I haven't been posting much the past couple of days and for a very good reason: Stardust is moving to a new server! Ray, the owner of intlwota.com, offered to host my blog on his website and thus I've made the switch from blogspot to wordpress. Along with all this comes a brand new layout, which I hope everyone will enjoy, and lots more features which I hope to be able to implement once I figure out what everything does :P

A few people helped me but you can read all about that in the introductory post at the new blog. For now check it out and let me know what you think. The url for the site is intlwota.com/stardust - so update your bookmarks and blogrolls please.

This blogger site will no longer be updated but I'll leave it intact for now.

NEWS: They've done numerous TV appearances and press conferences, have tons of articles about their debut plastered all over the Taiwanese media ... so what next for Ice Creamusume's promotion for their album 1st Best!? Why! Street performances, of course!

The girls hit the streets with megaphones to promote their debut mini-album which was released yesterday in Taiwan. Watch the girls below as they perform their title song Lian Ai Deng Chang in all their megaphone glory!

PREVIEW: co・no・mi・chi, Buono!'s newest single, is released in just 10 days and the PV is finally here (curtosy of everyone's favourite Dohhh Up!)

While I wasn't really optimistic about this song from the LQ rip I'd heard, I do actually really enjoy this PV. The theme of walking/travelling is portrayed really well and I love all the little costumes and settings. I particularly like the Safari theme where the springbok comes running past them lol. Ok so the animals all look pretty fake and silly but I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for, it's not meant to be serious (which means I can take it WAY more seriously).
The PV makes me enjoy the song much more and I think it can grow on me. The dance is also really cute - I think I'll like this performed live. All in all - a great PV.

Two good H!P PV's in two days - what is the world coming to!? LOL

PREVIEW: Kusumi Koharu is back with another single as Kirari Tsukishima, titled Happy☆Happy Sunday! I'd already pointed out from her profile pic and the concert pics that her outfit for this single is incredibly cute so I couldn't wait for the PV and it was released early this morning ^^

AHAHAHA!! This PV is so frekin strange and Koha just acts weird the whole time - but that's what makes her so endearing ^_^!! I love the Chance!-like costume alteration towards the end. She looks like a transformer :p I'm not sure I like the song but Kirari songs rarely spark much in me. It's cute and kinda catchy which I guess is the important thing. I'm just glad Koha's still releasing after the selling disaster of Papancake (which I actually liked). Happy☆Happy Sunday! isn't the new Balalaika but it's a cute song. It's already growing on me *is scared*

PREVIEW: I was tempted to title this post How NOT to Make a Good Idol PV but I decided that would be mean :P I was pretty disappointed with the PV of Lian Ai Deng Chang and thankfully they've revamped it slightly for the Japanese version of the track, Debut! ~Koi Suru Kado ni wa Fuku Kitaru~.

Things I prefer in this version are the solo shots of the girls singing and the fact that there are more shots of the dance. This however comes at a price, less shots of the girls acting all silly which was the highlight of the Taiwan PV for me. Can't win em all I guess!

Regarding the Japanese version of the song, it's really great. The girls all sound surprisingly good and, as somebody who isn't Japanese, I wouldn't really be able to tell they were foreigners (though I'm sure Japanese people probably would).
The song has grown on me so much, not that I didn't love it to start with, but I just think it's terrific now. Sure, it's extremely idol, but it's a fun catchy track.
Shenshen gets a lot of screen time in the PV which she totally deserves. Her solo lines are incredible and I'd go as far to say that she out sings Linlin (I love Lin but I find Shen's voice much easier on the ears). She also exudes charm which always helps.
Lots of ReiRei in the PV too - it seems like she's being pushed as a front girl, front and center on the album cover etc. She seems kind of nervous about this and she does come across slightly awkward in some shots of the PV but it's altogether nothing horrible, she is a cutee.
PeiPei also shines in the PV with her crazy faces and silliness. I'm glad they kept in the scene where Youko pops Pei's bubbles and Pei gives her a glare lol.
The other 3 girls are unfortunately sort of pushed back slightly. It would have been nice to see more of Youko and the others. Guu-chan seems very confident and I'm sure she'll shine in the live performances. Anchii is a bit of a manigma for me. She seems like the mysterious beauty, it's hard to read what she'll be like, especially since we haven't seen much of her (she wasn't in NEW STAR much).

Reading the comments regarding ICM on H!O totally brings me back to the whole Jun & Lin hate when they were first announced. Some people totally disgust me; If something isn't 100% pure Japanese they just totally write it off. I can understand people not being impressed with the PV (or even the song... but that would be crazy ^^) but to just say something like "nup, don't like them" or whatever a lot of them said ... yeh, that annoys me ... ^^; The girls have been thrown into recording and filming a PV for a Japanese song with little training and no prior knowledge of the Japanese language - they're trying their best and they've totally impressed me so far. They don't deserve to be written off just because they're not Japanese. I was a big supporter of Jun & Lin when they first joined and I'm a big supporter of ICM!

Somewhat good news (though somewhat bad) is that the Japanese version of the mini album will be sold exclusively at the Hello! Project 2009 Winter Elder Club Graduation Memorial Concert on January 31st. This leads me to believe that the girls will be performing which is great, but not getting an actual nation wide release isn't so great. Oh well, I'm buying the Taiwan version anyway.

I also watched Ice Creamusume's appearance on AzioTV the other day and it was a lot of fun.
The girls each got to do their own little thing. PeiPei was very cute singing Morning Coffee while Youko surprised me with her rendition of Scramble. She was actually very good and her voice even reminded me of Maki's a bit. ShenShen did a bellydance to MM's Do it! Now and it was really good lol. She did the chorus and the rap bit and it was very cool. They also played charades and ReiRei was a master at guessing - Her and ShenShen did very well. A few of the girls showed off some silly faces too.
I'll do a full review of it if it ever gets upped to youtube.

I've just realized my last two posts have been pretty long. I tend to ramble without thinking and since I type pretty fast, it ends up an essay before I know it ^^; Do you guys like reading the longer posts or do you prefer shorter, more to the point posts - or even a combo of both? Let me know and I'll keep writing accordingly ^_^

Ok, so I'm not really a huge fan of SNSD, in fact their new track Gee is probably only the 2nd song of theirs I actually enjoy. Despite this, UFA management could learn a lot from how their latest release has been handled.

While I'm relatively happy with Naichau Kamo, Gee has that mainstream, new sound, that Morning Musume needs to constantly be sticking with. I'm not suggesting MM sing something like Gee - I personally don't think it would suit them at all - but just something a little less idol-fied than they've been doing. Still, I'm not worrying too much on this, since the latest tracks have been great, even if slightly idolish, but (bless Tsunku's soul) it would be nice to get some different song writers in to provide something more updated or at least a different approach. Tsunku seems to be trapped in this mesh of what he thinks is cool and hip and it obviously is not appealing to teens/early 20s who are the main buying public. That being said, Tsunku seems to be the only one involved in H!P who actually cares anymore.

Promotion wise, this single has been great. Commercial teasers, little tastes of what to expect, promo shots etc - it makes the unveiling of the single and the PV an event that everyone looks forward to. Naichau Kamo just happened to be played on Reina's radio show with no previous announcement and nothing else supporting it. We have the song, great, what else? UFA sucks at promotion.

Most importantly is the PV, something I think UFA fails at MAJORLY time and time again. Just look at the video for Gee (and keep in mind SNSD has 9 members, just like Morning Musume).

So, how great was that, yeah?!

The PV doesn't seem to have an extravagant budget but most importantly, it doesn't look cheap. Every recent H!P PV has looked cheap as chips and I'm so sick of it. UFA isn't exactly in debt, the H!P groups sell a decent amount and concert sales are great. On top of that, they're not really spending big on promotion, PV directors or song writers - it seems they're content on taking our money whilst spending as little as possible.

So what makes SNSD's PV so great?

~ It has a cute little storyline (UFA never does storylines of any sort)
~ Each girl gets a decent amount of screentime (UFA always has some girls getting little to no screentime - see Junjun, Kanna, Captain etc)
~ Everyone is in a number of cool, unique outfits (UFA has a habit of sticking the girls in COSTUMES, not outfits, and they're usually carbon copies of each other. They sometimes get it right - C-ute has had some good outfits like in TJ, NnI etc)
~ The dance is great and creative (Some H!P PVs have cool dances but on a whole they're pretty ordinary. Just seeing something like this can show you how uncreative waving your hands around and pointing up is)
~ The girls are having fun (Something I question when it comes to H!P. Reina for instance seems pretty unhappy with some of the crap she has to put up with and has been vocal about it - If the girls want to be in dramas then bloody hell let them audition. Urgh! - I'm sure she isn't the only one.)

I swear I'm gonna go berserk if the Naichau Kamo PV sucks and unfortunately it probably will.
I'm increasingly becoming more annoyed at how cheap and crap UFA is. So much so that I don't even want to be a H!P fan anymore. Of course, that won't happen since I absolutely adore a lot of the girls and you know, I'm in it for them. They always give 110% and it isn't their fault that UFA doesn't seem to care.

Anyway lol. This turned into a major rant and it wasn't meant to be. I was just gonna show everyone the awesome SNSD MV ^^; lol. Check it out and let me know what you think!

ORICON ROUNDUP

Please note: The charts below are accumulative sales from the past 2 weeks as Oricon forgoes weekly ranks for the week over the new year.

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 stay with me Koda Kumi 58,108 NEW
02 Days / GREEN Hamasaki Ayumi 40,003
03 Aino Mamade... Akimoto Junko 37,591
04 Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin 28,231
05 Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti 23,537
06 Nocturne / Campanula no Koi Hirahara Ayaka 22,342
07 Sheryl no Uchu Kyoudaibune Nado Nome Sheryl 18,284 NEW
08 Ranka & Bobby no SMS Shoutai no Uta nado Nakajima Megumi 16,980 NEW
09 fairytale Kalafina 15,984 NEW
10 Nihon no Mikata -Nevada Kara Kimashita- Yazima Beauty Salon 15,532

Albums:

01 My song Your song Ikimoni Gakari 242,691 NEW
02 EXILE BALLAD BEST EXILE 190,213
03 GIRL NEXT DOOR GIRL NEXT DOOR 171,165 NEW
04 SUPERMARKET FANTASY Mr.Children 166,095
05 ai no Uta 2 Various Artists 55,048

Also, I forgot to post the Oricon charts for the last week of December -_-; (sorry) so here they are (12/21):

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 Days / GREEN Hamasaki Ayumi 127,650 NEW
02 Yowamushi SANTA Shuuchishin 33,249
03 Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezutomo Porno Graffitti 20,905
04 Aino Mamade... Akimoto Junko 17,608
05 HEAVEN BUCK-TICK 14,724 NEW
06 Tomorrow Yukari Tamura 10,691 NEW
07 Nocturne / Campanula no Koi Ayaka Hirahara 10,332
08 Friend / Sugao no mama Rina Aiuchi 9,573 NEW
09 Sunao ni Naretara JUJU feat. Spontania / I can be free JUJU 9,182
10 White Xmas KAT-TUN 7,790

Albums:

01 SUPERMARKET FANTASY Mr.Children 177,581
02 EXILE BALLAD BEST EXILE 147,454
03 LOVE LETTER Otsuka Ai 104,232 NEW
04 BLEACH BEST TUNES Various Artists 52,835 NEW
05 ai no Uta 2 Various Artists 24,740

NEWS: Ice Creamusume made their first TV appearance last week, according to one of their blog's managers (however they were on MTV almost a month ago, though that was really just a quick 2 min introduction) - The girls appeared on Azio Entertainment News to promote their upcoming album 1st Zui Bang!

Unfortunately both Anchii and Guu-chan were unable to make the recording due to school commitments so instead they had some replacement members to fill in for the two missing girls.

*lol* XD Apparently the other 4 girls couldn't stop laughing when they saw the life sized cutouts of the other two members.

The girls each got to perform on the show. PeiPei sang at track from the album while Youko sang a Goto Maki track (nice taste!). The other two girls danced, ShenShen doing a bellydance (of which we already know she's awesome at) and ReiRei taught everyone the dance to Lian Ai Deng Chang, the leading track from their album.
They then performed Lian Ai Deng Chang and the manager was very excited that the girls all sang live (no lip synching for these girls!).

The show is airing tomorrow evening, 7pm on Azio TV. If anyone has the ability to cap it for all us fans, please do ^_^

NEWS: Last night marked the beginning of the 2009 Winter Concert Tour, Wonderful Hearts Kouen ~Kakumei Gannen~ - All in all it went off without a hitch, minus the charismatic Wada Ayaka, who was absent due to illness (get better soon DAWA!). Thankfully BARKS has some nice coverage of the debut concert, with lots of pics that everyone can check out ->HERE<-

This run of concerts marks the lead up to the graduation of the Elder Club so soon Wonderful Hearts WILL BE the Hello!Project. Get used to it everybody!

Presenting Wonderful Hearts!

Morning Musume looking very cool performing their upcoming single Nai chau Kamo


Berryz look very cute in their canary yellow outfits...


...while C-ute are hot in their suits.


Milky Way performs Tan Tan Taan! C'mon! How C-ute is Koha's outfit for Happy☆Happy Sunday ^_^!!!


Buono! in their pyjamas costumes, performing Lotta Love Lotta Love.


& finally Mano Erina, behind her YAMAHA.

NEWS: Matsuura Aya is starring in a new series of commercials from Japan's MAFF ( Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) intending to spread awareness of healthy eating.

In the first commercial, Ayaya is seen cooking herself a big bowl of rice before she leaves for work while in the second she doesn't have time to cook and instead picks up an Onigiri (rice ball) from the store. So in other words always eat breakfast to stay healthy! The commercials feature Ayaya singing a new song Shiawase Gohan no Asa.

PREVIEW: After last month's preview of Ice Cream Musume's version of Renai Revolution 21, some people were left wondering if the girls would cover any other Morning Musume tracks and with the release of the track list today (curtosy of yesasia), those questions were answered: YES!

Bing Qi Lin Shao Nu Zu / Ice Cream Musume

1st Zui Bang! / 1st Best! (Taiwan ver.)

1. 戀愛登場 / Lian Ai Deng Chang
2. 早安咖啡 / Zao An Ka Fei
3. 在沒有雨水滋潤的星球上是無法付出愛的吧? / Zai Mei You Yu Shui Zi Run De Zing Qui Shang Shi Wu Fa Fu Chu Ai De Ba?
4. 戀愛革命21 / Lian Ai Ge Ming 21
5. Go Girl～戀愛勝利～ / Go Girl ~Lian Ai Sheng Li~
6. Debut！～戀愛的轉角會有好運降臨～(日文版) Debut! ~Lian Ai De Zhuan Jiao Hui You Hao Yun Jiang Lin~ (Japanese ver.)
7. 早安咖啡(日文版) / Zao An Ka Fei (Japanese ver.)

For those playing at home:

2. Morning Coffee
3. Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?
4. Renai Revolution 21
5. Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~
7. Morning Coffee (Japanese ver.)

I think those are good tracks to cover - A nice range for sure. I'm going to look forward to Go Girl as it's one of my fav MM tracks from way back. Ame no Furanai is a really nice choice and one the girls practiced during the NEW STAR show. It'll be interesting to compare the Japanese ver of Morning Coffee to the original. I think the 6th track is the Japanese version of the song released yesterday - I'm not sure why it has a different title though.

For those who want to support this new group, the Taiwan version of their album is REALLY cheap, especially considering it is a CD+DVD album. It's only US$14 which is affordable even for me with my shitty AUS$ -_-; I'll prob wait out to see the differences between the Japanese edition before preordering, though.

Interesting to note, yesasia declares in their big bio about the album that Ice Creamusume will make their Japanese concert debut at the H!P concerts at the end of January. Exciting!