Caveman chic meets 1990s Tokyo street style.
In the 1990s there was a peculiar fashion trend in Japan that resulted in many Japanese girls bleaching their hair, putting on bright colored clothing, and, perhaps most notably, using tanning beds and/or make up to turn their faces and general skin color about as dark as it could get. These girls came to be known as ganguro (literally “black face” or “very black”) and although you almost certainly won’t see any ganguro gals on the streets of Tokyo these days, their impact is still felt to this day. In fact, it looks like the ganguro look, along with prehistoric fashion, was one of the main sources of inspiration for the creative team behind the Japanese idol group Denpagumi.inc’s latest music video.
Released on Saturday (6/1), the music video is for the title track of Denpagumi.inc’s upcoming album, Inochi no Yorokobi (The Joy of Life), which is set to be released on June 26. In typical Denpagumi.inc fashion, the track itself is a bit nonsensical but much like you’d expect from a song called “The Joy of Life,” the lyrics are mainly about the wonder of being alive. And yet, in the video the Denpagumi.inc members can be seen in ganguro-esque shiny golden brown face paint and clothing reminiscent of a cartoon caveman. In other words, it’s all business as usual for Denpagumi.inc who is pretty well known for its “unique” music videos.
Check out the music video for “Inochi no Yorokobi” below.
The director of this music video is named Renki Yamazaki and he has also worked on other Denpagumi.inc music videos, including the one for “Future Diver,” which can be seen below.
If you’d like to learn more about Denpagumi.inc and the group’s otaku roots, you should check out this very early Japankyo article. Aside from some background info about the group, it also features several fun music videos.
Denpagumi.inc: Nothing But Otaku In This Idol Group [Videos]
Source: Denpagumi.inc Official YouTube, Pop’n’Roll
Image: でんぱ組.inc「いのちのよろこび」MV (Denpagumi.inc Official YouTube)
