Bikkuri Project

Last month, I asked Hello Project fans to send me ten votes, to be distributed however they chose among H!p’s considerable song catalog.

Nowvoting has come to an end, and I’m very pleased to show you Part 1 of the results. Don’t get too excited though. I’m saving the best for Part 2.

First, some info on the voters.

Total Number of Participants: 124 (and 1,240 votes)

Countries Represented: USA, Australia, Canada, Philippines, Switzerland, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Finland, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Brazil, China, Peru, Denmark, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Lithuania, Mexico, Sweden, and Japan.

If you participated and you don’t see your country listed, it’s probably because you didn’t tell me what country you are from, but if you let me know, I’ll add it to the list.

Gender Breakdown: 55 Females, 31 Males, 38 Not Reported

% of Votes By Category: I tried to make a graph, but it looked too messy with so many categories.

• Morning Musume 45.9%
• Berryz Kobo 10.7%
• Buono 7.4%
• C-ute 6.9%
• Other (one-shot units, etc.) 3.3%
• Summer Shuffles 3.1%
• Matsuura Aya 3.0%
• Gumis (Sakura and Otome) 2.6%
• New Shuffles (revived groups and High King) 2.5%
• W 1.9%
• MiniMoni 1.7%
• Melon Kinenbi 1.4%
• Tanpopo 1.2%
• S/Mileage 1.2%
• Goto Maki 1.0%
• Guardians 4/Shugo Chara Egg 1.0%
• Kirari (and Milky Way) 0.8%
• Fujimoto Miki 0.7%
• VUDen 0.6%
• PucchiMoni 0.6%
• Mano Erina 0.6%
• GAM 0.5%
• Country Musume 0.5%
• Nakazawa Yuko 0.2%
• T&C Bomber 0.2%
• Coconuts Musume 0.2%
• Abe Natsumi 0.1%
• Iida Kaori 0.1%

As you can see, Morning Musume wins it by a large margin. However, keep in mind that those votes are spread out over a lot more songs than the other artists have.

For the song ranking, I have decided to make two videos showcasing the Top 40 songs. Where there were ties in pure number of votes, the song with more people voting for it (as opposed to less people using multiple votes) was ranked ahead. For a couple cases in the Top 40, two songs still had the same score, so I just left it as a tie.

So here is part 1 of the results! Numbers 40-21. I used different clips than I did in my own countdown. I’ll have the video for 20-1 as well as the full results in my next post. Enjoy!

What do you think?

~Celestia~

EDIT: Ack! I can’t believe it, but I made a small mistake in the numbering. Very Beauty and Yume to Genjitsu should be tied for #32.

I haven’t been writing much about the recent happenings in the h!p world lately. Starting with the disappointing and working up to the fantastic.

CUTE-

Oh Cute. I used to like them so much. I still do, but lately I don’t like a single thing they’re putting out. “Bye Bye Bye” was okay for me. Not their best, and the PV sucked, but I enjoyed the early 90’s sound because it reminded me of the music I listened to growing up. Then came a cover song. Bleh. Then “Everyday Zekkouchou”, a total snooze fest. And then, “Shock” which officially surpasses “Lalala Shiawase no Uta” as my least favorite  C-ute song ever. It’s not the fact that it’s pretty much an Airi solo. It’s the weird and disjointed melodic lines. Not pleasing to the ear at all. And from the album previews so far, I’m hearing a bunch of boring mid tempo ballads. There’s nothing I like much except maybe Maimi’s solo.

If Cute keeps up with crappy song after crappy song, it’s going to be hard for me to like them anymore, no matter how adorable Airi is. And by the way, I hate Maimi’s haircut. Sorry, but it makes her look like she belongs in Johnny’s.

MORNING MUSUME-

Okay, first of all, I think “Onna ga Nande Mezatte Ikenai” is total fail on all levels. It’s not catchy, it’s not special, it’s not interesting. The costumes are dated, the PV involves my least favorite idol PV cliche (putting on makeup), and the B-side is totally forgettable. I kind of like the meaning of the lyrics, but that’s it. Frankly, I am not surprised that sales look weak so far. Morning Musume was on such a high with “Shougani” getting number 1 and “Nanchatte” achieving their best sales in years. Then there was “Kimagure”, which I personally liked, but I can understand why it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. At least it was different. At this point they could either hold off on a new single until Tsunku could come up with something fantastic, or they could quickly release a sub-par single and totally kill what was left of their momentum. Guess which they did? I just hope that the new album is good.

S/Mileage-

I’m totally behind this new group and their upcoming official debut. Recently I’ve been listening to “Suki-chan” all the time. If I hadn’t finished my countdown list before it came out, you can bet it’d be on there.

Berryz-

How is it that C-ute keeps getting such poor songs while Berryz is getting enough good material to put out a slew of double A sides? Not only that, but all of them have at least one really good song. ‘Rival’, ‘Watashi no Mirai no Danma-sama’, and now ‘Otakebi Boy WAO” all make my frequently played list, and the other songs aren’t bad either. No surprise that their sales are on the rise, while certain other groups are showing the opposite trend.

Also, I loved watching them do Special Generation dressed as fish, complete with flaily fish-like dancing.

Buono-

I am totally IN LOVE with Buono’s new album. There’s hardly a bad track on it. You know, I’ve heard people say that about their other albums, but somehow they never really clicked with me. This one though, I could listen to “Blue-sky-Blue” and “Koucha no Oishii mise” all day.

And that’s all for recent happenings.

!!!!!!!!!PLEASE SEND ME YOUR TOP 10 SONGS IF YOU HAVEN’T YET!!!!!!!

~Celestia~

I couldn’t resist making one last video for my top 100 series. This is 20 songs that I really wanted to include, but I just didn’t have room for. It’s shorter clips, but more songs, and they’re in no particular order. It’s the also rans. I just know there’s going to be someone out there who’s all, “Those are all my favorite songs! How dare you not include them!”. I really do like these songs, and a bunch that aren’t going to be featured at all, but there’s just too much competition.

I didn’t use the VUDen version of “Nanimo Iwazu ni” because I think that song is really best with a large choral arrangement, not just 3 girls.

We’re almost to the end! Here are the “runners up” for being in the top 10. Lots of great stuff here, I promise.

#20- Pineapple skin! Nom nom nom.

#18- It’s a really good song, but it might have ranked higher if I weren’t so sick of hearing it in concert.

#14- I admit it. I’m a sucker for sappy feel-good idol songs.

#13- One of these voices is not like the others. One of these voices just doesn’t belong….(sesame street ref. FTW)

#12- Their best single is paired with their ugliest PV. Oh the irony.

~Celestia~

Have I really made 8 of these already? Looks like it.

#30- Oh Gaki. Everyone is like “Angst!” and she’s all, “I’m so thrilled to be here!”

#29- Surprise pick maybe? Hey, I even timed the pictures to the music.

#28-27- Nice transition right?

#27- I’ve always wondered: why do the “other” girls pretend to sing the background vocals? It sounds nothing like them and it just looks silly. Adults did those vocals, not a bunch of little girls.

#23- Why is this so small? Sorry about that.

#22- Yes! I got in both moments of Momo “specialness”.

#21- Moved up quite a few spots on the list since MM’s latest concert tour. So fun!

~Celestia~

Closer and closer to the top we go. The further up the list I get, you may notice things getting a bit Momusu heavy. Well, there are two reasons for that. 1. Morning Musume has more songs to choose from than anyone else, and 2. I just like Morning Musume the best, so that’s how things worked out.

And on with the video!

A bit of commentary.

#40- Love the echo. Why do they keep picking the wrong one to be the first A-side?

#38- Even if it hasn’t been a huge seller, I still like it.

#35- Needz moar Maimai. She’s the best singer out of this trio, but unfortunately, this is the only performance recording available.

#34- Well, it’s not number one, but yeah, it is on the list.

#33- Such a slow tempo… way to hog more than your allotted one minute, number 33.

#32- Same costumes, very different song

Only three more to go!

~Celestia~

Oh boy. This is getting difficult now. The list is undergoing constant revision, because I keep changing my mind about where certain songs should rank. We’ve gotten high up enough now that I start to feel like every single song ought to be ranked higher, but of course, that’s impossible. It just goes to show how much I love h!p that songs really like are getting pushed down to the 50’s because there are too many songs I like even more!

Now with more bonus snark commentary.

#60- Hey Miya. Merlin called. He wants his shirt back.

#59- Got to include the one non-Airi or Maimi solo line in the song. And I quote, “Aaah!”. Seriously, why did they even bother?

#58- Still don’t understand what’s so sexy about being covered in sand. Not just this PV either. Every photobook has at least one picture where the girl has sand all over her. Oh, ah, yes, it’s so abrasive and grainy.

#57- Gosh. There’s so darn many of them. Also, I demand Nakky does her hair like that again.

#55- Yep, a song that’s not even out yet. Clearly, I’m quite taken with it already.

#54- OMG! I only just now realized that they have takoyaki in their hair.

#53- I wish I could use a recording from the current concert tour, because they both sound ten times better singing this now than they did back then. Also, hey, remember when Mittsi had long hair and bangs? Good times, right?

#52- I like how they made this look like they’re having a conversation

#51- Squeeee! So young and tiny! And of course I had to end with the single most likely to get stuck in my head song in all h!p land.

~Celestia~

Fore!

Part 4 has a lot of the h!p kids, including a couple of Berryz songs that I didn’t even like much when they first came out. And as for number 69: first, no video footage so I used pictures, and second, I think that for once, the poor singing quality sort of adds to the charm.

Part 5 probably won’t be out until the end of the week, so look forward to that.

~Celestia~

Golly gee, it’s part three!!

New and improved with transitions between the clips. This one was kind of a challenge actually, because for some reason there are a lot of ballady songs in this section, and ballady songs tend to have longer parts, so it’s hard to get all the parts I want into about 1 minute of footage. I’ve ended up with three of them spliced together from separate bits of the song.

I’ve got a three day weekend now, so another part or two will probably be coming soon, and then maybe a bit slower after that. In other news, I’ve got tickets to Morning Musume concerts next weekend!! Yep, concerts plural. And I’ve got 4th row seats for one and 5th for the other. AND, since the 4th row one is on the end and the seats in front wrap around the stage, there won’t be anyone in front of me! No one between me and the stage AND I’m almost as close as the 2nd row. The guy at the ticket store was so excited after he saw what ticket I got (they just tell you the section when you buy them. The seat number is covered), that he came out from behind the counter to show me the seat map and explain it to me. I have a suspicion that he may have been a h!p fan. =p

~Celestia~

Here already are numbers 90-81! First appearance by Berryz and C-ute, plus, a sure sign that the world has gone mad, a Kirari solo.

~Celestia~