Racing Into The Night - YOASOBI
For this assignment I chose a video of YOASOBI's song "Racing Into The Night" or (Yoru ni Kakeru / "夜に駆ける") that was performed in 2025 at OVO Arena Wembley in London. This J-pop hit has been my favorite Japanese song since its release in 2019. Even before I understood any of the language, I was immediately drawn to the sounds and different aspects of the song. Growing up, I've always been a Indie/R&B and EDM fan and this song is the perfect blend between the two genres.
YOASOBI is composed of two members: Ayase, the composer and producer who creates the beats and music and Ikura (real name Lilas Ikuta), who is the lead vocal and singer. Their songs are usually very upbeat and often have a cinematic feel to it which I believe helped them gain masdsive popularity in Japan and across the globe. Another famous song that YOASOBI released was called "Idol" or (アイド ) gained huge traction as it served as the opening theme to the first season of the 2023 Japanese anime series Oshi no Ko (推しの子).
Although it is still very difficult to listen to and understand many of the phrases and words used in songs, I can still very faintly recognize some of the words and sounds I've learned. Additionally, before and after the song, Ayase and Ikura speaks to eachother and talks to the crowd, and when doing so there are certain greetings and phrases that I could immediately catch and understand.
Ayase also says "Kiite" a lot, which I know is "listen" so I'm assuming he is saying please have fun listening and enjoy. So, although still extremely lacking, little things like this help reinforce the idea that my ear is slowly adapting to the language, which makes me hopeful and excited to learn more about Japan, the language and culture.
I've also been a fan of yoasobi for a bit. Yoru ni kakeru is a good one. Idol was in my top five on my spotify wrapped a year back but ever since, I've listened to a few others like Yuusha (勇者), Tabun (
ReplyDeleteたぶん), and RGB (三原色)