So, you like anime?

Why hello there! If you’ve come looking for Japanese music album reviews, well, you’ve found yourself in the right place at the right time, because you’re just in time for another installment of the J-Music Exchange/Rate! If you already know what you’re here for, by all means, go right ahead and skip ahead to this month’s theme. But if you’re new around here and just happened to stumble upon the blog not quite sure what to expect, please give the following a quick read:

The Exchange/Rate is a tandem album review series conducted every month by yours truly alongside my good friend and fellow Japanese music fan Al (from Omunibasu). Each month we decide on a specific theme with which our reviews would revolve around. We then pick out albums from our respective libraries which we think best coincides with that theme. We will then give the album we chose to the other person and vice versa (exchange), after which we then listen to and subsequently review the album we were given (rate). This project has not only allowed us to explore music beyond our libraries, but it provides an opportunity for us to see our favorite albums from a different point of view. It is our hope that this series is able to do the same for you and that you either find a new artist to try out and/or we offer you a fresh take on one of *your* favorite albums 

Al and I take turns deciding the month’s theme, and this time it was Al’s turn to take a crack at it. The theme he cooked up for us is albums by bands or artists we think would be a good fit for an anime tie-in. Longtime readers of Leap250’s Blog will know that before this site focused solely on Japanese music, it actually started out as an aniblog. While I admittedly don’t watch as much anime these days as I used to, the medium still holds a very special place in my heart, and the songs tied to it even more so. In some ways, you could say I wouldn’t have become a Japanese music fan at all if it weren’t for anime, so in that sense, this theme feels a bit like a full-circle moment for me.

I went ahead and had Al check out singer-songwriter Sato’s Toaru ai wo tsuzutte (you can catch his review over at the Omunibasu Substack!), while Al, in turn, handed me botakura.’s S’more to go over with you guys today.

I guess… let’s go camping shall we? 😁

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Botanical na kurashi (ボタニカルな暮らし。, lit. “botanical living”, shortened as botakura.) formed in 2021, born from a group of jazz session friends who played together during their student days. The lineup consists of vocalist Siyo Sax, flutist Harumaki, guitarist Tomokazu Tanizawa, bassist Inui Mitani, and drummer Kazune Nakanishi. This five-piece pop band from Tokyo describe their sound as “a new paradise discovered by twisted people in the Reiwa era.”

＜Ｓ’ｍｏｒｅ＞
(＊Spotify link to the full album)

CDJapan Affiliate Link(s):
N/A

＜T ｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ＞

０１・Dusk
０２・Lovely Dash
０３・バブル (2025 Remastered ver.)
０４・曝け出せ/sarakedase
０５・candle
０６・アンブレイラ/umbrella

Ａｌ： I will shamefully admit that I was very determined to have Leap talk about jazz-pop band Botanical no Kurashi and this 2025-released EP of theirs at some point in the year. With how much I’ve loved their music ever since I discovered them back in February, it was hard for me to not include this botakura release in this year’s collection of album reviews. And while it may seem like I just desperately shoehorned them into this month’s theme, as I began to really think about it, I actually don’t believe that was the case… for the most part.

And what convinced me that botakura could fit as an artist feature in an anime happened to be a show from last season, titled Ame to Kimi to. The two artists who were chosen to provide the OP & ED themes were some fantastic choices, as the chill-yet-fun bossa nova-inspired vibes from Suzuki Mamiko, and Kei Sugawara’s low-key and groovy tone both felt like perfect complements to the relaxed mood of that slice-of-life anime. Thus, if that particular style of music clearly has a place in the world of anison, then I’d say botakura is a pretty damn good candidate to provide another instance of it.

With many of the tracks on S’more exerting a feel-good vibe to it, I could totally see them used in various and fitting ways; whether it’s the floaty and serene tone of “Bubble” being one you can just sit back and chill with after going through entire episode, or even “Dusk” and “Lovely Dash” having a slightly upbeat and warm quality to them that could fit both an OP or ED situation. And with anime themes being so well-regarded for its catchiness and ability to really resonate with the viewer, botakura knows how to strike the right chords at the right times, especially within the choruses, as the soulful vocals from frontwoman Siyo and the smooth uses of synths or a smoky saxophone can most certainly get stuck in your head.

＜Ｓｏｎｇｓ　ｏｆ　Ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔ＞

０１・Dusk
I’m sure a lot of you who’ve been keeping up with the Exchange/Rate for some time now (whether religiously or just whenever a particular album catches your eye) see me start talking about the first track and immediately think, “oh great, here he goes again”, about to wax poetic on why album openers are so important (lol). And, well… you’d be right. I still firmly believe that to be true, both in general as well as in this case with botakura.’s Dusk. It’s actually been a while since I’ve come across an opener that so clearly lays out what a band is about and, more importantly, puts into perspective what they’re trying to accomplish with their music.

As mentioned in the short bio above, botakura. are primarily jazz artisans who came together with the shared goal of making pop music. There are a few reasons why I think they decided to go down that particular path, which I’ll get into later when I talk about the EP as a whole. For now, though, knowing the kind of musical background and sensibilities the band brings to the table, it’s no surprise that Dusk comes packed with strong melodies and dense instrumentals, exactly what you’d expect from a jazz-rooted group. What’s fascinating, though, is what they do with those elements. By threading their jazz through pop-style chord progressions, botakura. create a sound that feels both classy and trendy.

０２・Lovely Dash
It’s this duality in their music that, I think, creates an interesting sort of dichotomy within botakura.’s approach, at least within the context of this EP. It honestly to me almost feels like the band is still in the process of figuring out how best to bridge their jazz background with the pop sound they’re aiming for. You can sense them experimenting, playing around with the ratios and navigating the two ends of their musical spectrum as they search for that sweet spot where both identities can coexist. At the very least, that’s the impression I got after giving S’more a good couple of spins, with Lovely Dash standing out as something of an outlier within the EP as a whole.

Where Dusk framed botakura. as “a jazz band playing pop music”, Lovely Dash flips that almost entirely, where here, they lean much further into pop, almost to the point of setting aside their jazz sensibilities altogether in favor of a more contemporary, electronic-driven sound. That’s not to say jazz and electronic elements don’t belong together (if anything, you could argue this is simply a more modern interpretation of the genre), and in that sense, the track still works. The melody and rhythm carry a definite groove, but with a noticeably more DTM-oriented approach. In doing so, though, botakura. trade off (in my opinion) one of their key strengths as a jazz collective which is the organic touch to their sound, for something trendier but arguably less distinctive.

０３・バブル (2025 Remastered ver.)
If I had to say, I think Bubble is about as close as botakura. get to realizing their vision with regard to this whole jazz-meets-pop undertaking. As has been both the entire thesis statement behind this EP, as well as the running theme throughout this review, this is the track where they come the closest to striking that ideal balance between the duality at the core of their music. Now, whether offering “the best of both worlds,” so to speak, is actually what I think the band should be aiming for, or even whether it’s the sound that best suits them, is something I’ll touch on in just a bit. But in terms of execution, this is where botakura. hit their mark.

Something worth noting is that the version of Bubble found on S’more is a remastered version of a previously released single. The tweaks are relatively minor, but what’s telling is how this track harkens back to some of botakura.’s earlier work, particularly their city pop leanings (which, if you think about it, is itself an intersection of jazz and pop). You get a taste of that here again, but now fused with an even more direct contemporary pop sensibility. The vocal phrasing recalls artists like natori or imase, and the chord progressions tap into the kind of trendy, instantly catchy style you’d hear in hits like the former’s Overdose or the latter’s NIGHT DANCER.

０６・アンブレイラ/umbrella
When talking about botakura.’s earlier work, Umbrella is another track from this EP that stood out to me for how reminiscent it is of that period. Unlike Bubble which revisits their city pop leanings, this one reaches even further back, all the way to their debut single Bitter Coffee from 2021. That track, if you listen to it, is quite different from most of what’s on S’more, and it kind of shows that the band has been actively experimenting with different styles from the very start, trying to figure out what best aligns with their artistic intent. On the other hand, and going back to my earlier talk about ratios and balance, this track almost feels like what botakura. would sound like if they didn’t take pop or trendiness into account at all.

It could just be the hipster in me talking again (lol), but what fascinates me most about that is how, when you strip away the trendy or pop-oriented elements, botakura.’s sound actually shines through the clearest. Umbrella is a good reminder that jazz isn’t always about the instruments themselves, as sometimes it’s about the sway, the groove, and the vibe. You do catch glimpses of that across earlier tracks on the EP, but nowhere does it come across as strongly as it does here. In a lot of ways, it actually reminds me of one of both the blog’s and the Exchange/Rate’s longtime favorites, chilldspot; a band that doesn’t necessarily label their music as jazz or even jazz-adjacent, yet their sense of groove is unmistakable. I think botakura. have that same quality in spades.

＜Ｗｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｏｆ　Ｓ’ｍｏｒｅ＞

In an interview with the Japanese web magazine Skream!, the band talked about how they arrived at the name S’more for their debut EP. Vocalist Siyo, in particular, wanted there to be an overarching theme for their first multi-song release and became fixated on the quality of being fuwapaki, roughly translating to “fluffy and crispy.” She described the things she likes as having that quality: comforting warmth paired with a distinctness that pops out. Ultimately, the band landed on the sweet treat s’more to best represent this attribute, with its crisp graham cracker exterior and soft marshmallow center; a cozy, textured combination that perfectly embodies that balance.

Looking at it another way, you could say that the notion of duality and dichotomy sits right at the heart of this release, much like it does with the band’s musical identity, at least in the way that it is right now. I don’t think this is a case of a group still trying to figure out what kind of music they want to make (as is often the case for newer acts). Rather, I think botakura. have already made it abundantly clear what they want to do as a band, otherwise, they’d have just continued down the path of being straight jazz musicians. What we’re hearing here instead is botakura. in the process of execution, working out how best to leverage their jazz sensibilities, if at all, in the pursuit of creating pop music.

If I had to venture a guess as to why they’re so intent on making pop, it’s probably to reach a broader audience, which makes total sense. That said, after listening to this EP, I can’t help but feel that chasing trendy sounds isn’t the way forward for botakura. Instead of striving to emulate what’s viral or currently trending, I think it’s their jazz that can take them there. Leaning into that inherent sway and groove they’ve shown in the past, the very elements that make their music “fluffy and crispy” is, perhaps ironically enough, what I believe will make their sound the most appealing. If anything, that’s where I see their true breakthrough lying.

＜Ｍｙ　Ｒａｔｉｎｇ＞


３.７５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ５

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７.５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ １０

Another interpretation the band gives for the EP’s title is that it’s actually a truncation of the words “some more.” They mention how, in this day and age, where listening to a release from the first track to the last isn’t all that common anymore, they wanted to create something that would leave listeners “asking for a refill” after hearing it for the first time. I think botakura. manage to accomplish that here to some degree; S’more is absolutely the kind of EP you can put on loop in the background for something nice and cozy. Going back to this month’s theme of anime tie-ins, I’d even liken it to Slice of Life in that sense. I mean, hey, considering the imagery, this would’ve been a perfect concept album for Yuru Camp (lol).

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What are your guys’ thoughts on S’more? Let me know in the comments!

Likewise, let us know too which bands or artists do you think would be a good fit for an anime tie-in! We’d love to know who you have in mind 😊

Before I let you go, don’t forget to check out Al’s review of Sato’s Toaru ai wo tsuzutte over at the Omunibasu Substack if you haven’t yet already!

Happy Listening!