Episode 88: Enter the Mrs. Green Apple Space (with Patrick St. Michel)

While Episode 88 isn’t G-Dragon themed, it is Mrs. Green Apple themed! Patrick St. Michel joins me to discuss the current state of J-Pop.

You can check out his previous appearances on the podcast over here—Episode 77 and Episode 42.

Patrick’s substack is over here @mbmelodies and you can also find him at the Japan Times and Scrmbl.

Some of the things we discuss include:

• The Make RIP Slyme Great Again hat, which is sold out. You may also be interested in recent K-Pop idol drama with the Make Tokyo Great Again hat and a Make Comedy Great Again hat. Alas, I don’t think any K-Pop idols managed to snag the RIP Slyme hat.

• RIP Slyme’s 2002 banger “楽園ベイベー” (Rakuen Bebe) is a classic summer song and always gets me in a good summery 2000s mode, along with Orange Range’s LOCOMOTION.

• Theory #1 of the episode—Mrs. Green Apple took over the empty slot of National Band from Arashi. For the uninitiated, Arashi went on hiatus in 2020, although they are reuniting for a farewell tour in 2026. They are very much missed and I’m extremely jealous of everyone who gets to attend a live show. Arashi were incredible innovators in large scale concert productions.

• Mrs. Green Apple are still nominally a “rock” band but have morphed into much more of a pop act. If you look at any sort of streaming chart, they absolutely crush every and all metrics. This is the sound of normie Japan:

I can only imagine going to see a Mrs. Green Apple concert would be like going to see Benson Boone. Mrs. Green Apple are firmly in the Mom Music demographic and more power to them for it because they are absolutely crushing it right now. Fans over here love to bicker over which idol group are the Kings of Japan but the answer is: None of them. Not one. It’s all Mrs. Green Apple. They recently played a concert in Seoul, Korea, that seems to have been well received. The first stop to world domination??

• Theory #2 of the episode—Everything is “女々しくて” (Memeshikute). “Memeshikute” was an unexpected hit song from novelty “air band” Golden Bomber. It was a slow burn karaoke room banger that eventually broke through to the mainstream charts and came with an easy and very memeable dance. Golden Bomber have not come anywhere close to replicating the success of that first hit but they’ve stuck around and have maintained a modest level of popularity. Today it seems like an early harbinger of the TikTok trend songs.

• We discuss Patrick’s visit to Chicago with KAF and the changing demographics of the K-Pop market in the West. I have written about this before over here and I mention it in my review of the Psychic Fever concert. Especially in the boy group markets, there has been a noticeable shift away from the demographic who consumed the trend-forward K-pop of a decade ago and towards an older and far less musically engaged and adventurous demographic...

• Asobisystem is the home of both KAWAII LAB and Kyarypamyupamyu. I’m all in on this stuff. I love it. Give me all the CUTIE STREET and CANDY TUNE.

• Patrick’s theory—Acts like Cutie Street are a response to the increasingly slick sounds and visuals of K-Pop girl groups. I don’t disagree. I like “Next Level” as much as the next person (probably a lot more than the next person, to be honest) but it’s very, very different to Cutie Street.

• What’s the difference between HANA and XG? Both are Japanese girl groups but XG operate in the K-Pop ecosystem.

• Sky-Hi from AAA has created an idol rap empire and I am here for it. (Sorry, Nene!) I love me some Sky-Hi and his posse of idol rappers. Watch him go with basically every Japanese idol rapper working today, including SixTones Juri!

• After Nakajima Kento left timelesz (formerly Sexy Zone) they were down to three members and decided to reboot themselves with a K-Pop style audition show. It’s available on Netflix and is excellent. The last song in the show, however… well, I’ll let you listen to get my opinion on it.

• We get into the Nene vs Sky-Hi/Chanmina feud. Sky-Hi has since released a response track to Nene’s diss track.

• Check out “Teriyaki Beef”!

• Idol rap can be culturally insensitive, especially when the idol has no roots in hiphop or context for what they’re copying. Most of the time it ends in extreme cringe although sometimes, on occasion, you get something that’s really cute.

• Nakai Masahiro, ex-SMAP, got completely canceled. Kokubun Taichi from Tokio has followed, although nobody knows what for. Since recording, Tokio announced they were disbanding.

• Gackt: Correct on “Cool Japan” but maybe not a paragon of virtue.

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The songs played are:

1. “Breakfast” by Mrs. Green Apple (Official MV)

2. “楽園ベイベー” by RIP Slyme (Official MV)

3. “Just Romantic” by A.B.C-Z (Official MV; Do yourself a favor and watch it!!!!)

4. “クスシキ” by Mrs. Green Apple (Official MV; Probably my favorite Mrs. Green Apple song because it reminds me of Gesu no Kiwami Otome a bit.)

5. “Power” by G-Dragon (Official MV; What? Like I wasn’t going to play GD in Episode 88???)

6. “かわいいだけじゃだめですか？” by CUTIE STREET (Official MV)

7. “倍倍FIGHT!” by CANDY TUNE (Official MV)

8. “Rose” by HANA (Official MV; LOVE them!)

9. “Rock This Party” by timelesz (Official MV)

10. “Owari” by Nene (Official MV)

11. “チーム友達” by Chiba Yuki (Official MV; he did end up collabing with Megan Thee Stallion)

12. “Vanilla” by Gackt (Like I’m going to pass up a chance to slide this in an episode. Check it out live!)

13. “Barrier” by SixTones (Official MV)

14. “ギラギラサマー” by Naniwa Danshi (Official MV; a slice of classic STARTO summer magic!)

15. “Team Tomodachi” by HOLOLIVE (Official MV)