Sony Japan’s promotional dancing headphone girls – or Headphone Joshi as they’re known in Japan – have been with us for over a week now, whirling around and wowing us with both their dance moves and über cuteness.

As part of a promotion for its new line of “extra bass” headphones, Sony put together a YouTube page of its own featuring one girl from each of the 47 prefectures in Japan dancing before a camera to Avril Lavigne (why?) while listening to music through the new headphones. We can’t say that the videos made us want to buy Sony’s new tech any more than the next brand, but it certainly made us appreciate just how cute girls in headphones are.

We’ve long been fans of girls in glasses, Chinese dresses, mini skirts and school uniforms, so deciding which of the girls in Sony’s promotional videos was the true queen of cute, style and rhythm was no easy task. But, being the dedicated troopers that we are, we took a break from debating which of Beethoven’s symphonies best accompanies a glass of Beaujolais nouveau and sat down with a notepad and pen to watch those girls dance.

A couple of hours and many, many replays later, the RocketNews24 team had finally reached a consensus…

We’re sure you all have your own opinions, and you’re welcome to put your own Best Five Headphone Joshi forward in the comments section below, but for now, in worrying detail, we’d like to present RocketNews24‘s Top Five headphone-wearing cuties in order:

5. Cheerleader Headphone Girl, Miyagi prefecture

It probably comes as no surprise that a girl in a cheerleader outfit should find her way into our top five, but hear us out!

Cheerleader Headphone Girl (we’re past real names here- she shall forever be known as this or simply “CHG”), is absolutely brimming with energy and has flexibility that we, slumped over our computers all day and cracking our backs, can only dream of. Those high kicks and lightning-fast turns left us open-mouthed, not to mention thinking we should join a gym. If you’re looking for pep and energy, Cheerleader Headphone Girl has got it in stacks!

4. Chinese Dress Headphone Girl, Kanagawa prefecture

Come on, who doesn’t like a nice Chinese dress? Simple, stylish, showing a little leg… And best of all, she’s holding a nikuman steamed meat bun! Dancing while holding a savoury snack; now that’s what we like to see!

3. Belly Dancing Headphone Girl, Shimane prefecture

She rocked our socks so much last week that we (<cough> I…) chose her for our title image when we introduced Sony’s new campaign for the first time, and she rocked them completely anew this time.

Since Belly Dancing Headphone Girl is slightly older than some of the other entrants, we feel mildly less creepy watching the video and adding her to our top five. And just look at that stomach! Ho-ly Christmas… If we’re giving additional awards, Belly Dancing Headphone Girl definitely wins the prize for “Sexy, Sexy, Sexy”, and not in a Mr. Sato kind of way, either…

2. T-shirt and Miniskirt Headphone Girl, Nagano prefecture

One of the simpler entries, this young lady from Nagano has a definite cuteness all of her own, but she won us over just for being so natural, if a little awkward during her self introduction. But when the apple’s been put down and she’s stopped talking about soba, she can really move. She’s going to break hearts…

1. Highschool Headphone Girl, Aichi prefecture

We all saw it coming. She might have a weird stuffed animal sticking out of her pocket, but she puts some of those AKB48 girls to shame with those dance moves. And just to show that we’re not basing this on some creepy schoolgirl fetish, the female members of the team all cried  “kawaiiii!” (cuuuuute!) at least once while watching the video.

See you on TV soon, Highschool Headphone Girl!

YouTube SonyJpHeadphone
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