of the two I think they did a better job with, I'd say Ike Ike. They might have been about the same if not for this Koriki guy, then again when taking on a project like Night of Fire the bar is pretty high to begin with. While they managed to retain the energy from the original Ike Ike, this Night of Fire sounds just a little bit less "energetic" when comparing it to the original.
6/10
