Archive for the 'reviews' Category

Nov 09 2007

New Berryz PV

Published by celestia under berryz, reviews

http://www.dohhhup.com/movie/W4isxf8V2Dn1znHyjYZLI7r4YTbSn9xX/view.php

Ack. I promise the next entry will be a positive one, but I just can’t let this pass without comment. The PV for Berryz new single, “Tsukiatteru no ni kataomoi” has been released(link is above), and I hate to say it, but Berryz has officially been shafted in favor of Cute.

The main problem with the PV is that it doesn’t match the song at all. I know Berryz has been doing more slow/serious songs lately, but this isn’t one of them, so what’s with the somber formal traditional japanese setting? It looks like it might have been a good setup for a ballad, but not an upbeat song like this! Then there are the costumes, which are in a different direction all together. They’re pretty, but they don’t go with the peppy song or the traditional Japanese set.

The dance is just awful. I have now seen enough knee-flapping (which reminds me of chickens) to last me a lifetime. At least the dance is peppy to match the song, I guess.

If you look at the aesthetics of the PV it gets even more confusing. During the chorus there’s an annoying strobe light/camera flash effect that should come with a “WARNING: May induce seizures” label. The floaty white fabric continues the theme of “doesn’t match the song at all”, and is actually a bit creepy, especially the part where some floats down from the heavens and drapes itself on Risako. It’s like attack of the fabric part 2! At the end, the creepiness is pumped up a notch, when the magical fabric flies the girls to the moon (i’m not making this up). With the fabric floating behind them and their white dresses they bear more than a passing resemblance to ghosts. Actually, if I muted the PV and cut out the dance scenes I would probably think it’s about some kind of female ghosts haunting an ancient temple and mourning their lost love.

I’ll end with the positives. I think that everyone gets at least one solo line, Risako looks especially mature and lovely, the set’s nice (but not for this song), the song has some catchy hooks, and I love Momoko’s solo lines. I always love her voice, but in an anime-sounding song, her anime-sounding voice works especially well.

Sorry Berryz. It’s clear who Tsunku and UFA’s current favorite h!p kids group is, and it’s not you. web counter

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Oct 24 2007

Mikan? You kan too!

Published by celestia under Momusu, reviews

entry Today, 02:03 AM

c42.gif I’m sooooo sorry about the pun in the title. If you didn’t get it, just nod, smile, and back away slowly.

This entry is about Morning Musume’s new single, Mikan! Now that radio rips are out, a few opinions. Let’s start with the good things, then the bad.

Good c13.gif
~a much more even line distribution than ONSA. It seems that everybody gets to sing alot. There are some MM songs out there were certain girls only actually sing for 2 or 3 lines, but this isn’t one of them. Ai-chan and Reina get the most solos, but they’re the best singers, so that makes sense. Risa and Eri get a couple of solo lines each. Aika and Koharu each get one, and even Sayumi gets a couple of solo lines.

~the song is happy!! I love happy MM songs, and in my opinion, it’s been way too long since we had a genuinely happy MM single. There’s great energy to the song, and the backbeat feels like you would want to jump up and down a bunch to it

~The song also seems to have a really nice message. I love the ‘life is one time’ lines in the chorus. Positive messages seem to appeal well to the Japanese public (looking at Aruiteru), and that combined with the energy of the song should equal a winner

~They kept the ‘rock’ vibe that has been in their past songs but lost the man hating. Their last few songs were more ‘cool’, maybe, but this one is happy while still keeping the guitar instead of using a para-para type feel, which, if this makes any sense, adds more ‘fullness’ to the song. I always find the parapara techno type songs to sound kind of ‘empty’. Ambitious and Sexy Boy did to me anyway. Maybe “not rich enough” is the right way to put it

Bad c15.gif
~I don’t object to Sayumi having solos. She was the only one who didn’t have a single solo line in ONSA, and that made me feel bad for her. But…. can’t they give her an easier line maybe, or something that doesn’t stick out as much? It just doesn’t sound very good at all, in my opinion.

~Not much pandas. I think they might either have one shared line or one very short solo line each, and I know they’re new, but those girls can sing. They really can, so I think they at least deserve a full line each.

~I kind of wish there were more spoken/shouted parts interspersed at the end. I mean, kind of like Ai-araba or Koko ni Iruzee has them. Those lines always add great energy and variety to the last chorus or two, when we’ve already heard the melodic line before so it doesn’t sound like the same old thing again. There are a couple in this song, but I’d like there to be more.

Overall, I really like the song. It’s not going to go down as my favorite song of all time, but I think that this kind of song is just what MM needs right now, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the PV. I have a feeling it’ll be much more interesting than the last couple.

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