7 posts tagged “hello!project”
It's been almost year, if not a year now, since Kago was put on hiatus.
Now, I know EVERYONE is writing on this, everyone. But, I don't think H!P is going overboard. NO, I don't mean that the sentence isn't to long, I mean I don't think they're doing it on purpose.
Look, H!P has a long history of laziness. T&C Bomber anyone? Good girls, good talent, good singers, good songs....bad premotion resulting in bad sales resulting in H!P not even wanting to try anymore and therefore giving up on the group and letting them go.
Coconuts Musume = Bad concept (Japan is a pretty nationalistic country. They're more patriotic than the US, they just don't get as much crap for it. Thus, they aren't going to accept some below average, if not OKAY looking AKA not that pretty "gaijins" singing in broken Japanese (though, admittedly, not ALL of them spoke it badly. Some could speak it, and Danielle did pretty damn good.) and H!P just clears them out and does nothing, instead letting Ayaka rot in that basement in H!P HQ where Yuko, Kei, Kaori, and several other H!P "members" live.
They don't know how to bring back Ai. While plaguerism is a bigger crime and certainly WORSE ONE than smoking underage, it doesn't soil the squeaky clean image. Wota's don't care as long as their short little 19 year olds can still act and sound like 9 year olds. And most 9 year olds...DON'T smoke. If Ai DOES come back, she will bring back a bad reputation for H!P and soiled image for herself. If she doesn't come back she remains a problem on the back burner for several years. If they graduate her from H!P, they graduate one of their most important pieces of H!P history. They go with back burner. Can you blame them? There are no reprocutions from putting her on the back burner, the fans get tired, more pissed with time, but can't really start to truely complain until she's gone for about a year and a half.
I, personally, don't know what they should do either. W's sales were on decline after Miss Love Tantei anyway, and they'd only be worse.
Here's to Tsunku getting old and tired! -glass clink-
Idols lack honesty. GOD knows what most of our idols do that they are scrambling to cover up like, oh. my. god. Having....sex when they're, like 22? OMG HOW TABOO. REALLY.
But then, there is a glimmer of hope in this sad, sad world, full of the empty, souless capsules that are idols...
A small, shimmering light that gives us faith in humanity.
That there folks....is our Jesus. Oh, yes, I just assigned Mikitty place as Jesus in jpopland.
She adjusts herself, curses, squeals, screams, yankees without doing it insanely obviously on purpose, smokes, drinks, gropes, GOD knows what else....
And DAMN what I'd do to get at a piece o' THAT!
But, regardless, while I am sure Miki has her fair share of glistening idol polish coating her....she's not so obvious about it. She doesn't wink at the camera every 5 seconds as if her eye were bleeding, nothing like that...She's an honest bitch. And that's why I love her.
Ignore this dazed but truthful entry....I slept late today -just woke up-.
Okay, maybe not first...I hate to admit it, but my first H!P purchase was a photobook. Yes, a photobook.
Uh, but, moving on.
So, I bought something you probably won't expect, but it was actually T&C Bomber's debut album. Yes, T&C Bomber AKA Taiyo & Ciscomoon or some such crap.
Listening to this, I find just what I'm looking for. Smooth, clear, mature voices, singing clear, cool, and collected RnB.
I don't even LIKE RnB, much less J-pop wanna be RnB, but damn if this wasn't a smart purchase.
If we had voices like this in MM, maybe I wouldn't be so harsh on their singing.
So, putting Endless Love on C-ute's debut album was obviously a good idea. It got me interested ina group that a lot of people don't even know about, much less have heard.
I like both versions of Endless Love equally, though I think the older voices suit it far more. It's less of dance track/90's SPEED wanna be crap, and more of a smooth RnB hit. Of course, obviously, it wasn't a hit, considering how short lived T&C was.
And this gets me thinking: Why do Japanese singers prefer someone squeaky, high pitched, and tone deaf, over someone who is GASP lowly voiced? Even Japanese male singers, like, say, Gackt. Gackt has a very high voice for a man, and though he can sing very low, he also has more high range than you usually see on a guy. But, it runs far more rampant with girls.
Which ALSO led me to thinking, why did this group have no success? It can't only be the voices, I seriously doubt that.
Weird.
As many of you may know, Yossie's brother was hit by a car recently. I really can't speak about this matter, I've been avoiding it. I knwo nothing about her brother at all, and maybe he was even a prick, like I said, I don't know. But for me, it's depressing when anyone dies, anyone at all. My best wishes are with Yossie and her family.
Okay, so photoshop is just TOO fun sometimes. Someone was doing this on JPM, and, well, I wanted to try my own combinations.
Please reply with which daughter/son/shim you prefer. =)
First up... Kaori/Eri
Ayaya/Yossie
Mari/Ai
Shinya/Sayumi (I don't even know...)
Oh, and the daily song is now weekly because I'm LAZYYYY. You get one tonight, and then you have to wait.
1. Mako's Solo PB
There is a certain justice when someone ignored their entire career can go out with a bang. And, disregarding actual sells, the PB is great. Mako looks both mature and silly depending on the photo set, she got her old haircut back and it looks amazing and hits her in all the right places, sort of like a really well fitted dress. I'm not much for PB's, but as I'm a photoshop junkie, they're much fun to play with (not like that, though I'm sure that's fun, too.)
<3 Mako. And again, I remind you of the fanlisting I made.
Err, okay, so maybe they didn't. But surely it's one step closer, right? Regardless, wota seem to like lesbians because, sales have been satisfactory...and that video is certainly "satisfactory".
I hated this single. Hated it. A lot. Despise dit. Said it was their worst single yet.
But the video and lyrics saved it for me. It's nice to finally have a song by them that isn't about some kind of "sexy" boy or "ambitious" girl. A normal song, maybe?
The video highlights all the girls best features, including their normal clothes, and they all look cute or mature. The song also hit number one on th eOricon chart, their first #1 in years. I think it COULD possibly show a bit of a rise in the girls popularity, maybe only temporarily and for a few more singles, but the better the sales, the better the singles we're going to get. Maybe they will stop experimenting, and start caring again.
I have a subbed version of the video you should look forward to, also.
4.Some Boys! Love to Touch to Maki!
At first the sexy image pissed me off, but lets face it; It sells, it's hot, and the songs are a huge improvement. Even my mom likes Some Boys!, and she hates both slutty singers, and jpop. ESPECIALLY H!P jpop. But I find her now singing it, Nature is Good, and Massara Blue Jeans under her breath while she works.
It appeals to a wide audience and has both a killer melody and rythm, Overall, I expect a lot of good from Maki from now on, music wise.
5.Return of Yuko to HM
HM has been a boring, sad little place for awhile now, but the queen has returned. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
Uh, yeah. But it seem the producers are smokin' the good stuff again, because Yuko has returned, along with some drag queen who is not completely devoid of any form of sexual attractiveness.
I wish she'd be the host again, honestly, and we'd get more games with Nono et al. Karaoke games where the girls embarass themselves, anything. Just something owrth watching again. The girls are cute, and so were the animals, but animal cafe's and such are not cute. At all. =(
BONUS
6. Munasawagi Scarlette (Scarlet Apprehension)
I hated Berryz. Despised them. They failed at catching my attention, and singing, But I REALLY like this single. More than I should. The PV is cheap, but still fun to watch, especially seeing the girls apply make up and "chu" the camera. The dancing is insanely good, I'm wondering where all the dances for Momusu and Biyuuden come from.
I have this single on repeat, and it's my first Berryz single (only other ones I've heard I popped the window closed within two minutes.) I want to have the children of whoever made this single...okay, well, now I remember that's Tsunku. But hey, Tsunku ain't so bad...
Today's song is by the one and only, the queen of kawaii, Aya Matsuura.
I'm confused~!
Is it sexy? Is it cute?
I'll be confused~!
I just want to hear your side of it
Such a pure heart of a young girl
Such a pure heart of a young girl
This song seems to be about a confused girl in love, and the last line of the first verse interests me, because being an innocent or unpure girl seems to be a trend in Aya's work. Just look at the lyrics of GOOD BYE Natsuo
Goodbye boy
Let's just say goodbye after all
Without a kiss
Goodbye boy
I'm not as innocent of a girl
as you think I am
Regardless, perhaps Tsunku was trying to create a little trend or story line?
Heeey, I said, heeey
Listen to me
Listen to me <sad>
Stop sending mail all the time <angry>
Heeey, I said, heeey
Can I hold onto your arm? <happy>
... but
You're not listening to me at all! <angry>
The song is so cute, actually, that more than two listens in a row can be annoying.
Regardless, Aya never disappoints (I even like all her ballads), and delivers teeth-rottingly kawaii pop for you.
It has an almost retro feel to it with the claps and bells.
I wonder if Tsunku has had a lot of annoying girlfriends (hey, Tsunku ain't that bad looking!), because girls in his songs tend to be hormonal, possesive, and overly emotional.
The video for the song suits it well, with 70's/60's flower power everywhere, orange and yellow, and Aya in the cutest dress and hat I've ever seen. The dance involves her making heart signs, winking, and smiling big while lip syncing HORRIBLY (Aya is, seriously, the worst lip syncer I've ever seen.) and then stumbling occasionally to signify a blunder made in her relationship.
Aya also has the cutest little small face, that, paired with a pout, I doubt any guy could turn her down on anything. But, back to the song, it's sugar-coated pop, even for jpop it's a bit too sweet, like adding a table spoon or two of sugar to hot cocoa, but it's enjoyable. The sound is very retro, which Aya's bretahy, high voice suits well. the song reminds me vaguely of Lonely In Gorgeous by Tommy February6. There are scatteredbells, twinkling, and popping noises throughout the whole song, which add an extra cute yet
Overall, the song gets an 8/10 from me. It's only problem is it's a bit har dto listen to repetitively without getting sick of it quick, so listen to it in moderation.
You know, I'd always considered the girls,a s girly pop idols, probably had it easy. But today, I was thinking about what the leaders do. Why choose a leader for Berryz or Momusu? Why do they need one? I mean, bands obviously need them, because leaders generally work with the manager some, and write their own music, but Momusu et al just do what the producer tells them to do. The producer does it all.
The most I've even heard the leaders speak of doing s rounding the girls up backstage, but surely someone else usually does that anyway.
However, he girls must put in much more work than someother groups. They not only release atleast 4 or 5 singles a year, they also have a weekly show, performances and such on Utaban and shows like that, concert tous, various sports actvities (futsal, isn't it? Like wussyfied indoors soccer?), photobooks, photoshoots for singles.
Bands generally take downtime between albums, but these girls work around the clock. I'd never even considered that. It actually makes me wonder why the girls would want to join H!P. You have a high chance of getting snubbed, an equally high chance of being stalked by some perverted mowota, and very little rest time. Does the idea of stardom truely have that much reign over these girls?
Then again, some idols must work even more,looking at Koda Kumi. The girl seems to have a button on her back you can press whenever you want a single, and it pops out (where it pops from and how, I don't care to consider.)
