Bikkuri Project

As we look to 2008, the question of whether or not Berryz and/or Cute can surpass Morning Musume, or even if that has already happened, is being asked more often than ever. I’ll be the first to admit that I favor Morning Musume over the other two groups, though I enjoy them all. Even so, I do believe that, at least for now, Morning Musume has the clear upper hand, both talent-wise and popularity-wise.

There are some who are proudly touting that C-ute, or even Berryz have now surpassed Morning Musume in terms of popularity. This is primarily based on the fact that C-ute’s latest single sold more than Morning Musume’s latest (though if you look at the final sales figures, the difference is very small, like 500 copies). Also factoring in is that Berryz and C-ute both performed with Morning Musume at Kohaku this year for the first, and hopefully not the last time. As for the single sales, I’m sorry, but Cute’s one single barely outselling one of Morning Musume’s singles does not count as surpassing them. Every single other song by Morning Musume has outsold every single other song by either kids group. I honestly think that it comes down to Tokaikko Junjou being a much better song than Mikan, or at least one that would appeal to the general public more. I know there are some hardcore Mikan fans, but if you asked someone on the street who knew nothing about either group to listen to both singles andthenasked them to name their favorite, I would bet money that 9 times out of 10 they would pick Tokaikko. I’m not ruling out the possibility that Cute or Berryz could surpass Morning Musume in terms of popularity as measured by sales figures at some point in the future, but until I see a few more singles repeating the results of the Tokaikko vs Mikan matchup or Cute and Berryz start getting invited to Kohaku without Morning Musume, I’m not ready to declare Momusu beaten in terms of popularity.

Even if C-ute and/or Berryz do start to consistently outsell Morning Musume, and that’s a big if, I still think thatneither Berryz nor C-ute is a better group than Morning Musume. I’ve watched all three of these groups perform many many times, and Morning Musume outshines both of the kids groups in terms of pure stage presence. They’re just a more polished, charismatic, and confident unit. They’ve got Ai-chan, Reina, and Risa who (controversial time) are better singers than any given member of the kids groups. They’ve got Sayumi, who is prettier than any given member of the kids groups. They’ve got Koharu who, due to her anime, is more popular with little girls than any given member of the kids groups (FACT). Eri, and potentially Aika, JunJun, and LinLin are all better singers than most of the kids, maybe excluding a couple of the best singers among them. There’s no lack of dancing talent among the Momusu either.

The kids sometimes look like they’re trying to act like idols. Despite their years of experience, they still sometimes have a certain “wait, am I doing this right?” look about them when they’re performing. I’d attribute this to them all joining at a young age, at the same time, and therefore not having as much of a chance to work with more experienced idols. Most of the Momusu seem to genuinely be idols, because they got to spend every day observing and learning from girls who had been doing it for years before they became leads in the group, and it shows. Watch all 3 groups perform on-stage during Kohaku. None of them look bad or anything, but it’s Morning Musume who grabs your attention with their energy. The kids tend to not take any risks onstage. For example, in Love Machine at Kohaku, there are certain parts where the girls get a bit of freedom with their dance moves. The kids all seem to play it safe, choosing moves that work, but don’t stand out. Then you’ve got Ai-chan doing some kind of crazy backbend during the beginning. I just don’t see any of the kids trying that one. I’m not only talking about Kohaku either. Watching the group’s individual concerts and you’ll find that Morning Musume really does put on a better show.

You’ve also got to consider the manner of their selection. The Morning Musume members were mostly selected as young teens, or at least pre-teens. Most of the kids were in the single digits, age-wise, when they were selected. The harsh truth is thatjust because they were cute kids doesn’t make them great idols today. Honestly ask yourself, if the h!p Kids had first auditioned for an idol group today, how many of them would have been picked? I do think that some of them do have special talent, and probably would be scooped up if they auditioned today. Others, I won’t name any names, just wouldn’t stand out in a crowd of idol hopefuls.When they were Berryz/Cute’s age, ALL of the current Morning Musume members stood out enough, in one way or another, to be picked for the group. I don’t say this to bash any members of Berryz or Cute. I do like all of the girls, and I’m glad they are where they are today. I only mean to be realistic about things.

In conclusion, to answer the question in the opening paragraph, it depends on what you mean by “supass”. Could Berryz and/or Cute soon surpass Morning Musume in terms of sales? Ummm, maybe, I guess. Can they surpass them in terms of becoming the superior group? Not any time soon. Hey, aren’tthey all one big happy h!p family anyway? If one group gains popularity, that serves to draw attention to the rest of them. Group hug!

Here is the promised review of C-ute’s latest concert tour “Aki Houkago no Essence”. If it seems like I’m focusing on some parts more than others, it’s because I am.

The concert opens with a nice performance of “Tokaikko Junjou”, though I have yet to see a bad performance of that song. Kanna mouthing “are you ready” at the beginning is the best part, but what I’m more inclined to pay attention to are their awesome costumes. Seriously, they’re wearing some of the best costumes I’ve seen from Hello Project in years! I especially like Nakki’s. Speaking of Saki, she gets the award for “most enthusiastic” this concert. I love watching that girl dance, because even if Maimi is technically better, Saki always looks like she’s having a blast out there.

http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1193989294qa4.jpg

I question the wisdom of putting “Meguru Koi no Kisetsu” next, because that’s putting two very demanding dances back to back, and you can tell they’re out of breath. Next is “Sakura Chirari”. All 3 of their major singles in a row in reverse order?? Anyway, C-ute’s first single bores me, and it probably always will. Shuffling in place on stage does NOT count as a dance.

The transition to “Endless Love” is nice. Fortunately, this song does have an enjoyable dance, and I am impressed by how Mai handled her lines, though I remain confused by her having so many of them in a song this mature-sounding. I kind of dislike the song itself though, since it’s recycled T&C Bomber material. Good thing C-ute’s getting a new album so they can have more songs of their own to perform.

The next number, “Time Capsule” is a Maimi/Saki duet. Bring on the only song in C-ute’s arsenal that bores me more than “Sakura Chirari”! It doesn’t help that Miss Saki is not sounding her best here. So, overall, this section is not my favorite part of the concert, but don’t worry; it gets better.

It’s Buono time! <3 Momoko and her speaking voice. I'm quite tickled by the thought of Berryz leads as guests at a C-ute concert. I do like Berryz, but I think C-ute deserves a bit of revenge for playing 2^nd string to the Berryz for so long. It broke my heart a little bit when C-ute was being interviewed, and they talked about how they all attended Berryz Kobou’s first concert and cried the whole time. I doubt Momoko and Miyabi are humiliated or anything, but I do wonder if it stings a little for them to be dancing backup for C-ute during the encore.

Coincidentally, shortly before I watched this I had viewed another C-ute concert DVD. It was their first full concert DVD in fact: Hajimette yo Cutie Show. I couldn’t help but compare the C-ute of today to the C-ute of about one year ago and marvel at how far some of them have come both in stage presence and vocal ability. I can see noticeable improvement in everyone except maybe Airi, and she was already ahead of most of the others anyway, so it’s more like they’ve caught up to her a bit than that she’s fallen behind. I’m going to go ahead and give the “Most Improved” award to Kanna, with Erika in a close second. In their first concert, Kanna can be easily picked out as the worst singer in the bunch and the least confident on stage, but in the more recent show she’s finally holding her own with the other girls. She still looks bit..worried…sometimes, but she’s definitely doing better. Erika has also shown noticeable improvement in vocals. I imagine she’s been working pretty hard on improving her voice. Let’s look at the perfect example from this concert, Erika and Kanna’s duet of “Tsuugaku Vector”. Yeah, Airi did it better, but I’m still going to give these two kudos for doing as well as they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h0xZqFSPeU

Next is “Everyday Yeah Kataomoi”. Aren’t they a little old to be singing this song anymore? Oh well. Just goes to show that you can’t totally take the cute out of C-ute. I like that everyone is wearing a costume of “their” color. It helps you to figure out who is cheering for who when you look out at the glowsticks in the audience. Lots o’ green out there…

Following that, it’s a full group rendition of “Disco Queen”. Awesome! Talk about a song that’s really grown on me. It seems a bit strange to have everyone out there singing what was originally a duet, but I like the look of everyone doing the dance together, so I’m going to give this one a thumbs up.

Bishoujo Shinri is an awesome song, and a nice followup to “Disco Queen”. It’s like they took the dance style and kicked it up a notch. I like how everyone gets lines in the verses, and they all do very well with them. C-ute really is the group with no weak link. They’re not all spectacular, but none of them are bad singers. Airi, of course, does most of the work here vocally, handling all of the difficult chorus lines. Surprisingly, she struggles a little on her first section, though she does seem to get it together by the end, it looks like she’s working really hard to hit those notes. I almost feel sorry for her. Couldn’t they give someone else a line of the chorus to give Airi a chance to catch her breath?

“Massara Blue Jeans” is one of my favorite performances of the concert. The energy goes up another notch from Bishoujo Shinri. I love it when sets build on themselves like this. Maimi stood out the most to me in this number, as she seemed to have energy to spare despite having every right to be exhausted. From watching her, I get the feeling that she really enjoys performing this song. I was rather impressed with her vocals as well, but then it was brought to my attention that she may well be lip-syncing her way though this concert due to having a sore throat. Hmm. Her voice sounded fine while she was talking, but come to think of it, she really should sound more out of breath than she does. It’s kind of sad if she is lip-syncing. I hope she doesn’t have any kind of chronic condition.

Can’t seem to find Massara by itself, so here it is with Bishoujo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y5pgyw5eIk&feature=related

After shedding a layer of costume, Mai and Chisato emerge to sing “Futari wa NS” with Chisato taking Koharu’s lines. This might just be the best thing ever. Attention to whoever makes the setlists for concerts: LET OTHER PEOPLE SING MORE OF KOHARU’S SONGS. I can’t believe how much more I like the song with Chisa singing it instead of “Kirari”. It makes me wonder how many of Koharu’s songs really are good, but I can’t appreciate them with her grating voice smeared all over the music. It makes this performance all the cuter that Chisato and Mai are friends in real life. Wait a minute… is Mai taller than Chisa now?

I’ve already mentioned Maimi’s solo, but to recap: Maimi= too hot to be only 15.

Everyone’s back on stage for the last set. The costumes look suspiciously like they have feathery bustles, but I’m going to let this one go since they aren’t large enough to make the girls resemble exotic fowl. “That’s the Power” is usually a song that I’m fond of, but Erika decided to spice things up a bit by yelling something about towels all the time. I’m not sure if it’s some kind of Japanese cultural thing that I don’t understand, but I found it to be really annoying.

“As One” was good. I had never noticed before, but Maimi and Erika are harmonizing with Airi while she sings the lead chorus part. Is it sad that it’s a novelty for an h!p group to do their own harmonizing on stage? It does seem that some of them are capable, and it really does add something to the show. I don’t see why they don’t do it more often. Also, LoL at Airi always singing “as wow” instead of “as one”.

“Yes Shiawase” is also recycled T&C Bomber fare, so meh. The galloping across the stage is cute I guess. Oh, and Chisato grabbed and kissed Maimi when they were supposed to only be pretending to kiss in a move that will go down in both C-ute history and a plethora of animated GIFs.

I was deeply disappointed that they gave Chisato’s opening lines in “Bokura no Kagayaki” to Airi. The girl has so few lines as it is! Why oh why did you give away some the best lines that do belong to her!?! It’s not that Airi sang them badly, but I was so angry that it ruined the whole song for me.

By the time they get to “Jump” the girls are clearly tired, so it’s not the best performance of the song I’ve ever seen. It really is mean to put a song that requires you to jump up and down at the end of a long set. They give it their all though. I believe that Saki was jumping the highest (which is why she’s the “most enthusiastic”)

Encore! First is “Ookina Ai de Motenashite” with the aforementioned Berryz leads as background dancers. Of course, being “Ookina Ai de Motenashite” it’s adorable, and the addition of Momoko makes it even more so. It’s a Momo kind of song.The final number was “Wakkanai Z”. Not much to say about that one. It’s a good closer.

Whew. That was tiring. Don’t expect any more entries from me for a few days. I need a vacation after this.

C-ute’s new concert DVD came out and nobody told me!! Aaaarg! That’s what I get for not paying attention I guess. Well, I plan to do a full write-up on the concert as my next post, but in the meantime, watch this clip of Maimi’s solo, and let the denial begin. This girl is 15 years old. You think Koharu looks old for her age? At least Koharu still has some youthful dorkiness about her. Koharu is a bit awkward, and her solo songs are aimed at kids. Maimi, on the other hand, is pure sexiness here. I can’t even imagine Koha dancing like that.

She’s only 15. Please keep telling yourself that until you believe it.

Recently, I have been wondering about what the future holds for Berryz and C-ute. Being the proactive person that I am, I purchased a gently-used crystal ball off of E-bay and peered into the wikipedia of 2012 to find out what happened to the h!p kids. Here are the results.

Berryz- Breaks up in 2011 due to the departure their main singers

Risako- dishonorably discharged due to a scandal involving a relationship with a 25 year old man when she is 16. Reactions are mixed. Her haters rejoice, and her fans tear out their hair and weep openly in the streets. Later, people look at this event as the beginning of the end for Berryz Kobou since it was such a harsh blow to their image and popularity.

Miyabi/Momoko- Buono becomes a permanent unit in 2011, though it eventually loses its Shugo Chara ties after the anime is over. They go on to become one of h!p’s most successful groups.

Saki- Graduates to continue her schooling in 2009. Cries A LOT at her graduation. Momoko becomes leader.

Chinami- Following the departure of Momoko she briefly becomes leader. Berryz releases one more single with only Chinami, Yurina, and Maasa, but it sells very poorly, and the group is disbanded. Chinami joins Ongaku Gatas.

Yurina- Goes the way of Kei Yasuda. Tries to have a solo career, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. Appears in the all Hello Project concerts.

Maasa- Also fades into h!p obscurity following the break-up of Berryz. People always ask, “whatever happened to that girl anyway?” but no one is really sure of the answer. It’s presumed that she returned to normal life.

C-ute- Begins a Morning Musume-like cycle of graduations and new member additions with new members being selected from the younger Eggs rather than open auditions. Still producing music.

Maimi- Graduates in 2009 to have a solo career. One of h!p’s current most successful solo artists.

Erika- Agrees to become leader following Maimi’s graduation. Graduates herself in late 2011, but her fans assume it’s because the company made her rather than because she wanted to. Becomes another of those “solo artists” with h!p that doesn’t really do much.

Airi- Graduates early 2011 to continue with Buono. Also releases a solo single on occasion. Currently the most popular Hello Project member.

Chisato- Still a member of C-ute. One of their main singers now.

Mai- Also still a member of C-ute and a main singer. Releasesseveral photobooks which prompt fierce debate about a girl her age posing so provocatively.

Kanna- Never really gets much attention. Graduated in 2010 to return to normal life.

Saki- Current leader of C-ute as of Erika’s graduation.

And if I’m wrong about all of this, why, I’ll eat my hat!

Maimi/Ai- The leader of the group, one of the prettiest in the group, some of the strongest vocals, gets a lot of lead parts and central positions, kind of a bland personality, can sound manly when singing low parts sometimes, great dancer

Mai/Aika- The youngest in her group, cute/strong/nasally voice, gets a fair amount of lines considering that she’s the youngest, really adorable, seems mature for her age and pretty even-keeled, has anime tie-ins

Erika/JunJun- tallest, one of the oldest(or the oldest in Erika’s case) somewhat awkward at dancing, pretty strong vocals but not that many lines, seems a little unsure of herself but can be funny, not that popular overall

Airi/Koharu/Reina- gets a lot of lead lines and central positions in photos, one of the younger members but not the youngest, often wears her hair pulled back in a high bun or ponytail, has anime tie-ins and a large wota following (koharu/airi), has one of the best voices in the group and can pull off the gothic Lolita style and was in Aa! (reina/airi), one of the most popular members of her group

Kanna/Risa- kind of the forgotten girl pushed to the corner of formations and photos, cheerful and bouncy, good at dancing, great smile and reactions, occasionally gets a solo line and usually sounds good when she does, not all that popular especially when she first joined

Chisato/LinLin/Eri- the quirky goofy one, has a surprisingly good voice but never seems to get many solo lines or a central position, can be really funny, one of the younger members (linlin/chisato), has fans who constantly gripe about how underutilized she is (eri/chisato)

Saki/Sayumi- pretty girl with pale skin and nice black hair, not a very strong singer so she doesn’t get very many lines, has quite a few very hardcore fans/worshippers, has made noticeable improvement in singing since she joined her group

I think this worked out pretty neatly. What do you think?

edit: just for fun, if you combine the names you get Aimi, Maika, Junrika, Koaina, Kisa, Cherilin, and Sayuki. I think I may have just created the best idol group EVER!!

Here’s some Cute to cheer you up! It cheered me up anyway. Notice that the solo lines are sung live, and they ALL sound good, and it’s the last song of the concert, so they’re bound to be tired. C-ute may be the most consistant h!p group overall when it comes to lives. Also, man I love Chisato’s voice.

Is this the beginning of the h!p clip of the week? I’ll think about it. I don’t want to be a copy-cat, but that sounds fun.

The year is not over yet, so some might say that it’s too soon for “best____ of the year” features, but to them I say pish posh. I’m doing one anyway.

For your viewing pleasure, my favorite h!p photos of the year (so far). Most of them are from photobooks, but there are a few exceptions.

10.Out of all the recently released h!p kids photobooks, I think that Maimi’s really stood out. A lot of her pictures still have a somewhat awkward “it’s my first time doing this” look to them, but some of them, such as this shot (the cover) look wonderfully natural. I really love her expression in this. It’s kind of enigmatic, I think.

9.Good lord Sayumi is beautiful. That’s all I can say about this.

8. Ahaha Rika. I love it when photobooks have silly goofy shots like this. The shot where she’s trying to pull off the sock is especially cute.

7. To me, this shot of Aika from the recent concert just says “I have arrived”. Adjusting to being a Musume is no doubt a difficult and stressful process, but it seems that Aika is finally feeling confident and really starting to enjoy herself now. I think that this photo of her singing a solo while looking oh so happy and adorable shows that progress.

6.I love Reina’s “girl” photobook so much that it was difficult for me to not put too many pictures from it in this list. This one made the cut because it shows a side of Reina that we don’t get to see very often. It’s not “kirakira” and it’s not “yankii” either. It’s not even gothic princess. She’s looking incredibly chic and refined, almost European, and proving that yes, she can pull off this style as well. I also really love her expression in this photo. It’s a little bit innocent and a little bit cocky and totally Reina.

5.Morning Cofee cover! I’m sure you’ve seen this photo before, but I can’t help but include it. The girls all are wearing wonderful smiles, and, whether or not it’s true, this cover makes it look like they have a great group bond. Of course, I can’t ignore what a clever way this is of tying together Morning Musume’s past, present, and future.

4.I’m not a huge Eri fan, but something about this photo pulls me in. Maybe it’s her lip color. I don’t really know why, but I love this picture.

3. Risa has such a lovely genuine smile. It’s one of my favorite things about her. This photo combines a great example of that smile with perfect lighting; careless looking curls which frame her face in a very flattering way, and a casual and relaxed look and pose. Even though it’s a posed professional photo, something about is seems real and approachable.

2. This photo of Sayu is just so very pretty. The field of pretty flowers and a beautiful girl throwing her head back as though to sigh in happiness. Ah. Even in the cold of winter, this picture makes me feel refreshed and summery.

1. My very favorite photo is another of Reina. Again, it’s really her expression that gets me here. She looks thoughtful, vulnerable, and maybe a bit sad. The way she’s perched on the railing is kind of child-like, but her look and styling is mature. There are cute photos of girls prancing in bikinis (which can be great in their own right), but then there’s photography as art. I think that this photo belongs to the latter category.