Music / DECO*27

6 Following

Kosuke Terayama (寺山 幸助 (Terayama Kōsuke), born December 16, 1986), known professionally as DECO*27^note pronounced "Dekonina" (デコニナ, "ni" being Japanese for "two" and "na" being the first half of "nana", Japanese for "seven") (stylized in all caps and explicitly including the asterisk), is a prominent Vocaloid producer.

His major influences include bands such as Bump of Chicken and blink-182. DECO*27 plays a lefty Gibson Les Paul Jr Double Cutaway and often provides backing vocals to his Vocaloid songs; he is known for writing powerful, philosophical love songs that all reference and cross-reference each other. He currently owns Hatsune Miku and Gumi, and while many of his Miku songs were big hits in Japan, he has shot to overseas fame with his Gumi rock ballad "Yowamushi Montblanc". Whenever he produces a new song, it is likely to spend an ungodly amount of time on Nico Nico Douga's weekly ranking ("Mozaik Role" spent over five months up there, for example).

Many of DECO*27's recent works have been produced with music videos created by amateur animator akka; the two started working together after she created an unofficial PV for his song "Nisoku Hokou" ("Two Breaths Walking"). After seeing its quality, DECO*27 commissioned her to make the PV for "Yowamushi Montblanc", and the rest is history. The two often work with illustrator mirto, and the three sometimes call themselves the "Amatou Trio".

DECO*27 has announced that he wants to try shifting from an indies, Vocaloid sound to a full band sound, and his album Aimai Elegy featured a number of songs either performed or covered by marina (who was the musical half of Angel Beats!' own Iwasawa Asami, original lead singer of Fake Band Girls Dead Monster). This is a progression from his previous albums, which often include popular utata covers of his singles.

In 2018, he established the music studio OTOIRO, under which all of his newer songs have been produced. The studio's staff includes himself, arranger Rockwell, and fellow producer Teddyloid as music development and akka, Roduki, Yuma Saito, DMYM, Hachisan, Awashima, and NNNuventus on illustration and video production.

He loves to make pun-based titles by substituting similar-sounding kanji to create different meanings.

Discography

Tropes relating to DECO*27 include:

• Alternate Self: All of DECO*27's iterations of Miku are counted as separate characters who interact with each other in some of the comics OTOIRO has released in support of his albums.
• Amicable Exes: In "Neverland", Miku makes it clear she doesn't want to be this trope with her lover.
  If this has to end, make sure to make me hate you
  Stop being super duper nice to me
• Anime Chinese Girl: "HAO"'s Miku brings this to mind.
• Anime Hair: Miku wears huge buns with pops of red in them in "Cherry Pop". How they even stay in is anybody's guess.
• Anti-Love Song: Tons of these, particularly in GHOST. Among them are "Android Girl", "Streaming Heart", "Anti-Beat", and "MKDR".
• Apocalypse How: In "Aitai-lians", Miku destroys the Earth as revenge against her human ex.
• Arc Number: 27, of course. "39" also shows up numerous times due to it being a play on words of "Miku".
  • Since it's DECO*27, he plays around with this on occasion: in "Ai Kotoba II", it's referenced that 3 times 9 is 27, while in "Snow Song Show", the sum of the date that Miku becomes Santa (December 27th) is 39.
• Arc Symbol: Three hearts in a row or column for Mannequin.
• Arc Words: "Thank you" tends to crop up a lot in his songs. It doubles as a Stealth Pun referencing Miku, as the transliteration of it is "san kyuu", which, by the way of Goroawase Number, is 39 - a number also pronounced "Miku".
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • "Marshmallow" was first teased with only its title card, rendered in puffy pastel letters on a bright and colourful background. Given that the last songs DECO had released were "Cherry Pop" and "Telepathy", fans were expecting another cutesy love song. However, once the music video premiered, the title card was covered in blood as the song revealed itself to be a nu-metal Sequel Song to "HIBANA"—the first rock song of its kind since "Chimera" three years prior.
  • "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)"'s MV seems to confirm some of the theories viewers had about the original MV, such as that the POV character is an Unreliable Narrator who is hallucinating his classmates' obsession with him. From her perspective, she is genuinely trying to check up on her best friend who is having a depressive episode... only for her to immediately revert to Yandere mode when the POV character finally opens the door.
• Bilingual Bonus: "HIBANA", and later "Rookie", both have a verse in English - albeit one that doesn't make much grammatical sense. "U" from the MANNEQUIN album is also written entirely in English. (Which means that the titular song of that album also has an English verse.)
• Bookends: "Monitoring" ends with the door opening to a concerned-looking Miku, with none of the psychedelic imagery from the rest of the music video present. Meanwhile, "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)", after having much more grounded visuals for the MV's runtime, ends with the door opening to a smiling Miku, with the psychedelic imagery from the original MV.
• Boom, Headshot!:
  • Played with in "HIBANA", where the key art shows Miku's head seen through a gun's scope. A few lines refer to being shot in the head outright, as well—the implication is that Miku is in an abusive relationship and being shot in the head is a metaphor for her partner taking it one step too far, which she wants them to do so that she can find the strength to break it off.
    Ah, I don't like this—"There's no way that's true"
    Ah, I don't like this—"You'll understand, won't you?"
    Just shoot me in the head
    Right in the head
  • "Marshmallow", being a Sequel Song to "HIBANA", has its key art of Miku with part of her head blown off, representing how her lover has finally hit her breaking point.
• Break-Up Song: Many of his songs are about this.
  • "118 (Iiya)" is about someone desperately attempting to distance themselves and break up with the person they're with after realizing they've come to hate them.
  • "Pseudo-Hope Syndrome" is similar, though it's more about finally finding the courage to break up with someone after making numerous excuses to keep staying with them.
  • From Mannequin, "Dilemma".
  • "Marshmallow" is a song about finally breaking up and being relieved to do so, and since it's related to "Ghost Rule" and "Hibana", hints that it's to get away from a toxic relationship.
• Busman's Holiday: According to fanbase jokes, Deco was taking one when making "Telepathy". Allegedly, he felt overworked while making the songs for COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing, and made the song to relax.
• Call-Back:
  • In "Rookie", the main character has tattoos representing all of Deco's previous albums. All of the Ai Kotoba songs also have references to past songs from the last five years before each installment.
• Characterization Marches On: In the original "Monitoring" MV, while little is known about the "real world" Miku's personality, the interspersed shots of her with her obsessive Yandere counterpart, which are hallucinated by the POV character, make her seem less confident, creating a clear visual contrast between the POV character's perception of her and the reality. In the "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)," which flips the POV to show what's "actually" going on, however, she is portrayed as far more confident and forthright in trying to convince the POV character to come outside in a way that is almost in line with how her hallucinated counterpart was acting, albeit with platonic language and actions.
• Christmas Episode: "Snow Song Show", which is also a collaboration between him and fellow Miku producer sasakure.UK.
• Concept Album: Love Calander tells the story of the relationship of two high-schoolers over the course of a year, with each track corresponding to a month.
• Crossover: He participated in the 2023-2024 Vocaloid/Pokémon collaboration Project Voltage via the song "Volt Tackle", in which Miku has a Pikachu and a serious crush on someone. The song also features various musical cues and sound effects from the mainline Pokémon games.
• Darker and Edgier: He's been making Sequel Songs with this tonal approach lately, "Marshmallow" and "Stuckmoth" being his first two (to "Hibana" and the "Stickybug" duology respectively).
• Deliberately Monochrome: The original fan PV (considered canon by Android Girl's release) of "Two Breaths Walking" and its official remake are completely in greyscale.
  • "Dilemma"'s PV also makes use of a lot of grays, as does "Stuckmoth"'s.
• Destructive Romance: "118", "Streaming Heart", "LIAR DANCE", "Android Girl", "Mozaik Role", and many more.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In "Aitai-lians", a guy dumps an alien girl. Said alien girl's response? Destroy the Earth. Yeesh. Talk about Not Good with Rejection...
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The music video for "Neverland" has Miku miming suicidal actions (such as seppuku and wrist-cutting) with a perfectly innocuous glow stick. The third bridge also involves her stabbing the glow stick into the ground, causing it to leak fluid all over the place, including on her body. The video ends with Miku covered with blood instead of glowstick fluid, having killed her lover unaware.
• Emotionless Girl: Darkness-chan.
• Eye Motifs: "Monitoring" is filled to the brim with eye imagery, representing Miku's constantly watching the protagonist through his door's peephole.
• Foreshadowing: The last line of "Rookie", which is "A new chapter, SHAKE IT!", signalled that it would be the first song released for a new album five months before TRANSFORM's official announcement.
• Hurricane of Puns: In the lyrics, in the titles; DECO*27 has this trope in spades.
• Idol Singer: The various Mikus from the MANNEQUIN album are portrayed as being in an idol group, with several comics showing their antics trying to practice together.
• If I Can't Have You……: In "Psychogram":
  If you won't give me an answer, I DON'T NEED YOU.
• "I Hate" Song: "Marshmallow" is about Miku's partner hitting her Rage Breaking Point, causing her to come out and admit she lied about loving them the entire time and that she truly hates them with every fibre of her being.
  Slowly, surely, getting to know you
  So glad I regurgitated up your love
  A make-belief happy ending, mocking it
  I sneered with the burnt ashes of you
• Intercourse with You: "Otome Dissection" has a couple of shades of a Friends with Benefits type relationship.
  • "Vampire" and "Animal" also have some rather innuendo-filled lyrics.
  • His most blatant was "Rabbit Hole" until "Sad Girl Sex" supplanted it.
  • Implied to be what happens in the second verse of "Cinderella (Giga First Night Remix)".
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to his famous songs "Ghost Rule", "Reversible Campaign", "Hibana" and the like, his songs on the album Mannequin are this, having a lighter tone, happier lyrics and a catchy ditty. While they still tend to describe complex characters, they do so with a remarkible airier tone to them.
  • "Heart A La Mode" can be called this to "Streaming Heart". While both feature the same "oh yeah" repetitions, "Heart A La Mode" is Product Placement for Georgia Coffee, and "Streaming Heart" is about an abusive relationship.
• Lyrical Dissonance:
  • "Mono Poisoner" has a stylish and catchy funk rock beat with a roaring chorus... complete with lyrics about a Destructive Romance from the perspective of an abusive boyfriend who wants to maintain gripping and exclusive control on his girlfriend to the point he takes pleasure in physically abusing and demonizing her.
  • "Monitoring" is a catchy, eclectic-sounding jazz-pop/Shibuya-kei song... about a teenage Stalker with a Crush who's constantly camping outside her obsession's door, with her constantly shifting between taunting Condescending Compassion and overly affectionate Yandere behavior - sometimes both at the same time. Then, the interspersed "real world" shots reveal that the classmate isn't actually doing all the things the POV character imagines; she's simply worried and checking if he’s okay. While DECO*27 never explained the MV's meaning, two main theories exist about why the POV character sees her this way: either he's a Hikkikomori who is terrified of other people, and therefore interpretes his classmate's concern for him as an obsessive crush, hence why he's terrified, or he's sick, and her apparent crush on him is just a product of his feverish hallucinations, as suggested by the trippy visuals.
    • The "Best Friend" remix averts this entirely by being entirely from the classmate's perspective instead, revealing that the POV character is actually her best friend who is going through a depressive phase, which she's desperately trying to help them out of. It also makes it clear that she was genuine about checking up on them and cheering them up... At least until the POV character finally opens the door and she immediately reverts to Yandere mode, possibly confirming that their paranoia was correct all along.
  • "Cosmic Rendezvous" has a stylish, peppy RnB beat, complete with stylish space-inspired visuals... and has an absolutely soul-crushing story about a man coming to terms with his girlfriend's death as she slowly succumbs to her terminal illness.
  • "Rabbit Hole" is a sexy j-pop song... about a compulsive fornicator who can't stand all the people she has sex with, but thanks to trauma over being dumped, hides her pain by being promiscuous and maliciously belittling anyone who wants something more than a quick fuck. At the very least, the last part of a song shows that she realized she's being toxic towards her flings and is at least trying to be better, though she's not fully over her trauma yet.
  • "MKDR" is a song co-produced by emon.tes, who is known for their upbeat, catchy rhythms and melodies. Lyrically, it is about an especially painful breakup from the perspective of one of the people involved, who is torn between wanting their lover and relationship back and leaving. There are also implications that the relationship is toxic to both of them, flipping between loving and hurting each other. The singer eventually concludes that they just hate love in general.
  • "Dummy Romance" is a bubbly, "modern DECO*27" track with a music video that imitates a tween shojo manga magazine; the song is about a girl with mental illness who showers her savings and affection on a guy who doesn't even know who she is.
• No Name Given: Light-chan, one of his personal Miku variations that he uses for choreography and acoustics shorts as well as merchandising, didn't receive her official name until the other one, Darkness-chan, was introduced.
• Mood Whiplash: Used interestingly in "Psychogram". The main verses are very oppressive, heavy and rock-like to fit the claustrophobic hold the narrator has on their victim, while the chorus abruptly switches to a lighter, sweeter tone as the narrator tries to convince their victim that they're doing it because they love them.
  • Also happens a bit in "Rookie". The English verse and the cheering switches to a more oppressive rock style, then the part immediately after has a more sweet look and sound, before it switches back to the regular instrumental.
• Obsession Song: "Psychogram", "Mono Poisoner" and "Monitoring". "Stuckmoth" also counts, though that song's Miku already had her lover leave her.
• Palette Swap: Save for some slight alterations, Darkness-chan's design is this to Light-chan.
• Pink Is Erotic: "Animal" and "Rabbit Hole" both have a pink color theme, and are some of his lewdest songs.
  • The Miku of "The Vampire" also wears pink, and is certainly no stranger to sexuality.
• Playboy Bunny: The music video for "Rabbit Hole" features Hatsune Miku in a provocative bunny leotard.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • "Ai think so," (pronounced like "I think so") and "Ai Kotoba" (being a play on "aikotoba" ("password") and "ai kotoba" ("love words")).
  • The name of the Module costume for the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA version of "Two Breaths Walking" is a play on the words "Bless You" and "Breathe You". The official title goes with "Breathe With You".
  • "Stuckmoth" is an interesting one. Its Japanese title is "Kaiko", rendered in katakana. It's likely a play on the "蚕" (silkworm) and "懐古" (nostalgia) kanji, which can both be read as "kaiko".
• Product Placement: "Salamander" has a label for Nissin Cup Noodles scroll past during the instrumental segment between the first chorus and the second verse. The lyrics are also based on "Spicy" and "Chili Tomato" flavor Cup Noodles.
  • "Heart A La Mode" was written for Georgia coffee, and as such the lyrics are simply about the singer taking the other out for a date with coffee and also sneaks in "it's a once in a lifetime deal" which goes for both confessions and is what the ad is supposed to be.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Not necessarily evil, but "Stuckmoth"'s MV is grayscale and red, reflecting the Darker and Edgier tone of the song.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Light-chan and Darkness-chan. Light-chan is the upbeat and energetic red, while Darkness-chan is the emotionless and reserved blue.
• The Reveal: The end of the PV for "Mannequin" reveals that only the Miku from "Dilemma" is real - the rest of them are simply mannequins.
• Robot Girl: The eponymous Android Girl from "Android Girl".
• Saving Christmas: "Snow Song Show" involves Miku trying to save Christmas from being forgotten by becoming the new Santa.
• Sequel Song: All over the place, with the references and connections in lyrics and music videos. "Ai Kotoba" and its three sequels also count. He's been a bit more direct about it lately, continuing the legacy of "Android Girl" with Darker and Edgier sequels to older songs such as "Marshmallow" and "Stuckmoth".
• Silly Love Songs: All the Ai Kotobas, "Stickybug" and its sequel, "Heart a la mode", "A You Who's Like Me, A Me Who's like You", and even more.
• Solo Duet: An interesting case in his collaboration with fellow producer Pinocchio-P, "(Not) A Devil": Miku is the only singer, but due to the difference between the producers' tuning styles for her voice, it sounds like two different vocalists.
• Stalker with a Crush: Miku in "Monitoring" seems to be this on the first listen-through, with hints of insanity to boot, but there are signs in the MV that the stalker part may just be the POV character's hallucinations. "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)" seems to back up this interpretation... at least until the ending.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: The PV for "Monitoring" is full of trippy, psychedelic eye imagery and has Miku appearing as a deranged stalker spying on the protagonist, but as it progresses, it's implied that these are all the protagonist's imagination and that Miku is a perfectly normal girl who's only visiting because she's worried about them. "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)" initially appears to support this interpretation, showing Miku's point of view instead... however, the ending seems to confirm that the POV character was right about her being a Yandere all along.
• Tsundere: Miku in "Cinderella", though it's mainly based on her insecurities rather than her feelings toward the "prince".
  • "Cherry Pop" Miku is a straighter example of one of these.
• Yandere: Once again "Psychogram", "Mono Poisoner", "Neverland" and "Kaiko" ("Stuckmoth"). "Monitoring" also has yandere themes, though it's implied Miku isn't actually a yandere at all, but that the POV character from the MV just thinks she is. The ending of the "Monitoring (Best Friend Remix)" muddies this further, as the ending implies that the POV character's paranoia about her being a yandere is correct.