GIFT Mr. Children

GIFT is Mr. Children's 32nd single and it's a summer ballad. I know a lot of people love Mr. Children and this single is sure to easily take the top spot on the charts but it honestly didn't do much for me. It is pretty and has some meaningful lyrics but doesn't bring much to the table that we haven't heard before, from Mr. Children and numerous other artists. The song is the theme for NHK's broadcast of the Olympics so if you live in Japan, be prepared to be awful sick of this song in a few weeks.

Rating: C+

Hi wa, Mata Noboru Aladdin

Aladdin ahhh the unstoppable combination of Shuuchishin and Pabo, the baka'ist people in Japan singing about Japan being so great and telling all the salary men to strive to achieve. What an oxymoron. That being said, this song is so much fun and is sure to have you on your feet singing (or shouting) GANBARE NIPPON! Musically this song isn't anything wonderful, it's a cheer song and really all that matters is the message of a united Japan. I love this song, and not because it has a H!P member in it... It's because of Suzanne. Yes, Suzanne could release a single where she just hummed and I would love it (providing it had a PV). Oh Suzanne *hearto*

Rating: B
Suzanne: A+++

You can listen to the track in the media viewer at the top of the blog.

Motto Tooku e / Orchestra Remioromen

More Olympic theme songs *yay* (not) ... Motto Tooku e is Fuji TV's while Orchestra is for Coca-Cola (I'm not sure why they need a theme song, they must be having crazy Olympic parties in the Coke machines?).
Motto Tooku e is sort of a rocky, mid tempo ballad. Fujimaki's vocals are a bit odd in the verses but suit the rockier chorus well. Like Mr. Children's song, this one isn't anything new and is very viewer friendly. Not bad, not great.
I haven't heard Orchestra so I can't comment on it, sorry.

Rating: B-

Waga Routashi Aku no Hana ALI PROJECT

ALI PROJECT's new single is the theme for Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and it really is an extremely odd song. It's like circus music on acid. I'm not sure if I hate it or love it. I think I like it when I can listen to it when I wish, it's rather ambitious and different which I admire. If I was trapped in some underground lair and this song was played non-stop, I'd last about 2 hours before I ripped my ears out (and that's a very generous estimation). Credit to Arika, it sounds like a bitch to sing and she does do well.

Rating: B ... or D- .... ?

Single of the Week



sprinter / ARIA Kalafina

Kalafina is a new female group with a lolita-goth style singing rocky style songs. The girls are all very attractive (which always helps) and I think the main thing I like about Kalafina is the layering of their vocals. Each girl has a unique sound and they are all utilized well, as any group should be.

sprinter is a power ballad of sorts with a really beautiful orchestral/rock instrumental. As I mentioned the layering of vocals is superb and every girl sings fantastically. The verses are sung powerfully and grow effortlessly as the song builds. The chorus is particularly catchy and towards the end of the song we have some beautiful harmonies accompanying the chorus. It's a powerful and beautiful track.

ARIA is a very different track, opening with operatic vocals leading onto a beautiful ballad. It has an almost folk/Celtic sound to it, with the track picking up after the first verse with an interesting bass. There is a questionable instrumental which begins to sound extremely Celtic-inspired. This track probably isn't my preferred style but it is different, a refreshing change.

While my favourite single of this week is C-ute's new track (look out for a review soon), Kalafina is my single of the week for non H!P releases, a really beautiful find.

Rating:
sprinter: A-
ARIA: B

You can listen to Kalafina's single and last week's single of the week Plenty of Grit / Revolution in the media viewer at the top of the page and let me know what you think.

ORICON ROUNDUP: Avex's EXILE has totally obliterated the album charts selling 400K of their EXILE ENTERTAINMENT BEST album to rocket to #1. This is their 10th no.1 album, with only their debut album not reaching the top of the charts, and their second BEST album this year, with their third EXILE BALLAD BEST to be released in December.

GReeeeN's A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu sold another 40K this week to place 2nd and bring their total sales closer to the 650K mark, while last week's no.1 ZUSHI dropped to 3rd selling 33K. Koi no Uta continues to sell, the love song compilation charting at no.4 on their 3rd week, while Ayaka's Sing to the Sky is no.6 on its 6th week.

On the singles' chart, Hey! Say! JUMP scores a predictable 3rd #1 single, though their sales seem to be slowly declining, selling 20K less than their previous single. 160K is nothing to scoff at and they easily took the top spot. Aiko's new single KissHug is at no.2 selling 75K and FUNKY MONKEY BABYS are in 4th spot.

My single of the week, Hayashibara Megumi's Plenty of grit / Revolution charted at a delightfully surprising 6th with 15K sales, better than expected. Last week's top single Tohoshinki's Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattandarou? dropped out of the top 10 to no.18, while GReeeeN's Kiseki returned to the top 10 in its 9th week.

CHARTS:

Singles:


01: Your Seed / Bouken Rider Hey! Say! JUMP 160,032
02: KissHug aiko 75,086
03: Gake no Ue no Ponyo Fuijioka Fujimaki & Oohashi Nozomi 36,973
04: Kokuhaku FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 16,551
05: Make my day Aragaki Yui 15,223
06: Plenty of grit / Revolution Hayashibara Megumi 14,940
07: Behind love ~ Kataomoi Park Yong Ha 13,149
08: Kiseki GReeeeN 13,027
09: Tsume, Tsume, Tsume/[F] Maximum The Hormone 12,794
10: One Love ARASHI 12,317

18: Doushite Kimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimattandarou? Tohoshinki 6,367

Albums:


01: EXILE ENTERTAINMENT BEST EXILE 400,038
02: A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu GReeeeN 39,878
03: ZUSHI Kimaguren 33,502
04: Koi no Uta (Various Artists) 23,736
05: Persona 4 Original Soundtrack Meguro Shouji 21,083

06: Sing to the Sky ayaka 19,427

NEWS: Bubka's latest edition is promoting itself as revealing C-ute's first scandal which is the alleged relationship of Arihara Kanna and Johnny Jr. member Hashimoto Ryosuke.

(click for high res)

The pair are seen walking around, sitting next to each other, with one incriminating photo of Kanna resting her head on Hasshi's shoulder as she watches him fiddle with something in his hands.

Some points from the article: (cred Ayabie)

- Kanna was spotted outside a station in Yokohama
- While the witness was wondering if she was waiting for another H!P member, Hashimoto shows up. Before coming to any conclusions thinking there might be more people on the way, the two of them start walking away instead.
- The two of them headed for a nearby cinema and got tickets for Hana Yori Dango: Final.
- Since there was still time before the movie started the two of them sat down on a bench in the lobby. The witness describes that there seemed to be a distance between the two, probably because people were walking past them all the time. Kanna had a cap to cover her face just in case, but Hashimoto didn't really have anything and had to occasionally cover his face with his hands.
- After a while they held hands and started cuddling, but the witness could tell they were holding back, or they just started going out recently. (The rest is basically about what's going in the pictures)
- There have been rumors from before about C-ute having contact with Johnny's Jr. Could they have met back then?
- After the movie the two of them left the cinema while holding hands. Surprisingly they didn't head anywhere else after that and the date actually ended right there.
- "A refreshing couple that doesn't emit the smell of a scandal at all"

Kanna is one of my favourite H!P members so this news is disappointing, not because I don't want Kanna to be in a relationship but the fact that she could possibly be removed from H!P from something as ridiculously non-existent as this. Anyone who has ever had a close friend of the opposite gender knows that lots of pairs of friends act like this and even if the pair is an item, it's hardly something to crucify the poor girl over. Oh well, I guess we'll keep our eyes and ears open for more news. Let's hope Kanna stays safe. I have a feeling nothing will come from this (or hoping at least).

REVIEW: The Canaria Club, for those who don't know, is a group of 9 girls and is part of the NICE GIRL Project under Tsunku's record company TNX.

(L to R) Ayumi, Occhi, Ikucchi, Mana, Mikki, Erina, Reiko, Rippon, Yurie

I've been a fan of the Canaria Club for a while, own a cd of theirs, keep up to date with all their activities, so it was great to *finally* get my hands on a copy of their Live Document DVD. The idea of the Live Document DVD is that it follows the girls journey of their ~Yokohama Canaria Diamond~ concerts and mixes up concert and backstage/rehearsal footage for a unique view into the workings of an idol concert.

The DVD begins by showing the hustle and bustle outside the stadium: the wota lining up in anticipation of the upcoming concert. We see lots of merchandise (fans, photos, wristbands, cds etc), wota heading into the concert hall, sold out posters on walls: a generally exciting feel and insight to the pre-show shenanigans summed up in a short 30 sec intro.

The crowd chants and pumps the air with their glowsticks as we get our first backstage glimpse, the girls' pre performance rituals. Perhaps the most noticeable thing with Canaria Club is that they are a bunch of misfits; The age range between the eldest and youngest member is over 10 years, they are varying heights, weights - they generally just look like a bunch of girls off the street. From the moment they throw their hands up in the air, all of that flies out the window and they become a unified group. Their energy is infectious and every member has their own niche and defining characteristics.
They take turns in psyching each other us in their little circle of power. Unfortunately the crowds' chants prevent up from hearing anything they are saying but they look very serious. Then they are quickly led onto the stage seen via a grainy handycam which, while sort of cheap, gives off the exclusive backstage vibe.

Nishiki Kazare

The first song they sing was their new single at the time, so they start the concert off with a bang. Ayumi and Erina (the oldest and youngest members I mentioned before), stand at the front of the stage, pointing out to the audience before leading the group around the stage in a mini-train. Every girl is brimming from ear to ear and no one looks nervous at all, waving and laughing towards the audience.
This song focuses on the main vocalists in the group, Mana, Ayumi, Yurie & Mikki and they all are singing very well, while the other girls do backup chanting ("Go Go, Go YES!" ... that type of stuff). The dance is simple but cute. The girls on backup probably have the cutest bits of the dance, hopping around like chickens.
The energy continues throughout the song and they do the train move a couple more times and manage to look like they are heading to Disneyland every time which is always fun!

You'll notice the stage is quite small and the crowd is almost on top of it. While not visually stunning, it really makes for a very intimate and high energy venue.

Dream on dreams

This song, from their first album, has a bit of a rocky vibe. We only see a short version of this performance (which occurs a lot in this DVD due to the backstage footage), though from what we see it's another good performance. Erina leads the dance up the front and for somebody so young she is extremely confident. Lots of fist pumping in this performance, high energy once again.

Rehearsal footage of Dream on dreams is next up and we see the girls preparing for the performance we've just seen. The vocal coach blabs on a bit and gets the girls to sing some harmonies until she is happy. They sound pretty great considering there is no music playing and they are still dancing.

Each girl then introduces herself individually and a little clips are shown of the girls mucking around in rehearsals. Erina's is probably the funniest, the girl is a total lunatic. She sips on a straw while blinking her eyes looking left, right, up and down and then starts dusting the backstage equipment with a feather duster she finds. Later she begins balancing towels on her head and shoulders.... right, that's normal...

FAITH!

FAITH! is the next song and is mainly sung by the whole group with a couple of solos from Mana, Yurie and Ayumi. The dance is pretty simple but the girls smile and punch the air with lots of enthusiasm. They stand in lines and I noticed that Yurie and Ikucchi are so tall! They tower over most of the other girls.

Dounika Shite!

We get our first look at some of the other girls singing in this performance with Reiko and Rippon helping to sing the verses. They are not as fine tuned as the main singers but they do a good job and harmonize well. It seems like a fan favourite as the wota chant pretty loudly during the course of the song.

READY, STEADY, GO!

This is another song which doesn't have a clear lead and the other girls look happy to get their time in the limelight. Occhi stands out in this song, she does a great job. The song is over before it begins though. Extremely short!

We then switch back to rehearsal footage as the girls arrive ready for a hard day of rehearsals. Most of the girls look tired and half asleep but Rippon is quick to jump on top of Mikki and shouts an enthusiastic "Ohayou Gozaimasu!" to the camera. Mana, looking like she just rolled out of bed, and Reiko enter soon after, Reiko grinning at the camera.

Wooo! Time for crazy rehearsal montage to upbeat, manic music.

These girls are bizarre... in the best possible way!

Yurie, Ikuuchi and Reiko pretend to sing while for some reason, Erina feels the need to sit herself in the trash bin. She was pretty proud of herself once she did, look at that smile! She must have low expectations. The rest of the montage is just rehearsal footage and random stuff like pointing and eating, usual idol activities.

If you hadn't had enough Erina's kookiness, well there is a whole MC of her next! She is joined by Reiko and Occhi. I have no idea what they're talking about. They looked a bit nervous at first but the crowd got into the MC pretty quickly, laughing and cheering and the girls quickly loosened up and played up for the crowd. Cute as buttons!

Hatsukoi Image

The 3 girls then perform Hatsukoi Image which is a cute, little song from the FAITH! single. Make no mistake, this is pretty much an Erina solo, the other girls (pretend to) sing backup and then join in for the chorus. The highlight of this performance is the instrumental where the girls do a range of cute little poses and each time the wota respond with "oooooohhhh!"

Doukyuusei ~Osae Kire nai Natsu no Koi!~

Mana's solo is next and she is awesome, just fantastic. I cannot give enough praise to Mana's voice, it is honestly one of the naturally best vocals in the idol industry. Considering she is only 15, it's even more impressive. Mana performs really well and seems very comfortable, really playing up for the crowd who seem to love this song and its rocky vibe, chanting throughout the whole thing.

FOREVER ~Anata ni Aitai~

This song, a duet between Yurie and Ayumi, is so pretty. It's a really sweet ballad and the girls both sing incredibly well. What is with the clothes though? They don't suit the song at all. Warden IV ... the IV must stand for an IV drip since I was clutching for one towards the end of this performance in hope of shooting myself back into coherence after being blinded by those outfits. Urgh ... next time simple white dresses please.

Mikki leads the next MC as she acts very serious while Rippon and Ikucchi run around like idiots. Rippon is the highlight here for me. She's such a cutee and the audience loves her. The girls run back and forth across the stage, it's all very entertaining despite not knowing what the hell is going on!

Sotsugyoushiki ~Otona ni Naru 1 Page~

The same three girls are then joined by the GTT Club, Peach & Cherry (who are all NICE GIRL members) who just dance backup. This song is originally a group song with THE Possible, and the song lacks its original oomph being a large vocal song reduced to three vocals. Despite this, the girls sing it well. I'm not certain how useful the other NICE GIRL members were, they just stood around bobbing from side to side.

Yume wo Shinjite

This is another very short performance which involves the whole group. Not much to say here, this isn't a favourite song of mine but the dance is energetic and the girls are enthusiastic as always.

HAPPY ya naa!

Rehearsal footage of this song is shown before the performance this time. They sing as a group for a bit until the vocal coach stops them to practice some harmonies. Ayumi does well as do the rest of the girls.

Then we have Mana, who would be looking ghastly even if it was Halloween, having her turn to harmonize. I'm not sure how that ends up being the Mana that we see on stage *lol* She really isn't a morning person is she? It's amazing what those hair stylists can do. Look at those split ends, any hairdresser would just die! Oh well, I still adore you Mana!

Now it's performance time! This song is pretty cool, I love the little low bits. Reiko is a standout in this performance, she's just the cutest thing ever as she leads the dance. The dance is slightly odd, they do their own version of Berryz Monkey Dance, along with lots of random arm movements.

SWEET & TOUGHNESS

SWEET & TOUGHNESS, Canaria Club's debut single is the next performance and they are joined by the backup dancers again, who this time make much more sense. The stage is totally full and the vibe is infectious as they all sing the chorus, the crowd following along with the dance moves.

Pika Pika!

This track, from CC's first album, is one of my favourites and they definitely do it justice in this performance. The dance moves are so cute in the chorus! The backup dancers have gone by this point but you wouldn't know it from the energy CC is giving off. Reiko once again is just crazy/awesome in this performance. She has this peculiarly dorky, craziness that reminds you of some kooky great aunt (and she isn't even wearing her glasses in this performance!).

Seishun Banzai!

The last song for the main set is Seishun Banzai!, the girls' second single. A definite crowd favourite, a lot of this song is pumping the air and working up the crowd, which every girl does very well. Vocals on this track are awesome, it sounds just as good as the cd track.

At the conclusion of the song, the girls band together to throw their hands in the air and then strike a pose at the front of the stage. They then wave to the crowd for a bit and head off stage as the wota begin chanting for an Encore.

ENCORE! ENCORE! The girls wipe their faces, reapply makeup, get a drink etc as we can hear the crowd loudly chanting. They're all very excited as they prepare to reenter the stage. Ikucchi makes note that the crowd is shouting for an Encore. Thanks darling, we had no clue... ^_^

~ENCORE~

Andotorowa! MIRACLE

This is by far the performance of the concert. It is a new song specifically for the NICE GIRL concerts and is an incredibly high energy, awesome, rocky song. The song has a bit of a VS theme with Mana, Ayumi and Yurie singing then pointing to the other girls who then reply back with their singing.

My favourite part of this performance is the mini dance off where they dance in little groups while chanting. Mana, Ikucchi & Rippon do a cool little arm move before throwing their first in the air, leading onto Ayumi, Occhi & Mikki who do some thrusting, then Erina leaps into the air, followed by Reiko and Yurie. It's all very dramatic and cool!

Nishiki Kazare

If you've actually managed to read this whole review (thankyou!) then you'll probably be thinking "wait, haven't they performed this already?" - Well yes, they have. They sing it again, this time joined by every man and his dog (aka GTT Club, Peach and Cherry) who fill the stage up to capacity. They do two little trains and have loads of fun.
By this time every girl is pretty much exhausted and you can tell in their vocals which aren't at their best, but who honestly cares? I don't! ;)

We don't actually get to see the whole performance, as it suddenly turns into the final credits which is accompanied by a montage of images from the concert and then we see backstage footage after the show which is shown over the song music.

The best part of the backstage material here is when the girls begin crying *aww* They're so happy to have had a successful concert and have so many fans show up and support them. Kawaii!

SPECIAL FEATURES

Yurie & Cherry's Birthday

This short little clip shows Yurie & Cherry being surprised during rehearsals with a birthday cake. The girls all sing Happy Birthday and pose for photos. Yurie and Cherry make small speeches (well Cherry just says thankyou but Yurie makes a speech). Mikki looks unusually emotional. The poor girl is in tears, I have no clue why.

Seishun Banzai! Event

The final featurette is a small collection of clips from a release event for their second single Seishun Banzai! The event looks suspiciously like the concert we've just watched ... hmmm. I really like the red outfits, they should have used them in the concert.

FINAL COMMENTS

You don't often get to see much from the Canaria girls so to get this wonderful insight into this concert is fanastic. Each girl gets quite a bit of airtime and while many songs are cut short, it is made up for in the backstage footage. I definitely have grown fonder of the group after watching this DVD. If you can, please check it out.