Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) OP Single – Kuso Mesorogi – Review

Review: When the OP for Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) first hit Youtube, I was excited by its biting visuals and its dark but nonetheless distinctly J-pop tune. “Kuso Mesorogi” is the the kind of music you’d expect to be featured in Death Note or Rozen Maiden, but whereas Rozen Maiden’s ALI PROJECT matches the vocals with the more mysterious tone of the rest of the music, Yousei Teikoku’s Yui Itsuki keeps her pitch high enough to sound like standard J-pop that offers a sharp contrast to the heavier elements of the music.

The flagship piece of this OP single is “Kuso Mesorogi,” a high energy song with liberal use of an electric guitar, strings, a chorus and snares. It’s the kind of music I’d expect from a rock band performing a dark church piece. When Yui Itsuki first comes in, her high pitched J-pop voice sticks out like a sore thumb; it’s as if someone inserted a few electric guitar riffs in the middle of an orchestral piece. However, by the time the song hits its stride, her vocals do nothing but enhance the experience by adding  a layer of creepiness that ends up sounding really cool. The instrumental version of “Kuso Mesorogi” extracts both the chorus and Yousei Teikoku and though it’s not as good a product as the full version, there are so many elements working in tandem in the song that it still comes across as exhilarating.

“The Creator” is cut from the same cloth as “Kuso Mesorogi;” it’s a rocking song with forceful use of electric guitar and brutal use of percussion. There’s quite a bit of strings and chorus, both of which create some of the most interesting parts of the composition. However, unlike “Kuso Mesorogi,” the vocals don’t contribute much to the overall piece. Yousei Teikoku’s singing contrasts too much with the rest of the music making the vocals feel more like something that was overlaid in a random karaoke session than something than something that was designed to be piece of a greater whole. I think that “The Creator (instrumental)” would make an exceptional piece of video game music whereas “The Creator” (the final product) is just another piece of dark J-pop.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to a single where the instrumental renditions of the song are more than just a novelty. I suppose this can lead to the argument that the instrumentals carried Yui Itsuki’s more generic vocals, but without her, there wouldn’t be the awesome section of “Kuso Mesorogi” where she counts “eins, zwei, drei”.

Rating: Good

Future Diary OP – Kuso Mesorogi