Sayonara, see you again, adios, bye-bye, chaccha!

Egao YES Idols has moved to a new home, courtest of International Wota!

See you there at –>  http://www.intlwota.com/egaoyes

 

AKB48’s Mysterious Team B

When most people think of AKB48, I’m sure it’s the front girls that come to mind. If you’re unfamiliar with the group and have only hear one or two of their songs, seen a few promotional things of them out there (a PV, a commercial, whatever it may be), there are probably a few girls that you might be able to picture. The first one that comes to mind is probably Maeda Atsuko, AKB48’s prized daughter. You’d probably also know Takahashi Minami, another front girl in the group. All the rest is up for grabs. A particular girl might’ve caught your eye in a PV and you may have looked up her name– say, Kojima Haruna, Oshima Yuko, Oshima Mai, or Shinoda Mariko. All get pretty consistent screen time in the PVs. All depends on your preferences, anyway. Maybe you’ve checked out Aitakatta! An AKB48 Blog to learn more about some of the girls. You could’ve gone a few paths from there– became an AKB48 of varying degrees, or, you know, were just content with the knowledge you’d gained about the group as it was and became a casual listener, or even forgot about AKB48 for the most part.

I could spend about a week straight just blogging about all the girls and I’d still probably have more to say, so I’m going to really focus in on one aspect of AKB48 that most people overlook right now. Even among fans– lots of people know Teams A and K, but Team B remains a bit of a mystery. You see their pictures, you hear the occasional fan talk about their favorite Team B members, you may have spotted a Team B member in a PV! But for the most part, Team B remains very misunderstood. A good portion of AKB48 fans know and have come to love Team B, but it’s just not enough in my eyes. So I’m going to try my hand at correcting that. Why? Because they deserve it, simply enough! Too many assumptions are made about this Team because people are too focused on the other two teams. Now, I’m not saying that you all should just give up your favorites and love Team B forever and ever, but just give them a chance! I definitely have favorites on Teams A and K myself and think they’re both wonderful parts of AKB48– the group, quite literally, wouldn’t be the same without them. Each team has their merits, each team has their own style. Even Team B. It’s called AKB48, not AKandthoseotherpeople48.

Disclaimer: I just want to note that this entry is lengthy. This was on purpose. Don’t feel bad about skimming the entry or just reading one or two profiles. If you want to read the whole thing, you’ve definitely got my admiration! But my whole purpose here was just getting out as much information as possible about these underloved girls in hopes of them getting a bit more attention in the fan world. But seriously, even if you just learn about one or two members, I’d be thrilled! 

 

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!”

 

Miori?! Miori!

Wait, wait wait wait wait wait. How did I miss this one?!

It is almost 5 AM. I’m getting ready to go to bed– wanted to listen to a SweetS song before I turned off the computer, and I realized I didn’t have the one (Pieces of Peace) I was looking for on my computer. So onto that trusty SweetS resource, Mienai Tsubasa, I went, and before I headed off to the page I was looking for– a new update caught my eye. It was pretty recent, just posted up on December 20, and I had to remind myself not to just SCREAM (seeing as it’s… almost 5 AM and people are sleeping). Why? MIORI IS IN A PV.

She’s not singing– just… well, acting, and looking gorgeous. But it doesn’t MATTER. It’s Miori!! In a PV! I was seriously just… gaping in awe when her face popped up on the screen in that PV. I never thought I’d see a SweetS girl after the group disbanded– though Miori was supposed to be going into modeling, I don’t exactly follow models, so I don’t know what happened with her there. But this is pretty much the first time I’ve seen her surface since– and in a PV, no less!

The PV is for the song called “Akaneiro, Sora no Shita,” and is by Himari. I’ve personally never heard of the duo before, but the song is actually a good listen (I’ve had it on repeat ever since I found it), if Miori wasn’t enough of a pull for it already.

I don’t know if I’m totally late on the news here– since the PV was released in November, but I don’t really care, haha. I’m just too happy to see Miori doing SOMETHING now. And I’m just hoping some people will be as ecstatic as I am if they haven’t seen/heard of this yet.

So, without any further delay– the PV:

 I’ve also uploaded it to Mediafire (here), if anyone wants to download it. Again, the source for that is Mienai Tsubasa, so a BIG thank you for them to uploading it for us all to see!

I’m too tired to do a write-up on the PV right now, but I figured I’d toss this post out there ASAP to share the news with anyone who hasn’t heard yet. (But will be taking a suggestion from Ray over at International Wota and should be putting up a more analytical post on another lovely Berryz girl sometime later this weekend.)

So, for now, I’m off to desperately pray for Aki’s return– uh, I mean… sleep (if I’m ABLE to stop being so ecstatic about this!).

 

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!

 

Two Classic Cuties

It’s a proven fact: idols are cute. In some way or another, they’re all cute. It’d be hard to find one that wasn’t! But I want to focus on two particular idols I’ve seen that have a really distinctive kind of look to them. They’re often overlooked in their respective groups, but I think they are really, really the epitome of what “cute” is, in its most stable form. I find it really hard to overlook these two, myself– I can’t figure out if it’s because of their talents, personalities, or looks, or a combination of all three, but for some reason, these two girls have grabbed my attention and struck me as real distinct cuties– enough so to make me do a little write-up on the two.