J-Pop Legends Perfume Continue to Raise the Bar with 'Nebula Romance: Part II'
On Nebula Romance: Part II, J-pop icons Perfume convert legacy into momentum, fusing the sounds that define them with bolder ideas.
The 10-track sequel completes the duo of space-tinted concept albums they began last year, and it plays with time—past, present, and imagined futures—without ever losing the trio’s pop precision. It’s also one of our favorite albums of 2025: a sleek, generous record that reminds you why Perfume are a timeless force in pop and enduring trailblazers in J-pop.
The album’s visual flagship is “Meguru-pu” (「巡ループ」), whose latest music video is a full-on short film: cinematic set pieces, kinetic fights, and drone ballet folded into glossy, high-contrast images. It’s also not spectacle for spectacle’s sake; the MV links directly to the Nebula Romance storyline, extending the album’s world-building onscreen. As a song, “Meguru-pu” is uplifting in motion—hopeful and a little misty-eyed in the way only Perfume can sell—and as a rollout centerpiece, it’s iconic and visually maximal.
Though openers matter on records that promise immersion, and “Cipher” is a smart door into Nebula Romance: Part II. Slotted as the first track, it calibrates the environment: glassy synths, clean drum programming, and the members’ unison/round vocal phrasing that producer-composer Yasutaka Nakata has refined across decades. It doesn’t just tee up a playlist; it sets a vantage point for the album’s “cinematic universe” and frames how you hear everything that follows.
From there, the title track “Nebula Romance” (「ネビュラロマンス」) locks in the project’s retro-futurist grammar—think gleaming synth lines with a city-pop tint and a disco heartbeat, arranged with the aerodynamic efficiency that has long defined Perfume’s best work. The song’s cultural footprint extends beyond the album: it scores NTT’s pavilion experience for Expo 2025 in Osaka, where Perfume’s performance concept time-travels through Japanese pop symbolism and tech history. That real-world installation context echoes the record’s themes—nostalgia not as a filter, but as a medium—and helps explain why Part II feels so fully realized: this is music designed to live across screens, stages, and immersive spaces.
“Moon” is the album’s sleekest strut—shoulders back, tempo just brisk enough to turn a sidewalk into a catwalk. First released in 2023 as the theme for Fuji TV’s Barakamon, the single slides into Part II like a returning character, now with the benefit of context: its buoyant, city-night shimmer reads as a memory inside the new album’s story while also working as a standalone pop cut. If you’re building a case for Perfume’s range, “Moon” is Exhibit A—proof they can make chart-sharp TV themes that still feel masterfully authored, not algorithmic.
Part of the joy of Part II is how it balances event singles with tight album craft. “Solar Wind” arrives with Gundam Card Game tie-in pedigree; “Human Factory – 電造人間 –” carries a film theme brief; “Teenage Dreams” and “Virtual Fantasy” flesh out the record’s neon-noir palette; “exit” and “再起動世界” tug the tempo and mood without breaking the arc.
None of these detours feels like an afterthought, either. Instead, they’re the reason the album reads as a confident, diverse showing of Perfume’s staying power—retro-futuristic pop assembled with engineering rigor and emotional intent. The sequencing is smart, the hooks are generous, and the sound design is crisp enough to feel modern while tipping its hat to the trio’s history.
Of course, part of why this all lands in 2025 is context. Perfume is 25 years into their story as a unit (and 20 since their major-label debut), a longevity few pop acts anywhere can claim. That endurance is the product of a potent, singular creative partnership (Nakata’s writing and the group’s exacting performances), a visual language that treats choreography and staging as core text, and an instinct for the future that never discards the past. Nebula Romance: Part II embodies that balance: it feels new without pretending history didn’t happen. That’s what raising the bar looks like when you’ve already cleared so many.
Zoom back out, and the thesis is simple, Nebula Romance: Part II is a high-functioning pop machine that still leaves room for feeling. “Meguru-pu” pushes the visuals; “Cipher” opens a portal; “Nebula Romance” crystallizes the concept; “Moon” struts in with effortless charm. The result is a record that plays as an immersive experience on first pass and as a hook-rich, detail-dense pop set on the tenth.
In a year crowded with smart releases, Perfume has easily delivered one of 2025’s standouts—and reminded us yet again that their influence on J-pop isn’t just historical; it’s current, evolving, and still setting the pace. We’re truly lucky to be living in the era where this trio keeps dropping hits, decades in, and showing everyone else what the future can sound like.
