Hello!Project 2010 poll!

Paul from Hello!Blog has his H!P 2010 poll up. Which you can take here. And I gotta say I was pretty excited to take this poll. I pretty much wait every year to do this poll, because I love to see how much my opinion has changed in a year.

My results are drastically different from last year for 2 reasons. The first and main reason is that I can't vote for my top 3 members from last year in this poll. Koharu, Kanna, and KonKon were my top 3 last year. And of course I'm still incredibly sad about what happened with my top 3. Well minus KonKon. So I had to basically push my next 3 to numbers 1-3. Which sucks because they're not really my top 3 in H!P, but anymore I suppose they are/have to be. The second reason being that my opinions of the girls have changed a lot. Some girls have started to annoy me. And on the opposites spectrum I've begun to realize how awesome some of the girls I hardly paid attention to are.

So here's my results.



This year's H!P is really different from last years. Last year it was just your top ten, but this year you had to rank every single girl. Which made some of the choices extremely difficult. Especially on the least favorite end. It was hard to pick which girl I dislike more, but somehow I managed. Some of my results might seems unusual to the average H!P fan. So I'm going to explain the "weird" ones first.

LinLin: Some people might find it weird that LinLin is number one. But it was a pretty obvious choice for me. I follow Morning Musume the closest out of any H!P group, so of course a girl from Momusu was going to be number one. I really LOVE LinLin. She's got the best personality of the current line up. She's extremely funny, always speaks her mind no matter how weird some of it sounds, and has a lot of energy. She reminds me of Koharu in that aspect and is probably why I love her so much. And most of the time she usually hands down has the best answers for the Pocket Morning Questions. They're usually full of win. LinLin is also uber underrated. Her voice is incredible I can totally see her being a main singer when the current girls graduate. Was her Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari part in the the Nine Smile Concert a little bit of foreshadowing? I'd like to think so. LinLin being sub leader would be incredible.

Mitsui Aika: Aika in the top 10? Aika number 3? You bet! A lot of people dislike Aika because she's a little on the boring side. And I agree she kind of is. But most of the time Aika has to play down her personality because the other members of Morning Musume don't really seem to like her that much. Most of the time they act like she's a bother to have around. Even when she was the teacher in Yorosen they seemed pretty annoyed by her. Sure it was a little obnoxious to be in every single picture with the dog. But if that was Sayumi doing it they would have thought it was cute. But I love Aika. I think she's incredible sweet and genuine. And I always look forward to reading her blog. So anyone out there who hates Aika, go ahead and hate her. That means there's just more Aika for me. I also want an Aika photobook already! I don't think Aika herself can make it anymore clear how much she wants one.

Fukuda Kanon: It's no surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly that over the past year I've developed an infatuation for Kanon. I pretty much haven't taken my focus off of her since Shugo Chara Egg was formed. I don't know what draws me to Kanon more her adorable voice or even more adorable voice. But whatever it is I am completely smitten with Kanon.
However I don't really know too much about her personality wise, since there's a lack of S/mileage things being subbed and translated. But if their debut goes according to plan I'll have plenty of time to learn about her. After all she did just turn ichigo this year. ;]

Kamei Eri: Eri isn't really that weird of a choice to be in the top ten, because she seems to be extremely popular among H!P fans. But it's a little weird for me to put her up so high. When I first got into H!P she was always the one member who I forgot about. But recently I've been becoming a fan of Eri. I just find her naiveness, to be incredibly adorable. I think it's also pretty cute that she is 21 and still doesn't completely act like an adult. But I mean everything about Eri just screams cuteness. I absolutely love her voice. It's cute without sounding screechy or being forced to sound that way. She's also pretty cute herself. However not with her current hair. XD

Tokunaga Chinami: I started to really take notice of Chinami while looking at the cover for the H!P 2009 calendars. Chinami stood out right away because she was the only one who looked genuinely happy. I've been intrigued by Chinami ever since. Chinami just seems to always be cheerful and happy. She adds a really energetic super positive element to Berryz. She's also really gorgeous. And steals the spotlight from the recent Berryz PVs. Especially Watashi no Mirai no Danna Sama. Even though she's not up front much in that video, when she is she looks adorable. And definitely gets your attention.


As for my picks on the negative side of the spectrum, 21-25 are all basically tied for 25th place. These girls either lack personality or overall vocal ability. They're arrogant, narcissistic, or just plain annoying. And usually are a combination of all of these elements. They're just the H!P girls I could seriously do without. Though recently I found that Chisato isn't absolutely annoying all the time. But I still don't particularly like her. And I'm starting to like a few of ManoEri's songs. That doesn't mean she can actually carry a note.


These year's poll also featured a current H!P units/solo artist rank. My result are the following.




The results where pretty obvious. Of course Morning Musume would remain number one. Even though the quality of their songs has been going through a dry spell lately, they still managed to have a few gems through that. Kimagure Princess and Naichau Kamo for the singles. And SONGS, Guru Guru Jump, and Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou on the album side.
C-ute's results were even more obvious. In 2009 they kicked out my favorite member. And if that wasn't bad enough their size diminished even more when Erika left. So C-ute pretty much turned into a weak and sad 5 member group. That features 3 member I don't really like, 1 I love, and 1 whose floating somewhere in the middle. Even though Shock turned out to be more awesome then I expected it to be, there others songs aren't too great.
Buono and Berryz made it to the top three because they're songs are always consistently amazing. I didn't exactly do back flips for Our Song, Buono made up for it with their incredible songs My Boy and Bravo Bravo. As for Berryz their last 5 singles have been some of my all time favorite Berryz singles. Most of them were double A sides for twice the awesome.


So there you have it my results and opinions for this years poll. Love them or hate them. Take them or leave them. They're just my opinions about H!P and you don't have to agree with them.

Don't you wanna see it when KAT-TUN makes it worldwide?

KAT-TUN is going worldwide! Well kinda, but not really. KAT-TUN will start their Jinless worldwide tour in May. The tour will run from May-August with stops in Japan, Bangkok, Seoul, and Taipei. Which would technically make is an Asia wide tour rather than worldwide tour. But I guess that's a start. As for the Jinless part, Akanishi Jin won't be taking part in the tour instead he will be heading to the US to do 3 solo concerts in LA.

Now that's a lot of KAT-TUN news to digest. My initial reaction was "OMG JIN IS COMING TO THE US!" Then I had a moment of fangirl glee. Only to find out that the concerts were in LA, and I had no way to get there. Which is like the 7th Japanese concert I couldn't go to because it was in California. Thank god it's only Akanishi Jin, and I don't really like KAT-TUN music too much. Not being able to see Momusu at Anime Expo physically hurt. But crying about living in New Jersey isn't what this post is about. It's time for my over analyzed reaction to this news.

First off KAT-TUN's world tour. I'm happy for them. Not doing back flips excited, because KAT-TUN is probably my least favorite Johnny's group and touring Asia isn't that big of a deal. I mean NEWS had a concert in Taiwan, and Arashi has their Around Asia tours. So it's pretty much old news for Johnny's artists. But I guess it's cool if you're a KAT-TUN fan for them to be able to have overseas concerts for the first time. But this really only effects fans from Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan. Which I'm not.

As for Akanishi Jin's concerts they're pretty exciting. I mean they're in the US after all. The first JE artist to perform in the US ever. This is pretty big. Especially for Jin fangirls in the US or one that can easily get to the US. I know I was pretty excited for Jin to be in the United States. I'm not even that big of a Jin fan. I wonder what songs he'll sing? Probably Love Juice, Wonder, and the LANDS album. And of course since I have to over analyze things, this concert makes me think JE is realizing Jin's potential for the US market. So be prepared for my long explanation why. XD

Lets look at Jin's concerts in LA a little closer. Jin's concerts have their own website, which you can find here. Now on the website basically all they have on it so far is the tour name, when the concerts are, and when tickets go on sale. But it also says in bold letters Japan Pop Star US Debut. Now you can argue that US debut simply means what is says. These are his first concerts in the US so naturally their his US debut. But what if they mean debut in the normal sense. Like Jin will be debuting in the US. Now I know what you're thinking, "how can that possibly be," or "that will never happen." While I will agree that most likely he won't be making a debut in the US, but with everything going on around the concerts make it seem like a slim possibility.

First off the amount of time Jin is staying in the US for. He's leaving for the US in May to prepare for his 3 concerts from June 19-20. But he's staying in the US until October. October, but why? The KAT-TUN concerts end in August. He could miss the first half for his solo concerts, and be back in time for the second half. But he's not doing that.
The reason Jin is staying in US for so long is He will be involved in promotional activities and is considering additional U.S. concerts. Which seems a little unnecessary for 3 concerts. Sure he said he is considering adding more US concerts. But let's be honest, Jin is an unknown singer in the US. The venue he's pre forming at only hold 2,000 people. Which is the perfect size because only people who listen to Japanese music or know who he is will go. But let's say he does add more shows. It will most likely only be 3 shows. Even if he does that he's still staying for too long. Let's say it takes him a month to prepare for each set of concerts. He each set lasts two days. That brings up his stay in the US to two months and 4 days. Figure in time for rest and that's an even 3 months. Which is just enough time to miss the KAT-TUN concerts. But remember that's just if he adds the extra concerts. If it's just the 3 concerts that brings his stay until the end of June. That doesn't make sense to me.
Jin said he would be doing promotion activities. Which seems weird to me.
Let's look at Miyavi for example. His first solo US performance was in Las Vegas and was a very small performance since he's not well known here. Much like with Jin's LA concerts. Miyavi has performed at Anime Expo with S.K.I.N. and done 2 world tours. But he has not promoted any of these performances at all. Aside from posting it on his website and myspace. AKB48 performed in the US and France. Momusu performed at Anime Expo and tons of other Japanese artists have performed in the US. But none of them have taken actual time to promote this concerts. And why is that? Because they are Japanese artists who sing in Japanese. And if you don't already like Japanese music you won't go to these concerts. And these artists know that. The only Japanese artist to do any real promoting here was Dir en grey. And that's only because they had some mild popularity here. But even their promotions were small. So why is Jin promoting his concert? Anyone who knows who Jin is or would actually go to his concert already know it's happening. So who is he spending so much time on promoting to? The only person he could possibly be promoting to for that long is average Joe who doesn't know who he is. And why would he go through all that trouble? Promoting a concert 4 months after it ended, if he doesn't have any future plan for the US.
Another thing that comes to mind is Jin might want to continue his English studies. Which seems completely reasonable. I wouldn't have thought twice if it said, "And while Jin is the US he plans to further his studies of the English language." But if that's really the reason Jin wants to stay, why the secret? They could just say it. He left to study English once, why not again? So there's no way promotion could really mean study English. Unless promotion really means, Jin wants to party for a while in LA again. Which could definitely be the reason. But it's not like JE could straight up say that. He could be using this as a vacations. Since JE boys hardly ever get a break.
My last reason why Jin's concerts seem like a US career starter is, JE artists never perform in the US. Plain and simple, they never perform here. If I'm not mistaken no JE artist has ever performed on US soil. Not even Arashi, who would probably be the only JE artist to have a successful US tour. So why is Jin so special? It can't just be because his English is good. Because if that was the case where's Okamoto Keito's solo concerts? No, Jin is so special because not only can he speak English pretty well, but he would sell well in the US. I mean he copies Justin Timberlake so much that he already has a US vibe. Listen to Wonder his English singing is nearly accent free. If the lyrics were better I could see a song like this becoming popular in the US.

So anyone reading this post what do you think? Questions, comments? I can't be the only one over analyzing this. The only one who thinks his solo concerts are fishy and have an underline agenda. But either way I bet Jin is ecstatic. He probably jumps at any opportunity to be close to foreign chicks.

Only 1,000 smiles away from S/mileage's major debut

S/mileage has been collecting smile pictures for the past month, so they'll be able to get a major debut if they reach 10,000 pictures. Which you're probably already aware of. Unless you've been under an anti H!P cave for the last month. What you might not be aware of is S/mileage currently has 9,000 smiles. And only 3 days to collect the last 1,000. The final result will be announced during the Mano Erina and S/mileage concert on April 3rd. And most likely the mosaic board will be revealed.

Even if you don't like S/mileage you should really help them now. I know there's a lot of people who dislike S/mileage and haven't sent in their pictures yet. But you should sent in your pictures to show your support for H!P as a whole, if not for S/mileage. If ManoEri needed piano pictures for her debut, or Melon Kinenbi needed melon pictures to stop from breaking up, I would send in my smiles for support. Would I be happy about either happening? Would I care either way? No and no. But I would still do it, to show support for H!P as a whole. H!P very rarely puts the fate of groups in the fan's hands. They very rarely get the fans involved this much. I think the only other time was with Morning Musume. So I'm actually really excited to be apart of this. Halg because I love S/mileage and half because in some small way it feels like I'm making their debut happen. Well indirectly anyway, but you get my point.

If you haven't sent in you're picture yet, what are you waiting for! H!O has posted all the info you need here. You wouldn't want S/mileage's debut to be undecided now. ;]

Ganbaretsugo copy off Perfume

So I was pretty excited to hear Hey! Say! 7's new song Ganbaretsugo. Mostly because I prefer Hey! Say! 7 to Hey! Say! BEST, and any chance for them to get a new song I'm pretty much thrilled about. But instead of immediately being in love with the song I was a little bit disappointed by the fact that they basically plagiarized Perfume's Electro world.

The underline beat is the exact same beat as Electro World except Johnny put some other up beat song on top of it so, it wouldn't sound 100% the same. But it's obvious enough to tell immediately that it's Electro World.

For those of you not familiar with the song, here's the Elctro World PV.



You have to wait until the chorus ends and the verse stars. So around 1:20 in you'll hear the music that Ganbaretsugo copied. 1:30 is the exact part they copied. I know this isn't really as big of a deal as Ryo plagiarizing ACIDMAN's song. And most lucky no one else will pick up on this, but it still really irks me. I guess I'm also making a bigger deal about it then it is. XD


Anyway, besides the Perume similarities the song itself is a little mediocre in my opinion. The lyrics seem pretty lame. And by lyrics I mean the few English lyrics they threw in the song. I can tell why this song isn't getting or isn't on an official release. The music is pretty good though. But that's because I've always loved Electro World. ;]
As expected the song is Ryosuke and Chinen lead. Just like every JUMP song is anymore. But equally expected Yuto was a minor singer in this song, so I can't really complain. I was also blown away by the fact that Keito and Ryutaro actually got solo lines. That only happens once ever 6 months, or when Johnny feels they've been in the background too long.

More headers

I got bored so I decided to make a couple new banners for this blog. It's basically started out that I just wanted to make a couple for the groups I hadn't got around to making yet. But of course I ended up making 4 different Hey! Say! JUMP ones. XD

Here are the banners if you don't feel like having to keep refreshing the page.

S/mileage:

C-ute:

Hey! Say! 7:

Hey! Say! BEST:

Hey! Say! 7:

Hey! Say! BEST:

I planned on making HS7 and HSB banners because my HSJ banner is an extremley old picture. And getting rid of the picture would ruin my entire code. So I just made some BEST and 7 banners instead.

Morning Musume:

I really considered not making this banner since Koharu isn't a member anymore. But I love this shoot so much I had to anyway. :]

Arashi:

While I'm talking about site updates, feel free to ask me questions via my formspring on my side box. I only recivied one question. Which makes me uber sad. :/

Also, I eventually plan to make headers featuring SKE48 and AKB48 subgroups. But I'm gonna wait until I know more about AKB48 to do that. XD

NEWS's love flutters away in Sakura Girl

NEWS's Sakura Girl PV was released a few days ago. (See I knew not to make a post about the PV preview. I could just tell that the PV was gonna be released shortly after. Which is weird because it took KAT-TUN's and HSJ's PVs a week to come out after the PV previews.) Anyway, after the initially fangirl glee of finally having another NEWS PV, I sat down and watched it.

The video is pretty much 95% what I was expecting it to be. Only 95% because I would have died if wanted the PV to have a school setting. But of course it wasn't, which made me a little sad. Ok I guess NEWS members are a little too old to be dressing up in school uniforms. But if they're too old they shouldn't have mentioned being in a classroom in the lyrics. Yeah, besides that it's pretty much exactly as I imagined. The song is soft so the video is on the boring side with virtually nothing interesting going on. Some sad and kind of angsty walking scenes. And since it's called Sakura Girl a few cherry blossom shots here and there. But I do like all the NEWS members break up scenes. Mostly because that's the only thing actually happening in the video.

And I gotta say I absolutely hate how the majority of the PV looks. I'm not into the faded and blurry look it has. I keep waiting for someone to rip of the blurriness and tell me to get Claritin clear. I guess it's supposed to symbolize that after you break up with someone you're so dazed it's like you're in a fog and nothing makes sense. I'm not even sure it's that's the reason behind it, that's just my best guess to explain the awkward fog.



Tegoshi breaks up through a letter. Which is a little old fashion if you ask me.


A letter I can't even read is useless to me.


But I'm pretty sure this is what it says ;]


At least his tear is believable.


Not like Yamapi's "I'm not even trying" tear.


Unavoidable cherry blossom scene no one cares about.


Tough break on the over the phone break up. I guess he was dating Joe Jonas.


That's it Yamapi look as expressionless as possible. I almost saw some emotion there.


Apparently only Massu got the memo that, this is a break up song and you should look sad.


Everyone else just looks blank


Can someone tell me why Tegoshi is wearing a rosary necklace? He's filming a PV not meeting the pope.


Leave it to Ryo to smile at something sad.


Keii's recycled breakup. Though technically it's a note not a letter. Bah!


But he has the most normal reaction.


Ryo being slapped is hilarious.


Mostly because of this.


Massu gets the most pathetic breakup, a text. You can text message breakup, after 2 years.


Massu's catatonic/shocked face makes me laugh though.


Shige's breakup is a little boring.


But apparently they were getting married. XD


Now that I've done my overall reaction to the PV, it's shallow reaction time! ;]

By the way I HATE Ryo's hair. It's a mix of his sexy Cherish hair and his ugly Happy Birthday hair. And the end result is hideous!


Yamapi's hair is ugly. It's too flat and boring. It almost makes me miss his wet dog hair. Almost.


Excuse me while I die of laughter.


Oh WTF? I just recently started to dig Shige's Shalala Tambourine hair. :/


NEWS should really learn by Massu's example. He finds a style that looks good on him and he sticks with it. Since he's been with NEWS he changed his hair twice. And once was for a drama.

AKB48 according to me

I'm a horrible liar. I mentioned a few posts back how I was enthusiastic about getting into the AKB48. But I haven't searched anything AKB48 related since then. Mostly because I've been to lazy to. I've been spending most of my time watching Alex Jones's movies and various other conspiracy theory movies. XD But at least that gives me time to makes this post, AKB48 according to me.

And what does that mean exactly? It's simple. Whenever I get into a new fandom and can't remember or can't be bothered to learn their names I come up with my own names for them, so I can remember who is who. I usually do this with Kpop since I can't pronounce Korean at all. This is the first time I've ever had to do it with a Japanese group. Stupid AKB48 with their unnecessarily large amount of girls. These are the nicknames I have for some of the girls so far. Keep in mind these aren't exactly the nicest names to remember them by. But this is how I see the girls as of yet.


Watanabe Mayu becomes

the adorable one

Maeda Atsuko becomes

the chick that's always up front

Takahashi Minami becomes

deep voice


Kojima Haruna becomes

weird ears


Minegishi Minami becomes

pumpkin face


Matsui Jurina becomes

the one the always looks sad and/or confused in PVs


Shinoda Mariko becomes

the girl that always looks stuck up


Ono Erena becomes

the one who looks like she's 8


Oshima Yuko becomes

the one who looks like she's 30


Akimoto Sayaka becomes

the one that looks like a man


Sato Amina becomes

the one that looks like a Chihuahua



By the way it took me like 45 minutes to find out all these girls names. ._.