H!P winter concert previews

With the H!P winter tour DVDs being released shortly dohhh up has released clips of each concert. As a short preview of Wonderful Hearts Kouen ~Kakumei Gannen~ and Elder Club Koen - Thank you for your LOVE!


The first clip is from Wonderful Hearts and it's Go Girl Koi no Victory.



I was really happy that this song was used for the preview. Go Girl Koi no Victory is one of my favorite Morning Musume songs of all time. I think this performance is really fun and full of energy. This performance really showed that Wonderful Hearts will continue to go on strong after Elder Club.
Their outfits are really sparkly and fluffy. I don't really understand what all the overuse of boa is about. But it's cute none the less. People that really stood out to me were Koharu, ManoEri, Risa, Momoko, and Aika. The green really makes Koha pop, she looks great. I'm not really a fan of Erina. but she is undeniably cute, and she had a lot of energy during this performance. That hat looks really odd on Aika. It makes her look kind of like a mushroom. But a cute one. And Risa, my god does she look gorgeous with that hair or what? Momoko, how can you not notice her? She looks adorable as usual.


The next clip is from Elder Club's final concert and it's Never Forget.



This is a very fitting song to show. I'm sure all of us will never forget Elder Club. Just as expected this is a very emotional performance, pretty much everyone is crying. But this seems to be hitting the older gens extremely hard. Mari, Yuko, Nacchi, and Rika seem to be taking it the worst. This is actually very upsetting to me. I think just now it hit me that they are finally gone. The performance is really great, the singing is spot on. Just what you'd expect from the best of H!P. And my girl KonKon even got a solo line in this song.

Bring on the M-Line

 Graduated members from H!P will have their own separate fanclub called M-Line. Melon Kinenbi and Aya Matsuura will also have their own. But Yuko Nakazawa, Iida Kaori, Natsumi Abe, Mari Yaguchi, Kei Yasuda, Hitomi Yoshizawa, Rika Ishikawa, Nozomi Tsuji, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa, Miki Fujimoto, Mai Satoda, and Ongaku Gatas will all fall under M-Line.

Now we've know about M-Line for a few months, but it's not until recently their own website launched. And it seems instead of being called Elder!Club it's going to be M-Line. It would have been cool for it to be H!P and E!C. But also kind of stupid.

It's nice to see that the girls didn't disappear forever and have some sort of plans for the future. But it seems like Aya Mastuura and Melon Kinenbi have a brighter future since their fanclubs are separate from M-Line all together. But I'm still pretty excited for this.

I want to see KonKon and NoNo being very busy and working like there's no tomorrow. I'd also like to see Makoto do something too. Since she came back to H!P suddenly and was graduated shortly after. Besides KonKon, NoNo, Makoto, and Ongaku Gatas are really too young to be in this. They were even too young for Elder Club. But just because once you graduate from Momusu you are now lumped into Elder Club. I always found something silly with that.

Anyway, go M-Line! Try and be a little more popular than you were in H!P. And here's the link to their site. http://www.mall-city.net/m-line/

A tearful goodbye to Elder Club

On February 1st, H!P's Elder Club graduated and preformed their last concert as members of H!P. It was the largest H!P ever with 72 members in total. The end of Elder Club also marked the end of the song Love Machine. They will be retiring the song from further concerts. It really is sad to see all the members leave, everyone who made H!P what it is today.

This concert showed the return of several things. Tanpopo, Pucchi Moni, Sakura Gumi, and Otome Gumi. But most importantly it marked the return of Tsuji Nozomi. After a year and nine months she is finally back on stage. Tsuji said how she was nervous about dancing again, but after the music started it all came back to her. 

Yuko hands over H!P to Ai. Makin Ai-chan the oldest member at 22. I wonder how long it will be before Ai is too old and graduated from H!P completely?

Anyway, here's a few pics from the concert.

Nono's back! Pinch me!

 

Former 4th gen member of Morning Musume, and the other U in W, Tsuji Nozomi is back in action with a snazzy new blog. It was only a matter of time before Tsunku let her out of the dark. She can finally show her face publicly again. So, maybe she can finally be seen on her husband's blog. And not just her hand randomly seen in a picture. But whatever Nono is finally back! And I thrilled for it! I would have liked to hear news about her a little sooner. Tsunku waited until the last minute. With the Elder Club concert coming up she'd be in the news eventually.

I am waiting to hear more news of her career, that seems to be back in full swing. But just how well will Nono sell without Aibon? That's what I've been asking myself since Aibon left. I mean she's been practically attached at the hip to Aibon her whole career. And after Aibon got suspended and fired she hasn't done anything. She voiced an anime character but didn't release any singles. Aside from singing the theme for it. She was also in Gyaruru for about 5 minutes before she got married and announced her pregnancy.

But this blog points in the direction of her starting a solo career or being part of a new group. Which is really exciting. The blog it's self is very cute and pink, just like you'd expect from Tsuji-chan. She has 2 posts and I'm not 100% sure what the blog says since I can speak really little Japanese and can't read any. Horrible translation sites say she has been busy taking care of Nao who turned 1 in November. She talks about cooking things and interest in fashion. She also mentions being nervous about returning to the stage for Elder Club concerts.


It's about time to have official Tsuji news. Tsuji fans, like myself, have been waiting a long time for this. And hopefully Nono has something big planned for the future.

Aya's chocolately treat

Aya Matsuura's 21st single, Chocolate Damashi, is being released on Feburary 11th. And it's meant to be a Valentine's Day present to her fans. Which kind of makes me laugh because it's like indirectly only meant for male fans because in Japan only guys receive gifts on Valentine's Day. Women receive gifts a month later on White Day. But I don't Aya even thought of it that way. This single will also be her last single as a part of H!P.

I'm not really a fan of Aya's more mature music, I only really liked her first few singles. But this song seems genuinely sweet and fun. And the music sounds like something Puffy would be doing, but just a dash more pop. Aya's voice and image are so mature it's really hard to believe she's in her early twenties. Her voice sounds really sweet in this song but that's not really enough to make me love this song. I think this song is mediocre at best. Even vocally Ayaya has sounded better. But I do love the playfulness of it but I prefer her older stuff. It was more cutesy and more over the top.

The first thing that really pops out about this video is her outfit. I mean it's practically clashing. A pink and with striped dress with blue polka dotted stockings. Tsk tsk didn't anyone teach Aya not mix patterns. Her shoes, as fabulous as they are, they just don't match. Well they almost do but it looks awkward. And what's up with her mini Lolita hat? If you're not wearing a puffy lolita dress, those hats are just never nice to wear. Even though her outfit is practically a fashion disaster. I really like it. It's put together so oddly enough that it just works.

I don't think this video could get any cheaper. She's covered wall to wall with boxes of chocolate. There's a random bed, lamp, and table but that's it. She doesn't do much more than just sit there. This song is a little fast paced couldn't she dance a little? Or do something? There's also not even close ups of her face. The closest it gets is her torso. Which fits more for this type of song, but still I'd like to see a little something special. I mean, it's her last official under H!P shouldn't she have gone out with a bang? This single should have made them regret the Elder Club graduations not prove it was a smart idea.

Sayonara Elder Club

It was announced earlier today that H!P's entire Elder Club would be graduating on March 31, 2009. They will only be graduating from Hello!Project and will continue to be apart of UFA. They will continue as artists rather than idols.

The initial shock has not warred off yet. I still can't fully understand what has just happened. Can it still truly be called H!P without Nachhi or Kei? Or the 4th gen? Or without the mother of H!P herself, Nakazawa Yuuko? All the girls that made H!P rise to glory and made it what it is today are gone, just like that. Without a formal explanation. It's just a big slap in the face to fans if you ask me. Basically saying "Hey we're taking away all your idols and there's nothing you can do about it! Explanations? If you're lucky we'll explain it clearly in April." At least that's how I take it. It looks like Hangry and Angry will be the first official group not part of H!P.

Well at least with every con there's a pro. A few people have speculated that maybe they will form a new unit with UFA, an Elder!Project. Letting the respected members continue their career and be in the spotlight more. And letting Hello!Project continue to have the fresh and young feel.
What I think will happen is current solo artists and members will be able to leave UFA if the wish to or continue to remain a part of UFA but have more control over their career. I don't think all member will become solo artist, it's unclear who will be. So what happens to the rest of the members? I guess we'll hopefully find out in passing months.

So here's a full list of the graduating members.

Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari

Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Konno Asami, Ogawa Makoto

Fujimoto Miki, Inaba Atsuko, Satoda Mai, Maeda Yuki

Saito Hitomi, Murata Megumi, Ohtani Masae, Shibata Ayumi

Miyoshi Erika, Matsuura Aya, Okada Yui

Korenaga Miki, Noto Arisa, Sengoku Minami, Sawada Yuri

And here's a video to remember them by