So what exactly has been going on in this crazy world while I’ve been gone? Well very little it would seem. Hello Pro Eggs Noto Arisa and Sawada Yuri are both going to graduate and well, that seems about the biggest news around that I can think of and I wouldn’t even count that as news. Heck, I’m even quite a big Noto fan but I’d hardly call this a ground breaking development.

So what can I possibly fill this entry with? Why, with the usual rubbish that most bloggers tend to write and yet somehow find oddly relaxing and for some reason so do readers (or at least in some cases); write a review. Since no real big releases have been made with the exception of the latest AKB stage albums which don’t seem to have surfaced yet, I decided I’d do a pointless little comparison review.

If you’ve read this blog before then you’ve probably guessed that it focuses on H!P and AKB goings on, hence the title of the blog…So I’ve decided it’s time for one of those delicious H!P vs AKB comparisons.

Now, it could take me days to write some sort of review on the girls themselves and I’m certainly not in the right frame of mind to even attempt that right now so for the moment I’m going to keep it simple. Here I’m going to review simply the opening track from each Morning Musume album and compare it with the opening tracks from AKB albums. Of course, this isn’t taking intros and such into account for each album as we’d have a lot of songs compared to “overture” which forgive me for saying so but, I think would be a bit pointless.

So that’s the opening track from each Momusu album from “First Time” up to “Platinum 9 Disc”, not counting the likes of the fan club album or “COVER YOU”. For AKB that will be A/K1, 2, 3, 4 and K2, 3, 4. To bring us up to nine (and for no other reason in particular) we’ll also go with H1 and H2.

Good Morning (First Time) vs PARTY ga Hajimaru yo (A1)

So this is where it all started, and I know that a lot of Momusu fans aren’t too fond on “First Time” or even “Second Morning” for that matter, thankfully though I’m not of that ilk. Although “Ai no Tane” brings me more nostalgia than “Good Morning” I still get a fair amount of it whenever I hear this song. This does work slightly against it though; if this song were to feature in the middle of one of the later albums for example I really don’t think I’d pay much attention to this song at all; the song could well have a minute shaved off it too as it is a bit unnecessarily long.

Whenever I see “PARTY ga Hajimaru yo” in the yearly Ax concerts I get slightly annoyed, as it makes me think that people are voting for it simply because it’s an early song, and one that personally I’m not too fond on. However, I’m a complete hypocrite as I’d say it was an outrage if Momusu ever did something similar and didn’t feature the likes of “Morning Coffee”. It does have a lot more going for it in terms of arrangement though than “Good Morning” does as it has the odd crunching guitar as well as the ridiculous robot voice at times, yet never really strays away from the happy pop tune that it is, which is a job well done since there are so many odd quirky traits added in to the song at parts.

Instinct told me that I’d be picking “Good Morning” here, but surprisingly (for me at least) “PARTY ga Hajimaru yo” edges it out by the narrowest of margins. I may not be its biggest fan, but speaking as subjectively as I can, it’s a better song and while both serve the same purpose; a catchy pop opener, I think that it manages it slightly better.

0-1

Night of Tokyo City (Morning Musume) vs Seishun Girls (K2)

I’d say that these first two albums were before Momusu really decided to show off just how crazy they can be, but the opening few seconds here show us the kind of thing that was in store for later years. After that it’s very subdued and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this on something like an S.E.S. album. The biggest plus this song has is the short piano solo, something not found in many songs relating to Momusu or AKB. Other than that though it’s a pretty run of the mill affair with a very repetitive beat that doesn’t really stray away to try anything different, my biggest criticism though would be the girls saying “Tokyo Shitty” a few times, I never have and never will appreciate Engrish in songs.

So why is it I hate the English in this song so much? It’s well pronounced and (to an extent) makes sense. I think it’s because it reminds me a great deal of the Cheeky Girls, not something I want from a song I want to genuinely enjoy. After the bizarre opening though we get a short lyrical part that sounds very similar to “Night of Tokyo City” which again, changes dramatically once it’s over. I’ve always struggled to really embrace this song and really enjoy it, in fact most of the time I skip it and the truth be told I hold the intro 100% responsible for this as well as the English lines that are repeated throughout the song. If it weren’t for this aspect of it I really would like this song quite a lot, pity really.

It had been so long since I’d actually listened to “Seishun Girls” fully that I forgot how much I liked it in parts, though the parts I disliked really did make this a hard choice. Like the last track though AKB’s song simply has more going on and it’s good to see it mixed up a little bit even if it is something as simple as the girls shouting “Seishun” a few times. AKB wins this round.

0-2

Love Machine 3rd – LOVE Paradise- vs Nageki no Figure (A2)

So we come to H!P’s behemoth, surely it can’t lose? Right…? Well as I hope I’ve shown already I’m not one for sentiment and so there’s no guaranteed victory here. “Love Machine” really stands out on this album for me as it really is one of very few with any sort of structure, not in terms of arrangement but in terms of overall flow for the album. Since it’s the first track we hear we’d expect to hear something very similar for the next hour or so, and we sort of get that at first before it delves into realms of weirdo, but that’s a review for another day. So “Love Machine” is a great pop song that has everything, to the moments of plain crazy to the catchy hook that of course, is a must. Most people will already know this song very well and so I don’t see much need to go into it any further than this.

I can flat out say that I prefer this song to “Love Machine” many times over, just the echo on the bells in the first few seconds grabs my attention better than “Love Machine” ever could. But there has to be a down side right? Well in this case I suppose it would have to be the fact that the chorus is sampled from Supertramp’s “Logical Song”. A harsh criticism to make since I’m sure that this is no secret (if this was Korea then maybe it would be a valid case) but it’s really all I can pick up on. The touch of electro it has throughout is superb and seems like a perfect nod to other 80’s tunes (yes I’m aware the Logical Song is from the late 70’s but you get the point) and hearing each girl deliver a line separately after singing in tandem works great too. The absence of a guitar solo even works well for AKB here, instead giving an electronic interlude that fills the bill wonderfully.

So the winner is…”Love Machine”. Yes that’s right, for all my praise of “Nageki no Figure” I can see that most narrowminded feels will see “Love Machine” as the better song because it’s catchy and got lots of pink in the video, and who am I to argue with them? It would be hard to deny Momusu the victory on this one with the sheer amount of influence it had on their future, something that “Nageki no Figure” certainly never would have done for AKB.

1-2

The Peace “4th – Ikismasshoi! –vs Tomo yo (K3)

Now this is one hell of an intro, I don’t care if you’re a Momusu fan or not, there’s little denying that that the Nazi-esque chants that kick off “The Peace” are a great and unexpected way to open up any pop album. The rest of the song isn’t too bad either, with nonsensical lyrics about school and pizza and a stupid video and back story to it to match. It’s pretty long winded though at five and half minutes, though the ending itself adds a good thirty seconds on to that. My biggest criticism here is Ishikawa’s speaking part, she may consider it her finest moment but I can’t agree with her on that one; it seems a bit pointless and even I get a bit of a cringe whenever I see it acted out at concerts. It’s worth noting that young girls shouting “Yeah” or other such meaningful things every five seconds in a song could grate on some people too.

I think it’s fair to say that I started to like this song a lot more after I saw that the girls performed it themselves, and in this crazy Idol world I’d say that’s a pretty big plus point to have. Although it’s never been an issue for me the fact that the girls are playing their own instruments is bound to appeal to more people too; though in truth for the kind of people that listen to music I highly doubt that this is something that they look for in their music. Team K’s vocals do work well here though as the girls get the chance to show off their vocal talents separately which means that we get to see just how varied the girls voices are, from Kasai’s squeal to Miyazawa’s “man voice”.

If this was left up to a panel of music “experts” I think they’d go with “Tomo yo” simply for the reason I’ve mentioned above, though they’d also clearly say how the song is very easy to play at that it got through on merit alone. However, these songs are designed to appeal for them and although it pains me personally to say it, Momusu have levelled things up on this one.

2-2

Do It! Now – No. 5 vs Tsukimisou – A3

Bog standard garbage if you ask me. Do It! Now has little to nothing going for it, whether it be performance wise, vocals, video etc. I don’t actually mind the song though it doesn’t stand out, though speaking about it critically I find it really hard to pull a positive out of it. The only thing I can say on a personal level is that I actually quite like the rap section in it, and that’s pretty damn impressive in itself. The Evil Morning version is far superior.

It seems a necessity for Idol groups to come along and do one of these songs using traditional instruments, so unfortunately I’m not swayed into thinking this is anything original. Despite the fact that the bass line is very simple the actual sound of it is very interesting indeed, it almost sounds like they decided to play it on something that hadn’t been sued for fifty years never mind even bothered being put in tune. Pretty much every idol band pulls one of these songs out of their asre at some point though so I’d consider this song a low point for AKB.

Wow, looks like this has been the worst round so far for me, I’m going to go with AKB here on the simple grounds that I genuinely think that people will agree with me on what I’ve had to say about “Do It! Now!”; “Tsukimisou” is no masterpiece but is far more tolerable. I actually think I’ve made myself hate “Do It! Now!” by writing this…

2-3

Namida ga Tomora nai Houkago – Ai no Dairokkan vs Saishuu Bell ga naru – K4

Ouch, an album full of amazing songs and the one that kicks it off is probably the most hated Momusu single there has ever been. I don’t share the resentment that a lot of people have for this song but I certainly don’t think it’s anything special either. Unfortunately that’s quite a kick in the teeth for Momusu here as this album really does have some greats on it and it’s unfortunate for this review they decided to stick this at the beginning. If only they’d known…It does actually seem to play through rather quickly though which for those who don’t like it is surely a blessing; though it probably feels like a lifetime to them. I’m actually going to give Tsunku credit for picking the likes of Konno and Michishige to take lead on this song as it’s a welcome change from the usual suspects, and I want to be all alternative and cool.

…and it has to compete with a song that was voted AKB’s fifth best song overall this year. Any hope for Momusu? To put it bluntly: “No”. AKB wins this one by three country miles as it is quite simply a better song. Sure, it’s dripping with cheese and is crammed full with more 80’s than Depeche Mode but that’s probably why people love it so much. If you slow it down using vlc it actually sounds like a Rammstein song too.

2-4

HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN! ~Nihon ha Donna Kanji Dekka~ – Rainbow 7 vs Tadaima Renaichuu – A4

Hooray for songs with longs titles eh? Like I said earlier, I will never appreciate Engrish but for some reason it is oddly tolerable in “How do you like Japan”. Rainbow has no sort of flow to it but again, oddly enough it’s what makes it so great, and so this is a great album opener as it is quite simply unlike anything Momusu has done before. The bass line is great, the guitars are great and everyone fulfils their vocal roles really well, really the only negative is the Engrish nonsense and even that can be quite funny at times. Niigaki;s habit of saying “I like Tokyo” at the end of this song in recent times though makes me want to throw up all over her.

This is the song that really kicked off my AKB fandom and so it holds a pretty special place in my heart. Those around me obviously hear the music I listen to and it seems that this is one of the few AKB songs that most of them seem to identify with as being a “cool” song. I get the feeling it’s the combination of the surprisingly overdriven guitars coupled with that weird noise that it goes over the top, I don’t even know how to describe it; put these with the chorus and catchy hook and you’ve got a sure fire winrar.

Despite my love affair with “Tadaima Renaichuu” I mentioned the word “cool” and in all honesty Momusu’s song is going to win every time there. Both are top notch songs and both sets of songwriters should give themselves a pat on the back as they’ve done rather well; Tsunku wins this one though.

3-4

Genki+ – Sexy 8 Beat vs – Dreamin’ Girls – H1

The only negative with “Genki+” is the length, if it had been a minute or so shorter it would not run the risk of being repetitive which it teeters on the verge of. Though there’s nothing remarkable about the vocals here the power surging through the synth here makes it a really great album opener. In truth there are times when the girls sing alone (most notable Kusumi) that the singing really drags the composition down. Fujimoto does stand out a little form the other though as the echo effect on her voice is pretty haunting and fits in really well. It’s great to see such a serious opening track from Momusu after so long too.

In terms of originality then “Dreamin’ Girls” wins without question, this isn’t the only thing I’m looking for her though. Vocals? Well AKB wins here too, as I’ve always said one of the things AKB will always have over H!P is that it holds far better singers as a whole. When those voices are all singing in harmony together then it’s never going to sound bad, and it sounds anything but that when the girl’s voices are layering over each other here.

As a stand-alone song I’d go with “Genki+” here, but as an album opener I have to go with “Dreamin’ Girls”. I sort of cheated a little I guess because I took “RUN RUN RUN” into account here as it is led into really well, whereas “Genki+” and “Aruiteru” simply don’t seem to flow into each other quite as well.

3-5

So AKB wins overall, but can Momusu earn a bit more pride?

SONGS – Platinum 9 Disc vs Romance, Irane – H2

Up until recently I hadn’t learned to appreciate Momusu’s more mature sound, but even before then I couldn’t help but like “SONGS”. Granted, the male vocals over the top are completely pointless and are on the verge of ruining the song at points but they just, just about get away with it. For some reason people seem to have fun complaining about the electro-voices that are used in this song but the only reason I can see for that is that they think it’s cool to do because everyone else is doing it. Who said it first? At least they may have a legitimate reason for doing so. Sure, a lot of other bands are doing it right now but that’s because electronic is in at the moment and so it sells, get used to it.

I’ve started to appreciate this song a lot more than I used to, but is it actually any good? Should it be kicking off an album? Well until H2 is actually released than I suppose it isn’t actually technically opening one but you know what I mean. It actually reminds me of a non-electronic version of “Genki+” and comes across as a very mature sounding song. For some reason I’ve come to associate Idols and mature with R&B recently when I really shouldn’t, as songs like this prove.

Although both are good songs I’d say that “SONGS” itself is much better at kicking things off, Ramnce , Irane could just as well be placed in the middle of an album and have very much the same effect as it is sat at the front.

4-5

So there we have it, AKB wins but it was a pretty close call. If I’d gone purely on my personal favourites then the score would have actually been 1-8. I’d list why and how I came to that conclusion but then that would make this entry twice as long and I am in no way prepared to do that.

Morning Musume

Morning Musume
Berryz Koubou
℃-ute
Mano Erina

AKB48

Fujie Reina and Chikano Rina
Itano Tomomi
Kasai Tomomi
Kojima Haruna
Maeda Atsuko
Miyazaki Miho
Miyazawa Sae
Ono Erena
Oshima Yuko
Sato Yukari
Watarirouka Hashiritai

—————————-

So as you can see AKB offers a lot more choice than its H!P counterparts. It would be nice to see some solo member calendars from H!P but I suppose they’re gradually learning to be a little bit more careful with where they invest their money recently.

Last year I made the switch over from H!P to AKB calendars and bought myself a Maimai one, and it wasn’t a decision I’ve lived to regret. She did face tough competition from Tomochin and Kasai but she won on the basis that she was wearing the least.
Back then my fandom wasn’t quite what it is now and so the decision only took me a week or so to make…but this time? This time it will be a whole different ball game and it’s going to be a lot tougher; early candidates are Itano, Kasai, Kojima, Ono and Oshima. Not a bad choice if I do say so myself but the most irritating thing is the lack of Takamina once again. I’ll be happy with whatever calendar I get, beggars can’t be choosers and all the rubbish, but I’ll still have the nagging feeling at the back of my mind that whoever sits in that hallowed place on my wall could have been just one step better.
I’m very tempted to get an Erepyon calendar as we had the epitome of sex last time out, now we get the epitome of cute; it does make me worry what some people will think of me seeing this child’s picture plastered all over my wall, it’s bad enough as it is right now. I suppose that I’ll have to wait until the previews come out; I’m guessing that most people’s minds will already be made up for them as they’ll simply go with their favourite member but unfortunately for some of us we don’t have that liberty.

Limited Edition Cover

I’ve been quite than fan of Buono!’s single releases, it’s been their album material that’s let me down in the past. This time around we get their new single “Take It Easy!” and the title certainly seems to fit in with the style and PV of the song, it’s certainly a lot more subdued and a lot calmer than their usual stuff.

I hadn’t really listened to Buono! in sometime and I went into this release thinking that I knew exactly what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. Like I said I’ve liked the majority of their singles in the past but it was nice to see them doing something a little different. The PV is by no means ground breaking stuff but it’s quite nice even though it just shows the girls doing…well not much; taking it easy I guess.

If this song had been sung by the likes of TOKYO or KAT-TUN I wouldn’t be surprised to see it a few hundred thousand copies but since it isn’t, I’m expecting pretty moderate sales for this, you know, just to stick my neck out…In all seriousness though it’s a decent song that will probably fare in a very similar way that many other of the Buono! singles have done in the past.

If you want to check it out for yourself well you can find the PV here at Hello! Online.

Release date is August 26th 2009.

Apparently Melon Kinenbi have five collaboration singles planned, with this being the second of those five, the first of which was with Beat Crusaders. I never actually bothered listening to the first but upon hearing this one I have to say that it isn’t all that bad, I readily admit though that I’m not familiar with the band that they’re collaborating with…

Hello-Online has some info, as well as the PV here. It’s just a live showing of the song too so it’s nothing special if you ask me though the face paint did remind me of Insane Clown Posse! Some of the cuts are really bad though, they clearly weren’t done in one take. That minor point aside though, like I said it’s not all that bad but I don’t see it becoming one of my most played songs either, unsure if I’ll bother grabbing it at this point. Those looking out for Ohtani’s newest hairstyle won’t be disappointed though it’s not quite as out there as some of her other ones have been.

It’s great to see that the girls have stuck true to their word and have carried on performing as a unit even if I never was a huge fan of them in the first place. One thing I will say though is this style does suit them and it’s a bit disappointing that there’s only the one track on the single as well as the instrumental. I’ll be keeping my eye out to see what happens with them next and if they’re really lucky I might even go and take a look at their last single too.

So this is the first Momusu concert I’ve really watched in quite some time, as recently I just haven’t felt that the girls have really shown off who they are or really put much effort into the concerts recently, probably through no fault of their own. Either way the last one I’d managed to stomach was Single Daizenshuu!! and for me that was the last straw, I can’t remember seeing a Momusu concert I was more disappointed with. I’d been looking forward to it for a long time which probably didn’t help but I honestly cannot think of a single redeeming quality that it had. Still, every cloud as they say, it put me off watching any live shows by the girls for a while but after a quick glance at youtube at Platinum 9 Disco I figured I might as well go the whole way and take on the entire show, and was I disappointed this time around…? Sure, it has its moments that make me cringe and of course there are the simple “why?” moments, but if there weren’t then it wouldn’t be Momusu and for me at least it would add to the overall experience of the whole thing.

I was really quite impressed with the intro, I mean I never thought I’d be saying this but thank **** that the Elder Club has graduated, it means that the other bands now actually get some kind of budget! It was evident in the newer PV’s and it certainly shows in this show too.

Usually I don’t pick up on things like the lighting but it really caught my attention here and was of a pretty damn high standard throughout, instantly my expectations were raised a few bars and…that’s where it started to go wrong. Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! BOMB had one of the most epic openings ever only to be completely destroyed by the opening song, but for some weird reason it worked for me. This time the intro leads on to the much more suitable SONGS and the spotlight on each girl before the song really kicks in is a pretty nice touch.

I was worried for a second when Takahashi kicked things off standing in the middle; I thought this was going to be “Takahashi & Tanaka feat. Koharu and Backup dancers” as it usually is, but thankfully it’s not the case. There isn’t actually too much I can say on this number as it was a solid performance (which makes it instantly better than most recent ones) and yet didn’t really have any stand out points that I really noticed. Although I did think one of the girls heads was going to snap off at some point towards the end as they all developed some kind of twitch for no apparent reason.

I hate to say it but I can’t even remember the name of the next song, I know it’s one of the recent singles but in truth I’ve never actually managed to listen to it all the way through because boredom sets in and unfortunately seeing it live was no different. Straight after that we get Mikan, which granted, it’s on the album so they kind of had to have it in there (but then so are Kanashimi Twilight and Onna ni Sachi Are aren’t so shut up) but I really wish they’d let this song just lay to rest. I was never overly fond of it and I really didn’t think it brought anything extra to the show.

The girls showed a fair bit of energy in this song which is good considering it’s meant to be all *ahem* “genki” but it didn’t really save it.

Is this another single? Sorry but by this point I’d really lost interest and this performance was starting to go down the same path its recent predecessors had also fell down.

So far I must seem pretty negative huh? I haven’t even given a brief bit about what I thought of each of the girls performances, with good reason though. I’m sure that if I liked the songs that had been played so far that I would have taken much more notice but even after watching a few times I still find myself skipping these numbers as they just do not appeal to me in the slightest. While writing this I have forced myself to sit through them but it’s pretty mind numbing and I really do find it hard to find anything constructive to say. That’s enough sounding soft though; hopefully now I can get on to write some proper material.

So next up was Jounetsu no Kiss wo Hitotsu, again not a song I am overly keen on but it’s the first chance we get to see of the girls not all together as one big unit. I think we’re treated pretty kindly here too in the eye candy department with Ai, Gaki and Reina taking part for this one.

At first I was a little wary, hats like that are never a good sign for me as it’s a sure fire sign of R&B tendencies, and in JPop it’s certainly not an aspect I’m a fan of. Hell, I knew what the song sounded like already but it’s just a natural defence mechanism I seem to have. My mind was quickly put on to other things when Gaki decided to sit down; crossing her legs over soon got my attention. I’m guessing the girls either have some kind of sick furniture fetish and they were all vying for its attention or that some old lover used to be there and they’re wondering where they’ve gone. Whichever it may be it’s actually a pretty good device used in the song and it’s a good moment when Reina kneels down and actually sings to the chair. It sounds ridiculous I know, but give it a chance.

I always said that Reina would make a great leader in time if only she ditches the cute and decides to really go with that mean streak that I know she has and doesn’t show often enough; on this occasion though she decides to go for the cute and innocent thing (again) only for Gaki to walk up and rub her arms all over the chair. It kind of took me by surprise as I never really had this smouldering dominatrix image of her that she seemed to be edging towards here. Still, no complaints, it just was a bit of a shock after Reina’s showing; so what was Ai going to offer our four legged friend?

For some reason Ai seemed like she’d done something naughty when she’d touched the chair, which didn’t seem to make much sense as she started flinging her arms around with the other two girls a few seconds later. Other than the fact that Ai didn’t seem to hold her notes as well as usual there was little else to complain about in the song, not bad considering I don’t even like it. If someone had told me that they played this song and had three of them prance around a chair for four minutes I probably would have been sick on them. I kind of got the feeling from this song that the three of them were all fighting for the same person’s attention, Reina and Gaki came across really well in doing this but Ai, well not so much. I don’t want to seem as if I’m picked on her in this song though as she didn’t do a lot wrong, it was mainly the choreography that was confusing as the other two girls got far more time in the centre of the stage.

Next up is Kataomoi no Owari ni, which for me is yet another album filler from P9D (Mr. Negative again, I know) but I was at least happy to see Eri get to do some solo stuff.

It actually looks like Eri trips up at some point, poor sod.

There was one thing about Eri that this concert really made me realise: I really don’t think she can hold it on her own doing solos. As much as I love the girl she simply didn’t have enough charisma in this song, which is a damn shame as I thought she was one of the strongest performers throughout the concert as a whole. She does make an epic member to have standing in the back with the odd line but unfortunately it makes me sad to say that that’s about all she can do at the moment. She seemed extremely happy to be up their singing alone though so I hope she continues to do solo stuff even if I don’t get any good out of it myself.

At this point Reina waffles on about something I couldn’t care less about so it’s straight on to the pandas!

I had high hopes for this as I loved their performance of Suki na Senpai on Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! BOMB, despite the fact that both of their vocal performances were horrible.

It didn’t quite reach those dizzy heights but still it was a performance of Fine Emotion that wasn’t bad, no patch on Reina and Miki singing this number though. The wardrobe choice puzzled me though; really what were they trying to go for here? They didn’t look cute, they didn’t look sexy, they didn’t look outright ridiculous…is there any other style that idols know how to cover? Grandma’s pyjamas with some flowers stuck on randomly for good measure seemed to be the style here. I can’t say that it ruined the song for me but come on, at least make an effort next time yeah? It seemed like they couldn’t even be bothered spending money on the pandas anymore.

Jun Jun’s “SUMMAAAAH” was slightly manic and incredibly scary though, it has to be said.

We get the emergence of Aika for this next part and over the last year or so she’s transformed herself from “that stuck up bitch I hate” to “that stuck up bitch I quite like”. Aika has complained about not fitting into Momusu in the past and personally I can’t blame the others if they’d given her a bit of a hard time when she joined as she seemed more than a little stuck up. I especially member getting annoyed at her for giving Jun Jun a hard time back on some Haro Moni@ episodes which made me angry for some reason, that instantly put her in the “dislike” category. She hasn’t changed too much since then but she seems to have adapted enough to make this into an actual charm of hers; how exactly she’s managed to do that I’m not sure but well done to the girl for changing my opinion on her by seemingly changing very little.

Performance wise, meh, Aika has never had a great voice and she just can’t wait to prove that here. If she had a pretty poo voice I wouldn’t care but the thing that bothers me is she seems to like to ruin lines that get given to her. “Harikitte Ikimasho!” springs to mind instantly, and now she seems to be doing it to her own songs?! For God’s sake girl!

Next up is Risa’s solo, but unfortunately for her it comes at a point just before this concert really picks up and she puts in a really average performance so I won’t dwell on it. I also thought-Scratch that. I KNOW that Risa sings slower songs far better than she does with up tempo ones. A song with any kind of beat to it is Risa’s worst enemy. I will confidently say that when she is singing ballads Risa
Is Momusu’s best singer by some way; this one is slightly too fast for her though, so forget it.

Next is the song that everybody just seems to love to hate “It’s You”. If ever there was someone who shouldn’t be allowed to sing alone, it’s Sayu; in fact for a long time for no reason in particular I had a personal vendetta against her, though that seems to have faded now.

Why in the hell Ai is a backup dancer here I don’t know as you can hear her voice pretty clearly in the track even though this is a supposed solo song. Deary me though, I can’t believe how well Sayu does here. Yes we all know that she can’t sing and yes throughout the whole dance she looks like she’d rather be in the bathroom but by god she actually does well here. I don’t even know what it is she does well, but whatever it is, she does it. I couldn’t help but smile when the track first started as I was thinking this would be a good song for a quick laugh but somehow I found myself genuinely enjoying it.

I actually don’t have anything against this song anyway, but at the same time I wasn’t surprised to hear that so many people hated it. I was probably a little silly in listening to other people by assuming this would be terrible but I can safely say that it is the strongest “solo” performance of the concert. I may actually even like Sayu that little bit more after this.

More waffling on now, I never understood or liked these MC’s between the girls as they were as staged as the day is long and as dull as dishwater.

We’re greeted by Reina on some starry backdrop next and some very mellow music playing in the background. Mellow? What? I didn’t know they knew how, it certainly perked my interest.

Ah, that’ll explain it; it was all a clever ploy to lead into love machine. Well looks like we’ll get another bog standard song here with Jun Jun looking crazy again.

Some people may not realise it when they listen to it but arrangement on Love Machine is ever so slightly different hear, ever so slightly more bass and it does have an edge of a blues sound to it, only slightly mind you.

Great, it leads straight into Renai Revolution which means we’re going to get another of these crappy medleys doesn’t it? I’d love to hear more of these medleys if only they chose some different son-Interlude? And then…what’s this? A newly arranged version of Sexy Boy, probably the most underrated Momusu single of all time?

Sorry but when Ai says “Fall in love” at this point that’s exactly what I did, suddenly this medley went from being very ordinary to extremely awesome! Can never get enough of this song in live performances anyway and so I went all gooey inside at hearing the great intro to it as well. I thought the joy was going to end there but no, next up is the Manpower and once again it’s done really well. To say this has been the highlight so far would be like saying “the Beatles sold a lot of records.”

Now, it had to happen, what’s the downside in this song? The Manpower showcases just how much Ai pwns Gaki in these kind of songs. Those growls of Ai’s are awesome and I think that she even put Yossie to shame back when she sang this song but unfortunately for Gaki she ends up getting left way behind here. The winners of this song are certainly Ai and Eri; like I said earlier Eri makes an epic girl to have in the background and she proves that here. Whereas Gaki and Reina simply don’t have a clue what’s going on in this song. As much as it pains me to say it about Reina she simply cannot handle this song as she her voice is simply not diverse enough, and then same goes for Gaki. Bless her, she tries those growls but it all comes off as a little embarrassing and you just wish they’d let her sing “Koe” on her own again next to redeem herself.

Intense.

Now, ladies and gentlemen let Lin Lin take to the stage as she serves up the biggest shock and greatest moment of this concert. Originally I had no idea what was going on, a panda i the centre of the stage? Quick, Ai get back in position before someone notices!

A song I don’t recognise being sung by a girl who I’ve always loved and yet simply does not get enough credit at any point ever, just what was going on here? I soon realised that epic win was happening right here as Lin Lin makes the stage her own as she puts on a vocal show that I never knew she was capable of. I can’t put into words how proud of her I was at this moment. Okay, so she’s not the greatest sing in the world but dammit she certainly isn’t half bad either. I’ve always loved Lin Lin’s voice for its unique quality rather than her ability to actually “sing” but I implore you to hunt this down on youtube at the very least and watch it if you haven’t already. Seeing a panda get so much attention almost brought tears to my eyes…almost.

Even Sayu seems to think Lin Lin pwned major ass.

Then it all just has to get shit on doesn’t it? ****ing Aozora ga Itsumade etc etc etc!!! They insist on singing it every ***ing concert and I hate this damn song! Wait a minute…I’m actually enjoying this…Maybe I’m still coming down from the Lin Lin high but this is the first and probably will be the only time I will ever enjoy this song. Good job girls!

It’s a step down after that, but I’m not too annoyed as it would have been hard to beat. We get Jun Jun and Koharu dressed in an obscene amount of pink before moving on to Reina doing her best Matsuura Aya impression. The most irritating thing about this is that it works so damn well. I love Reina but I would hate to see her move on and do songs like this after her time in Momusu, so why does she do it so well? I don’t even find it an enjoyable performance, most worrying indeed.

Not even Reina and her hand shaped like a hammer can do much to interest me here.

Another low key number is Ai’s solo song that goes exactly as you would expect: amazing performance with not an inch of personality. I really would like to see that girl try something different sometime soon rather than giving her things she finds easy all the time.

Take off is now is next on the agenda and once again we reach a song that does no interest me in the slightest. Yet just like these three girls managed with their wooden accomplice earlier they put in another awesome performance; and since have actually convinced me that I do like this song (Hell it’s even a 4 stars on my iTunes now).

Gaki’s most epic moment of the night, the hand to the ear and the wry smile lets you know who’s boss.

Ai is clearly better at the limbo than the other two girls.

So what greets us next?

Oh dear…

At least she’s happy…

Usually this is the kind of messed up stuff I’ve come to love from stupid Idol groups in the past but on this night it simply does not fit. Momusu are portraying a far more mature image as of late and this concert will have done no harm to that, not until now anyway. Before I’d have said that I wasn’t happy with the direction they were going but then I’ve said that after their past three albums and I’m still here so I can’t moan too much. Plus, this concert has certainly made me rethink as some of the mature sounding songs have really stole the show. If this had been earlier in the set then they may have got away with it, not the case though I’m afraid. It does make me realise just how toned down Koharu has been tonight though…strange. I’m sure she’ll find one thing ridiculous that only she can pull off to do before the end of the night.

Just what we needed, a speedy recovery into How do you like Japan makes us forget whatever it was we just saw and bring us back to a happier place. Leopard print costumes? Awesome but WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS ON THEIR HEAD?!

Well I suppose they do have to stay a little stupid at all times don’t they? The addition of the animal ears do seem unnecessary to me though, though I suppose it’s things like that that separate them from a lot of other groups out there that probably would have just gone for the leopard print.

Once again Ai pwns the song and somehow Reina makes a miracle recovery from Manpower and along with Eri gets the more high-pitched crew a good taste of the spoils as well. Gaki has much the same problem as before though, in Ai’s shadow and not really able to get out of it, no matter how much she seems to be enjoying herself.

Although Resonant Blue is another song that I’d like to so leave Momusu set lists sooner rather than later it is quickly helped out my the two powerhouses that are Love & Peace! Hero ga Yattekita and Sono Bamen de Bibiccha Ikenai Jan! Both of which are awesome songs and really come across well when performed live. And oh look, Koharu didn’t disappoint in the stupid stakes.

After the girls talk one last time we come to the greatest song in recent Momusu history: Ame no Furanai etc etc. I loved this song the instant I heard it, not least because the pandas get a chance to shine. They use that chance to full effect here but much like the rest of the show has been up to this point Lin Lin has the rdge of Jun Jun by delivering her lines in amazing fashion

And that about raps it up, so what have we learnt today children? We’ve learnt that Lin Lin is more awesome than we thought before, and that’s not easy. We learnt that Ai needs to do something a little more challenging in future, though what exactly is a challenege for that girl I’m not quite sure. Perhaps most importantly though is that Koharu is capable of not grinning like a moron at all times and can actually control herself if she really wants to.

I’ll certainly be giving the next concert a watch too.

Dare I say it?

I even sort of look forward to it.

Here’s an audio-rip preview preview thanks to jam over at Stage48. If you can’t be bothered downloading it there’s a shorter clip of the song on youtube here.

Firstly I’m kind of disappointed that the song follows very much the same trend as all of the singles form King Records have so far; they all sound very “typical” of an idol gorup to me, which personally isn’t really a good thing. I prefer it when idol groups do try something a little different, but then I’m also glad to see AKB doing well and so at the same time I’m quite glad they’re sticking with this treied and tested formula. After all, Kanashimi Twilight did little to improve any Momusu sales figures but the last couple of singles from AKB have really done well, so they obviously have a better idea of what people want than I do.
In truth I haven’t downloaded the extended rip myself as I was quite happy to just stick with the youtube preview as nothing about the song has really grabbed me as of yet, though I felt much the same way about 10nen Zakura and Namida Surprise when thye were first released and they’ve both grown on me a fair bit.

In truth though I had kind of expected this and so was willing to accept and sacrifice the fact that I may not adore the song on first hearing it if it meant the girls could boost their sales figures a little more. This led me to concentrate a little more on the B-Side “Tobenai Ageha Chou”, surely they could afford to be a little more creative with this song…right?

Well I certainly prefer it to the A-Side on first impressions but I think this is going to be one that will have to have the PV along with it to really enhance it as it doesn’t seem overly amazing at the moment; no complaints, just not got that “wow” factor i was hoping for.

The cover is looking rather delicious though; and the fact that everyone is leaning towards Acchan does make me laugh in a kind of “do they even realise they’re doing it?” kind of way.

Oh, since this was the single that had the whole voting process, and just in case you’re ven further behind than me, if you want to know how each girl that made it into the top 30 did well it’s your lucky day:

30 – Matsubara Natsumi
29 – Matsui Rena
28 – Katayama Haruka
27 – Sashihara Rino
26 – Hirajima Natsumi
25 – Masuda Yuka
24 – Ohori Megumi
23 – Takajo Aki
22 – Yonezawa Rumi
———————————
21 – Kuramochi Asuka
20 – Oota Aika
19 – Matsui Jurina
18 – Miyazaki Miho
17 – Urano Kazumi
16 – Minegishi Minami
15 – Sato Yukari
14 – Miyazawa Sae
13 – Kitahara Rie

12 – Akimoto Sayaka
11 – Ono Erena
10 – Kasai Tomomi
9 – Kashiwagi Yuki
8 – Sato Amina
7 – Itano Tomomi
6 – Kojima Haruna
5 – Takahashi Minami
4 – Watanabe Mayu
3 – Shinoda Mariko
2 – Oshima Yuko
1 – Maeda Atsuko

It warms my heart to no end to see that Amina has made it so high up the list. <3

…and of course the same is obviously to be said to see Takamina’s name in there, even if it is too low down for my liking.

Last but not least, happy bithday to Masuda Yuka who is 18 years young today.

This seems to have created quite a commotion around the H!P world from looking at other blogs and various forums, which I have to say has surprised me a little; surprised and annoyed.

Erika has always been my favourite member in C-ute, as a matter of fact she’s really the only member I truly cared about so when Kanna left it really left no effect on me at all but this is a different matter entirely. Though C-ute has been no means my favourite H!P group over the years I can’t help but feel that any interest I did have in them has now died, and it does annoy me to see other people upset by it. Why? Because these are the same people that give all of their fandom to the other group members and are happy to see Erika rotting at the back as she was always forced to do.

Don’t get me wrong, we ll have our favourites, but it does seem a tad silly for people suddenly to be saying how much they will miss her when in fact they probably wouldn’t have noticed if Tsunku had replaced her as a backup dancer for Airi and Maimi. I suppose people are a bit shocked over the departure of two girls in such a short space of time though and I guess everyone has the right to voice their opinion, even if it isn’t really what they’re thinking. I do get the feeling that sometimes open their moves just to say something and fit in with the crowd rather than just keep quiet and say nothing productive like they probably should be doing.

Wow, that last part sounded very bitter didn’t it?

Well, regardless of what people think I have to say that I see this as a blessing in disguise as many others seem to be pointing out. After all, Erika was never popular (as much as it pains me) and so it can only be up from here for her can’t it? Apparantly she wants to go into a modelling career and I certainly have no qualms with her doing that; I just hope that she does manage to finally put herself into some sort of spotlight and is successful in whatever she does end up doing.

The original post on the Hello! Project website can be found here.

Hello-Online, has a full translation here.