Ryugujo are my favorite 2023 debut in any music market. I find the concept of a boy group taking on Avu-chan’s genre-bending, gutsy alt-rock very compelling and unlike anything else on the market. Part of the fun is watching them grow into this challenge. You don’t simply sing an Avu-chan track, nor are there many young adults who have the gravitas to pull it off. Ryugujo will get there eventually, but for now it’s a blast to hear them aim for such delirious heights.

SHORYU is the ending theme to their currently-airing vampire drama (more of a soap opera, really) and carries the cinematic heft you might expect. It’s messier than September’s excellent 2 MUCH, and more of a challenge to sell. I mean, what other boy group pauses mid-song for an interlude of weird animal calls? These eccentricities fit snugly within the track’s bizarre soundscape, which exists somewhere between lurching machinery and orchestral bombast. The guys spend more time grunting and groaning than singing, and I mean that as a compliment. As I said, you can’t sing a song like this. You have to channel it.

I’ll admit that even I was thrown the first time I heard SHORYU. Its structure is weird, its performance is deliberately chaotic and sloppy. At times, its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production threatens to cave in on itself. But the way that chorus slams in at the finale of every episode of Himitsu wo Motta Shounentachi has me coming back for more. It’s not the best song Ryugujo have released this year, but I’m infinitely fascinated by it.

Grade: B+