How do you go from the underground to sharing your song to a million people on YouTube?

For Super☆Social Sandal, the answer was a painfully honest, borderline-obsessive punk anthem about a girl named Yuna-chan.

Anti-social Sandals…

Formed in 2021 when singer Onizawa Mashiro was only 17, the band started out calling themselves “Anti-social Sandals”.

Onizawa changed their name to be more social (SUPER Social Sandals) after gathering the current line-up: Onizawa as singer/songwriter, Takemaster on guitar, Fujio on bass, and Hayashida on drums.

After meeting at a small live house in Shimokita, the group went on to form Super☆Social Sandals, performing many concerts in their home base of Shimokitazawa and more recently, major festivals like Summer Sonic.

You might recognize Shimokita if you are a fan of local Japanese rock or an avid Bocchi the Rock fan.

So – who are these guys?

Currently, they only have one album and a few singles out so far.

Speaking of, I saw that they opened for Omori Seiko yesterday!

Being an opener for Omori may give you an idea of their sound.

Its subculture, its raw, and more than anything, it’s very human. Vocalist Onizawa-san doesn’t hide her feelings.

This is her personal YouTube channel, where she uploads the first takes of SSS songs and other more private stuff.

If you like bands like Ging Nang Boyz (Onizawa-san said that they are a big influence on her sound), Omori Seiko, Ano-chan, and Shinsei Kamattechan, you should definitely give S☆SS a listen.

One YouTube comment on the Yuna-chan MV translated to , “I felt the same impact from this song that I did listening to Shinsei Kamattechan the first time”.

THE CONCERT

That’s the first time I heard S☆SS – in the lineup for a festival called “Depression Rock Discovery” that Kamattechan was headlining.

Here is the band coming out and getting the instruments ready. I wasn’t prepared for the great show they were about to give.

The show was amazing and the best of the night. This video is bad since only videos before performances are allowed… but, you can see one of their live shows here.

“big sound?”

You might be able to see that S☆SS is a big band in a few ways.

Reading the limited interviews out there, the interviewer often points out the size of the members.

In Japan, where most people are around 170cm (5’6″) and weigh less than 40 kilograms (130 pounds), S☆SS is explained in a Japanese interview as a band with “big sound and big members who are over 180cm (5’11”) and 100 kilograms (200+ pounds).”

To this day, I don’t know another band in Japan that is comparable to their size. And they completely own looking different in a very strict society.

Their guitarist was not only a big dude, his hair was HUGE. and luscious.

KAWAII YUNA CHAN

The song tells the story of Onizawa’s love/hate jealous-but-obsessed relationship with Yuna-chan.

The genius of this song is that Onizawa doesn’t use the words “hate” or “love”. Onizawa isn’t calling Yuna-chan a b*tch, or ugly, or stupid.

She alludes to their matching dolphin friendship keychains they bought as kids, saying “I wonder if that dolphin is at the bottom of the ocean yet?” to show the relationship is one sided.

Yuna-chan is a real person by the way, and apparently Onizawa accidentally said her instagram username at a concert once. Oof.

Here are the English lyrics –

If you liked any of their songs, please share which ones you liked!!

Until next time! ❤