Watanabe Mayu's debut single [Synchro Tokimeki] claimed the #2 spot with first week sales of 123,437 units.
Comparatively, this single sold more in its first week than fellow AKB48 soloist Itano Tomomi's [Fui ni] at 90k units, but it was not enough to outsell Yamashita Tomohisa, despite narrowly beating him for the #1 spot in first day sales.
That said, this is a good start for Mayuyu's solo career, and given her popularity, we can hope that subsequent releases will do even better.
And onto a brief review!
Synchro Tokimeki (シンクロときめき)
The title track is an upbeat catchy song, and fits Mayuyu's cute voice and image to a T. It's definitely one of those songs that could get stuck in your head, and the instrumental backing track is very well done. Compositionally, the song is pretty simple (which makes it a good earworm). The little background vocal interjections are adorable and the harmonic progression keeps the song from being boring despite the simple melody.
Mitsuami no Kimi e (三つ編みの君へ)
This song sounds fairly standard for AKB48 fare, not that the A-side isn't, but for some reason this song just feels less than remarkable to me. It's certainly a lovely song and Mayuyu's voice fits the style well, but there's nothing that particularly catches my attention. It did for some reason conjure mental images of opening sequences of some sort of mahou shoujo anime, if that's worth anything though ^_^;;
Shinjuku Yuutousei (新宿優等生)
Oh, very interesting, this song proves that Mayuyu does in fact have a more mature voice than she usually lets on! And I really quite like it! This song seems to be the angsty power ballad of this single, and I find the melody very compelling - those upward leaps of her voice sound really nice, and I'm incredibly happy that she executes them with such good control and subtlety when switching to her headvoice.
Lavender no Juutan (ラベンダーのジュータン)
This song is back to happy idol-pop style, but with a more rocky flavor than the A and B-sides. To its credit, it did have me bobbing my head to the beat, but the melody is a bit too linear and repetitive for me to really find a liking for it. That said, I'm sure there will be many people who find it quite catchy, and I will say that the instrumental sets up a brilliant rhythm and pace for the song - good workout music?
Mayuyuroid (マユユロイド)
This is an excellently unique song, to be sure and I quite like the little intro bit! I'm not fond of autotune, which detracts a bit, but I know why they use it and I wholly approve of the concept, even if my ears disagree with the resultant timbre. This is a very sweet song and very different from the other songs in this single, which is nice!
Saba no Kanzume (サバの缶詰)
Even just the first bar tells you that in for a very different experience from the rest of the single. In fact, it sounds like she's trying out an enka thing too, and OH MY GAWSH she sounds fantastic here. I think I can conclude that a majority of the OOO48 girls would sound much better if they just bothered to sing with more of their mature voice and less of their squeaky voice... Mayuyu's voice sounds very nice and rounded out here. Her attempts at melisma annoy me a bit, because she doesn't quite pull it off right, but that's understandable, since that's a difficult thing to learn even for someone who normally sings in this style. And the weird attempt at dramatic gasping at the last chorus doesn't work... at all... But all in all, definitely a departure from her usual cutesy image, but she executes it quite well vocally!
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