Bikkuri Project

So… I was bored and recorded myself singing “I Wish”. I don’t think it’s too bad for someone with zero vocal training. Anyway, it’s just a stupid vanity thing, I know, but I might as well post it.

i wish

I’m proud that I hit Aibon’s high note at the end, though I messed up on that “to” in the last chorus.

Ta da?

~Celestia~

If you hadn’t heard, it’s happening! Tsunku recently wrote about his plans to revive MiniMoni in his blog HERE, and it was further confirmed in both Mari and Tsuji’s blogs that Tsunku has discussed this with them. MiniMoni is coming back, with 4 new members, one of whom will be current Egg and soon to make her major debut as a Smilage (s/p?) member, Fukuda Kanon. Okay, it’s official that Kanon IS young Aibon. Tsunku is still considering who to add as the other 3 members.

So far, it seems like the fan community is full of very strong opinions ranging from major enthusiasm to utter horror. Right now, I’m going to put myself in the category of cautiously optimistic, depending on who the other 3 members are. Overall, I would say that I’m in favor of the idea. I can understand the argument of the main doubters, “But MiniMoni just won’t be the same without Mari, Mika, and the Top 2″. This is true. Just because it won’t be the same doesn’t mean it won’t be good though. Morning Musume hasn’t been the same since (insert name of favorite graduated girl) left or ever since (insert name of least favorite current member) joined, but that’s just how things work in h!p. MiniMoni isn’t some sacred untouchable thing, and there are a lot of very good reasons to revive the concept at this time.

1. Increase h!p’s “kid appeal”. Especially with Kirarin Revolution ended, h!p needs a group aimed at youngsters now to expand their fan demographic.

2. With MM, C-ute, and Berryz to a certain extent moving in a more mature direction, MiniMoni can help keep the silliness in h!p

3. Who wouldn’t love to see the old MiniMoni songs performed live again? I know I would.

4. The people who were fans of MiniMoni as kids are older now. For the new generation of kids it will be something totally brand new. It’s just like how care bears, ninja turtles, and my little ponies keep being successfully “revived” every generation or so.

The other major point of contention is who the other 3 group members should be. I’m going to go ahead and assume that while the rigid 50cm or less height rule is no longer in place, all of the members probably will be short girls. Kanon certainly is. That means that, for example, Koharu and Maasa are probably out.

There has been a lot of support around the idea of LinLin as the token “foreign” member, and I couldn’t agree more. She’s SO wacky, has a great voice, and a ton of enthusiasm AND she’s tiny. The girl has MiniMoni written all over her, and I will be quite disappointed if she’s not included.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but I could really see Reina stepping in to fill Mari’s older girl, leader role. She’s always been a big Mini Moni fan, she’s short, she’s a good singer, she knows how to act cutesy, and we know she looks good in pigtails. The argument against that would be that Reina is already getting enough attention in Morning Musume, but when has that ever stopped Tsunku from putting people in sub units? (Buono anyone?)

The only other Momusu I could see possibly being included is Aika, but I’m kind of unsure how I feel about that.

From Berryz, Momoko would probably be the best fit. In fact, I’d say she would be a shoe-in if she weren’t already involved in Buono. Being part of two major groups might just be too much, so I doubt she’ll be included. Too bad, because she’d be great at it. Other than Momoko, the only other one who I could see is Captain, for her height, but I don’t think her personality really fits MiniMoni. She’s just a bit too calm.

From C-ute I’d take Chisato. Short, peppy, good voice, and she has a mischievous streak. Mai is young, but her personality is all wrong for it.

Another option is Kanon’s fellow Smilage member, Ogawa Saki. The two are good friends, so Saki could be the Tsuji to her Aibon, so to speak. Another tiny girl with a strong voice, Saki might be a good fit, but then again, it would be kind of weird to have a full half of the new Egg Unit be involved in another active unit.

If we’re looking to the Eggs for members, I think Maeda Irori or Takeuchi Akari would fit the bill.

Waiting Eagerly,

~Celestia~

“Shouganai yume oibito” is officially number 1 for the week on Oricon with about 48,000 copies sold!

I’m so happy for the girls, especially 8th gen since this is their first #1 seller.

Also, I saw their PV playing on one of the huge screens by the station in Shinjuku the other day, and that made me happy.

~Celestia~

Why am I suddenly receiving a bunch of spam comments written in Russian? Even if I read spam comments, I can’t even read Russian!

I can`t believe that Platinum 9 Disco tour is over! I`ve been going to see that show for 3 weekends straight. What am I supposed to do with myself now?

My night certainly got off to a bumpy start. First, the guy next to me on the train kept falling asleep on my shoulder. I had to elbow him on 3 separate occasions. Then, partially due to my being dumb and partially due to the Shinjuku station being a hellish maze (raaaaaawr! I hate that place. They couldn`t have made it harder to navigate if they`d tried), I had some trouble meeting up with CK. We found eachother eventually though, so it turned out okay. Oh, and our seats kinda sucked, but what can ya do? It was a very full house, as expected, right up to the corners of the balcony. There was even some poor guy outside holding a sign that said, “Please sell me a ticket”.

From what I could tell from my high vantage point, the final show of Platinum 9 Disco was very much awesome. I`ve never seen the wota crowd so pumped before. More and more people were bringing 9 different colors of glowsticks (well, 8 probably since blue is both Reina and JunJun), in order to properly support each girl during her solo. I was especially surprised with how many people found teal glowsticks for LinLin`s “Aozora” part. The really special light-up displays came out during the encore call though. The best was a group of 9 guys who had lanterns with each girl`s name in her color. I like that they were supporting the whole troupe.

A bit on the MCs. Reina did the rotating solo one. She talked about how she meant to send Eri a text message at midnight on her birthday, but she accidentally fell asleep. However, she ended up sending the message at 12:23, and since Eri`s birthday is 12/23, she pretended that she did it on purpose. Lol.

For some reason JunJun did her MC with Reina instead of Koharu. I wonder if there was something wrong with Koharu or something, because it`s rather odd that Reina would do two MCs in a row. Koha didn`t seem to be singing any worse than usual… but I guess that`s not saying much.

Gaki`s MC was the most terrifying thing I`ve ever experienced at a concert. First, she wasn`t doing the MC GAKI thing, which she had done for every other MC this tour. Then, she started talking about the upcoming h!p`s summer concert, and I swear you could feel everyone in the hall hold their breath. The tension was palpable, because you know everyone was thinking, “Oh my God….is she announcing plans to graduate this summer?!?”. But then she started talking about her nails or something, and everything was okay. Geez Risa. Don`t do that to me!

LinLin`s Chinese MC skit had Eri being a nervous new reporter and failing at it. It was pretty cute.

The final goodbyes were rather long and heartfelt. The girls even came back for a sort of second encore, though it was just for Ai-chan to make a little speech and everyone to wave again.

Look forward to one great concert DVD!

~Celestia~