After being part of Morning Musume for 3 months now, the 9th generation's official member colors are finally revealed. Obviously because the 9th gen's debut concert tour is starting up we finally get to see their shirts and see their colors. I had my suspicions and hopes of what each member's colors might be, but I was completely off.
The colors are as follows:
Mizuki is hot pink, Erina is dark purple, Riho is red, and Kanon is dark green. I'm a little dissapointed by the color choices. As it is now every member besides Ai, Reina, and Riho share a color. They should have seriously gave someone orange. I don't know why Eri's color was basically off limits, but they jumped to give Koharu's and LinLin's away. Also, because of this I guess Sayumi shifts to being just pale pink, Aika shifts to lavender, and Risa stays at her regular green. I know there are a limited amount of colors and obviously some member's colors are going to overlap. But they didn't have to overlap so much. If they made Kanon orange and changed Mizuki from hot pink to peach, only the two purples would overlap. But I actually don't expect these official colors to last for long. This fall when Ai-chan graduates her yellow will be up for grabs. And because of that I think the whole color scheme will change.
After what seems like never ending teasing in the form of around 8 PV previews, we finally have the full PV for Morning Musume's upcoming Maji Desu ka Ska single. I'm sure there are some fans who have seen this PV already, because a fan made PV mashing together all the previews clips made its way on youtube. However, I decided to wait until the official PV came out.
Since this song had A LOT of PV previews us fans have already seen a great deal, it not all, of the PV already. (I didn't watch them on ONRYU yet, so half the PV was still a mystery to me. :P) And I understand for that reason a few fans might be bored of the PV by now, or think that it's not fresh anymore. But I wholeheartedly disagree with that. I have been absolutely in love with this PV from the first PV preview. The PV is fun, it's upbeat, cute, vivid, and energetic. And it means Momusu is moving in the right direction, going back to it's energetic and slightly childish era. Sure, this PV might not be up to the over the top energy and cuteness of Koko ni Iruzee yet. But give the 9th gen a break. This is their first single. I'm sure they are leading up to it. Besides, Mr. Moonlight and Shabondama weren't over the top energy, and look how great the singles after them were. Despite, everything fans say about the PV, I actually really love it. It's exciting and fun from start to finish. I enjoyed every minute of the PV. My absolute favorite scenes were the ones with the Maji Desu ka Ska letters, and the walking close-ups.
I still love the set. The Maji Desu ka Ska set. It's simple, but still adds a fun aspect to the PV.
Reina looks the absolute best in this PV. This style has always suited her.
Riho's close-up looks effortless. She did a good job of looking naturally cute and energetic.
Erina on the other hand was less impressive. She looks cute enough but it seems like she didn't really know what to do with her hands. XD
Zukki probably did the best in the first round of close-ups.
Mizuki came off really charming.
I can't say this enough, I love these outfits!
Adorable!
Sayumi showing them how it's done. Seriously, Sayumi always has the most interesting close-ups.
Ai-chan looks gorgeous.
The rockette's style kicking is still my favorite part of the dance.
Zukki is so cute.
There's a smile! Eripon wants to bee seen as the most energetic member, but she is always too scared or shy to smile in pictures or on camera. It's nice to see one now.
No one can compete with Kanon's smile. *O*
I love Fuku-chan's outfit. And adorable cap is adorable.
Cute pose.
I still don't get what's up with Reina's hair brushing dance move. XD
I still hate Aika' outfit. :/
Of course Aika had to be Hanasaka Jiisan. All the Aika haters are gonna love this. :/ Btw, I'm like 80% sure it's Aika. 20% sure it's Reina. They have similar noses and mouth areas. So, XD.
Mecha kira kira hana sakasou! Lolz at it being sunflowers rather than actual cactus flowers.
This was probably my favorite part of the PV, when the giant leaders flashed really fast during the chorus to spell Maji Desu ka Ska.
Yesterday's episode of Bijou Gaku aired a segment that showed the 9th practicing and recording their lines for Morning Musume's upcoming single Maji Desu ka Ska.
I am extremely happy that everything I hoped for when the 9th gen joined is happening. Morning Musume is finally releasing happy and upbeat music. Morning Musume's so called emo era has finally ended. Which is bittersweet because Koharu was have totally owned at songs like this. :/
First, let me start off by saying how impressed I am with the 9th gen. The girls have only been training for a month, and still sound great. Granted, both Mizuki and Riho have had years of vocal and dance training, so they don't really count too much. And my girl Zukki completely owned it! Despite her being the worst singer in the batch, she actually sounds the best out of the 9th gen. It's her cuteness, charisma, and energy overflowing in the song.
I have to say I am absolutely in love with this song. It's energetic, happy, upbeat, and adorable. This song to me sounds like the album songs from Morning Musume's 9th and 10th albums. Which I am completely thrilled about. I always whined that one of those type of songs should be used as an A-side, and now it is. This song honestly sounds like/has the overall feel of Morning Musume's Koko ni Iruzee, Guru Guru Jump, and Genki Pika Pika, and S/mileage's Otona ni Narutte Muzukashii.
Some fans are saying this song isn't strong enough to be an A-side, but I don't think they can judge that until the full radio rip is out. I mean, the chorus isn't even all of Morning Musume. If you listen closely it's just the 9th gens voices, and I doubt only the 9th gen will sing the chorus of the song. I will completely judge the song when I hear all of the members in the song. I am excited to hear what they'll sound like. I'm hoping Risa brings her cuteness from Athena & Robikerottsu, I hope Sayumi brings her adorableness from Rainbow Pink, and I hope Aika uses her Guardians 4 voice. I've never heard Reina's voice sound remotely cutesy, so I hope she at least tries to sound cute. But I'm dreading Ai-chan's voice. I know she's going to put on that horrible voice she uses when she tries to sound cute. You know the one. The one she uses's when she sings Shainimuni Paradise, and the 2009 version of Suki na Senpai, and when she was in Mini Moni.
The one thing I am worried about it, it seems like these are the only lines the 9th gen get. At first I thought we were only hearing these solo lines and the chorus to tease fans and only give them a snippet of the song. But there's also another possibility that these are their only lines. Because when you are recording a song you only record your lines, bottom line. And you only record the chorus once. Even if the chorus is repeated 8 times, they take your one chorus section and paste it 8 times. Of course unless there are 2 different choruses or the last chorus has a higher ending or something. Then you would only have one copy and pasted chorus. (I wish I knew actual editing terms, because I'm sure it's not copy and paste.) Of course, I could also just be over analyzing this, as I often tend to do.
Here's the Bijou Gaku clip if you want to watch the whole thing.
But if you'd just prefer to hear the song, here's the a clip of just the song.
I don't know if anyone has noticed but lately I haven't been blogging as much as I should be. That's all thanks to this terrible cold I have courtesy of my sister who infected the whole house. But I wanted to make a post about this because I think it's pretty exciting news. And I wanted to post about it before it became old news. Well, it's technically old news anyway because this was announced about a week ago. I guess I wanted to post about it before it became so old it would be irrelevant.
It was announced that Morning Musume will be releasing their 45th single, Maji Desu ka Ska, on March 23rd. Not only is this their first single of 2011 it's the first single to feature the recently added 9th generation.
Now of course with this announcement comes 2 questions I'm sure every Momusu fan is asking themselves. But let's focus on one at a time.
Of course the absolute first question I was asking myself was, "I wonder who's going to sing when." Of course I'm mostly asking when the 9th generation will sing. Now, just because this is the new member's debut single we shouldn't automatically assume that they will get a significant amount of lines, or even any. If you recall on the 2nd generation's and the 4th generation's debut singles not one of the new members got a solo line. And there was only 8 members in Summer Night Town and they could have totally made the lines even. The only time every member of a generation gets a solo on their debut single is when that generation only consists of 1 or 2 members. Like with the 3rd gen, 7th gen, and both 8th gens debuts. Everyone seems to really love Shabondama because it was the only debut single to be lead by the new generation. Which is all well and good but everyone seems to forget that every 6th gen member got a solo line except for Eri. And you can't even count on the best singer, or singers, of the generation to get a solo line. In the 5th gens debut single only Risa got a solo, despite Ai-chan being the best vocalist of the 5th gen.
So it's really anyone's guess as to when and how often the 9th gen will sing in this song. But personally I think each 9th gen girl will get 1 solo lines. And Mizuki and Riho may get 2. But that's mostly because even though Tsunku is unpredictable, he's not stupid. He has to build the 9th gen up right off the bat. Because over the last 4 years Tsunku dropped the ball on promoting the girls. Really Resonant Blue was the start of it, but Mikan wasn't all that fair.
For the longest time it was the Ai, Risa, Reina, and Eri show. Morning Musume's singles went from thinking that the song was good to thinking are they really leading it again. Losing lead singer and popular member Eri, and losing arguably the best singer Morning Musume has ever seen this fall, Momusu needs to change fast. So, I'm thinking Momusu's line distribution will look like this: Reina and Risa lead. Sayumi and Aika get some of the lines Ai would normally get and split the lines Eri would get if she didn't graduate. Then Sayumi, Aika, and Ai-chan have a minor lead. And the 9th gen gets a line or two. Ai is leaving so Momusu needs to start distancing themselves for Ai-chan now. Only singing wise of course. And they need to build up the fanbase of the current members, so Momusu can take the blow when Ai leaves this fall.
And of course the second question I asked myself was, "what will the song sound like." The song is titled Maji Desu ka Ska!, so of course the song is going to have a ska beat. Just like Mr. Moonlight ~Ai no Big Band~ had a big band beat. It's obvious. But what's not so obvious to me is what ska actually is. Whenever I heard ska music mentioned I always assumed that skaters and emo kids listened to ska. Which should be a clear indication that I'm not 100% familiar with ska music. The only actual song I know is ska is LANDS song Genki. And that's only because it's the ska version of the song.
When I watched Jin's movie Bandage I absolutely fell in love with the ska version of Genki. Because the music is absolutely incredible. It's got this sort of orchestra kinda reggae feel to it. I've been listening to this song nonstop for months. So, if Morning Musume releases a song along these lines, that would be absolutely incredible.
But having it be ska music pretty much indicates that the song is going to be upbeat and cheerful. Which Morning Musume desperately needs to release again. Because all of their singles have been sad and depressing sounding. Even the songs that are supposed to be positive came off as sad. All of their cheerful songs were wasted as B-sides or album tracks. I'm looking forward to Maji Desu ka Ska becoming this Momusu era's Renai Revolution 21. Meaning I hope the older members feel too old and leave. But there's not way that's going to happen. Especially since Sayumi is absolutely in love with the 9th gen. Well, I hope in the very least this makes Tsunku add more members to the line up. To have a more balanced age.
If you're as excited about this single as I am you can buy it from CDJapan by clicking the links below.
The new that just about every Hello!Project fan, and non fan alike, have been waiting for has been announced. At the start of that H!P 2011 Winter concert, Morning Musume's 9th gen was announced. The new 9th generation members are H!P 9th gen auditioners Sayashi Riho, Suzuki Kanon, Ikuta Erina, and Hello!Project Egg member Fukumura Mizuki.
I am 100% thrilled with the results. The 9th gen is the 4 members in total like I was hoping for, and my top 3 9th gen finalists made it. And one of the Egg members I predicted could have joined here made it in. Even though I would have preferred my beloved Saho Akari I am extremely happy with Mizuki. Thank god Tsunku didn't make yet another mistake. He grabbed Riho up before anyone else could!
So right now here's how the 9th generation stands.
You have the exceptional dancing, singing, and beauty of Sayashi Riho and Fukumura Mizuki. Then you have the quirkyness, less than perfect singing, high energy, endearing members Suzuki Kanon and Ikuta Erina. Which I'm really ok with. All Morning Musume needed was about 1 or 2 more girls to be able to handle solo lines/take over solos. Mostly because the current 5 members are all pretty capable of solo lines.
I do feel really bad for Otsuka Aina because she was a good singer and dancer, I hope she gets added to the Eggs or something. As for Mogi Minami I'm not really upset about her. She was nowhere near ready to debut. I am totally looking forward to the first single featuring the new members. I'm also looking forward to seeing them on TV, to see their personalities and how they interact with the other Morning Musume members. (I'm writing this sentence as I'm singing the verse about Eri from Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari. XD)
It's pretty obvious to see that I am officially back to blogging. And honestly, I wanted to wait a little longer to come back. But there is just so much stuff I couldn't wait any more to blog about. There's literally about 13-14 things I want to blog about. I'm saying about because it's not set in stone that I'm going to blog about every single one. But I will be splitting up those posts over the next few days, because I am pretty sure no one wants to read a spam of 13 posts in one day.
Ok, but first things first. The one piece of news I couldn't wait to blog about, Momusu's 9th gen auditions.
I was completely surprised by how sort the audition process is. The whole clip is only about 24 minutes long. I was expecting something much longer. And in those 24 minutes they don't really focus on the girls as much as you'd think they would. I know most people enjoy watching the girls actually train, but I prefer watching them sing and dance more. I mean, we hardly got to see the girls sing at all. In past auditions you hear the girls sing like 3 songs. And watch them start to fix their pitch. But here you get to hear them sing the first chorus of C-ute's Aitai Lonely Christmas and that's it. There's also one part where Tsunku has them cry and laugh on comand. Showing you just how fake the world of idols is.
So let's meet the girls.
Ikuta Erina (13):
There's something about Erina that is so infectious. When she was dancing she was all smiles and completely energetic. Even when they showed the short clip of her singing Little Princess Pri, she was so full of energy and sounded really cute singing this song. I could see Erina becoming another Koharu, Chinami, or Aika. Her dancing itself is also really strong. She's probably the 3rd best dancer. She would be the 2nd best, but her moves aren't 100% smooth yet. Her singing on Aitai Lonely Christmas was a little rough, but only because it sounded like the song was too high for her. She was a little rough, but nearly perfect on Little Princess Pri because that song is a good 1-2 octaves lower. All Erina needs is some intense vocal training, because she comes off as squeaky. But that was Koharu's exact same problem. And Tsunku said if she couldn't hit the high note in Furusato properly he wasn't even going to consider her. And obviously it worked out fine.
Mogi Minami (11):
I personally don't like Minami. She's the worst singer and the worst dancer. She almost sounds like Konno Asami when she auditioned. Except KonKon was bursting with smiles, energy, and enthusiasm. Minami is just a crybaby. However, Tsunku loves to pick the girls who can't sing and are unsure of themselves. Nearly every gen had at least one girl like that. Nono: couldn't sing, KonKon: couldn't sing or dance, Ai-chan: too shy, Eri: unsure of herself, Sayumi: unsure of herself and couldn't sing, Koharu: couldn't sing. Look how well a majority of those girls turned out. Some of the best members in my opinion. A lot of fans are judging her/disliking her too quickly. Hell, I'm doing that now. But I'm willing to bet Minami could blossom into something great.
Sayashi Riho (12):
For me Riho is the total package! She's the cutest one, an extremely powerful dancer, and her singing is good. Her singing's not perfect, but she has the best voice there, and it could definitely become great over time. A lot of people think she has an unfair advantage after being in the Fashionable stage play, but not really. Is it her fault for being talented and winning that audition? Fujimoto Miki and Arihara Kanna had more of an advantage when they joined C-ute and Morning Musume. Sure, neither of them auditioned and where just added. But if Tsunku had a problem with Riho being in Fashionable she would have never been allowed to audition, let alone get to the finals. Personally I want Riho added to the group. She has everything going for her, and I will be completely upset if she's not chosen. Because if Tsunku doesn't choose her you can be sure AKB48 or some other idol group will scoop her up!
Suzuki Kanon (12):
Kanon is my personal favorite. She's super adorable. She looks like a mix between Mano Erina and Michishige Sayumi. Kanon just gives off this friendly and playful aura. I'm not exactly sure what she was saying during her short acting portion, but it seems like she could provide the group with the comic relief. Which Momusu really needs now that LinLin is gone. I wanna see Kanon laugh everyday in front of the mirror like LinLin did! Her dancing was pretty much on par with Erina's, and she seemed completely happy and energetic throughout it. Her singing on the other hand is almost as bad as Minami's. But she seemed to be having the most fun singing, and was completely into it. And I'd much rather watch a charming, energetic idol who can't sing then an amazing singer who's completely flat.
Otsuka Aina (12):
I like Aina. She seems different than all the other girls. To me she gives off this subtle toughness and has tomboyish qualities. I have a feeling with her we might have another Yossie or Makoto on our hands. Aina is the 2nd best singer. When she briefly sang Everyday Zekkouchou she sounded like a mix between Okai Chisato and Nakajima Saki. Which gives a nice unique deepness to her voice. Which means she would blend great with Aika and Risa. Her Aitai Lonely Christmas was just the tiniest bit rough. All she really needs to do is polish her voice more and she'll be great. She's also the 2nd best dancer. Her moves are really fluid. I just wish she was into it more, because her lack of energy makes her overall dancing look worse than it is.
I would absolutely love to see all 5 girls get in, because every single one of them has a redeeming quality about them. Adding one or two girls would make Morning Musume seem completely empty. Plus Ai and Risa don't have much more time in the group. They have to really start building up the girls now. Why do you think lately Aika has been doing so much? A lot of fans are over thinking things because at the video Tsunku said something to the effect of, "These girls will make a good unit. This is a good group of girls." A lot of fans are taking this to mean that these 5 girls will not be joining Morning Musume, and will start a group of their own. Which is completely ridiculous if you think about it. Morning Musume desperately needs new members. And not adding any new ones would completely destroy the group. Because what would happen to it after these 5 leave? I think Tsunku meant these 5 girls make such a good group, I can't split them up and will be taking all 5 of them.
By the way, the winners will be announced at the Hello!Project 2011 winter concert that starts on January 2nd. Hopefully we'll know the winners the first day and won't have to wait until the last day for them to be reveled.
Anyway, here's the audition video for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
On yesterday's episode of Bijo Gaku they showed the first footage of the Morning Musume 9th generation auditions. The footage is only 4:30 minutes long, and we hardly get to see any footage of the girls. The footage also shows the final 5 girls rather than most of the girls who audition, like past auditions have shown.
In this clip we only see one girl sing the first line of the chorus to C-ute's Aitai Lonely Christmas, and one girl dance for about 10 seconds, then she immediately cries.
Here are the 5 finalists: (well actually they may or may no be finalists. Only half of them could be or just one. The truth is, no one knows for sure just yet.)
Apparently this girl won the audition to be in Morning Musume's stage play Fashionable. I just think it's so funny she made it to the finals. Mostly because I said here that there was a good chance the winner of the auditions would become a 9th generation member.
So far the first and last girl look like they would make a good addition to the group. But since they haven't shown them singing or dancing, it's far to early to make that judgement. I'm looking forward to the next episode, where we will most likely hear everyone sing.
Today I woke up to the most exciting news of my week. Well, most exciting fandom releated news anyway. After months of nothing but vague updates when an audition phase ended, we finally have a solid update on Morning Musume's 9th generation auditions. And when I say solid update I mean a preview of the auditioners. That's right, on today's episode of Bijou Gaku they showed a sneak peek of the 9th gen audition process. The show also indicated that over 9,000 applicants auditioned for the 9th gen. Which is roughly 2,200 more than the 8th gen auditions. And can I just say I love being wrong. During NMB48 it was announced that they had 7,256 applicants, and, being the optimist I am, I said that Morning Musume would be lucky to get half that. Well to my pleasant surprise they got more. Roughly 1,750 more, which is hardly a difference. But it is way better than the 4,000 I was expecting.
Here are the preview pictures of the girls. These pictures on my blog are in a small size so they don't cut in half. Please click on each picture to make them bigger. Usually I resize every picture to be a near perfect size for my blog. But for these pictures I tried to do minimal resizing, to keep the pictures as large as possible.
Out of these girls 397 has the most star quality. She looks absolutely adorable and infectious. 405, 891,and 862 also stand out.
Here 142 stands out the most. She's got that awkwardness in her look that Airi did when she was little. 858, 339, have potential.
This girl looks extremely tired.
This girl looks fashionable.
I want this girl in 9th gen! She looks like a mix between Kumai Yurina and Wada Ayaka. Adorable!
This girl kinda looks cute, but I can't really see her face.
Next.
She kinda looks like an uglier version of Ogawa Saki.
For some reason she reminds me of JunJun. She's a little too chubby though. Sorry for being so brutally honest.
Her face is too pumpkin like. XD
Now this girl looks fresh and cute.
These girls look like they are 16. Which in my opinion is too old. I'd like for the girls to be no older than 14.
From the side the girl in black looks like Fukuda Kanon. The chick in pink looks dazed.
This girl has features that remind me of Yajima Maimi. I think with a little time and makeup, she could become quite a beauty.
There's nothing special about this girl.
I don't care how old this girl is, I want her in the 9th gen! She is incredibly gorgeous!
Eh. She's kinda ugly.
This girl kinda looks like Yaguchi Mari from the Morning Coffee PV.
This girl's eyes are too far apart. Did she happen t suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome? Oh, that's just mean. XD
This chick's eyes are uneven!
This girl is really pretty. When you're that young and are already pretty, chances are you're gonna grow up to be pretty.
Now, Morning Musme auditions usually last about 3 months after they start broadcasting. So if the show starts broadcasting in December or January, you should expect the new members in March or April. Let's just hope Tsunku doesn't lose anymore girls to AKB48 again. I am extremely excited to see what the dance and voice training songs are going to be. Since they are usually newer songs I'm going to guess the dance sing will be Kimagure Princess, Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game, or Moonlight Night ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo~. And I'm going to guess the vocal training song will be Seishun Collection, Namdacchi, or Loving You Forever. That's like a dream. But they will most likely be doing songs from the 11th album. Which I kinda don't want to see happen. Mostly because I haven't even gotten the chance to listen to the 11th album yet. XD
