Hello! Project rankings, and a few scattered thoughts.

Well, hello again. Feels like I haven’t blogged in a while now, but it really wasn’t that long ago. I’ve been pretty ill these past few weeks– that and otherwise buried in homework. Those factors sort of combine together with the fact that nothing recent in the idol world has inspired me quite enough to make a big blog post about it (sometimes I think I have an attention span worse than Tsunku’s), but the recent Hello! Project ranking poll started by Hello! Blog that’s been going around and reading about everyone’s rankings has made me want to join in, too. So I’ll post up my rankings and explanations and combine a whole bunch of random thoughts I’ve had about recent events in the idol world later on in the entry. So, without further ado…

 

What’s so Special about Buono?

No, really. What’s so special about Buono? The question is 100% genuine– not to be taken in a sarcastic way at all, and it’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out for a while now.

When the formation of Buono! was announced back in the summer, I rolled my eyes in exasperation. Just what Hello! Project needed– even more Airi, Momoko, and Miyabi. Because we hadn’t seen or heard enough of them, of course. When I heard about the Athena & Robikerottsu unit, I had a very different reaction. That was a step in the right direction, I thought. Taking Risa, who has continually been overshadowed in Morning Musume, Aika, and Nakajima Saki and Okai Chisato from C-ute and throwing them together for a super-cute unit. This was the way to go about it– put a few of the lesser-known (and newer, in one case) girls in H!P with a more well-known, deserving member of H!P, and you’ll have success. Throwing Miyabi, Momoko, and Airi together into an anime-based unit seemed as redundant as a regular H!P single. These three girls have constantly gotten leading roles in their individual groups or Berryz Koubou and C-ute Suzuki Airi ft. the Rest of C-ute. Buono was neither new nor exciting. And on a more personal level, I didn’t particularly like any of them. Miyabi was the highest on my list out of the three of them, but she wasn’t enough to save the group for me. I just wasn’t interested.

But here I am, months later and loving Buono, without any explicable reason whatsoever.

 

As long as there’s Chinami, IT’S ALL RIGHT!

I’ve kept it no secret that I hold Chinami in high regard. In my whole scheme of favorites in H!P (and elsewhere in the idol world), there’s very few idols that I think can really do no wrong. Chinami is definitely one of them. I honestly don’t remember ever being disappointed by anything about her– her personality, voice, performance style. Nothing. And that’s why I think it’s such a shame that Chinami always seems to get the short end of the stick. She has disappointingly few solos in Berryz singles; ‘Tsukiatteiru’ was the most recent, and what lines did she get? “Ne ii deshou?” Oh, fantastic. We get to hear Chinami singing solo for about half of a second. And the other most recent was, “sore ga onna yo,” in ‘Very Beauty’– it was notable that she was the only one other than Risako, Miyabi, and Yurina to get a line– but it was one line, not verses like the others got. And yet, even with the little glory that Chinami is personally given, the girl knows how to work with what she’s got. She absolutely owns her solo lines, and despite not being a front-girl for the group, she’s always energetically performing.

I still remember when I was first browsing Berryz videos– ‘Gag 100kai bun Aishite Kudasai’ was one of the first ones I found, and it was just one little appearance that made the entire PV enjoyable. This girl had me at “no nyu!”

 

The Mystery of Risako

It took me forever to decide on a title for this post. I wanted to get across the point that it’d be about Risako, obviously, but I didn’t even know how to go about phrasing it. I’m not 100% happy about how in turned out– but it’ll do. It was either that, or replace ‘Mystery’ with ‘Power.’ (And then both of them led me to trying to form some pun like… Risakopower!! ga subarashii… and, just… anyway.) Power might be a bit more true to the entry, but it sounds awkward out of context and sounded more like some kind of late-night infomercial on alternative healing or something. But I guess that’s the inevitable trouble I face in trying to describe a girl as… extraordinary as Risako.

 

A Merry Christmas Eve!

So, I’ve got some time to kill before heading off to some Christmas festivities with my family… so why not spend it posting Christmas-y pictures of some of my favorite idols, I say! This entry’s going to be purely eyecandy, but expect an actual entry coming up sometime soon!

From the Canaria Club beauties:

  

   

  

And some Cutie Queens:
  

And to finish it all off, C-ute playing ‘Silent Night’ on bells.

Merry Christmas/Whatever You Celebrate, everyone!

 

Miyabi the “Otona;” A Theory

Before I start this one, I just want to note that this entry was highly influenced by the events of my week; the title that reads like some bad scientific paper (and I had one due yesterday morning), the possible incoherence at times in this entry (due to the lovely concussion that I have), and, well, the most important of them all, my final Developmental Psychology class. What the hell does that have to do with Natsuyaki Miyabi? More than you may think!

 

So THAT’S What Heaven Must Look Like!

This post will officially qualify for my post with the LEAST substance yet, but I’m sorry, this just HAS to be shared. My brain just about exploded from the epicness that is this photograph.

 Click it, click it, click it, click it!

ERIKA and YUKIRIN in the SAME PICTURE! And and and! Nakajima Saki~ and Sayaka and Sae! Chinami! Satou Amina! Ohori Megumi! Itano Tomomi! Risako! Yurina! Kanna! Acchan! Rina! Andandand everyone else! In the saaaaame place! The only thing that would make this picture better is, well, Maimi. And Morning Musume. Then I’d officially be in a coma from all the awesomeness.

Kouhaku… is going to be SO awesome this year.  

 

Another Egg Graduates

Last evening, I stumbled upon some pretty disheartening news. Yutoku Ayumi, one of the members of the Hello! Project Eggs, and the newest member of the Eggs subunit Tomoiki, has decided to graduate from Hello! Project on November 30.

 

Mikan’s Impact

I was half-tempted to title this one ‘Junjun in Space’ (I’ll explain why later in the entry), and was really debating between that and the one I ended up using; ultimately I chose “Mikan’s Impact,” because, well, I got thinking about space, you know, asteroids… impact, haha– well, it was funny at the time I realized the unintentional pun. … but anyway.

 Yesterday, the new PV for Mikan surfaced, and I can certainly say it’s nothing like I expected. The adorable cover previews gave me hope for a colorful set and some kind of party-themed PV, with the girls dressed in normal clothes, and– well, basically, another Tokaikko Junjou, except less dancey and ranking higher on the exuberant happiness scale. I certainly got the exuberant happiness I was looking for, but certainly not the party– but nevertheless, I kept seeing something of a repeating pattern here.

I can’t help but thinking this single was released a few months too early. From the party covers, to the sparkly special effects, to the chrome-colored stylish space suits in the PV, to the overall meaning of the song– this entire single just screams “New Year” to me. But alas, we’re in the beginning of November! But no one can really ever tell what’s going on up in Tsunku’s mind, can they? His obsession with his new favorite English word, “chance,” is another pretty intriguing pattern, but I have no idea where may be going with that one, if at all. (9th Chance Auditions, anyone?)

But anyway, time for some more specific reactions to this new PV.

 

How I Learned to Stop Fussing and Let Myself Love the Miracle

It might seem like a silly, petty thing to do, but I have honestly tried to dislike Koharu. Waves of that kind of feeling would come because of how much promotion she’s been getting in comparison to other members, and just simply how her talent– vocal quality, mainly– still left a lot to be desired.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Koharu was one of my first favorites. I just latched onto her when I started learning about Hello! Project. Since she was the newest member at that time, I wanted to learn more about her and root for her. In a way, I think I identified the most with her, if only on a distant level. She was relatively new to Morning Musume, I was new to learning about Morning Musume. So as she’d grow and progress through the group, I’d learn more about the group and be able to be there along the way watching the newest member to see how she turns out in the group.

Very gradually, I found myself slipping away from my dear Kusumi, the girl who made me giggle with her goofy smile, and made me cry when I watched her performing ‘Ai Araba IT’S ALL RIGHT’ solo. (Hey, I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m pathetic. But I am honest.)

I think it must have happened earlier this year. I remember being super excited for “Balalaika,” and that was released at the end of last October. But I think with the excitement of the 8th Gen auditions and Aika being chosen for Morning Musume, my attention faded away from Koharu pretty quickly. Things were all about Aika after December. I just sort of lost interest in what Koharu was doing. I thought her solo album was pretty good, but I don’t really remember anticipating it as much as I had anticipated Balalaika. And then it must’ve been around the release of “Happy” that things went really downhill. I wasn’t a fan of the song at all, the vocals irritated the hell out of me, and I just wasn’t buying it anymore.