In light of the recent Avril Leviathan (nope, I'm not a fan)/Puffy AmiYumi collaboration news, I thought instead of writing what would basically amount to an article agreeing with six of one side (I don't think Avril Lavigne is a talented songwriter by any means, and it sort of cheapens Puffy in the eyes of a lot of their longer-established American fans) and half a dozen of the other (Puffy will be able to say they have more to their name on the American cred tip than "Teen Titans", Avril is probably a fan like the rest of us and, you know, good for her in some way), it would be more productive (and fun!) to write an article about American/Japanese musical artist collaborations I'D love to see.

Of course, this whole thing is just a flight of fancy. But shall we just agree that Max Matsuura reads my blog, and might get an idea from this? And, hey, this is an open invitation for a blogosphere-wide dialog on Dream Collaborations. Because, of course, everyone has their preferences!

( My Top Five Pipe Dreams... )

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.

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 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 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... )

DAY TWO

Until Christmas Day, I'll be presenting a new entry into my Morning Musume PV Countdown - today we're on #9. On Christmas Day I will reveal #1!

( My Number Nine! )

What? Could it be? IT IS!

Another Top Ten List!!!

But this is one I've been wanting to do for some time: a ranking of Morning Musume PVs. While the proverbial horses are in their gates, I would like to say that this list took way too long to pare down and rank. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible to expand it to a Hello!Project Top Ten. Ayaya and Mini Moni alone would own so many spots for nostalgic merit.

Therefore, the mothership. Morning Musume. Simply, Morning Musume PVs make me happy. Even down to my least favorites. Their PVs have never caused a political upheaval, nor have they sparked intellectual debate on the level of AKB48. They are well-done at best, and flat-out boring at their worst. Regardless, though, everyone has their favorites, and you are about to see mine.

As my life is a ball of hectic with long stretches of weariness right now, I'm going to be presenting this Top Ten in a way that is hopefully a little interesting and different. It's a cop-out, it truly is. I MAKE NO APOLOGIES!


DAY ONE

Until Christmas Day, I'll be presenting a new entry into my Morning Musume PV Countdown every other day, starting today with #10. On Christmas Day I will reveal #1! Great cop-out, Vee.

( My Number Ten! )

I'M JUST NOT THAT INTO HER
The Case Against Takahashi Ai
is Almost Always Personal



A few days ago, I had occasion to revisit my Morning Musume members ranking from May of this year. Now, maybe the Florida heat had started to get to me early, or maybe I was still reeling from the lack of Yossie. But imagine my surprise when I found that, at the time, I had ranked Takahashi Ai as my second favorite Musume (for those keeping track at home, Reina was #1 - surprise surprise). I've read some extremely interesting things regarding Takitty recently. Her position as leader of Morning Musume has opened her up to a world of criticism and - dare I say it? - even controversy. Some greater bloggers than I have posited on Ai-chan; her past, her present, her future. Generally the whole "what are we going to do with you?" question revisited time and time again, with each new take proving no less intriguing than the last. I know I was not alone in May. I know some former fans of Takitty that realized what I did. With her limelight came a sudden, glaring realization: I'm just not that into her.

Now, let's look at the facts. Takahashi Ai has been a load-bearing vocalist of Morning Musume since 2001. She's consistently a good singer - at her best, she's even a great singer. She's even a good dancer. She's got a pretty face, but not a particularly memorable one. She's a conflicting flurry of Just-Slightly-Above-Average, and it's almost guaranteed to get old after a while. We've had her around for a long time, and I, for one, just haven't seen anything new from her. I've been delighted to watch other group members grow up during their tenure with the H!P flagship, and I've even found myself adoring girls I never thought I might have, all due to personality, candor, and idol growth. So why was Takahashi Ai still at #2 on my list as recently as May? Easy. She was still in the background, she was still a load-bearing vocalist, and I liked her for just being there, being one of the oldbies, "keepin' it real." Then she unexpectedly became leader, they decided to chop her hair off, and a switch suddenly flipped in my brain. I'd joked with the best of them about what happened when Takitty was selected to supplant Mari Yaguchi in Mini Moni. Some liked the music of Neo Moni. I certainly did, but it wasn't Mini Moni. It was like something strange and way too drastic had happened overnight, and blaming Takitty for this is perhaps wrong. But what was she to do? Neo Moni's songs focused on vocals, because what else could they focus on when 100% of their appeal had been the dynamic of those particular four girls together and the concept of those four girls producing cutesy, kiddie songs? Strange times. Harsh times for Takitty. But she smiled, and nodded, and kept on doing her thing. For every bullet that she's faced, Takahashi Ai has seemed to smile, and nod, and keep on doing her thing.

She has now grown to a point where I am seeing no potential, and am actually seeing a regression instead. She seems out of place amongst the other Musume. Not too mature, perhaps, but just too bland. Takahashi Ai, for me, has all the flavor and consistency of good old vanilla. It's nice! It's good! It's always there, as an option! But let's imagine that Ben & Jerry's suddenly decided to invest millions of dollars in a VANILLA ad campaign. It doesn't really make vanilla any more or less exciting. But it does make it annoying, at an ever-increasing rate, because you're baffled that Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia aren't getting any press, when they have approximately 2000% more flavor and appeal.

Takitty is not to blame for being thrust into the position of leader of Morning Musume. She's not to blame for having gone from load-bearing vocalist to "why don't we just release an all-Takahashi single and get it over with?" She's not even to blame for being boring! No, no, no. Please do not blame Takitty for these things. It's just her lot, and it's what she has to work with. I have to remember the girl I ranked #2 back in May. And I have to wonder - for what can we blame Takitty? There has to be some method to our collective madness. And then, it strikes me like lightning on those who would dare insult Yossie in my presence. I've got it.

There is just an attitude about her now that, while not particularly obvious, is nonetheless grating as all Hell. She's gone from being boring to looking bored. Perhaps this is all in my imagination, and I want to have a good, valid reason to explain why I all of a sudden wish I didn't even have to include her in my rankings. Why I sort of wish there was a "Point at Ai-chan angrily and shake your head in disappointment Event", similar to a Handshake Event. Why, when there's nothing else that I, in good conscience, can pin on her?

All leaders of Morning Musume who've served for any memorable length of time - Nakazawa-san, Kei-chan, Kaorin, Yossie - have carried a certain motherly quality, each in her own way. Even in the twilight of her leadership, Yossie was a great "mother" to the girls, a caring and trustworthy senpai. I, for one, wouldn't trust Takahashi Ai as far as I could throw her, and before you remark on how skinny she is and how far, theoretically, I could toss her, I want to assure you that I wouldn't be trying very hard. It would be more fun to toss Aika or Sayumin into a pile of pillows - I'd really put my weight into that, just for the giggles and shrieks. But to get back on track...

That's it, that's all. Nothing really more in-depth to say about it. I could ruminate for days more on the reasons, but sometimes you just have to own up, and that's what I'm doing here.

I'm just not that into her.

Sorry, Takitty. Sorry I've been so hard on you, and sorry that I'll definitely continue to be. But somehow, in the back of my mind, I know you deserve it. And I'll figure out why someday. I'll go with the attitude thing for now.

Contrary to what you may believe, I did not wait a month just to use that title. But I am rather proud of my turbo-punning skills, thanks.



There are certain perks to unemployment, as a blogger. More time to write, for one. And being home on the day a new Morning Musume PV premieres. That's something I haven't been around for in some time. So there will be no half-assed review for you guys, here - I'm pulling out all the screencappy goodness for this, a shining achievement for MoMusu.

( Read more... )

So, on the whole, one of the best Morning Musume videos in a while, not counting 'Kanashimi Twilight', which will forever hold a place in my personal faves. It sure as death and taxes beats several others in recent memory, and in its favor, the song is totally worthy.

With the overwhelming thought of ten years of Morning Musume finally sinking in, I thought a little more about the topic as I read blogs between spurts of work, watching movies, and being distracted by gay tennis musicals. The chorus seems to be pretty unanimous, with statistics to back it up - 'LOVE Machine' was the rainmaker, the single that made the juggernaut that is Hello!Project. But what do I, as a MoMusu fan, consider to be their Top Ten Most Important Singles? What other singles marked turning points, became iconic, defined generations?

( For Ten Years, here are Ten Singles. And a really long-winded introduction. )

Ganbatte, MoMusu, And thanks for all the memories you have made and will continue to make for us.

I could begin with the trodden-into-the-dirt "rumors of my death..." bit here, but I'll withhold. Though it is tempting. I've been AWOL. We've all been AWOL. I apologize on behalf of pink_wota. We still love you, and we still love J-Pop, and we're still immersing ourselves! Perhaps it is all that immersion which is stilting any progress (sure, Vee, make excuses...). Thanks to fellow P.W. gal_circle I have fallen head-over-heels for AAA, and I continue my steady foray into Angela Aki, whom I am slowly growing to idolize just as much as my other, more prominent, idol queens. I suppose there are just too many options for me, right now.

Loving Ayumi's new single and its coupling track. Can't wait for her Arena Tour DVD to be released.

I'll go ahead and admit it: I've found myself irrationally obsessed lately with boy idols. I mean, what is my problem? No, not JE, which is not to say anything disparaging about JE. I'm leaning toward D-Boys, myself, which, understandably, limits my musical fangirling to mini-albums, gay tennis musicals, and lots and lots of fanservicey picspams. I thought I'd spare you all of that.

So, as I sat at work today listening to 'Top!' and wondering what I could possibly do to perk up the ears of Pink Wota readers who have not yet deserted us, it hit me:

Vee, just do a Joan Rivers-esque dissection of MoMusu's latest promo photo!

Why thank you, brain! I think I'll do just that!

Disclaimer Up-Front: Take nothing I say too seriously, please. This is for FUN, and if you presume for even a moment to take the fun out of it, I'm just going to start disabling comments on this community, which I don't want to do.

MORNING MUSUME IN THE PINK!!!



( Let's get a better look and break it down, shall we??? )

Everyone's talking about it, so why can't we? Err, I mean, me. Hey, other Pink ヲタ, now would be a great time to post some articles, before I fill up this entire blog with rails about Gatas' legs and why I think Tsunku is now just sort of slapping us in the face.

I'm super-excited about the booklet that will be coming with the Single Collection, in which the absence of only three all-time MoMusu members will make me sore. But that's understandable. Getting the rest to comment, and, in that, tracking down a few of them, is quite a feat.

But this? This just sort of makes me grimace.



Speculations on the 'LOVE Machine Curse' are now prevalent and amusing, but man. I never thought I'd say this, but poor MoMusu. For wota like myself to put them in direct and sometimes brutal comparison to their predecessors is one thing, and I feel it is this redux cover alone which has made me finally go "no, I have to stop that".

This is not your Class of 99's (represent) Morning Musume. Almost nine years after the release of LOVE Machine, Morning Musume is something completely different, and while different, it is not a bad thing. But we shouldn't be made to look at this and go "man...I remember when..." Because NO. This group is about evolution and reinvention, if anything. Call it eating crow, but I've come to realize this. It's been difficult, over the last year. But I've gotten past my misgivings and I give the current lineup credit for being as they are, and for doing jobs that would make most girls their age crumble into heaps of self-consciousness.

Morning Musume had room to take risks and be ridiculous in the early days, and LOVE Machine was a perfect blend of the risky and the ridiculous. Look at that line-up, and look at how many success stories have come from it. Look at how well each girl inhabits her own space. They were singulars back then, and the members happened to come together to make beautiful music.

I look at the redux covers and my eye focuses on Koharu, and won't unfocus. She's the only one who looks comfortable, the only one who has that 'bring it' gleam in her eyes. Thanks in large part to the doing-away-with of Hello! Morning, I have little to no knowledge of the brand new members' personalities. I like the pandas well enough, and I loved Mitsui from the beginning. As performers. I don't feel like I know these girls as...well...idols. I look at the original LOVE Machine cover and I feel like I'm looking back on a high school photo - you knew these people, you knew who they were, where they wanted to go, and where they ended up.

If I haven't driven the point into the ground by now, I'll just say: it isn't fair to the new lineup. They deserve the chance to earn credit on their own terms and based on their own strengths. Their strengths will become evident as we progress, but sticking them in an iconic tableau like this is reminiscent of that perplexing 1999 movie retooling of 'Psycho'. The actors were great, the sets were great, the direction was...the same...but it was the exact same thing, and it just made you sit in the theater, and shake your head, and compare it to the original. Compare then and now. There is no comparison. Each should stand on its own, on its own two feet. Or, in this case, eighteen feet.

The 56th Kouhaku performance of LOVE Machine should have been enough. That remains, singularly, the most beloved and also probably the most depressing Morning Musume moment for me. Depressing because it forced you to compare and contrast, and in retrospect it forces you to think "we'll never see some of these girls perform together again". But beloved because the new members rose to the occasion. Eh, I think I've said too much already.

I'll leave it on this:

NOT PICTURED: Fukuda Asuka, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Kago Ai, Nozomi Tsuji, Asami Konno, Ogawa Makoto

A wonderful little idea in theory, but ultimately a fail.

I missed Reina's birthday and that makes me feel especially terrible, but I'm not gonna miss this one!

Especially since she's slowly becoming the "New MoMusu" member I have the most faith in:



Happy Birthday to Koharu Kumusi, who is 15 on the 15th!

You know, when Koharu was first announced, I was skeptical. I think I downright disliked her (and I was in the company of many others) for her first year 1/2 or so in H!P. Even though I cringed at the very idea of Koha-pink and Shige-pink, I still listened to their songs and shamefully bobbed my head in enjoyment of the cuteness.

And then this year began, and my appreciation for Koharu saw a meteoric rise. It started with 'Egao YES Nude', in which she showed an impossibly sudden change of "look", through 'Mitsuboshi', a surprisingly professional and competent solo debut, and it has taken me all the way to now, to 'Onna Ni Sachi Are', in which I believe she is the "secret weapon" of the new Morning Musume lineup.

I feel somewhat like a traitor for saying I've come to love her so much. But she's finally taking that "young Yuko Nakazawa" thought she's been teasing us with since 2006 and using it. She can change masks like a chameleon, and she's dangerously convincing in all of them. Dangerous, that is, to those of us who never thought we'd say "Yeah...Koharu's sort of my favorite Musume, now."

Happy Birthday, Miracle-chan. You really did turn out to be just that.

And I can't wait for Kira☆Pika's release.

It feels so strange to be saying "Who got FRIDAY'd this week?", but it seems to be the case. Yesterday Fujimoto Miki, the leggy, hyper-talented enigma of Hello!Project requested to resign from Morning Musume.

She has now made history as being the leader to serve the position for the shortest period of time (26 days). What this will mean for her contract with UFA and her future efforts as a solo musician and sub-leader of GAM, we can't be certain. The scandal behind all this commotion?

No, not both of them. Just Shouji Tomoharu, on the right. Not a bad-looking guy, and a comedian, to boot. Way to go, Mikitty.

What next? Niigaki Risa holds hands with someone? *GASP*