From my point of view Mano Erina is a brilliant idol, if a 'safe' one. She managed to merge retro and modern, cuteness and beauty, charm and mystery.
Mano's debut as a soloist perhaps surprised people at the time, but she went on to achieve many things: 3 indie label singles, 13 major label singles, 3 studio albums, 1 compilation album, several acting roles, 5 solo photobooks . . .
All these things she achieved with a welcoming, girl next door aura that made her as an idol.
Manoeri's music releases have been varied, ranging from the piano balladry of 'Manopiano' and 'Otome no Inori', to the super cute 'Sekai wa Summer Party', to the electro-pop 'Onegai Dakara'. However, all of it comes together because of the way Mano chooses to perform it.
Today, Mano Erina graduated from Hello! Project. She hopes to become an actress and I am sure she will be able to fulfil that dream. Good luck Mano-chan and thank you for everything up until now, and of course everything still to come!
Tonnes of yellow material wasted on chicken outfits
Now, onto the real business!
Best Single
C-ute's classic ballad 'Kimi wa Jitensha Watashi wa Densha de Kitaku' takes this one purely by ticking all the boxes: great song, good vocals, pretty outfits, nice choreo, good music video(s) . . .
Best Album
This year hasn't really been anything special in terms of albums but I will give this one to the Berryz in all their potato sack clad glory. All the singles from this cut were quality tracks and album songs such as 'Shy Boy' and 'Rennai Moyou' are well worth a listen.
Best Outfits
I actually think all the outfits for the 'Satoyama' units have been great. A bit less showy and a bit more just, nice.
And another mention to C-ute! These outfits are just fantastic.
Best Music Video
Mano Erina's 'Song for the Date' wins this by a country mile. Remind me; why aren't all H!P music videos of this standard?
Members that have stood out well in 2012!
Michishige Sayumi - In her first year as the leader of Morning Musume Sayumi has certainly shown why she's the perfect person for the job
Sayashi Riho - Becoming an ever dominating lead, little Riho has stepped up to any challenge admirably.
Iikubo Haruna - The originally awkward 10th generation member has found her niche as a spokesperson for the group.
Tsugunaga Momoko - Another great year for Momochi as she continues her hard work and succeeds in becoming one of the best annoying people out there!
Tokunaga Chinami - Okay, this one's a bit more shallow on my part . . . but isn't she just stunning! (and hilarious)
Wada Ayaka - It seems this year that Dawa has finally become a great great leader!
Hopes for 2013
Morning Musume. C-ute and S-mileage continue in their current style
Berryz finally find a niche . . . please?
Better quality album tracks for all
Some more serious Buono! No more of the fluffy 'sherbet' nonsense.
I have never really been too much of a S/mileage fan. I liked plenty of their songs, and the girls were all good fun but as a group I always regarded them as a little too balanced if that makes any sense. All 4 original members were on a fairly level playing ground in terms of talent and personality and the even number of members meant a set formation was difficult to have.
After the dramatic line-up changes last year I was slightly worried about the group and if it would work but with the fantastic singles 'Suki yo Junjou Hankouki' and now 'Samui ne' I wonder why I ever doubted the new S/mileage at all. These songs are among the group's best in my opinion and although the S/mileage girls aren't the best performers in H!P they are now one of the most diverse groups and I hope that they can regain that possible success that we saw with the earlier line up.
Anyway, back to the single.
The song itself a great, fairly mellow, slightly 'turn of the century' styled affair that utilises synths and piano to create a intriguing sound.
The video is also fairly pleasing with surprisingly decent use of lighting that manages to integrate the typically S/mileage outfits into the more mature song. Comparisons with C-ute's 'Aitai Lonely Christmas' are easily made but that video was also rather good so I won't be complaining!
In Conclusion, this is a very good release and has become the first S/mileage release I have bought the physical copy of. If that's not a good sign, I don't know what is!
I can't tell you how pleased I am!
The 11th generation audition has officially delivered what it promised to deliver! Sakura is a very talented young girl who i can tell will become an incredible force in the future. While she seems, at the moment, shy when she isn't performing I am not really worried about that as girls like Riho, Fukuchan, Eripon and Masaki have all managed to come out of their shell and develop a character. But hey, since people are already declaring her as a new (but much less fidgety and nervous looking) Aichan maybe that her shy nature is something that will be moulded but not removed. I try not to jump to conclusions but she will make a great front-runner alongside Riho once Reina says tatty bye. All the best lead duos have had a strong contrast. I predict Sakura will be the Nacchi to Riho's Goto, or the Ai to Riho's Reina.
So, Morning Musume have just released their new album '13 Colourful Character' and after last years very enjoyable, if oddly titled, '12 Smart' I was hoping for something of the same standard. And while this new album is by no means bad, it does not excite me like the last did. At the moment it sits around the middle of my album ranking along with the likes of 'Rainbow 7' and 'First time'. If anyone is curious I would classify albums 2,4,9,10 and 12 as favourites, 1,7,8 and 11 as good but rather "meh" in the grand scale of things and the remainder (3,5 and 6) as albums that have good tracks on them but don't work as a single entity.
The regular edition cover is one i reckon looks better in the flesh (well, plastic) . . .
The limited edition cover meanwhile, is actually one of my favourite Momusu album covers ever.
The album opens with the recent single 'One.Two.Three' which makes sense, given the song's success. It then moves on the the brilliant 'What's Up! Ai wa Dou na no yo' which is an infectious blend of all the things I love about the group recently before arriving at 'Be Alive' which I guess you could regard as this album's 'Loving You Forever' or 'Seishun Collection'. The melody is uplifting and in a way nostalgic but i feel something more could've been done with the arrangement. We then get to hear Sayu's solo song 'Lalala no Bibibi' which is cute and generally ear-pleasing if a bit of a rehash of last year's 'Suki da na Kimi ga'. This is followed by 'Dokkan Capriccio' which is frantic, full of 'crowd noises', and very similar in style to the 2011 album track 'Ok Yeah'. I won't dwell on 'The Mantenrou Show' as it feels we can't get away from it lately . . . So, moving on. While it's nice to hear the non RR member's voices a bit more 'Zero Kara Hajimeru Seishun' is a wee bit of a snooze fest. 'Renai Hunter' is still great and 'Chikyuu ga Naiteru' is not quite what I expected from the title but is passable and some of the vocal melodies in the verses are good fun. I do however feel that we could've done with something slightly less hyper from this particular track. Reina's solo 'Namida Itteki' is in fact very interesting. Despite the r&b styled beats the melody is very 'Japanese' in style and feels like it could've been written decades ago. The 9th and 10th gen song 'Waratte You' is perfectly pleasant but not particularly remarkable and well, 'Pyoko Pyoko Ultra' . . . is best forgotten.
In conclusion, 'What's Up! Ai wa dou na no yo', 'Lalala no Bibibi' and 'Namida Itteki' are where it's at in terms of new tracks and they are the ones you should be skipping off to itunes to purchase!
The past week or so has been fairly exciting, with new music from three of the Hello! Project groups. (Well, there has also been a radio preview of C-ute's new single but it was too short to tell anything from really.)
First up is S/mileage's 'Suki yo, Junjou Hankouki'.
I have too admit, I loved this song as soon as I heard the concert rip. The 'Suki yo, suki yo, suki yo' part of the chorus is just too infectious! The costumes, that we saw way back, are somewhat unrelated to the song but, hey, they are a cute pointer towards the current Olympics. The choreography is actually pretty decent but I think S/mileage have always been fairly fortunate as far as routines go. Also, the main set seems, to me, what High King's 'Cinderella/Complex' should have been. The set is similar in terms of lighting and colour palette to that of 'C/C' but is much larger than that of the former, allowing the dance routine to flow and not seem overcrowded. The lighting of some of the close-ups is, in my opinion, a bit too wishy-washy but all in all I would say that this was a successful music video for a great little song. This also is the first single where I feel the 2nd generation members are placed on the same 'tier' so to speak, as Dawa and Kanyon. I also really appreciate this amount of spotlight on Rina. She is a lovely girl with a sweet voice and it's about time she got to rock some more solos!
Next is two new songs from the upcoming Morning Musume album '13 Colourful Character' that are also being used as audition songs.
First off, Reina's trousers are mightily distracting! Also, I noticed that Sayumi actually dances very well these days.
The song, titled 'WHAT'S UP? Ai wa douna no yo~ is interesting and experimental. Just in this short clip we already have great synths, rap and speech like lines. It really is something. Opening song?
Part of me wants to know who that is on the chorus now that Ai 'chorus voice' Takahashi is no longer in the group. Whoever it is has done a fine job.
The dance has a sort of 'The Peace'-like move at the beginning and other parts remind me of a much more technically demanding 'Kiiroi Osora de BOOM BOOM BOOM'. I am really looking forward to seeing this one live.
The other song is 'Be Alive', a warming ballad. It is a very nice, while not being terribly innovative, song that really sings out 'Morning Musume'. The vocals actually sound fairly pleasant, especially considering that this is now a rather inexperienced group. Overall, I think this creates a rather good impression of the new Momusu.
Last but in no way least is Buono! with 'Never gonna stop!' from their upcoming mini-album 'Sherbet'.
I always like Buono songs but at times I thought some of them were just a bit too musically similar for my tastes, probably due to them being pigeonholed into the sort of pop/rock sound. Of course songs like 'Partenza let's go' were amazing breaths of fresh air and I think that while not going such an extreme again Buono has retained a certain variety this year with 'Hatsukoi Cider', 'DEEP MIND' and now 'Never gonna stop!' all being very differently styled and I really appreciate that.
This time they have gone with a very optimistic and bright style however the vocals and parts of the instrumental have a much heavier edge making this song very fun to listen to.
The music video is very sweet and I love how they included footage from the concert in France as it just shows how far Buono have come as a group and just how they are 'Never gonna stop!'.
I have created a new blog named 'is this love' that will cover a broader range of Japanese pop than the H!P focused 'THE Blogpower'. I will of course continue to write on THE Blogpower as usual.
