2008 H!P Review

Okay, so it’s a bit of a bandwagon jump but it helps me get half of my 2008 general review out of the way and means that my own catagories won’t be monopolised by H!P.

Anyway, Amy of Merry Go Round put up a little poll and I gave myself some time to think about it and here are my responses.

BEST

Best Group Single - 
I thought for most of this year that I wasn’t really getting much from my new found fandom, but now that I look back single-wise, this is really hard. It’s a toss up between C\C (Cinderella\Complex), MADAYADE, Pepper Keibu, Edo no Temari Uta II and Renai Rider. I think my vote eventually goes to Edo no Temari Uta II because it’s the song that really made me pay attention to C-ute and C\C (Cinderella\Complex) because that was the smartest special group ever… and I love Yuukarin.
(and if it counts it actually draws with THE Possible’s Ijiwaru Crazy Love because that reminded me of my good old J-pop beginnings.)

Best Soloist Single -
I love Nacchi, but Screen didn’t excite me at all and I haven’t even listened to Aya or Miki’s recent releases. The only soloist I really pay attention to is Koharu (because I’m suicidal… or possibly on drugs) but I don’t vote for Papancake because it took forever for me to actually like it… I abstain from this category as I have no answer.

Best Group Album -
5(FIVE) or COVER YOU. 5(FIVE) made me like Berryz a LOT again, and COVER YOU surpassed all of my expectations… and Johnnie e no Dengon cemented my love for Risa.

Best Solo Album -
Well, there was only one. And that gets my vote because I do love Koharu’s Kirarin stuff for the most part. Plus it had Anataboshi and Tan Tan Taan! on it. Kirari to Fuyu

Best PV -
I wonder how many, if any, will vote for Resonant Blue. Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance… monkey suits, what more could you want?

Best New Group -
MilkyWay hands down. Both of their releases are golden, a-side and b-side, and I can’t help but love them. Kikka’s voice owns, how did she not get into Morning Musume? Oh and F.Y.I - if MilkyWay didn’t exist, Shugo Chara Egg would have won this category.

Best Established Group -
C-ute because I genuinely love them now. Morning Musume need a new original album before I come to a judgement on whether they’re better than their juniors. Berryz Koubou need to… I don’t know  – be better than C-ute?

Best Established Soloist -
This is probably an answer no-one wants to hear. Kusumi Koharu. I like her albums and single and I don’t really pay much attention to the others. Honestly I only really like Ayaya’s earlier songs.

Best Photobook -
Because Amy will cry if I don’t and I don’t really buy/download PBs, I choose 6gatsu no Kajitsu. :D

Hottest Idol of 2008 -
… I don’t know…
Umeda Erika’s getting more attractive, Airi is Airi – as always. Gaki is…
Niigaki Risa.

WORST

Worst Group Single -
Kiss!Kiss!Kiss! because in the end it just wound up boring me. I listen to it rarely and I just don’t really care. Buono! still rock though, and Gachinko and Rottara totally made up for it.

Worst Soloist Single -
Anything by ManoEri!!! Out of the three (though I haven’t heard the third one yet) I vote for Mano Piano - it was a great song… until she started singing! I can’t believe I still have it on my computer!

Worst PV -
FOREVER LOVE. The dance was brilliant, the suits ruled, the set was quite groovy but all it was was bit of dance/random shot of C-ute/bit more dance/another shot of C-ute. It bored me. I still haven’t watched it all the way through.

Worst Vocalist -
Kusumi Koharu. She’s my favourite but even I can admit that she gets a bit much. I absolutely abhored Papancake when it came out because of her voice, I don’t kow quite what happened to make me like it… This is all relative anyway. She’s the worst out of the people I can think of and listen to (therefore excluding ManoEri) but that doesn’t mean she’s the worst and I still love her new album. Did I just backpedal completely or what?
Or that egg from Shugo Chara Egg!!! Her voice is kinda sucky. I don’t know her name. It’s the one in yellow (I think)

Least Attractive Idol of 2008 -
LinLin. I love the girl, she has a kick ass voice and a sunny personality but she’s still a little funny lookin’.

Well that’s my two cents, and I hope my explaination was satisfactory even though I’m still confused about the Worst Vocalist category. Here you go Amy, add this to your results.

1 comment December 29, 2008

A Proper Write-Up On 2008 Wonderful Hearts Summer Concert

Click here for full tracklist because I can’t be bothered to take up the space here and I won’t necessarily mention all of the tracks.

First of all, this is just going to be a highlights post, because every other time I’ve done track-by-track concert reviews I have failed miserably. Another note, I think that all of the songs, or at least most of them, have had a great deal of time chopped straight out of the middle as well.

For the general opening, bits of it were a little lol-worthy. Especially the eggs doing their under the sea, swimming routine. But of course Summer = Hawaii is the general consensus.

Natsu LOVE Romance and Manatsu no Kousen are rather obviously lipsynched and I’m not quite sure if that’s okay with me yet, but I can feel the energy from both songs, and I have been converted to Manatsu no Kousen. I never liked it before. Of course Ai, Reina and Gaki really stick out here, but that’s because they’re the only focused on members.

Yes, Inaba Atsuko looks like she is hosting the Oscars. It’s really nice to see her here, she’s smiling and enthusiastic and I really like her now, even though we don’t have a Yaguchi Mari in the proceedings.

C-ute are the first group to perform without the back up crew. Two songs, Edo no Temari Uta II and Namida no Iro. I’m still questioning why most of the members have flying saucers on their heads, but I digress. I’m suddenly reminded why I like this song so much. It’s an energectic and fairly flawless performance but when the strains of Namida no Iro began I started to think… ‘In those outfits!?!’ But despite the wardrobe being in rather stark contrast to the song Airi and Maimi still embody the feeling of it really well. I love Airi’s lines. Plus, the dance is golden.

Following C-ute‘s very well performed set, we have Papancake by Koharu. And I no longer do not like this song. In fact I have listened to it several times today. Her vocal is good, even though it is pre-recorded, but her hyper-genki-ness is a joy to watch and she generally just performs the song. And then Anataboshi one of my favourite ever H!P songs. Lip-synched, but wouldn’t you want to be with all that hopping around? Trust me, you lose energy really quickly when you’re doing this dance.

Kikka and Saaya really impressed me here, they look so at home on the stage. I understand that they are eggs and have been performing in concert for a while but the confidence exuding from them is almost Morning Musume in quality. Needless to say, they keep up with Koharu very well.

I am also reminded why I like Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance so much as well. And if you needed any reminder of Maasa and Chinami’s awesomeness it’s right here. I love the audience participation in the verses! I so wish I was there to join in. Everyone’s sounding good, yes even Risako. Though I am slightly biased towards her, because she’s my favourite Berryz Koubou member. Especially that Wow! near the end, that rocks like heck because I don’t think I’ve heard Risako do that before.

After so long being rather ambivalent towards it I’m starting to actually fall in love with Resonant Blue. Despite there being the leads on this song there’s still decent enough coverage of all the other members. Thanks to this and a couple of tracks later on (which I will spazz about in due time) I’m really starting to like Reina a lot more and Ai is creeping back up my list, though she still irritates me ever so slightly. You know, I’m surprised I haven’t mentioned the outfits yet. They’re okay, but LinLin should have been given some sleeves, she looks like a badly drawn chibi at times. And while Lin’s looking like a small child, JunJun is hitting the performance on the head. She is seriously fierce in some of those shots… I mean really fierce. Risa just rules her parts as does Eri.

LinLin and Airi and an egg, who I’ve discovered is called Ogawa Saki, sing a nice little ballad. It’s nice to see LinLin with a good chance to shine because, personally, I think she has a great voice that more could be done with… and putting her with Airi hopefully means that other people think so too. And she’s not leading on just any song, oh no, it’s an Ayaya song Hajimete Kuchibiru wo Kasaneta Yoru. Vocally it’s very strong and Ogawa Saki is cute and she can hold her own.

Sayu and Risako’s version of Chu! Natsu Party is cute and fun. Ridiculous costumes and I still don’t particularly like Sayu, but eh… it’s worth a watch at least.

OKAY!!! Now it’s my time to spazz (this may be a very long paragraph)! High-King and Cinderella\Complex and Kioku no Meiro. It took me most of yesterday to find the right word to explain my feelings for this section of the concert. It’s my favourite part and I’m dissapointed that we’ll likely never hear anything more from High-King. The word that I finally came up with was ‘electrifying’. There’s so much energy and effort put in here that the atmosphere is tangible through my laptop screen. And despite the fact that I can’t understand most of what they’re singing I can somehow feel it, especially in Cinderella\Complex there’s something about the way Ai says her lines, and the expressions that make me think “Wow, I know what you mean” (even though I blatantly don’t). They’re all fabulous dancers too. Kioku no Meiro seems to fill the entire area with sound and is just generally amazing so I’m incredibly glad that it was performed. And can I just start a fanclub for Maeda Yuuka. I was sitting through most of KnM waiting to see if she’d get her solo chorus and YES SHE DID. I love her, she’s so cute, yet amazingly talented too. Plus she looks like a complete professional, even against all those H!P big shots. You have no idea how much I wish I cosplayed right now. (spazz over, you can come out from behind the sofa.)

This is the only MC I wil really talk about, apart from Inaba-san’s near the end. They bring back the tennis thing and the H-K girls answer questions while pretending to ‘rally’ with Makoto. And Reina is fail. Plus you realise how much she loves to talk. Yes, I really am beginning to like Reina. Yuukarin pwns with her cuteness and Saki looks like Gaki for a split second or four. There’s a little talk of Cinderella The Musical and Reina gives us a character preview that I did lol at.

I love Tokonatsu Musume so much I almost died when I heard it start to play and out came Risa, Eri and Aika. You know what, oddly enough I was disappointed when I discovered that I couldn’t see the shaka-hand movement thing properly, but that might be just because for the past two weeks I’ve been wandering around singing the song and that just stuck with me. Much like the fact that I’ve listened to and watched so much idol music I naturally respond to most questions with a peace sign. I love the dance break with the hula moves… but these girls generally are a lot more natural with dance than most of Coconuts Musume were.

JunJun gets her chance to shine next but I don’t care much for the song so… moving on. But well done JunJun.

Ah, wait. I don’t like Kousui much either. Moving on furthur.

The Buono! set is typical Buono! awesomeness and I’m not gonna talk about it too much because, honestly, you probably already know what to expect from a Buono! performance anyway. I will say that the girls are on top form all the way through Gachinko de Ikou! and Kiss!Kiss!Kiss! Oh, and that Airi’s Hai donmai is rather cute. No pun intended.

Berryz Koubou and C-ute team up again and relive the battle concert for a song or two. Massara Blue Jeans is a song I suddenly love and Special Generation isn’t quite there yet, but eh whatever. Those high notes are hit (Risako-voice-haters you may now eat your hats) and I still think that Mai is actually a twenty year old trapped in a younger body.

Now this is an MC that is really worth talking about. Inaba-san reads some messages from the members of Morning Musume + impressions. And it is amazing so I’m going to have to talk about all of them. Her Reina is absolutely hilarious, she’s got the attitude, even throwing in a wink and a CHANCE! XD She has a little bit of a problem remembering what to say for Aika, which is lol too. Usa-chan peace for Sayu. Her JunJun was rather accurate too from what I can gather. The Koharu-voice killed me dead the first time, absolutely and the look on Inaba-san’s face is totally “I can’t believe I just did that!”

I don’t like it when they end concerts with ballads but I’ll forgive them Ame no Furanai. Yes, I refuse to type the full title, because I can’t remember it. The most pointful thing to say about this performance is that only JunJun and LinLin get solo lines, their Chinese lines and the rest is sung by everyone. JunJun does really well but the focus is on LinLin and that last note. I love that moment from the first time I heard it and I love the fact that Jun’s singing along. As a side note Noto Arisa’s jumping really makes me worry for that microphone.

And as they walk off the stage to the strains of Ai Araba IT’S ALL RIGHT I find myself thinking that that is the most satisfying Hello!Project concert I’ve ever seen. Minus the battle concert. Two songs I didn’t enjoy, MilkyWay, High-King and most of all Inaba-san’s impressions mean that this is an amazing watch.

This is long and has no pictures.
Sorry

Add a comment October 26, 2008

ANOTHER Koharu Post!?!

I just can’t help myself now! XD
But it’s an important piece of news!

She’s got herself a third album!

Her, currently untitled, album will be released on the 17th of December at the perfect time for little girls all over Japan to start their Christmas wishlists. And mine.

As usual there’s a regular and a limited edition, I believe the limited comes with a DVD. Limited? me want. I am actually quite amazed by how much I want this – I knew that Koha was my favourite Momusu and that I really enjoyed her solo work, but somehow it turned out that she really really is my favourite. More so than I anticipated.

I think this happened in the space of a day.

Anyway… to pad this post out, here are a few hopes.

• It’s pretty guaranteed/likely that the MilkyWay singles will be on this album. Much like the KiraPika single was on Kirarin Land. Which will increase the awesome by quite a lot
• If the quality is a mix between Mitsuboshi and Kirarin Land I will be epileptic with happiness. Kirarin Land was a very cutesy album which had about two ballads on it and the rest was just hyper-pop weird stuff (In the good H!P type way) whereas Mitsuboshi had a lot more substance. Still had things like Koi Kana and Spaghetti but it had a lot more slow songs in comparison. If this third project has a balance of songs that is somewhere in between the first two albums it will probably be her best yet.
• I hope that I’ll love the whole album… and that maybe it’ll give some people a reason to respect Koha a bit more.

Add a comment October 5, 2008

Another Koharu Post

 Kirarin Revolution is the reason Koharu has a solo career, but I’m not an anime person. That said, the whole reason I hit on Japanese-ness was actually Dragonball Z (which I have seen every episode of). Even though I love every single theme tune that this show has had, I’ve never even watched the damn show.

Until yesterday.

I needed something to cheer me up, and I always listen to Koi Kana when I need a bit of a lift – So I thought ‘Eh! Why not watch Kirarin Revolution?’ .

And I now officially love it! And I love Koharu even more now.

It’s inexplicable. It’s incomprihensible. I don’t even know anymore.

I’ve watched up to episode 13 and, despite Kirari being amazingly spazz-tastic and a monster eater and wants to be an idol for all the wrong reasons, she’s surprisingly endearing. And it has honestly made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

 I’ve got a long way to go as there are a lot  of episodes but they aren’t all subbed, but I’m pretty determined to stick with it because I’m definitely enjoying it so far.

Short post, but I just wanted to shout out that…

KOHARU IS SO MY FAVOURITE MOMUSU BY FAR

Add a comment October 4, 2008