Egao YES Idols

Well, long time no see! Let me start by apologizing for this absolute lack of consistent posting. Summer was hectic, this new semester at school is even more hectic. I unexpectedly lost my laptop for a few weeks while it was sent in for repairs, and school and preparing for my semester in Japan have just been kicking my butt lately. But anyway, I am back in possession of a laptop and stable internet access, so here I am again!

The return of my laptop didn’t come a moment too soon, either. Just around the time I got it back, NetCinema, a website that has been working with AKB48 to broadcast “Live! On Demand” stage recordings to viewers in Japan for a fee, announced that it would be broadcasting a free recording of Team B’s 3rd Stage, Pajama Drive. When I found out about that, I was ECSTATIC. I’m a huge Team B fan, and B3 is my favorite AKB48 stage to date. Just a few days later, NetCinema announced they’d be broadcasting Team K’s 4th Stage for free as well! I really liked the previews for K4 as well, so I was really excited about getting the chance to see that one as well.

One cool aspect of these broadcasts is that they were literally recorded just days before they hit the web. Nothing was outdated by a few months (which can encompass a years-worth of happenings in the idol world, as evidenced by the sudden departure of several AKB48 members over the past few months), hell, these two stages are still being performed right now in Japan. Additionally, I was really happy that they kept the MC portions of the performances in. In the official DVDs, all MCs are cut out, and I feel that the MCs really help give you a sense of the girls’ personalities.

The only unfortunate thing about these broadcasts is that there are certain members missing from each Team. The B3 performance was filmed just days after Inoue Naru suddenly announced her graduation, and it felt so strange seeing her already gone from the group… just like that. Additionally, Kikuchi Ayaka, who was fired back in August, obviously did not appear. One other member, Nito Moeno, the newest member of Team B, was also absent. However, she appeared in the K4 recording (ironically), so we actually did get to see a bit of her. Sashihara Rino, another brand new member of Team B, was there for a good half of the time (she mysteriously disappeared during the second half). In the K4 recording, Oshima Yuko, Kasai Tomomi, Ono Erena, Masuda Yuka, and Kobayashi Kana were absent. Seeing as three of those girls are some of the frontgirls of AKB48 to begin with, I can see a lot of people losing interest in that recording. Kobayashi Kana had just recently torn a ligament, so she’s been absent due to her injury.

However, as much of a hole as these missing members may seem to make, there’s a flip-side to it. In the place of the missing members were the newest Team members and a handful of Research Students (AKB48’s equivalent of the Hello! Project Eggs). I always love to get a glimpse at how the newbies are doing. In a previous post, I gushed about how impressed I was by the first batch of Research Students, so I was really looking forward to seeing how some of the newest girls are doing.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about them all. There are some clear stars, some who I just don’t get, and a few unexpected surprises.

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Just popping in with a quick post to say…

Happy 1st Birthday, Egao Yes Idols!

It’s kind of weird to think Egao Yes Idols has been around for a full year today. I started the blog on a boring summer day, and I never would’ve expected back then that Egao Yes Idols would have gotten to where it is today. But anyway, I just wanted to give a big thank you to all my readers. You all are the best! <3 And I hope Egao Yes Idols continues to be at least a slightly enjoyable read for you all.

It would be a fair assertion to say that I can tend to root for the underdog, or that I’m interested in the obscure. I don’t think I would have really gotten into Japanese music without a leaning toward the unique and obscure. But out of all the things that I take an interest in within the J-pop world, all of the newbies, Eggs, and Research Students have got to rank among the most obscure on my list.

Most of these girls will remain nameless faces in a sea of idols to casual fans. Some may just not be interested whatsoever and think it’s a total waste of time, others may show a mild interest, but don’t particularly care too much until they garner a more prominent role in their respective group/s. But there are fans like me who take a more active role in learning about these obscure girls. I’m sort of proud to say that I can identify all of the Hello! Project Eggs and could give an opinion on pretty much all of their singing and dancing abilities. With the AKB48 Research Students (formerly the AKB48 SEEDs), it’s a little bit of a different story, but, at the very least, I can identify them and absolutely rave about the talent of some of them (or the former members).

I do admit I have a fair bit of free time on my hands, but I do promise that a good bunch of these girls are actually talented– they are actually worth their fair share of attention every now and then.

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Hey everyone, I figured I’d post a quick update on here to let you all know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, and I do intend to continue blogging.

This past month has been absolutely crazy– from show rehearsals to an internship and life’s other miscellaneous bumps in the road, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to blog. But at the moment, I have a few ideas running around in my head for the next post. Life is finally calming down for me a bit, so hopefully I’ll have that post up soon!

Thanks for your patience!

The final part in my review of the Canaria Club’s latest DVD release. Enjoy!

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Part 2 of my review of the Canaria Club’s latest DVD continues here. Read on!

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First of all, let me just say that I NEVER thought I’d get to see this, so I am thrilled to just be able to SEE this DVD. I actually lost interest in the Canaria Club for a short while, after I was less-than-wowed with their recent singles. ‘FAITH!’ had an atrocious PV and the song wasn’t nearly as catchy as ‘SWEET & TOUGHNESS’ or ‘Seishun Banzai.’ Their most recent single, ‘Nishiki Kazare,’ had a PV that was immensely better than the one for ‘FAITH!’– complete with dreamy, cinematic shots and something akin to a story. But the song was just too… generic. It sounded more like an album track than single material. The skank picnic outfits (belly shirts + aquamarine plaid) didn’t help the single’s case, either.

After effectively getting that song stuck in my head, however, I’ve changed my mind about liking it. It’s incredibly catchy, and after seeing it performed, I can tell that the girls have fun with the song, which is a huge way to convince me to like the song.

Anyway, despite my indifference toward their recent releases, I still just had to see their concert DVD when I came across it. I’m incredibly glad I took the time to watch it, because I was far from disappointed. This DVD taught me a few new things about the girls, reminded me why I liked them so much before, and rekindled my interest in them.

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I’m not quite sure what got me thinking about this so much in the first place, but as I was sitting down to dinner tonight, my parents turned on some baseball game, and my mind went into zoning out mode– I really couldn’t care less about the game on the screen. I’ve always found it amusing to contrast the interests of my family and I– particularly my immediate family– my mother, father, and brother are all into sports and talk about them constantly. I figure my equivalent of that is idols. I enjoy talking about them to whoever will listen. Unfortunately, my parents aren’t too well-versed in the idol world, it’s all just “that Japanese music” I listen to, so I didn’t have anyone to bounce my theories off of. This blog post is the result of all that.

But anyway, excuse my introductory tangent, onto those theories I was talking about. The thought just sort of occurred to me– the vast, vast field of outcomes for an idol in the industry, and what their success means to their fans. Morning Musume is a good, clear-cut example, so I’ll use them for my first example here.

Imagine the scenario– Takahashi Ai has just joined Morning Musume, and you’ve got really high hopes for this girl. She seems like a dynamite singer, has had dance experience, and an endearing personality. You think this girl is going far– you make the decision to really support this girl. Let’s fast-forward in time here and stop at the present day. Takahashi is the front girl and leader of Morning Musume– she does have those dynamite vocals you’d liked, she’s got some kickass dance moves up her sleeves, and while she’s not the most entertaining girl in the group while she’s not performing, you still like her because of, well, whatever aspects of her personality attracted you in the first place. By all means, it’s been a smashing success. This girl has consistently brought her A-game, and she’s been rewarded for it. Her success is like a reward for you, too, because you get to see more of your new favorite musume. She’s never hard to find in PVs, has solo lines and verses galore, and has released a good number of photobooks. Just when you think they can’t possibly give her any more attention, High King is announced and she plays a prominent role in that song.

It’s a fangirl/fanboy’s paradise. (I would assume.)

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AKB48 has had two great releases just recently– first, Team B’s 1st Stage DVD, which I gushed all about in my last entries, and a short while after that, Himawari-gumi’s 1st Stage DVD. For any of you who are still confused about the setup of AKB48, Himawari-gumi combined Teams A and K for stage shows for a good chunk of 2007-2008, while Team B performed their own stage at the same time in the theater. What’s really unique about the Himawari-gumi DVD is that it features two casts– one has the big names like Maeda Atsuko, Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami, Oshima Yuko, and a whole handfull of other popular members of AKB48), while the second cast featured the less popular members and SEEDs/Research Students (similar to the Hello! Project Eggs, for those more familiar with that) singing the same songs. Each cast had its strengths and weaknesses, but overall, I found myself loving them both.

But those weaknesses… they can become glaringly obvious after a while. In the idol world, though, everything is so incredibly subjective. You may recognize these weaknesses quite easily, but depending on whether or not you like the idol those weaknesses belong to, you can ignore them, accept them, love them, or rip an idol to shreds because of them.

Just a quick warning before I continue with this entry– it’s not going to be full of love and hearts and daisies and rainbows. I’ll be criticizing a good bunch of idols, and I may be a little harsh at times, but it all has to do with… well, the title of this entry. I’ll be as objective as I possibly can, but if you see your favorite idol’s name come up and are sensitive about this kind of stuff… you’ve been warned.

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The final installment in my reviews of the latest AKB48 DVD release– Team B’s ‘Seishun Girls.’ Nothing new to report here, so on with the reviews!

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