Archive for the ‘Hello Project’ Category

Droppin’ Loads of Fresh Eyecandy

By CK♂ in AKB48, Blogs, Eyecandy, Hello Project, JPop on March 12, 2010

High Castle Sub Timber-Trees (Hello! Island)
The Eyes of Amina (Idol Eyes)
:3 (Hello!Blog)
~AKB48 shines~* as UTB cover♥girls, the truth about sediments & Mayuyu’s awesome shirt~! (モーニングBerryz…the morning after…..)

I think it is safe to say I am running out of clever titles for these eyecandy posts.  No matter…lets get down to business, shall we?

We begin in the land of the Loli, AKA Hello! Island.  Here Pata has a picspam of AKB48’s Aki Takajo, who amazingly is over the age of 18!  I say that because I know the Hello! Island Team prefers girls a bit younger.  But I guess they made an exception for the super-cute and youthful Akicha.  Or maybe it was the excessive use of bikinis.

Miitan continues the theme of his blog focusing on the eyes of Sato Amina.  He wonders if she is wearing contacts, and I see what he means.  I have always thought Amina had the craziest eyes!  In addition Miitan has posted some of the awesome photographs he took at the NY Anime Festival.  I’m not sure how he got so close.  My guess is that they saw his big camera and assumed he was a pro, LOL.  Actually, he is!

Like me, PTom is getting a bit tired with the Mitsui Aika bashing.  So he brings the ultimate form of retribution in the form of a cute picspam set!  Tom was recently taken with how good Mittsi looks in a bikini.  So much that it has him clamoring for a photobook.  I see what he means.  I always think of her as the “baby” Musume, but she is filling out that bikini quite well!

MB brings it all together with a showcase of the new issue of UTB.  I love this magazine so much!  The cover features a few members of AKB wearing some crazy shirts.  It isn’t so much that they have Engrish phrases, it is more the color schemes and pics that are awesome.  Especially Mayuyu…you gotta love that shirt!  The rest of the mag features Kashiwagi Yuki getting a bit kinky, S/mileage looking pure, Kitahara Rie playing sad and Maimi as the cutest snowbunny you have ever seen!  Oh, and if you are reading this MB…I got Set A!

Enjoy the “kawaii”!

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The Top H!P Songlist…As Voted By You

By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project on March 11, 2010

Fans’ Top H!p Songs Poll: Results Part 1 (Bikkuri Project)
Fans’ Top H!p Songs Poll: Results Part 2

You remember Celestia’s Top 100 H!P song collection, right?  It did win IW’s Best Series Award for 2009.  In that spirit Celestial decided to give the readers a vote, and put together a video of the fans’ Top 40 H!P songs.  It wasn’t shocking that Morning Musume dominated the top end of the list, and most of the recent singles ranked pretty high.  But there are a few surprises along the way.  One of the biggest “WTF’s” to me is what ranked at the top.  I thought everyone was tired of that song?

In addition to the Top 40 videos, Celestia breaks down all the songs that were voted for.  This had me thinking “damn, I forgot about that one!” quite a few times.  A big thanks to Celestia for taking on such a big project!

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Have °C-ute Lost Their Way???

By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project, Noteworthy on March 11, 2010

°C-ute – Shocking 5 (Sora to Kujira)
Shocking 5 ~ Album review (Jiriri Kiteru)
C-ute – Shocking 5 (Tasuki Daisuki Blog)
C-ute – Shocking 5 (Selective Hearing)

The new album from C-ute has been out for a little while now.  It hasn’t gone unnoticed that I haven’t seen/heard too much scuttlebutt over the new tracks.  After reading the following reviews I am beginning to understand why.  But if you are still wondering if you should hit the purchase button on your own shopping cart, here are a few opinions for your review…

Suffice it to say the new 5-nin version is not working for Jin, who has been disappointed with C-ute’s latest single releases.  So there is one strike.  As far as the new material Jin finds one song worthy of mention.  But the rest of the CD is given the seal of “disaster”, making me wonder if the 2 1/2 star rating was a bit too generous.

Arche-JoIyO has been reading a lot of negative reviews, but wonders if the Cd could really be “that bad”.  She rates each song individually, the final judgement being if the song makes it onto the Ipod (hehe).  I won’t give away how many songs made the cut, but overall she finds the album enjoyable.  At this point I’ll take “enjoyable” as the ultimate victory.

TD wonders if this album represents the group’s search for a new identity.  If you think about it, MoMusu, Berryz and Manoeri definitely have a consistent style (more or less).  But what about C-ute?  They seem to be all over the map lately.  And while she sees this effort as a bit “premature”, she appreciates the attempt to mature as a group.

Finally Greg is disappointed with the group he once said “gets the best songs in H!P”.  Perhaps this is an aberration.  Echoing Tasuki Daisuki, it could be that Tsunku is experimenting with a new dynamic.  If it doesn’t work, then back to the drawing board I guess.

I feel badly for C-ute, as it seems they haven’t yet recovered from the loss of Erika and Kanna.  I know they weren’t the front members of the group, but they were as much a part of the family dynamic as anyone.  Unlike some of these reviewers I have actually liked their recent singles, so perhaps I would give a more favorable review than these.  But the general consensus seems to be consistent across the board.

The good news is that like the bad haircut I recently got, nothing is permanent!  Tsunku and the girls can always follow this up with something new and different, and then everyone will declare C-ute to be awesome all over again.  And one other thing…

If this doesn’t speak to the benefit of adding new members, I don’t know what does!

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Pure Idol Heart Is a New Idol News Blog

By maiZe in AKB48, Blogs, Hello Project, New Blogs on March 11, 2010

Pure Idol Heart

Pure Idol Heart is a new idol news group blog, but with familiar names behind the scenes. For those of you who used to read Hello Non-Pro Hour, Gaki is back, and HNPH owner, Jinryuichi, should be making his presence known on the blog as well. They, along with a 3rd contributor, Xacur, will be striving to bring their readers the latest news on the Japanese and Asian female idol industry. It looks like we’ve got another good source for idol information available to us! It’s definitely a blog to check out.

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It’s Time To Rank Berryz Koubou Singles

By maiZe in Blogs, Hello Project on March 09, 2010

The Ultimate Berryz Koubou Single Ranking (Furimukanaide)
Berryz Single Ranking </3 (Jiriri Kiteru)

Furimukanaide and Arche-JoIyO have taken on the task of ranking Berryz Koubou’s singles, and I have to say I love reading rankings like these. The two have ranked the songs in different fashions. Furimukanaide has ranked all the A-sides, meaning the double A-sides are counted individually. Arche-JoIyO, on the other hand, has ranked the singles – even though she may have loved an A-side, if the B-side was less than stellar in her eyes, it knocked that single down in her rankings… Where do you think Jiriri Kiteru ended up on her list?

I ranked Morning Musume’s singles 2 years ago, and that was quite a task for me… I always meant to rank other groups singles at some point. Seeing these two posts has renewed my desire to do that. :)

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A Lot Has Changed in a Year

By Murr in Blogs, Eyecandy, Hello Project, JPop on March 07, 2010

What happened and who are these people?!?! (Sweet Wind)

It’s been a long since Izze has paid any attention to the world of H!P, specifically C-ute, and boy, is she stunned by the changes that have happened. Have you noticed the changes? Which of these changes seems to stand out the most to you? Since I’ve kept track of H!P in the past year or so, the changes haven’t really been all that obvious to me, but now that those pictures are put side to side, I can see how drastic the changes might be to someone who… hasn’t been around for the past year. Take a look!

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Tsunku Produces Music for Artists Other Than H!P?!

By Murr in Blogs, Hello Project, JPop on March 05, 2010

Tsunku set to produce new IKKO single (Aramatheydidn’t)

Blasphemy! And they said it would never happen! How could you betray me like this, Tsunku!? I thou- Okay, I’m done with the dramatics. But I wonder how this will turn out. I enjoy his music… when it’s well written. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t sell better than anything H!P’s done.

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Hangry & Angry To Embark On A European Tour

By maiZe in Blogs, Hello Project, JPop, Noteworthy, Pop Idols on March 05, 2010

Hangry and Angry European Tour Germany, Finland, England and France. (Hello!Online)
Hangry & Angry European Tour Confirmed!! (Hello!Blog)
Hangry & Angry in the UK (and Berlin, Paris & Helsinki) (Morningtime)
Shit just got real (Wotaku Now!)
Is this true? (Kakko-II.com)

4 concerts, 4 countries. Holy smokes… This coming May, Hangry & Angry are coming to a European city near you! The European Hello! Project bloggers are all over this news and plans are being made. Links to get tickets are in the posts and you can definitely feel the excitement building.

I love how Zush already has his ticket in hand… Looks like he needs to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming. I have to say I’m jealous. Yes, I did see Morning Musume at Anime Expo last year, but I had to fly to the other end of the continent to do so… What are the chances that some Hello! Project related act will make a trip to the northern neighbour of the US of A?

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Rain + Pata = Idol Time!

By maiZe in Blogs, Hello Project, JPop, Pop Idols on March 03, 2010

The Idols You Can Meet: Ai Kago Edition (Delicious Cake Project)
Chasing Idols in the Rain

Some people wake up to the sound of rain and want nothing more than to burrow into their covers and not think about going outside… Pata, on the other hand, hears it raining and takes the rain as a sign of good fortune… It seems in Pata’s world, rain = a perfect day for J-idol chasing.

He missed out on meeting Morning Musume at Anime Expo – both autograph session days were beautifully sunny. However, he had the best of luck when AKB was in New York – it was raining… And just this past Saturday it was raining again, and who happened to be in town but Kago Ai.

He was able to attend two events and he explains them in detail in the second post. The first post has a video of her evening event, but what I loved most was his mall handshake event experience… I may have stopped paying close attention to what Kago’s been up to recently, but as a long time Hello! Project fan, I can definitely appreciate the awesomeness of having Kago do the “Kago-chan desu!” gag in person… That would be awesome to see.

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Morningtime Has Fun With Polls

By CK♂ in Blogs, Hello Project on March 02, 2010

Polls (Morningtime)

Which H!P member has the best photobooks?  (Reina, of course :) )  Which H!P kid would you save from falling off a cliff?  These are just two of the many fun activities Morningtime has in store for you in this post.  So feel free to pass the time finding out great little useless tidbits like if fans would like to see Beckii Cruel be the next member of Morning Musume.  Or would they rather just kill themselves???  And I was quite surprised to see how many voters would let all the girls go over the cliff!

Fun times!

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