I’m going to be brutally honest about this one. The concept of it has me really, really intrigued. Mainly for two reasons. The first reason being that the concept of a “host” is absolutely mindboggling. Second, I love me some Eurobeat. Pony Canyon and Hifumi, Inc. have teamed up to provide an animated entertainment series combining parapara and host clubs, called PARAHOS(パラホス）which quite frankly, is something I never expected to see.
You see, the concept of a host is that of a male cabaret. Girls go to the location to converse and drink with absurdly good looking men. Throughout the night, they chat, sing, get drunk, and overall have what seems to be a good time. There is typically no Parapara dancing. But that’s all about to change with PARAHOS.
The announcement that we received for the series states:
Now, parapara x host = ‘PARAHOS’! The musical entertainment that unfolds with customer service sweeter than a kiss and parapara dancing hotter than summer is finally on!
Exploding in popularity from the internet, parapara dancing has become a competition under the name “Parahos” and the performers were reborn as hospitality artists, aka hosts, “Parahos” has become a monster of a show, with the whole world watching.
Fame and fortune has resulted in talent from around the world entering the industry.
The first trailer for the series has been released on YouTube and it is fully what I expected it to be, full of Eurobeat, hosts, and energy. None of these are bad. But what I can’t really understand is that is this supposed to be a para para x Eurobeat x host version of Hypnosis Mic. There are both real-world aspects to it as well as anime aspects. The songs are sung by the voice actors of the characters and will even be having an album release on October 7th, 2020.
Even more interesting is the addition of Hifumi, Inc. An artist management agency that started with very underground roots. The music in PARAHOS is produced by none other than Genki Hikota (aka DJ GENKI of Hardcore Tano*C), as well as some of the vocals in the tracks being done by Yukacco, another Hardcore Tano*C stable artist. Genki Hikota is no stranger to making music for anime however, as he was the mastermind behind the ending of Yuri!!! On Ice with “You Only Live Once”. 3DCG animation duties are being handled by ANIMA, Inc. with an original story by Tō Amane (TENKASOUL Project) and a script by Yumi Akizuki (“Kankaku ♥ Phrases CLIMAX”)
It will be interesting to see how this series plays out as the release nears closer and more trailers start to get released. Color me intrigued. This actually might be something that I end up watching if not for the anime, but the music.