DiVA-Tsuki no Uragawa preview

AKB48 subgroup DiVA has released a short radio rip of their debut single Tsuki no Uragawa. The group that consists of AKB48 members Akimoto Sayaka, Miyazawa Sae, Umeda Ayaka and Masuda Yuka, will make their official debut on April 27th.


I gotta say I didn't make a post about DiVA earlier because I thought they were the DIVA from AKB48's singles and thought there was no reason to make a post about it. XDWell I'm still pretty much a novice fan, so it was an honest mistake.
Since this group is being promoted as a vocal and dance unit I was expecting an incredible song. And I am honestly pretty under whelmed with what we hear of the song so far. The music of the song is pretty bland and throughtout the entire song the same beat is repeated. It doesn't even pick up when the chorus hits. The music sounds like an insert song in an anime. There's hardly anything special about it. I was also expecting a lot singing wise. Since it's a vocal and dance unit I was expecting the song to have these huge high notes that show case each girl's full range. However, that's not the case. And the few high notes that are in the song are hit softly so you hardly notice the power in them. Sayaka has an incredible voice and it seems like in this song it was wasted.  All these girls have incredible voices actually. It's just sad that they are capable of more and were holding back a bit.

Passport to Passpo

I've been trying really hard to make this blog completely about idols. But I never really have the time to learn about other idol groups, because there's always something going on in the world of idols that I have to blog about. (Eventually I'll know about Idoling!!! and the 48 groups beyond AKB48. Eventually. XD) But since it's been a pretty slow news day for idols, I decided to learn about another idol group. And the idol group I picked is Passpo.



I picked Passpo for three reasons: They are relatively small with only 10 members, are fairly new having only released 4 singles and an album, and are making their major debut soon. Now, I might be an idol fan but I really only care about major idols. Indie idols are usually extremely hard to find information on. I can barely find translations for less popular idols such as Idoling!!! and Canary Club. I can imagine how hard it must be for indie groups. It also steams from me not caring about Research Students, Eggs, or Juniors before they officially debut too. It just seems pointless to learn about people who may or not do anything.


I really like Passpo's overall theme. Being flight attendants is something completely original and unique to Passpo. Another thing I find so appealing about Passpo is that half of the members are either my age or older. And in some odd way that makes me feel a little more connected to the group. XD
After actually listening to their music I was really impressed. The songs seem to be heavier and more rock sounding than the average idol group. But of course the music does still have that sugary sweet idol feel to it. Singing wise I think the group is very talented. I actually wasn't expecting that. However, their vocals mostly sound so strong because all of the girls are singing together. It's like listening to AKB48 for the first time. When all the girls are singing at once it's hard to differentiate each girl's voice and hard to notice who's the stand out. I'm also really looking forward to how the major debut will effect their songs. When Momoiro Clover went major their songs went from semi interesting to full blown awesome. And of course the PVs and outfits also improved.


I definitely think Passpo is worth keeping an eye on. Their major debut with Universal J is scheduled for April 6th. I don't think the recent earthquake will have any effect on that because all the late March releases were pushed back for early April, so everything should be right on track for them. Their debut single is called Shoujo Hikou and I will most likely be making a post about it as soon as anything is released.


To get ready for their major debut here are some of my favorite Passpo songs.




Let It Go:






GPP:







Pretty Lie:



Natsu Sora Dash:




Muteki Girl: (Not the full song, sorry)

The embedding was disabled so you have to click here to watch.

Kikkawa Yuu-Kikkake wa YOU radio rip + live performance

Despite Kikkawa Yuu's debut single Kikkake wa YOU being pushed back due to the earthquake, Kikka is pushing forward with her single's promotions. About a week ago the full radio rip for Kikkake wa YOU was released and a few days ago Kikka performed her song live for the first time and Uta no Rakuen.

I honestly thought I would have enough time to make a post about Kikkake wa YOU's radio rip before anything else happened with this song. But apparently not, and now this post is going to be about both. XD

Since we've already heard half the song when the short version of her PV was released a few weeks back, there's not really anything going on in the radio rip that we haven't heard before. The only actually new part of the song is toward the end Kikka sings it just a tad softer then the rest of the song. But since the song is sung relatively slow and soft to begin with it's hardly noticeable. However, I just keep liking the song more and more each time I hear it. Kikka is absolutely incredible and I can see her surpassing ManoEri really soon.

I thought her performance on Uta no Rakuen was amazing. Kikka was absolutely charming through the whole performance. With her simple yet completely adorable dance. I was also really impressed that she sang live and sounded almost exactly like she does on the recording. It just shows how her years of Egg training has paid off. And just the fact that she's singing live she's that H!P is sure of Kikka and are confident with her singing. I mean, despite Berryz Koubou being around for 7 years they still lip synched Heroine ni Narou ka when they performed it on Happy Music.
I still can't get over how much Kikka reminds me of a young Ayaya. Let's hope that means her and ManoEri will make a duo similar to GAM one day.

Also, let me just say that I am completely confused by what to call Kikka. At first Kikka's promo photos said Kikkawa You instead of Yuu, meaning she changed the spelling from now on. But during her performance her name is still written as Kikkawa Yuu. I'm completely confused! I guess I'll just stick to calling her Yuu from now on. XD




Here's the radio rip:







And here's her live performance:

Site updates

With the recent events unfolding in Japan I took some time off from blogging in respect for Japan. But in my blog's down time I decided to do some behind the scenes work on my blog and give it a few updates.


The first update being the navigation menu. I don't know if anyone remembers, but the old layout of my blog had links on the top of the blog to click to home, about, and contact. But after I switched to my new layout for some reason the code didn't take with the new layout and automatically created a links section on my side bar. Since the links section worked just as well, I didn't really feel like messing with it at the time. Instead I always kept in mind that I needed to fix it. Of course I always put it off because I am terrible at HTML, and I have to find a premade HTML code. But it's extremely difficult to find I premade code that is actually nice looking, and that I can easily manipulate. But I finally found one that matched my layout and was fairly easy to adjust the colors. Also, for some reason my blog's name is written across the nabigation menu, and I ave no idea how to fix that. If anyone knows a way to get rid of that, that would be a huge help.


And of course the second update I did was add more banners. I'm like addicted to making banners. Because they are cute and set my blog apart from other blogs. With the ones I just made it now brings me up to 35 banners. You think that a lot, but I'm not where near done. I still have to make a new Momusu one featuring the 9th gen, and after I know more about a few other idol groups I want make banners for them. And I eventually wanted to make Morning Musume generation banners as well as Team banners for the 48 groups. The banners I made now were subgroups, and groups I've been putting off making because I don't follow them that closely.
So here are the new banners:

Watarirouka Hashiritai

no3b

Not Yet

Mano Erina

NYC

SDN48

YuiKaori

Kanjani8

These aren't even all the updated I have in mind. Eventually I'm also going to add twitter because a lot of other blogs have twitter. I actually already made an account but I haven't done much else to it, so I'm not posting it yet. XD


And I also wanted to say that I have officially returned to blogging. Since a majority of bloggers have returned as well. And even Japan seems to be getting back to the swing of things with Music Station making its return. So, my next post will be my return post. :D

Picking up the pieces

I have felt completely heartbroken by the unfolding events in Japan. It seems everyday when I wake up the news is worse. Nuclear reactors exploding, the death toll believed to be over 10,000. I even heard on the news last night that they are bumping up the earthquake from 8.9 to 9.0. Watching things like this makes me incredibly sad. Half because I love Japan and I empathise with them, and half because I can't really help them at all. Having been interested in Japan and Japanese music for almost 7 years now, makes me more saddened by this news than the average American. Not to say Americans aren't completely heartbroken over this, because they are, but as some one who has always kept an eye on Japan it hurts a lot more for me.

And the ironic thing is despite all of this I really want to start blogging again.Not for any selfish or malice reasons you might be thinking of. I want to blog because blogging gives me comfort. A few months back when my mom had a stroke blogging helped me feel just a tiny bit better. It gave me a sense of normality amide devistation. But how do you blog about the place that was effected for comfort? That seems like backwards logic to me. And because of that I haven't been blogging. I had this blog give a moment of silence to Japan.

But then I wonder is it even ok to blog. With a devastating earthquake and tsunami obviously it doesn't feel completely right to blog. When a tragedy of this caliber happens trivial things like idols hardly matter. But with that mind set, when is an ok time to blog? I don't want to be seen as that insensitive person that starts blogging about unimportant things, when Japan is still grieving.

I don't know, I feel completely torn. It's just incredible to see what a huge difference a day makes. I remeber the day before the earthquake all I cared about was seeing the full PV for Maji Desu ka Ska. I was getting excited for the Super Moon and St. Patrick's Day. I even wrote an entry about Passpo the day before the earthquake, that I was going to post the next day.

And now it doesn't even seem right to care about these things. And if I care I'm a horrible person. Of course people have to move on eventually, and Japan isn't even my native country. But it stll seems like it's too soon. But I have no idea when it will no longer feel too soon. How do you measure something like that? A week, a month, a year? This whole post makes me seem selfish.

Japan hit by massive earthquake and tsunami

Today I was abruptly woken up by my mom who was talking loudly to my dad about a huge earthquake that hit Japan. At first I didn't really care too much. Mostly, because I was woken up way too early. And since my mom isn't the best at pronouncing Japanese I wasn't really too aware of where it was. First she said it was Chiba. (But now I realize she was talking about the nuclear plant in fukushima) But after watching the news and seeing that it hit Sendai is a huge city and also Sendai is really close to Tokyo I was really scared. Not only for the famous people that live in and around Tokyo, but because Tokyo is Japan's largest city and lots of people could be injured. Apparently this was the largest earthquake to hit Japan in several years. And of course the news over hear was reporting about how the tsunami waves were going to hit Hawaii and California which is also pretty scary.


The large 8.9 earthquake triggered a huge tsunami with waves that were 23 feet high. Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture, or state, closest to the epicenter. Another 151 were confirmed killed, with 547 missing. Police also said 798 people were injured. The government ordered about 3,000 residents near a nuclear power plant in the city of Onahama to move back at least two miles from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles northeast of Tokyo. The news has also reported that there have been around 50 aftershocks. As I'm writing this article CNN is reporting a 6.2 aftershock in Nagano!
 
On the idol front of things, it has been confired that all H!P members, NGP members and H!P Eggs are safe. All AKB48, SKE48, and SDN48 members are safe. Which is extremely good news. However, the safety of all JE members has not been confirmed. Here is what Johnny's confirms:
 
NEWS; Yamapi, Tegoshi and Ryo are safe. (the others seems safe also, not 100% confirmed though..)

Kusano and Uchi are both also safe
Arashi; everyone are safe (though Aiba's house have caught fire)
Kanjani8, everyone are safe
KAT-TUN; everyone are safe (not 100%) (but Ueda's house is damaged..)
All of HSJ member safe, but Yuto is in hospital for minor injury
V6 and SMAP are all safe
NYC, M.A.D, Uesato Ryota, Fujie Kazuyori - reported safe
Ikuta Toma is safe
Kis-my-ft2 are all safe
Kinki Kids are safe
TOKIO; injuries but safe
Also, it seems Yaotome Hikaru's house in Sendai is ruined.
And I have also heard that Inoo Kei is still unconfirmed.


Here's some video about the quake. I had to get it from RussiaToday because they seem to be the only news that has an official youtube channel. XD This video is several hours old, so if you want updates on this I suggest you watch your local news or CNN.

SDN48-Sarang wo Kudasai

The PV for SDN48's 2nd single Ai Juseyo was just released.

When the PV preview for this song was released, I voiced my dislike of both the song and PV. But after watching the PV the song has grown on me, the PV not so much. I understand that SDN48's whole them and appeal is that they are an adult idol group. And even though this PV is sexy, it's not sexy in the right way. It seems like SDN48 is trying to hard to be sexy in this PV. What made the GAGAGA PV sexy and alluring was that they only had one sexy outfit and basically 1 sexy scene. Which was sort of a tease for the fans. Which in turn made the PV effortlessly sexy. In this PV they are going out of their way too be overly sexualized, and have as much sexy scenes as possible. Which is too much. It makes the PV be in bad taste and almost too much.

Am I the only one who sees that this is supposed to emulate some wota's rape fantasy. I don't really approve of that. XD

Of course Japanese men wouldn't find it as appealing if there wasn't a least one panty shot.

The English is almost perfect. If they just rid of the second you and the word enough, it would be perfect. I wonder if it's just in English because they know of all the foreign fans they have?

It's totally for the foreign fans. I spot Ai Juseyo written in Japanese, Korean, English, German, French, and i think Russian.

The dance is way too simple.

What's with the horns all of a sudden?

All these "alluring" dance moves are pretty lame.

Of course they have to have nude scenes. Granted AKB48 did these same scenes in Heavy Rotation.

I actually really like the dresses. They are sexy without being obviously sexy.

Wow, these scenes are so unnecessary.