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.
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.
The first time I heard about AKB48, it was in a negative light. They were supposedly ripping off H!P’s idol groups, and some fans were not happy—so the information I came across told me.
“What’s this?! Some other idol group copying Morning Musume?! The injustice!” was my initial response. But really, I had to see this for myself. A quick Youtube search for AKB48 brought me to the PV for AKB48’s single, ‘Skirt, Hirari.’ I had no idea what I was in for. When I clicked on the link, I watched as these girls danced around in schoolgirl uniforms. They were all adorable. Some of them were good singers, and some of them were, well, not so good. I was kind of surprised to see some girls (particularly Maeda Atsuko) featured with a big solo in the song with a voice like that. But anyone who’s seen this PV can probably attest to the fact that this PV wasn’t about showcasing the vocal talent of this group. No, no. It was about, literally, skirts, fluttering. Pure and utter fanservice in one of its most obvious incarnations. At that point, my mind was made up about the whole debate—this group was not copying Morning Musume.
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.
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.
So the rips have been released out on the net for Morning Musume’s new single, “Mikan.” I’ve been listening to the radio rip and a concert rip (since that’s really all that’s out there), and while such low-quality files aren’t exactly the best to judge a single on, they’ll have to do for now. If you haven’t come across any of these and want to take a listen, here’s links to those files (both found at JPH!P forums):
Mikan clearly takes a turn from Morning Musume’s past few singles; Kanashimi Twilight and Onna ni Sachi Are definitely have that angry/edgy feel to them, and Mikan is a totally different change of pace. Mikan’s upbeat and fun to listen to, but it’s missing two very, very vital things.
So it’s been a little while since my last post; I’ve since been stuck with a lot of work, followed by a nice little break, which I spent back at home being absolutely lazy and enjoying every minute of that. Last night, we had a big dinner for a good bunch of my relatives, so there I was, sitting in the parlor with my laptop, and I found myself watching the H!P Eggs Concert while my family argued back and forth about the Red Sox/Indians baseball game. Just to create a little amusing scene for you all– imagine “Strawberry Pie-yi-yi-yi-yi-ya-yi, strawberry pie, oh strawberry pie!” harmonizing with fevered shouts of “GAGNE?! THEY’RE SENDING IN GAGNE?! Game’s over, we’re doomed.”
I’ve actually watched the H!P Eggs Shinjin Kouen Concert quite a bit before then. It’s not rare, though, that when I settle down to do some work, I’ll throw on a concert to listen to instead of the original music. It sure as hell is more DISTRACTING than listening to music alone, but it’s a lot more entertaining! So it’s not a new thing, but what I’ve found with the Eggs Concert is that it REALLY commands a lot of attention from me when I happen to play it, and small parts of the concert will get stuck in my head. Not just an entire song– just little lines said by certain Eggs. It’s a little annoying, actually, to have ONE LINE running through your head an entire day, but I’ve just had to accept the fact that these Eggs just have some mysterious power over me right now.
With the release of another U-15 photobook comes the inevitable swimsuit debate. Well– not every U-15 photobook; those shots are a given for gravure idols, obviously, but when it’s someone who isn’t in the gravure industry, the announcement and release of a photobook always sparks this debate between fans. Just recently, Kusumi Koharu released her second solo photobook, POP. Before it was announced, I was wondering when the time for another photobook for Koharu would be. After all, she’d gained massive popularity from her seiyuu work in Kirarin Revolution, was given successively greater roles in Morning Musume (her center position in ‘Onna ni Sachi Are,’ highlights that best), and the slew of H!P Kids photobooks over the spring and summer gave a bit of a hint at what was next to come. And there it was– the announcement for POP. I happened to like the name when it was released– I had pretty high expectations for the photobook (which weren’t entirely met, but that’s off-topic), so I was looking forward to it.
By now, I’ve gotten pretty used to the H!P photobooks pattern– despite the age, there’s a huge chance that you’ll be getting some swimsuit shots. There have been a few exceptions, but more often than not, swimsuit pictures are part of the whole package. So, of course I was expecting swimsuit shots in Koharu’s new photobook, and needless to say, swimsuit shots did show up in POP, but these kind of things create a bit of a split in the fan community.
Before I put a cut on this entry, I’m just going to put a warning out there that there WILL be links to swimsuit pictures in the rest of the entry. I won’t thumbnail them, but I will be discussing specific pictures, so there will be corresponding links. If you’re sensitive to that kind of material, just don’t go blindly clicking on links.
One of my favorite things to do when I’m bored and browsing Youtube is search out for any kind of fan work with my favorite J-pop songs– whether it’s watching people sing along to their favorite songs, make entire PVs based off of the originals, dance out the choreographies, or even make their own artistic interpretation of the song on [insert-instrument-of-choice-here]. Some are more common than others, of course– but I’d have to say my favorite is the last– coming across someone playing out a song on whatever instrument, and I’ve been finding more and more piano versions of songs lately, and just been blown away by them.
I’ve always loved piano music; I started taking piano lessons when I was a tiny kindergartener– about 5 or 6 years old at the time– up until I was about 11 or 12, when I switched to trumpet. But solo trumpet music has never been as appealing to me as solo piano music has been– and even today, I appreciate a good piano piece. Just yesterday, I was attending a club meeting in my school’s student center; we met on the top floor, where there’s a lot of open space and seats scattered around for studying, a few meeting rooms, massive windows to the outside, and one roughly tuned piano. All the meeting rooms were being used at the time, so we met out in the more open area. Right as we were about to begin, one guy had come upstairs and was sort of looking around timidly like he was lost– we weren’t sure if he was looking for our group, but soon enough, he plopped down rather casually at the piano. We all chuckled a bit, wondering if he was just going to hang out there if he couldn’t find us, but soon enough, we found out he really wasn’t lost– he actually came up to play the piano! There was rarely a time when I’ve been in the student center and heard someone playing, so when he actually did start playing, everything over at our table got incredibly quiet. Nobody even wanted to start the meeting because we were too enthralled, listening to this guy bust out his piano skills out of NOWHERE. Despite the rough tuning of the piano, the song was beautiful. We all just wanted to sit there and listen– I mean, we did get started eventually, but I was just so amused that we sat there for a few minutes, just listening, not saying a word. When the meeting was over, he was still there and playing, and I climbed down back to the first floor where I was going to buy myself a soda. As I was heading down, the reverb of the piano was stunning. You could hear it throughout all three floors, since the structure on the inside of the building is completely open. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave as long as that guy was still playing! Unfortunately, I had a ton of other things on my schedule, so I did– but I hope that guy comes back– you know, weekly! I really think people– even my peers that blast screamo music and unintelligible hip-hop during all hours of the day– no matter who they are, can really enjoy a good piano piece.
So, anyway! Instead of leaving my favorite J-pop-related pieces on Youtube for others to come across, I decided to take a moment and share my favorites and hopefully give them some new viewers, because there are some really amazing pieces out there!
The first user I’m going to focus on here is like a MACHINE on Youtube– ChuNatsuPata. If you’ve ever seen a piano rendition of a H!P song on Youtube, you’ve probably come across one of his (I’m assuming they’re male, but correct me if I’m wrong!) He’s got so many fantastic ones on there, so I’ll just pick a few of my favorites.
This first is ‘Haru Beautiful Everyday,’ a song from Morning Musume’s latest album– the duet by Aika and Eri. I love how this song sounds just like the original, but at the same time, it creates a LOT more imagery– for me, anyway. Not to nag on Aika or Eri’s voices or anything– just this piece sans vocals is absolutely beautiful, and creates a lot of gorgeous images in my head– particularly springtime scenes, fitting with the song title. And, for some reason, to me, it sounds like it would be a piece featured in the middle of a movie– in one of those slowed-motion scenes where the picture gets softened, and your thoughts immediately go into sentimental mode. The dynamics in this piece are subtle and fantastic– the crescendos don’t come up inappropriately and surprise you and flow compeletely with the piece, and at the end, there’s this wonderful decrescendo to the finish– and that aforementioned movie scene fades off somewhere into the recesses of my mind.
Now, to completely contrast ‘Haru Beautiful Everyday,’ we have ‘Onna ni Sachi Are!’ This piece is much, much more interpretive– they’ve taken some artistic license with the song and gotten a little creative in the beginning, which just makes the song THAT much more epic. The song is most DEFINITELY ‘Onna ni Sachi Are,’ there’s no mistaking it, especially when the piece moves into the first chorus. At that point, singing along is NOT an option– it is a MUST– er, for me, at least. I just can’t help it! But what makes this so fantastic is it shows off the variety of this guy’s style. Where ‘Haru Beautiful Everyday’ had really subtle dynamics– this piece is VERY much more, for a lack of a better word, in-your-face. The crescendos are sudden, the piano-playing is intense!
Now for the last feature in this ChuNatsuPata series– his latest creation, his rendition of C-ute’s ‘Meguru Koi no Kisetsu!’ While ‘Onna ni Sachi Are,’ was interpretive in parts, this COMPLETELY transformed the original. He took this upbeat, poppy piece, and made into a jazzy swing piece! (Which is fantastic for me, because I’ve always been a closet jazz and swing fan.) But, honestly, you’ve got to hear this one to believe it. This one gives me the images of all the C-ute girls dressed up like flappers and dancing in a swanky club where the air’s thick with cigar smoke and excitement. (And I apologize if I’m getting my generations messed up here, it’s just how my brain interprets it!) (PS, Erika would look AMAZING in flapper-gear. Just imagine it!)
This one’s much too short, but worth a listen, anyway! A softer interpretation of C-ute’s ‘Wakkyannai (Z),’ made into something akin to a lullaby. Actually, it reminds me of Christmas, for some reason. Like something you’d hear played on an adorable Hallmark commercial for the season. Not to insult the song by comparing it to a Hallmark card, of course! I think it’s amazing how such a song can go from its super-genki original style to something as soft and melodic as this. It’s a cute little jingle, and I only wish they did the whole song!
This one I never expected to find! AKB48 piano renditions! This one features a bit of a medly; it starts off with ‘Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru,’ then switches to ‘Skirt, Hirari,’ and finishes off with ‘Virgin love.’ Each of them are very much like the original– so, once again, it’s very easily to find myself singing right along. But these can all be appreciated as renditions of their own, as well. Seifuku’s got a particular sound to it that makes it a little… hmm, I don’t know how to describe this. But it’s a little more standout than the other two– either way, it sounds fantastic. If you like that one, he’s also got a second video of AKB48-meets-piano, where there’s more songs, including some of the lesser-known ones like ‘MARIA,’ ‘Namida no Shounan,’ and ‘Kimi wa Pegasus,’ so if you’re a fan, definitely check out his other video!
This last one is my favorite out of the bunch. It’s Suzuki Airi’s solo song, ‘Tsuugaku Vector,’ piano-ified. Unlike the rest, it’s got a few sound effects in the beginning and the end, and the sound’s played over footage from the making of Airi’s PB. So you don’t get to actually see the song being played, but it’s magnificent nonetheless. The piece is absolutely brilliant– and it actually makes me like the song more than the original ever did. There are amazing parts during, well, what’s the ‘instrumental break’ in the original song, that lead up to a beautiful last chorus. The entire thing is fantastic– really pleasant to listen too– and I do think I’ll be loading up vixy.net so I can take that audio and put it on my iPod.
Just last night, I was talking with a friend of mine about how hairstyles tend to be a rather… tricky issue in the idol world, especially, it seems, in the groups I follow– namely Hello! Project and AKB48. Sometimes their stylists are spot on with their choices, and sometimes, you just have to ask, ” … what were they thinking?!” And with the release of the full PV for THE Possible’s new single, “Kaze no Uwasa,” I figured there’d be no better time to jump in and share my take on some truly heinous hairstyles– and some really fabulous makeovers, at the same time. (Well, alright, the fact that I’ve finally got no homework and I’m finally getting better from being sick all week contributed to that, too, but let’s just pretend I planned this from the start.) So, just a warning, before I get started. This post IS going to be pretty shallow since I’m really only discussing a particular aspect of the following idols’ appearances, so you’ll have to forgive my lack of depth in this, but remember, this is by no means an attack on the girls themselves– hey, it’s probably some behind-the-scenes stylist’s fault, anyway!
So it’s been a little while since my last post; I’ve since been stuck with a lot of work, followed by a nice little break, which I spent back at home being absolutely lazy and enjoying every minute of that. Last night, we had a big dinner for a good bunch of my relatives, so there I was, sitting in the parlor with my laptop, and I found myself watching the H!P Eggs Concert while my family argued back and forth about the Red Sox/Indians baseball game. Just to create a little amusing scene for you all– imagine “Strawberry Pie-yi-yi-yi-yi-ya-yi, strawberry pie, oh strawberry pie!” harmonizing with fevered shouts of “GAGNE?! THEY’RE SENDING IN GAGNE?! Game’s over, we’re doomed.”
