Bikkuri Project

Morning Musume’s 36th single has been announced with a release date of 3/6. Yay! This puts them on their usual schedule of a single released about every 3 months (3.5 in this case). It’s time for the whole process of escalating excitement that surrounds a new MM single to begin.

First we get the title and everyone tries to guess what kind of song it will be. People start looking at the chart competition for that release day and predict what rank this song will get. Then, a while later, we may get a grainy fan recording from a concert. People begin to form opinions, and begin complaining about how their favorite member doesn’t seem to get enough lines. Then, the covers, maybe a radio rip, and finally, the moment everyone’s been waiting for, the PV airs. Opinions swarm like a flock of seagulls that has spotted someone throwing bread, and almost everyone either loves it or despises it. Next is the actual release day, and everyone holds their breath waiting for the sales figures, debating about how accurate Oricon really is, and making predictions for the week’s rank. People start to get their own copies of the single and they show off pictures of their purchase to make the rest of us jealous. There are TV appearances to critique, especially the almost inevitable Utaban appearance, and weekly sales figures to analyze. The single V comes out, and we get to enjoy watching our cuties goof off backstage and pose for photos. Then, just as the single is slowing down on the charts and our interest begins to fade, the date for the next single is announced and the whole process may begin again. And so it will continue until the end of time, or until the end of Hello Project, whichever comes first.

As for the specifics of this particular single, I’m going to dust off that crystal ball and once again throw my hat in the running for “most clairvoyant h!p blogger”.

-Once the title is announced, no matter what it is, people will expect the single to be a ballad. It won’t be. It’ll be something upbeat and extremely sexified. No more cutseyness, because sex sells
-The B-side, however, will be a ballad
-Ai-chan and Reina will get the most lines (duh), Koharu will have a spoken part, Risa will have one longish-line thrown in the 2nd verse that always gets cut out of TV performances, Eri will have a small solo section in a prominent location as well as one other solo line, Aika and JunJun will each have one short solo line, LinLin and Sayumi won’t have any
-Reina will be center
-The single will sell better than Mikan, but not all that well. It’ll be in the mid 30K range for the first week, the mid 40K range overall, and get a week ranking of 4th
-The costumes will be more street clothes-like than we’ve seen in the past few singles, and they will be a bit on the skanky side with narry a sequin nor feather in sight
-Celestia will write in her blog to gloat about how all of her predictions were 100% accurate ; )