Bikkuri Project

At last, the promised entry on Ai “Tettekete” Takahashi who ranks at number 4 on my list of favorite MM members!

Ai-chan holds a special place in my heart, because I believe that we both look a bit like monkeys, and if people think she’s beautiful, then maybe there is hope for me yet! It probably helps that she has lovely eyes, a tiny yet perfect body, and she used to have amazing hair. If you can’t tell, I’m in the camp of people who miss her long hair. Yes, the shorter hair makes her look more mature, but somehow it’s just not Ai-chan to me.

One of the things I like most about Ai-chan is how she’s retained her innocence even as she’s grown up. I know some people in show business can end up kind of jaded *cough, Miki, cough* but that hasn’t happened to Ai-chan. She’s still as sweet and vulnerable as she was when she first joined. I was so touched by how emotional she got during Yossie’s graduation. Ai-chan isn’t good at putting up a fascade, so a lot of the time you don’t just see the face she puts on for the audience, you see the real human girl behind that. It’s also clear that she cares deeply for Morning Musume and its members, and she takes a lot of pride in her work as a singer and dancer. I think that these qualities are very good in a leader. Ai-chan is someone who the other members should look up to, as an example, and I really hope they do. While she might not be a very forceful leader, I think that she is doing a good job of stepping up to the roll, based on recent TV appearances. It’s too bad she didn’t get much of a chance to be sub-leader before she was pushed into full-on leadership, but hey, neither did Yossie, and she did great!

Speaking of singing and dancing, Ai-chan rocks in both catergories. I love that she has ballet training, and I wish that she had more of a chance to show that off. Her voice is currently the best in Morning Musume, and while she might get more lines than some would like, it’s probably for the best. Her line at the end of Koko ni Iruzee is my favorite part of the song.

Finally, Ai-chan’s strange little personality quirks are way amusing. Her manly screaming, her strange accent in her early days, and her tendancy to occasionally say things that make absolutely no sense. Ai-chan is in her own little world sometimes, isn’t she?

Random thoughts that don’t deserve their own entry time!

*When, other than right now, would be a good use of this smiley? Seriously! Does anyone know?!

*With the addition of LinLin and JunJun, the Morning Musume ages now span from 14-20. I don’t just mean that that’s the oldest and youngest member’s ages, I mean that there is now someone of each age 14-20! 14-Aika 15-Koharu 16-LinLin 17-Reina 18-Sayu, Eri, and Risa 19-JunJun 20-Ai. Yay! Too bad it won’t last though…

*I am getting frustrated with the lack of morning musume stuff floating around right now. I want the announcement of another single, or the setlist for their next concert, or footage of the winter H!P concert released or something! Everytime I turn around, someone’s getting a new single announced, and it’s never MM. Ah well, I guess quality over quantity is important. I don’t know what it is, but I really have a feeling that this next single is going to be a good one.

*On an entirely unrelated note, there are 4 racoons living in the tree outside my window: three babies and the mom. They’re super cute, but they also kind of scare me.

*I think LinLin and Koharu should be friends. I’m not sure why.

*I almost made this the Reina entry, and I wanted to title it “Don’t Reinan my Parade” but I stopped myself just in time. Lesson: I probably shouldn’t write journal entries at 6:48 in the morning.

*Painting by number is fun for artistically challenged biology majors like me. You should try it!

About halfway through now with number 5- Panda number one LinLin! (with an intro about the chinese members in general)

Like many of you, I was shocked and wary when the new Chinese members were announced. I don’t have any problem with Chinese people persay, but I was worried about how the Japanese audience would react, that this may cause some kind of catastrophic crash in Momusu’s popularity, and people on certain forums *ahem* were certainly encouraging that view point. After all, Coconuts Musume was pretty much a failure, right? Fortunately, sales of the last single, while down from Kanashimi Twilight, are still above at least a couple of past singles, so it seems that a catastrophic crash in popularity has not come to pass.

I am really impressed by the determination and courage both of the Chinese members are showing. They must be under soooo much scrutiny and pressure, not only being the new members of morning musume and having to learn everything and uphold that name, but also learning a new language and representing their home country in the process. A level of performance that would be passable for a new Japanese member would be harshly criticized if it were a Chinese member, particularly by those nay-sayers who want them out of the group. So, they couldn’t just be passable new members and take time to learn the ropes, they had to be great members right off the bat, and I really think they have accomplished that.

So now to LinLin. For her negative points, because I like to start off with those, she doesn’t seem to be the most photogenic of MM (it’s kind of hit and miss), but she more than makes up for that by being an adorable little ball of energy in person. Also, she does seem to move her head around a bit to much while singing, but hopefully she will grow out of that. And… yeah, that’s about it for negatives right now.

LinLin especially seems to be taking the initiative to speak up with her Japanese, and not be afraid to participate in a conversation, even on live television, even if she makes a mistake. This is a great thing for her to do, because, coming from personal experience, she will learn much faster that way, and the more facetime she gets on TV, the better for her. Also, her Japanese is really cute with all the little hand gestures she does, and how eager and excited she seems when she talks. I know her Japanese still has a ways to go, but I am really impressed by how well she is doing in such a short time.

Her singing is kind of hard to judge, because we haven’t heard much of it, but based off of the bad quality live recording that’s floating around, she’s pretty darn good. I really can’t wait to hear more. Her dancing is excellant. My eyes are drawn to her in live performances, even though she is tiny and near the back for most of Onna ni Sachi Are. She really has a lot of natural dancing ability and she’s just so darn… spunky, she’s great to watch.

Really, I love LinLin more every time I see her!

Here are a few minor sorts of musings that have been crossing my mind…

I wonder how long it would take if you were to listen to every Hello Project song ever released, including coupling tracks, album tracks, fan-club releases, etc., every different song that exists on a CD, back to back

I wonder how little AKB48 members get paid. I mean, there are over 50 of them, their CD’s sell decently, but not fantastically, and they have expensive looking PVs. My guess is that they get paid next to nothing, especially the members who don’t really do the CDs.

I wonder how long until Ai graduates, and whether or not Risa will at the same time

Finially, I wonder if I should stop writing in my blog and get ready for class.

Aika “Mittsi” Mitsui is number 6 on my favorite list.

It’s been kind of a roller coaster with Aika. At first, I was not impressed. Weird looking girl with a bad haircut in a grey sweatsuit who can’t really dance or sing. Nice….

Then her first single came out, and hey! She looked adorable! She sounded good on her lines! Okay, I could get to like this girl. Again, in Kanashimi Twilight, I really liked how her line sounded in the song, and while not the best dancer out there, she certainly wasn’t standing out as a bad dancer either.

Then came watching footage of the Sexy 8 Beat concert, and I was quite disappointed in little Aika. Some of her lines in the live performance were downright cringe-worthy, and though I wanted to like her, my opinion dropped quickly.

Finally, Onna ni Sachi Are comes out, and I’m loving the new longer hair. She sounds good on the recording, but she usually does, so I’m not that impressed. Then, live performances start to come out, and she’s actually singing live! And in tune! And then in a fan recording of the recent Summer H!P concert, she hits her line in KT spot on. Yay!! I feel free to like her again. She still needs to work on her live performance skills, but she’s proven that she is at least capable of singing well live, so I’m confident that she will continue to improve.

In summary, Aika wins the award for fastest improvement. Not to be crude, but you can tell that she is seriously busting her ass out there to get better at dancing and singing. I’m also giving her the award for most potential. She has a very strong voice, which is something that you can’t teach, and as she continues to learn better control I think we can expect to hear great things from Aika.

Lucky number 7 on my ranked list of MM members is Sayumi “Usa-chan piisu” Michishige!

Sayumi is another that I didn’t like at first. “Sure she’s cute,” I thought, “but she can’t sing!” However, I have been steadily gaining more affection for Sayu, and at this point, it’s safe to say that I like her. If only she could sing better, she would probably be one of my favorites by now. Sure, she’s improved, but I don’t think she’ll ever qualify as a good singer.

Starting with the obvious, Sayumi is the most beautiful Japanese girl I have ever seen. When I first saw her, I thought she looked a bit like one of those scary China dolls, but that was based on very early footage of her where she still was often looking serious and camera shy. Her recent photo book was stunning, and I seriously envy her hair. The contrast of her black shiny hair on her white porcelain skin is striking. Okay, Sayu=pretty, or to quote the thread “cuxy”. Enough said on that.

Here we come to her personality. At first, I was fooled by the super cutey ditzy face she puts on for the cameras. But the evidence has been mounting that Sayumi is a capable young woman who knows exactly what she’s doing, based on comments by other members and personal observation. She knows how to work the fans and has gained herself a lot of popularity as a result, and I can’t fault her for that. What I have really noticed about her lately is that she can be quite a confident and capable speaker, and her voice is really cute to listen to on top of that. She’s definitely suited for radio, commercials, and other things promoting MM. I know Eri is in line to be leader before her, but I think that out of 6th gen, Sayu would probably make the best leader and spokeswoman.

Another thing about Sayumi is that she is a hard worker. I think the speech she gave to Yossie at her graduation was quite revealing. It must be really hard for her being known as “the one who can’t sing/is only there because she’s cute, not because she’s talented”. It is clear that this label really hurts her, and she is always working hard to change that. Honestly, if I were her, I would have probably given up by now, but she perseveres, and I respect her for that.

Finally, and this is an important one, I think it’s adorable how she lip syncs everyone else’s lines during the entire concert or performance.

I have been thinking a bit about H!P kids and eggs, and how it is decided who gets to be promoted and who doesn’t, and in the end, I just don’t understand lot of it.

First is Suzuki Airi. She’s cute, and she is one of the best singers in h!p kids (in my opinion), so why was she left behind when Berryz Kobou was formed? I am aware that Berryz was originally intended to have a rotating roster, but the fact is that the Berryz girls were promoted, and the other h!p kids were ignored until very recently when they began releasing actual singles as Cute. When they have someone like Airi on the roster, having her occasionally dance backup at other h!p concerts while worse singers are getting to release singles in Berryz doesn’t seem like it was a wise decision.

The next thing is the eggs. It seems likely that some of them are more talented/cute/whatever than some of the h!p kids. However, because the h!p kids joined first, they are promoted while the eggs are, for the most part, stuck as background dancers hoping that someone will drop out of one of the main kids groups so they can join like Kanna did. Now, I understand that seniority is important in Japan, and the h!p kids have, essentially, “paid their dues” being the backup dancers. But, from a business standpoint, and h!p is a business after all, it seems like they could utalize their talent resources more effectively.

And so the final point. When it came time to add new members to Morning Musume, were either of these groups even considered? I’m not counting LinLin, because she was only an egg for a few months. There is appeal in holding open auditions, creating the idea that any girl has a chance at getting in. I don’t think they should stop doing that. Also, as Cute and Berryz continue to establish themselves, it’s probably too late to move any of them to MM. Let’s say though, that three new members are going to be added as the 9th generation of morning musume. Wouldn’t it make sense to hold open auditions for one or two spots and fill one or two of them with the most qualified egg(s)? I was thinking that maybe none of the eggs were actually good enough to be in a “real” group. But, after watching the Ongaku Gatas video, I saw at least one, maybe two of them that I think should be promoted to a better group. After all, you’ve got to give the eggs some hope.

Inspired by another blog I read, I thought I’d post my thoughts and feelings about each member in detail, and going from least favorite to most favorite seemed like a good way to go about it. Starting with #9 Koharu “Kirari” Kusumi.

I’ll come right out and say it. At first, I kind of hated Koharu. Her voice did (and still does) hurt my ears. I’m not sure exactly why this is. She’s either constantly flat or has some weird throaty thing she does sometimes… I don’t even know what it is, but it sounds awful, to the point where I am yelling at my computer screen “Come on Koharu, you’re ruining the song!!”. At least Sayu knows she’s not the strongest singer. I think Koharu might actually think she’s a good singer. She seems to kind of get on the other member’s nerves a lot of the time, as there have been multiple refferences to her tendancy to goof off and get yelled at by them. She couldn’t dance well at all when she joined. Finially, she gets a completaly unfair line distribution and a freaking solo career. And don’t even get my started on her rabid fans who seem to think she walks on water….

But that said, Koharu won me over just a bit with her Onna ni Sachi Are role. I’ve got to admit that she looks very pretty in that PV, dances well, and her lines are actually not bad at all to listen to. In fact her “Asahi yo no bore” line is downright good! So… how do I feel about Koharu? She’s still not my favorite, that’s for sure, and hearing her sing live usually makes me grit my teeth, but she’s one of the prettier members of MM, her dancing is just fine now, and it’s probably not really her fault for annoying the other members as she joined all alone at the age of 12. If she had a friend her own age to hang out with, she probably wouldn’t have been annoying them so much (and people have been saying that since Aika joined she’s been stepping up her game). It’s also not her “fault” that she gets so many lines. It’s not like she assigns the parts for the songs after all, and for all that she isn’t, she is a fresh new face with a goofy outgoing personality, and for those reasons, she is a contributing member of the group, so while I’m not exactly her fan, I have come to appreciate her much more lately.

Here’s hoping I’m not about to be mauled by said rabid Koharu fans for the first half of this entry…

Yesterday I was looking at the number of photobooks each H!P member has done, and then I also looked at the number per year in H!P. I rounded the year numbers because I didn’t feel like calculating it down to the month, but I thought the results were kind of interesting. I was wondering if there was a connection between how popular/attractive a member is and how many solo photobooks they get. Well, duh, of course there is. What I mean is, would it fall neatly into order with my perception of a member’s popularity. Sadly, no. It seems that more photobooks have been produced in the later years than the earlier years, giving newer members a distinct advantage. Also, Tsuji and Aibon having so many photo books together really hurt them when it comes to individual photobooks. I also find it interesting that Ai-chan holds the distinction of being the only one to have more photobooks than actual years in H!P Here is the ordered list, if you were interested (note: no one who hasn’t actually had a solo book is included in the list)

1.2 Ai-chan
1.0 Reina, Eri, Charmy, Koha, Mikitty, Kon-Kon
0.9 Maki
0.8 Sayu
0.7 Nacchi
0.4 Makoto
0.3 Yossie, Mari, Tsuji
0.2 Yuko
0.1 Kaori, Kei, Aibon