52 year old metal head here. No, it's not "traditional" metal. All I can say is that when I listen to Babymetal I'm happy.

60 year old metal head here . Going to see Babymetal in September

You are right, it's not Metal, It's Kawai-Metal, a whole new subgender created by Babymetal.

Most of us were in the "WTF is this?" camp who listened to their first songs with a big emphasis on Metal & Jpop like this song and Gimme Chocolate. Some people dismiss them as a "gimmick" band, but I prefer the term "experimental". They experiment with mixing a LOT of genres and it's all done with homage to other metal and various artists from different genres, as well as collaborations with some of them. The quality of their band, the shows, the choreo has always been top notch.

If you don’t have a smile on your face after watching this video, then there is no hope for you.

When you listen to their early songs, you have to remember that they were quite young, and the songs were tailored to that. Doki-Doki-Morning, Gimme Chocolate, CMIYC, Megitsune, Iine, Ijime, Dane, Zettai, Yava and the like. And even those songs had a message behind them. As they got older and matured, the music also changed, added genres and collaborations, got heavier and they evolved. Their first video was D,D,M and Su was 13 and Moa and Yui were 11. They had a very tough regimen from when they started in 2010 with choreography and building up the cardio for their non-stop performances, and still having to go to school. So brushing them off without a thought and automatically think "gimmick" has turned out to be misplaced. When they did their first overseas tour in 2014 at Knebworth in England, they were thrust from a side stage to the center stage with 60,000 of the toughest music fans on Earth to satisfy, and they did. They really are a force in metal.

This was an amazing reaction. As much for its comments as for its honesty. Watching the light bulb warming up as you watched this performance was really a delight. Nice work.

Great honest reaction! - Thank you!!!    I am a 75 year old Japanese guy who used to (and still love) Metallica etc...   But when I first encountered BABYMETAL, I was in a half-year pet loss (of a 18 year old dog), but was miraculously cured by BABYMETAL in one night!  The song was Akatsuki (Budokan- 2014).  Please read lyrics.  It is about how love is yours and you should cherish forever.  Since then I am now able to enjoy all my dog photos with a smile, and feel gratitude to my dog for giving so much to make my life richer.  I live in DC, but flew all the way to Japan this January and am going to Spain in December for their final live for 2023.  and I am not an exception.   (  btw... we drove through 49 states with our dog!!!  )

I always love it when someone looks at Babymetal in realises what they're watching

Don't go back to 'Chocolate' yet. Look at 'Road of Resistance, Live in Japan'. That is possibly the single most informative video for summing up the potential of the act.

Yeah, after the first BABYMETAL video I saw kind of wrote them off for 10 years. I never gave them another glance until a couple of years ago I saw their music video for 'Karate' and I realised they weren't entirely crap. After a bit more digging I finally got the bigger picture. I still don't like every detail in that picture but the project as a whole is extraordinary.

The backing band, The Kami Band, is anything but an anonymous metal band - even though BABYMETAL's control-freak manager/producer dickhead has done his best to make them one. In this compilation video the members you see are:
Mikio Fujioka (deceased): guitar
Takayoshi Ohmura: guitar
BOH, 6-string god of bass
Hideki Aoyama: drums

Mikio (RIP) was Ohmura's guitar tutor at Musician's Institute Japan. He was an extraordinary player in all genres from jazz to metal. Sadly he died after a fall from an astronomical observation platform. The two guitarists went from instructor and student to friends and bandmates. Mikio's death devastated Ohmura and these days he plays one of Mikio's guitars at most BABYMETAL gigs, or at least has one with him.

The Kami Band members work together in various contexts outside of BABYMETAL

Hi, I have seen the girls cry while performing an emotional song, I have seen them laugh performing a funny song, but I have never seen them disrespect anyone ever. I have seen Metallica embrace them when they toured with Babymetal, I have seen Red Hot Chilly Pepper sing happy birthday to lead singer SuMetal when they were touring, I have seen Slipknot talk about the band with total respect, I heard Bring Me The Horizon and BabyMetal do an amazing song together, known as KINGSLAYER,  which Oli praised. Sabaton just finished a tour with the band, which was so much fun to see. The stories just keep continuing from bands like, Korn, Rob Halford, XJapan, Nemophila, Gun @ Roses, and most of these bands have toured with them. The girls treat all bands with such kindness, and they have become special to so many performers like myself. Being a Metalhead and a retired Metal guitarist, I was confused at first, but I got it when I saw them at Download when they were 14-16 years old, which was amazing. There is no one like them, and they won my respect and heart to be honest. I think I understand what you are saying, and it's your choice to either enjoy them or decide they are not your cup of tea. Some hard core Metal reviewers go out of there way to put them down, which does not represent the awesome Metal community I grew up in. By the way, the Kami band that backs the girls are a power house imo. BabyMetal crowds in Japan reach 20,000 - 52,000 a night, but they do much smaller concerts all over the world, which is respectable. Babymetal and Dethklok are touring the US in September. Take care and thanks for an honest review, which was refreshing and interesting. Cheers!

I really enjoy watching this process happen as people start to really understand Babymetal. Because your first exposure, on balance, is very often a jarring experience, and  that's why you'll see a lot of Babymetal fans tell ppl that you really have to give it 3 songs when you start into them. Anyone that can sit through 3 Babymetal songs and honestly not be having a good time by the end just hates fun, lol.

46 and pretty new Babymetal fan, they skyrocketed to close to the top of my favorites.
The interesting thing is, that dichotomy of sounds between the dark heavy metal and high pitched cute voices that they were founded on? It no longer sounds even remotely strange or different to me any more. It literally sounds normal now to me haha. I absolutely love it all. You'd be blown away by their new stuff. More mature themes and sound and singing too. It's all epic

Nothing that has heavy guitars, bass and drums like this can be considered anything but metal.

That was pretty fun watching you start with arms crossed and almost a scowl on your face, to smiling.  One thing I hope you've noticed.  Each one of the 3 songs you've mentioned from Babymetal are very different from each other.  You'll find that about every Babymetal song.  So when you said there will be songs you like and songs you don't like, that might very well happen.
Metalizm is a strange one.  Personally, it isn't my favorite Babymetal song, and I don't know I'd consider that a good Babymetal song to react to for the first few times.  Regardless though, even if in the end you find that majority of the Babymetal stuff you don't like, so long as you say it in a non-insulting way, I'm pretty sure you'll find that the Babymetal community will be totally behind you and support you for at least trying.  Speaking of Rob Halford, I don't know if you know this, but Babymetal actually performed with him for a couple of songs.  So if you want to have some fun, search that up and react to it.  You'll probably like it.  Lastly, Babymetal's music has matured as the girls have gotten older, their voices have become better (not they ever had bad voices, but their voices have become richer and more vibrant I find), and the girls have gotten more confident as well, and it shows.  Glad you were able to enjoy this song.  I think you'd also enjoy Rondo of Nightmare and Road of Resistance as well.

The expressions on their faces are just wonderful!

Wow. It's honestly rare to see someone not only earnestly inspecting their own thought processes, motivations, and biases, but doing it on camera and posting it for the world to see. You have earned my respect not as a reactor, but as a person. Bravo, sir.

Also I would personally say that METALIZM is more of an "advanced" Babymetal song, something to check out once you have a better idea of their range. I would recommend Ijime Dame Zettai live at Sonisphere, Mirror Mirror (official video), Akatsuki live at Budokan Black Night, maybe Karate live at Download 2016 for your next foray.

Rondo of nightmare live perfect for u😊

13:50 you cant resist them. Yes

The devils cheerleaders 😂