Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! VAUNDY’s second album, replica, was released earlier this month, and I am really enjoying it so far. I first heard VAUNDY a couple years ago because I fell in love with his song “Tomoshibi” from his first album strobo, but I wasn’t totally captured by the rest of the album. Since then, VAUNDY has released a LOT of singles (so many that the second disc of replica is entirely devoted to collecting them –> 19 singles!) so I’ve been looking forward to a new album. And here we are! Right now, I think I actually prefer the newer songs on the first disc, but one of the best things about VAUNDY is how freely he explores different sounds, so there’s probably something for everyone to love here.

Today I want to feature a song I heard a month or so ago when I started watching Burn the House Down (a live-action adaptation of the josei manga by Moyashi Fujisawa 1The manga tells the story of a young woman who is seeking the truth about a fire that was blamed on her mother and that destroyed her family. She suspects that another woman burned their house down in a plot to take over her mother’s life. The story is full of twists and turns, and the characters are fascinating, although I felt the ending was a bit rushed in a few areas that I suspect wasn’t the case in the manga. The show is on Netflix, so check it out if you’re interested in a thriller/mystery with excellent acting! yes this post is also a not-so sneaky way to promote more shoujosei). VAUNDY is responsible for the ending theme, and it’s so catchy that I never skipped watching it. I recognized the voice but didn’t realize it was VAUNDY until I saw the album release, so that was a happy surprise. Anyway, here’s the new music video (created by VAUNDY, who is also a visual artist) for “Carnival”:

What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?

Happy Wednesday! 🙂