The VS AMBIVALENZ franchise kicks off the 2nd season in the best way with “Rise to the Top”, a release that is all about consistency, quality, and variety.
Review
Title: Rise To The Top
Release date: 30/04/2025
Label: Reisen Records
Genre: Pop/Rock/Jazz-hop
Tracklist:
1. Rise To The Top
2. Hello Future!!!
3. The Last One
4. Which One!?
Track by track analysis:
1 – Rise To The Top
We kick off “Rise To The Top” with an epic vibe, vocals echoing in the soundscape as the toms-driven drums, distant guitar riffs make their entrance.
But what steals the show is the bassline leading the way in the verses – and beyond.
And oh boy, if you’re a sucker for a good bassline, this song delivers that and more. The bass line goes deep, punching its way through the instrumental, drums playing in a comfortable tempo, and snare-driven.
The chorus brings fancy guitar work, but the bassline is still a force to be reckoned with, making this song incredibly groovy while perfectly serving as the backdrop for the mostly higher-toned vocals in this second season of VS AMBIVALENZ members.
I’m not the biggest fan of the “performing a full song in unison,” but somehow VS AMBIVALENZ surprised me and made me enjoy this performance a lot. The chorus, in particular, is powerful and a lot of fun. I’m also particularly a fan of the vocals in the bridge, going all epically raising the tension to the last chorus.
VS AMBIVALENZ kicks off this second season with a bang.
2- Hello Future!!!
Next up is “Hello Future!!!”, song that strays away from the rock vibes in the previous song and goes all in with a fun, groovy, and surprisingly chill dance sound led by a Rhodes piano.
This song is downtempo and soft, still with a strong focus on that deep bassline that was driving forward “Rise To The Top”. A hi-hat-driven beat with dramatic synth stabs completes the sound in the verses.
However, I’m not feeling too much the build up to the chorus – even if the chorus delivers something bubbly and entertaining – as the chord choices seem to be unconventional and thus, they sound a bit off in my opinion.
The vocals have a good balance between high and low notes – with Chikahiro Kobayashi standing out a lot on the low notes and Ryohei Kimura on the opposite way, dominating the higher notes.
Strong performance for an overall fun and bubbly tune with R&B undertones to its beat.
3 – The Last One
Things change dramatically with “The Last One”, song that brings a low bassline, shredding, low guitar riffs, and plenty of distortion for fans of good rock music.
The rap parts are insanely good, smoothly flowing into a soft vocal section, leading up to the powerful and addictive chorus. In a way, this song reminds me a lot of the rock sound by Undead – in the Ensemble Stars!! Franchise -, dramatic, intense, and vocal-driven.
When the chorus kicks in, you’ll be singing along to this song in no time. The guitars are super low, the bassline is going on overdrive, the harpsichord – yup, this song has one playing to your right side (easily noticeable if you’re wearing headphones), and the hard-hitting drums (geeky side note, that snare sound gave me life).
The bridge lets the bass go off as Shunsuke Takeuchi’s vocals lead the way, carrying all that power to the last chorus, and by now, I’m already singing along to the song like crazy.
When I talk about rock music well done for 2D groups, this is what I mean. What a banger!
4 – Which One!?
And wrapping up this release is “Which One!?”. While the previous two songs split the members participating in this second season, for this song, we have everyone together.
As a result, we have a jaunty piano-led jazz-hop tune with one of the grooviest beats and bassline combos in the VS AMBIVALENZ franchise. At the top, the piano paints the soundscape with a lot of style.
On the vocal end, expect a ton of fancy rap and R&B-style vocals – Ryohei Kimura and Chikahiro Kobayashi were unbelievable -, immediately grabbing my attention. Everything about this song is perfect: the jazz-hop vibes, the piano, the rapping, and those vocals. Honestly, it is a pity that this song is so short.
This is the best song on this release.
Final considerations
The second season of the VS AMBIVALENZ franchise kicked off in the best way and with a more impressive sound and quality than the first season, which comes as both a big surprise and expected (the VS AMBIVALENZ franchise has been pushing boundaries when it comes to the quality of the vocals and instrumentals for all its groups).
As a result, we have a set of awesome songs that explore dance/EDM, rock, bubbly pop, and jazz-hop, some of which is a first time for the franchise to explore (can we please get more jazz-hop? Because I love what they pulled off with “Which one!?”).
My favorites are easily “Which one!?” And “The Last One”.
On the vocal end, Chikahiro Kobayashi and Ryohei Kimura easily stand out for their vocals and control. It’s hard to avoid them as their performances are larger than life in all songs in this release. Ryohei Kimura was particularly lethal in “Hello Future!!” And “Which One!?” And Chikahiro Kobayashi can go super low to the point that he occupies the complete soundscape, it’s kind of impressive.
But let’s not forget the quality that Daiki Yamashita, Shunsuke Takeuchi, and Hiiro Ishibashi added to all performances. Yamashita and Takeuchi are a cheat code for any 2D group that gets them, and together they are a force to be reckoned with. Hiiro Ishibashi was the big surprise for me as I was not familiar with his singing tone or his technique, but I found myself enjoying his performances a lot as he blended well with everyone and delivered in his solo parts – sounding almost like Reiou Tsuchida at times.
All in all, the VS AMBIVALENZ franchise is here with fewer vocals than in the first season – the final group will have 5 members – and, as a result, released one of the most consistent ensemble albums I’ve heard in this franchise and pretty much across all franchises.
The clarity in the mixing, the variety in the instrumentals – focusing on highlighting the voices instead of stealing the show – and having a lineup that has voices that don’t overlap are just some of the small details I love about this album and make me quite excited to visit other entries in this season.
What is VS AMBIVALENZ?
VS AMBIVALENZ is a 2D music project by NIZISTA. Only 7 out of the 14 members were selected via fan voting from 2021 to late 2022. This was the very first time a 2D music project embraced such a format.
XlamV (read: Kranve) consists of Jintaro (CV: Chiaki Kobayashi), Nagomu (CV: Shintaro Asanuma), 39YEAH↗ (CV: Makoto Furukawa), Issei (CV: Kengo Kawanishi), Lion (CV: Tasuku Hatanaka), Auguri (CV: Ayumu Murase), and Subaru (CV: Reiou Tsuchida).
And since 2024, the franchise welcomed two new groups: Fun4re and illuvista.
Fun4re (read: Fanfare) features vocals by TAIYO (CV: Reiou Tsuchida), MIO (CV: Kengo Kawanishi), FUTABA (CV: Ayumu Murase) and KAZU (CV: Tasuku Hatanaka).
illuvista features vocals by REY (CV: Makoto Furukawa), CION (CV: Chiaki Kobayashi), and CUC (CV: Shintaro Asanuma).
VS AMBIVALENZ’s 2nd season features the following characters:
- SHIMBA vs MIKERA (CV: Daiki Yamashita)
- AKASHI vs MEGURU (CV: Chikahiro Kobayashi)
- RIAM vs LUVNOSUKE (CV: Shunsuke Takeuchi)
- KYOUYA vs MONET (CV: Hiiro Ishibashi)
- CATE vs HIROMI (CV: Ryohei Kimura)
To get to know more about this project and its groups, please refer to THTFHQ’s extended article about VS AMBIVALENZ.
“Rise to the Top” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
