It’s time for Japan to usher in the SKA REVIVAL REVIVAL!!!!!!!1…

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Sabina Tang: AKB48’s third — or seventh — consecutive yearly “graduation song,” a J-pop seasonal trope as evergreen as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. The checklist is as follows: path of falling cherry blossoms. Spring breeze. Taking off my school uniform for the last time (but not in that way). Shining memories we made together, more precious than any photograph can convey. We must part, dear friends, and in parting lies sadness, but brighter still are our hopes for the future. Remember this is not an ending, but the beginning of our lives, and some day we will meet again. Sometimes there’s a romantic sub-plot (I particularly liked the fad of the graduating senior giving their favourite junior the top button off their uniform jacket), but AKB48 keep it appropriate for a junior high valedictorian address. The fast tempo and optimistic focus at least differentiate this entry from the more usual sentimental ballads
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Iain Mew: Less sickly sweet than anything else from AKB48 I’ve encountered, “Give Me Five!” comes on like a ska-pop cover of Green Day’s “Basket Case”. The opening shout and blast offers a totally undeniable thrill. After that, well, I’d prefer it if they’d give me 3:30, but I do not feel excluded from their party for once.
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Jonathan Bradley: These are the most exuberant horns I’ve heard since the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “The Impression That I Get”! If AKB-48 usually trade in pop-punk processed into J-Pop, then perhaps this is their ska deviation? (No, it’s not actually ska, but girl groups with a membership outnumbering other bands’ fan clubs cause me to say reckless things.) There’s no reason “Give Me Five!” needs to refer to the number of minutes in the tracklength, and the hook doesn’t pop the way their best singles do, but that fanfare sounds like it’s been called up from a much better song. It’s enough.
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Jonathan Bogart: Not so much third-wave ska as “Eye of the Tiger”/”Final Countdown”-type fanfare with uptempo drums, this is pretty much exactly the sort of J-Pop I fell in love with ten years ago: the song only has one idea, but it clings to it so tenaciously that it makes it, at least for the runtime, the only idea that matters.
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Edward Okulicz: This is far too similar, and inferior to, the sparkling “Heavy Rotation” for me to give it anything but a five. I mean, there’s some ska horns substituting for a good tune and that’s literally the only major non-lyrical difference. The chorus even starts near enough the same way to that of “Rotation” with three similar ascending notes before detonating, or trying to. But it doesn’t explode this time. I’m not sure if having heard a bit of their back catalogue is making me cranky and hard to please, but I’m also not sure if completely cannibalising one of your most iconic tracks is a good idea either. And being cute and numerous enough to mob someone doesn’t get you special dispensation.
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Brad Shoup: It’s not fair for the guy who was once an additional percussionist in The Amazing Skasmonauts to be teased with that third-wave sound. It’s a valedictory lyric, and it sounds like it: both in the grand, carefully-rendered melody and the 64th notes the chorus rips out. It’s a headlong rush, but only into college, so it’s difficult to catch the feeling. You know what would’ve helped, though: more ska.
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