Hello, everyone! I was writing a piece about the Shibuya AX concert, but it turned out oo damn long (even by my own standards) so I’ll work on it for a while more.

Yesterday, as I was checking International Wota, I noticed a post about Idoling!!!’s concert. And I thought “well, I’ll check it out, it never hurts to stick with another fandom”

Notice how I didn’t know anything about Idoling!!! before this. I watched a small segment they had on Hey!Hey!Hey! where they incidentally appeared making fun of AKB48, and I thought that their honest and straight forward comedic style was quite adorable. I’ll be honest: I never planned to watch their show, I hardly watch AKB48’s show, because huge files with no subtitles aren’t a good thing for my connection, and I never thought that I’d get into them, judging by their “Moteki no Uta” performance, that didn’t really appeal to me all that much.

So why did I decide to watch the concert after all? I don’t think that they’re AKB48’s competition at all, and not because I look down on them or anything like that, but because AKB is a different idol group, with a different concept and a different style. I guess I simply wanted to see what they were about.

The first thing that appears in the video is short clip featuring each of the girls doing something and then how they arrive at the concert, or at least that’s what I think that happened in there, because I actually got bored after the first 3 or so and skipped them altogether.

I’m not going to do a track by track review because I don’t even know the member’s names, or the song names, so something so detailed would be pretty time consuming.

The general impression I got from the first few songs, is that they weren’t too memorable. The Idoling (I’ll skip the exclamation marks from now on, because they kind of annoy me anyway) style of simple choreographies is also present, which must be a great hook for the wotas, but it’s not very engaging visually. These girls have all of the attitude and spunk in the world, though. I was pretty happy to see this, as I love to watch idols enjoy themselves while they do their work, and this was like an added bonus that made up for the somewhat boring choreographies. I liked the different Moteki no Uta version, with maracas, and there’s a chubby girl in the group that’s really lively, and the crowd totally adores her! Brownie points for her because of that!

After the pretty standard sounding first few songs, there’s a small MC (the girls don’t introduce themselves, which I hate, because I can’t freaking tell who they are) and then it’s on to the small unit songs.

Memorable Stuff:

• There’s this part where a girl appears tap dancing alongside another one who plays the koto. The contrast is pretty shocking, and interesting, even though it doesn’t always quite click. The girl in the koto is absolutely beautiful and I love her already for being so good at it (but I don’t even know her name so whatever). The tap dancing girl… well, her skills aren’t as good as Miyazawa Sae’s amazing tap power, so brownie points for Sae, Team K and AKB48! (yes, I’m biased, so what?)
• My favorite song on the entire concert is one sung by Rumi, Mai and Maria (I think) with some girl whose name I don’t know in the piano. Rumi’s voice is simply breathtaking, crystal clear and perfect pitch. The harmonies are beautiful, and I rather enjoyed this ballad, which is weird, I usually hate those. Mai looks weird when she sings sometimes, like she’s nervous or something…
• There are a bunch of other random songs, all performed lively, but not all of them manage to catch my interest, though
• There’s another “break” thing where 2 girls play the taiko. Very impressive.
• There’s a song they do with a random guy (I’m guessing a comedian) very old fashioned, it kind of reminds me of Mr. Moonlight. It’s all about the physical comedy, actually, and they sing live, so their voices falter and sometimes they giggle a lot or even scream! It’s pretty interesting to watch, and it reminds all of us how these girls are mainly about comedy themselves. I appreciate how they sing live through the whole concert BTW, and I think that they are actually pretty decent performers, they have some great singers in their roster, and I don’t believe what I’ve read so manytimes “that they suck”. Singing live is really a feat, even though their choreographies are pretty simple. So they earn another point.
• Nagisa no Sindbad is performed here. Which makes me reminisce about W I also really liked this performance, chubby girl is back, owning the crowd as always, and they harmonize pretty good, although this time I’m not really sure if the harmonies are sung live.
• Happy Summer Wedding: Seeing this song performed really made me go “Wow! MM really are a legend” I’ve been a fan for many years, but for some reason, I had never seen it in that light! Anyway, the guy is back again, in a wedding dress (ew) and 2 girls perform with him. The vocal quality of this song is pretty bad, to be honest, but this number is all about the comedy as well, so I won’t really dwell on that. Not my cup of tea, really.
• There was a song in english performed, but I didn’t really understand a word from it XD there was also a Bennie K song, and a song they performed in long gold outfits (Oh look! Rumi’s there!!! *hearts*) which sounds really lovely. I’m sure I’m forgeting more songs but whatever.

After this, the girls thank the crowd and go to change, they put on some really plain white dresses with colored hems, which reminds me, the costumes these girls wear are nothing too frilly or shiny or whatever, but they still fit the songs well, I guess.

Another set of songs, apparently singles or something. They are all back in happy mode, and I actually like these batch of songs more than the first one (maybe they’re growing on me already?). After they are done singing, they move on to thank the audience again and leave the stage.

ENCORE: The girls are wearing really plain jean shorts and red T shirts. They still look good, pretty casual, like a girl next door kind of look, I guess. Oh look! They’re introducing themselves!!! Awesome!!

Wow! the crowd really loves Fonchi (she didn’t really stand out all that much to me… except for the giggling part in that first comedy song)

Kato Sayaka looks TOTALLY different in video than in pictures. It’s like… scary. She also reminds me of AKB48’s graduated member Hoshino Michiru, and I think she was one of the girls playing the taiko… I might be wrong though.

Michelle Miki is a total gaijin, and she gets like no lines whatsoever. See, that’s what the future holds in store for the lucky few foreign who manage to join the Idol world in Japan…

Oh, so chubby girl is Kikuchi Ami! Well, she’s a lucky girl, because the crowd REALLY loves her. Being 2nd gen and all, that must be quite the honor, or something. I’m just guessing, I don’t really know how the dynamics of the group work. She looks a bit like Konkon. And she was playing the piano in that first ballad I loved so much (Omoi no Uta? I believe?) Go figure. Girl’s pretty talented.

Michelle cheering on Rumi = lolol No, that’s not going to get you extra lines, Michelle, but you should still worship Rumi because she can outsing lots of idols I’ve heard in my life *whistle*

Wait, no, chubby girl is maybe Yazawa Erika… I can’t tell. I have to watch this thing again, now that I have a vague idea of who the hell they are.

Tap dancer girl is cool. Not as cool as Sae, but cool enough for me to like her. A bit.

Serina is really bawling there. And she looks like she’s 10.

And then they perform a song named Lemon Drop, typical upbeat idol pop, and a little more typical than typical because that’s Idoling’s style, pretty enjoyable, though.

So all in all, I enjoyed watching this. I’m probably not going to be a hardcore fan just yet, but they’re a pretty interesting group. I like how they play up the individual talents of the girls, and the fact that their choreographies are limited is actually a great chance to see how they interact with each other on stage and how their personality is reflected by that.

You should give this group a chance, don’t think about it as competition for Momusu, because that’s not what these girls are about. Idols who do comedy is a pretty interesting gimmick to at least check it out, and even though they can definitely make you laugh, they also have some good songs and great singers, they are rightful idols, in other words.

I’ll agree that the group isn’t for everyone, but you should at least try it out and see whether you like it or not, I for one, am already a fan of Koizumi Rumi and her beautiful voice <3 <3 <3