Harajuku-core!!
Lead Vocalist Yukina revving up the 2024 Lollapalooza crowd this summer, via @ha_na_bie on IG, August 2024. Photographed by @veesanders on IG © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The last two years have been big for the Tokyo-based quartet HANABIE. Extensive international tours, their first major label album Girls Reform Manifest last year and most recently their EP Buccigirl Tokyo, which came out at the beginning of December 2024. HANABIE.’s sound is hard to explain, even for them: very much metalcore, with vocalist Yukina pairing her low and guttural screams with guitarist Matsuri’s passionate clean vocals on a backdrop of a mile-a-minute metal soundscape, but also with a large electronic element, and Yukina will rap pretty regularly. Their songs, for lack of a better phrase, Go. Hard. Fast-paced multi-elemental metal that traps you in their bubblegum world of hardcore for three and a half minutes.
Their newest EP is no exception. It’s thrashy and moreish while having the kawaii-girl flare that has became a running bit in their musical output - Yukina will either start talking sweetly then hit her listener with a from-the-depths scream to remind you what you’re listening to, or finish with a quip at the end of a breakdown in a sing-song tone to sweeten herself back up. This is oft paired with the inspiration that the band takes from anime and aspects of their Japanese culture that they wish to share with their international audience: songs like O.TA.KU Lovely Densetsu, (Otaku being a colloquial term for a superfan of an anime, movie, or tv show that loves the merchandise) where the band celebrate their own fan identities and wear the badge with pride, or with songs like Metamorphose taking their inspiration from the transformation scenes such as that in Sailor Moon. Overall, HANABIE. Says that this EP is about travelling the world but still celebrating where your roots are, and that shows in a project so uniquely Tokyo with an appeal that has transcended the language barrier that the members often talk about.
Music video for the Fandom-inspired OTAKU Lovely Densetsu by HANABIE., via HANABIE. Official Youtube January 2024. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
This transcension comes from the honest roots of HANABIE. As a project and as a group of friends. Starting out in high school rock band-club together, they got their off-campus start in a rock venue called ANTIKNOCK in Shinjuku, west Tokyo, recalling carrying trolleys of merch and equipment around school and one of the busiest train stations in Japan just so they could play and needing parental chaperones to get permission to play in the first place. From there, HANABIE. Were driven by their want to shine in the space: they began songwriting to compete in school band competitions, chose a Japanese name to be different from the English names in their school, and crucially when they moved into their local scene they began to shed the metalcore uniform of black tees and skinny jeans towards the maximalist paradise they don today.
HANABIE.’s most recent tour outfits - they wanted to give maturity while sticking to their streetwear roots. Via @pronouncemyname on last.fm © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
The HANABIE. Style is heavily inspired by Harajuku - an area of Tokyo which from the 1980s to the 2000s saw an explosion of youth subculture and innovative style driven by the rejection of normative Japanese social rules and the introduction of western fashion and culture into the country at that time. Among these subcultures there are well known styles in the west such as Lolita (characterised by victorian or rococo inspired dresses and blouses, ruffled socks and mary janes) and Gyaru (characterised by deep fake tans, large eyelashes, black and white eyeliner and crop tops with mini skirts), but included Jrock and glam rock inspired visual Kei and the hair-accessory-heavy decora. Despite their stark visual differences, the subcultures of Harajuku are always distinctive and maximalist in their approach; most include either an array of patterns, bold hair or hair accessories, or bold makeup (often a combination of all three), and all are bound under the principle of freedom of expression and the rejection of strict cultural norms in Japan concerning how young people should act and dress. The area was also based on the DIY ideals that western subcultures like punk and goth would covet in their own haydays - Harajuku was (and still is to a lesser extent) full of independent venues and market stalls that became the epicentre of each style and substyle, where participants could craft looks based on the clothes and trinkets they found in the marketplace and grow their subcultures from the ground up.
These modes of style are clear in the stylistic choices made by HANABIE. Bassist Hettsu when it comes to the band’s costuming, who cultivates the band's style on stage and in music videos in collaboration with Japanese costume artists, and had been the stylist for the band during their come up. Bright colours and patterns, embellished suit jackets and soft toy accessories have been staples of their style in the past, with the looks they turn on stage and in their videos making them both distinctive in the scene while embedding them in the youth culture they are deeply passionate about. Lead vocalist Hettsu often sports the colourful, more Oshare Kei or decora inspired look in their band media: she wears a lot of brightly coloured and layered outfits and chunky leg warmers paired with hairstyles embellished with clip-in colourful hair braids, extensions, and character clips. Drummer Chika is the intermediary of the stye, mixing the ruffled skirts and bold hair enjoyed by the frontwoman with the more practical looks enjoyed by her fellow instrumentalists - a feature not a bug, according to Hettsu who likes to design their looks with their stage presence and roles in mind. Hettsu and Matsuri often dress in more modern Japanese streetwear, often donning large trousers and layered crop tops, with the latter enjoying a simpler and more androgynous look utilising utility wear and baggy hoodies while the former turns the boldest looks of the quartet. She sports billowing skirts and trousers, layered t-shirts and lace crop tops and is often monochromatic in nature.
Full band Lollapalooza 2024 outfits, showcasing the bands Harajuku and streetwear inspired style. Photographed by @veesanders on IG via @ha_na_bie on IG, August 2024. Band styled by @ishikawatsuzumi © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
When they got the courage to wear this style as the band developed, people took notice. They describe people getting interested in the band by seeing them backstage as the band was growing, and since have been able to develop their personal styles into their ethos of sharing the best of Japanese culture with the world. Whether its their tongue-and-cheek take on Japanese office culture in お先に失礼します。Pardon Me I Have To Go Now or their streetwear version of the kimono in the most recent video for いとをかしMyType, the HANABIE. Look embodies the mix of the best of Japanese culture and the best of western culture that they aim for. They use both their bold fashion and eclectic metal to shout about what they love and what’s on their mind from the rooftops - the more they have leaned into this the bigger and bolder their production has become. They can embody their individual style and personalities in their outfits and characterisation on the project while projecting a cohesive aesthetic of maximalist streetwear - an aesthetic that has been dubbed Harajuku-core by fans, and a title that HANABIE. Have taken upon themselves with pride.
HANABIE. Breaking out of corporate hell with their most viral hit ‘Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now’, Via HANABIE. Official Youtube January 2023. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Harajuku-core embodies HANABIE. As a group so well: the maximalism that has been discussed, the incorporation of styles that make up the history of their fashion and the inspiration behind their music, and the DIY roots of the subcultures grown in Harajuku compliments the growth of a band that has went from dragging kit around classrooms and train stations to plane-hopping to festivals around the world for the last two years. They have not only brought an injection of Japanese culture into metal outside the fetishisation of it by many hardcore fans, but the introduction of outwardly feminine fashion in the space is welcome where the highest end is cuffed dickies and a skull cap or a mesh top or a religious or military costume. HANABIE. Is about to hit their 10 year anniversary as a group, but their come up is only just beginning, and they serve as a reminder to any teenage girl if you want to be a rockstar not only is it possible but your pink tulle skirts and hello kitty hair clips can come along for the ride.
