3 posts from January 2008

 

I'm officially in love with this group. ♥ I loved Honto no Jibun but Renai♥Rider is even better! And the PV... Well, if you ask me, Buono! will be going far. Because I love Airi, I will start this post with her. ♪

(All the screencaps will be of poor quality as they're taken from Dohhup, sorry about that.) She looks cuter than ever! And I really like her hair done like that, which is surprising - I hate when Reina has it done like that, and she has it often. But it suits Airi very well. ♥ Though actually I think that Airi's and Reina's faces are shaped quite similarly. Then why don't I like it on Reina? Hmm...

The PV is shot in widescreen as Honto no Jibun was and that's great! I have never figured out why they bother to add those colored blanks (if you know what I mean, I don't know what they are called) in H!P PVs. Why on earth shoot them on widescreen and then make them 4:3? I don't get it. But anyway. This PV is otherwise a little different fro Honto no Jibun which was great since they shot it in real surroundings. This one is still good and I like the story a lot.

I like their clothes very much, especially Airi's. The green scarf is my favourite and also her shirt. Although I've never really understood leather shorts. Aren't they very uncomfortable? Well, anyway, Airi is looking the best and also a little different from the other two as they're both wearing skirts.

Seems like poor Momochan is getting picked on again... While Airi and Miya get nice little motorcycles, this is what Momo gets:

So Momo is going with a tiny tricycle... But it doesn't seem to bother her. ☆

But they start the race and poor Momochan is of course last...

All three sound incredibly great in this song and their voices blend pefectly to each other. Miya's opening lines are wonderful, she sounds a little bit similar to how she sounded when she was little. I'm also happy that Miya's getting a lot of attention in Buono!, she definetely deserves it. Even though she's one of the centers in Berryz, it's nice that she got picked to Buono! also. BTW, I don't see anything wrong with her so-called "long chin/face". I think it's all right.

We come now to my favourite bit - all the girls are looking absolutely gorgeous... I love the hearts in their eyes, they remind me of Tanpopo's Oujisama to Yuki no Yoru where they have little snow flakes in their eyes... ☆

Airi's eye is the most beautiful! But what else could you expect me to say... :) Though Miya comes as a close second and in the next pictures she's definetely the most beautiful! One of the prettiest pictures I've ever seen of Miya! She is already quite mature looking. When Airi's just cute all the time (though so cute that no-one could be cuter) Miya's actually BEAUTIFUL. Her facial features are so symmetrical. ♪

Have you noticed how high her ears are?

While Airi and Miya seem to be at their best in this PV Momo is being like she is all the time. She has this same expression throughout the PV:

Which is not necessarily a bad thing. :) Momo looks always like this and that's just Momo. She doesn't let anything get her down. Still remember the tricycle? ☆

Well, she doesn't let that bother her either. :) Momo's tricycle wins Airi's and Miya's motorcycles anyday. One of my favourite parts of the PV! Another with Momo is the Hawaii part. It's funny, it just comes out of nowhere. :)

Let's put some more Airi.

How can anyone be that cute? ★

♪ I loved this bit also... The black (and a little bit of other colours also) figures bouncing up and down (Hey! That's called dancing!) look so sweet. ♪

BTW I have no idea why I was being so informatic even though all of you have  watched the PV already for sure... Hope that didn't bother you.

With 20 screencaps (icredible! This was the first time I've ever taken them, I just learnt how to do it to make this post) this post is now over! ♥

H!P continues to surprise me every now and then...

I haven't been writing much lately, mostly due the fact that exams are near and believe it or not before exams I have almost no time at all to do anything and if I do I'm so tired that that I won't do anything anyway, but when they finally begin I have lots of time to blog because I have no other school then and I'm definitely not studying. :) So next week when the exams begin I'll return to blogging. ♪♪

But I just had a Konnich pa-rate experience I have to share with you guys. I don't know how many of you collect the Pucchi Best series but I eventually decided to do that as they have some great songs I really like but from artists that I'm not so interested in other ways so Pucchi Bests are a great way to get those songs. So, having decided this I bought the three first Pucchi Best CDs (and was not disappointed!). As it is my habit I bought them used to get the first press extras. Someday I'll post pictures of them and maybe I could even put up some downloads if someone insists. :)

I have had only the time to listen to one of the albums, the second one actually. I'm enjoying it a lot! I didn't know that the Heike Michiyo track, Propose, that I love ♥A♥LOT♥ was on this album. Now there's a song I enjoy. I'm sad I don't know more about her. :( Also I'm sad that she never got more attention, she's a great singer and I love all the songs I've heard from her. At least they should have let her join SharamQ and become that female vocalist of the band that she won the audition to. But anyway, I love this song. I first heard it when watching an early Momusu concert and I have loved it a lot since then.

Another track I love from this album is Renai Revolution 21 (Cho Cho Cho cool remix) which is probably the most enjoyable remix of all H!P remixes I've heard alongside with Afurechau... BE IN LOVE (Premium Version) that appears on Gocchin's Goto Maki Premium Best 1 album. Usually remixes and new arrangements always sound a bit forced and when I'm already used to the originals they sound uncomfortable and strange to me. But these two songs have great arrangements and that Afurechau... BE IN LOVE (Premium Version) is almost better than the original single. ♥ But to the Momusu track: it's really different from the original, but it's great. It's a lot slower and has less "wow wo wow wo" parts (of course you know exactly what I mean :P) but it has an continuous "cho cho cho ii kanji" thing going on (well now you know where that name comes from). As I suck at describing please listen to it yourself!

No to mention the other great tracks. :) But back to the point, to the second coming of Konnichi pa feeling, the déjà vu phenomenon of H!P. I had evetually got to the last track, Hello! Mata Aou ne by 20nin Matsuri (in other words the whole Hello!Project (expect for Nakazawa Yuuko for some reason). Incredible isn't it? They were only around 20 back then!) The song is also the b-side of all the shuffle singles of that year so you may have heard it already but on the singles it's only sang by the members of that particular shuffle unit, not by all the members of H!P. It's a rather nice mid-tempo ballad but nothing really amazing. Well, the song came to end but I was to lazy to get up and take the CD from my CD player so I let it stay there. You can imagine my expression when all of a sudden the sound of a very famous Japanese commercial started to play. I'll let you hear yourself, I hope haven't told too much yet. :) I was really surprised, nobody told me what was going to happen! But anyway, I love H!P surprises.

What happened then was that I had to play that part of the song (though it's not part of the song, just a part of the track) again and giggle stupidly. Maybe it was just an ad but it made my day. :) It was so unexpected, not told in the tracklisting...

Some more Hello!Project love.

What a pose! *feeling dizzy...* And such a perfect foot.. (I don't believe I just said that.)

We all love first gen Momusu, don't we? ★

Sorry for the bad quality of the Minimoni picture. I own this photobook so maybe I should scan it myself to get picures of better quality... But I've never figured out how to scan photobooks (and get GOOD scans) without

1. detaching the pages in order to get good scans (and so destroying the photobook).
2. trying to scan it without breaking it first (and destroying it this way).

So maybe it's not even possible. :)

And just one more... Which one should I put? Hard decision...

Since I was going with a little older material, I decided to put one from Ayaya's first photobook. I love that book!

BTW, does anyone know where I could get the scans of Konkon's first photobook? I've only got them in a really poor quality... I'll be very thankful if someone knows!

Maybe I'll have to put just another one. For v-u-den's sake.

Now that Berryz Koubou's next single preview is up and the song is REALLY going to be a cover of this Dschinghis Khan song by a German band of the same name, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to listen to one of Berryz singles without laughing. This is a very well-known song here in Finland, anyone can sing the Finnish lyrics to its chorus... But it's only really a big joke. Just as is their second sinlge Moskau (whose Finnish name is Volga) which is just as well-known. But as I've learned in the past year during the quest of making myself familiar with H!P, everything in j-pop works differentely. They CAN (or at least TSUNKU can) make a single for a bubblegum pop girl group with age range of 13-16 covering a ridiculous 70's Eurovision Song Contest song!

Why it's hard for me to accept what's going on:

1. Eurovision is not a very seriously taken song contest... :)
2. At least the songs performed in Eurovision are not taken very seriously. (Maybe excluding the Russians... :))

 

(To think of it more, there are many people who take the whole thing seriously... But I REALLY can't understand them. :))

 

But on the other hand:

1. Many people wouldn't take j-pop groups like Berryz very seriously either.
2. Maybe Eurovision was a little bit more of a serious contest back then.
3. I must admit, this is a very H!P kind of song. XD

With all those "HU! HA!"s (Koi no Dance Site anyone?) and other yells going on, the choreography (which is actually also very H!P like :P they only need to make it a bit livelier) already made and the lyrics probably translated into Japanese already in the 70's all Tsunku has to do is decide which girl plays which part. And even that is quite easy as there are six members in the original band so he (or the choreogaphers) have to create only one part more.

After a new single is announced I'm always looking very much forward to seeing the PV. This time I'm really waiting to see it.

Bet °C-ute's next single is going to be a cover of Moskau? I do. :) And when that happens, remember that I said it first! XP

This coreography is made for seven people even more than the last one - see how they are clearly missing one people on the left side. There should be three in both sides and then one in the middle. I hope that Maimi gets the part of that man in the middle with red clothes, a weird beard and a funny hat. He is clearly the center and gets to dance the most so his part is definetely made for Maimi.

How great would that Berryz Kamen vs. °C-ute Rangers concert be with Berryz and °C-ute having a song and dance battle with these two songs? :D Have you seen the movie of the musical Fiddler on the Roof? There's a scene where the Judes are dancing in a local pub because one of them is going to get married. The Russians also start to dance to congratulate the man and the father of the bride. As everyone knows Judes and Russians didn't have very warm feelings towards each other at that period of time in Russia so they almost end up having a fight but fortunately decide just to dance more.

Skip the first 2.20 minutes if you're not interested in the song, only the dance part. The best part is maybe  4.44-> which clearly decribes what kind of dance battle I would like to see, though there are some other great parts also, especially the Russian dance part (3.40->) as the dancers are VERY skilful.

Just how great would it be to have something like that between Berryz and °C-ute? XD Really! Of course the dances would be very different. However I insist there should be some Russian features (something similar to Kohachan's Balalaika for example) since the other song's about the capital of Russia and Mongolia isn't very far either. :)

However the idea of having a joint concert with Berryz and °C-ute is a great one and I shall greatly enjoy the concert even if they don't feature my great suggestions.

PS. If you don't know what tropak is, it's the funny Russian (actually Ukranian) dance you can see in my sample video (Fiddler on the Roof) where the dancers straighten their legs and throw them high in the air while squating. It's usually danced by men but I think our little girls have the power to do it. :) You can always try at home yourself - I assure you it's not that easy.

Volga, Volga, rakkaus vai kuolema... *sings the Finnish version of Moskau*