Once upon a time, when I was a wee J-Pop fan in junior high and high school, there was no one I loved more than Tommy Feburary6. And wasn’t there to love? She was cutey, bespeckled, hard drinking girl, who inspired by 1980s synth-pop. She sang about bus stops, while making cheerleaders head blow up, danced around with Pikachu, all while chugging a flask like inside with coated in with liquid awesome. There’s a saying that “There’s J-Pop girl groups, and then there’s Momoclo” – essentially that Momoiro Clover (now Momoiro Clover Z) is the outsider of all these “similar-sounding-and-looking” group. If so, there’s every other Japanese pop idol, and then there’s Tommy Feburary6.

But not too long ago, Tomoko Kawase decided that the character just wasn’t what she used to be, and chose instead to focus on the much less original and fun J-Rock counterpart Tommy Heavenly6. I was devastated – yes, the music wasn’t always fabulous, and somtimes the videos were too extreme, but she had always been my retort to the Ayumi Hamasaki wave of fans. So now that’s she’s finally officially back, what’s her re-debut single like? Does it live up to my nostalgia or hit sour notes all along the way? This is HOT CHOCOLAT.

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