A Coming of Age PV - Mano Erina [Song for the DATE] Review

I am so sorry if as you read this you cannot make sense of it, my writing is often incomprehensible, and since this was written over the course of several days (hey, I have a child, she needs my time too) it will be more awful than normal.

Recently Hello!Project have become pretty awesome when it comes to a great sounding single and interesting PVs, from the amazing-ness of Chou Happy Song to the edgy new Momusu single, things are looking up for the quality of H!P releases. And Mano Erina's newest single 'A Song for the DATE' is a testament to better, more cinematic, and outstanding PVs.



In this PV Mano is split into to different sides of herself White Mano, and Black Mano, and neither of these characters or personalities are good, or bad. White Mano represents (in my opinion) the younger Mano, a childish girl who isn't ready to grow up and doesn't want to change and move on to more responsibilities and a grown ups world.
Black Mano is the older much more mature side of Mano, she represents Mano's feelings of wanting to change and been seen as an adult, she wants to be taken more seriously.


Prior to watching the video, I had not seen nor heard anything of this single, I have a tendency to not listen to a release unless the full PV is revealed, especially with Mano Erina because I find her very dull. (Although her newer releases have been wonderful and seem to stick in my head, she still isn't anywhere near one of my favourite J-artists). Loading the video, I wasn't expecting to watch anything particularly brilliant.


~Review~


It started with a very electro pop tune and an auto tuned voice repeating the title over and over, the shadow of a young woman strolled across a beach holding her heels loosely to her side, smoke and what appear to be feathers dance against the dusky shades of the pink and purple sky. The girl halted her stride, and carelessly dropped her shoes onto the sand. As the heeled shoes hit the ground, the most wonderful sounding piece of music that H!P has produced began to play.

In the beginning Black Mano is tied up and seemingly unconscious, she opens her eyes, only to see someone holding up a poster of her younger self. The poster is moved away, and the holder is revealed to be White Mano.

White Mano is staring at the weak looking form of her more mature self and gives her a taunting smile, moving her hand across her face, changing her expression to a more serious one, she runs off, starting a game of cat and mouse.

Black Mano pulls herself away from her white bindings (things that are tying her to her younger self?), and gives chase to her other side.

B-Mano runs into a dilapidated area in search for W-Mano, instead she finds hundreds of posters plastered all over the remnants of buildings, upon seeing them, B-Mano rips as many of them down as she can.

(I think this scenes meaning is that B-Mano is ready to move on, but is being kept there by her other self. The remnants of buildings symbolize her career as a child, she has outgrown it, wants to move on to better, fresher grounds, White Mano tries to keep her there longer by leaving around posters or 'memories' of the good time she had as a child, and engaging her in a game of chase.)

B-Mano throws away the posters quite angrily. (I believe they were put there as a hindrance, a distraction so B-Mano doesn't catch up with W-Mano too quickly.) As she throws the posters, she catches sight of W-Mano holding up one of the many posters. (Probably trying to get B-Mano to associate good memories with her younger side). W-Mano smiles rather condescendingly again, then her expression once again changes via hand movement and she runs further into the ruins.

As B-Mano runs after W-Mano - who is quite a ways ahead of her - you get a shot of W-Mano atop a hill, making a binocular shape with her hands, spying on B-Mano. She smiles as she watches B-Mano come across more posters/memories, she then pulls her 'binoculars' away and frowns as B-Mano tears the posters, taking apart the memories W-Mano cherishes.

The next shots show W-Mano skipping away rather joyfully, and happily taunting B-Mano as she tries to catch up. I love how playful, but somehow serious these running scenes are, B-Mano runs frantically, she is hurried, whilst W-Mano seems to really be enjoying herself.

As B-Mano runs out of breath, she stops and looks around, apparently having lost sight of W-Mano, she gives a little smile, probably realizing how silly their game of chase is. At this point I have a feeling that B-Mano knows she needs to accept her childish side to be able to fully grow up, she can't just forget her old self.

She starts running again and comes to face a projected recording of W-Mano changing her expressions again.
(I am not sure why W-Mano keeps smiling and then she swiftly changes her mood. I can't think of any solid reasoning for this. Maybe she is showing B-Mano how happy she is as her younger self, and then gives her a serious frown to show that growing up will cause her unhappiness? This is the only thing I can think of, if anyone has any other ideas please comment with it)

White Mano starts singing along with Black Mano and the lyrics are displayed across the screen as they do so, I would love to know what it actually says, it might actually reveal more about the video.

You get a shot of the white bindings that Black Mano were tied to, and it has White Mano's dress and shoes bound to the ribbons. I take this to mean that after the realization that she needed to accept every side of herself, B-Mano and W-Mano become one and are the entity known as Mano Erina. From here on out, White Mano is no longer shown in the PV.

We get to see the posters of Mano burning, this is possibly a sign of big changes in Mano Erina's career, her singles are becoming more serious, each day she is maturing, the youthful era seems to be turning into the very ash that disperses along the shoreline at the beginning and ends of the video.

Mano is shown walking along the beach holding her heels, just like the beginning of the PV, she looks out onto the horizon, reflecting on her feelings and the choices she's made.

The PV ends with Mano on the beach, singing and swaying to the music, feathers floating around her and the sunset shining behind her form.

~Conclusion~

I'm very surprised at how this turned out, I never expect much from Mano Erina, and as previously stated have never found her interesting, but this PV is absolutely amazing. I'm stunned at how good it turned out, especially from a Hello!Project piece - not to say I don't like H!P videos, but they definitely are... cheap and tacky. When I found out that the PV was directed by an actual movie director I was not surprised at all, it makes much more sense than it being directed by someone from Hello!Project.
Some of the shots in the video were amazing, especially the shots of Erina tied up, and the chase scenes. The director makes ruined building look great rather than grungy. Overall the PV was beautifully done, a shining example of cinematography.

In my opinion this is a 'coming of age' single for Mano, there is heavy symbolism for making a decision, casting off doubts, and moving forward in life.
The video is a very good way of showing an inner struggle, she has fond memories as a child, but at the same time she realizes she must take a step forward in her life, and although it is scary, it is the best decision for her. I loved the story line behind it (or the story line I assumed as I watched).

In my opinion this is the best PV that UFA has ever released. The song was upbeat and catchy, definitely something that sticks in your head for the rest of the day, the slight electronic sound gave it a nice edge and there wasn't so much of it that the lyrics became incomprehensible, which is always a good thing.

I really adore this single, and desperately hope that Hello!Pro keep up the good work they've been doing so far, maybe then we will see some better sales and higher ranking in the singles charts.

I would love it if someone could possibly translate, i'm still god awful at Japanese.

Once again, sorry for anything incomprehensible or badly phrased. My writing is often all over the place and can get very confusing.