H!P Best of 2008 Poll

I promised Amy I would do this a few days ago but I suck at keeping promises and, you know, whatever. But I'm doing it now ^_^ so here we go, my H!P BEST OF 2008 Poll RESULTS! Remember people, this is all personal opinion ;)

BEST

Best Group Single:

Resonant Blue Morning Musume

I've already blabbed ad nauseum about how much I adore this single so there's no real point in continuing - suffice to say, it rocked my socks.

Best Soloist Single:
Okitegami Fujimoto Miki

Ok, so I've heard people go on and on about disliking this song or that it doesn't suit Mikitty but didn't she want to do Enka? I thought she asked to do it. Either way this is an awesome track and it's not really Enka at all to be honest. Like, it might be in theory but Mikitty doesn't sing with all the Enka flair and it ends up sounding like a normal jpop ballad. It's a moving, nice song and amongst a horrible year for the soloists, it is the best.

Best Group Album:
3rd ~Love Escalation~ C-ute

3rd ~Love Escalation~ was an album that wasn't really appreciated by many, I think because they didn't expect the type of music that was on it. A lot of people only liked Erika's solo song, where for me it is one of the tracks I barely listen to, not because I don't like it but because I love the rest of the album even more. I read a review once that said it could be a soundtrack to a dorama and I agree, It has a very school day drama feel to it. A great album.

Best Soloist Album:
Best selection 15 Iro no Nigaoetachi Natsumi Abe

There was little to choose from but it's a best of Nacchi so you can't really go wrong there. The new track is really fun too and it's nice to look back through Nacchi's solo career and pin point the exact moment when all the soloists began to go downhill XD

Best PV:
Resonant Blue (another ver.) Morning Musume

While I've given this award to MM, my fav PV of the year is probably Edo no Temari Uta II by C-ute because it perfected the dance shot PV - that being said, I am forever chirping on about story lines in PVs and Resonant Blue's PV came as close as H!P ever has. It looked great, each girl had their own little scenes - the main issue with it was that it made no sense. People were going places, doing stuff, but we didn't know why. That's the next step ;)

Group with Best Overall Releases:

C-ute

Since C-ute debuted they've been the epitome of great, unique releases. Their singles have a lot of variety, from the Happy LALALA Shiawase no Uta to the Latin flavoured Namida no Iro not to mention the unique Edo no Temari Uta II and the pumped up FOREVER Love. Throw in their '07 singles and none of their stuff sounds like a carbon copy of their other singles (see Berryz in 08). Variety is what is needed and C-ute delivered with some great tracks.

Best New Group:

MilkyWay

MilkyWay didn't excite me TOO much to begin with. Though I like Koha, her solo singles are enough for me and I'm one of the few people who wasn't head over heels in love with Kikkawa from the 8th gen auditions. Their debut, Anataboshi, won me over and they are completely awesome. They have charisma when performing and are a great addition to H!P. I decided against awarding this to High-King purely since they aren't really a group rather than a one time unit, it seems.

Best New Soloist:

Ogawa Mana

Yes, Ogamana is part of the NICE Girl Project and not H!P but Amy listed TNX stuff in the nominee section so at the risk of offending all the ManoEri fans out there, Ogawa is the best new soloist. Ogawa is a terrific vocalist and performer, she is yards above most of H!P and it's truely a shame that more people haven't discovered her.

Best Established Group:

Morning Musume

I was originally going to award this to C-ute but when I thought back on 08, Morning Musume had a pretty good year. Sure it wasn't filled to the brim with releases but the tours of Asia, the Cinderella musical not to mention the different activities for the individual girls - it was a nice year for the girls.

Best Established Soloist:
NONE

Let's face it, the soloists sucked this year. I'm tempted to give this to Mikitty for the ability of milking Okitegami for the entire year - but no, one release doesn't cut it.

Best Photobook:
Happy girl Niigaki Risa

Truth be told, I'm not somebody who downloads entire PBs and checks them out. I tend to just see the preview pics and whatever anyone sends me. Happy girl was a great PB but, Risa is always adorable and those snow shots were so great! ^_^

Hottest Idol of 2008:

Takahashi Ai

08 was Ai's first full year as the leader of Morning Musume and she has done a terrific job. She leads in almost every performance, she has to mentor the younger girls, not to mention all the other duties she has been given as leader. On top of this she had the biggest role in the Cinderella musical and has been filming the new drama Q.E.D the past month or so. She has been working so hard and to me that justifies being the Hottest Idol of 2008!

WORST

Worst Group Single:
Come Together Ongaku Gatas

Ongaku Gata's much anticipated 3rd single turned out to be a dud (for me). I know some people LOVE it but when compared to their GREAT singles last year, this one was horrible. Throw in the fact that Manoeri and Mucchi were gone and thus the eggs became backup dancers - and this ends up being a hell of a disappointment.

Worst Soloist Single:
Kizuna Matsuura Aya

*yawn* This song bores me so much that I cannot even feign the enthusiasm to write how bad it actually was. Kitchen & Chicken walks ALL OVER Aya's crappy ballads.

Worst PV:
Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance Berryz Koubou

Ok, so maybe Charisma Kirei (or whatever that Melon song was called) was worse but Monkey Dance wins the award for so many reasons. Firstly this song actually got a PV, meaning somebody actually took the time to think up this atrocity and build the backdrop etc etc etc Secondly Berryz were coming off their best selling single EVER! so you'd think UFA would throw them a bone, instead their budget consisted of monkey suits (which are cheap as chips) and one giant, fugly banana. It was just such a disappointment. Yes, tons of deluded Berryz fans loved it because of the *cute* monkey poses, but we're talking about the actual PV, not the fact Berryz manage to save all their shitty PVs with their personalities. It was a white backdrop with a giant crepe paper banana and some monkey outfits - it sucked. This PV disappointed me immensely and totally brings up the whole UFA being cheap bastards subject again, which I'm not going to get into in this post ^_^

Worst Vocalist of 2008:
Mano Erina

This girl is meant to be H!P's saviour - soon she will be the only soloist, along with Koharu - the thought alone makes me shudder. Remember the days when we had Ayaya, Nacchi and Maki - now we have Manoeri and Koha ... *urgh* Get the girl a singing coach, pronto!

Least Attractive Girl of 2008:
NONE

Looks are all subjective and, truth be told, nobody in H!P looks bad. They're all pretty cute!

So there we have it, hope it lived up to your satisfaction Amy and everyone else who bothered to read ^^; Peace out!