On the Incident Called "Sunfaded"

*The author is someone who uninstalled Gakuen Idolmaster three days after installing it, thinking, "This eats up way too much phone storage, it's as fuel-inefficient as a Subaru," and "Why do I have to work even in a game? Is this Japan?" I hope you can understand that this article contains a fair amount of subjective opinion. By the way, my favorite character in Gakumas is Hiro Shinozawa. I have no intention of producing her.

I bought the "Sunfaded" CD. 6 tracks for 2,500 yen. It's expensive, but I suppose it's unavoidable since it's largely fan merchandise. It's my own fault for buying it solely because I wanted to hear the song.

For those who don't know, "Sunfaded" is a song by Hiro Shinozawa, a character from the massively popular idol production game "Gakuen Idolmaster" (hereafter Gakumas), released in July 2025. It was composed by the internationally active Hakushi Hasegawa. The guitar rock sound, which breaks away from traditional Idolmaster tracks, has become a hot topic and has garnered significant support even from listeners outside of Gakumas players (producers). Its influence is so immense that an incredibly niche YouTube channel called "Sunfaded Specialty Channel" has even been created.

Of course, I am one of the people who was taken by "Sunfaded." I couldn't enjoy the Gakumas game itself, but even now that I've bought the CD, I play "Sunfaded" twice by my bedside before going to sleep.
I've always been interested in so-called "music-focused idols" (idols with a core musicality far removed from the traditional idol image), and I especially like idols influenced by alternative rock and shoegaze, such as RAY, Oyasumi Hologram, and Ya na Koto Sotto Mute. I had hoped that among the vast collection of Idolmaster songs, there might be tracks incorporating elements like the aforementioned groups, but as far as I knew, there weren't any, and I felt a bit let down, thinking, "Well, the real thrill of this game is producing idols rather than the music itself..." That is why the impact of "Sunfaded" was so great.
I had thought for a while that there were quite a few people who were both alternative rock listeners and Idolmaster players (producers), so I felt that it might have been unexpectedly inevitable. Or maybe not.

It starts with drum sounds that seem like they're about to distort, followed by the dry tone of a distortion guitar and percussion that runs wild with a crushed sound, and then Hiro's voice, as clear as the wind, enters. The song structure is also somewhat irregular. The lyrics are also somewhat cryptic with no romantic elements. Is this really an idol song? I can't imagine choreography that fits this, and it's hard to imagine this song shaking an arena venue. I think it's a sound that would be heard from HEAVEN'S ROCK Saitama Shintoshin rather than the Saitama Super Arena.

There was actually a video of her dancing to it, but it still doesn't feel right.
However, when I listen to the instrumental version, I realize that the melody is actually quite catchy. If the guitar weren't distorted, it could have been a good pop song with a sense of speed. Also, in the instrumental version, the "Hora ne" part becomes complete silence, so the temperature difference between that stillness and motion makes me feel dizzy.

This PV is also amazing. It seems the filming took place in Akita, Hiro's hometown. The places shown are likely streets in Akita. Yet, why does it become such an unrealistic video? Is it because of Hiro's mysterious atmosphere, or perhaps because the overall saturation is low? Personally, I get the impression not that "Hiro became three-dimensional," but that "Akita became two-dimensional."

As I'm sure is common knowledge to those who know Hiro to some extent, she is a genius girl who graduated from a university abroad at 14, and she decided to aim to be an idol—the profession she considers most unsuitable for herself—in order to feel the joy that comes from things not going well. Setting aside whether being an idol is truly the most unsuitable profession for her, I can certainly understand just from the auditory information that Hiro is not the type of person suited to be an idol.
The reason is that both of the B-side tracks included on the "Sunfaded" CD, "Shirube" and "ENDLESS DANCE," felt like a mismatch for Hiro's voice, which has clarity but lacks power. In the first place, these two songs are not Hiro's solo songs (they are so-called "group songs"), and while the way she sang "Soukassai" in "Shirube" was incredibly cute, and when I listened to "ENDLESS DANCE" after seeing the credit "Lyrics and Music: Yoshikatsu Shutou" and thinking "That's KEYTALK," it was mostly as I expected, and I was overwhelmed by how good Yoshikatsu Shutou is at making pop music, so they aren't bad songs, but overall they don't really feel right with Hiro's voice. It feels like the awkwardness of Regal Lily covering 10-FEET. I definitely don't think they are "bad," and I have no intention of criticizing these two songs, Hiro, or Bandai Namco.

However, listening to the CD, I felt once again that her solo song "Sunfaded" is truly outstanding. It makes me feel that Hakushi Hasegawa is a person of keen insight. By providing a hard-hitting guitar rock track rather than staying within their own areas of expertise like jazz or Brazilian music, they must have made it seriously as a "song exclusively for Hiro Shinozawa," and I think "Sunfaded" is what Hakushi Hasegawa presented after probably falling in love with Hiro themselves and getting to know her as much as possible. They are a model composer, aren't they?

So, the incident-like nature of this song is truly high, and I think the influence this song has had on the scene will appear to some extent this year. It is inevitable that it will be passed down to future generations as one of the greatest "mutations" in Idolmaster history. Probably.

Also, while writing this article, I repeated "Sunfaded" many times, and I started to feel like the song was getting a wetter texture, so I briefly thought, "Does this song turn into shoegaze if you keep listening to it?" but I'm probably just losing my mind. All you fellow shoegaze lovers who are also losing your minds, please give it a try.
See you.