For those of you relatively new to my blog, I LOVE Momoiro Clover. They're probably my all time idol group. They're energetic, fun, cute, all around great dancers and singers. Their newest line-up, Momoiro Clover Z, is looking to be great; they're having two singles come out next month, and I plan on reviewing both songs/PVs.
I love all the members, at least of the line-up that have had singles (MomoClo was a VERY indie group, and had former members before they even got a PV), but A~rin's my favorite. She's the "idol" type of Momoiro Clover, has the color pink in their color scheme, and is quite girly. She's also fairly mature as a person, despite being only recently 15 and the youngest of the group. She's cute, fun to watch, and has a nice, fun-loving personality.
Also, I'm quite convinced she's the idol second coming of my favorite idol ever, Ishikawa Rika. Ayaka's from Kanagawa (same as Rika), has the color pink, is the member that is both cute/sexy, is a bit strange, and is mature for her age.
But seriously, I love all the members of Momoiro Clover, and so if you aren't too familiar with them I urge you to check them out!
I just was alerted that I'm the next Summer Refreshment poster for International Wota, and I got the nicest write up of my 30 Day Idolathon series by Ray on that site.
The Doctor shares my enthusiasm
I'm not doing this blog searching for money or fame, because honestly, with an idol review blog, I'm not going to find either. I started this blog because I have so many thoughts about the idol business, and I used to just rant/rave to my friends, who I don't think appreciated this.
Still, it's REALLY nice to be recognized, especially in a big spot on probably the biggest idol review blogspace in the English-language idol fandom. I don't NEED hundreds of comments or thousands of views or anything like that, but the fact that some people read my stuff makes things A LOT more worth it.
So now, next week, I'll be doing my Summer Refreshment post, about Idols, seasons, bikini PVs and more. Happy Disco will also be taking a field trip to get my refreshment treat, gelato at the Mall of America. I have some fun ideas for this post, so I hope people will enjoy it!
Ah, Idoling!!!. If I pretended to know more than the basics about them I'd be lying. I do know, however, that I LOVE their song Me ni wa Aoba Yama Hotogisu Hatsukoi
However, of all the members, the one that really catches my eye and that I've enjoyed seeing once in a while in AKBIdoling!!! stuff is...
Yazawa Erika!
While mostly known by non-Idoling!!! fans as the one with the really big breasts, she just has a really fun attitude. In the PV for Me ni wa Aoba... she does wotagei and ends up really having fun with the whole thing. I once heard that she hurt herself and couldn't do a concert because she was HEADBANGING too hard.
She's the energy queen of Idoling!!!, which makes her a treat to watch, whenever I watch something with Idoling!!!
It was just announced that the sequel to AKB48's first dating sim (or rather, rejection sim) game, "AKB 1/48 Aidoru to Koishitara", which will be titled "AKB 1/48 Aidoru to Guam de Koishitara" (REALLY original title there) will be released in October.
I talked a bit about the first game here but even though some people are somewhat negative about it, I don't think it's a bad thing. I've seen the videos of my favorite, Oota Aika, and yes it has made me flail about uncontrollably when she tells the camera (me!!) that she loves me. It's marketing at it's finest; who DOESN'T want to have their favorite idol tell them they love them?
My only issue is that I'm a DD (meaning that I like everyone). Lovetan is my favorite, so I'm sure I'd go with her, but rejecting the rest of them would be HARD. I'd be going through the game and then suddenly I have to reject Mariyannu? I LOVE Mariyannu! I have to reject Wasamin? How does that happen? I'd also have the issue of going "OK, I'll replay the game, but THIS TIME go with Wasamin!" and then run in to the roadblock of having to actually reject Lovetan. This game would be emotionally stressful XD.
This time around, I don't think there's many more differences other than the whole "It's in Guam! Bikinis, hooray!" I mean, it'll be cool for us fans to see new vids of our idols telling us they love us. But if someone was a casual fan, I doubt this game would be super popular, especially if they had the first one.
I don't think the brand new Team 4 is included in the game, but they have the 90 minute video which includes Ichikawa Miori going "Anata no Kanojo ni naritai no~" Instead of "Fresh lemon ni naritai no~" which made me giggle.
All in all, while this is definitely not revolutionary (especially being a sequel to their other game), I'm excited to see the stuff surrounding the game. I don't have a PSP, so I doubt that I'll be getting this game, but I bet those AKB fans who have a PSP are thrilled right now!
Just from looking at my blog, it's pretty easy to see that I'm a huge Ishikawa Rika fan. However, what's not as apparent is my undying affection for AKB48's Oota Aika.
First, you can obviously see she's cute. I really do go for the cute types, so straight away I noticed her adorableness, her one dimple, and the fact that lolita clothes REALLY suit her.
Then I noticed her on stage; Lovetan (best nickname ever, am I right?) always looks like she's having a blast on stage. She's not the best singer or dancer, at least technically, but she's always really fun to watch in performances. This next performance in particular is REALLY fun to watch, especially near the end, to see how fun Lovetan is.
Then I started to learn about her personality; Lovetan is a HUGE anime nerd, and talks about it nonstop on her blog, and is really not afraid to say anything about that. She is slightly sharp-tongued, but in an adorable way. Basically, Lovetan is pretty honest and says what she means, which I think is a good quality in an idol, since so many idols are kind of fake. This ends up being kind of funny, because while she often complains about being harassed by Sashihara Rino, she later complains about being neglected by Sashiko. Ahh, Lovetan, you can't get it both ways.
She's also a Miichan wota, which ends up being an adorable thing.
And a while ago I was able to watch Lovetan's birthday LOD, where she was read the SWEETEST message from Iwasa Misaki, who talked about Lovetan being really nice and inclusive to Wasamin, even back when Wasamin was a kenkyuusei, and now they're close friends. It's the sweetest thing and Lovetan ends up crying, as did I, when I first heard it.
Lovetan is an amazing, funny, wonderful AKB48 member. She has a fantastic personality, cute appearance, cute voice and great performance skills. I'm always proud to be Lovetan oshi, because she's just THAT amazing.
Now, this one's a BIT tougher, because I haven't been into H!P for a while and my tastes have changed since I started to follow AKB over H!P. I COULD say Rika, and that would be true to an extent, but she's not a current H!P member.
However, I'll have to go with...
The lovely Mitsui Aika.
I know that she has a lot of haters out there, but I have no idea WHY. She's one of the sweetest members ever, very kind, has a fun personality and isn't a bad singer at all. In fact, the relentless hate of Aika from both the non-Japanese and the Japanese fan community is part of why H!P isn't my main deal any more. I love Aika, and her Nine Smile muffler towel on my wall is one of my idol treasures.
Runners up to Ikuta Erina (I LOVE her) and Yajima Maimi. These three are really the last bits of current H!P I love.
Ayaya's still the queen of soloists. Aya has a perfect voice, hilarious personality, good looks, everything. Honestly, even though she's been off my radar for a while (though I do have her newest album on my iPod), I still listen to her stuff like crazy just because her voice is that good. It's kind of disappointing that she's currently not all that popular and not doing that much. UFA is wasting all kinds of talent, especially since Ayaya used to sell as much as MM.
Matsuura Aya is definitely still my favorite idol soloist. <3
Day 10: Your favorite "undebuted" Idol (Hello! Pro Egg, AKB48 Kenkyuusei, etc.)
Just because, I'm going to name two!
The first for Hello!Project fans is the (former) H!P Egg Sekine Azusa. Now it looks like Sekkii is going to get some work in Up Front Girls and UFZS, but since the group is mainly doing KPop dance covers at the moment I'm still counting her as undebuted.
She's a GREAT performer. She has oodles of stage presence in addition to being one of the most skilled singer and dancer of the H!P Eggs and possibly of current H!P despite being relatively young; she gained some good recognition when she did a duet of Romantic Ukare Mode with Kikkawa Yuu at only 12 years old! In my past idol rankings I've always said that I'll push Sekkii up higher when I get more stuff with her in it, and it looks like UFZS/Up Front Girls might do that. She is such a sweetheart and I love her.
And now, my other favorite undebuted idol...
I like her better than Sekkii, which I never would have thought about an undebuted idol, especially an AKB48 Kenkyuusei. Since the whole concept of the KKS is that they have to keep reauditioning and might leave at any time, I've been hesitant to get behind an AKB48 Kenkyuusei.
And now she's pretty much tied with Oota Aika for favorite AKB48 girl and second favorite idol. What.
I just love Natori Wakana that much. When I first saw her perform Romance Kakurenbo (the solo song that a kenkyuusei performs before a performance of the Team B 5th stage) I was immediately interested. She has oodles of stage presence ALREADY, and this was her first ever performance of everything! That voice, that performance. It was amazing. Then I saw her performing with the Kenkyuusei the song BINGO during the Request Setlist 100 2011 and she was just so cute and energetic in how she performed it.
Finally, I saw her in the 11th generation Kenkyuusei special on the show Ariyoshi AKB Kyowaku, where they all competed in various tests. One of them was picking up snakes (there were three of them) and putting them in boxes. In the previous challenge, Wakanyan had shown her fear of lizards (by having one mess up her dancing). However, she braves through it and the snake BIT HER. Instead of freaking out and throwing it off her, she takes the snake that's biting her and puts it in the box. And then goes for another snake. That's bravery. (However she did get either last or second to last in the running competition because that was too much XD). It shows a really strong personality and I just found that amazing.
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I honestly don't have an issue with most voices. However, I do have my limits.
Koharu Koharu Koharu. I have no issues with her personality, but her singing. HER SINGING. I don't mind it OCCASIONALLY; I like Happy enough as a song to be able to ignore this. But guh. just. GUH.
This is a bit controversial in American idol fandom, but I REALLY don't care about voices that much. If a voice is annoying I'll dislike it, but it's not 100% necessary for an idol to be really skilled at singing. I love voices that are traditionally seen as "bad."
I guess I have two examples; the first is of course, Ishikawa Rika. I LOVE her voice to pieces. Some people hate it, and I just think a couple things. First off, singing live IS a bit tougher on her, since she does have a pretty low lung capacity and asthma; she has some breathing issues, so when she's dancing around singing live isn't so easy. However, I love her voice ESPECIALLY in non-traditional things, like Dekiru Onna and in As For One Day. That's where her voice shines; it's so hauntingly beautiful.
I LOVE Rika's voice as the first line here. She's good enough to be a soloist, IMO. If she sang more things that sounded like Dekiru Onna I would love everything.
However, my current vocal love is AKB48's Natori Wakana. Wakanyan is ridiculously talented, even for being a research student, and I want nothing more than for her to get lots and lots of solos with this voiiice. I normally don't care about vocals, but when they're as beautiful as Wakanyan's she MAKES me care about hearing her more and more.
The life partners of H!P, Rika and Yossy AKA Ishiyoshi. They have Japanese fans dedicated to their pairing, they've been besties since they joined. Rika and Yossy are super ultra close friends, always fun to watch, and the most obvious best idol pairing EVER.
No matter what lineup: The original four, that group plus Ayarin, and Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 which includes Komorin and Wasamin, I love them all.
They really are a great match, all seven of them. They're all really cute, singing and dancing to really cute songs, and all of them do so with such enthusiasm and energy (and yes, I include Komorin in that count). They're the type of group I'd 100% follow even if they weren't all associated with AKB48. They fit so well together, that I just love them.
The lovely Momoiro Clover, or as it's now known Momoiro Clover Z (I'll miss you forever, Akari).
This group is just nothing short of amazing. I love all the members like crazy, so even though Shiori is TECHNICALLY my least favorite, I still love her like crazy and consider her to be one of my favorite idols. They all have such natural, fun personalities that watching them in concert is always really fun. I remember that I really grew to love the group when they got the daily results for their indies singles (vids are online) and they're SO excited to get these low daily results, and Reni starts sobbing uncontrollably.
They're also the most fun group to watch perform live. Their dancing is king, with cartwheels and spins being hallmarks of their performances. But even without that they all perform with such energy and life that it's hard not to really love watching their performances. They all give off such energy and enthusiasm that it's fun.
I also love their producers/promotion XD It's weird, but when their staff twitter started to follow me I was hooked, and was even more hooked when they replied to my private message on twitter.
Finally, even though they have relatively cheaper production values than some of the idol giants of the day, they use them perfectly. If you've ever complained about Hello!Project PVs looking cheap, I direct you to MomoClo. For some of their PVs I wonder how much budget they had, but they always manage to make things interesting. The jumping around in Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo is always fun to watch, and the weird storyline of Mirai Bowl (Kanako and Akari are Sandy and Danny from Grease, but Danny has to beat evil Ayaka and her henchman Reni, with the help of newsies Shiori and Momoka in a bowling competition to win Sandy back? Uh, yeah!) can't be beat. It's a lot of the girls' work, but the production team behind MomoClo is simply genius.
Every time I see MomoClo lauded as the next big thing, I'm SUPER happy because I hope it's true. Just now they're starting to get more and more press and more and more notice with the idol boom, so I just have to wait and hope that Momoiro Clover Z gets more and more fans, because I LOVE them.
So, since I'm not as into H!P as I have been, I was a bit stuck. I wanted to talk more about AKB, MomoClo and other idol groups as opposed to JUST H!P in this challenge. So, my friend Dani (who's doing it too, on her Tumblr Quagsirechannel), edited this to be more generic idol stuff:
Day 01: Your favorite Idol.
Day 02: An Idol you hate/dislike.
Day 03: If you were a guy, who would be your girlfriend?
Day 04: If this Idol were a boy, who would be your boyfriend?
Day 05: Your favorite Idol group.
Day 06: Your favorite subunit.
Day 07: Your favorite Idol pairing.
Day 08: Which Idol's voice do you like best?
Day 09: Which Idol's voice do you dislike?
Day 10: Your favorite "undebuted" Idol (Hello! Pro Egg, AKB48 Kenkyuusei, etc.)
Day 11: Your favorite solo Idol.
Day 12: Your favorite Hello! Project member.
Day 13: Your favorite AKB48 member.
Day 14: Your favorite Idoling!!! member.
Day 15: Your favorite Momoiro Clover member.
Day 16: Your favorite Idol from a group not listed above.
Day 17: The first Idol you noticed.
Day 18: Favorite Idol concert.
Day 19: Which Idol would you like to be for 1 day?
Day 20: An Idol you admire.
Day 21: An Idol who has charisma.
Day 22: Favorite outfit an Idol has worn.
Day 23: Your favorite ex-Idol.
Day 24: An Idol that is not one of your favorites but you admit that they're good.
Day 25: Your favorite Idol who is NOT Japanese.
Day 26: An Idol whose character you like.
Day 27: An Idol you have a particular appreciation for.
Day 28: An Idol who reminds you of someone special or that was special.
Day 29: In your opinion, who is/was the best leader of an Idol group?
Day 04: If this Idol were a boy, who would be your boyfriend?
Why this question; anyone who knows my idol tastes knows that I go for the girliest of girly idols. I like my idols covered in frills and pink, dammit.
However, I could definitely date...
Yajima Maimi.
She's not exactly SUPER manly, but she's not the girliest of my favorite idols. She's really nice, a great leader, and just a really fun person, I think. If she was a man, I'd totally go for Maimi.
Day 3: If you are a boy, who would be your girlfriend?
Now, obviously I could very easily say my idol favorite, Ishikawa Rika. I do think she would be the perfect girlfriend. She's caring, funny, seems like a good person to be around, quirky, and the fact that she's drop dead gorgeous doesn't hurt.
How can one woman be so beautiful? It's enough to give me a complex
However, IMO this is the easy way out. I mean, she's my favorite idol ever, and if I was a boy I have no doubt in my mind that I'd go for the cuter/feminine girls. I mean, that's my idol type. I tend to go for the girly-girls.
So, I was thinking "Hm, Rika's too easy. Who else of my favorites would I like to go out with?" The highest girl on my ranking that I could think of is the AKB48 KKS Natori Wakana.
She's cute, a fantastic singer, a really good performer, and is seriously brave. (Watch the 11th gen KKS special of Ariyoshi AKB Kyowaku (sp?); she picks up one snake, it bites her, and she picks the next one up) I LOVE Wakanyan so much, that even though I haven't seen her in that much she's my 3rd favorite idol ever (after Ishikawa Rika and Oota Aika).
However, I don't know THAT MUCH about Wakanyan. I know that I adore her, but she still hasn't really gotten enough exposure to show her personality. Granted, I think she's shown herself to be really cute and great, but would I want to date someone I didn't know that much about?
That's when it hit me. The girl I'd want to date so much if I was a Japanese boy and had any chance in hell with her.
The choice was obvious! My choice of girlfriend would be the lovely Iwasa Misaki, AKA Wasamin. Now, Wasamin's totally an underdog; she's not a frontrunner in AKB at all, not making it to the top 40 in the senbatsu elections, and her only big promotion has been a DVD with Komori Mika as well as her stint in Watarirouka Hashiritai 7.
However, in the past six months or so I've gone from knowing next to nothing about her to being a huge Wasamin wota. Why? because she's that fantastic.
The first place I knew of her was actually in my AKB Oshi Oota Aika's birthday show. In that show, the message that was read for Lovetan's birthday (by.. Sasshi, maybe? I forget) was by Wasamin, who said lovely things that ended up being something that further cemented Lovetan as my favorite. But even still, the sentiment was lovely and sincere, and I wanted to know more about her.
Wasamin really just seems to be this all around wonderful sweetheart. Many fans know her and love her for her voice, which is indeed fantastic. But to me, the things that have really endeared Wasamin to me have been her personality. She's definitely not the outgoing type. However, she just seems to be one of the sweetest girls in all of AKB, with a lot of maturity. Also, one thing I've noticed is that even though she's potentially one of the least popular girls in AKB, she always seems to be enthusiastic about the group. She also doesn't try and conform to the group, and I mean that in a good way. How many idols actively sing enka in events, even though that's not necessarily popular with wota? Enka's not even my thing, and I've got to appreciate Wasamin going with what she likes.
I'm also completely charmed by Wasamin in this vid. She's just such a sweetheart, it's unbelievable.
So yes. Even though I gave it a lot of thought, I'd TOTALLY want Wasamin as a girlfriend, with both Rika and Wakanyan as 2nd place.
Part two of the daily challenge that I started last post!
Day 2: The Idol you hate or dislike
Oh man, this is kind of tough. Like I've said, I've mainly moved from the H!P fandom to the AKB fandom, and part of the reason I did that was because I love EVERYONE in AKB. Not even kidding. For this question I was thinking of putting Akimoto Sayaka, but then thought better of it. Thought about putting Itano Tomomi up there, but then realized I like her a lot. XD So, even though this girl is from a group I pay VERY LITTLE attention to, the answer is...
Tsugunaga Momoko.
Now, putting this is kind of hard for me, because Momo was actually my first favorite idol. I loved her back in 2008, when I first got into Berryz Koubou and idol fandom. However, lately she's just been rubbing me the wrong way. I love cute idols, but Momoko really strikes me as just trying too hard. There's a difference between trying to be cute but not taking it that seriously and finding humor in that (which is really part of why I'm a fan of both Ishikawa Rika and Sasaki Ayaka of Momoiro Clover) and just trying too hard but never finding humor. Momoko really strikes me as a bit of an attention whore and I don't really find her schtick all that cute.
Anyone who reads this, hello! I've neglected this lovely blog for so long, mainly because of school. I love Happy Disco, but man the long posts I tend to do are a pain. So, to get myself back in blogging, I found this challenge at selective-hearing.com. I'll be posting every single day about idols, and it shall be glorious.
Day 1: Your favorite Idol
Only one answer for me....
The lovely Ishikawa Rika.
I thought of a couple of other options; AKB48's Oota Aika, for one. My Hello!Project fandom isn't as strong as my AKB fandom is, nowadays, and Oota is my favorite there. However, when it comes to being an idol fan, no one lives up to Rika.
There are a million reasons why I love her, but it's mainly her funny and sweet personality. She's such a caring person, caring for her juniors and seniors at work alike. She's always hilarious to watch.
One thing that I personally love about her is that she's really passionate about her work and loves to sing/perform. Even though I'm in the minority in that I love her voice, both recorded and live, regardless of how you feel about her singing voice she's a wonderful and passionate performer.
Skip to five minutes in here. She's not the greatest singer, but the level of emotion and passion she sings with is mindblowing.
I've somewhat moved on from the H!P fandom, sadly, but the one thing that hasn't changed is how fantastic I find Rika.
