The THIRTEEN was originally started under the name ‘The MUMMY’ by vocalist 真緒 (Mao) and guitarist 美月 (Mizuki) in October of 2015, only a month after Sadie announced their hiatus. They changed the name to ‘The THIRTEEN’ in March of 2016, followed by the release of their full length album “PANDEMIC”. Since then they have been releasing new songs, singles, EP’s and the occasional full length album consistently.
The THIRTEEN only exists out of 真緒 (Mao) on vocals and 美月 (Mizuki) on guitar, but they do rely on support members: bassist kazu and drummer Tumi, both of which also regularly appear in their music videos and of course their live shows.
On April 12 2023 they released their 8th EP “A World of Villains” through the GREEDY RECORDS label. Consisting of 6 tracks, the EP only takes up about 30 minutes of listening time to not just show you a world of villains, but also a diversity in sound, style and the combination thereof.
At this point I can hear you thinking: “雪 (Yuki), you know the band released a single last April, right? Why are you bringing up this EP instead?”, and to that, dear reader, I only have one word as an answer: “concept”.
I assure you that “WORLD WITHOUT END” is on my list for a future article, but it won’t be the subject for today.
Before we look at every song individually I want to remind you that my main focus for this type of article is the lyrics and the story they tell. The intention is to ‘build a bridge’ between Japan and the rest of the world by giving you a different perspective of the release than you might have had before.
With all the necessities out of the way, let’s dive straight into “A World of Villains”!
I paint this world in my favorite colors
The EP opens with “Welcome to the Villains World”, a track that really shows what you can expect for this release. It starts off with a double-voiced verse to show the diversity of what we’ll find in this world, and mixes that with a more electronic influenced sound and an upbeat tempo.
If you’ve read my reviews before, you’ve probably heard me say that I have a very ‘visual’ imagination while listening to music. And this EP Is no exception. I’ll go into detail about this later, but if you grew up watching Disney movies as a child, “Welcome to Villains World” really takes you down a path where multiple villains welcome you among them through a song. The electronic beat really pulls you over the path of the ‘dirty no-good misfits’ before pushing you straight into the next song, where the center stage is for one villain only…
“QUEEN” is undoubtedly the gem of this release with its upbeat, poppy sound and a clearly identifiable villain stepping into the spotlight. Throughout the song we are introduced to ‘a queen who wears evil’, who also makes use of the same ‘taking your hand and pulling you through the song’-method as the opening track did.
While the overall sound is upbeat and poppy, The THIRTEEN do keep their heavier style incorporated into the song through a repeating verse in front of the chorus, but at the same time there’s also a higher pitch to 真緒 (Mao)’s natural voice to make him sound just a tad bit more feminine – something that really adds to the character and making her far more believable.
The music video opens with a scene of the evil queen in front of a mirror as she delivers the opening verse before making her way down the stairs. The role of the evil queen is portrayed by 真緒 (Mao), and throughout the video we see both 真緒 (Mao) and 美月 (Mizuki) in two different forms. Especially for “QUEEN” both of them have a red and black themed outfit, but for the verses where 真緒 (Mao)’s voice isn’t enhanced we see them both in the darker outfits you see on the promo shots for this release.
However, The THIRTEEN are background characters at best, since the queen absolutely is the star of the video. The Disney songs-style I described in the opening track really took a visual form here, and on top of that its a very catchy earworm-type of song too…
The third stop on our journey is the awkwardly titled “I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU”, which continues the ‘style change’ by pushing away the poppy sound from the queen and replacing it with a ballad-style opening before switching to a more jazzy style and the upbeat rhythm we’ve grown accustomed to by now for the remainder of the song. Based on the lyrics this song also features a female (an assumption based entirely on “I become mistress of the universe”) villain, although in contrast with the queen, this character isn’t born as a villain. Instead she has been created by picking up a crystal cursed by a witch that had fallen under a tree. “I stared blankly at it. That’s when my appearance changed. I became hot, fangs grew and wing grew on my back.”
The cursed crystal changed her into a beast, and with her lover no longer loving her she decided to “live as evil and make you a beast”. The song is once again presented in this Disney-style of musical storytelling, but also shows character growth and development throughout. Where at first there is only sadness, but by the end of the song she ends with “It’s gonna be a great day. Its great day. I’m alright.”
For our next stop we once again undergo a full ‘style change’, since “ANGRY” changes the pace to a more metal rhythm, opening with fast paced guitars, bass and drums before 真緒 (Mao) slips right back into the role of a villain with higher pitched (but again, his own) vocals. This also makes it the heaviest song found on this EP, but “ANGRY” is quite true to its name. “GET OUT HERE! Why? Cut down the forest? Do you want to destroy nature? GET OUT HERE! Fool! What a shallow deed! Humans threaten the future!”
While it is hard to say what kind of villain is speaking to us listeners now, it is clear that we’re again not dealing with one that was born as a villain. Instead it is one who became a villain through circumstances, in this case the destruction (or the intended destruction) of their home, the forest.
Our second to last stop is “DARK HEROS”, which keeps the aggression we heard in the previous track, but gives it a more electronic twist. And while it initially seems like we see a hero sneaking into the world of villains, it’s actually the opposite. These ‘dark heroes’ aim to eliminate the heroes who fight for justice. “Justice is stupid. It’s bad looking! Eliminate the heroes of this world. Yes, we are DARK HEROS!”
Much like its predecessor it’s harder to say what kind of villain we’re dealing with exactly, since they’re not describing themselves in enough detail throughout the lyrics. However, they do feel like they are a part of this world as a collective group. “Because there is light, there are shadows. No. There are shadows in darkness. I’ll show you the theorem later.”
Closing the EP is the oddly titled “The Snow Evil will perish”, which limits us to one villain being pushed to the foreground. One we can properly identify too: “Silence and darkness love me. But I’m always lonely. They call me a snow monster. My breath is white and cold.”
This villain takes the tempo down to a ballad, but with the heavy undertone of a metal song. It may be the slowest song of this journey, but it definitely doesn’t let itself be overshadowed by its upbeat-tempo villains. The slower tempo and drawn out vocal notes actually add to the sadness of the lyrics, but they also show us the most compassionate villain. “Whatever is problem? There is justice for evil. The living hate each other. Then this is the silence. But evil will perish. It’s a sad story. I want you to love me. ‘Cause all I want is you.”
Conclusion: Beauty and ugliness are two sides of the same coin
I purposely haven’t mentioned this up until now, but you might have noticed that all of the quoted lyrics were in English, and the reason why is that this EP is sung in English. There are some grammatical errors here and there, but these definitely don’t break the immersion.
The consistent use of the English language on this EP is impressive, and definitely a rare sight within the ヴィジュアル系 (Visual Kei) genre in this amount. It also adds to the story this EP is trying to tell. So I can only compliment 真緒 (Mao) for his efforts throughout this EP, since every song has a lot of lyrics – I really recommend checking them out for yourself too.
While at first glance “A World of Villains” seems like a collection of random songs that musically have nothing to do with one another due to the difference ins tyle, what we are looking at is a storybook that reminds me of the Disney formula more than anything – something I’ve mentioned various times in this review already.
The choice to have “QUEEN” as the music video was both the best and the worst possible choice, especially if it is the only song you’ll hear from this EP. By itself it overshadows the other tracks (and other villains) with how catchy it is, and how easily identifiable an evil queen character really is.
This storybook in musical format lets The THIRTEEN get away with what is essentially a mismatch of songs composition wise, but connect through the story they collectively tell. Once you see the story you’ll also see how consistent the EP is in what it is trying to do. My written version of this EP doesn’t do it the justice it deserves, so I highly encourage you to give it a listen if you haven’t already, or another listen if you have heard it before!
More about The THIRTEEN
![](https://www.arlequin-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/13_logo.jpg"){kind=logo}       |  (Mao)  |  (Mizuki)  |
雪 (Yuki) is the owner and driving force behind Arlequin.
She originally started the project in 2009 as a photographer under the name of Arlequin Photography, but developed an interest in journalism and translation ever since. Because of these interests interviews and reviews were added to the project, until it eventually hit the limits as a "photographer" in 2021, and Arlequin Magazine was added to the mix.
雪 (Yuki) is a native Dutch speaker with a graphic design degree, which means she is also the main person behind Arlequin Creations.
After all these years, she's still the one responsible for the interviews and most of the live photography you see here at Arlequin, but the majority of reviews and behind-the-scenes work is also done by her.
The reviews she writes are from the viewing point of an overseas fan, and thus written in English before being translated to Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. In the English versions she also tries to explain the meaning behind certain kanji or song titles to the readers, but what you don't see here is that these explanations are omitted in the Japanese versions in order to appeal to these readers more.
She speaks Dutch and English on a native level, but also understands Japanese and German.