TWS “Nice to see you again” Review

Sorry guys, a little late to the show here. But anyway: TWS has always stood out to me because of their unique boy-group concept–it even, in my opinion, challenges conventional masculinity, which gets me very excited. But even so, I have my qualms over them, and I’ve always been on the fence about TWS…unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), after listening to “Nice to see you again,” I remain crouching on the fence.

Concept/Message: 3.5

The English major in me that loves social commentary always lets out a little sigh when I see a song that doesn’t really try to articulate a specific message or create specific commentary…but “Nice to see you again” is classic TWS “cute guy”-concept-coded, which is such an interesting concept that I think it alone fulfills my desire to see songs create social commentary. Specifically, while there are multiple guy group concepts out there, I feel like a ton of them have this ultimate goal of portraying guys as “cool”–they want to portray them as strong, sexy, powerful, or even aggressive. While I’m not saying there’s really anything wrong with that, I really do commend TWS (and other similar guy groups) for adopting a much cuter, youthful, or, dare I say–effeminate–concept. Not only does it stand out from other groups, it also ensures that multiple different and nuanced portrayals of masculinity are present in popular culture–a phenomenon that I hope happens for both masculinity and femininity so that the varied experiences of all men and women are heard and validated.

That being said, the reason why I’m always “on the fence” with TWS is that I feel like they’re always on the verge of taking their concept too far. Like, do we really need to dress all the guys in this crisp, sunshine white that lowkey hurts my eyes to get this concept across? We do not need to portray these guys with these angelic undertones to challenge conventional masculinity. We do not need to sacrifice authenticity for the sake of commentary.

Visuals: 3

Okay, this video seems quite simple and straightforward at first…but why is it literally breaking my brain??

So I literally searched it up to try and make sense of this video–apparently, in Japan, the school year begins in April and the first term ends on July 20. After July 20 they have summer break. And towards the end of the video, they show a calendar that shows the date July 20, which would mean it’s the end of a school term and the start of summer break.

So why is this song called “Nice to see you again”? Isn’t that something you say to people when a new school term starts and you see people again after not seeing them for the whole summer, not when a term ends?

And if it is July 20–why does it seem like the start of the school year in the beginning of the year, with everyone yawning and getting their new supplies out? Why do we pan to an almost empty school building later, as if it’s the end of the school year?

I am very confused. I think it might also be the fact that I don’t understand Japanese that’s destroying me a bit over here. But that said–I liked the scenes in this video. I liked the pretty motif of the blue paper airplanes along with the glass lanterns hung in the tree. I think we can always trust TWS to deliver pretty music videos.

Lyrics: no score

Can’t give a score when so little English was used. I do want to comment a bit on the translations that I found, though. I’m not sure if the quality of the translations is playing a factor here, but reading them is heightening my confusion. The music video seems to be about a platonic sort of love–the joy of seeing classmates again after a long time of not seeing them, something like that. But the lyrics are straight up verging on a romantic sort of love. They’re singing about writing each others’ names next to each other on paper airplanes? I feel like if someone else did that for me, I’d lowkey have to start the “what are we” conversation…it is instances like these where I wish I could understand the original language of the song.

Music: 3

Very upbeat and energetic, as TWS always delivers. I like this sound–it’s always pleasant–but I do have a gripe with it. Do you guys know how in sheet music, they write “forte” under the notes if they want you to play it loudly, and “piano” under the notes if they want you to play it quietly? Well, I feel like if you transcribed “Nice to see you again” into a sheet of music notes, you’d get “forte, forte, forte” written literally…under every single line of notes. There is no break in their volume. It not only hurts my ears a bit, but verges on becoming dogmatic–as if they’re screaming this bright sound into their listeners’ ears to convince them of the “cute boy” concept. I needed them to take some “piano” breaks.