For what it is, VS AMBIVALENZ’s “VSA2 Musical” is rock solid; however, it doesn’t match the quality of other releases this season.
Review
Title: VSA2 Musical
Release date: 15/10/2025
Label: Reisen Records
Genre: Traditional Japanese/Jazz-pop
Tracklist:
1 - 花翔るは誠 (Hana kakeru wa makoto)
2 - ヘッドロング・ラッシュ！ (Headlong Rush!)
Track by track analysis:
1 – Hana Kakeru wa Makoto
We kick off “Hana Kakeru wa Makoto” with a dramatic narration leading to a piano section that beautifully serves as the background to Daiki Yamashita and Ryohei Kimura’s voices. The song brings taiko drums and a shamisen to the spotlight, increasing the tension of this song, with electric guitars, a thunderous bassline, and snary drums completing the instrumental.
The song smoothly shifts to a softer, quieter sound with the piano being playful as the voice drama part kicks in.
The piano goes low and dramatic, morphing into a pizzicato section alongside the taiko drums as this retelling /take on the shinsengumi story unfolds.
Then the piano goes even more dramatic as it evolves into the second singing section, putting Ryohei Kimura in the spotlight, performing in a powerful legato.
The story progresses, going darker in tone from the deep taiko drums and piano melodies to the dramatic way it’s being performed by Shunsuke Takeuchi and Daiki Yamashita.
The song returns to its intense, shamisen and taiko drums-led instrumental, Kimura leading the way on the vocal end, then being joined by Takeuchi and Yamashita’s vocals, leading to an impressive vocal section.
Out of nowhere, strings join in the composition, and the tone for this song shifts slightly, bringing Chikahiro Kobayashi and Hiiro Ishibashi as well to the vocals, leading to an emotional conclusion to this story.
2 – Headlong rush!
And wrapping up this release is “Headlong rush!”, another drama + music piece, this time bringing a jazz-driven sound.
Funky guitars play to your left as a jaunty piano tiptoes in the soundscape, brass playing in the background as the drums and bass populate the instrumental, making things playful.
Then, the instrumental fades away to give way to all members performing off-key on purpose as another group – which I found hilarious – and then moving to the real singing section.
The song shifts towards darker and deeper piano-driven sections in which the voices have a forlorn vibe to them. Slowly, the strings join in the dramatic instrumental, and it’s in this section that the vocals will impress you – both the legato and the high notes, slow and overflowing with emotion, will grab your attention. Add to it the trombone playing in the background, and wow, what a section.
After the last drama part, the song goes into an acappella and it is exactly what I expected from these vocals! Their harmonies and high notes impress yet again, slowly flowing into a brass-led section and then a full-out upbeat and hopeful section with a groovy bassline leading the way, snary drums and guitars playing.
Final considerations
Just like in the first season of VS AMBIVALENZ, the musical CD ends up being the hardest to review, as we don’t get a straight-up song in there, just snippets to illustrate the story beats being presented to us.
Still, out of both, I was really enjoying the music – for all its traditional Japanese music elements – in “Hana Kakeru wa Makoto”.
This song is led by Ryohei Kimura, and when it comes to emotional performances, both acting and singin,g you know he’s going to deliver – which he does, and then everyone else just slotted in perfectly in the performance. When it comes to a song that left a mark in this release, it is, by far, this one.
“Headlong rush!” doesn’t have as many music parts, and as such, I think the performance itself is just really brief hits and bits, with only the latter part making a big impact.
But as I mentioned before, it’s hard to review a musical CD as the songs will be as good as the drama parts, and while I was super invested in the shinsengumi story – I’m a big history buff – the whole story in the B-side track didn’t click with me as much in comparison.
For what it is, a set of drama tracks with some song parts performed, this CD is rock solid, of course not on par with anything else this second season has provided – hard to top it because the first two CDs were near flawless – but fun nonetheless.
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.
“VSA2 Musical” is available for purchase at Amazon Japan (they ship internationally).
