Ogawa Saki's graduation...what?

OK, so I'm not the best font of Hello!Project information anymore, and S/Mileage has never been my big focus. However, big news has forced my hand to talk about this S/Mileage news, and that's that original member Ogawa Saki has decided to graduate from S/Mileage.

Now I'm more of a fan of Yuukarin myself when it comes to S/Mileage. However, Ogawa Saki's graduation announcement isn't the only thing that is making this news. It's the fact that Saki is graduating in only three days on August 27th.

In case there's any casual Hello!Project/idol fans reading my blog, when an idol announces that they're graduating a group there's usually a good amount of time before they actually graduate. They announce things months in advance, which ends up giving ample time for fans to plan to go to that idol's final concert and say farewell. So already, many eyebrows are being raised at the reasons given for graduation and the hasty nature of it all.

The only time that girls get quickly dropped is either that they're Eggs and UFA thinks THEY'RE disposable or that there's a scandal involved. This leads me to believe that something fishy is going on either with Saki or with UFA, something we might never no or something that might show up in a tabloid eventually. At this point we can only speculate, but so far NO ONE I've seen is taking the concept that Saki is graduating by her own free will any seriously.

According to the statement by Tsunku as translated on Hello!Online, Tsunkku said that Saki requested to graduate back in May. However, why did this graduation announcement happen now? It's really odd, and I think everyone I've seen is rather suspicious.

Still, regardless of motive and what has happened, I wish Ogawa Saki the best of luck with her school life and with her life beyond being an idol!

S/Mileage's new members... are not real members, but wha?

The new members of S/Mileage, the group that everyone thought would have a stable lineup until Tsunku went "PSYCH!" were just announced.

So now we have a new nine member unit of S/Mileage, with new members Katsuta Rina, Takeuchi Akari, Kosuga Fuyuka, Nakanishi Kana and Tamura Meimi. However, there's a catch; these aren't full members YET, they're actually considered sub members. Meaning that they are not actually permanent members yet, and their permanence in the group actually depends on their performance in the new single that's being released in September and the fall tour, but some of them could be kicked out.

My first thought was honestly a plain and simple "WTF are you doing Tsunku." This is one thing that has to be AWFUL for the girls to deal with; they're members, but not yet. If I was one of them, I know I'd be on edge every single second, to make sure I didn't get kicked out. And while I suppose that's the plan, it's kind of an awful thing to do to them, especially since it wasn't guaranteed. They went into this audition expecting to be members, not submembers. Also, does submembers imply that their participation will be less in the single and tour? If so, they should just be named "Mitsui Aika class" in that they'll be there, be great, but will not get any attention whatsoever.

I LOVE YOU AIKA DON'T WORRY.

My second thought after seeing this was that it reminded me a bit of the AKB48 kenkyuusei system. If you don't follow AKB, basically the kenkyuusei are trainee members. To get into AKB nowadays you HAVE to join the kenkyuusei. They have performed their own stages, and the kenkyuusei are the ones who fill in at the theater if one of the members (usually one of the popular ones) isn't there that day, which can give them great exposure (my favorite kenkyuusei, Natori Wakana, has subbed in for Kashiwagi Yuki, the third most popular AKB member according to the election). However, these members have to reaudition every so often and can be cut. They participate to an extent, but don't become full members until they're promoted to a team. 

I wonder if this is what Tsunku is trying to get at; getting new members, testing the waters (their abilities to perform as well as their popularity, I imagine). This is a pretty OK idea, I'd say. However, it's really weird, because Tsunku hasn't really done this before. Yes, he has the Eggs, but he hasn't done THAT much with them. These are girls who were told they'd have a chance at S/Mileage, but now they are told they might be cut. That's nerve-wracking, IMO.

I also think that they're really trying to test the waters to see which ones become popular and which ones don't, regardless of vocal/dance ability. I have a bit of a theory that any Japanese girl could become an idol if she wanted to become one, and vocal/dance ability really doesn't make or break an idol ever .I know that it's a bit more important in H!P, but I think it's really overestimated. These girls aren't singers, they're idols, so I doubt this testing period has anything to do with singing ability.

However, I'm also a bit wary as a fan. It took me a while to pick a favorite kenkyuusei because I was worried I'd get attached and then she'd leave; however, I was completely charmed by Wakana. This is pretty much the same; how can you expect a fan to become attached, if they're afraid the girl will be kicked out? And what happens if a girl gets a fanbase (all the H!P girls have one, whether they're frontgirls or not) and then she gets kicked out? I'd imagine that could seriously alienate some people.

I'm really honestly quite hesitant about this, but it'll be interesting to see how it works. I'll be hesitantly following S/Mileage from here on out, trying not to get attached to the new girls.

Hello! Project Fankora Concert Review- pt 5

I've been a bad reviewer. Now where was I.

MC3
Featuring S/Mileage! I hear a surprising amount of shouts for "AYACHO" when she's one of the least popular members of S/Mileage. They introduce their next single, which I affectionately refer to as "Onaji something something Bijin Mama". Or "something something pretty mom."  Yuukarin has an interesting button on:

To tell us that she's apparently a Pink Secret Agent. Saki talks about the concept of the song, which is that their friend's mom is their rival in love. I swear, I get a weird vibe from this song, but it's catchy and cute so I ignore it.

The girls also seem kind of intimidated by Yossy, who's not as funny as she normally is. Especially in that weird/ugly dress. 

The one that I think stood out the most was Saki; she got a big laugh from the audience, and did a lot of talking. Yuuka was super cute, so she's fun. I was a bit disappointed, because I like all of them, but Kanon didn't talk all that much, and my favorite, Wada, didn't speak all that much. But when Ayacho DID say one thing near the end that made the audience AND other H!P members laugh and cheer. Man, this is when I wish my Japanese was better, because Ayaka's pretty hilarious from what I do understand. Otherwise, it wasn't that interesting.

Chu! Natsu Party

Another favorite of mine! Despite my complaints about the covers of songs earlier, this is probably the best cover song so far. S/Mileage performs it with a lot of really nice energy, using mic stands.

In my opinion this is one of the better performances of the concert thus far. All the girls give the song appropriate energy, and while the vocals aren't their best (for some reason, I keep thinking that Yuuka isn't doing as well as she should..?), the performance aspects of the performance more than make up for it. 

Occasionally the energy level dropped a little, but that was during things like when they were singing and I don't think it could have gotten much better. All four of them look excited and happy to be singing this classic H!P song, so all in all I really enjoy this performance. 

Oh, I forgot to mention; this is the Fankora section of the concert now, so it's the rotating songs that the "fans chose." Now I put that in quotations because while IIRC the last song performed by each group/ManoEri was their most requested, we don't know how often the other songs were requested. So while it's really nice that these groups are doing older songs, how were the not-most popular songs chosen? Just curious. (BTW, they never performed my choice, I&YOU&I&YOU&I, a 2nd gen Tanpopo song. S/Mileage DID perform 2nd gen Tanpopo, but it wasn't recorded).
That reminds me again; why WEREN'T there multiple DVD releases? This just doesn't make sense to me. Instead of just releasing one concert, why not release them all, or find a way to make it so people can see everything. H!P's not super popular anymore, but concert tickets aren't cheap and you don't know the setlist until you get in. What if you REALLY want to see a certain performance? I was sure that they'd monetize on the multiple setlist aspect of Fankora. H!P, I don't get you sometimes.

Anyways. Chu! Natsu Party was adorable, good energy, and I REALLY like the dynamic that S/Mileage has going on. They're one of the two H!P groups that has the best group dynamic, IMO. 

aMa no Jaku

OK. So basically, even though Chu! Natsu Party is a better song, this was a better performance. Take the C!NP performance, and add better/more in-time dancing, better vocals and even more energy. 

S/Mileage really seems like they're in their element; they've practiced this song/dance like crazy since their Indies debut, and it really shows. They work together well, and I think this is the point where they totally deserve this group of theirs. 

For being H!P's newest act, I'd say that they brought their A-game. So far, S/Mileage's performances have been some of the most fun and enjoyable, and they really show how they fully deserved being moved up to a major label. None of the members in particular stand out as being particularly good at singing (though, even though I'm a fan, I'll be the first to admit that Ayaka's the worst singer), or particularly good at dancing, but this works. They feel like equals, and you can really tell that they've bonded as a group, which is a bit surprising considering how new they are. 

Consensus: S/Mileage can improve, but they're being really great right now! Keep up the good work, S/Mileage!!

Hello! Project Fankora Concert Review- pt 4

MC2

O hai thar, Yossy. I keep forgetting you're in this concert as the sole shining representative of the amazingness that was the Elder Club. Next time bring Rika with you. We can jam.

This whole MC was basically Momoko going "LOOK AT ME I'M A LEADER OF MULTIPLE GROUPS OOOOOOOOH" and everyone else not caring. She's being a little too attention-whorish for my tastes here. 

Aisu Kuriimu to My Purin

Can I just skip this? Please? PLEASE. No? Gah. 

Zoku. I just don't like them. It's nothing against the members; I just think that they are honestly the antithesis of what v-u-den WAS; in fact, no one in current H!P is fit. H!P is about youngness, youth. v-u-den was about women starting adulthood and that's part of why I find them interesting and that they're tied with Gatas for my favorite H!P group. I've ranted about this before, it shouldn't be tough to find on the Disco.

Anyways, this performance keeps confirming what I originally thought about Zoku in my Zoku rant (in which I stated I would NEVER call them Zoku v-u-den. OK, yeah. don't want to get into this. I like the members, but they don't represent v-u-den's v-u-denness. 

This was actually less offensive to me than Koisuru Angel Heart, but JUST BARELY. This song is not something to be taken seriously, but at the same time is actually supposed to be sexy. Playfully sexy, sexy in a "look at how silly fanservice can be!" kind of way, but nonetheless sexy. The impression I've always gotten from the Aisu PV is "haha, fanservice is ridiculous" but it's still pretty hot. 

The dancing was not TOO bad, but it had some iffy bits; the kickline was uber fail, and no one was really a good dancer. It felt slightly unrehearsed, and, my main complaint about the group as a whole, like they really didn't try. 

JunJun, you're doing it wrong. 

Speaking of not trying too hard; I understand that Zoku's only doing one song and that they all have other things to do. But seriously. The costumes? What are they supposed to be? I mean, even if they had to use them for the main groups. Why are the main groups using those costumes? 

Vocals weren't too bad; Risako was really the best one there and I was happy that she got Rika's long solo near the end. I wasn't expecting amazingness from them, so. 

I don't mean to sound mean; a LOT of this is my bias speaking. But say what you want about the original v-u-den, but their performance skills (not vocal, performance) were out of this world, and Zoku doesn't come close to representing the original group I love so much. They honestly feel a tiny bit like a REALLY good cover group of the original, but certainly NOT the revival. So really, it's my bias as a v-u-den enthusiast, but in my opinion the revival groups are that; trying to be the original group as best as they can. And this really wasn't that bad of a cover, but when it comes down to representing what v-u-den was I can't give Zoku the thumbs up. 

Oh, and Momoko attention whores. I know a lot of people found Momoko getting up and dancing cute, but I honestly thought it was pretty disrespectful (my GOD this review is going to get me flames). I liked her a lot before, but man I don't know now. I just really thought it was rude, no matter how I felt about the actual performance going on. I mean, I don't mind people going for attention, but IMO this was not the place to do it. 

Also, I was hoping to see Yossy rocking out in the back (she's notorious for LOVING this song), but that didn't happen. Perhaps she needed Rika to be there. 

Daite Yo! Please Go On!

Am I the only one that finds it awkward when solo songs become group ones? I don't know, maybe I am. But the one thing that I keep focusing on here is just how it is of a group song. It MIGHT have been done another time, but the one memorable time that Daite yo! was used as a group song was for Goto Maki's Captain Kouen concert, which was Gocchin, Tsuji Nozomi and v-u-den. It was really more of a solo song for Maki, but with the other four sang with the chorus. 

Also, there was a dance solo section before the rap. Speaking of, that would have been REALLY cool for High King. If High-King is excellent at one thing it's dancing; in fact, I think that was the main theory for the group? I could be wrong. Anyways, while the girls ARE rather fierce here, I only wish that there had been a better arrangement of some kind to better feature their dancing.

However, despite preferring a more imaginative arrangement other than just the song sung by five people, I really like this performance. I can really tell why it was that these five girls were chosen; their dancing was all spot on and excellent to watch, and all of them seemed to be giving it their all. The singing, to be perfectly honest, was nothing special. To be frank, Goto Maki was much better than Aichan was here, and the others never wowed me. 

Though she IS fierce here

However, it was the dancing and the energy of this performance that made it really entertaining to watch. The five performers were all really excellent at performing, and it was so high energy that it made me forget the low energy-ness of Aisu Kuriimu. High-King's never been my favorite unit ever (I love Maimi but I don't really care that much about the others), but they really impressed me here. 

Hello! Project Fankora Concert Review- pt 3

Maji Bomber!!


Sorry to all you Berryz Koubou fans out there: Berryz may have gotten me into H!P, but as of recent times I just don't follow them all that much. At all. They have lost a lot of spark that they might have had with me. In fact, when watching concert performances of Berryz for something like a review I have a little game I play, but I'll explain that later.

Maji Bomber is a pretty good song; I wouldn't consider it that interesting, but it's pretty catchy and is a good song for a lot of the people involved. It's a song where pretty much every Berryz memeber gets a solo and sounds great. Vocally, this performance isn't bad at all. Some members sound better than others, but otherwise they all sound nice when singing it.

However, this is another issue of energy; they perform it well but not great. I don't watch the performance and go "man that was better than in the PV!" or "oh man, that was epic;" it just feels standard. It was a solid performance, but nothing memorable.

Like, looking back I'd remember S/Mileage and C-ute's performances as being particularly energetic and thus I'd feel positively towards the group. Conversely, nothing about this performance was particularly memorable; it was just. Good. Except...

When I watch a performance of Berryz I ALWAYS watch for Miyabi. Now you might be wondering why. Miya's not my favorite Berryz member (that's Chinami), but ever since I saw the performance of Nigiyaka na Fuyu with the fish costumes I realized that Miyabi never really looks super enthusiastic on stage. I have nothing against her as a person, but I just observed her lack of interest. So therefore, I have dubbed her face of "why am I doing thiiis?" to be "Miyabi Face" and now looking for evidence of Miyabi Face is my game.

Like here, sort of. Not my best. 

If there's any point I want to make here is that I don't find Berryz that interesting anymore. There weren't any glaring things wrong with this performance, but it really didn't hold interest for me.

Seishun Collection

Now here's professionalism! Performing a fairly dull song with fairly dull choreography with ugly costumes, all of them look at least somewhat happy to be there. No Miyabi faces to be found!

Seriously, I really am not the biggest fan of this single to begin with. Now, I DO think it's a move in a better direction. It's upbeat and happy, which I honestly think is what the Japanese music market is looking for at the moment with AKB48. Unfortunately. This happened. Well, Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game looks to be better. 

Other than that I don't have too much to say. It's a nice performance, with all of them doing a good job, but no one doing particularly well. They all seem to be enjoying themselves and giving it their all; granted this isn't saying THAT much, considering there's not much to give when it comes to this song, but hey, I'll take what I can get. 

Hello! Project Fankora Concert Review- pt 2

Genkimono de Ikou!


((on a side note, I just learned the grammatical reasons for Ikou. Yeah. Be jealous of my Japanese knowledge))

Speaking of Japanese knowledge, what does Genkimono de Ikou! mean? Why, I'll tell you! It's "Let's go with Energetic Things!" Basically, it's "yay energy." Which is why it baffles me that they got Mano Erina of all people to do this song in particular and to get the budget her PV must have gotten, considering they hired a legitimate director and everything.

The vocals are fine for this performance. She has a few pitch issues, but she's not horrendous, and never sounds too out of breath. However, man, the energy level was low. That's why I made the point about the title. The song is LITERALLY about energy; the title is rather energetic. So why are you performing this like it's "let's go with slightly unenthusiastic things!"?

I've never been a huge proponent of H!P needing super strong vocalists. Hell, plenty of my favorites aren't that great of vocalists, I know that. I think that as a soloist Mano Erina should be stronger than she is now, but she's not super terrible or anything and that in itself is good. However, if there's one thing that should not be missing from a lot of H!P songs it's energy. They don't always require amazing vocals (though some do; I'm looking at you, Ayaya), but they do require their performer to have the right level of energy and ManoEri just did NOT deliver the genki for this performance.

They also need to start training her on stage presence; I like her well enough as an idol, but man if you ALWAYS need four background dancers to fill the stage and you're a soloist, then that's a problem.

I don't need THAT much from an idol. But come on. It's the title of the song; energy should be a given.

Dance de Bakoon!


I've got it! C-ute stole Mano Erina's energy!

In all seriousness, THIS is what I'm talking about when I'm talking about energy and what I need from idols. None of the girls here have perfect vocals; not even Airi or Chisato. I'd say that no one here is bad and that they're all very good in their own right, but it's not the greatest vocals ever. Why? Because they're giving it all they've got into the dancing and the energy of the song, and so their singing skills suffer just a little.

The dancing here is INTENSE; I swear, these girls gave it their all and I'm beyond impressed. Lately I've been really into C-ute, mostly in thanks to my friend Dani who adores Nakky. This is the type of performance that confirms the reasoning behind liking them so much as of late. The energy here is intense.

Maimiiiii <333 and fierce!Airirin

I even like this performance better than in the PV; all the girls are performing their best, they all look very much into it. This is one of those performances that is super fun to watch and that I just have to love. At this point in the concert, only four songs in, I'm just thinking that this is the song and group to live up to. 

Hello! Project Fankora Concert Review- pt 1

I haven't forgotten about my other review in the works; not at all. I'm still working on finishing my Gatas review. However, I decided I wanted to review Fankora while it was still relevant, whereas Gatas might not have another concert TO review.

So, here's Fankora! First off the bat I'm a bit disappointed that they only had ONE concert to review, especially since it's the one I was possibly LEAST excited about. Oh dear God I have to review Zoku. So it's a bit disappointing I can't see the Tanpopo# performance I wanted to see, however I still like the idea that they took fan contributions and did a lot of older numbers (even if they didn't use my super epic suggestion of doing I&YOU&I&YOU&I *grumble*)


All For One and One For All


What a way to start out a concert; this IS the quintessential H!P as a whole song, excluding Hello! no Theme (HELLO HELLO HELLO DANCING...). However, I realized when watching this that it was the first time that we saw All For One without the Elder Club involved (if I recall correctly), and so...

We start with Takahashi and Niigaki. And then I realize. Oh my goodness. This is the Mobekimasu version of All For One. Why do I have to endure this?

This isn't to say I dislike Mobekimasu; not at all. I like them. However, the fact that it's not Yuko, Nacchi and Kaorin singing the first line just makes a little bit die inside.

I did like that the beginning started out with all of Morning Musume's generations; it's as if H!P's saying "Yeah, MM>>the rest of them, woo!" I mean, I do miss the old distribution of lines, I really do. But that's not super feasible without having a few Country Musume members to throw in, good soloists to throw in (why hello there, Yukidon; how's enka-town?) etc. After a while, this song just gets to be really long. The one thing that made this song so good originally was that it WAS all of H!P; all 45-46 members of Hello!Project, with a bunch of different generations, showing just how vast H!P was but having all of them sing a song. It's showing H!P's history and the importance of each generation within the collective whole.

However, after MM's generations, it just shuffles through the Mobekimasu order; MM, Berryz, C-ute, ManoEri and S/Mileage a few times. It's slightly repetitive. 

(And goodness, whyyy did the unit I've been least impressed with lately have to sing the 4th gen lines? *sigh*)

The performance itself was OK. It was really nothing special, and honestly I got kind of bored part way through it. I mean, a few of them looked like they were into it (C-ute in particular, S/Mileage too) but about half way through there's really not that much energy left and it's kind of a let down. This is a song to perform with an abundance of energy, not holding it back. At one point I was looking through the Eggs to try and find my favorite, Sekine Azusa.

C'mon, Sekkii, I know you're in there somewhere....

All in all (haha, see what I did there?) this is another performance to remind me yet again how much I miss the Elder Club. I don't care how legit a decision it was, Tsunku, the Mobekimasu groups haven't gotten better songs or PVs since they left; bring back the Elders. 

VTR

It's a VTR. What do I have to say. Well. A couple of odds and ends.

1. Best MC roster. Ever.

Makoto's a pimp. Yossy's the pimp. We all win. Makoto, please never stop being the one male member of Hello!Project. You make everything more epic and more amazing. I hope to study abroad in Japan when the 2012 H!P summer concert will take place. I will cheer hard for Makoto. I was surprised this screen didn't get more cheers; there's obviously a deficiency in the Ishiyoshi wota in the audience. Wait, is that picture of Yossy from Tokyo Alice? If so, then that's over a year older than the concert. Maybe I'm wrong, but I could have SWORN that was a picture from her stage play. Or maybe I'm totally off. 

2. That took a LONG time to get through ManoEri. I get she's 1/5th of Mobekimasu. But really? 

MC1

Yossy's funny. The first MC should be funny, yes? aaaand no. It's sadness. Graduations. I've already blogged about Eririn/JunJun/LinLin graduating, but it is actually pretty sad to watch happen. JunJun and LinLin look pretty upset; like they haven't actually accepted it. Because anyone who thinks it was 100% their choice to go back to China needs to get their brain straightened out. 

Aannd to the first main group song, which is....

OO Ganbaranakute mo Ee Nende!

Yay, I like S/Mileage. I've actually had a reaally big thing for this song ever since previews came out, and so seeing a live performance of it really warms the heart. I'm seriously really excited for whenever the DVD of S/Mileage's solo concert comes out; I can see S/Mileage without sitting through ManoEri. It's perfect!

The girls here are really fantastic; they have some really nice live vocals. Even the admittedly weak link Wada Ayaka (it's OK, Ayacho, I still love you!) sounds really nice and never sounds too terribly out of place throughout this relatively vocally strong performance. It's times like this that I'm still amazed at how little they've been around so far; they all sound great for debuting not that long ago. I mean, they were all Eggs, but even still; many Eggs still suck. 

You don't suck! Cute Kanyon is cute!

Energy wise I love these girls. They're all very energetic and are all very much into it, unless they're somehow amazing actors. The dance is silly, but they do it well.

Oh, you girls be silly

I seriously have nothing but high hopes for the future of the group; they are all very solid at dancing (or at least the dances choreographed for them), solid at singing, and they jive really well together as a group, which is really important. They all look like they're having fun with the silliness of this song. I maintain that this is one of the best single songs H!P has had in years, and while I'm not super into the Bijin Mama song.

More later!

Kanon smacksdown SNSD... sort of?

Proof that the internet can take things way too seriously, news has been circling the internet that Fukuda Kanon of S/Mileage "challenged" SNSD in saying that S/Mileage wasn't going to lose to SNSD's legs and that they were fresher than SNSD.

Well. Sort of.

Some of the articles out there (in particular the ones at Arama They Didn't and at Tokyohive) brought the news to attention by adding on certain embellishments, such as saying that the other idol groups "smiled bitterly" and wrote as though Kanon herself was making a serious challenge, essentially telling SNSD "you're going down."

Well.



That's the video posted of Kanon saying those words. Now, where are the others smiling bitterly? where's Kanon being rude and telling SNSD that they're going down? I don't see any of that here. What we have here is an over exaggeration of what Kanon herself said. She might have said the things that she was "accused" of, but what people need to pay attention to is the context and the way she said things. Does she seem rude or bitter? Not at all. When I see that video, I see Kanon almost joking around, and with an attitude that's much more "we are going to try our best to match SNSD" than "We're going to kick SNSD's ass."

To me, when Kanon says this, it's not saying that she and S/Mileage are better than SNSD; rather, I'd say it's a compliment towards SNSD, saying that Kanon holds them in high esteem and that they're going to attempt to compete with SNSD.

However, due to these articles hitting the net, SNSD fans are rallying behind their favorite group to the point where after I searched Yume Miru 15 so I could watch a live performance of S/Mileage's debut single, I come across SNSD fans declaring "Oh yeah, SNSD is WAAAY better than this."

Listen, I'm not about to say who's better. Really, I like S/Mileage a little better but I respect the merits of SNSD and I like some of their music. However, IMO, before people bash a group or a person they really need to figure out the context before things are blown out of proportion.

Also, SNSD fans (oh my God I'm going to get so flamed for this): Take a little chill pill. Really. Not everyone likes SNSD. Getting so riled up over a small thing makes you look bad.

Plus, I'm kind of sick of all the hate in the S/Mileage comments. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean I have to see you going "OMG THEY SUCKZORZ."

AKB48 and Morning Musume (and S/Mileage) Together At Last~

Today, a surprising amount of news popped up, but one of my little idol dreams came true today.



AKB48 and Morning Musume (with S/Mileage who I kind of forget are there sometimes ^^;;) performed two things together; a Ghibli medley that I'll post in just a minute and the B-side to The Peace (and MM's inspirational song for all time) "Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru."

Now, in the comments to Dekkai and other places I've seen MM fans criticize AKB48 in this performance by saying they have too little energy, but all I see is that AKB looks terribly unpracticed. A couple of them (including Maeda Atsuko notably) just looked a bit confused and hesitant, as if they weren't 100% sure what was coming up next. While I did enjoy the professionalism of some of them (Oshima Yuko and Kasai Tomomi really stood out to me, here), I honestly can't blame the AKB girls; they're incredibly busy, and from the way they're dancing it looks like they went over the bare basics of it and the management "OK, good enough, let's go do all the other stuff we need to do.



Despite that, though, I REALLY enjoyed seeing this. There's a moment where Takahashi Ai and Oshima Yuko looked at each other and smiled and it just warmed my heart. I'm a fan of both Morning Musume/Hello!Project AND AKB48. I love the idol world, idol groups, and most female JPop idols. Even though I liked Morning Musume first, I don't feel any resentment towards AKB48 for being more popular; it has to be good for the idol industry, which just makes me happy. I've also seen a lot of stuff online and heard about a LOT of AKB/MM fan rivalries, and I've seen a lot of people go "OH, well, my group's superior because of THIS" and that just bugs me. The groups are both female idol groups, but they're both very different, and when one succeeds the other doesn't necessarily fail because of it.

I don't expect that this will change the minds of anyone who's staunchly against Morning Musume or AKB48, and many people will go "OH, well, this group sucks because of THIS"; however, to me it seems like a sign that the girls themselves aren't resentful towards each other and that the management of both groups aren't resentful enough to pull one of the groups from the TV show. One of my little fantasies is that either Morning Musume and AKB48 or Momoiro Clover, S/Mileage and Watarirouka Hashiritai would do a TV show together doing all their fun idol things and promoting both groups. This is a HUGE long shot, but I think this dream of mine has never been closer.

Music Japan Review

Hey to my two followers (hey, neat! People read my stuff. Maybe.) and to anyone who reads this; I deeply apologize for the lack of updates; I got caught up in college life (you could say my CAMPUS LIFE HAHA C-ute joke), and decided that school work was more important than blogging. Well, I still kept up with Idol things, became enchanted by the new idol group, Momoiro Clover, kept up my love for Ishikawa Rika and H!P and such.

The one thing I've loved the most over these past two months, however was the fairly recent female idol special on the show Music Japan, featuring Morning Musume, AKB48, Idoling!, Momoiro Clover, S/Mileage, Tokyo Girls Style and Vanilla Beans. So I thought, for my newest post I'd give my impressions.

Momoiro Clover: Man, am I in love with this group (and Ayaka! A~rin da yo!). I got into them before Music Japan aired, so I was already quite excited to see them perform live. And WOW did they deliver. They sang their major debut single, Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo, with the most energy I've seen from idols in a while. In my opinion, they blew everyone else on this show out of the water. The only thing that anyone could conceivably hold against them is the fact that they lip synced, but really, with that kind of dancing, I'd like to see any kind of idol who could dance like that while singing. They were amazing, and I can't wait to see more from them.

S/Mileage: When I first heard that these girls, as opposed to the likes of Berryz, C-ute or ManoEri would be on this special, I was a bit surprised; however, they HAVE been getting promoted a lot lately and I think there's definitely going to be a little bit of a rivalry between S/Mileage, Momoiro Clover and Tokyo Girls Style; they're all making their major debuts (after either training in the case of TGS or indie label singles in the case of the other two) in the same time frame, the girls are all of similar ages (fairly young idols) and the groups range between four and six members, so that's similar. S/Mileage really didn't disappoint at MJ, singing their newest single (and my addiction) Yume Miru 15sai. They sang live (unlike many) and did a great job. The four of them were really cute and energetic, and the only one who was even a bit off with her singing was Dawa (Wada Ayaka), but she certainly wasn't bad and didn't throw off the rest of S/Mileage at all.

Tokyo Girl's Style:Ah, the other similar young group and arguably the most hyped from the bunch. Hailing from the music giant of Avex and being compared to old greats such as SweetS, who were before my time as an idol fan. I have to say, they really don't give me much of an impact. Their songs so far, Kirari and Onnaji Kimochi aren't really that interesting; I think they really would have made more of an impact if they had performed Kirari, but instead they performed Onnaji Kimochi. The thing that I keep getting from watching TGS is that they aren't all that interesting. Yes, they can sing well and have dance talent; they got that from training that would honestly probably benefit many idols. However, Onnaji Kimochi is kind of a bland song that has a really simple dance until they go into a dance break. The song itself isn't very complex and doesn't seem too difficult to sing, which kind of confuses me. If they want to show off how amazing the vocals/dancing skills of the members, wouldn't Avex give them complicated/difficult songs that would more showcase their abilities?

Morning Musume: Ah, MoMusu. Despite all the new idol talent that keeps popping up, you remain pretty constant. They performed Seishun Collection, their newest single (wow, all these idol groups are releasing singles at similar times). I sometimes think I'm the only one who really likes this single. It's not as good as golden era Musume, that's for sure and it's not the best song ever. But I think that as of late, Morning Musume has had a kind of sadder more darker image and I really think that this could be a move in the right direction, with the song and PV. It's hopeful and upbeat. All of the girls do a really good job performing live. The dance isn't too complex, but I think that since they can sing live it's not a tragedy at all. While I think they're moving in the right direction, MM really needs to step it up in the face of the giant that is AKB48.

Vanilla Beans: After my friend misread the katakana, I can no longer think about them without thinking of them as "Bunny Lovings". And laughing. I honestly had never heard of them at all before seeing this show, and I don't think many others had heard of them either. They definitely are going for the old-fashioned type of idol, feeling quite old-fashioned. They're vocally quite nice and the song's not bad. I really don't know if they'll sell too well or if they have so far, with an audience that's not completely just looking for nostalgia. They're "nice", but not great or wonderful or anything like that.

Idoling!: I have heard of Idoling! before this performance, but mainly because they are produced by the same guy who produces AKB48. And WOW, do I wish I had heard of them before this. The song they perform... which has a really long title that I can't remember right now is REALLY catchy and I personally really really love it. The performance, while nothing amazing in the dance performance (I THINK they lipsync, but I'm not too sure), was really sweet. They all feel genuine and it was a really good idol performance. Looking at the girls faces, they all seemed pretty happy to be there. I love the PV to this song (not really part of the show, but) and I really hope to see much more of them.

AKB48: The current giant in the idol world in Japan. They obviously saved the most popular thing for the last. The performance was fine in the dancing and at this point I'm not even going to wonder if AKB is going to sing live (the answer is no, they are not. And never really sing live, at least from what I've seen). Ponytail to Shushu, their newest song is pretty good and catchy. I don't know, I've never quite been able to get onto the AKB48 bandwagon, no matter how much I try. I like members; my favorites are Genking (Miyazawa Sae), Yukirin (Kashiwagi Yuki) and Lovetan (Oota Aika). I like their songs, songs by the subgroups, etc. I just have never been able to be their wota like I'm able to be a wota for Hello!Project; hell, I'm now really being a wota for Momoiro Clover, so it's not any inability to move to new things. I guess AKB48 feels so overproduced that it never really feels genuine. I know all idol groups are heavily controlled by the companies that back them and I know that this is true for every group on this show. I just have trouble loving AKB48 like I love other idol groups.

So, as a whole, I really enjoyed this program; it's fun to see idols from all different companies performing on one stage and interacting with each other. During the introductions for the younger groups, S/Mileage and Momoiro Clover seemed to be interacting with one another, laughing at jokes and generally being pleasant with each other. If I had to rank the newly debuted young girls groups at this point, it'd be Momoiro Clover>S/Mileage>Tokyo Girls Style, which is actually being shown through the sales at this point. Right now, it's a good time to be an idol fan, with so much abundant talent.