H!P revival group lists

Hello!Projects's revival groups for the H!P cover album, Chanpuru 1~Happy Marriage Song Cover Shuu~, were reviled. And some of the groups don't seem like the best choices.

The new groups are so follows:

Aa!

Natsuyaki Miyabi, Suzuki Airi, Saho Akari


Shin Minimoni

Linlin, Fukuda Kanon, Takeuchi Akari, Miyamoto Karin


Pucchimoni V

Nakajima Saki, Hagiwara Mai, Mano Erina

Zoku Biyuuden

Michishige Sayumi, Junjun, Sugaya Risako

Tanpopo#

Kamei Eri, Mitsui Aika, Kumai Yurina, Okai Chisato

ZYX-α

Niigaki Risa, Kusumi Koharu, Tsugunaga Momoko,

Tokunaga Chinami, Sudou Maasa, Umeda Erika,

Wada Ayaka, Ogawa Saki

The main complaint that I have is Pucchimoni V. ManoEri, Saki, Mai? They don't fit at all. The original Pucchimoni had much deeper and more powerful voices. This new one seems completely wrong. All three of them are also some of my least favorite voices in all of H!P. This group is utter fail to me.

Zoku Biyuuden, or V-U-DEN whatever you wan to call it, also seems like a weird choice to me. I'm not really sure how much sex appeal these 3 have. Sayumi might have had alluring photobooks, but her overall image and voice is suited for something cuter. I also don't think JunJun is vocally strong enough for this. Neither is Risako.

I think ZYX-a has too many members. It looks ZYX-a was the group to shove all the members they didn't know what to do with.

Aa! is a little weird without Reina. They kept Airi and Miyabi in the group, why not Reina too? Especially since Miyabi didn't even have that many lines in the original.

Other than that I'm happy with the new groups. I kinda expected the new Mini Moni to be Egg heavy. I don't really mind it. LinLin and Kanon in the group is enough for me. Tanpopo# seems to be a nice balance of vocals. With Aika, Yurina, and Chisato having deeper vocals for the most part will blend together nicely with Eri's cute voice.

I haven't heard most of the songs from the album yet. I only heard 3 songs so far. I'm mostly likely going to review the album some time in the future.

CDTV Most Wanted Lover Rankings for July

CDTV's Most Wanted Lover rankings for the second half of the year are in.

Male:

1. Akanishi Jin (KAT-TUN)

2. Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN)

3. Jaejoong (DBSK)

4. Yamashita Tomohisa (NEWS)

5. TAKAHIRO (EXILE)

6. Doumoto Koichi (KinKi Kids)

7. Matsumoto Jun (Arashi)

8. hyde (L'Arc～en～Cie)

9. Kamiji Yusuke

10. Ninomiya Kazunari (Arashi)

Female:

1. YUI

2. Mochida Kaori (Every Little Thing)

3. Takahashi Ai (Morning Musume)

4. Otsuka Ai

5. Tanaka Reina (Morning Musume)

6. Hamasaki Ayumi

7. Mizuki Nana

8. Aragaki Yui

9. Kuraki Mai

10. Nocchi (Perfume)

On the male side: Jaejoong has managed to move all the way out of 10th plce to shove Yamapi out of the 3rd place spot. Which, is pretty amazing. Which goes to show you how popular DBSK is getting in Japan. Jaejoong is also the only Korean on the list this year. I'm a little suprised at the results. Back in February 4/6 NEWS members made it on the list, but today there's only Yamapi. Which is odd, seeing how popular Koi no ABO was and Tegomass's new single. I miss my Ryo-chan from the list. I also think this is Nino's first time in the list which is good for him. Other than that the list has pretty much stayed the same. No one can ever knock Akame out of the top spots.

On the female side: I'm pretty happy that YUI reclaimed her top spot on the list. It's amazing that she beat Ayumi. Ayumi only made it to the 6th spot this year. I was really expecting more H!P acts, since a few month ago 4 memebers made it on the list. This year only Reina and Ai made it on the list, and their rank is exactly the same. I'm also really happy to see Otsuka Ai move from 13th place to 4th. I was a little sad she ranked so low in Februrary. I'm not even sure who the remaining females are. XD

Arihara Kanna leaves Hello!Project

It was announced today that C-ute member Arihara Kanna is leaving Hello!Project. A statement was released on H!P's Official Site. You can read the translation of this statement on H!O.

This is the worst news that I could have ever hopped for. As soon as I read the article about Kanna leaving I immediately started to cry. Even now it's hard to write this post.

Now if you read my H!P 2009 poll post, you'd know that Kanna is not only my favorite member of C-ute, but she's my 2nd favorite H!P member period! And the main reason I listen to C-ute.

Kanna was incredibly sweet, she was always smiling and happy. She always worked hard to become a better member of C-ute, even though she was in the background. She was really close to everyone in C-ute, especially Airi. Though they would poke fun at her a lot. Aika even mentioned during one of the H!P concerts she became good friends with Kanna. She had a really good voice, my 3rd favorite in C-ute, but she was never given the chance to really show it off.

Even though I had my suspicions of Kanna leaving C-ute, I never thought she actually would. I wrote a few months back about my concerns about her return. I really hate that I was right.

According to H!O there were other things in play that ultimately made Kanna leave C-ute. There was a rumor that Kanna had a boyfriend. Who was no doubt Johnny's Jr member Hashimoto Ryosuke, that Kanna was caught with last July in Bubka magazine. They also state that new scandalous Kanna image came out a week ago that put UFA in a tough position. Well I have a few problems with both of those reason.

Kanna was caught with Hashimoto Ryosuke a year ago, and no repercussions happened then. It doesn't really make sense to punish Kanna almost a year later. There's also Miyabi's rumored boyfriend. There was video of Miyabi with him, and yet nothing happened to her. Everyone thought Kanna was in the background enough for everything to blow over. And it did, but all of a sudden it's not ok. That makes no sense to me.
And these new pictures that surfaced of Kanna roughly last week ago, where are they? I've never even heard of them till today. If they really surfaced why aren't they in tabloid magazines, why doesn't anyone have these photos. And just what action would be enough to kick her out of C-ute? Smoking or drinking? Well if Kanna is guilty of this or anything else I want to see the pictures. Aibon's smoking scandal was posted all over the place, but Kanna's is no where to be found. There was even clear pictures of Megumi with her boyfriend.

I have a lot of frustration and sadness about this. What makes it even worse is Kanna won't even get a graduation or any kind of formal goodbye. I understand that if you have a boyfriend or scandal, you don't get a graduation. Just like Aibo, Megumi, and Miki didn't. But Kanna left unexpectedly in February. She's been gone for months, everyone waited with baited breath for her return. But she gets nothing.

This is just really sad. Kanna is going to fade away forever, just like Megumi did. I doubt she'll ever make a comeback. It's just not fair. All she did was have a boyfriend. Aibon and Kanna both left, they were some of my favorite members. I'm starting to really get fed up with H!P and UFA. I don't even think I'll bother listening to C-ute anymore. But that's probably just my emotions talking.

Here are some of my favorite Kanna performances.

Sweeeets→→→Live is my favorite C-ute song. Kanna shined in it so much.



Kanna looked absolutely adorable during this performance of Everyday Yeah! Kataomoi.



I always liked the song JUMP because Kanna got a decent amount of lines.



My favorite Kanna FC solo event. She has such an amazing voice.






This will probably be the last post I ever make about Kanna, and that breaks my heart.

Morning Musume-Nanchatte Renai preview

The preview for Morning Musume's 40th single, Nanchatte Renai, is out. Which I am completely thrilled about! I was so ready for Momusu to be out of this slow pace single theme they've been having.

Even though the song is still slow paced, it's actually a lot better than Shouganai Yume Oibito. The musical is amazing, it took the good parts from Naichau Kamo and Shogania Yume Oibito and combined them. They even through in some old school Musume and rap just like in Do it! Now. I loved that Koharu got a solo line. She's been ignored for the past 2 singles. But so have the 8th gen, and their ignored again. Which is pretty sad. I'm tired of the overdose of Reina and Ai. It's getting a little old.

But overall I'm really happy for this song. Let's hope the PV doesn't disappoint.

Buono- Take It Easy preview

I completed overlooked this news. Apparently the preview for Buono's 8th single, Take It Easy, was released a couple of days ago. But I'm just finding out about it now.

A really like the sound of this song. It's got a soft rock instrumental track accompanied by the soft melody of the chorus. It's completely different than their last single My Boy, and pretty much everything else they've already done. Leave it to Buono to come up with something fresh.
I'm in love with Momoko's solo lines, they're just awesome. It also sounds like Momoko is taking the higher melody during the chorus. But I think it's just because I'm paying more attention to her voice.

Is H!P superior or am I just biased?

Many of you people know that I'm an avid Hello!Project fan. I follow their music almost religiously, which might not be as great as it sounds. H!P monopolizes a lot of my time, and I love H!P to death. But it feel like there's an entire world of idol music I'm missing out on. There's definitely more idol fish in the sea.

Let's take a look at my Japanese music taste pre and post H!P obsession.

Pre H!P.

And Post H!P.

Now that doesn't seem like a lot.
But lets see where that is in Jpop alone.

My potential bias doesn't stop there. H!P effects all the idol music I listen to.

Hinoi Team:

Hinoi Team formed around the same time I started getting in Japanese music all together. They were really cute and had an appealing sound. For a while I was obsessed with para para. And I even wanted to be ganguro. Thank god that passed.
I vowed to make them the first Jpop act I followed from beginning to end, and I did. I listened to everyone on of their songs. And know lots of things about the members. Especially Hikaru. I guess they kind of set the stage for me listening to idol music. Even though at the time I had no idea what an idol was. They were the only group I liked that wasn't directly influenced by H!P.

Perfume:

I found out about Perfume around the time I just got in H!P. Back when I only listened to Koharu's solo stuff. They had a similar sound to Hinochi. But instead of Euro beat they were techno. I though Perfume would ultimately fill the void from Hinoi Team's sudden and unannounced break-up. (Which I didn't even admit happened until they didn't release anything for a year.) But my love of perfume didn't really catch on. I like a few songs by them now and that's really about it. Instead I focused on Koharu and slowly the rest of H!P.

Scandal:

I've never even heard of Scandal before they were the opening theme to Bleach. I haven't really heard of most idols outside of Hello!Project. It took me almost 3 years of being an H!P fan to find out about JE. And if I wasn't in cover groups I probably still wouldn't know what JE is. Which would be pretty terrible. I can't even remember what it was like not listening to JE.

But even now H!P is indirectly the reason I like Scandal. I was drawn to Scandal because they are so different then H!P. They are leaning more towards being the new Zone then anything else. However I didn't really listen to Zone beyond True Blue. I really think Scandal has the staying power for me though. It combines my two favorite things. Jrock and cute girls singing happy music. Plus my love for anime. And yet, I don't know how closely I plan to follow them.

The sad truth is if Scandal lost the guitars, and was another idol group I'd lose all interest. Because to me they would be just another idol group that's inferiorly to H!P. Which is jacked up logic, and at the same time is sadly how I feel.

JE:

The main reason I was drawn to JE had less to do with H!P and more to do with hot guys. Even though H!P didn't effect the reason I gave them a chance, H!P is still the reason I like the groups I like. My favorite groups in JE are NEWS and Hey! Say! JUMP. And the reason for that is they are basically the male version of Morning Musume and Berryz Koubou.
NEWS and Momusu both focus around cute and happy songs, mostly about love. NEWS is the cutesy group within JE.
Berrzy Koubou and Hey! Say! JUMP both are the younger groups within their company, and have members around the same age. They both started out doing more childish songs and moved to more mature ones as they got older.



I'm not really sure what conclusion I was trying to draw or what point I was trying to make by witting this. Right now the only thing I proved is that I am definitely H!P biased. And maybe it also proves that I'll probably never find an idol company or group that I like as much as H!P or H!P's groups. Which in a way makes me less biased and more dedicated.
So is H!P superiorly? It depends on who you're talking to and what the criteria of being "superior" is. H!P's music is catchy, happy, and fun. Sure sometimes it's not lyrical genius, but whoever said it was. It's uplifting and entertaining, which is all I, or anyone else, should ask for from idol music
As for the idol world I missing out on, I guess I'm still on the fence about that. Maybe sometime in the future their be a group I like more than Momusu. But as for right now there's not.
I do feel a little left out when people get jazzed over AKB48 or Perfume. But I'm just not into it. It's like being the odd person out in game of Red Rover. You see it happening, you want to get involved, but you're just not invited.

Berryz Koubou's Thrilling Kingdom :UPDATE:

I perviosuly stated on this post that Berryz Koubou would be getting their own shown called Thrilling! Berryz Kingdom, but it turns out it's not a TV show at all. Rather it's a radio show on SKY PerfecTV. I guess I just assumed it was a TV show because the station is called SKY PerfecTV. You know what they say about assuming, and having misleading radio station names.

I'm sorry to any Berryz fans who got their hopes up over this post. I'm just as dissapointed as you.