The Singles Jukebox

It’s manga-turned-anime-turned-live-action-movie-theme-song time!

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[6.12]

Ryo Miyauchi: Leave it to Yasutaka Nakata to know how to best use the drop-driven dance-pop structure to tell a story, because “Mugen Mirai” is about what he decides not to put into words. He instead leaves it to awe to fill in the blanks, from the electronic burst of a beat that inspires a thousand words, but also the impressionistic lyrics that provide sparks for the emotional imagination. It’s not so different in theme from the previous Chihayafuru contribution “Flash,” which was also about a feeling that could not be put into exact words, though “Mugen Mirai” uses a fraction of the lyrics and double the silence to sing the same.
[8]

Will Adams: Perfume’s first attempt at future bass felt more like a false start — an underwritten exercise, just some stanzas tossed into the fray — but on “Mugen Mirai” they find their pop bearings again. For a group whose discography is largely built on effervescent, unforgettable choruses, they fare wonderfully at stepping aside to let Nakata’s zooming production take center stage. The key is that they’ve made the verses feel just as crucial.
[8]

Tim de Reuse: The most distinctive aspect here is the cartoonish bounce that every single element seems to have — the rain-drop snare, the buoyant synth lead, the rippling little chords that start it off. It all definitely works towards a distinct aesthetic goal, but it isn’t meaty enough to elevate the track past the old-hat complextro it’s trying to wring energy out of.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: The beginning reminded me so much of “Viva La Vida” that when things started lurching, faulty-rollercoaster-like, toward a drop, I all but expected “something just like this.” Who wanted Yasutaka Nakata to emulate the Chainsmokers?
[5]

Will Rivitz: Isn’t Perfume supposed to have more stage presence than this? The Chainsmokers drop is utterly delectable, but it’s about the only interesting part of the song.
[5]

Alfred Soto: The rhythmic shifts startle because Perfume don’t lose the wistfulness in their vocals, but eventually the hyperactive drops wear them down.
[6]

Jonathan Bradley: “Mugen Mirai” is Perfume turned inside out: over expansive, soothing synth patches, it’s their vocals that receive the kaleidoscopic Yasutaka Nakata treatment, treated and Auto-Tuned and cut into millions of little refractive pieces. When the chorus arrives, it’s in the form of a big dubstep drop, only instead of rupturing the track through sonic weight it somehow defies gravity and soars skyward in a major key explosion of chimes, chirps, and chiptune blerps. It is admittedly more effective as a formal experiment than a pop song — slight enough to make the song feel as if it has barely begun even when the 3:43 run time concludes — but there’s more than enough here to make even that worthwhile.
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: A surprisingly understated effort from Perfume, which is essentially just them not being pristine for once in this decade. “Mugen Mirai” is tasteful almost to a fault, as the group appears to have left more typical EDM strains in order to try and convey a sense of wistful maturity that leaves them worryingly characterless, almost sapped of the usual brightness. Perhaps a good transition point for the group as they approach a point where their lives in Perfume have dominated their actual lives, but not entirely the most enticing single.
[5]