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!

PREVIEW: Managing to sneak in as the last big surprise of 2008 is Morning Musume's upcoming single Nai Chau Kamo. Tanaka Reina graciously played it on her radio show this evening and let me just say it is great. Along with that we have a low quality pic of the girls for this single and I'm really liking the image. It seems my prayer of more mature, mainstream songs was answered ^_^

-> DOWNLOAD <- right click + save as

Thanks to amp at jpmforums for the radio rip

Firstly I'm LOVING the sound, which seems Latin inspired, along the vein of Irropoi Jirettai - it's definitely a cool, mature sound that suits the current Morning Musume. Ai & Reina lead as usual but with more variety in vocals than past singles. I hear some Sayu, Eri and Risa and lots of harmonies and such from the others. I'm very happy with this track, what a perfect way to end 2008.

Everyone have a great NEW YEARS! See you in 2009!

PREVIEW: Ice Creamusume's debut music video liàn ài dēng chăng (roughly Entering Love) was released today via Yahoo! Music Taiwan. I managed to rip the PV off and upload it to youtube for you all. Quality isn't great but that's all I could do :p

So first things first, I'm extremely disappointed at the budget of this PV - They're dancing in front of a white background and they have some props, urgh whatever. I think I'm going to start giving up on UFA putting effort in anything they do from now on. Moving on...
The song itself is very sweet and I'm really enjoying it. The chorus is catchy and I think it suits the overall image of the group. The vocals are very nice and ShenShen's solo towards the end is really lovely.
The thing I like the most about this PV is that we get to see the girls' personality. They all act very goofy and cute, it's a lot of fun to watch, even if slightly unoriginal. I wonder if they'll do a PV for their Japanese version of the song?

NEWS: C-ute was honoured yesterday evening with a EXCELLENT WORK award, at the 50th Japan Record Awards, for their song Edo no Temari Uta II.

The award put them amongst artists such as EXILE and Koda Kumi in the running for the BEST WORK OF THE YEAR award. While they didn't win the top prize, which went to EXILE's Ti Amo, they were invited to perform at the ceremony, where they sang their nominated track.

This is the second year in a row that the girls have performed at the Japan Record Awards. Only a year ago the girls were nominated in the New Artist category, ultimately winning the BEST NEW ARTIST. Let's take a little stroll down memory lane to see how far the girls have come since this time last year!

C-ute is once again cementing themselves as the group to watch in H!P, being recognized for the second year in a row for their music. A BIG congratulations to C-ute, this is QUITE an honour and truly deserving :D

PREVIEW: Promotion for Takahashi Ai's upcoming drama, Q.E.D, is well underway and us lucky fans have a special 2 minute sneak peek of what's in store for us all!

So it's definitely looking very exciting! I'm especially liking the episodic feeling it looks like it will have, with the different cases to solve each week involving undercover work/costumes etc. Ai is so cute in her maid outfit ^_^ I can't wait for this!

*lol* I found this vid posted up at the jpm forums and I just had to share! It's a bit old, from June this year, but it was new to me. Make sure to turn on the subs if you need them (lower right corner -> middle button in the popup).

Yaguchi on her show Gyao MIDTOWN TV and participates in a punishment game, Moe Moe Idol Nyaguchi Mari, where she has to act like a kitty idol, adding NYA! to the end of each sentence ^^; Hilarious and cute!

PREVIEW: When in doubt, you can't go wrong with THE Possible: Their upcoming single, Shiawase no Katachi.

Firstly: The song is awesome. When I first heard the preview, I wasn't sure - but it's a very sweet track. Secondly: The PV is awesome. Not overly expensive (hell they dance in darkness) but it looks very polished and professional. The outdoor shots are sublime!

It totally gives me a Mihimaru GT vibe which is major points in my book!

Some exciting news today as I logged on to find that the blog has just surpassed 20,000 hits! *yay* When I first created the blog I had no idea there would be as many visitors as there has been but my daily hits have been gradually rising. Thank you so much to everyone who visits the blog, especially those who come here on a daily basis - it means a lot to me to see that the site is appreciated ^_^

I started the site back on July 15th, with my first post being a review of Berryz Koubou's Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance. Since then I think I've written 222 posts - I always try to post at least once a day so people have something new to see when they visit lol. I've tried to remain as dedicated as I can to bringing updated news and fun stories, that I hope everyone has enjoyed! ^^
When I first started tracking Stardust's hits (August) I was scarcely getting 10 hits a day. I have to give big thanks to the folks at International Wota, especially CK who is ALWAYS writing up the blog, for bringing those 10 hits per day to the hundreds I'm getting at the moment. Over the past two months especially, the blog has really grown in popularity.

As a commerative New Years/20K ... thingo, I've decided to list the posts which actually mattered amongst the 222 I've written so far lol:

Vocal Training with Junjun & Linlin
28th July 2008

This post was kinda special as before this date I was very focused on doing a NEWS driven blog. Most of the previous posts were news items or reviews, which I still do a lot of, but this was the first little post where I just brought something I thought was interesting and cool - footage of Junjun and Linlin in a vocal lesson. It got a lot of attention, being posted on IW a few days later, and the site had over 200 hits when this post got written up!

Canaria Club Live Document DVD

29th July 2008

I was very proud of this post: 1. because it took me AGES to do (I'm talking literally HOURS lol) and 2. because I love Canaria Club. This review of their Live Document DVD didn't get the attention I was hoping for. I'm pretty sure IW eventually wrote it up, but I think it mainly got gradual hits as I kept linking to it in subsequent posts *lol*

Kanna x Hasshi Scandal?
29th July 2008

Yes, I'm aware the first 3 posts are all within 2 days lol, but it was just a busy couple of days. I swear! This post, about Arihara Kanna's little scandal, got LOTS of hits but mainly from a different audience - the Johnny's fans. It was posted up at a few Johnny's forums and was googled a lot, resulting in it being one of the most popular posts on the blog.

Anticipating SanHora's 6th Story: Moira & Moira: The 6th Story
August 29th & September 16th 2008

These two posts regarding Sound Horizon's 6th Story album Moira still gets a heap of hits to this day. Because they aren't really about music most H!P fans are interested in, the hits are mainly from googlers who just happen to find the blog when searching about the album. I'm really proud of these posts, a lot of effort went into them, and I'm happy they've gotten the attention they have.

New Star *finally* coming to a close...
September 1st 2008

Ok so here starts the facination with the Taiwan auditions, NEW STAR, and the hundreds of hits I got everytime I posted anything remotely related to them lol. I dunno if I was just the only blog following the auditions but that's just what happened :P This first post talked about the remaining 15 contestants and picking out my favs - of which only ShenShen made the group :p

Introducing SI☆NA ...
September 7th 2008

This little post was about the H!P Kansai group SI*NA - I believe they had just recently been named as a group and these cute little vids popped up and I just had to share! Of course they still haven't debuted and my enthusiasm for them is starting to fade away, but just watching these vids again makes me excited for their debut, which should be any year now... (-_-;)

New Star Elimination Update
New Star 9/13: Recap & New Star 9/14: Another Recap
September 9th 2008
September 14th & 15th 2008

AHHH~ this was the horrible post where I accidently spoiled NEW STAR for everyone lol. It utterly confused me (the site had posted a news article about the eliminations before the episode had aired) and then I wasn't sure what was going on. Eventually it all sorted itself out when I got my hands on the episodes and reviewed them for everyone but it did leave me a bit rosy cheeked.

Ping Leaks Chinese H!P song....

September 20th 2008

This post was about Ice Creamusume's PeiPei (at the time known as Ceng de Ping) leaking the Morning Musume track Ame no Furanai Hoshi de Aisenai Daro via her blog. The song was already pretty popular (concert rip or whatever) so of course the post was popular too. I pretty much wrote off PeiPei's chances at getting picked as a result lol but I was obviously quite wrong. To be fair, at that point she had already been chosen ^^; ehhh - later that day...

NEW STAR Winners Chosen & Who are the NEW STARs?
September 20th & October 3rd 2008

Later that day we all found out the New Stars and everyone was shocked and disappointed that the little girl (who will forever be known as Risafan) did not make it ;_; I'm still recovering from that one. One of the most popular posts on the blog stemmed from the NEW STARs as I set out to determine Who are the NEW STARs? - I knew so many people hadn't followed the auditions and had no idea of who these girls were so I managed to get my hands on the last episode and made some vids of each performer and posted them up. Now please keep in mind I know nothing about video editing lol - it took me a while, but I got there in the end. It was worth it though, I'm proud of this post!

Aibon: Rockin' Out!

October 12th 2008

This post goes to show how even posts that take hardly any effort can become much more popular than more intensive posts. This 5 min post where I just posted some pics of Kago Ai got hundreds of hits lol. Crazy eh? It is Aibon though and she is rockin! ;) (re-reading this I realise I used the word post in this... post far too often lol)

Kill Me, Kiss Me: HANGRY & ANGRY ... grr

October 13th 2008

I wrote up this post about hANGRY&ANGRY literally at like 3 in the morning lol. I remember I was so pumped at seeing it and was so excited I had to write it up right then and there. I remember it very vividly, my friend told me that the pic was obviously photoshopped and laughed at me for thinking H!P would ever do anything like this -_-; lol. Anyway every man and his dog did a post about H&A so I can't remember if it was very popular, but I enjoyed writing it.

The End of an Era: Elder Club Graduates
October 19th 2008

This was a sad day for me :( Urgh, Elder Club - they'll be missed. I'm still in mourning and they haven't gone yet - I'll prob be mourning for a few more months afterwards. Once again, every man and his dog, I think this post got lost among the masses - but those are my sad feelings on the news.

Halloween no Musume!
October 31st 2008

Ah! One of the posts I'm most proud of! So much work went into these little horrifying Musume's but every minute was pure joy. This is the type of thing I just do when I have nothing else to do so it wasn't a huge waste of time lol. I got lots of nice feedback on this post and many hits, a few sites linked to it which was cool. I'm dreading what I'll have to do for next Halloween *eek*!! I'm *hoping* I won't have the time to do something similar (I needs a life lol) ... but we'll see.

NEW STARs Jet Off
November 11th 2008

The formula for success: NEW STAR related x post = popular ^_^ lol. I actually translated this article from Mandarin via a really crappy online translator. Urgh, the things I do for the blog and all you lot :p

Tough as Nails, Fierce as C-ute
November 12th 2008

Nobody really cared about this post lol (that's always how it is, when I actually try to make a post people will like - nobody does :p) That being said, I still really like this post and I'm putting it here in an attempt for somebody, somewhere to care lol. *please... pleeeease!*

Int'l Wota Here I Come!
November 19th 2008

Wow, it doesn't seem so long ago that Pengie emailed me about joing IW lol. Since then I've done all of 3 writeups on the site -_-; I'm such a bad contributor! My New Years resolution is to be more active on the site! Best bit about IW is meeting all the cool (yes you're all cool!) ppl on wotachat, hours of fun ^^!

Welcome, Ice Cream Musume!
November 21st 2008

Wooo~!! We finally got a name and cool group pics! My love for the NEW STARs never dwindled and my love for Ice Cream just made me love the group even more! peachusagi commented on this post: You always have the best news! - AWWWW see, everyone loves Ice Creamusume!

Yum! Ice Cream! ^_^
November 23rd 2008

This post got NO attention at all!! @_@ <- tis my angry face lol. Do you know how long I sat down trying to think of Ice Cream flavours that would go with each member? lol! I got the idea from CK who kept blabbing about how each girl should represent a flavour. Now we actually know that the girls do have flavours - I have to say mine are much better >.<

Ayaya's in the Kitchen... with Chickens?
December 9th 2008

Ahahaha! LOL this post was great *is not conceited* - I'm talking about the actual song ;) I think this one got lots of hits and everyone seemed to love the Kitchen & Chicken track! I've still got my fingers crossed for a release in the near future. I don't need another slow ballad ... I WANT CHICKEN!!!

The 12 Days of Christmas
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
December 14th to 25th 2008

Most of December was busy for me, with Xmas and all, so to keep the Blog up to date and as a nice holiday surprise I decided to do my 12 Days of Christmas countdown. December has been my most popular month so far - I'm not sure if it's because of the 12 Days but people kept coming back and it was nice to be able to share those 12 songs with everyone.

Ice Creamusume's Love Revolution 21!
December 22nd 2008

Let's talk about crazy Ice Creamusume for a second ... this post of mine was the all time most popular post on my blog - pretty much by far lol. When I posted it I NEVER imagined the reaction it would get. I pretty much heard the track would be on radio that evening, went to the radio show's website and found it was online and then decided to record it while I was listening. I then posted it before I went to bed and when I woke up I had hundreds upon hundreds of hits. The radio rip has been downloaded over 800 times from the blog, as well as countless others from other forums and youtube. My 1GB bandwidth even exceeded on the site where I post my audio files lol. A very popular post and a nice Xmas gift to myself!

So there we have the most significant posts in my short blogging history and after all that time writing this post up, those 20K hits have now surpassed 30K *lol* ok not quite ;) Once again, thanks so much to all the people who visit the blog. I hope you'll keep coming to check it out after the New Year. Maybe for your NY's resolutions you can all comment a bit more, eh? ;) lol.

Have a great New Year!
xMarsx

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!

PREVIEW: Ice Creamusume's debut release, the mini-album 1st Best! is released next month. The girls have recorded 2 songs in Japanese in preparation for the release.

1st Best!

The album is released on the 9th of January in Taiwan.