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
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.
Firstly: MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! I hope everyone has a great day filled with lots of joy and memories. What better way to celebrate this Xmas than with my personal favourite group, Morning Musume! Though they've only released 2 singles this year, I think many were blown away by the enigmatic Resonant Blue, a song which surprised and brought plenty of joy to lots of people this year!
When I first heard this song it was via a pretty ordinary radio rip and I was truly transfixed. It was something totally different to what MM had done before and I was in love with Resonant Blue from the first second. Around the web, there was definitely a sense of excitement about this release, the vast majority of people LOVED it and everyone was trying to find out who sang what lines (because everyone sounded so different and great) and then eventually we learnt it was all Ai and Reina lol, but whatever. From the 4 PVs to the kick ass covers, for me, this was one of the greatest releases MM had produced in years.
The new, more mainstream, image was very welcomed by a lot of the fans and one we had gradually seen MM nudging towards in recent songs. I can only hope that Pepper Keibu (which I did really like) was a slight deviation from this new direction (due to the remake album) and that MM will return to this style with their next single. I really think it is what MM needs to maintain the current fans and win new ones, we need MM to stick around for many more years! ^_^
I hope you've enjoyed reading these 12 Days of Christmas segments. I know a few people have discovered new artists through it and I hope many of you enjoyed at least reading my own thoughts on the songs. Now, I purposely only decided to use 1 H!P track for the 12 Days since otherwise there would be far too little variety lol. As a result I'll list my 10 fav H!P singles of the year:
10
Fujimoto Miki Okitegami
09 Athena & Robikerottsu Seishun Love Lunch
08 Berryz Koubou Dschinghis Khan
07 Buono! Lotta Love Lotta Love
06 MilkyWay Anataboshi
05 C-ute Namida no Iro
04 High-King C\C (Cinderella\Complex)
03 Buono! Renai Rider
02 C-ute Edo no Temari Uta II
01 Morning Musume Resonant Blue
All in all, I'd say it's been a pretty good year for H!P in regards to actual songs. I've quite liked a number of the releases and hopefully 2009 is even better! Once again, have a great day!
Singer/Songwriter YUI took the top spot on the album charts this week with, her b-side collection, MY SHORT STORIES. The album, which sold 173K, is her 3rd no.1 album coming off I LOVED YESTERDAY's success earlier this year. YUI was unchallenged at the top of the charts, holding the no.1 spot on the daily ranks all week. Kato Miliyah's BEST DESTINY dropped only 1 place to no.2 this week, selling 55K, bringing her total sales to just under 150K.
The singles chart was much more competitive this week, with DREAMS COME TRUE, the GazettE and ARASHI all holding daily no.1 rankings, but it was DREAMS COME TRUE who nudged their way into the top spot. Tsurette Tsurette sold 46K, 5K more than the GazettE and SPEED who sat in 2nd and 3rd positions. ARASHI charted at 4th this week with Beautiful days selling just under 36K.
Two H!P artists managed to make the top 10 this week. Satoda Mai's Mou Sugu Christmas (with Gouda Kyodai) was 7th with a little under 26K while Buono!'s Lotta Love Lotta Love charted one place lower at 8th. Buono!'s sale numbers of 22K continue the trend of declining H!P single sales in recent times. Morning Musume, Berryz and now Buono! have seen their latest singles sell lower than the previous. Berryz Koubou meanwhile dropped to 50th in their second week with sales of 2K.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01 Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE 46,452 02 LEECH the GazettE 41,200 03 Ashita no Sora SPEED 40,058 04 Beautiful days ARASHI 35,931 05 Oshare Banchou feat. SOY SAUCE ORANGE RANGE 30,845 06 ORION Mika Nakashima 27,046 07 Mou Sugu Christmas Satoda Mai with Gouda Kyodai 25,788 08 Lotta Love Lotta Love Buono! 22,484 09 Toki no Ashioto KOBUKURO 18,164 10 Sky High GOSPELLERS 13,735
Albums: 01 MY SHORT STORIES YUI 173,741 02 BEST DESTINY Kato Miliyah 55,239 03 I am ... Sasha Fierce Beyonce 42,037 04 UROBOROS DIR EN GREY 37,588 05 Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits Christina Aguilera 29,416
NEWS: Exciting news for Buono! as they become the spokespersons for PIZZA-LA, self described as the "No.1 delivery pizza". They feature in 2 cms both 15sec long - You can watch them below or at higher quality here.
While I'm not a huge fan of takeaway pizza, it's still exciting news for Buono! I'm glad they're branching out from Shugo Chara! and really standing alone as artists rather than just a group specifically for the anime.
REVIEWS: I’m late once again with my new release reviews, I apologise – BUT I have an excuse this time… I spilled boiling hot soup on my hand yesterday (It stung like hell) and I literally had my hand in a bucket of iced water the whole day – so while I was able to slowly navigate my computer, typing reviews would have been extremely difficult, especially with the amount I’m tackling this week. Lots of great artists are releasing this week and I couldn’t even review all that I wanted to. Some new releases I had to skip were the GazettE’s new song which is doing really well on the charts, Nakashima Mika’s ORION, Hirahara Ayaka’s new double A-side and alan’s final elements single, Megumi no Ame. I liked some of these tracks but they didn’t really make a huge opinion on me either way. I also skipped reviewing Wakeshima Kanon's Suna no Oshiro because I ordered that and I'll do a review of it later when it arrives (bulk order so it'll be a while). In the end I went with new tracks from SPEED, HALCALI, Buono!, Aoyama Thelma, Satoda Mai, ORANGE RANGE and DREAMS COME TRUE. Enjoy!
Ashita no Sora SPEED
SPEED’s much anticipated new single Ashita no Sora is their first since their charity single in 2003, after disbanding in 2000. They apparently have regrouped due to Eriko’s son’s hearing difficulties; that if he couldn’t hear her music, she wants him to be able to see his mother perform. So while making her son happy, she’s also made thousands of SPEED fans absolutely ecstatic. Their comeback single is a nice mid-tempo track with a bit of a soul feel to it. The song starts with the chorus which is by far the best part of the song. I think it’s really catchy and is the highlight of the song for me. The verses are a bit uninteresting unfortunately and I found myself just waiting impatiently for the next chorus. It definitely saves this song. Thankfully the verse sections aren’t too long – the chorus makes up most of the track as well as some nice instrumental sections. I think for a comeback this is a nice sound for SPEED, it has a more adult feel to it, reflective of their members having grown up since the early days of the group. This works because they’ll be targeting a different age group, their fans having also aged. For myself, who was not a fan of SPEED (purely because they were around before my j-pop fandom kicked in) I think it’s a great track that can also attract new fans.
Rating: 8/10
Long Kiss Goodbye HALCALI
It’s been over a year since we’ve had a new song from the HALCALI girls and it was over a year too long to wait! I adore HALCALI and their unique, fresh tracks so it’s great that they’ve come out with a new single FINALLY. Long Kiss Goodbye has the signature rap style vocals from the girls paired with a nice smooth chorus, an effect that works really well and that I am personally a fan of. Unlike the last review, the verses this time are probably my favourite parts of the song, though I do adore the chorus too. It’s almost a shame that after the second verse there isn’t any other rap sections, with the bridge of the song being similar to the chorus, but that’s ok. I’m not too nit picky when it comes to HALCALI tracks, I just enjoy them for what they are and I’m thankful that these girls are still producing great music.
Rating: 8.5/10
Lotta Love Lotta Love Buono!
Lotta Love Lotta Love (or Rottara Rottara as some of you like to say) is Buono!’s newest single and the closing for Shugo Chara! Doki! – While Buono! aren’t doing the opening themes anymore, they are still doing the closings, which isn’t really a huge issue. Only their B-sides have ever been opening themes for the anime, with the rockier signature sound of Buono! always being used for the closings. Lotta Love Lotta Love, I have to say is my favourite Buono! track or at least on par with Renai Rider. The whole song is just great, it’s like a roller coaster of awesomeness – thrills at every turn. The "Lotta Love" sections are catchy and fun to sing along to (not that I’ve tried), the rocky instrumental is awesome, the pre-chorus builds really well, the chorus is fantastic, the girls sound great … what more can I say? I LOVE IT!
Rating: 9.5/10
Mamoritai Mono Aoyama Thelma
Aoyama Thelma really shot to fame with Soba ni Iru ne earlier this year, which sold close to 500K and her follow up single Nando mo selling 70K which is still a good number. She has an R&B style to her music which isn’t really my favourite genre and I haven’t particularly been able to latch onto her stuff yet so I was hoping her new track Mamoritai Mono could change my mind. The track is a winter ballad which I always really love, with a touch of an R&B feel to it, which I love ... not so much. The winter sounding instrumental is really beautiful, with nice orchestral sections in it and Thelma sounds really wonderful on this song. For a ballad I have to say this track is quite good. The pre-chorus is particularly nice and interesting and the whole song has really nice elements to it. Despite this, I dunno, I just can’t get into it that much. Maybe it’s because of the R&B feel, I'm not really sure. I think this will appeal to her fans (if they are into ballads) but not particularly for me.
Rating: 7/10
Mou Sugu Christmas Satoda Mai with Gouda Kyodai
So now we get to the most popular H!P girl, Satoda Mai (who would have thunk it!) with her new single Mou Sugu Christmas. She sings this track with Gouda Kyodai (Fujimoto Toshifumi and misono) and it's linked to the Quiz! Hexagon variety show so it’s sure to sell pretty well, I would think. The track starts off with a sweet Christmas-y intro but then kind of switches to a more mid-tempo, fun beat. Apart from the odd bell or two in the instrumental it doesn’t really give off a huge Christmas feel, but Mai-chan with Reindeer antlers on the cover more than makes up for that. The song really isn’t that good lol, but let’s be honest, it’s meant to be a fun, crazy song – it’s not meant to be a masterpiece. Vocal wise, not the best from any of the singers, because they’re trying to sound silly and cute, so on that front ... mission accomplished. For fun factor, it scores high for sure.
Rating: 7.5/10
Oshare Banchoufeat. SOY SAUCE ORANGE RANGE
Oshara Benchou feat SOY SAUCE is another crazy track from ORANGE RANGE, with a techno dance style. It’s the promo song for the Glico Pocky Chocolate cm which features a scantily clad model crazily dancing to the song with pocky in her hands. Yum! ... the pocky I mean ... ^_^ - I really enjoy the track there, but sans hot model I’m not sure I will :P The track is a bit hard to review lol. I’m not sure where to start – This song feels a tad repetitious but then I guess all dance tracks are to some point. The chorus is repeated ad nauseam; thankfully it’s the best part of the song. It’s been produced really well, there are some interesting effects throughout – yeah… I dunno, just listen to it *lol*
Rating: 7/10
Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE
DREAMS COME TRUE is another really popular group that I haven’t ever gotten around to having a good listen to but this single really stood out to me – The winter promo pics, the “winter limited edition”, the snowman on the cover … this all screamed AWESOME WINTER TRACK to me. I was a bit disappointed though, this song isn’t very Winter-y at all o.O Despite this I gave the song a listen and it actually was better than I expected. The whole song is quite a laid back, mid-tempo track with a bit of a soft dance beat to it. The chorus is the highlight of the song, beginning with a really lovely line which has a nice melody to it that’s quite catchy and repeated with the "Tsuretette Tsuretette" lines. The song sort of floats on by really nicely and towards the end of the track there are some pa ra pa pum pum’s (at least I think that’s what they’re singing) which makes it a bit more Winter-y. Tsuretette Tsuretette is the kind of track that grows on you I think, it got a lot better each listen for me (I usually listen to the tracks over and over before and while I review – ;) I’m listening right now!). So yeah if you don't like it straight away, maybe give it another few listens, as it's quite a nice track... even if it is only slightly Winter-y :P
PREVIEW: The PVs of Berryz Koubou's MADAYADE and Buono!'s Lotta Love, Lotta Love were released tonight and I have them embedded for your viewing pleasure :D
Now, Berryz' PV features the girls in a work setting, as interns of some sort. They are pretty incompetent as work assistants which is as far as the storyline goes, but it's the closest thing H!P has had to a story PV in a while so it's a nice addition. One gripe I have is that the PV looks a bit cheap. The setting looks less like an office, and more like a stage made up to try to look like an office. Outfit wise, I've made my comments on those before. They don't get much better. The dance looks pretty stupid to be honest, although it does have its moments. The best scenes are by far the end where the girls are mucking around. Very cute! All in all, not a great PV but a huge step up from Monkey Dance which had a horrible PV.
Amazingly Buono's PV also has a premise, a recording on an old music show from the 60s. That explains the disgustingly cute outfits and the cheapo background. That being said, I still don't like the outfits and I never will. The dance in this song is pretty good and the song is great. There are closeup shots which are nice but the dance section of the PV is the best bit imo. The crazy camera angles with the dimmed lights and silhouettes makes for a great dance interlude. For a danceshot + closeup PV this one is pretty good. It would have been nice to get a different approach but, perhaps a short dramatic intro of the girls getting ready for their performance or something; That would have been a nice addition. It's still good, though.
PREVIEW: Some new preview covers of upcoming Buono! & C-ute releases:
Buono! - Lotta Love, Lotta Love
Regular - Limited
I already said in my last post that I hate pretty much everything about this single other than the fantastic song (which thankfully is the most important thing). The preview of the PV looked horrendous. These outfits are disgustingly cute and Buono! are meant to be cool and fashion forward, not Minnie Mouse wannabes. The covers look (really) cheap and tacky. Meh, the song rocks majorly! (once again thank God! or else this whole single would have been a big downer for Buono! imo).
C-ute - Concert Tour 2008 Natsu ~Wasuretakunai Natsu~
Ok, wow! A nice cover from H!P. Usually I'm not a fan of DVD covers since they're mostly on the choppily photoshopped side (the large H!P concert covers from this year) but this cover looks great. While suffering from a large dose of PINK, the outfits look really cute and professional, especially for H!P concert standards. The girls all look great and happy. It's a really sleek, good looking cover! Thumbs up!
PREVIEWS: Well maybe not a lotta previews, but a couple ;)
First up Buono's Lotta Love, Lotta Love PV cm:
Now I've already praised the song enough in my first post about the single but this PV is looking horrible. The set is ugly, the clothes are horribly cutesy and nothing like what I've come to expect from Buono!. The covers look pretty dodgy too. Thank god the song is so good. *phew* Disaster diverted.
Now Berryz's MADEYADE covers:
Oh no! I hoped, wished and prayed but these still ended up being the single outfits. U.G.L.Y - sorry, sad but true. Nice to see Chinami has been promoted, however Miyabi has been demoted >.< stupidest.move.ever. I'm just gonna have to wait and hope the PV is good cause the song is growing on me, kind of.
PREVIEW: Shugo Chara returned to Japanese tv screens this morning and with it comes previews of two upcoming H!P releases, Shugo Chara Egg's Minna no Tamago and Buono!'s Lotta Love Lotta Love.
The Opening for the new season, titled Shugo Chara!! Doki, is the new H!P Egg's group Shugo Chara Egg. Their single Minna no Tamago is released on the 10th of December.
The song is expectedly very cutesy and sweet and it sounds like each of the Eggs gets their own solo parts which is good, giving each girl their time to shine. The YEAH YEAH! parts are very catchy and I can see this selling well amongst the younger fans of Shugo Chara.
Buono!'s 5th single Lotta Love Lotta Love is the Closing song for the new season and is released, a little over a month away, on the 12th of November.
Although I'm a fan of their previous 4 singles, I did fear they were starting to sound VERY similar, but this song is different and really good. The Lotta Love Lotta Love ("Rottara Rottara") sections are very catchy and the chorus is high energy and cool. A very promising song for Buono! and one of their best singles imo.
NEWS: News around the Hello! Project water cooler is that a new H!P unit consisting of Hello! Pro Eggs is soon to debut. Details are scarce at this point but unit is rumoured to be announced at the Shugo Chara event on the 20th of September. They will apparently sing the new Opening for the popular anime. Fans of Hello! Project will no doubt know Shugo Chara from Buono!'s singles which have been themes for the show.
No news yet on how many girls will be in the unit or which girls they will be. Some rumoured lineups have been floating around on Japanese forum 2ch which include a Maeda/Saho/Wada/Komine lineup as well as a Ogawa/Wada/Sainen/Arai/Maeda/Saho lineup. Both are to be taken very lightly and are likely fanmade.
I personally would love for the inclusion of some of my favorite eggs Wada Ayaka, Furukawa Konatsu, Fukuda Kanon and Ogawa Saki.
Saki - Kanon - Ayaka - Konatsu
There has been a lot of recent Egg activity with Maeda Yuuka, Kikkawa Yuu and Kitahara Saki all appearing in recent groups and of course Noto, Sengoku and Sawada in Ongaku Gatas. It seems Tsunku/UFA/Whoever feels that a lot of the original eggs are finally ready to hatch into H!P.
ORICON ROUNDUP: I'm seeing double this week as ARASHI manages to score two top ten places on the Singles Chart. Their newest single Truth / Kaze no Mukou he scores a massive 468K, rocketing to the top of the chart and eclipsing the record for debut single sales for 2008. The previous highest selling debut was KAT-TUN's DON'T YOU EVER STOP which sold382K back in May. Their last single One Love is the current best-selling single of the year and continues selling, staying put at no.9 this week with another 13K copies sold bringing their total sales to 492K.
Porno Graffitti's Gift debuts at a strong no.2 with 57K while May'n and Nakashima Megumi's collaboration Lion sits at 3rd. Continued strong sales from Southern All Stars and the Fuijioka Fujimaki and Oohashi Nozomi pairing see their respective singles fill out the top 5 while last week's no.1 from SMAP falls down to no.7. Buono!'s newest single Gachinko de Ikoi! debuts at no.6 with 25K, lower than their previous singles but still with decent sales. Satoda Mai's group Aladdin manages to just stay in the top 10 with another 12.5K sales.
~ Deja vu ~
Namie Amuro continues her domination on the Albums Chart with BEST FICTION at no.1 for the 4th straight week. Tokunaga Hideaki's BEST SINGLES album falls one spot, surpassed by Slipknot(USA), while the Detroit Metal City album is at 4th. Saitou Kazuyoshi's SINGLES BEST album jumps up into the top 5 at no.5 while SOFFett's debuts at #10. Chart regulars Koi no Uta and GReeeeN fall out of the top 10 (It was bound to happen eventually) placing at 11th and 14th. Leah Dizon's new album fails to make the top 10 on debut, unfortunately charting at no.16 with a rather average 8.6K.
CHARTS:
Singles: 01. Truth / Kaze no Mukou he ARASHI 467,288 02. Gift Porno Graffitti 57,667 03. Lion May'n / Nakashima Megumi 56,455 04. I AM YOUR SINGER Southern All Stars 30,207 05. Gake no Ue no Ponyo Fuijioka Fujimaki & Oohashi Nozomi 29,331 06. Gachinko de Ikoi Buono! 25,469 07. Kono Toki, Kitto Yume ja Nai SMAP 20,465 08. GIFT Mr.Children 20,338 09. One Love ARASHI 13,374 10. Hi wa, Mata Noboru Aladdin 12,587
Albums: 01. BEST FICTION Amuro Namie 88,335 02. ALL HOPE IS GONE-SPECIAL EDITION- Slipknot 44,888 03. SINGLE BEST Tokunaga Hideaki 43,382 04. Makaiyuugi - for the movie - Detroit Metal City 19,756 05. "Uta Utai 15" SINGLES BEST 1993~2007 Saitou Kazuyoshi 16,018
10. SOFFet BEST ALBUM ~ALL SINGLES COLLECTION~ SOFFet 12,757 11. Koi no Uta (Various Artists) 10,693 14. A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu. GReeeeN 10,008 16. Communication!!! Leah Dizon 8,620
NOTE: I've decided to switch the date of the Oricon Articles to the Tuesday release date rather than the previous weekly date which Oricon uses. This is because it tends to create confusion being a week later than the charts are posted and the fact that I have to constantly check since I have no idea how they work it out. Tuesday dates from now on *nods*
REVIEW(s): So I haven't really found the time to write all the reviews I had hoped so I may as well bunch them all together in my MEGA SUPER REVIEW TIMECORNER. This will hopefully not be a regular feature on the blog, only if I fall behind again ;)
Hitomi ga Kirakirara Canaria Club
Hitomi ga Kirakirara
Hitomi ga Kirakirara is Canaria (yes I was ALWAYS call them this) Club's 5th single and by far my favourite of the lot. CC's single have tended to be very happy go lucky, choirish type idol stuff which worked for them at the time but as they are gaining in popularity they seem to be changing their image, becoming slightly edgier and this single reflects this change.
The song is an upbeat dance song with trance styled elements and edgy rock influences. Mana is the lead on this song which she always has been in CC, however because this single has more solos than previous singles it is far more obvious this time around. I have no complaints though, Mana rocks majorly! Ayu and Yurie also have solos while Rippon, Reiko, Miki and Ikucchi have duo lines. Erina and Ucchi hardly sing at all which pains me but whatever. The verses and bridge are really dramatic which contrasts well with the chorus which is upbeat and fun "OH YAY! OH YAY!" etc. I love Mana's scream, leading onto an awesome guitar solo. Awesomely, fun song. The dancing in the PV is great too!
Lonely Moon
The B-side is a solo song from Mana titled Lonely Moon and is a really nice ballad. Mana once again shows that she can pretty much sing anything. The verses aren't too special but are saved with their "moonlight" intro. The bridge is really, really lovely and the chorus is just awesome. The emotion of the lyrics is reflected in Mana's vocals, the desperation, feeling lonely; She's very talented. The only downside is that Tsunku's backing vocals are sometimes too intrusive. Seriously, shut the hell up Tsunku! :p
Hitomi ga Kirakirara: A- Lonely Moon: B+
Ijiwaru Crazy Love THE Possible
Ijiwaru Crazy Love
Tsunku must be saving all his best songs for TNX because THE Possible's new single is ALSO my favourite of theirs. This is their tenth single and their second to chart in the top 10, a VERY deserving feat! Ijiwaru Crazy Love is another trance dance track which is undeniably catchy. It's less rocky than CC's single and more pop which makes both tracks distinguishable enough since they were released rather close together. The "let me know crazy love" beat is repeated throughout the song which works due to its infectiousness. Robin, Aina and Yurika are the leads on this song as they usually are. Yurika really surprised me as she recently hasn't had as much attention as Robin and Aina and I was pleasantly surprised with her voice. The other 3 girls are utilised still in the chorus (and with lots of ah~s!), with Yuki having a couple of speaking roles. Oh Yuki.. be still, my beating heart! *ahem* I have always loved THE Possible, but to be honest their last single wasn't amazing to me. It was good and the girls are always great but this style definitely suits them much better. Ijiwaru Crazy Love has all the makings of a hit, better than most H!P releases currently. Please check it out if you haven't, you'll be glad you did.
Koi no Rung Rung Paradise
The B-side on this single is Koi no Rung Rung Paradise and is very different to the A-side. It's kind of a cutesy pop track, pure sugar. It's hard when comparing it to Crazy Love which I loved, this doesn't quite live up to the previous track. It's still a really cute b-side and the production is pretty awesome. The chorus could have been better.
Ijiwaru Crazy Love: A Koi no Rung Rung Paradise: B-
Gachinko de Ikoi Buono!
Gachinko de Ikou!
Now to some H!P: Gachinko de Ikou, Buono!'s 4th single continues the rock-pop edge of their previous endeavours while continuing to remain fresh and new. The track starts with a really nice intro, setting the rocky mood of the song from the get go. It isn't a hard rock but a light, upbeat rock which is perfect for Summer and anime. As I mentioned, the song is the same style as their previous tracks and there was a chance Buono! would fall down the path of all their songs sounding the same. I admit at first I did think this single was a bit too similar to previous ones but after a few listens you can really appreciate the uniqueness of this track despite it not being too different to what they've done before. I've always disliked Momo's voice but on this song she is actually pretty decent. Somebody has obviously mentioned to her that her usual high pitched squealing was extremely annoying and she sings in a more mature voice for Gachinko de Ikou. It isn't up to par with Miya & Airi who are the top singers of both Berryz & C-ute, but it's not bad enough to ruin the song. The song induces small bouts of cuteness in random squeals and "oh yeah!"s reaffirming that this is an anime track and the instrumental is very anime with all the overlapping vocals. It's a typical anime track, but it's a pretty good one!
Lady Panther, the single's b-side is a rock infused swinging style of a song which is a nice contrast with the A-side. The instrumental is very upbeat and has some nice big band sounding elements. The girls all sound great and the chorus sung all together is cute. It isn't the greatest song, but for a b-side it is pretty good.
PREVIEW: Buono!'s is releasing their new single Gachinko de Ikou! in less than two weeks and you can view the full PV below.
We've heard the song before so nothing new there. The PV seems to be edited down since the radio rip was over 4min long while the PV is just 2min 20sec. Not sure what is going on there, I suppose the tv program has just cut the ending off. I really like the poker scenes, the lighting and mood is perfect. The whole PV is pretty good.
NEWS: I know I have been really slacking off on the news portion of this blog lately so first up I'm going to be going through all the latest news (that I know of)... so here we go:
Morning Musume's new single has been announced and will be released on the 24th of September which isn't TOO far off, I guess. The title hasn't been announced but there has been some speculation that it may be the beautiful ballad (Ame no furanai hoshi de wa aisenai darou) that was the closing song of the current H!P Wonderful Hearts concert. I personally would prefer a brand new song, along the same lines of Resonant Blue, purely because I want a new fresh song. The ballad would be great as a high class B-side imo.
Buono!'s Gachinko de Ikou! is released soon (20th Aug) and a commercial has begun airing giving us a sneak peek at the PV.
The white background is very pure and refreshing and helps us focus on the girls in the dancing shots of the girls, while it is contrasted with the crazy band shots which are much more hectic. Not too much to say from that tiny 15sec clip but it does seem like it could end up being a great PV.
C-ute was on Yahoo! Live Talk on Thursday, which I watched live, and they were really good. Kanna was present which was fantastic but she was a bit quiet at the beginning (though she seemed to loosen up after she was asked some questions). The best portions of the talk were when the girls each got up and showed off their outfits and described them, also when they showed off their talents. Download it at the Hello! Online Tracker.
Maimi & Erika also appeared on Tombori Station to promote their new single Edo no Temari Uta II. You can watch it on the Tombori website.
The Aku Yuu Monogatari TV drama aired yesterday evening and you can watch Takahashi Ai & Niigaki Risa as Pink Lady below:
The performance isn't very long but I love how Ai & Gaki's voices blend together, they harmonize very well. They seemed to get into the dance and performance well. I believe they performed more than just the one track, but this is all I could find atm.
Suzuki Airi also performed but I haven't seen a video of that pop up yet.
Berryz Koubou performed at the Osaka King Festival about a week ago but I forgot to post about it *sorry* I'm not sure if a video of the performance popped up, I didn't see one but if someone did feel free to let me know.
The girls were also on MBS Radio Sound Kingdom wearing the same outfits they wore at the Osaka King Festival performance.
Concert Time: A whole bunch of info on upcoming concerts and events were announced recently.
Ongaku Gatas will have a new tour in December this year. It is currently untitled. Miyoshi Erika will appear in a stage play while she will join Okada Yui for a FC Bus Tour in October. Sharan Q will have a 20th Anniversary concert which will feature H!P performers as guests. At the moment Abe Natsumi, Nakazawa Yuko, Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute and Matsuura Aya are known to be participating. Berryz Koubou will have another Gekiharo Gekidan stage play coming up and Matsuura Aya will have an Xmas Dinner show.
Random Ramblings
So I began my blog 3 weeks ago today and I originally wanted it to be a blog which posted every bit of news, was heaps up to date, all that wonderful stuff. I did start out like that I think but it is very difficult trying to keep up with everything as you can see from all this news I had missed in the past few days. I definitely will still be a H!P news blog, posting the most interesting tid-bits but I believe I will probably phase out the less news-worthy stuff unless it truly interests me and focus more on my reviews and random, interesting stuff I've found.
Big thanks to Int Wota who have written about me I think 4 times since I began and it has really helped. I recently began monitoring my hits to the site and it was much better than I expected and then after Int Wota wrote a story about me it just shot up. It's nice to know there are some folks who seem to be constantly coming and checking out this blog. I'll do my best to keep it up to date for all you. Ganbarre masu!
I added the media center to the top of the blog a few days ago so that I could add songs that I reviewed and such. The tracks are only 64kbps so they should load very quickly and I hope it doesn't stuff anyone's viewing of the page up. They aren't download-able atm, but I can check that option. I'm not sure why people would want the low quality tracks though and I don't want to get in trouble and the blog to get shut down so I think I'll leave them as just listen-able. I know (think) the site has troubles in IE. For me at least it sort of freezes while it loads, I can't seem to figure out why and I'm not tech savvy enough to fix it so I apologise and hope it isn't a huge issue.
One last thing. Please check out my Canaria Club DVD review *shameless plug* If you haven't already. I really think it's a good look at a backstage view of an idol concert + it took me literally hours and hours to screen cap all of that and write on it and nobody commented yet *sad*
In the upcoming week I hope to be doing reviews of THE Possible's backstage DVD as well as their new single, C-ute's new single and Canaria Club's latest single. I'm sure I'll get the time so just keep an eye out for them.
PREVIEW: Buono!'s upcoming single Gachinko de Ikou has begun playing on radio and you can download the full preview here.
The song is very upbeat and the girls sound great (even Momo whose voice tends to grate on me). It's a tad hectic at first but with subsequent listens, you get used to it. The instrumental is extremely anime down to the random overlapping ranting lol. It's a good tune, a good PV could spike my interest even further.
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