fields of maiZe and berryZ

This week’s installment of Memorable Snippets features none other than my favourite Hello! Project artist, Matsuura Aya.

This clip comes from her Concert Tour 2003 Haru ~Matsu Ring PINK~ during the encore.

What is it about this clip that tickles my fancy so? Well, I absolutely adore how Ayaya is able to take it all in stride. She doesn’t freak out. Instead she puts on a big smile and smacks her head as though she can knock the lyrics out of the clutches of the evil forgetful monster in her head and back into the functioning part of her memory.

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I have started a new blog, and as the title of this post indicates, it’s dedicated solely to the wonderful Natsuyaki Miyabi!

It’s called Last Forever and can be found at http://intlwota.com/lastforever. Ray has very kindly offered to host this other blog as well, so a big thank you to him!

Last Forever will basically be a place for me to be unabashedly fangirly with regards to Miya. I’m quite excited!

I’ve been thinking of starting a new series for my blog, and after putting it back week after week, I’ve decided it’s time to start!

As you can see from the title, this new series of mine is endearingly called ‘Memorable Snippets’. Basically, I’m gonna take random clips from anything within H!P history that has caught my fancy and just state why I love that particular clip so much. Each clip will focus on one member (maybe more than one, but at the moment, I’m thinking of highlight one member per clip), even though others may be in the clip as well.

There is no order to which girls I’ll be highlighting, it really all depends on what I’m in the mood to reminisce on. I may do a second or third clip on one girl before getting to the first one of another. It all depends. For those who have seen these clips before, I hope they give you a little blast from the past. For those who for some reason or another haven’t had the chance to stumble upon these clips, I hope you enjoy them! I’m going to try to make this a weekly thing, but I apologize in advance for any weeks where that doesn’t happen (I’d laugh really hard if next week I didn’t have a new clip ready… XD).

To kick this series off, I thought I’d start with one of my favourite moments featuring Kago Ai.

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Okay… I don’t know how that Friends reference snuck in there, but I can deal with it… XD

So, on Monday, the PV for Buono!’s ‘Kiss!Kiss!Kiss’ was posted on DohhUp! And I have to say that Buono! has done it again! I absolutely adore this PV and song. However, I’m beginning to feel that I’m going to love anything Buono! releases because of my undying devotion (okay… that may be a slight exaggeration, but meh XD) for none other than Natsuyaki Miyabi!

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They Berryz Kamen vs. Cutie Ranger concert started yesterday in Japan, and thus the setlist is now out. I got this setlist from the JPH!P forums, care of jompuan. Here’s the setlist and some thoughts I’ve had from my first glance.

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Raid from Raid My Minibar asked an interesting question on one of his recent posts: Who would you marry based purely on voice?

This question intrigued me, so I thought I’d give my answer to his question. In his blog, he mentions to list your top 3. It’s not particularly specified that they have to be Japanese singers, and from what I can gather, it looks like Raid’s #1 is a K-pop singer, so I don’t feel too bad having only one J-pop singer in my top 3 list. All the songs mentioned here are in my radio blog in the right sidebar, except one that’s an embedded video file. And since this question is based on voice alone, gender isn’t really a factor for me here, except for the fact that, as you will see, my favourite vocalists tend to be female.

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Today marks the 23rd birthday of former Morning Musume member and Mr. Moonlight herself, Yoshizawa Hitomi! So to celebrate, I thought I’d share some old school Yossy photos from her breakout single.

Mr. Moonlight pines for adorable new-comer, Ogawa Makoto…

But of course, no one can resist Mr. Moonlight’s charms.

And they lived happily ever after! ^_^

Happy birthday Yocchan!!!

Sharing her birthday with the leader of Ongaku Gatas is none other than C-ute’s resident headliner, Suzuki Airi!

So I thought to celebrate Osuzu’s birthday, and to show my support to C-ute, I’d post some eyecandy of C-ute’s leader, Yajima Maimi!

Happy birthday Osuzu!!! …

Just kidding! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the urge to post some Maimi eyecandy here.) Now onto the real Osuzu birthday greeting.

Happy birthday Osuzu!!!

It is no secret that I LOVE Buono! These girls are great performers who are very consistent live. They’re cute as heck and they definitely know how to rock it out.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of their next single ‘Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!’ which is due to be released on 2008.05.14. However, to tide me over, I just learned that the new opening and ending themes for Shugo Chara! will be airing on Episode 27, which is coming up this Saturday (April 12). That means preview time! ^_^

For those who don’t know, ‘Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!’ will be the new ending theme for Shugo Chara!, while the c/w ‘Minna Daisuki’ will be the new opening theme. I’m very excited for this. Buono!’s got a lot to live up to, seeing as their first 2 singles were hits with the majority of fans and their 1st album was amazing. But I have faith that these girls can pull it off! Unfortunately, I won’t be home on Saturday, so I’m going to have to wait until Sunday to actually hear the songs…

Also, a new picture is gracing the front page of Buono!’s official site. Since the girls look fabulous, I felt the need to share the eyecandy. Enjoy!

The Hello! Project 2008 Winter Concert reviews have been popping up all over the place in our little blogsphere. I’m here to put my two cents into the mix.

Concert release times are my favourite time of the year in the H!P calendar. PVs and singles are all fine and dandy, but I love watching the girls sing live (lip syncing makes me want to cry). Live performances are where you get to see if the girls can reproduce the sound that they created with the help of mixers, touch ups and 8 million takes. I realize that in the idol world, you don’t have to be a perfect singer, or even that good of a singer, and I can accept that. But you have to be able to entertain and perform. Well, to entertain this fan, you have to be able to sing live because if you’re lip syncing at a concert… Well, I’ll just go an pull up the PV, thank you very much. I’d hear the song better that way (and with the usual design of H!P concert costumes, the outfits would probably better too).

So, I’m going to start off with my favourite group, Wonderful Hearts. I only have certain favourites in Elder Club, and the entire H!P concert, while fun, is so diulted with girls that my favourite ones don’t get enough screen time for my liking. And now, without futher ado:

My Hello! Project 2008 Winter ~Wonderful Hearts Nenjuu Mu Kyuu~ concert review!

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Today marked the release of C-ute’s latest PV on Dohhh! UP. It also happens to be the birthday of the youngest Berryz Koubou member. Slap in the face to Risako, much? Just kidding, but I find it kind of funny that Berryz’s rival group released their PV today. It’s most likely just a coincidence, but you never know… XD

On that note, HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY RISAKO!!
Note: I started this post at around 11 pm, but finished just after midnight, so I’m not REALLY late in my birthday greets. XD

Now we get back to the topic of C-ute. With my lack of enthusiasm for their last single, I was really hoping that they would come back with a killer release. As I’ve said before, they need to beef up in preparation for the Berryz vs. C-ute battle concert coming up in a few weeks.

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