NEWS: Earlier this evening, C-ute and Fujimoto Miki both performed at the Lyricist Award Show, a ceremony held in honour of the great lyricists of Japanese Music - Tsunku has been a past winner at the awards show.
C-ute performed twice, opening the show with ZARD's MAKENAIDE before later performing their hit single Edo no Temari Uta II which was nominated for an award, Yoshioka Osamu being the writer of the song. You can check out both performances below:
Fujimoto Miki paired up with Horiuchi Takao (who she had previously worked with on Oki tegami) to sing Itsu demo yume wo. I can't find any vid of the performance yet though. But I do have pics ^_^
Ooooh! I love Ice Cream Musume and they haven't sung anything yet ^_^ They better not let me down *shakes fist* - The girls appeared on MTV Taiwan yesterday, introducing themselves and having a bit of a chat.
For those trying to learn who is who, some nice fellow has subbed the little introduction section of the appearance:
They're all adorable :D The girl I've been calling "Lán Ai Zi" is apparently named Qiu Cui Ling - Not sure where I got the first name from lol. Either way she's cute as can be ^_^ They better give them stage/nick names but, I can neither remember nor pronounce any of them -_-;
NEWS: As you may or may not have already heard, it was announced today that Iida Kaori's 6 month old son passed away back in July from chronic renal failure. A memorial service was held for the child in September and Iida-san plans to return to the stage sometime next year.
I can imagine that losing your own child would be one of the most painful things to endure and I'm just really shocked and saddened by this news. Iida is such a kind, generous soul and it's so unfair something like this had to happen to her. With the love and support of her friends and family, I pray she can make it through this rough time. My deepest condolences to Kaori and her family.
Singles: 01 Hakanaku mo Towa no GALAXY UVERworld 118,852 02 Dream Fighter Perfume 70,873 03 Jyonetsu no Daisho / ESCAPE GIRL NEXT DOOR 22,117 04 Beautiful Days ARASHI 16,102 05 ”ShoukuGyou: Idol” Idoling!!! 14,670 06 Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE 14,419 07 17 Sai Ginkgo BOYZ 13,819 08 Ashita no Sora SPEED 12,926 09 Kitei no Tsurugi ALI PROJECT 12,054 10 ORION Mika Nakashima 11,787
Albums:
01 color NEWS 180,380 02 Unreal flumpool 110,832 03 Chinese Democracy Guns N' Roses 57,683 04 MY SHORT STORIES YUI 38,169 05 Personal Soundtracks Noriyuki Makihara 36,832
NEWS: The list of performers for NHK's 59th Kouhaku New Years' Celebration was released today with Morning Musume notably absent from the Female Red Team (Akagumi) list. It is the first time they have not been invited to perform since they began appearing at the event in 1997. Last year they were joined by C-ute and Berryz in a joint H!P performance to commemorate MM's 10th anniversary.
Satoda Mai will be H!P's sole representative, perfoming with Pabo and Schuuchishin on the White Team (Shirogumi).
Debuting Artist Press Conference
Artists performing at Kouhaku for the first time this year include Aoyama Thelma, ikimono gakari, GIRL NEXT DOOR, Perfume, KIMAGUREN, Jero, Tohoshinki and Mr.Children.
NHK 59th Kouhaku PERFORMERS numbers indicate tally of past performances
Ice Cream Musume or Bing Qi Lin Shao Nu Zu (BQLSNZ) are now the talk of the town (at least in my little universe) and I'm going to post some more pics of their group reveal ... just because ;)
Yes, I photoshopped the dude outlol
click to enlarge
Also I've heard people speculating that each girl might represent their favourite Ice Cream flavour which made me ask myself ... What flavour would each Ice Cream Musume be and why?
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This Ice Cream Musume brings together delightfully sweet milk chocolate and fluffy marshmallows to create an explosion of adorable cuteness. However be warned, at times she can be a bit nutty.
Lán Ai Zi Strawberry Cheesecake This Ice Cream Musume not only looks cute but is as sweet as can be. While she isn't the main attraction, she has that delicate, modest flavour that is sure to make anyone's heart melt.
Wú Sī Xuán Triple Choc Fudge
You asked for flavour and this Ice Cream Musume delivers! She's the kind that keeps on giving, with layer upon layer of goey, delectable goodness, though some might find her a little too rich for their taste buds.
Gǔ Yún Neapolitan No matter what your flavour preference is, this Ice Cream Musume has the goods: Sweet strawberry, cool vanilla or sexy chocolate... take your pick! Everyone always ends up going for Chocolate.
Céng Dé Píng Mint Choc Chip
This Ice Cream Musume has a refreshingly peppermint personality with that odd crunch of choc chip quirkiness. One spoonful and she'll win you over with her zany stories and wacky jokes.
Zhōng An Qí Cherry
When you think of this Ice Cream Musume you think of just one thing: Sexy! A real looker with that irresistable taste, she gives just enough to leave you wanting more. Be warned boys, this one's a heart breaker!
REVIEWS: It's always nice to see some new artists hitting the scene and these two perked up my interest straight away. Ogawa Mana has always been my favourite girl in Canaria Club; She is a total star with an incredible voice and great stage presence. When I heard she was releasing a solo single for the anime Hyakko I was very excited and Suppin' Rock is definitely not a let down. On the other hand we have Twe'lv who are new to the scene and who I discovered when their PV was posted to DohhhUP!. I was pretty impressed with the Seishun Oden PV and the retro feeling of it. Now both singles have been released I can finally do some full reviews of the two ^_^
Suppin' Rock Ogawa Mana
Suppin' Rock
Mana's voice has real punch to it so Suppin' Rock is the perfect debut single for her. It shows off her voice whilst being catchy and fun to listen to. The choruses are the high point in this song, with the "It's only love" lines being very catchy, and there is a general joyous feeling to the track helped by Mana's whoo!ing and yeah!ing throughout .^^. The rock instrumental is pretty good, though a little uninspired which tends to describe the track - good but far from great. It's not something that stands out to you straight away as an awesome song and is something I think would work much better in concerts. I'd love to sit through a live performance of Mana rockin' out, it would be sublime! So while it's not a suburb track, I do love it and listened to it yesterday for like an hour on repeat, which has to say something for it ;)
Gakuen Seikatsu; Campus Life
The b-side Gakuen Seikatsu; Campus Life is a duet featuring Orikasa Fumiko who is a seiyu/singer also featuring in the Hyakko anime. This track is not rocky like the previous but is a sweet, little pop number. It is unfortunately a bit forgettable and very similar to a lot of other idol songs having that school days, reminiscent feeling to it that you tend to often see. I can't say it makes much of an impression on me at all.
Suppin' Rock: 8.5/10
Gakuen Seikatsu; Campus Life:6/10
Seishun Oden / Junjou Seishun Love Twe'lv
Seishun Oden
I'm not sure I was as infatuated with Seishun Oden when I first heard it as I am now but I just love this song. For the retro style it is going for, it hits a home run and is a great, interesting track. I know it might not be the style of song everyone is going to enjoy but for me it's a definite winner. Usually I pick out the highlight of the song (whether it is the verses, choruses, bridge etc) but everything here is just wonderful and of the highest quality. The girls' solos aren't stellar but they do sing well enough together that you don't really think about the vocal abilities either way. They are neither great nor bad, which is better than being bad, I guess - they can only improve in the future. Overall it's a great track especially for a debut, from what I hope will be a strong group in the future.
Junjou Seishun Love
Twe'lv's debut single is a double A-side and, the second A-side, Junjou Seishun Love continues the style of the previous track to create another retro styled song. While I generally dispise double A-sides which sound very similar, it is obviously the theme of the group so I can overlook it. The track though just isn't as strong as the previous and ends up feeling like an inferior version of Seishun Oden. Despite this, it's still a decent track and would have been a great b-side. As an A-side, I'm not sure it is as strong as it could have been.
NEWS: I was a bit reluctant to report this 'news' since I don't know much about what is going on lol, but Mano Erina is appearing in some sort of dorama titled Pocky 4 Sisters ~Dasenai Tegami and it's getting a bit of publicity :D
The other Pocky Sisters are played by Omasa Aya, Kanai Miki and Okamoto Anri and the dorama is scheduled to air from the 27th of Dec on BS-i. I don't know much more other than that lol, but I'll make sure to get you Mano fans any new info I hear.
Check out some great Magazine scans which include some shots from the dorama as well as some scans of Mano featured in Kindai. Click for high-res obviously ;)
NEWS: The Taiwan H!P NEWSTARs have finally been given an official group name, from now forth they shall be known as Ice Cream Musume!
Back row: Zhōng An Qí, Gǔ Yún, Lán Ai Zi, Light bulb Front row: Céng Dé Píng, Wú Sī Xuán
The group definitely has a Winter theme for themselves, or at least their debut album. They all look very cute in their ice cream jackets, leggings, furry boots and mini ice creams - some girls also seem to have been given mini makeovers since traveling to Japan. Xuán's hair has been cut in a bob now it seems and she looks strikingly like Sawada Yuri, I think lol. Píng has been given a short haircut too by the looks of it. Zi and Yún look really similar, could they be the next two top?Qí is looking gorgeous and Light bulb is Light bulb - cute as can be ^_^
The guy isn't part of the group - for those who were unsure ^^;
So thoughts on the name? It's cute and Ice Cream is my favourite thing in the world + their jackets suspiciously match the red/pink colour I'm always using on my blog... hmmmmm. It's great finally seeing them on the road to a debut and I can't wait to see what kind of songs they'll be singing!
I've also updated all the past NEWSTAR posts with the Ice Cream Musume tag, so click it to read up on the history of the group if you wish.
REVIEW: When the hANGRY&ANGRY news dropped a little over a month ago, so did all our mouths - what in God's name was going on?! We didn't really know but we knew we frekin loved it! (well most of us). Over the past month we've been enticed and teased with small clips and PV shots but now finally we have the album in its full glory. So does it live up to everyone's almost unrealistic expectations?
Kill Me Kiss Me, the title track of hANGRY&ANGRY's first album, is a song we all heard when the group was first announced and one we have likely replayed over and over again this past month (I know I have). Personally I think it's the perfect song to start the album out with. It's different and unique from anything H!P has done but it isn't as far off the mainstream path as some of the other tracks. The song has a great rock vibe to it; The instrumental is really wonderful with an awesome beat. One of the best points of this song is how it builds towards the chorus, it really begins to pump you up and the chorus rocks! The girl's vocals are also pretty good - I really like how Yossie and Rika's voices are so different that they compliment each other well. There are a number of vocalization effects in this song which are done very well and add to the atmosphere.
Angelia opens with a haunting synth instrumental and the whole track is like some scorned lolita love song - it's creepily awesome. This track has a LOT of vocalization in it, especially in the chorus, but it works surprisingly well and the 'angelia' sections are very catchy. The track is produced impeccably, it sounds very cool and the mood is great. Rika's voice suits the song nicely, it would have been great as a solo - but I adore Yossie so Angelia rocks, regardless. The instrumental section with the ringing bells just adds to that spooky feeling the song gives and that whole section of the song is awesome.
GIZA GIZA is a synth-rock track and opens with an awesome little intro leading into a cool instrumental. The vocals on this track are very crisp and perhaps the best on the album, with both girls sounding terrific. The emotion in their voices is very apparent, especially in the verses and they shine in this song. The chorus is a total winner for me; It's just really catchy and great to listen to to. I love the antithesis of the fast paced chorus and the song's slightly slower verses - it allows for lift and growth in the song. GIZA GIZA also has a vocal bridge, which further shows off the girl's vocal abilitiest, followed by a cool instrumental. A great track and one of my favourites on the album.
Romantic ni Violence is as ballad as this album gets and the chorus still rocks out heaps, but the first verse is very sweet and pure. This song, like Kill Me Kiss Me has an awesome build up leading into the chorus with the instrumental ever so gradually picking its pace. The pre-chorus bridge has some cool vocal effects and it makes for one of the highlights of the track for me. The chorus as I said earlier is very rocky and the "Romantic ni Violence" line is repeated throughout making it easy to catch onto. The track is one of the more upbeat, fun numbers on the album.
The album closes with the mid-tempo WALLFLOWER, opening with one of the more creepier intros the album offers. The opening is decieving though, as the song eventually ends up being a very happy-go-lucky affair with some fun synth effects and a general joyous feeling. The choruses have some horrid Engrish in them lol, I'm not even sure what they're saying... (I'm a bright flower, yeah! ... ?) It's not my favourite track on the album, infact it's probably my least favourite and the song isn't that bad, which just goes to show how awesome this album is.
Kill Me Kiss Me is a totally different affair for a H!P act and something I generally feel H!P has needed for a while. I wish H!P would be more willing to branch out into this more mainstream, appealing sound even if it is not rock, but something that would appeal to a more general audience. It just feels like a much higher quality, professional album compared to recent H!P stuff. Unfortunately it took some crazy fashion label tie-in to create something like this, when really H!P should and could have had a group like hANGRY&ANGRY as a stand alone unit. My only gripe with this album is that, being a mini album, it is over in 20minutes. FAR TOO SHORT!!! This group NEEDS to continue!
So I got an awesome surprise today as pengie, an admin at International Wota, emailed me to ask if I would be interested in joining the Int'l Wota team as a contributor...
Now let me just explain for a second: Int'l Wota is like my bible. It's almost a bit sad lol, but I check it multiple times a day and I don't know if I could live without it. For those who don't know, basically it is a collection of interesting and noteworthy posts from a ton of H!P/Jpop themed blogs on the net, so it's always great to keep up to date with all the news without having to visit hundreds of blogs. They've also been really supportive of Stardust, featuring a lot of my posts and I always have a great amount of hits each time they do. So yeah, pretty much I love the site.
... so back to the story - I went to the wotachat IRC site where all the Int'l Wota crew hang out and everyone was just so awesomely nice and quite a few said that they enjoyed my blog and everything. So of course I accepted and now I'm a contributor on Int'l Wota. Yay! Big thanks to pengie and maiZe, my mentor broomhead, who taught me well, Henkka ^_^ and all the other IW crew who I met. You can check out my first Int'l Wota post if you wish; It's about AKB48's new adult shows... saucy!
REVIEWS: I’m being so punctual this week to make up for last week’s tardiness. I’m doing reviews of 3 singles for today's review post: Perfume’s Dream Fighter, UVERWorld’s Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi and GIRL NEXT DOOR’s Jounetsu no Daishou / ESCAPE. I really wanted to review Ogawa Mana’s new single but I couldn’t find it anywhere and I didn’t want to review it from the PV only. I’ll wait and do a joint review of Mana and Twe’lv soon.
Dream Fighter Perfume
I could never really get into Perfume. I do enjoy their style, they have some catchy songs, but the whole synth vocals really aren’t my taste – so I’m warning you already lol and I’ll try to remain impartial. Dream Fighter actually has a really funky beat to it and that is something Perfume is great at, their instrumentals are always very catchy and get my feet tapping and my body moving. The chorus is really nice and catchy, all throughout which I haven’t been able to say about too many Perfume songs - granted I haven't heard many. I tend to find their songs sound very similar or don’t really have a distinct sound to them but Dream Fighter stands out for me. I can’t say I love the song, purely because of the synth style, but for a Perfume song, it's quite nice.
Rating: 7.5/10
Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi UVERworld
I loved lovedLOVED UVERworld’s last single Koishikute, it was a great rock ballad. Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi is a much more upbeat number and is the new theme for Gundam 00. Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi kind of worried me at first, since it opens with synth vocals lol. I thought ‘oh god!’ but thankfully it’s back to normal after a few seconds. I can handle synth vocalization in small doses only :p and to be honest it does sound good as the intro to this song. The instrumental in this track is really great, I love the sections after the chorus, the pre-chorus bridge is also really great. So I love before and after the chorus, but the chorus itself doesn’t leave a huge impression on me. It’s upbeat and rockin’ but it’s just not particularly catchy, I don’t think, which is a shame since the song is pretty solid. I feel that this track seems to get less interesting and captivating as it goes on, which is slightly odd. It is an anime theme so maybe they focused too much on making the intro really catchy and the rest of the song suffered because of that? I’m not particularly sure. By no means is it a bad song but it just doesn’t give a long lasting impression.
Rating: 8/10
Jounetsu no Daishou / ESCAPE GIRL NEXT DOOR
GIRL NEXT DOOR is a funny group for me because I want to like them so much and, to tell you the truth, I do - but not for the right reasons. I enjoy their image, Chisa is adorable and a great singer. Their PVs are great … but the music does little for me. Unfortunately that’s really the most important thing, right?
Jounetsu no Daishou continues their dance beat style of songs but it is pulled back ever so slightly which is a nice change of pace from their previous upbeat singles. The chorus in this song is pretty good, I love Chisa’s voice and this song allows her to express a bit more emotion than previous singles. I just wish they’d actually gone the full way and made a nice ballad out of this instead of feeling like they had to create some 90s style dance track. It is rather similar to their other stuff and it’s getting old really quickly. That being said, it’s probably my favourite of all their tracks and I do like it.
This single is a double A-side just like their last single and ESCAPE is another dance track (surprise, surprise) which sounds just like all their other songs. I have to say this track’s verses are almost identical to their first singles’ Guuzen no Kakuritsu, I mean the beat is exactly the same. The song in general is really boring, I have no idea why it is an a-side. I think they delayed the single too in order to make it a double a-side. meh whatever. This group is starting to get on my nerves only because I want to like them just sooo much! RELEASE BETTER MUSIC PLEASE!!! (or at least more diverse stuff)
Rating: 8/10 for Jounetsu no Daishou & 6/10 for ESCAPE
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