Hopefully I will follow through with this one. I'm done with my finals so I have like three weeks off where I will have lots more free time. There are a number of posts I've been wanting to do, so hopefully I'll get them done, but if you know me you know that as soon as I write down to do something I usually won't.
-Berryz Koubou 2010 Concert Review: I got the idea when I saw that their first live concert in Bangkok got uploaded onto YouTube, but then I wasn't too impressed with the one part that I watched. Therefore, I am going to try their summer concert. The good news is that I adore their album for this concert, so it should be good.
-C-ute 2010 Dance Special Concert Tour Review: Guess what else got uploaded! This is in no particular order by the way. The dance medley from this concert renewed my interest in C-ute, so this was a must for me.
-Morning Musume Graduation Rival Survival Concert Review: It is a graduation concert I felt it was a requirement to review it for you guys. I hope you guys like concert reviews because I am doing quite a bit.
-SKE48 Top 30 Concert Review: Why not?
-AKB48's 5th Anniversary Stage: I would have to download it first, but I've been wanting to watch it for a while now.
-GETS!: I am expecting a lot of delicious goodies that will be coming my way this holiday season so I will share them with you. The only sad thing is that I'll be leaving my scanner in my dorm room over break, so you'll have to wait for any high quality scans.
-Buono! 2010 Concert Review: Yeah another concert review, but as of now I don't know what news will pop up so this is all I got. The AKB48 ranker is down too, but V3.0 is in the works so I am excited.
Yeah, great time for all this crap to be coming out. My first final is on Sunday, but no I'm not going to ban myself from my computer. It makes for a nice study break. First off, anything that includes a video will be posted after the jump. Here we go!
It seems S/mileage members have been getting the run around. It was announced that Ogawa Saki would release a photobook, but apparently that was a prank done by the staff. It has also been announced that Wada Ayaka will release her first photobook and DVD. The release is set for 2011.03.02.
Risa, Maimi, Airi, Momoko, and Reina have all released a cover song of Tanpopo's Seinaru Kane Ga Hibiku Yoru on the Japanese iTunes.
Here are the five finalists of the Morning Musume 9th Generation Auditions. I'm disappointed that it is only five because there tends to be more if they add four members. The good news is that out of the five, four look like they could make it in, and three of those four look like they have great potential. The first two and the last one (in order of top to bottom of the pictures) got my vote. It is hard to tell during the audition process because they are so raw. Plus, remember how KonKon failed the audition, but still made it. I adore KonKon. It seems most of the look-a-likes were cut. They might of not wanted any look-a-likes so soon. The video is after the break.
Mitsui Aika (Morning Musume) will release her first photobook and DVD, wow H!P is on a role! The photobook is titled Aika. The DVD is titled Mittsi. They plan to release them on January 26th.
Here are Arashi's and AKB48's performances at Best Artist 2010.
As most of you know, Kamei Eri, Jun Jun, and Lin Lin have graduated from Morning Musume and Hello Project. I've found some performances from their last concert together, enjoy! (I'll review the concert when I have more time. I didn't check to see if it was the whole thing or if it was in the right order.
I noticed that people have been posting these. Part of me wanted to wait till January, but the Oricon charts and many Japanese awards pick them early (which is why you won't see Beginner included in most of them). Three stages from AKB48 have been premiered, so I wanted to include songs from those as well. BUT, I am going to separate them. I'll first do my Top 20 singles and then my Top 10 stages songs (no units). I think that some will be surprised with the variety, even I am. These are my opinions on what I liked best, not even what I think are in fact the best songs. If the videos aren't showing up you'll have to go off the main page by clicking the read more link or whatever. When I posted it all together it seemed slow.
Top 20 Singles of 2010!
Beginner - AKB48
Troublemaker - Arashi
1! 2! 3! 4! Yoroshiku - SKE48
Monster - Arashi
Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo - Momoiro Clover
Oh! - Girls' Generation
Love Song - Rain
BBI-RI-BOP-A - Narsha
Sakura no Shiori - AKB48
Makenai Kokoro - AAA
Ponytail to Shushu - AKB48
Otakebi Boy WAO! - Berryz Koubou
Akkanbe Bashi - Watarirouka Hashiritai
Lupin - Kara
HUH - 4Minute
Onegai Dakara - Mano Erina
GAGAGA - SDN48
Wild - Amuro Namie
Shock! - C-ute
ooGanbaranakutemo Eenende!! - S/mileage
Okay, I was going to give an explanation for each single one, but the formatting that I started out with wouldn't let me, So either I had to reformat it or just do an overall explanation. I guess it is for the best. I have finals in less than a week and they probably wouldn't have been that good anyway. When I was considering these I considered a couple of elements. One was what my original feelings were towards the song. This mostly played out if the song was addicting when I first heard it. I also considered the artist themselves and whether it was that impressive coming from them. I was more impressed with songs that sounded unique in comparison to what else was released from that artist and the market in general. For example, while I thought 4Minute's singles are catchy and fun to dance to their catalog isn't that broad. The song sounds similar to their other songs. Personally, I like artists who experiment with their style. There isn't anything wrong, and I am not a huge 4Minute fan, so that was my impression. This also was the case for S/mileage and C-ute. One of the songs that did well based on that criteria was Sakura no Shiori. Some people say that AKB48 sounds like a choir, which isn't true at all. They have a couple of songs that sound like that, but it is not common. That single was a big risk and stood out from pretty much everything else released by popular groups, but that wasn't my only reason why. I think it is a beautiful song. As for what didn't make it. . . anyone notice that Morning Musume didn't make the cut? It has been a bad year for them. Last year they would of had a couple songs on my list, but nothing impressed me this go round. If you want to hear an explanation for any song in particular just let me know in the comments.
Top 10 Stage Tracks
1. I'm crying - Team A
2. 夢の鐘 - Team K
3. 100メートルコンビニ - Team B
4. ジグソーパズル48 - Team K
5. 摩天楼の距離 - Team A
6. 勇気のハンマー - Team B
7. ウッホウッホホ - Team K
8. 命の意味 - Team A
9. 隕石の確率 - Team B
10. いびつな真珠 - Team A
You know what. Now that I formatted in a friendlier way, I don't really have anything to say for this part. This ranking is pretty much just what I love in order of how much I like it. If you want me to clarify. . . I'll consider it ( : 3 )
The holidays are upon us, for better or worse but I figured I could send a little cheer around the blog with some of the wonderful stylings of Morning Musume~
The 60's Christmas present from the Mopremes~
Silent Night - MoMusu version
Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer - Morning Musume feat. Ayaka of Coconuts Musume
First off, please add your comments to my previous post. That post is more about the comments than anything else. I made a new YouTube account so I can upload these and make them unlisted, but even when I change the file name each time they were automatically blocked. It seems AKB48's management is cracking down. I don't understand why they wouldn't at least release a preview for all the PVs, since they are called promotional videos. So, I tried to get them to you in good quality. I didn't think it would be worth it to create an account on Veoh or Dailymotion. Here we go:
Kurumi to Dialouge PV (Team A) Considering this is not a single PV, the fact that senbatsu members by far get the most screen time is quite disappointing. Now it is expected in a way. However, I was always naive to think they only used senbatsu to help gain new fans by being recognizable. Now if you think about it, in a more positive light, they like to highlight the more popular members because they have more fans, there by giving what their fans want. I much prefer this simple yet edgy mood for their promotional videos over what they did for Chance no Junban, and even for Yoyaku Shita Christmas. I wasn't thrilled by the spinning shot or either dance shot. None of them are bad per say, but not impressive. They were good, amazing if you consider that this is the third track. The track is by far better than the main one. What makes me very happy is the production quality. I adore the fact that they did one of my favorite trademarks when I used to edit videos more often, which is when you add more black borders to either the top or bottom of the shot. Score: ☆☆☆☆ (Out of 5)
ALIVE PV (Team K) If you thought Team A had a well made music video, just look at this. Team K has had a more rock and roll style compared to the two. What this one lacks is that it is quite easy to miss some of the less popular members. Like before, senbatsu members are pushed to the forefront and the rest you may never get a good look at. You'll probably wouldn't notice if you don't have one of them as a favorite because of how good this music clip is. It is more fashionable, more of a storyline, better shots and angles, and even their personalities are worked into their characters. One thing that I can't get over is how ridiculous Yui's fall was, you get a nice butt shot because of it. Yui is one of the non-popular members that gets a ton of screentime. It makes sense for the story, similar to real life, she is the newbie on the jail cell block. The explosions are a bit over dramatic. The car chase is humorous considering they are running away on foot so there is no way that they are that fast. I'm starting to think that they should do this more often! Score: ☆☆☆☆☆
Love Jump PV (Team B) These last two were leaked even before the release, but they have been kept off of YouTube so far. Team B is also keeping up one of their big patterns by focusing all their attention on Yukirin and Mayuyu. I expected that to change considering they added some pretty popular members, although none as popular as either of the two. This falls back into cliche idol song, but they make up for it by increasing the storyline element. All of Team B are attending a nursing school. Mayu is the fun-loving, airhead (cyborg) which is foiled with Yuki's wound-up character. The oddest thing to me was the close up shots. Myao and Tomo~mi share some lines but they are separated when it is time for close ups. Myao is in between Sumire and Komori, who sing together when Myao isn't. Score: ☆☆☆☆
Yoyaku Shita Christmas PV (7-11 Christmas Promotion Senbatsu) This one is pretty pathetic, but compared to the production of the four other PVs I don't mind. The management pushed members basically just sing while animation is fluttering and floating around them. A little busy for my taste. What I would of changed at least was that we see the members in some all white costumes just for a couple seconds here and there. I would of mixed those into the close up shots. The santa costumes would be good when they are doing magical things and in the dance shot. It would add a little bit more diversity to it. The reason why I am giving it such a high score is that it doesn't bore me or disappoint me at all, and I love the song. Score: ☆☆☆☆
I am exhausted. Maybe it is partly from my Japanese speech that I had to memorize and present today (major anxiety). I do think that part of it is due to me 'debating' with another contributing blogger on my Facebook page. I won't post it because i don't know if it is okay with him, plus we would need to cover our names just to be on the safe side. It has gotten to the point where I went on Duckie's wall trying to get her to help settle it. I would like to hear some third party opinion, but this is just one anecdote to get to the overall point.
I feel like fans of idols in Asia have been fighting too much among ourselves. We argue about things even within our selective countries and so forth. We all have a right to a difference of opinion. Bombs and insults have been coming in from every side, some more than others. So I think we need some good old fashioned happy time!
I would like, in the comments, for you to compliment or say what they do better than your favorite group. This could be the group where you feel like there is a lot of fighting between. If you hate a group or an idol, say why other people can love them so much or what they do well. If you've ever said something mean that upset people just say you are sorry and what you said. If you didn't mean to, and it just got misconstrued, still say your sorry but say you didn't mean it and something nice about them.
I would really appreciate it if everyone pitched in. I usually don't get a lot of comments but this post is more about getting the love fest started. (Please no back-handed comments like they are good at pantie shots or. Just good sales or being popular is not good enough.)
maybe some pairings with multiple fandoms (like Sasshi and S/mileage)
I usually don't report the news. Usually forums and other blogger tend to get there faster or do it anyways, so I assume you get it elsewhere. However, when ever there are tons of releases and news being pumped out I like to spam it all at once. I hope you learn something new!
There will be an OG Spring Tour! Those who are attending are all graduates of Morning Musume: Nakazawa, Iida, Abe, Yasuda, Yaguchi, Ishikawa, Yoshizawa, Tsuji, Ogawa, Fujimoto, Kusumi. That is quite a list. The performances will be starting 4/23. KonKon probably isn't attending because of her new position at TV Tokyo. I really hope the whole issue with Kago Ai would get resolved so that we can see her perform with them again. I understand that she and Goto Maki want to distance themselves from it, but was it really that bad. They can't even do a reunion tour! It might have to do with the fact that they are under different labels and agencies now. The other sad thing is that Kamei Eri, LinLin, and JunJun won't be attending. One tour wouldn't hurt Kamei that bad, and I bet the pandas would love to go.
Kamei Eri is releasing not one, but two photobooks because of her graduation. One is solo and the other is with the rest of 6th gen, except Mikitty. She did just release a solo pb. So if you didn't think that the pandas were being shafted enough, there is one more thing. Kamei Eri will be releasing nine cover songs on iTunes. That is an album right there. This is a part of the "Hello Cover" project where members of H!P release solo covers. I'm guessing we won't see JunJun or LinLin do the same before they graduate. You can start downloading these today! Memory Seishun no Hikari - Morning Musume Furusato - Morning Musume, Koi wo Shichaimashita - Tanpopo Seinaru Kane ga Hibiku Yoru - Tanpopo Egao ni Namida ~thank You! Dear My Friends~ - Matsuura Aya Love Namidairo - Matsuura Aya Koi no Hana - Abe Natsumi Onegai Miwaku no Target - Melon Kinenbi Kousui - Melon Kinenbi
Guess who else is getting a photobook? Pretty much every member in either C-ute or Berryz Koubou who hasn't released one will, and then some. Unfortunately this doesn't include Morning Musume because there are three members who really need to.
Okai Chisato (C-ute) will be releasing both a photobook and a DVD. The release is set for December 24th.
Kumai Yurina (Berryz Koubou) will be releasing an Alo! Hello photobook. This is her third release. It is coming out December 17th.
Arihara Kanna, a graduate of C-ute, will be releasing her first photobook on December 18th.
Last but not least, Shimizu Saki, also known as Captain, (Berryz Koubou) will be releasing her first photobook and DVD. It will be a new 2011 release on January 12th.
Buono!'s 11th single will be released February 2nd. Yep, they are not dead yet. Not surprising because I think they are more popular than their perspective groups. I will post more as covers and a PV is released.
S/mileage will release their 4th single, Shortcut. The date is set for February 9th. Maeda Yuuka has also cut off her long hair. More information will be posted when it is leaked.
*:--☆--:*:--☆:*:--☆--:*:--☆--:
Hello Project isn't the only group spewing photobooks and DVDs these days. The 48 Universe is taking advantage of AKB48's new found popularity to promote the both the Undergirls and Theatre Girls. Here are the lucky ladies who are getting some much needed individual promotion:
Rumi Yonezawa (Team K) released her first photobook in NOVEMBER! I would buy it, but it isn't even on CDJapan? Rumi is pretty sexy so I expect it is pretty spectacular. The fans are keeping the scans on the low down because she needs good sales.
On January 26th, Mika Komori (Team B) will be releasing a solo DVD. Not much else has been leaked, but she is known to be an oddball.
Chisato Nakata (Team A) will be releasing her first photobook as well, DVD included. It is going to be released on the 15th of this month. Guess what! The preorder is already sold out at CDJapan! AKB48 is keeping up their tendency to release their PBs pretty cheap. This is about $20! Nice right! "Chi-Chan - Chisato" w/ DVD
On the 22nd Nonaka Misato (Team K) and Matsubara Natsumi's (Team A) DVD "Natsumicha" will be unleashed to the masses.
Guess who is releasing their second single. FRENCH KISS. Yep, they aren't a one single unit like many other idol units. It is another anime song, but that is fine. Here is a quote I copied:
"French Kiss' 2nd Single "If", will be used as the theme song for anime OVA "Kyo, Koi wo Hajimemasu". Continuing from the 1st single, there will be a special drama made which is set at the same school, as well as a new digital comic version, featuring the members voice acting parts of the manga."
I will post more info and such as it is released. However, if it comes out in the next two weeks I won't because of final exams. (cringe) This single comes out on my birthday. . . and Rika Ishikawa's too! Now you know when right. Okay it is January 19th.
Tomomi Itano (Team K) will be releasing her first solo single. It could be considered her second because she did release a para para track. She is one of the most popular members. She recently modeled wedding dresses at a fashion show. This one is also coming out January 26th.
SKE48 will released their 5th single on February 9th, but that is not important right now. The bigger news about SKE48 is the formation of Team E and the reshuffling of Team KII. On top of that, four Team KII members were demoted! Rough day for those girls. There is no official statement as to why they were demoted, but there are rumors floating around as you'd expect. Now each team has 16 members, unlike the flagship group. . .
Six of the eight being promoted. The second to the left is Yui who replaced Erena on Team K.
Eight research students (also known as kenkyusei or what I like to call them trainees) are being promoted. No news as to which teams they will get promoted to but this one is causing some stir. Many people are guessing there are graduations on the way because this is taking them over the 50 mark. The oldest member is Shinoda Mariko (Team A); she is 24, two years under the unofficial 26 limit. Based on age the other possibilities are: Kojima (22), Akimoto (22), Umeda (21), Kuramochi (21), and Oshima (22). Age is the most reliable predictor, but there tends to be many other reasons why members graduate. Only recently, with the formation of SDN48, did members graduate from AKB because of their age. Is there a big concert coming up because that is when they like to jump these things on you? I am curious as to why you think such a large number were promoted (if not because of graduations), or who you believe are graduating soon (there are eight slots to fill).
Mine? Don't take this personally because I am just going by age, outside potential, and who is not too dependent on the group: 1) Shinoda (Team A): even though popular she has plenty of outside jobs. 2) Sayaka (Team K): she does enjoy musicals and the recent scandal has demoted her from her captain position. She loves AKB, but she did say on her blog that she was confused about her role because of K6. She was also disappointed with her senbatsu ranking; the producers on the other hand have demoted her further down as she is no longer senbatsu. 3) Kojima (Team A): I could see her working either as a charisma model or something along those lines. No3b would be one reason I would see her stay, but they are releasing their album. 4) Maeda (Team A): Acchan has so many options outside of AKB, but she can do it within too. She is very popular so I am not sure. She enjoys acting, but not as much as Erepyon did. Unlike other members, she doesn't need AKB to stay relevant. 5) Katayama (Team A): she has been doing some musicals as well. She has a strong voice and she is just and Undergirl. 6) Umeda (Team K): I could see her transferring to SDN48. AKB transfer to SDN tend to be some of the most popular members because they are more well known and carry over a fan base. 7) Sato (Team B): Natsuki is attending a University right now. She may need to focus on her studies. 8) Masuda (Team B): She is one of the best singers, she isn't that popular, and she has been doing some acting. She was an original Team K member, so she has been around for some time.
NMB48, stationed in Osaka, will be debuting on New Years Day. It will be a two hour show where they will be performing Team A's third stage. They have 25 members, but only 16 are apart of Team N. Those left over are trainees, so they may not make it to an official team. There are some crowd favorites in A3; I think it is an excellent choice.
AKB48's 19th single, Chance no Junban, hit the number one spot today on the Oricon charts. The grand total is 471,242, which is about the same area that I was expecting (500K). That is even higher than Heavy Rotation's first day sales. I am more excited to see the PVs for Team A and Team K tracks. Three of the tracks, all of the them on Type A, are used for various promotions. Congrats for another Top 10 first day sales of 2010!
