You remember Celestia’s Top 100 H!P song collection, right? It did win IW’s Best Series Award for 2009. In that spirit Celestial decided to give the readers a vote, and put together a video of the fans’ Top 40 H!P songs. It wasn’t shocking that Morning Musume dominated the top end of the list, and most of the recent singles ranked pretty high. But there are a few surprises along the way. One of the biggest “WTF’s” to me is what ranked at the top. I thought everyone was tired of that song?
In addition to the Top 40 videos, Celestia breaks down all the songs that were voted for. This had me thinking “damn, I forgot about that one!” quite a few times. A big thanks to Celestia for taking on such a big project!
Fabulous…Fantastic…Awesome! These are the adjectives these bloggers used to describe the upcoming single and PV from new AKB48 sub-unit Queen & Elizabeth. If you don’t know them, Q&E are actually AKB48’s Itano Tomomi and Kasai Tomomi. And the song is in support of the popular TV series Kamen Rider Double, which TomoxTomo have been appearing on as recurring characters. This team teamed up last year with Miyazaki Miho for a unit called Nattou Angels, which also had a cute and catchy song. But this one, woah! It just blows me away!
The only bummer is that Q&E is apparently a “one shot” unit. Awwww, too bad. Perhaps we can all convince AkiP to rethink that one.
I’m so glad to see these girls making it to the next level! It was announced last week that Momoiro Clover will be getting their first major single release in May. In celebration the group will be doing a celebratory tour in Japan this Spring. Anni has photos, and a video of the official press conference. I think that is what the video was. Either that or an idol Boxing “weigh-in”!
They are too cute, and like many others I love their gimmick. Lets all hope the new single is a smashing success!
The new album from C-ute has been out for a little while now. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that I haven’t seen/heard too much scuttlebutt over the new tracks. After reading the following reviews I am beginning to understand why. But if you are still wondering if you should hit the purchase button on your own shopping cart, here are a few opinions for your review…
Suffice it to say the new 5-nin version is not working for Jin, who has been disappointed with C-ute’s latest single releases. So there is one strike. As far as the new material Jin finds one song worthy of mention. But the rest of the CD is given the seal of “disaster”, making me wonder if the 2 1/2 star rating was a bit too generous.
Arche-JoIyO has been reading a lot of negative reviews, but wonders if the Cd could really be “that bad”. She rates each song individually, the final judgement being if the song makes it onto the Ipod (hehe). I won’t give away how many songs made the cut, but overall she finds the album enjoyable. At this point I’ll take “enjoyable” as the ultimate victory.
TD wonders if this album represents the group’s search for a new identity. If you think about it, MoMusu, Berryz and Manoeri definitely have a consistent style (more or less). But what about C-ute? They seem to be all over the map lately. And while she sees this effort as a bit “premature”, she appreciates the attempt to mature as a group.
Finally Greg is disappointed with the group he once said “gets the best songs in H!P”. Perhaps this is an aberration. Echoing Tasuki Daisuki, it could be that Tsunku is experimenting with a new dynamic. If it doesn’t work, then back to the drawing board I guess.
I feel badly for C-ute, as it seems they haven’t yet recovered from the loss of Erika and Kanna. I know they weren’t the front members of the group, but they were as much a part of the family dynamic as anyone. Unlike some of these reviewers I have actually liked their recent singles, so perhaps I would give a more favorable review than these. But the general consensus seems to be consistent across the board.
The good news is that like the bad haircut I recently got, nothing is permanent! Tsunku and the girls can always follow this up with something new and different, and then everyone will declare C-ute to be awesome all over again. And one other thing…
If this doesn’t speak to the benefit of adding new members, I don’t know what does!
Pure Idol Heart is a new idol news group blog, but with familiar names behind the scenes. For those of you who used to read Hello Non-Pro Hour, Gaki is back, and HNPH owner, Jinryuichi, should be making his presence known on the blog as well. They, along with a 3rd contributor, Xacur, will be striving to bring their readers the latest news on the Japanese and Asian female idol industry. It looks like we’ve got another good source for idol information available to us! It’s definitely a blog to check out.
Now here’s an interesting read: an excellent, all-revealing interview with someone who worked for a record label in the Golden Era of Visual Kei. The person in question — “Satoh-san” — sheds light on the dark side of VK, including, but not limited to, the “band rules“, the role of the producer, parties, groupies, lifestyle of the band members and, of course, the criminal activities that go on behind the scenes. That, and so much more!
I’d rather not make guesses and just let you make up your own mind as to whether everything stated in this interview is entirely factual, but I think it’s fair to assume it is not all 100% BS.
This write-up is a little late as the post was already made a good week ago, but this eye-opening interview is something I think everyone with even a vague interest in the inner workings of the Visual Kei business should see.
Furimukanaide and Arche-JoIyO have taken on the task of ranking Berryz Koubou’s singles, and I have to say I love reading rankings like these. The two have ranked the songs in different fashions. Furimukanaide has ranked all the A-sides, meaning the double A-sides are counted individually. Arche-JoIyO, on the other hand, has ranked the singles – even though she may have loved an A-side, if the B-side was less than stellar in her eyes, it knocked that single down in her rankings… Where do you think Jiriri Kiteru ended up on her list?
I ranked Morning Musume’s singles 2 years ago, and that was quite a task for me… I always meant to rank other groups singles at some point. Seeing these two posts has renewed my desire to do that.
It’s been a long since Izze has paid any attention to the world of H!P, specifically C-ute, and boy, is she stunned by the changes that have happened. Have you noticed the changes? Which of these changes seems to stand out the most to you? Since I’ve kept track of H!P in the past year or so, the changes haven’t really been all that obvious to me, but now that those pictures are put side to side, I can see how drastic the changes might be to someone who… hasn’t been around for the past year. Take a look!
Ever wonder what the Japanese pop music scene was like before all these artists who are famous now debuted? Was the music the same? Are they still singing about the same things? What did the fashion look like then?! Well, Yonasu has a great selection for us to listen to! I know I have some songs that I need to… come into possession of in some way or fashion >_>
Blasphemy! And they said it would never happen! How could you betray me like this, Tsunku!? I thou- Okay, I’m done with the dramatics. But I wonder how this will turn out. I enjoy his music… when it’s well written. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t sell better than anything H!P’s done.
4 concerts, 4 countries. Holy smokes… This coming May, Hangry & Angry are coming to a European city near you! The European Hello! Project bloggers are all over this news and plans are being made. Links to get tickets are in the posts and you can definitely feel the excitement building.
I love how Zush already has his ticket in hand… Looks like he needs to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming. I have to say I’m jealous. Yes, I did see Morning Musume at Anime Expo last year, but I had to fly to the other end of the continent to do so… What are the chances that some Hello! Project related act will make a trip to the northern neighbour of the US of A?
Toisu! I wonder what that means. For Valentine’s Day, Siggy got what could possibly be the best V-day gift a fanboy could receive. And with news of POLYSICS going on hiatus and his favorite member breaking away from the band, it seemed that it could never happen. A chance meeting with your favorite artist!? Seriously, how many of us with our love of Japanese musicians even get a chance to be at their concerts?! And if it wasn’t for those lovely women he met while at the concert, it might’ve never happened. It sounds like Siggy went to an awesome concert, so check it out!
Some people wake up to the sound of rain and want nothing more than to burrow into their covers and not think about going outside… Pata, on the other hand, hears it raining and takes the rain as a sign of good fortune… It seems in Pata’s world, rain = a perfect day for J-idol chasing.
He missed out on meeting Morning Musume at Anime Expo – both autograph session days were beautifully sunny. However, he had the best of luck when AKB was in New York – it was raining… And just this past Saturday it was raining again, and who happened to be in town but Kago Ai.
He was able to attend two events and he explains them in detail in the second post. The first post has a video of her evening event, but what I loved most was his mall handshake event experience… I may have stopped paying close attention to what Kago’s been up to recently, but as a long time Hello! Project fan, I can definitely appreciate the awesomeness of having Kago do the “Kago-chan desu!” gag in person… That would be awesome to see.
Which H!P member has the best photobooks? (Reina, of course ) Which H!P kid would you save from falling off a cliff? These are just two of the many fun activities Morningtime has in store for you in this post. So feel free to pass the time finding out great little useless tidbits like if fans would like to see Beckii Cruel be the next member of Morning Musume. Or would they rather just kill themselves??? And I was quite surprised to see how many voters would let all the girls go over the cliff!
Today we lead off with a brand new site from Wendychi, Yayyy! And what a surprise, her new worship site is dedicated to none other than AKB48’s Team B cyborg Watanabe Mayu (AKA Mayuyu). In honor of her new blog, Wendychi has posted Mayuyu’s bio, as well as a huge selection of Mayu pics and YT videos. Mayu keeps quite busy with her AKB duties, as well as her lead position with Watarirouka Hashirtai. So I’m sure Wendy will have plenty of material to fill the site with. Anyway, we need more worship blogs!
J has posted a selection of Matsui Jurina and Matsui Rena pics from a recent issue of Memew magazine. I’m sure you know Jurina as she is the face of SKE48. But Rena is surely “second in command”. And after her turn as the evil and demented Gekikara on Majisuka Gakuen, she is a force to be reckoned with. That and the fact that she is as cute as hell!
Last but definitely not least are the girls from Buono! with their electric guitars and drum kit. Miya’s Fender bass looks exactly like mo own. I can never get enough of Momo with that Union Jack shirt! And Airi? That hairstyle just speaks rock n’ roll! As Zush states, the next step is to learn and play your instruments. Have the girls been practicing? Well then, I am looking forward to Airi’s Van Halen-esque guitar solo during the next tour!
