Here are some h!p related thoughts that don’t deserve their own entries. It seems that a bunch of short thoughts together makes for a long post. Lesson learned.
-Lots more blog traffic than usual yesterday. I’m certainly pleased, if not slightly mystified. Does anyone have a good explanation for that?
-With the new Nacchi/Maimi single announced, I wonder if we’ll be seeing more solo artist/h!p kid singles in 2008. Could this be the start of a trend? Actually, you could consider KiraPika to be another solo artist/h!p kid pair. I’d like to see Yossie paired with one of the kids for a single. Maybe Erika? Or maybe Miyabi to show that there’s no hard feelings about that “doesn’t look like a virgin” comment.
-I’ve said before that I haven’t listened to every single song that h!p has to offer, but I am diligently working on remedying that situation. Here’s hoping that I discover some gem that I previously didn’t know existed.
-I don’t think that Ai-chan ruined Minimoni. In fact, the quality of Minimoni’s music improved considerably after she joined. What ruined Minimoni wasn’t addition of Takitty, it was lack of Mari. When she left, Minimoni’s spirit left with her.
-When will 9th generation MM auditions happen? That’s what everyone is wondering lately. They tend to be about once a year, so we’re due for some, but the addition of the pandas late in the game might change things. Should our expected timeline be 1 year from Aika’s auditions (now) or one year from the panda’s (spring)? I’m guessing something in between. Probably auditions will be announced soon and maybe take place around February with new members being formally introduced at the MM spring tour and participating in the h!p summer tour as their first concert.
-Attempting to fix a commonly held misconception: Tsunku does not, I repeat does not, write all of the songs for Hello Project. He has written the most recently released songs for Morning Musume, Cute, Berryz, Ongaku Gatas, and Maki Goto. He did not write the recent releases of Buono, Koharu, Athena and Robikerrotsu, Aya Matsuura, Natsumi Abe, or Melon Kinenbi. Sorry for being nit-picky, but it bothers me when people say things like, “I like the style tsunku used in this song” when he didn’t even write it.
-I’ve watched some footage from the 10th anniversary group concert, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. That’s probably because there only 5 of them, one of whom is Risa, which means more Risa singing! Also, I’m pleased to announce that almost all of Koharu’s lines were in tune. Her voice was still very weak and she can’t hold long notes, but at least they were the right notes. I’ll take that as a sign of improvement. Since I always seem to be complaining about costumes, I’d like to note that the costumes for this concert were very pretty. The only thing that is really taking away from my enjoyment of the concert is the knowledge that Maki was deciding to quit around this time. It kind of casts a shadow over things.
Here’s my favorite performance from the 10th anniversary group concert: Risa and Kaori singing “Last Kiss”!
