C-ute says Bye Bye Bye to quality

C-ute's 8th single, Bye Bye Bye, is being released April 15th. It will be their first release since January.

So, I'm here to give you a better late than never review. This time of C-ute's new PV and song. Which came out about a week ago.

I actually really love the song. But I feel almost guilty about liking it. I think because Kanna's not in it I shouldn't like it as much as I do. I'm Kanna biased!
But the song is really good, I love the dance and techno theme the music has. The overall tempo of the song is a little bit on the slow side though. Even at the chorus it barely picks up.
The line distribution is another reason this song is awesome. Of course there's still the overdose of the Airi/Maimi combo. But everyone else gets 3-4 solo lines. Which is nice for a change. Mai sounds especially great in this song. Her voice wsa just perfect for this song. But I really hate that on every Saki solo line they do that crackling effect to her voice. You can't even really hear her voice. I know Saki isn't the greatest vocalist of C-ute but come on every solo line. That's a little harsh.

As for the PV, I think less than impressed would be an understatement. There's just so many reasons it was a dud for me. First off, I absolutely hate the outfits. They are like futuristic race queen outfits. And the silver and pink combo reminds me of Nono's Robo Kiss outfit.
The PV also focused way to much on the giant Bye Bye Bye screen in the background. I swear they did like 12 separate effects on the background. It's not that important.
And the dance was just an absolute fail. Easily one of the worst and unimaginative H!P dances in a while. For the chorus they just throw their hands up in the air. They really just phoned in the dance.
The overall set is boring too. Take away the big flashing sign and what do you have really? Plain silver walls and a few lights off to the side. It makes it look like a dance shot rather than a PV.
Another thing I don't like is the close up background. I don't understand how Easter pastels match anything. The girls to look really pretty in the close up though. Especially Chisato, she blew me away.



Dramatic silhouettes


Mai trying to look sultry


Awkward dance #1. I don't even know what's going on


Airi saving the PV with her cutness but Mai is not amused


Awkward dance #2. Brush your shoulders off


Saki wants you to stop altering her voice


I have to admit I love those boots


Adorable Airi


Awkward dance #3. Finger waving good


This pic is just too cute


Awkward dance #4. Chorus Fail


When did Chisato get this pretty?


Gosh Maimi looks great


Awkard dance #5. What is this the cotton eyed joe?


Mai looks really mature. And I love her shirt


Erika's face looks weird o_O


Saki looking bland


Awkward dance #6. WTF?


Chisato looks adorable


Saki and Mai is win and cute


More Airi cuteness


Awkawrd dance #7.


Awkward dance #8. It's a point off!


Awkward dance #9. Now hug yourself


As much as I miss Kanna from the song and video, even she couldn't have made it better. She just would have made it more watchable.

H!P 2009 Poll

Hello!Blog has released yet another poll. But this time it's the 2009 H!P Poll. Or as I like to call it H!P Perfect 10. You can see my results above.

Now this poll was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Easily harder than Hello!Blog's group ranking I tried to place each member in order of how much I've been paying attention to them lately and who is already my favorite members. But there are so many members I like I ended up having to cut a few off. Which wasn't an easy task. I actually feel really bad about the members I had to cut. XD

Here's a little expliantion of who I picked and why.

1. Kusumi Koharu: I think it's pretty obvious that Koha was going to be number 1. I've loved Koharu ever since I first saw her. She's the main reason I love Momusu as much as I do.
2. Arihara Kanna: I need to show my love for Kanna! She is definitely my favorite C-ute member. I never even cared about the kids before Kanna. She has one of the best and underrated voices in C-ute.
3. Konno Asami: When I started listen to older Momus I was always intrigued by Kon Kon. I went out of my way to find songs and shows that featured her. I guess I liked her because she was flawed. Insanely cute but not necessarily the best singer.
4. Mitsui Aika: I've always had a certain attachment to Mittsi, since I started to really follow Morning Musume on her debut song. I always supported and followed Aika closely for that reason.
5. LinLin: LinLin has really come out of nowhere to be one of my favorites in Morning Musume. Her overall energy and enthusiasm during concerts and shows really drew me to her.
6. Kumai Yurina: The main reason I care about Berryz. And another underrated member. I heard her in Tsukiatteru no ni Kataomoi and that was it, I was sold.
7. Tsugunaga Momoko: I started liking and noticing Momo because of Buono. And it helps that she's adorable with an anime like voice.
8. Michishige Sayumi: I totally expected Sayu to be much higher on my list. When I first got into Momsu she was my 2nd favorite member. I still really love Sayumi, but there's just H!P members I've grown to love a little bit more.
9. Fukuda Kanon: I started listening to Shugo Chara Egg for Yuuka, but ended up liking Kanon way more. Her voice is adorable and she's like mini Aibon.
10. Tsuji Nozomi: Nono will always be one of my favorites because she was the other half of W. So I've grown to like her. But honestly if Aibon was there I'm not sure if Nono would even make the list.


And here's the members I had to cut.
-Niigaki Risa
-Suzuki Airi
-Maeda Yuuka
-Ishikawa Rika

New H!P unit Guardians 4

Starting April 4th there will be a new group to promote Shugo Chara called Guardians 4. This group will consist of Morning Musume member Mitsui Aika, C-ute member Nakajima Saki, and Berryz Koubou members Kumai Yurina and Sugaya Risako. Their first single, Omakase! Guardian, will come out on May 27th and will be the new opening theme to Shugo Chara.

This is seriously amazing news. Yurina is finally in a subgroup! And it's about time. Yurnia is my favorite Berryz member. And she's more talented then she gets credit for. And Mittsi in another group is amazing. Gotta love all the Aika love that's going on lately. I'm not to thrilled about the second half though. Saki is one of my least favorite C-ute members and even though Risako can really sing, I think she already gets enough attention. The same thing happened with Athena & Robikerottsu. I listned to them for Aika and Risa.
Another thing that's going to be interesting about this group is who is going to be the leader and main singer. I really don't want to see an overdose of Risako or even her as the main singer. Her being in the group alone is enough. I'm actually hoping Aika takes lead vocals. Since she's growing in popularity and singing opportunities. It doesn't really matter who gets the main vocals though since Shugo Chara groups have really fair line distribution. And every one pretty much gets equal screen time.
As for leader they will probably go the Buono and High King route. Where they don't have an official leader and one of the member names themselves as the unofficial leader. But if there is a leader it should definitely be Yurina.

The whole con of this group is Shuo Chara Eggs possibly disappearing. Which makes the whole Guardians 4 group bittersweet. I gain Aika and Yurina in a group but lose Yuuka and Kanon in one. Which is kind of terrible. Since Yuuka and Kanon are Eggs there's a possibility we'll never see from them again. I hope that doesn't happen. Yuuka and Kanon deserve to be in an official group anyway.

I have a new blog!

So everyone I have a new blog that I'm launching today. It has absolutely nothing to do with Jmusic however. It's just my personal blog. I've pretty much wanted to make a personal blog every since I started blogging, but I was just too lazy to make one until now. So if anyone cares about my personal life or opinions on things other than Jpop check it out. Here's my site, Daily Dose of Amy. And thanks for reading my shameless plug. :P

Mikitty's getting hitched!

Former morning Musume member Miki Fujimoto is engaged to comedian Shouji Tomoharu and is planning to get married this summer. After a 2 year relationship they finally are tying the knot.

My initial reactions to this is, that's who she resigned from Momusu for! I'm not really a big Miki fan and didn't even bother to research her boyfriend when her scandal hit. What is it with H!P and their bad taste in men?

But looks aside, I am really happy for Miki. It's great that she found someone to love her completely. I wish her all the best. It will be interesting to see her start her family.

C-ute- Bye Bye Bye PV preview

My past few posts have been very JE centered but here's some H!P news to break the theme. H!P released a short 15 second PV clip of C-ute's latest single, Bye Bye Bye, available by cell phone download.

I kind of feel cheated out of a preview since we only get to see shadows of the girls. Which is a little frustrating if you ask me.
So far the PV looks pretty cool. It's a little 80's looking, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The flashing Bye's in the background are a little gimmicky, that's really my only complaint about the short preview.

It's anyone's guess when the PV will actually be out, but we can most likely expect it sometime this week. This little clip isn't really going to hold you over until then, but it will have to.

Hey! Say! Jump! Jonetsu Jump preview

Hey! Say! JUMP! preformed their new song, Jonetsu Jump, recently at what I'm guessing is some volleyball event. So now we have a nice preview of this song. But there is still no official word if this is the A-side for their upcoming new single.

The performance itself is really cool. There's a lot of backup dancers, so it's really extravagant. And Chinen's jump in the beginning was pure win. The cameras really seem to be focusing more on Hey! Say! 7. Ryosuke and Chinen especially. Which isn't really surprising since Ryosuke is the most popular member. I would like to see more Yabu and Yuto though.

The outfits are really a disappointment. They're very matador like and hideous. I really hope these aren't the PV outfits. For the most part Hey! Say! JUMP! has had ugly PV outfits. Mayonaka no Shadow Boy's outfits were the best looking and the Your Seed ones weren't bad either.

But anyway, I'm not really impressed by the song. The music is really fun, but everything else is a little bland. It's just not catchy and the sound has been done before. We'll see what I think of it after I listen to it a few more times.

NEWS's new single Koi no ABO

NEWS's new single will be released towards the end of April. It will be their 11th single to date and will be entitled Koi no ABO. This song will also be featured in the Spring and Summer ads for the RUSS-K clothing line.

This is amazing news. I'm super excited for a new NEWS single. It's really about time too. Their last single was in October. And it seemed every other Johnny's group was releasing new singles. Not much is known about the new single as of now. But we do have a 15 second preview of it in the new RUSS-K ad. And the song sounds amazing! It's completely different than Happy Birthday. I can't wait for a full preview of this.

Kusano returning to NEWS in April?

All I can say about this is where have I been? I seriously just found out about this yesterday. But this info has been all over the web for almost a year! I really need to start following JE more. Currently all my time is spent religiously following H!P. But anyway, since it's getting extremely close to the rumored date this deserves to be posted.

Ex-NEWS member Hironori Kusano left for New York City last year around April 18th. He was said to have departed to study both dance and English in NYC. And it seems the extra nudge to leave was Kusano's lonely feelings he had when Jin spoke in English. There was also apparently a farewell party held for him. Which Jin attended and probably Yamapi.

I found this picture shocking at first look because I automatically recognized the girl in the picture. It's none other than Chelsea aka AmerikaJinMusume. I'm sure most of you will remember her, from either her youtube dance videos or her appearance on Haromoni@. She also has her own blog, if you want to check that out. She's also a little to chummy with them if you ask me. She also refers to Kusano has Hiro. But anyway, this is pretty much the most recent picture of Notti on the web. It also wasn't easy to find. It seems that Kusano has changed much, which is good. I wonder if he also kept his hair the same? Hard to tell when his hair is under that hat.

I really hope this isn't a rumor because this is seriously the best news I've gotten all week. And all it makes sense now, why only Uchi was getting attention. It's kind of hard to have a solo concert if you're not in the right country. I think my previous posts make it pretty obvious that I'm a bigger Kusano fan than Uchi fan. He's supposed to be coming back in April, so I'll really be looking forward to seeing if anything actually happens. I've really missed Kusano's unique vocals, awesome dance skills, and his overall sexyness.

But I doubt Kusano will be placed back into NEWS just like that. They will probably do the same thing as Uchi and have solo concerts first. But it's pretty interesting that the Kusano comeback rumor overlaps with the Johnny's Entertainment shuffle groups rumor. So maybe we'll see the return of Kusano in a dream unit first. Who knows? As of today neither of these things have been confirmed by JE yet. It would really suck if both of these were really nothing more than rumors.

Get rescued by KAT-TUN

KAT-TUN'S 10th single, Rescue, was released on March 11th. And as many of you know, it's the opening theme for the drama Rescue. This single is probably the last KAT-TUN single we'll see in a while. Since they've had 2 singles in 2 months. I doubt they could keep a release schedule like that for long.
And on a side note, sorry this review is delayed. I've been sick with the flu for the past week or so, and I haven't really been up to writing anything. But now I'm back to 100% to bring you my Rescue review.

Now I wasn't really a fan of this song when I first heard it on music station. I actually kind of disliked it. It was a little bit of a disappointment to me since I really liked One Drop. But after about the 3rd listen it really grew on me, and I've been listening to it nonstop all week. Overall I think the song is amazing. The harmonies in the chorus are just incredible. And the song is very catchy. The music has heavy almost anime like elements to it, but at the same time is very dancable. There's also a decent amount of English in the song, for one the entire chorus is sung in English. But I'm actually surprised by how well it sounds. If you listen closely though, you can hear Jin's voice overpowers everyone's during the English parts. Which honestly makes me laugh a little.
I think easily my favorite part of the song is Koki's rap. It just works and blends nicely into the rest of the song. Which is nice for a change, because in songs like Don't You Ever Stop the rap seems almost out of place.
But one part of the song I didn't like was Maru's stupid beatbox. Does anyone else think he should just stop? It seriously reminds me of how Justin Timberlake tried to incorporate beatbox into Nsync songs. So just no.
I actually really liked Taguchi's solo English line. His voice is usually too nasally for my taste, but for this line it just worked. And ended up sounding really awesome.
But poor Maru, it's his drama and he still only got 2 solo lines. Tough break. Maybe next drama you'll get more lines. But that's unlikely, they still have to worry about sales.
As for Kame and Ueda they kind of fell into the background to me. Everyone else easily over shadowed them.

I think the PV is really cool, it has a dark and intense theme. Most of KAT-TUN's PVs have a darker theme than other JE groups. But this one even more so, the color scheme to the video is black & white, sepia, and just overall grungy tones. There's also smoke stacks releasing smoke and fire in the background. I'm not really sure what that's all about. My best guess is, it's supposed to represent Maru's role as a fire fighter in the drama Rescue. But to me it's just an awkward interpretation. Other than the snazzy colors there's not really much going on in the video. They basically dance on top of a building and then run through the sewers. And lets not forget all the unnecessarily dramatic solo dance scenes.

Dark themed background

Dramatic running

Useless female dancer number one. Jin's excuse to get her on the
ground.

Jin's hair looks weird and crunchy.

 
Nice to have Kame's good hair back.

Maru's big spolight in the PV.

Cheer up emo kid.

And on the second day god said let there be Jin.

Ueda looks amazing.

Useless female dancer number 2. And it looks like that guy's
checking out Taguchi.

What's with Koki's MatsuJun smile?

Dramatic running 2.0.

Koki goodness.

More Koki goodness. He should never change this hair. It's
seriously the best he's ever looked.

 
Lolz at Taguchi's ballet moves.

Ueda looks awkward dancing with those girls.

This picture will never not be hot.

KAT-TUN line dance.

It's about time there's a Kame closeup