14 posts tagged “c-ute”

Hello!

I won't be doing a review of Morning Musume's new PV, because it's just so awesome, so I'll post it here, and from my Buono! PV review, I hope you can know what I think about it.

 

 

1. Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?- This song just illustrated why the new H!P is so different from the old H!P. The newer girls sounded okay, but the second that the Elder Club started singing, it was appearent how much better singer singers they are. Their tone and their showmanship is amazing! The little dance that the eggs started off with was kinda cool, but essentially pointless. The camera work in this concert is just amazing! I love how they actually made an effort to get as many of the girls in close-up shots as possible, and the panning shots looked really good with how the girls were set up. Junlin sound amazing as usual, and they've only improved!

2. ManoPiano- Mano just frankly sucks. I'm sorry, but this song is really incredibally terrible and her vocal tone is really nasally and young. Is she really 17? 'Cause she sounds like she's 12. At most. Also, there are many parts where she seems to go quite flat. Why did they give her a solo carrer again?

3. Minna No Tamago- I didn't fully appreciate how short these girl were until seeing them standing on that stage. Yuuka is quite obviously the only one singing live. She manages to pull it off quite well, but you can tell even without looking that her microphone is on from the way that her voice sounds compared to the others. This was really cute, and because of the cutesy song, they have complete justification for sounding so young, but the 3 in the new unit have to sound much better to pull off any other song.

4. Come Together- The wotas seem really off beat in this song with their "OI's" for some reason. Maybe it's just me. When I saw the dance for this live, it's extremely obvious that it's way too easy for any of the girls. And while Misa is right (I admit defeat, Misa) that the majority of H!P aren't good dancers, this dance is still a piece of cake for them. Give them dances that challenge them, and they'll get better. The performance isn't really spectacular either. The wotas even seem to lose interest by the end. They sound about half as loud at the end as they did from the beginning.

5. Kenchana ~Daijoubu~- While I will admit she's talented in singing, and that she has a jazzy voice, her music isn't good for her voice, and the wotas can't get into it. It's too boring. It's too much of a difference from the loud dance music of the rest of H!P. And while the other elders sing soft songs, at least they come with some sort of beat.

6. Uwaki na Honey Pie- Now, that's better. I like how since they needed girls to harmonize behind her, they put in eggs, but still gave her all of the important stuff. The eggs match her well on stage for this situation. They really know how to back someone up! I can also appreciate the cowboy hat and boots, because weather it was intentional or not, they fit the whole country musume thing.

7. Kuyashi Namida Porori- Look at those wotas go! I really worship the light-stick wota who made light-sticks into the shape of her name! She looks really happy up there, and she looks happy to be retiring from idol-dom. It's long past time for her. I love her in H!P, and I just think she's a great entertainer, but I think she'll be much happier out of the idol bussiness. Even if she's just a TV personality, she won't be tied down by some of the harsher rules of it. She sings this song like the pro she is, and I love the way that she melts some of the notes at the end of the phrase. I highly doubt that if anyone else was doing this song, that I'd like it. It's also nice how she takes the ear things out at the end so she can hear the fans, not herself. That's a true idol.

8. Hapi Hapi Sunday- While Koharu was okay, as usual, she was totally outshined by those two little girls. They may not be quite good dancers or singers yet, they totally make up for it in their own way of just being energetic and cute! They seem so happy to be up there, that they totally outshine Koha who seems to just be doing her job. While these two aren't quite ready to do anything, I think they'll be very good if they take a few more years to devote to training with their new group, and then when all of those girls are 10 or so, and go through non-harsh but weekly or so training for 3 or 4 years, they're group could be very nice.

9. This Is Unmei- KICKS ASS! Not only is MK in the best shape ever, they also manage to get the wotas off their feet and screaming their hearts out for the first time in this concert. From the second they come out, I love how they really work the crowd as a whole, and some of the wotas wearing C-ute, Berryz, and Momusu shirts are just so into this throughout. This is why these girls deserved so much more than they've gotten, sales and music-wise. I also really like how the choreographer used the stage to have them yelling and pointing accross at eachother. It really looked very effective. The girls really looked like they were about to get into a major idol-argument. If there's one group that the H!P eggs and kids need to learn from, it's this one. I also like how when they said "jigoku" (hell) the whole place went black except for the bright red part of the stage they were standing on.

10. Forever Love- Even though I recognise that Berryz deserves more attention because they've been around longer, C-ute continually owns them. The lighting and their expressions work so well during this, but they still didn't steal the show. I think with time, they'll become a great group, but for now, they're doing just amazing!

11. Dakishimete x2- With this dance, it seems that Berryz is attempting to beat C-ute at their own game, and well, quite frankly it doesn't really work. While the singing is just fine, except for a certain Risako's, they don't put out the performance factor quite as well as C-ute does. They don't seem to be as confident, and they just don't own the stage like C-ute. They still do seem to be improving in both areas, though, so maybe having C-ute as a sort of rival is pushing them to do better.

12. Tanpopo- YAYS! More elders again! During this concert, I feel that I'm enjoying the elders 100x more than the younger girls. Maybe it's the vocal quality, or maybe it's their showmanship. First generation Tanpopo owns this. Their vocal quality is so nice. The second that the other 4 stepped on stage, you could feel that this song just wouldn't sound as good. And... as a side note, why is Risa holding her stomach like Kaorin did when she was pregnant? O.o

13. Baby ~KOI NI KNOCKOUT!~- Maybe it's the song, but the wotas are really pumped up for this one! The dance looks fantastic, and they all sound fantastic! I'm surprised that Kei can still dance like that! Yossie looks feirce in all of her close-ups. I really love this trio as pucchi moni. The energy just doesn't stop! Also, their voices fit this kind of music. Then again, Kei's voice fits all kinds of music. Speaking of Kei, her high note at the end was just great! And her face at the end... she must've been possesed by Yossie or something!

14. Chocolate Damashii- Ayaya sounds great here, as she always does and always will. It's kinda freaking me out how her earpiece is shiny. Are they trying to make it obvious or something? I hear no wotas chanting here, so it's either that the song is way too new, that the wotas are still in the process of finding a cheer, or she's just failing at working the wotas into a frenzy like she used to.

15. YEAH! Meccha Holiday- Does she really have a broken toe? The wotas here still aren't quite as worked up as if this had been 6 years ago, but they still are getting into it by this point. It's really funny that you can see some wotas doing the dance at points. She seems kinda boring at the beginning, but when the wotas start going nuts, you can hear her getting happier and more into it herself. She's very good at the dance now compared to when she did this when the single was released.

16. Egao ni Namida- I didn't really like this particular song. It just didn't really work for me. The dance and the way that it was sung just didn't seem good, instead they seemed kinda awkward at points. Anyways, why does she get 3 solo songs? -.-

17. Hare Ame Nochi Suki- This was a really good performance. While I still like the way that Aibon sings her parts, so I was sad that she wasn't there, it still was nice. By the way, why are they singing this song again? At this same concert two years ago they did exactly the same thing with this song: same people, same costumes, same song. They could've at least done Sakuragumi's other song, which they seem to like to forget exists at every recent oppourtunity to perform it. Also, the line changing with Aibon out would've been easier: you could've just stuck Nacchi into singing her part.

18. Ai No Sono ~Touch My Heart~- While I heavily perfer Otomegumi's 2nd single to this one, I still like this performance, but again, instead of a repeat of 2 years ago, could we have had their other single at least? Is it too much to ask? I liked the smooth transition between the groups, and the girls just started to pump the crowd up from the beginning. Nono's singing has improved slightly, but her dancing seems a little awkward, probably due to her long time off stage. (I wonder if her husband was there to see this?) They also manage to work the crowd quite well, but MK still owns everyone in that aspect.

19. Co.No.Mi.Chi.- Someone's slightly flat on the high note in the beginning. Otherwise, this is typical, cool Buono!. I love how quickly they move around the stage. Momoko sounds like she has a bit of a stuffy nose here, but she really seems to be doing her best to ignore it. She's probably the one who was flat. Still, they seemed to do very well here!

20. Debut! Lian Ai Deng Chang- I don't think that they were ready to debut this early, but I guess they did. They still seem quite awkward on stage, and their singing isn't the best. The dance really doesn't look very good either. With more practice, they might improve, but for now, they look like some kids at a school talent show.

21. Hitoshirezu Mune wo Kanaderu no Aki- This song is such a nice one. I love their singing on it. This is such a nice song for women about their age to sing. It's not extremely mature, but it's very slow and sophistocated piece. This song has such a nice melody, and the background music is made more to compliment it, not to match it. The chords at the end are so beautiful I could cry!

22. Magic of Love- These two look so great on stage together. Their personalities are good matches for eachother. This song fits so well with their voices. I think that both of them singing this song was meant to be. I love how they not only look like they love what they're doing, but how they also seem to be so into the song. They may be on the older end for H!P, but they're cetainly not on the end that seem disconnected to their music.

23. Screen- This was very similar to the version of this performed at the elders club concert, so just refer to that one.

24. Suki Na Sempai- This is the second time that they've sung this song and that they've said it's their last time performing together. With how they're always together, and their great chemistry on stage, somehow I doubt it. This song sounds so much better than it did 7 years ago when they first sung it together. They seem so happy to be together on stage and singing. This is the generation that seems to be the one most likely to reunite later.

25. Romantic Ukare Mode- Miki's improved so much since she first joined H!P, that I would usually have a problem with her singing this. Of course, She sounds great as usual, but she doesn't really seem to be as happy singing cute songs, for which the reason is quite obvious: she's older and probably knew that she would soon be a married woman.

26. Kachoiize Japan- While Biyuuden still sucks at singing, they seem to have gotten better here. I liked the starting set up for this. And while they didn't take the usual Biyuuden wears skimpy stuff route, they chose the show off their boobs one, which is equally effective. They make a great group, to the point where it just seems like they became inactive, not broke-up. I love the way that while the Kids are there, they're there to compliment, not take over.

27. Naichau Kamo- I don't really even want to comment on this since this was also a repeat and the members aren't graduating.

28. Resonant Blue- Resonant Blue sounds good when it's just Morning Musume. While adding other girls in doesn't change the sound, it's kind of really pointless on a song with line distribution like this one. This is a good performance, and I think by now the girls can do this in their sleep, and it looks like they're doing just that. It seems so rehearsed, and not in a good way. This song has to seem spontaneous and kind of like a fit, similar to Shabondama.

29. Namida no Iro- These costumes look just fabulous on stage. Also, Airi's hair appears to be channeling Tracy Turnblad's here. It's even puffier than earlier! The C-ute girls dance just wonderfully during the dance break and generally just own. They seem to be way more into this than Morning Musume, but I can see how considering that they are a lot younger than Morning Musume, and that this is the first song in a while.

30. MADAYADE- Berryz really shouldn't have sung this one instead of something else. I don't know why, but Madayade just doesn't look good the way that they performed it, and for some reason, they just don't seem on top of their game. I can't say that I don't like Berryz, but they were definately given the wrong songs and the wrong expectations for this show.

31. Morning Coffee- I love how the first generation is singing their exclusive 1st generation song. Their voices make such beautiful music in the harmonizing on this song. I love how they sing it. The harmonizing can't be done nearly as well by anyone except the first generation. They also seem like a very close generation. I think that they seem to enchant when they're singing, whereas the other H!P members pump them up. There's something to be said for good old performing, not just acting hyper on a stage.

32. Koko ni Iruzee- This is the other side of Morning Musume: Hyper and fun. The way that they all burst onto stage like that is surprising, and then they go straight into the song. I've always loved the lives of this song because of the enthusiasm that goes into it. While some Morning Musume songs are insanely hyper like this one, this one really seems to be the most fun of them to perform. They just look like they're having fun doing such a crazy dance! Also, when Makoto says "I'm here!", you can really tell how good she's gotten at english. She seems to be a pro at that line. It's also kinda funny how you can see Ai really quickly kick her leg over Makoto's head while she's singing! I can kick my leg over someone's head who's taller than me, but she seems to do it so effortlessly and fast that it's hard to notice!

33. Love Machine- JunLin own the "Oo's" at the beginning: they're the only two I've seen sing them where you can hear their voice over the back-up. Iida does her priceless "Deiyaa" face, and all of Morning Musume performs together one last time before their next anniversary rolls around. I love how they don't seem bored with this song, even after preforming it close to 500 times!

34. Michi Naru Mirai He- I skipped over this for no appearent reason.

MC: Graduation- This really made me cry! It was so emotional. I started bawling when Yuko and Ai traded letters! I think that it was just so emotional!

35. ALL FOR ONE & ONE FOR ALL- This is such a perfect ending, I can't describe it! I think that this song is such a great way to see how H!P has changed over the years. I love how they're singing the "H!P Anthem" one last time as it was meant to be sung, in the order that H!P was built up, before the moment has to be over.

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Your Bawling Blogger.

-Midori

Hello!

Wut? H!P revolution? And to think I just had a 1-hour lecture about the Russian Revolution today.

1. Resonant Blue - all- YES!!! My wish came true! I really liked how the other girls really were back-up, but they complemented the song nicely with the dance during the dance break. The leads sound great as usual.
2. LALALA Shiawase no Uta - all except Shugo Chara Egg- This is always 100x more fun the more people that do it, so it was fun, but really, I'm sick of this song already. Why did they mention that SCE wasn't joining in? I didn't notice the eggs at all in either of these songs...
3. Minna no Tamago - Shugo Chara Egg- NOOOOOOO! They all sound like 2-year-olds! NEXT!!!
4. Happy☆Happy Sunday - What? I listened to this and Koharu was live and my ears didn't bleed? Wo0T! This shows that if she tries to sing like the 16-year-old she is, and not the 3-year-old she wants to be, she may have something there, no matter how small.
5. Tan Tan Taan! - Milky Way- YAY MILKY WAY!!! Too bad they're not going to be around much longer. Again, the other two totally outshine Koha.
6. FOREVER LOVE - ºC-ute- This. Was. Intense. My god does C-ute need to get more exposure.

7. Meguru Koi no Kisetsu - ºC-ute, Tanaka Reina and Mitsui Aika- Okay, I'm sorry, but I really don't like this combo. It sucked.
8. MADAYADE - Berryz koubou- They sounded feirce, but I couldn't stand to look at them, so it really wasn't a stand-out perfromance for me.
9. Koi no Jubaku - This was actually a nice combo, but I still think that it could've been better.
10. Lalala Sososo - Mano Erina- I skipped it, and on the one line I did hear, she sounded as young as Koha usually does, which isn't good. At all.
11. Rottara Rottara - Buono!- BUONO ROX MY MULTI-COLORED TOE SOCKS!!!
12. Naichau Kamo - Morning Musume- I like this live, and they all sounded amazing, so I don't really have any comments.
13. Mikan - Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi, Kusumi Koharu, Mitsui Aika, Junjun, Linlin, Yajima Maimi, Sugaya Risako- I really didn't care about this performance. It didn't stand out, Risako somehow managed to get so many lines that so many other girls could've sung so much better, etc.
14. Jingisukan - All- Umm... this wasn't fun or exciting for me, and this song has never really been my favorite, so...
15. Shiroi TOKYO - Nigaki Risa, Yajima Maimi, Tokunaga Chinami, Nakajima Saki, Hagiwara Mai, Mano Erina- This was actually much better than I thought it would be. Besides the fact that it had a really nasally and as young as the original group.

16. Natsu Doki Lip Stick - Yajima Maimi, Kikkawa Yuu, Maeda Yuuka, Fukada Kanon, Sekine Azusa, Ogawa Saki- This was all Maimi, no eggs. Maimi just owns this song. I'm sorry eggs, but Maimi owns everyone in every way everytime she sings this.
17. Baka Ni Shinaide - Shimizu Saki, Natsuyaki Miyabi, Kumai Yurina, Sugaya Risako- This was feirce. I didn't like the dance for the music, but it was actually fun to watch. A good follow up song to Natsu Doki Lip Stick.
18. Mr.Moonlight Ai no Big band - Takahashi Ai, Umeda Erika, Tokunaga Chinami, Nakajima Saki, Okai Chisato, Arihara Kanna, Saho Akari, Sekine Azusa- There's only one thing to say: Ai-chan is pimpn'.
19. Soku Dakishimede - ℃-ute- This has vastly improved since C-ute first sang it. Again, these girls need a lot more credit than they get.

20. Gyagu 100kai bun Aishite Kudasai - Berryz Koubou- The sad part about this, is while I like how it was sung, it really pisses me off that they don't sound at all different or improved in any way, and this shows just that.
21. Darling I LOVE YOU - Berryz Koubou, ・℃-ute- The one at the battle concert was better. Hands down.
22. Take off is now! - Takahashi Ai, Nigaki Risa, Tanaka Reina- I LOVE THIS SONG LIVE! It's so much fiercer live and it's just so much better all around live. It's always exciting to watch, and that dance is just kickass at the beginning and end.
23. Renai Revolution 21 - Morning Musume- I just skipped this I was so sick of it.
24. Guru Guru JUMP - All- I LOVE JUNJUN AND LINLIN!!! THEY OWN MY WOTA'D OUT SOUL!!! They just own this! They're really moving up in the world, with solos at a major concert! YAY!!!
25. Ame no Furanai Hoshi dewa Aisenai darou - All- The JunLin bits sound great, but if all the really good singers got solos, why did Risako get one instead of say, Miyabi, Momoko, Captian, or some other Berryz girl? (Not meant to offend Risako fans, but she sucks compared to Miyabi and Momoko in singing. I must say though that she has a great stage presence.)
26. Go Girl Koi no victory - All- I skipped this. Why do I hate this song? I don't know, but I do.

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Overall: 8/10

-Midori

Hello!

I saw the music video for Koda Kumi's "Showgirl," which I thought was great, and I was hit with the inspiration I needed to post.:

Why is this PV so good, but Hello!Project PVs so bad?

To answer this, I'll go into the plots/concepts of a few recent H!P PVs, one from Ayu, and "Showgirl" from Koda Kumi.

Nai Chau Kamo-

This PV is a danceshot with the girls looking all sad and dejected in the rain. That's about it.

Co.No.Mi.Chi-

This PV is a danceshot with Buono walking around infront of cheap CG-ed backgrounds. There's also minimal close-up shots added in here and there.

 

Madayade-

A danceshot and the Berryz working in an office along with danceshot closeups.

 

FOREVER LOVE-

C-ute watching their own danceshot with a few close-ups thrown in.

 

Marionette-

Ayumi is asleep in a creepy old room, all alone. She dreams of being held on a delapidated carosel, and being manipulated like a marionette. In the end, she wakes up and goes over to a mini, delapidated carosel like the one that she and a few other puppets were on, and sees that no one is there. As a bonus, at the concerts, they showed extra footage from it where the real Ayu actually was being manipulated like a Marionette by the men who were trapped on the carosel with her.

 

Showgirl-

Koda is dumped by her boyfriend, and decides to get back at him by becoming famous. She goes into a theatre and sees a dance troop. When she finds a poster that says that the group is holding auditions, Koda tries out and gets in. In fact, the judges like her so much that she's placed front and center in the group. After a great 1st performance, she talks to the dazzled fans and media. Her old boyfriend comes up to her, trying to woo her, but she promptly turns him down. It also shows her and the other dancers, who are very jealous of her, backstage after the show, where she shows them an expensive necklace she got from an admirer.

 

So, do we see the difference now?

Hello!Project PV's are just... bland. They have no story, no engaging theme, and not a hint of symbolism. I mean, while you could interperet the fact that Ayu is manipulated like a Marionette to mean that maybe she feels like some people are manipulating her in her real life, or that she feels too restricted by her carrer. Showgirl implies that Kumi has fun being a star and that she can take is all in stride.

What does NaiChau Kamo mean, the girls sometimes get sad? Do the sparkles placed by the girls in the Madayade PV mean that they're pretty?

And why do we care about that? While we may not know the deeper meanings that Ayumi's PV implies, I'm sure that we all knew that idols get sad and that they're pretty or cute.

The plot also makes a huge difference in this. While there doesn't need to be symbolism in a PV to make it good, there should at least be a plot. As I've written above, Kumi's PV has a story to it, and it's fun to watch and see what happens. It's kind of like a short little movie to watch while you're listening to the song. The stories can be engaging, sad, or funny. They aren't just "girls watching themselves dance" or "girls walking through bad representations of real places," they have a good story to them that you actually have to watch the PV to get.

While the girls' cuteness may draw wotas to them, and the pop music may draw the little girls straight that way, how are you supposed to draw teenage girls, who are some of the best patrons in most music markets, with a PV that doesn't interest them. If you had never heard of either H!P or Avex trax, and you had to watch both music videos, would you rather pay attention to the one that draws you in with a plot, or the one that just has cute girls walking around?

Furthermore, some may argue that you'd need a budget to do PVs with stories, but, there are ways you could turn these around with minimal extra money:

NaiChau Kamo- Show a guy, whose face you don't even need to show, dumping one of the girls, then spend time on having that girl talk and/or bitch to her friends (aka the rest of Morning Musume) about how stupid that guy was and have the other girls try to cheer her up one-by-one.

-Downsides: Bitching fans because one of the girls would get substantially more screentime than the rest. And possible angry extreme-wotas who are offended by even the thought of their favorite girl having a bf.

-Extra things needed: A random guy (hell, you could even just pull one off of the streets and pay him minimum wage if you don't show his face), a few chairs or couches and maybe a rug(which you could borrow), some games for the girls to play(the games you could probably borrow too), and a plain and simple room to put the stuff in. (which could probably just be a simple 2-white walls set-up.

Co.No.Mi.Chi- This has some of a plot already, but you could have the girls planning where to go and then finding themselves lost and trying to find their way back. (Yes that's a lame plot, but there are several movies like this, so why can't it work?)

-Downsides: It might be a little more expensive, but considering how well it's selling, that shouldn't be a problem.

-Extra things needed: A room for the girls to start and end in, and a tour around Tokyo with a camera. (or maybe just better CG)

Madayade- The girls just got hired at a foreign company, and they can't find ways to commuinicate with their bosses who only speak english. They proceed to study english with eachother until their boss finds them doing so and yells at them for slacking off or something.

-Downsides: This might be hard to get if you miss the parts of the PV with the girls and their english textbooks.

-Extra things needed: English textbooks or Japanese-English dictionaries

FOREVER LOVE- The girls are working a security center, and see some girls (Maimi and Erika dressed as robbers) running through the halls, and proceed to try and catch them. Regular Maimi and Erika guide the girls with their cellphones to robber Maimi and robber Erika, who keep evading them. At the end, the younger C-ute girls catch them right before they reach the exit.

-Downsides: There would be no room for a danceshot.

-Extra things needed: two robber costumes, a hall set with a turn and an exit (it can be reused for multiple shots from different angles), and fake cell phones (the chasing girls) and headmics (for regular Maimi and Erika)

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That's pretty much it...

-Midori

Hello!

C-ute is on the rise!

Pay more attention to them UFA Goddammit!

Anyway, I'm REALLY happy that they got the gold award, they deserve it. I must say, I don't like Edo no Temari Uta II, but it's winning them a lot of awards lately!

Besides that, I think Koda Kumi should win the award for the winners of the gold award. Moon Crying is just one of the most beautiful pop ballads EVER! (If not the most) While I hate that she's advertised as a slut, she has an amazing voice, and her ballads are just wonderful! I could never hate her ballads, because she has such a strong yet beautiful voice.

 

-Midori

Hello!!!

After an hour writing about Madame du Chatelet, I decided to go back to good 'ol Dohhh up and check for updates, and the new C-ute PV was up! YAYS! (Writing about a promiscuous 18th centure female scientist [not that I mind the female scientist part, but I wasn't lucky enough to have to write about that part of her life] who was a bad gambler for too long can't be good for the soul.)

I'm not in the mood to write too much, so this will be short.

 

The Great:

• The song (minus the chorus, which I'll address later)- I love it! It's the return of a more mature and awesome C-ute!
• The dance- again it's really good! It looks really hard, so I can predict that C-ute is going to own all the good H!P dances from now on.
• The outfits- They look awesome in the suits, I don't know why, but they do. The other outfits are modern, but not in a cute way.

The... I don't know

• The chorus- The rest of the song is kick ass, mature, and cool, so WHY make the chourus go back to bubblegum pop even in the slightest? WHY?
• The PV- When I saw the computers at the beginning, I was hopeful, but all this PV turned out to be was a few close ups with the rest being C-ute watching their own dance shot. So C-ute gets the better songs, but Berryz gets the better PV's?

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I said it was  going to be short!

-Midori

Hello!

Since a lot of people have been commenting, I've been more motivated to get off my lazy butt and actually write stuff! I've just watched parts of the new C-ute concert, and I saw the cutest thing: a skit almost entirely in English!

At the beginning, the English is very good, and I can understand it all, but towards the last minute or so, it gets a little sketchy...

This whole skit seems like they took all the english that they'd learned in school and put it together into one big blow out!

 

Also, as a bonus, this concert continues the recent tradition of C-ute performing their more mature singles in rediculous frilly dresses! I'll go through the history of this new phenominon for 2008! (With a Momusu example or two?)

Tokkaiko Junjou- Winter 2008 (Wonderful Hearts)

 

Namida no Iro (C-ute summer tour and H!P summer 2008)

 

 

Momusu extra! Resonant blue (Summer 2008)

 

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Enough videospam for 'ya?

-Midori

Hello!!!

I'm sugar-high from Halloween, and proud of it!

For those who were looking at this and think it had nothing to do with a picture, here's your part of the post:

I've noticed that the elders club is graduating in late March, and Erika (Yes, the one from C-ute) is turning 18 in May. Coincidence? Will C-ute no longer be an H!P kids group and become a full-fledged H!P group (which they practically are already), or will Erika have to graduate because she's not a kid anymore? We'll have to wait to find out.

Next order of business- the picture part of this post! I saw this image on Wotaku Now, and I just had to point out how bad it is when you look at it closely. I spose this post would be under the same category as Celestia's recent post with badly edited pictures. While all of the H!P kids have had absolutely terrible pictures, I believe this is the first that doesn't do anything for anyone. With C-ute's bad group picture, they were just dressed funny. This is different. They just look terrible. I'll do the best I can with the names, but I can't remember all of their names. If you're wondering who it is, I'm going in the same order as the picture, right to left.

Risako- This picture makes her look like they made the dress 5 sizes too big, so they decided to just make her wear four other costumes under it. It just makes her look heavy. We all know she's far from fat, but this picture makes her look like she gained 30 pounds. Her head also looks scarily disproportionate, and in general, I think this is just a terrible picture.

Momoko- She looks like one of the best, but her head looks disproportionate too, and I don't think anyone can argue with me when I say that it looks like she has no neck. In fact, I think she may have had her head photoshopped on for this one. (Yay for digital de- and recappitation!)

Yurina?- I don't know what it is, but she just looks so scarily skinny that it freaks me out! It looks like they took her picture and made it taller and skinnier- to the point where it's not natural anymore.

Chinami- Again with the bad editing! Her body looks really slim while her head looks really wide. Are they photoshoping everyone's head on? (The only one I don't have strong suspiscions about would be Yurina. I'm 99% sure Momo got her head edited on.)

Miyabi- For some reason, Miyabi looks the most human out of all of them. Besides the fact that her head also looks photoshopped on.

Saki- Her picture looks like it was taken separately and photoshopped in. Why? Because she's facing a noticably different way from the others. Also, she seems to be a victim of the same sideways body-crunching Yurina was subjected to.

Maasa- Again, her body seems completely out-of-place here. She just seems really awkward, and while the others have good lighting, the last two have no lighting gradient on their dresses, but their faces are... really white.

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I'm sorry, berryz fans!

-Midori

Hello!

I had to stay home sick today with strep throat, so I wasn't happy in the least. Until I decided to look on Dohhh up!.

For weeks, ever since I heard Ame no Furanai etc. etc. I was hoping that this song would be the one that Dohhh up! would use as the preview video for the concert. Fortunately, my day was turned up-side-down when my wish came true. And it's better than I ever could've hoped! I'll do my normal bullet-point review of the performance.

First, the amazing footage:

 

The Epic:

• The singing is amazing! I love this song! I want to sing it in choir now! Grr... must... find... sheet music! While I'm suspecting some of the girls are lipsyncing, the most important two, Junjun and Linlin, and probably almost everyone aren't, which is great! No one sticks out, just like in a real choir, you can't her one girl over the others unless it's a solo.
• JunLin & their solos! I now will bow eternal devotion to these two! They're too amazing here! I almost cried at how well they did! I was so happy for them, and they looked really happy for eachother. I could listen to just their solos and get teary-eyed. It's just so amazing and up-lifting. Their part was really uplifting, and was the part that made my day. They were just so amazing! I could go on like this for hours, but I won't.
• The camera work is good. While we get single-person close-ups for morning musume, they are the lead group of H!P, so what else can we expect. The kid's (not so kiddish anymore, eh, UFA?) all get two-person close-ups when they're not doing a solo, which is a vast improvement from previous all-H!P songs throughout the years. What I was most surprised about was that the eggs got some good face time for being eggs, and towards the end got an egg-exclusive shot.
• More equality for H!P! The Morning Musume, C-ute, Berryz, and Eggs were all evenly distributed throughout the microphones, so you could see them all, and the eggs weren't hidden completely! (For once!)
• The Pandas! How many times will I say that I can't get enough of their solos? I don't know.
• I liked that how for each group a distinct color is developing- just like how each girl in a group has her own color, each group has their own color now. It all started last summer, and it deals with finale costumes: Melon Kinenbi are green like melons, but they aren't there; C-ute is a cute color- pink; Berryz is a blueberry color- blue; Biyuuden was yellow in their day; and Momusu is the fierce and dominating red.

The Only complaint:

• The costumes for the eggs, Mano Eri, and Momusu are all good (despite the two latter ones being excessively shiny), but C-ute and Berryz, particularly Berryz, have unflattering and even more excessively shiny costumes. The major complaint though, is those ugly mini-hats on their heads. When will UFA start putting cute things on their heads?

 

Oveall, now I'm a devout Panda fan! Go pandas! Give them more solos! Power to the Pandas!

(I'm going a little insane at this point. ehehehe...)

-Midori

Hello!

I'll get right to the point with this post. The Pepper Keibu PV has been released. I think I'll do my normal listing thing for this review.

The PV:

 

The Good:

• The song gets pretty good line distribution minus the parts with Reina. Without her, the song has some pretty good line distribution for Morning Musume. The singing overall is pretty good, and the girls seem like they'll be comfortable vocal range-wise when they're doing this one live.
• The pandas are just rocking this. They're not the center, they don't get the most lines, and they probably didn't know who Pink Lady was until arriving in Japan, but they still rock doing the dance, and their little duet line is great!
• The costumes are lovely. There's only one costume, which dissappoints me, but those single costumes are amazing! They're short like Pink Lady's style, but they're also cute and more modern for the new age.

The Bad:

• The PV is just one big dance shot. Maybe this will be a Resonant Blue-esque PV situation? It said that there will be something involving a PV on their next TV appearance, so maybe that will be the alternate one? I'm being hopeful here. If not, this is a new all time budget low for a morning musume PV
• Not really much else...

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I got lazy on that...

On to the next thing! Someone said they were confused when I compared Airi's dress to Makoto's from the Hello Morning skit. Maybe the replaced headpiece threw them off? (In the H!M skit, Makoto was wearing a wig with a hair clip while Airi is wearing a hat that ties under her chin which makes it look like there's a bow on the neck of the dress.) A list of what's similar:

• The length- they're both floor lengh, and it looks like the same amount of fabric is on the ground when they sit down.
• The front- the red V and the white underneath are the same. Exactly the same.
• The bottom- the red part at the bottom is in the same proportion to the pink in both pictures.
• The color- the red and pink are at least very similar, if not the same color, it's hard to tell because of the difference in the lighting of the two sources.
• the skirt- the skirt of the dresses both gather up slightly in the back.

There's not much more to be said about that.

Also, Amy has pointed out another costume repeat- dealing with scarves. For more, see her comment on the previous post.

-Midori

Hello!

School's been busy, so I don't have much time to post anymore. ^^'

Morning Musume's new single is Pepper Keibu, and they're going to release a cover album of Aku Yuu songs. I have no problem with this, and in fact, since most of these are pretty famous old songs, sales might possibly be slightly higher than we usually see these days. Now, this song isn't my favorite of Pink Lady's, but, I still might buy the single to support Morning Musume. I was really hoping for a cool new song like Resonant Blue, but you can't always get what you want... If this has the possibility of higher sales, so be it. Wotas may be put off that this is a cover, but considering how short most of Pink Lady's dresses and shorts were, and that Momusu will wear Pink Lady-esque costumes, wotas will be following right along with this whole idea...

I just can't wait to see the PV, it's going to be good. The idea is simple, but since this single was made to

For those who haven't heard the Morning Musume version radio rip, here it is.

 

Also, about the C-ute costume follow-up, Airi's dress was borrowed/previously used. I believe it was used in this episode of Haromoni theatre. The dress doesn't show up until about half-way through, but it's eerily similar, if not the same exact dress. I'm leaning towards the latter due to the fact that the dress didn't fit Airi well. If anyone sees any of the other dresses in any old Momusu or H!P media, please post a comment or contact me. I'll give you the credit, and will help solve the mystery of how cheap UFA really is. (They recycle costumes for one of their best selling groups?)

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-Midori