Where have I been, blogosphere? Where, oh where has Vee gone? I'm sure you've all missed the absolute nothing I bring you, but I've noticed that a lot of blogs on IW and elsewhere seem to be slowing down. I have a nice little excuse tied up in a pretty bow, though: I've been experimenting. Technically, I've been running this experiment since late last year, but just now is it all beginning to coalesce into something that's worth writing about.

Before I tell you a little bit about what it's like to be an H!P Groupdubber, though, I'll share with you this:



...that's me, dancing Tokaikko Junjou on my new YouTube account (pinkwota) after my last account (ShadowOmega) was not-so-ceremoniously suspended and purged by avex's lawyers. D: I think this dance is head and shoulders above my last attempt - Honto no Jibun, if you remember - and I really wish for it to meet with the approval of the fan masses. Well, the fan masses who like to see overweight American wota gals replicating dances originally done by 80 pound Japanese girls. Eh. I did my best, and I'm happy with it.

I have a survey to complete, too, by none other than one of my favorite people in whole blogosphere, Celestia, but duty calls for the moment.

( We are the ones who search 'Auditions Needed' on a daily basis )

Here are a few links to acquaint you with the magical world of H!P YouTube Groupdubbing:

"Groupdubs I'm In" [My playlist.]

"Kanashimi Twilight" [This is an example of a single singer stealing the show. I made this dub - organized it, stressed over it, mixed it, and let me just say that all those comments about JPNSinger101 sounding "just like Miki" are RIGHT ON]

Chibi♥Love do 'Koisuru Angel Heart' - Nami and Mari are my favorite singers on YT, probably, and it's all because they sound so AMAZING together.

KawaiiiMusume [The great original]

HenryProvince [I'm this dude's #1 fan - he rocks it out, and I am so glad to hear a guy daring to sing H!P songs. We're set to do a duet of 'Sakura Mankai']

And, as if all that weren't enough, I feel compelled to share things I can't share elsewhere on YouTube - namely, my Ayumi Hamasaki songs that would get me banned. These are my favorites to sing. Boo.

"Independent" by Vee
"Evolution" by Vee
"HEAVEN" by Vee
"Pride" by Vee

...will that do in lieu of a PinkCast this month?

I know this first bit should go on Date Kouji Can't Stop Crying, but humor me. This is a BFD.

Well, a couple of days ago I chanced to check the Official Prince of Tennis Musical Site, and I was at first excited beyond all comprehension to see a new cast list up for Hyotei - mostly because several of my boys were returning. I could have predicted that Kato Kazuki, Takumi Saitoh, and Date Kouji would not return (though I don't get why no one can see "no reason why Date isn't returning" - EXCUSE ME HELLO HE HAS GIGS, TOO. Just because he isn't an avex superstar-in-waiting like Kato doesn't mean that he isn't playing the little clubs and DEAR GOD I WANT TO SNUGGLE THAT BOY), but I could never have expected the ***DRAMA*** that played out in relation to their replacements. OK, just one replacement. Apparently Oshitari's and Date's replacements were well-received by the Japanese fans. The English-speaking ones didn't seem to have THAT much to say about them either - only lamenting that the old guard wasn't returning. But Atobe? Oh my God. I would never have expected this, but it happened: A CAST MEMBER WAS KICKED OUT OF THE PRINCE OF TENNIS MUSICAL because of what bordered on fan REVOLT. He was cast for nepotism, I hear on the grapevine, and he's been a bad boy who's been photographed doing pretty much everything Kago Ai has, only with the opposite gender. >__> And he's only 16. Not to mention, fan revolt was mostly over the fact that he was...well...not Atobe. "They kicked him out because he was ugly" many fangirls have espoused, though this is not entirely true. He's a cute enough kid, but "cute" is hardly the embodiment of Atobe Keigo. I'm just sayin'. So, in what was perhaps the week's greatest upset, A-no-be was booted from the TeniMyu cast rather unceremoniously. The official website APOLOGIZED for the inconvenience, in a way that sort of made me think "sorry about that whole Atobe mess, we promise we'll try to get it right next time." nicovideo clips read of multiple thanks and expressions of relief for this decision. Ouch. Poor kid.

Now that you've read all that (or haven't), on to the reason I really opened the UPDATE window in the first place.



They changed the High King video.

NO YOU GUYS I'M TOTALLY SERIOUS THEY CHANGED IT. And they took out one of my favorite parts (Reina's cute little "juunichi" camera hog replete with spinning inside-the-platform point-of-view. That whole sequence is gone. Well, Hell. That was half of what made the PV sparkle for me. Not just Reina, but the whole look of that sequence.

STOP MESSING WITH PV's I ACTUALLY LIKE, UFA. D: D: D:

Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love C/C



The actual guise of a PV review is just a cover for the fact that I want to say a few words about this song. Now, Tsunku knows what makes good music, but oft-times he'll throw in a few elements that destroy the broad picture. With 'C/C', I think he finally manages to get it right after a long spell of "almost, but not quite". It's not the main hook, although that is wonderfully cliche R&B made for mass consumption at its best.

It's the chorus. How the beat suddenly changes, how the quality of the vocals shift (and the vocals are already pure quality - every girl on this single is made of win), how the tango rhythm is punctuated by the minor key transitions of the girls. That sort of thing, musically, burrows under my skin in a very pleasant way. This could have easily been another 'Kowaranai ai ga Hoshii no' (it even has the "YES YES YO!", though only a few embarrassing exclamations of "COME!") or 'Suki Sugite Baka Mitai' (super-group, anyone?).

The blend of voices is just superb. The more mature-voiced girls are complemented by the "kawaii" ones. as for the PV, if Takahashi Ai could stop fidgeting with her face and hat for about five seconds she would be pulling off something genuinely sexy. Reina needs something other than those ponytails. Saki, Maimi, and our new favorite Egg (except Sayaka. Sayaka is still my favorite) need more screen-time, but look fabulous.

My favorite part is how the camerawork breaks down the old "spinning platform" thing at the 3:00 mark - that's very well-done. And Reina brings home the gold star for her ultra-cool and ultra-kawaii treatment at 2:40. Most people will call that camera-hogging. Those are the Reina-haters. Watch for them.

To be honest, I was hoping for a more dynamic dance. This has its moments, certainly, but the old 'Krishna Arms' gimmick is getting old (though I like how they handled it in this, better than 'Resonant Blue's take). I mean, these girls are all AMAZING dancers, right? Oh, well, we can't have it all.

All told, I can't stop listening to this song. and I really hope 'High King' isn't just a one-time deal.

Usually I will hesitate to include a blatant use of profanity anywhere in my articles, most especially in the title, but there just seems no other way to say it. I've been gone for a while, pulling between 60 and 70 hours each week for the last month or so. Our store is open now, and Grand Opening festivities begin on Friday. I thought I'd take this little bit of downtime to mash out a new article. I've missed blogging - it's been calling to me, amidst the endless stream of work/sleep/eat/shower/work ad nauseum. Sure, I've been able to sneak in the odd Guerilla Wota moment - I convinced my first "regular customer" at our Mix 'n Burn station that she had to download Utada Hikaru's version of 'Fly Me To The Moon', and the woman (no less than 55, I'm certain, and a fan of torch songs and standards) ended up asking me to burn a mix of Clazziquai, w-inds., and Orange Pekoe (thanks, Wu!) after I gave her a listen on my iPod. I still have to make that CD, and I don't know how many laws I'll be breaking in the process. Maybe I'll meet her at Panera Bread for the drop-off, I don't know. I've been making sure to face out our copies of Shugo Chara!, though that's far more under the radar than searching up Morning Musume imports through our special order system.

All that is interesting and all, with the capability to hold my attention for days at a time while I don't have internet at my disposal, but not having anyone to fantard with takes a lot of the drama out of...well...wota drama. I can't believe how hard the news of Mutou Mika's departure hit me. She was the underdog, she was the ugly duckling who made me cheer for her despite all the fan-ribbing. And we only ribbed on her because we loved her, right? (You'd better damn well say yes) This was the blow I couldn't understand. I was just as baffled by the hyperspeed move of Manoeri from Gatas to soloist, but with her overwhelming popularity I could understand UFW trying to cash in on the possibility of having another successful soloist after lo these many years and lo these many scandals. Why baffled, why gobsmacked by restructuring within Ongaku Gatas?

Because, futsal gimmick aside, they had potential. I don't say this just out of a biased loyalty to the unit boasting both Yossie and Rika. I say it because their first two singles really were on par with the Big Three of Hello!Project. I go back now to my dear Wu's December post on OG and wonder at how prophecy may have been spoken in that article. Maybe the early album was too much too soon. I look at the line-up that produced NKnBELL and Yattarouze! now and I just can't stand to imagine it without Manoeri or Mucchi. Even though I never got around to a proper review of 1st GOODSAL, my thoughts were proliferated as best I could through the blogosphere - I considered it mediocre. I listened to it and thought "my girls can do so much better than this". I could easily imagine every track being as catchy and danceable as their two singles, but it's just not what happened. To be honest, I haven't even given the whole album more than two or three listens. Which also probably explains the lack of a review. But um, anyway, back on track.

Wu was right. There was a certain intrigue and romance about OG in the beginning, as wota went crazy for Manoeri and I marvelled at KonKon's puffy face being GoneGone (though her voice had improved markedly) and everyone's legs being just amazing.

Pull OG's fan favorite, and its fan least-favorite (though I really do believe all the hate-ons for Mucchi were in jest, for the most part. Who remembers when Tsuji was considered "the ugly one"??), and just watch what happens? Is that the plan, here? I really don't know what the future holds for Ongaku Gatas, but we know a few things for sure: Mai won't be spearheading a new Country Musume (and, frankly, Ayaka's auspicious graduation has me worried if they're on a "get rid of the last vestiges of the Golden Age" kick...) and Rika doesn't have her hands full with v-u-den anymore. This leaves four "major" H!P idols with not much else to do (exclusing Elder Club concerts) and four promising Eggs with not much else to do (excluding backup dancing). I'd have thought the sudden loss of two members would have meant a sudden push with a new single, a new concert, something. But maybe they're biding time on OG. Is it too late for that?

I can't find a suitable answer, and it's too trivial in the long run for me to think about it too much, but I want OG to be in the big leagues (sports pun unintentional, though damn I'm good). They've already got big league talent, and some big league potential. Even without Manoeri or Mucchi, they can and will persevere. But where do they fall on UFW's Priorities List? I'm sure there is one, and right at the top are things like "Release More Risako Photobooks" and "Keep Denying Eighth Generation Photobooks" and "Make HaroMoni@ Less Appealing". Maybe somewhere on there in a scribbled in suggestion: "Market Ongaku Gatas???? Maybe???", but as far as I know that might be under "Remember To Lock Koharu's Padded Cell at Night". Hmmm, now that I think about it, that has to be a pretty big priority. Maybe there is hope, after all.

Well, ten hour shift of unpacking and shelving is imminent tomorrow as Panama City Beach attempts to open its first Borders store, with yours truly at bat. It will be a fantastic hotspot for literati and just plain cool people. On the downside, I'm weary to my bones from yesterday's sort, but on the upside I'm really hyped to get stuff done. I don't know really, why I'm opening a Pink Wota article with a lengthy treatise on my own state of being, but in my most Garrison Keillor of moments I like to pretend that I can mix my personal with my objective blogging and something great will come of it. Hopefully this will not be people just scrolling past my introductory paragraphs; hopefully this will be a little way to bring you all inside my head, to show I mean it when I say "comfort blogging".

I was feeling very down and out about Pink Wota this week. Maybe it was just a lack of serotonin, or a lack of adrenaline, but suddenly it seemed like I couldn't, and didn't really want to, keep up with the crowd. Celestia said pretty much everything I wanted to say regarding the Resonant Blue Another Version PV, except this: Sayumi and Eri aren't exactly resonating sadness when they're having a ball at the amusement park. :\ It just seemed out of place. Everyone else seemed sorta lonely - even the Pandas. But Sayu and Eririn? Just chillin', eating ice cream. "Oh, I'm sorry, were we supposed to be resonating sadness? Okay, we'll just glare at the camera, here."

And yes. Koharu more than makes up for making me want to punch her for smiling all through the Dance Shot by being smoking hot in the story footage.

Thus, finding not much to say about current events in the J-Pop world - and learning that one of my longtime friends is going to be in Japan with the JET program for Ayumi Hamasaki's 10th Anniversary Tour (and has more or less promised to bring me back swag of epic proportions) - I find not much to do here on Pink Wota. Just a slump, just a slump.

What lies beneath is an article I've been kicking around for a month or so. It's not much, but I like to think a good retrospective is nice once in a while.

No secret that Melon Kinenbi's This is Unmei is one of my favorite H!P songs of all time. No secret that I practically worship Masae Ohtani and modeled my new split-level hairstyle after one of her many incarnations. No secret that Melon Kinenbi is just fantastical.

But what struck me as I started to stalk YouTube, watching performance after performance by the group (spurred on quite a bit by the live-footage PV of Charisma, Kirei, is that they work more effectively than any other H!P commodity as a live act. I don't mean this in the arena sense of "knock your socks off" showmanship, not really. Morning Musume, Berryz, C-ute, Ayaya, Gomaki, all have put on amazing concerts and cannot be discounted as things unforgettable by fans who have had the pleasure of seeing them in person. But Melon Kinenbi brings a more dressed-down, "club" feeling to their performances. This translates very well onto DVD. Most notably in their recent fan club release, ~LOCK ON!~

So I began to compile the live clips I could find of my favorite Melon Kinenbi song - This is Unmei - in order to extoll the virtues, the evolution, and the mystique behind Melon Kinenbi live.



( Unmei dakara... )

FINALLY!!



With Special Guest Commentary by Erin!!

PROTIP: Don't ever use LJ's "rich text editor" option if you're a hardcore raw HTML user. SHENANIGANSSS!!!

( Limited Edition A )

( Limited Edition B )

( Regular Edition )

....I'll take one of each, please. ♥___♥

Sorry for exploding my HTML all over the place. I'm back to doin' this in Notepad. An LJ experiment that FAILED.

Okay.

I have a C-ute album to give a listen, I have a new chapter to start in on, I have a Morning Musume PV to review, and an Ayumi Hamasaki concert DVD (not to mention new cover art) to try and defend. All this, and I need to be in bed come about thirty minutes or so. But all that must wait. I was just prevailed upon by a PW reader who shall remain nameless to give my two cents on the argument of Yoshizawa Hitomi's sometimes-debatable sexuality.

Here's what I think. This is a topic very near and dear to my heart, but it is a fragile topic, however tough it may appear. It is a thing that can be worded so wrong if I am left to the less well-versed of my devices.

( On with the possibly less well-versed of my devices, then.. )

I actually made this about a month ago...

But as I'm in the middle of a work week from Hell, I won't have time to even START a new article until tomorrow. Seeing as how I have the icons (thanks to Erin...I just came home and...there were icons of me!!!) I've decided to let this out of my little personal journal circle and share it with the world!! So, a few of you on my F-List have seen this already. Those of you who haven't - and who don't stalk my YouTube (why would you do that?! There's nothing of interest, aside from my performance of LOVE Machine at Anime South 2007...>__>) - enjoy? Maybe?

I will probably regret this... but I don't care!! :D :D :D

This is supposed to be a public service announcement - if you love J-Pop, go ahead and get your groove on! If I can do it and not be made fun of excessively (at least not to my face...) (I haven't been punched yet...), you can too! (OH OH OH OH OH! YOU CAN DO!)

So yes. This is me. And my version of 'Honto no Jibun'. The steps aren't perfect, the cuts aren't perfect, but it was FUN.

♥ J-Pop is and Should Be Fun ♥



HAPPY WEEKEND, EVERYONE!

For once I find myself listening to a Hello!Project Radio Rip (courtesy of Some Boys! Blog), and not comparing it to ten other Morning Musume songs. I'm picking up on so many different elements, but not so many that I'm getting confused. Without a breakdown or an acoustic monologue/solo stanza to its name, Resonant Blue just chugs along as a relentless dance track worthy of this new (and improved?) Morning Musume. I think all the girls sound great, and I can hear a much more well-allocated LinLin especially.

I can groove to this song, I love the force and personality all of the lines have (reminds me of some of the best 6th Gen songs). Also, I love the "nee nee dareka WOW WOW AH" refrain. That alone could have sold the song to me. They're not oversexing it like they were with Egao YES Nude or Onna ni Sachi Are - maybe they just needed a few practice songs?

It really sounds like a whole new Musume has taken over. Mikan, while I loved it so very dearly, must have been a fluke in the formula. Can't wait to hear the next album.

Needless to say, I also can't wait to see the covers, PV, and photosets from this single.

It makes sense to me now, why they might have pushed it back. Even if it was unintentional, this puts Morning Musume in prime position to get the attention they deserve, and they're not fighting against C-ute or Berryz to get it.

Hooray for Resonant Blue!!! Sexy, passionately upbeat, and very danceable! Take a listen and tell me what you think!

I've been working a lot lately. My job is a good one, though a time-consuming one. Our store finally opens tomorrow, and I'll be working until close. Meanwhile I've been ingesting a lot of Buono!, a lot of Date Kouji, and a surprising modicum of Ongaku Gatas. 1st GOODSAL is just that - good. Let's hope that their second album, if and when it is released, is 2nd GREATSAL. Then I'll be happy. Still, I'm not severely disappointed, which is always a good thing when Yossie is involved.

Hello!Project, thus, remains a large part of my life.

But this diversion may need some context. In fact, the parallels will likely make no sense to anyone who hasn't seen, read, or is familiar in some other way with Prince of Tennis. It was announced this week that the latest volume of the long-running manga is, in fact, the last. I say "good show" while others wail in despair. I always like for anything artistically driven, be it something as impacting as an soprano with the MET or as seemingly piddling as a manga series about tennis, to throw in the towel before things go too far, too long, or too desperate. Konomi did right. But this is a blog about J-Pop, isn't it? Whoever said I couldn't mix and match? Prince of Tennis has been a pretty major part of my fan life, and therefore my brain workings, for while now. Nowhere near as long as J-Pop and Hello!Project, but enough to have made a significant impact.

What I find amusing is that I wrote out the structure, the idea, for this diversion days before I heard the news about PoT's swan song. It started while I was watching Melon Kinenbi PV's and concert footage. I've developed a new love and fascination with them, which probably means they'll disbabnd soon - it always seems to go that way for me. I digress. I was noticing the way Boss Hitomi commands a stage, flaunts her EVERYTHING - talent, style, sexiness, and "leader" qualities - with such a aplomb. I looked a little longer at the quirky, aggressive Masae, who throws her talent and personality around like a bolo whip. "Heh," I thought to myself, "Masae is like the Hiyoshi to Hitomi's Atobe. OH GOD." See, that's how things happen in my mind. Obsessive nature that I have, I'll have an offbeat thought and immediately know that it's going to bloom into something terrible and all-consuming. That happened, here.

I sat down that night in my pink-and-white polka dot pajamas, wrote down the names of my three favorite teams in Prince of Tennis, and went about matching them up with Hello!Project members.

I've tried to make this into a quasi-literary narrative to give everything a bit of context. It's not that I suggest you turn away now if you know nothing about PoT, but you might not be able to appreciate things quite so much. I've propagated titles from the musicals (as evidenced by the title).

( There is a picture of Sayumi in a tennis skirt beneath this cut )

...I can't believe I've started what is, essentially, a mash-up. Originally I was just going to make a list. Writing the "story" portion was actually a bit of fun.

Now I really want to see Sayumi nuzzling Iida's tummy. More to the point, I want to see all of them in tennis uniforms.

And, believe it or not, but likening Takahashi Ai to Kunimitsu Tezuka has made me understand her a lot more. T___T I think I just inadvertently bonded with Morning Musume harder than I wanted to at the outset of this crack-thing.

Happy Leap Day, everyone!

For those of you who haven't gotten a peek at the pre-release covers for Dschingis Khan (spelling that still gives me fits), here they are! Presented without much commentary (by my standards), because I'd really like to get a few more internet chores done before I go to work.

I just haven't seen these floating around that much, so I figured I'd lift 'em from cdJapan (Image piracy? On MY blog? It's more likely than you think...) and run 'em through the ringer. YesAsia doesn't seem to have covers up yet, which is odd. OH WAIT. They do. They didn't when I ordered the LE. Hm. EITHER WAY...

LIMITED EDITION CD+DVD Wow. There's something about the flames that not only fits with the song, but also with these girls, who are on fire in H!P-land. It's nice to see a cover that works with a batch of ridiculous costumes rather than against it...I could see an H!P outsider perhaps purchasing this LE without any prior knowledge, just based on the "those girls are cute as Hell" factor, and not being totally embarrassed by the costume f**kery. Nice job - one of my favorite Berryz covers ever, actually (though I'll always err on the side of POINTLESS TENNIS RACKETS AND RAINBOW COLORS!!)

REGULAR EDITION CD-ONLY If your eyes don't go immediately to Yurina, something is wrong. I will admit that this cover is a nice, minimalist one. The contrast of all the girls in their different elements is well-presented. Risako looks beautiful (nice little attempted-curtsy, too...but this isn't Munasawagi Scarlet, honey...). Hell, they all look beautiful. Saki's just sort of hangin' off to the side...and Miya OWNS this cover. That's a very pleasant surprise - nice to see her popping out of her shell occasionally! She's vibrant and giving the old Berryz camera-lovers a run for their money. Way to go, Miya! ♥ The colors work well, too. I give both covers a good solid 5/5 rating, all told. I'd gladly have either, and hopefully BOTH soon enough, on my shelf.

Now here's quandary: what do you say about an album that rocks your socks so completely, so utterly, but literally only does said rocking for exactly half of is runtime? Cafe Buono! is still better on the whole than 9/10 of full-length Hello!Project releases, but I can't help noticing a trend in WHY the album fizzled out at the midway check-point. Pony Canyon has an unfortunate team making decisions on how to arrange tracks on albums. I say this also of w-inds. and Aya Ueto. There isn't a pleasant middle ground...a distressing lack of balance for the most part. Ueto-chan's Re., for example, had potential to be an amazing album, but the more upbeat tracks were all lumped together on the tail-end. They did a good job with Message, though, so maybe this is just Pony Canyon preparing their Buono! canvas. To me, it's a shame, though. I just can't give the album a "storybook" listen without skipping two or three tracks.

Regardless...Buono! comes out of this whole thing smelling like roses.



( Read on... )

Dschinghis Khan... After seeing °C-ute drop the ball with LALALA Shiawase no Uta (I'll admit I've grown to like the song, but LIKE is the only word for it), I've been doing a sort of "if I can't see it, it can't see me" move with my hands in preparation for this single. There's been an interesting competition going on within my heart amongst the H!P supergroups these past six months. STEEL CAGE MATCH! When: Now! Where: In My Heart! Why: To Decide Which H!P Group Vee Loves Most!

Well, Dschingis Khan just sealed it. Berryz win this round, at least until I get to re-evaluate things with Resonant Blue (which still makes me think of 'Resident Evil', and I imagine a PV in which MoMusu are running around picking the heads off zombies. That would be the best PV ever). It's as if someone at UFA was actually listening to the talk on the street, that °C-ute was winning the 'idol' race in this idol camp, and that Berryz were slowly losing that individual appeal which had won them so many fans in the first place. Not to mention, it's hard to come off the heels of a dismal single and produce a rainmaker (°C-ute's gonna have a hard time, here, too...apparently in H!P-land, it's difficult to even come off the heels of a rainmaker and make it rain). But I'm already humming Dschingis Khan and fondly remembering moments from the PV. I've got it open in another tab on Dohhh UP! and it's just repeating. I really, really love this song, and the PV. In fact, watching the PV keeps me from writing about it.

One of the first things I had to do, about a minute in, was pause the video, get up, and wander around my room singing the melody of the verses in simple "la la la"s until I placed where I'd heard it. And then I recognized it! Morning Musume may have gone the easy route in jacking the well-known chord of 'My Sherona' for Aisha Loan de, but Berryz have gone for something a little more obscure: I Only Want to Be With You by Dusty Springfield, who is only one of my all-time vocal idols. Even with all that thick black mod eye-makeup, Dusty works a certain idol quality on the Ed Sullivan stage. I see and hear a pinch of Dusty in Ayaya and Gaki-san, though that may be a coincidence. Naturals on stage are naturals on stage, and to get back to the point, Berryz are all naturals. Yes, I could make a Polaner all-fruit joke here, but I'm still waking up.

...wow, this whole comparison now makes me want to compare idols of the 1960's with H!P. I'm going to explode if I get any more article ideas.

Back to Dschingis Khan. Of course the Koi no Dance Site influence is felt, but not too highly. This isn't like hearing Sukiyaki about a month after you got your PIRIRI to Ikou! pressing. The instrumentation is head and shoulders above KnDS, especially the use of twangy surf guitars. This only adds to the 1960's feel of the song - perhaps a Showa period influence to the whole thing. It works!

"Hey brother, ho brother, nice brother, go brother?" Am I hearing that right? Beautiful! I am enjoying this a lot, and then they pull out Chokotto LOVE-esque "wah-ha-ha-ha"s and I'm SOLD. Without recycling something I know I seem to say about every new H!P video I really like , I'll preface this by saying OKAY GUYS I MEAN IT THIS TIME: this is a song that can easily appeal to the current fans, but really plays in subtle ways to the old school fans.

I was very excited to see every single one of the girls acting absolutely wacky and lovable in the close-up shot. Something about me loves a good hip-pop hand movement or two thrown in with a smile, so I'll admit I squeed a little when Maasa (who usually doesn't stand out to me!) started throwing gang signs at the camera.

Sadly, the only non-stand-out to me was Miyabi, but I'll honestly say she's more at home when she can exude a mature sort of wackiness, as with Buono!. Seems to me she's the Kaorin of Berryz. There's no doubt I love her just as she is, but there's also no squeezing blood from a turnip. Then again...it happened with Eririn...

Everyone stole Mai's glasses for their "instrumental" moments, and it really fits. Momoko does well to have a pair of glasses on - her eyes are sort of wild and inescapable, so the fact that she can shine without looking sort of crazy is a great quality. Risako also benefited from this. Risako, as far as I'm concerned (you all know I'm not nuts about her), always seems a little heavy-lidded, but she really pulls through Dschingis Khan with a new, fun demeanor. I think she may have earned 50 points from me in the process, though the pink megaphone DID help.

For once, you couldn't tell who was running the show. Everyone had great moments in this video - it was more democratically representative of Berryz, much like (I'll say it again) an old-school Morning Musume video. And you didn't really have time to focus on who was singing when all your attention is focused on how gosh-darn FUN this PV is. I could watch this over and over, and I already have.

So, what was LALALA Shiawase no Uta lacking in fun that Dschingis Khan apparently has? 1) A memorable hook that isn't annoying. 2) Several memorable melodies that aren't annoying. 3) Pure idol wackiness, which in H!P land still equates to "mass appeal". At least for me. I'm not ready for Berryz to grow up TOO much unless it's in the form of something like VERY BEAUTY. I won't even mention that last single by name. 4) No chicken legs, chicken arms, or other pitfalls of H!P choreography! Finally! It was fun and upbeat without resorting to ridiculous movements.

But perhaps most of all...

5) There was a very "freeform" feeling to this PV that had all the girls working their personalities instead of a script or their allotted five seconds of close-up time dedicated to lip-synching. °C-ute are absolutely great, and I don't love them any less for doing their best with crappy material and obviously crappy direction, but like the best old school H!P PVs, Dschingis Khan makes me think the girls threw the director off the set and worked their close-up shots on their own. "Okay, Yurina, you get behind the camera now, it's my turn! *giggle giggle giggle* What should I do? OK, like this? FREEZE? Okay? Let me see! *scurry scurry scurry* Oh that looks awesome!! Now you, you! *giggle giggle giggle*" I promise you I'm not just projecting my dreams again.

A new Berryz song is in my Top Ten, and I only heard it an hour ago. Kudos, Berryz, for schooling me once again. And for coming back this strong from....ungh...do I have to say it? Okay, fine....Tsukiatteru no ni Kataomoi. *shudder*

I've decided to take a different tack in writing this article. A romantic one, if you will, in honor of St. Valentine's Day. As I write this, I find myself parked on the overlook leading to Panama City Beach's County Pier in the thick of early-morning darkness. It's cold outside, product of the front that moved in with the mid-week thunderstorms. Winter is biting, and the red flags are flying to warn beach-goers against going into the water.

I roll down the window for a bit, challenging the frosty air, but I can't really smell the salt in it. A wayward grey pier cat skitters across the sidewalk, and I wish it were summer. I wish that I could get out of the car, out of my jacket, and sit on the pier to write this. I remember the old nights of karaoke with my friends before long; moonlit walks on the shore, talking about not much in particular. All my close friends, ones I've been woefully bereft of any contact with, are well on their ways in life. It would make me feel inadequate if I let it. High-paying jobs, internships, study in Fukuoka and Beijing. I'm proud of them, and profoundly muddled on whether I've done the right things with my life as it is.

But this morning, I am happy, and I know I've done things right. I am home. I am loved. I am wanted. Most importantly, I am writing. Minimum wage for the rest of my days - it could be that, as long as I could write. Yeah. This is my home. This is where I feel comfortable, despite my desire for travel and exploration and adventure. Home is with my dad, with my fat orange tabby cat, with my scads of storage tubs full of notebooks and sketchpads dating back ten years and more.

If I want to share my love of J-Pop anywhere, I want to share it at home. And so, after a long Wednesday of doing computer work for my dad, I prevailed upon him to pay me back in the form of a favor - to be my first Pink Wota test subject. To say I am excited to write this article would be a gross understatement. First, a bit about my dad. He was born in 1948 to German immigrants in the Ohio River Valley. Thomas Hoffman was raised on doo-wop, bluegrass, and honkytonk blues, but never went with the flow of popular music. It is a value he instilled in his younger daughter. Our vinyl collection, until it was sold in 1992, boasted an eclectic mix of everything from Johnny Cash to Paul Revere and the Raiders to The Temptations to Muddy Waters. One thing I always knew from music, thanks to my dad, was melody. He dabbled in guitar, but never learned as much as he wanted. Music is not so much something he feels inside of him as it is something he exalts and enjoys with all his might. He sings all the time. Not publicly, not professionally, never that - but anywhere he feels a song might help his mood, his productivity, others around him, one is on his lips. Songs are always good for that, and I was singing basic melodies by Jan & Dean, Buddy Holly, and the Beach Boys shortly after I could talk.

( Read more... )

I'm not going to say my dad's reactions prove anything or serve as important data to be used in average Americans' J-Pop exposure. All I know is that I had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about what a music-and-film saavy baby boomer thinks about H!P based on a tiny cross-section. I honestly hadn't expected him to like Buono! as much as he did - I thought he'd find it trite or too kiddie. It was exactly the opposite. He thought the group's presence exuded a friendly all-ages type of cool, and that the music did the same.

This was just H!P, of course. My dad's already snagged a few AAA tracks from my iPod and put them on his own computer, so I know he's receptive to J-Pop given the right sound. Then again, I've been singing around the house in Japanese for about ten years now, so it can't be that much of a culture shock. He's a well-cultured, open-minded type of dude. This is by no means indicative of what his "good old boy" friends might think of the same groups or songs. Still...what fun!

And I didn't have to set foot outside of the house to do it. Odd, then, that I felt the need to take a drive and enjoy the beauty of my hometown to write it all down. The sun is rising, now, behind the condos and the high-rise luxury resorts to the East. Living in a beach town is to know shades of blue and green that some people never see. The sky and the sea are reversed right now, and I'm breath-taken.

I'll have to come outside to write up my articles more often, methinks.

The Hello!Blog ranker, v.2.0. Tom, what have you done? I was forced to make so many difficult choices. I'm providing these rankings with little commentary, because...because I'm not going to kid anyone. I could go on for pages and pages, and it really wouldn't be that interesting. So I'm trying to exercise some brevity and just hit the high (and low) points.



( MORNING MUSUME )



( BERRYZ KOUBOU )



( °C-UTE )

And there you have it. I have a job interview tomorrow and some reading to do. I'll catch you wonderful people later. <3

I slept twelve hours last night. Seeing as I've been getting up at 3 am and squeezing in five hours of sleep, tops, for a few days, this is quite the accomplishment from my body. Twelve hours of glorious, refreshing, uninterrupted sleep. So all I wanted when I woke up was to de-stress, chill out, and think up what I needed to get accomplished today. I noticed the new ℃-ute PV was out. Having been less than enthused with the radio rip, but a bit intrigued by the PV clip, I decided to check it out over breakfast.

I'm very glad I did. I'll come out and say it now - ℃-ute hold themselves like veterans of the Great Idol War despite their ages. It's no secret that UFA has been working them so hard they can hardly be called "inexperienced", but the consistent thing about ℃-ute is this: they always popp off of the screen and get me personally involved in their songs. They rise above ridiculous costumes and mediocre concepts that seem to be recycling other PV's by other groups (by now you all know what I mean by this one - I mean, the comparison to 'Munasawagi Scarlet' was not one I wanted to make, but watching 'LALALA Shiawase no Uta', it became impossible not to do so). They are genuine and infectious, and best of all they keep evolving.

( LALALA Cut no Uta! )

...I couldn't resist using a Tenimyu reference. And icon. >___> Oh, trust me, the countdown to me getting the (tennis) balls to post a full-on love post concerning Tenimyu has already begun.

It was with mild curiosity and an irascible need to play with numbers that I woke up this morning and almost immediately started on a Morning Musume singles ranking. Bombarded as the blogosphere is and always has been by individual rankings, I don't expect my little experiment to even register a blip on anyone's radar. Sometimes, though, I know that I find personal rankings to be fun little windows into the minds of my fellow fans. And so, maybe that's what you'll take from this. Also, it's a fun little system I've devised, if just for considering things you may never have considered before.

Before I present the hard data (maybe this is the geek in me, but I've always gotten a strange little thrill from the term "hard data"), a little explanation:

The five categories I used for ranking the Morning Musume singles are as follows: Song, Vocals, Cover, B-Side, and PV. Ranking songs on their own is too difficult, and, always, too arbitrary. On any given day I might love AS FOR ONE DAY more than Aruiteru because that's just how I feel on that day. So I figured breaking down the singles on individual sections of merit would prove more interesting, and it certainly did. To be honest, the first few singles I tried rating were even more compartmentalized, with ballots for 'Lyrics' and 'Music' included - until I realized how silly that was (though it would've seen the only '0' on the rankings - Morning Musume no Hyokkori Hyoutanjima would have gotten zilch for lyrical quality).

When I tallied up the results, I was, frankly, shocked. Maybe this is a little too tactical of a window into my perspective as a Morning Musume fan. I was devising a way to award "tie-breaker points" based on things like "+2 for a song rating of 10" or "+1 for 4th Generation" and other such nonsense, but I ultimately chose to leave the ties as they are. The tie-breaker points are, like song rankings themselves, arbitrary.

Maybe it's silly to weigh in something like 'B-Side' in determining a single's worthiness. That's what I thought at first. But I'm not so sure anymore. It's what pushed Kanashimi Twilight to the top. It's what could have made Roman ~My Dear Boy~ or I WISH the only perfect score. It was the only 10 on the rankings of Ai Araba! It's ALL RIGHT. 'B-Side' is somewhat of the great equalizer for MoMusu single rankings. We all have preconceived prejudices and sentimentalism regarding specific songs, but when you go "wow, I don't even remember that B-Side" next to saying "wow, that B-Side deserved to be the single!" it brings a certain humble honesty to all the crowing opinions.

It seems even sillier to be ranking something as inconsequential as 'Cover'. Even I have to admit this one was mostly included to give the numbers a heftier edge for comparison. Though I'm glad it was there. I finally realize how many dreadful single covers came out during the 2004-2006 era. Truly, truly unfortunate covers. They weren't even trying. I was finally in a position to put a quantitative analysis on just what bothered me about the cover of Egao YES Nude - the cover that made Kamei look like a housewife and everyone else look like a rag-tag group of gals with absolutely nothing in common except the fact that they have to pose in front of this ghastly-boring backdrop on my Great Aunt Henrietta's couch. So, it all has bearing, I promise. At least in MY crazy brain it does.

( And so, without further ado... )

Here's the .txt file of the individual rankings. Take a look if you want to know specifics.

This is my triumphant return.

My views on H!P, its members, its groups, everything, saw great change over the course of 2007. Call it maturing tastes, call it deteriorating tastes, I don't really know or particularly want to give it that much thought.

A long, drawn-out introduction is either unneeded, or simply not in me right now. As we start 2008, here are my intra-H!P idol rankings:

( The Top Ten Are... )

This is not, sadly, my triumphant return. Thank you all so much for your outpourings of love and support...even if you haven't known me for long, or at all. The service is on Saturday, and it seems that after a few days of coasting by on pure optimism and, perhaps, numbness, I hit a brick wall and sort of broke down last night and today. But...! I'm in high spirits, still. I mean, what else can I do but my best? But this post is not about me. Well, in a way it is.

Now I'm preparing for lots of company to be invading the house, and also a move to Tampa in late Winter/early Spring (time for college, finally! All right "Adult Education"!). Lots of cleaning today. While scouring my closet and the cast wilderness of papers, scraps, whosit's and whatsit's galore within, I unearthed a particular gem I'd, frankly, forgotten about.

  

It's an Aya Matsuura shitajiki I happened across in 2003! Seriously...I happened across this thing, I forget where I even acquired it - all I know is that I was surprised to find it. Probably a convention or a comic shoppe. Anyway, looking at this made me watch some old Ayaya PV's, listen to a good portion of T.W.O. again, and remember...

Ayaya was my second H!P discovery, after Mini Moni. I didn't get into H!P as a whole, and to be honest I didn't even get into Morning Musume, until well after I'd made Ayaya a fixture on more road-trip-mix-CD's than I can count. To this day, 'Kiseki no Kaori DANCE' reminds me of road trips in general, and most specifically Orlando. 'Momoiro Kataomoi' reminds me (fondly) of my relationship with my good friend and once-girlfriend Momo (no kidding). 'Love Namidairo' was the very first Ayaya PV I watched, and it was my friend (and lukkaya's boyfriend) Allen who thrust it upon me as the greatest thing since sliced Mini Moni. Keep in mind, Mini Moni was in the hands of Not Yaguchi Mari at this point...we needed somewhere else to fix our attention, and fix it we did. 'Matsuura'-ing - that being the puffy-cheeked mad face she adopts in more than one PV but most notably in 'Ne~e?', became an instant in-joke for my friends and I.

I'm always wary of dramatic musical shifts from my favorite artists, but more often than not these things treat me well in the long run. Such is the case with Ayaya. I miss the happy, poppy, bouncy days of the early 00's, sure, but I love Naked Songs and I adored GAM while it was still around. Matsuura-chan's become a bit of an enigma to me, as I no longer refer to her current persona as Ayaya because I equate that nickname with an entirely different artist.

Still, when I force myself to meditate on a "ranking" system, I can hash out a few definites:

- Aya Matsuura is my favorite Hello!Project soloist, easily.
- My favorite Ayaya song is still 'Kiseki no Kaori DANCE'
- My favorite Ayaya PV is 'Ne~e?', because I mean, what the hell? XD
- I really can't stand her version of 'Don't Know Why', but it's a valiant effort
- My favorite track on Naked Songs is 'Hitori', easily.

So...enjoy the unexpected scans. I hope to return in earnest soon with an article of some substance. :)