Top 10 Best Nogizaka46 Under Music VIdeo

Hello and welcome to another new post. Its been a while since i made a top 10 list (its been a while since i made a post in general, still waiting for that Keyaki 9th single), and because i've got some free time recently, i decided to make some new post. I was thinking long and hard about what i wanted to make, then i decided if i want to make something, might as well make it about something that i really like. And one thing that i really like is the Nogizaka46 Under members. So that's why this and a few of the upcoming post will be about the Nogi under members.
For this post, i want to make a top 10 rank of the best music video for an Under song. Videography have always been one of my passion, and i'm fortunate enough to be able to both learn and work in the film making industry, so i think i can give some insight on how these music video we're made both from a technical and also creative stand point. I will only look at the quality of the music video and not the song itself, because i have a separate list where i rank the top 10 Under Song. I will take into consideration the quality of the video, the creative aspect of the video, and also some stuff that i find interesting and worth to talk about from the video. Also i will say, this is MY list and MY personal opinion, i'm pretty sure a lot of people will disagree with me, so if you have anything to say or you have your own list, you can always say it down in the comment. And without further ado, out of 23 total music video, here is my Top 10 Best Nogizaka46 Under Music Video

10. Under (Nigemizu, center : Kitano Hinako, Nakamoto Himeka)

There is only 2 reason why i put Under in the top 10, one is for sentimental reason, and  two is so that i don't get flamed for not including it. But seriously though, to be perfectly honest, the Under music video doesn't really have anything for it other than it can make you cry. The music video is just a compilation of old documentary and live video of the under member. Now i'm not saying its bad, because it isn't. It manages to send the message and emotion of the song very well, the editing and pacing of it is really good and its also a pretty good mini documentary of the under member. But, because its not exactly a full video production, its only rank in number 10.

9. Wakaregiwa, Motto Suki ni Naru (Taiyo Knock, center : Hori Miona)

At #9 we have the MV of Wakaregiwa, Motto Suki ni Naru. This MV has a rather nice story, its about Miona who fall in love with this indian guy. And to grab the guy heart she need to learn about the indian culture from her classmate, but then she find out that A. the guy is a thief and B. he's not indian, which is a nice plot twist. But, outside of that story line, i think there is another story here, one about making friends.

you can see that Miona is wearing different uniform than the other student, which suggest she is actually a transfer student. she also doesn't really talk with the other female student, probably because she doesn't have any friends yet. but by the end

she's laughing and hanging out with the other students. Miona was trying to find love, but ended up making a lot of friends instead.
The video itself is pretty much your standard comedy drama,

 a lot of exaggeration, doesn't make much sense, and some of it are just weird.

not really the best use of CGI Naan Bread.
overall, its a funny and fun to watch MV, which is why its in #9

8. Umareta Mama de (Kidzuitara, Kataomoi, Center : Ito Marika)

Next we have Umareta Mama de, a music video where i imagine the editor is doing a lot of work in editing the damn thing. This MV uses a lot of editing tricks, and since it uses a pure white background, it made the effect better and also slightly easier to make. some effect were made really well

 like this running scene

and also this infinity door scene.
Other effect were not so subtle, and you can actually see the trick behind it. For example, this sequence where all the members were riding all the bicycle and other scooter, and stuff

it looks like it was done in one take, but it isn't. It uses multiple takes and uses the "fade to" transition to hide the actual cuts. you probably didn't notice it at first, but if you look closer, its actually pretty noticeable. another one is where the members were appearing out of nowhere,

 you can actually see when they inserted the next member, especially when its a taller member like Chiharu.
Also

these are not the same shot, its actually 2 shot merge together. Pretty simple to make, first shoot the band part using a dolly rail, do a few pattern up and down the rail. Then shoot the member on a platform connected to the rail with the same pace, merge the 2 shot together, and you're done.
There are parts that i don't particularly like from this MV, first is the part where they were swinging on the rope

i don't like the usage of the digital zoom in this, that's where you can see the camera zoom in and out very fast, that's not actually the camera doing the zoom, but rather added on in post production. Its like when you zoom in and out when viewing a picture on your phone, its similar to that, its artificial, and i don't like the usage of it in this context.
 Another thing that i don't like is this

yeah....no......
But other than that, its actually a very fun MV to watch, its also a very fun MV to breakdown and see how it was made, and its my #8 Under MV.

7. 13 Nichi no Kinyoubi (Kimi no Na Wa Kibou, center : Saito Yuuri)

This MV made it in simply because of how it was made. If you ever watch the making DVD they have in the All MV Collection DVD box, they actually show the making of of 13 Nichi no Kinyoubi and it actually was a guerilla live. It means that everyone has to know the plan down to the detail, that include the members cue, where the camera at, the choreography, pretty much everything.

and well, let's just say, mistake we're made.
Since they only have one take to do it, then everyone need to be on standby for the duration of the shoot, and some of them were capture on camera, so let's see how many we can find.

Asuka and Marika

Rotti, Misa and Ichiki

Kawago, Chima and Maaya

hey there camera-san

Noujo Ami

 What a nice lady

here's the position of the camera that i can find

there's a shadow of a cameraman, and i'm pretty sure there's a camera inside that baby trolley that Chiharu and Miyazawa bring.

I think how they manages to pull of this MV is like this, first, each member and crew go to their different starting location, to make it not suspicious they probably go in different time (except for Hatanaka Seira, since she's standing by inside a dumpster bin). They wait for a few moment until Yuuri came in, then someone start the song, Yuuri started dancing and it just remembering your cue from there.

13 Nichi no Kinyoubi is one of those MV that is unique because of how it was made, not how it looks. if it we're a setup using a fake crowd, and better positioned camera, it will looked better, yes. But will it be a better MV? i don't think so.

6. Koko ni Iru Riyuu (Natsu no Free&Easy, center : Ito Marika)

I really like the Koko ni Iru Riyuu MV because it has a unique concept. The concept of basically having a time loop of the members eating, having the sequence loop where the members were eating, then the reaction of the father, then the clock, and then repeat with a different members with different food.

the clock on the wall always say 8:08 and the clock on the TV is 7:58 except when the first time the TV was turn on, it was 7:51. The only difference is that the father actually have several different reaction pattern.
another thing that i really like from this MV is how they implemented the dance sequence in the MV without spoiling the flow of the video. usually when we see a drama MV, we would have the drama portion during the verse part of the song and then a dance part during the chorus, and the dance scene usually isn't connected to the drama, which i guess is fine, it is the standard, but it does rather spoils the flow of video, especially when the tone of the dance scene is completely different to the rest of the video. Nogi likes to do it a bit differently though, when they do a drama or story type MV, they would try implement the dance scene where it wouldn't ruins the flow of the video, and they did this in a few ways. First, is the simplest and easiest way is by having the members dance in small group in the set where they were in the scene before, some example of this can be found in MV like Yonbanme no Hikari and Mirai no Kotae

Next way to implement a dance scene into an MV is by making it part of the story itself, so the dance scene is actually something that they did in the story, best example is Kidzuitara Kataomoi, the dance scene in the end was actually the climax of the story therefore it make sense, same goes with the Kaerimichi wa Toomawari Shitakunaru MV

Now Koko ni Iru Riyuu did thing a bit differently

they have the dance scene to be played in the TV with the setting that it was a song played on a morning music show, and that is a very clever way to implement a dance scene without ruining the flow of the story. This is a unique MV with unique concept and execution, which is its #6 on the list.

5. Buranko (Sayonara no Imi, center : Terada Ranze)

Now we're entering the top 5 and first we have the MV of my all time favorite Nogizaka46 song, Buranko. i Won't be talking into too much detail regarding this MV since i already talk about it in depth on my top 10 Nogizaka46 Music Video. But for a recap, the reason why this MV rank so high is because of the camera work, they manages to make a seemingly boring and linear camera work into something that look dynamic and interesting. the usage of the split screen and slow motion we're also the reason why this MV rank so high. Again if you want to read the full breakdown, go to my original top 10 Best Nogizaka46 Music Video.

4. Shitto no Kenri (Ima, Hanashitai Dareka ga Iru, Center : Hori Miona, Nakamoto Himeka)

At #4 we have the MV for Shitto no Kenri. This MV has one of the weirdest love story i have ever seen. So basically since the title of the song is a reason to be jealous, we have all the under member be jealous towards each other. Ok, here's the relationship, Hori likes Himetan (probably), Hinako likes Hori, Ranze likes Hinako, Ami likes Ranze, Rarin likes Ami, Chima likes Rarin, Rotti likes Chima, Chiharu and Maichun likes Rotti (i guess this is part II of the story), Yuttan likes Maichun, Kana likes Yuttan, Iori likes Kana, Kotoko likes Iori, Junna likes Kotoko, [Dance scene], Renachi likes Junna, Ayane likes Renachi, Miria likes Ayane, Kawago likes Miria, and finally Karin likes Kawago. And in the post credit we see that Maaya is a stalker of Miona. It means that Maaya, Karin and Chiharu doesn't actually have someone that likes them, which is a shame.
anyway, what was i talking about??? oh yeah the Shitto no Kenri Music Video. This music video have something that i really like, and its actually a small detail that most people would miss, and that's the scene transition

now this is very subtle but actually makes a big difference. These 2 scene transition are 2 different way to make a somewhat seamless. The first one is the simplest one, have the camera zoom in into a dark spot and have it zoom out again on a different scene. Its fairly simple and easy to pull of, and if you want to have a fancy transition in your video, this is probably the easiest way to do it. But there are some thing you need to watch out though, and in the case of the MV its the movement of the camera. Because during the entry of the transition the camera is moving counter clockwise and into the back of Kotoko, the exit needs to follow trough on it, having the camera move counter clockwise from the back of Miona.

The second transition is personally my favorite, the idea behind it is similar to the previous transition, but this time instead of using a black spot on the camera, it uses an object that carries on from the previous scene, in this case Maichun's bag with the DVD in it (which by the way is the DVD of Nogi's 2nd year Anniversary). The execution of the 2nd transition could have been better, i personally would fill the entire frame with just the bag and not leave any space around it so it would look more seamless, but the way it is is already pretty good. these transition are very small detail that most people would simply not notice, but these kind of detail is what makes it so great, i always say that the difference between something good and something great is in the small detail. Someone bother to add something that most people would miss and also adds more work, but they still did it because they want to make something as good as it can be, and i respect that a lot.

3. Nichijou (Kaerimichi wa Toomawari Shitakunaru, (Center : Kitano Hinako)

From an MV that take itself very subtle to one that is action pack. The MV for Nichijou has something that not many Nogi MV has, shock factor. 

I mean c'mon, it has a freaking explosion in the middle of it. And its a real explosion as well, you can see the fume of it, the shockwave and also the heat wave from the explosion. And the type of explosion use is gasoline explosion, which is the most commonly use explosion in TV and movies, its actually doesn't have a powerful blast (but you still definitely don't want to be near it) but it does create a big fireball which makes it look very cool.

Another thing that this MV has are some of the best and cleanest cuts i've seen from a music video, check this out

the cuts between shots in the dance scene is one of the best i've seen, its perfectly timed with the beat, and also the choreography, so good. And that's why its in #3.

2. Ano Hi Boku wa Tossa ni Uso wo Tsuita (Nandome no Aozora ka? Center : Inoue Sayuri)

It honestly really hard for me to decide between the top 2, because both are very good in their own right. Ano Hi Boku wa Tossa ni uso Tsuita is just a great drama MV, the dynamic between Marika and Sayunyan is one of the best in the entire group. Their acting are on point, the rest of the cast did great, the story is very deep and touching, 

and that is real tears, that is not an easy thing to do. But why is it only in #2? well that's because it has a very small continuity error early on

where as you can see that Sayunyan's ice cream actually grew in size. now dealing with something like ice cream and just food in general is not easy and a lot of the time you cannot control it, and i get why it happen, they have to do multiple take of that scene, and i can sympathize with that. But, the continuity error is still there and that's why its only in #2.

And finally, my #1 best Nogizaka46 Under Music Video goes to.............


1. Kassouro (Sing Out! Center : Terada Ranze)

Yes, my favorite Under MV is something that came out very recently, Kassouro. Yes, it has the smallest Under formation ever, but it doesn't make the MV any less good. Why is this MV the #1? simple, its the perfect Music Video for the song and the center. When i first listen to the radio rip of Kassouro, without even seeing the preview of the MV, i can imagine how the MV would look like. And when the MV came out, its pretty much exactly the same as how i imagine it. Something very soothing, very calming, the members are surrounded with beautiful city architecture and landscape. Its very stylish, fitting to the song and also the center of the song Ranze, and the detail in the framing

it just look sooo good. Its not something easy to do, you need a very good eye to be able to see all this composition and make it look good. i don't know what else to say, Kassouro is just a very very good music video.

And that's all, my top 10 Nogizaka46 Under Music Video. i'm pretty sure its unexpected for some of you guys, and i know that you guys will have your own opinion, you can always leave a comment down below. there will be more Under related post in the coming weeks, but until then




This is Delta
Over and Out