Morning Musume-Seishun Collection preview

Morning Musume's 43rd single, Seishun Collection, is being released June 9th. And of course a preview has been floating around the internet for about a week now.

First off, I am super disappointed with this song. I'm beyond not liking it. I dislike it so much I would prefer for it to never be released. I haven't been this disappointed in a single since Shouganai Yume Oibito. And I tried to give this song the benefit of doubt. I listened to it about 4-5 times in a row to find something good about it. And I just can't.

So, why do I dislike this song so much? It's pretty obvious. The song is boring and I mean extremely boring. The music is so bland it's almost excruciating to listen to. It honestly sounds like an ending song for a drama that you wouldn't really pay attention to. I'm just blown away by the fact that Morning Musume keeps releasing basically the same song over and over. What happened to Morning Musume changing its style from single to single? They've been consistently lack luster for the past 6 singles or so. Because Kimagure Princess was a complete fluke.

And this song is the 3rd song in the row were only Ai, Risa, Reina, and Eri got solo lines. And I'm sick of it. I'm absolutely sick of it! Line distribution has never been this unfair in the history of Morning Musume. Well actually from Love Machine and on, it was a little unfair in the beginning. But still it is just incredible that Morning Musume keeps making unfair songs like this and shows no sign of slowing down or stopping. And I'm just tired of hearing the same people sing over and over. Yeah they're the best singers of the current line up, tell me something I didn't know. Pretty soon it's going to be Furusato all over again.

And they could do something to make it more interesting. Not one of the girls has a solo line in Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~, and that's one of my all time favorite Morning Musume singles. For the simple fact that it's upbeat and it's fun. Which is what idol music is basically all about.

New H!P unit Lilpri

Hello!Project has formed a new anime centered unit called Lilpri, for the anime "Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri. The unit will consist of newly major debuted S/mileage members Fukuda Kanon, Wada Ayaka and Maeda Yuuka. Their debut single, Little Princess, will be released June 16th. On top of singing the music they will be pulling a Kusumi Koharu and will also be voice acting in the anime.

Am I the only one a little disappointed by the group members? I love S/mileage and all, and Yuuka and Kanon are my favorites. But I was expecting to see some Egg members. When I heard about the announcement I though, "Great, I wonder what Egg members will be picked." Small groups like this are the perfect place to showcase the Egg's talents. And for people like me who don't pay attention to the Eggs at all, to find out about the amazing H!P members you didn't even know existed. Like with Yuuka and Kanon. I instantly fell in love with Yuuka in High King, and I instantly fell in love with Kanon. This is why the Eggs never do anything in H!P. Tsunku focuses on a few girls, and you never stop seeing them. What about using Saho Akari for this group? She rocked in Yume to Genjitsu. And she was already shafted from being in S/mileage, it seems she was shafted again.

But, I guess I can stop complaining about S/mileage's line distribution now. If I don't get my Kanon fix from S/mileage I can listen to Lilpri. But since this group features 3/4 of S/mileage I doubt it's going to last that long. Anime units don't last that long, and this unit isn't really a new unit. Why bother using 3/4 of S/mileage? They should just have S/mileage sing the themes for this anime. That's essentially what they're doing anyway. But I guess H!P did this as a strategic move. Shoving 3/4 of S/mileage into a new group gives S/mileage itself double the exposure and double the fans. Now not only will wota love S/mileage but the little kids watching the anime too. Just like with Kirarin Revolution.

I do love the outfits though, they're really cute. But Kanon's seems out of place. Yuuka looks like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Ayaka looks like Snow White, and Kanon looks like she just happens to be wearing a kimono. Unless she's supposed to be modeled after Princess Kaguya. That's the best guess I have. And Kanon looks absolutely adorable with that hair.

However, I am not a fan of the song at all. It's just way too childish for me. I'm 18 years old and this song is obviously geared to a 7 year old. Kirarin Revolution was geared for little kids, and so were the song. But they weren't overly childish, and I could listen to them without feeling immature. But this song I feel pretty uncool for listening to it now.
Aside from the childish lyrics, the music is good I guess. It just sounds like all the overly happy and girly anime music out there. Change the lyrics and this could have been the opening to Chobits, Ouran High School Host Club, or Full Moon wo Sagashite.

KAT-TUN-Going! preview

KAT-TUN's 12th single, Going, song preview is out. This 2nd Jinless single will be released May 12th.

The first 5 seconds of this son make me laugh a lot. I mean Koki screaming going in the beginning is just awkward and hilarious. And totally doesn't match with the song at all. And for some reason this song has more auto tuning. I love auto tuning and all, but I can barely tell who is who with the auto tune effect. Sometimes it sounds like Koki, but then it kinda sounds like Kame at the same time. I have no idea who sings directly after Maru in the beginning. It literally sounds like they added a new member to KAT-TUN to replace Jin. I'm like 75% it's Ueda though. The only member who's voice is distinct during auto tuning is Taguchi's because of his obvious nasal voice. And when Kame has extended notes it's also obvious.
The song itself is a little on the bland side. It sounds like a B-side, or one of their many album tracks I'd just skip over. It's completely not strong enough to be an A-side. I guess since Jin's not there they just threw something together. I kind of miss Jin's "I wish I was American" English thrown in there.
Unless this song has some sort of amazing lyrics, I don't see the appeal of this song. Though since it's KAT-TUN stupid fangirls will still make it shoot to number one. I wouldn't be surprised if it only sold like 150,000 copies in the first week.

S/mileage-Yume Miru 15sai preview

S/mileage's debut single, Yume Miru 15sai, is being released on May 26th. And of course we have the preview for it. The concert rip of the song has been out for over a month actually. The preview for this song has been out for such a long time that the PV will be out any day now. But, since it's not out yet I can still post my initial review of this. And I've actually never heard this song before. I usually wait for radio rips because concert rips are such terrible quality. Like C-ute's Campus Life ~Umarete Kite Yokatta~ concert rip I could barely tell who was singing. So I'm happy S/mileage's radio rip for this song is out.

But let me start of by saying this song makes me feel old. Were's the Yume Miru 18sai songs in H!P. I miss W they had songs about being 17 and 18. XD
The song its self is really different from what S/mileage has been doing. It sounds like Dakishimete Dakishimete mixed with Bye Bye Bye. It's the complete opposite of what I was expecting it to be. But if you listened every S/mileage song sounded completely different. Which could mean H!P isn't completely sure what to do with S/mileage. I personally prefer S/mileage's cuter sounding songs like Suki-Chan, which was my favorite indie single by them. I'm not completely into this more mature sounding song from them. It reminds me of how C-ute was always getting more mature songs then Berryz, despite Berryz being older. But H!P artists song styles change from single to single, so I'm really looking forward to future S/mileage releases. As well as concerts and CDs. I'm really excited. :]

And of course I have to complain about line distribution. When Suki-Chan was released I was really happy because I thought all of their releases would be distributed like this. But of course not, their back to the same S/mileage line distribution as aMa no Jaku. Saki and Yuuka lead, and Ayaka and Kanon minor. The line distribution isn't really drastic like C-ute's Shock was. I mean you can hear I guess a decent chunk of Kanon and Ayaka, but just not really enough. But most of the time they're just singing in the background. Like S/mileage is The Supremes with two Diana Rosses. (That looks weird. But I have no idea how to make Ross not look weird in plural form.) S/mileage only has 4 members. If there was any H!P group to be super fair S/mileage is one of them. I mean look how fair Buono is.

Get your tickets for Koharu Land!

Finally a H!P blog I actually care about has opened. Well I care about Kanon and Aika's. But I don't care at all about Sayumi's or Erika's. Or the OG's blogs. But none of their blogs matter. One of the greatest idols to ever grace Morning Musume has opened a blog. That idol is none other than Kusumi Koharu!

Yes, now there will finally be a blog dedicated to every detail of Koharu's life! And it will be sure to answer all the burning questions you have about her. Such as the last meal she ate, what outfit she's wearing that day, and the ever important what movies has she been to lately.

But in all seriousness, I am extremely excited for this. This will probably be the first blog I actually check often. Well assuming someone translates it. I usually skip Kanon's blog because I don't speak Japanese. After a while just staring at pictures you don't know the reason for is kind of boring. But since it's Koharu I'll still probably check it more often than Kanon's. I mean it's Koharu. Probably my favorite idol ever. Which is a pretty big statement.

Koharu's blog is apparently called Koharu Land: Free admissions. Which is an extremely cute and fitting name for Koharu. Take that Erika's Sweet Diary and Non Peace! The blog itself is also extremely cute and sparkly. It almost looks like a blog and Egg Magazine model would have, but that's ok. The banner also has some new pictures of Koharu. Which gives us an idea of what she's been doing for the past 4 months. (Besides some TV appearances.) I'm also excited that she lists herself as a singer, actress, and model. Which means we'll possibly here some new songs from Koha. Which I'm definitely looking forward to. Though I wonder if she means actress, actress or seiyuu.

But whatever the case is be sure to check Koha's blog often. You can click here for her blog.

Moshimo, kono sekai kara Tegomass ga nakunattara

Tegomass had a new single and PV out called, Moshimo, kono sekai kara OO ga nakunattara. And if you're a hardcore Tegomass/JE fan you already knew that. But if you read my blog regularly you know I'm far to lazy to make PV reviews the second the PV comes out. And honestly I didn't know the PV came out until 2 days ago. If I wasn't looking a NEWS news I would have been none the wiser. And most likely about a month from now would say "What ever happened to that Tegomass song?" Exactly like I did with Perfume, but I am eventually going to do a PV review of Natural ni Koishite .

Anyway, I'm getting way off track here. So, I'm going to talk about the song for a little. Since I hardly ever remember to post song previews. This song just isn't one of my favorites. I mean the lyrics are cute, but it just lacks the immediate catchyness and upbeat music of their past singles. It's on the bottom with Tanabata Matsuri, but it's still above Tanabata Matsuri. Mostly because I don't like country sounding music in the US, why would I possibly like it in Japan? I think most of you know by now I don't really like slow sounding songs or ballads. People can argue that I have no musical taste, and that most ballads have great lyrics. And point taken, but I just really dislike them. I must have a slow attention span or something.

Now on to my PV review, because I usually take any chance I can poke fun at Tegoshi. He's easily the best singer in NEWS, and one of the best in JE. But I just don't really like him that much. XD



Again with the phone? Isn't it a little too early to suffer from another breakup?


It really makes me sad that all I can read is no and ka. One of these days I'm going to actually learn Japanese. Though it probably only says hello, I miss you. Or something very similar.


Massu Downer brooding in the back of the bus alone. He must still be hung up over Sakura Girl.


Pwn!


Apathetic businessman doesn't care about your feelings. I love the face he makes though. Like "I don't care, I don't even know what JE is." lolz.


Eh, I'd probably do the same thing.


Looming waitress, who looks like she could play a ghost in the Grudge, also doesn't care about your feelings.


But Teogshi matches things up with way too strong of a reaction. A normal reactions would be, "WTH? I'm not paying for this now."


And magically it's in color now. For no apparent reason other than it's the start of the chorus. And WTF? Tegoshi is wearing rosary beads again! I'm beginning to think he thinks they're just another random necklace/accessory.


And he's still got that hair that I hate. By the way, nice face. XD


Let's creepily watch everyone who is happier than I am.


How come Massu always has scenes featuring kids? In PVs and concerts he's always awkwardly touching the extras or Juniors. It's really weird.


Why doesn't anyone love me?


Oh everything is emo again. Must be another verse.


Even Massu Downer doesn't get what's going on.


Tegoshi sits from his table and watches you with longing eyes. How is that not creepy?


Yeah having the whole world disappear will have that confused effect on you.


Massu Downer managed to clear out an entire bus.


Let's take a second to laugh at Tegoshi's shirt. It either says he loves Tom, or he loves his time of the month. Either way, that's a woman's shirt. Which is extremely hilarious.


That's the gayest face ever. ._.


Hmmm. No, Massu's face still wins.


So let me get this straight, if you're not with the person you love every second of the day the world might as well not exist? Codependencye FTW!


And of course Tegoshi and Massu are the people they can't live without. I'm sure that wasn't intentional fanservice on JE's part.


This is why Tegoshi should never smile.


And this is why either of them should never smile. Even little girl in the background notices.

Kusano and Kanna reappear!

It must be forgotten ex-member week in Japan, because pictures of forgotten members have surfaced. And because I must have incredible luck, it just so happens the pictures are of members I always complain about not seeing.

First up is new pictures of former NEWS member Hironori Kusano. When I first heard about new Kusano pictures I was pretty thrilled. I've expressed on this blog several times I want to see new things from Kusano. So I'm happy at any little new thing that surfaces about him. But it's hard to find pictures of Kusano that aren't unnecessarily blurred, or partying with some random foreign chick. But this is something official. Kusano modeled for some sort of store called Cailly*Coo. You can go here to see for yourself.

It's good to see Kusano doing something again. However, not with that hair. He looks pretty much disgusting. He's got this wannabe Johnny Depp hair going on, and I am not into it at all. Kusano is usually really adorable, but this hair completely ruins everything. :/
I wonder if this means Kusano will actually do something now. Wasn't it for the longest time he wasn't allowed to show his face at all? If he is now, apparently JE had something to do with it.


And the next person is none other than my favorite C-ute member, if she's officially one or not, Arihara Kanna! I literally gasped when I read that there was a new picture of Kanna. I haven't seen Kanna in over a year. Ever since she had her "bunion surgery." And I am beyond excited to see her again.

This picture is from Erika's blog, where you can check out here. Since I can't read or speak Japanese, I have no idea what is being said about Kanna. The only thing I can understand is えりかのBESTFRIEND, which pretty obviously says Erika's best friend.
I am so happy about this picture. Kanna is looking as adorable as ever. I definitely think Kanna should follow in the footsteps of her best friend and become a model or at least open a blog.

KAT-TUN's new single Going on without Jin

KAT-TUN will be releasing a new single entitled Going! on May 12th. Now I usually don't make entire posts for the announcement of new singles. But what makes this new single so significant is Jin will not be part of this single. Which isn't really anything new since he wasn't in the Bokura no Machi de single last time he was in LA. And on top of that supposedly Jin doesn't have any work scheduled after October. Though I'm not sure how it's possible for anyone outside of Johnny's to actually know that.

So of course it's easy for any fan to start to wonder if this means Jin will permanently leaving KAT-TUN to focus on the US. And of course that will likely never happen. Hey a fan can still dream. I guess I'm just overly eager to see Jin try to break into the US market. Even though he would fail miserably. But I don't even care if it's Jin so much. It could be any Japanese artist. I'm just tired of constantly hearing about Korean singers trying to make it here. I like Kpop and all, but I like Jpop about 500 times more.
And I would still like to know why Jin is staying in the US for 3 extra months. It still doesn't make sense to be to add 3 extra months to your visa for extra concerts that aren't set in stone. Because honestly if he doesn't add more concerts, what is he going to do in the US for 3 extra months? It's not really fair that the rest of KAT-TUN has to do concerts, while he gets a 3 month break just because he was asked to do concerts in the US.
I don't know this whole situation doesn't sit right with me. But I guess we'll have to wait until October. Since this Jin breaking out in the US rumor is a little farfetched, I'm sure come October everyone will look back and laugh about it as much as the Kusano joining KAT-TUN rumor.

Top 10 least favorite Morning Musume singles

Pretty much since Resonant Blue came out there's been a lot of whiny Morning Musume fans out there. Saying that Morning Musume has become Emo Musume, or Sad Musume. Most of them have been saying Momusu is horrible now and they lost the spark they had in the past. But that statement is only half true. This era of Morning Musume has it's share of misses as well as gems. Just like any other Morning Musume era. Saying that Morning Musume is horrible now, or they don't like Morning Musume anymore, in my opinion is just ridiculous. Morning Musume has been togther for 12 years, and in that time they've released somewhere around 150 songs. Now that's an incredible amount of songs. And in all honestly out of about 150 songs how many songs do you actually like? I doubt there is one Morning Musume fan who likes every single song. Because it seems pretty impossible. Morning Musume's style is always changing. There's bound to be one style you dislike and one style you favor over the others. Now let's cut that number down to 42, for each of Morning Musume's single's A sides. Now ask yourself the same question. Out of 42 A sides how many songs do you actually like? I'm sure there's very few fans out there that answered 42. And those of you who did are apparently bigger Morning Musume fans than me, because out of 42 singles I don't love every single song. However, even though I don't love every single song there's not one Morning Musume single I absolutely hate. I might dislike songs or like some songs more than others but I don't hate any. And eventually I'm in the mood to listen to the songs I don't care for too much. Though it's usually once in a blue moon.

So on to the main point of my post. I'm going to post my top ten least favorite Morning Musume singles. I guess to show that Morning Musume wasn't always absolutely incredible. And they have made mistakes before Resonant Blue. Because saying they haven't is just silly.
Also keep in mind these are in no particular order. They're basically in the order I remembered them in. XD

10. Pepper Keibu


This song is ok, but I bet it was a lot better in the 70s. I'm not really into remakes. Especially if it sounds exactly like the original. The only H!P remake I actually really love is W's Koi no Vacance. And that's because they changed it up a lot. I'm not really a fan of disco music so having a single with heavy disco music is a bit of a miss for me. But I must admit I do love the chorus of the song, but not the verse so much. And I also hate that Reina is the only person to get a solo line. And since I really dislike Reina that pretty much ruins the song for me too.


9. Aruiteru



I must be the only person who dislikes this song considering it shot to number 1 on the Oricon charts. But I don't really care what everyone thinks of the song I don't really like it too much. And it's not like the lyrics are bad or anything. As a matter of fact, they're actually kind of cute. I'm just not a fan of slow paced songs. And I find the nanana parts annoying. They're kind of a cop out for not being able to think of another line of chorus.


8. The Manpower!



The Manpower has been floating around the top of my least favorite Morning Musume singles for a couple of years now. This song just annoys me to no end! The lyrics as a whole are pretty dumb. I'm not sure why anyone would like a song that's basically about being a human. The homo sapiens line makes me laugh every time for some reason. And I especially hate the manpower parts. They repeat it too many times. It's just annoying and redundant.


7. Osaka Koi no Uta



I'm not even a hundred percent sure why I dislike this song. There's just something about it that irks me. I've been avoiding this song like the plague. Since becoming an H!P fangirl I've probably listened to this song a grand total of 5 times. And it has nothing to do with it being in Osaka dialect, because it's not like I can tell the difference anyway. Osaka Koi no Uta is just way too whiny. And because of the way they're singing it. They're just singing really whiny, like they're gonna cry any minute. I know since the song is about lost love it's supposed to be like that. But it just find it annoying.


6. Souda! We're Alive



This is another song that's been at the top of my least favorite songs for a while. Everything about the song annoys me! The music, they way they sing it, and the annoying background vocals. You know the ha he ho parts. XD And they also must say boom boom boom pump it up and yeah yeah pump it up like 70 times! There's no need for that! And aside from that the whole song is pretty pointless. The lyrics are basically we're alive and everyone else is alive too. Yay, let's be happy we're alive. I mean there's not really much beyond that. It's pretty dumb and meaningless if you ask me.


5. The Peace



I'm not sure why The Peace is pretty much a Momusu fan favorite. Practically every Momusu fan is in love with The Peace. And I can't fathom why. I can't stand how redundant the song is. The chant in the beginning is repeated through the song entirely too much. And the lyrics are kind of all over the place. They don't really connect to one another. It's about English school, going out to eat, and ordering pizza. It's just so random. It also never wants to end. It has like 4 false endings before it actually ends.



4. Nanchatte Renai



Nanchatte Renai is somewhere in the middle for me. It's not completely terrible, but I don't like it enough for it to be above the bottom ten. The lyrics are just a little bit too sad. I mean at one point the lyrics kind of imply that Ai-chan is going to cry while eating a hamburger. I do absolutely love the rap parts though. However, Sayumi getting a solo verse kind of ruins everything.


3. Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai



Even though I like the overall message of the song some of the lyrics are a little stupid. Which brings down the whole song. I'm not sure what everyone looking at my transparent shirt has to do with anything. And of course unfair line distribution makes me like this song even less. I tend to prefer songs where I can hear all the girl's singing. Not just the best singers over and over again.


2. Memory Seishun no Hikari



This song is here because I don't really care for old school Morning Musume that much. I start really caring Love Machine and beyond. Though I do love Summer Night Town, Furusato, and Daite Hold On Me. But I started liking them recently. I don't know I just find this song to be really boring. There's just nothing about it that stands out. And the random guy rapping in the background is a little weird. And I also hate that it became Reina's unofficial song. I also hate I could only find her version subtitled. XD I think everyone is well aware how I feel about Reina.


1. Manatsu no Kousen



I think I really dislike this song because of how old sounding the music is. I know the song is a decade old but the music makes it sound other than that. I don't know I guess it's hard to explain. I'm also not that big of a Nacchi fan and all of the old school Momusu songs revolve around her. They basically have to sing the harmony around her, and I hate that. So I guess that adds to why I dislike it. The chorus of the song is really cute, but the verse is a little flat.

S/mileage goes major!

It's official S/mileage is finally going major. Tsunku, just as planned, announced at ManoEri's concert that S/mileage will have their major debut. They will be signed to Pony Canyon, the same label as Buono. Theie debut song, Yume Miru 15sai, will be released May 26th.

I am completely thrilled that S/mileage accomplished their goal and are going major. I love S/mileage and I think they have real potential to be a top act in H!P. I loved all of their singles so far. I'm really excited to see a S/mileage concert, full album, B sides, and photobooks in the future. I'm just really excited about this! S/mileage is really adorable and have cute voices.

They also revealed the mosaic of all the smiles pictures.

So good luck finding yours. I'd like to think that mine is somewhere making up Kanon. ;]

And if you can speak Japanese, here's the video where Tsunku makes the announcement. I totally expected the wota to flip out way more than they did. But they also break out in a S/mileage chant for about 3 seconds though. XD