A little while ago, I was chatting with SecondBlossoming on wotachat and he asked me if there was any other Hello! Project artist/group I would recommend outside of Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou and C-ute. When I enthusiastically said “Matsuura Aya!!!” he was genuinely surprised. Because of that, I felt that a good old Ayaya post was in order.

As much as I love Miyabi of Berryz Koubou, as evidenced by my Miyabi worship blog, Aya is my favourite member of Hello! Project. One of my first posts on this blog was on why Ayaya is my favourite H!P artist, but I was such a newb to blogging at that time, that I feel that original post doesn’t do justice to Aya’s greatness within H!P. So, here I go with Ayaya gushing fest – take two!

For some time now, Aya’s been in a “rut” of sorts, constantly singing ballads and generally getting increasingly “boring” to many Hello! Project fans. I’m quite sad to say that I’m in that boat as well, but really, who can blame me with her latest single, “Kizuna”? I have no problem with the song itself, but goodness gracious! What in the world is up with that PV? She looks so old in that outfit and with that hairstyle. When I mentioned that I didn’t like her latest PV because of the image portrayed to SecondBlossoming, he responded with something along the line of, “But she’s around Yuko’s age, right?” and I nearly died.

You know there’s got to be something messed up when Matsuura Aya, formerly the adorable girl who sang about a peach coloured unrequited love and who matured beautifully to sing ballads like “Zutto Suki De Ii Desu Ka”, but is currently only 21 (she turns 22 on June 25) is mistaken to be 30+. Aya is a gorgeous girl who has a wonderful voice. She can be cutesy, she can pull off ballads, she can do jazzy songs, I think she would be able to pull off almost anything H!P tried to throw at her, and yet she is given something like “Kizuna” which is obviously bringing down her appeal.

Ray of American Wota recently typed up a post on idols, particularly in H!P, which highlighted the importance that a single’s PV plays in the marketability of a new release. Just look at C-ute’s latest PV for “Namida no Iro”. The girls ranging from the ages of 12 to 16 (Erika’s birthday hadn’t passed yet) were all looking hot (even though I’m not quite on board with Mai looking that mature for her age, or Airi looking that “come hither” at this age either [but i can't deny she looks hot] – and I know that there are others who don’t mind this at all XD). Now we have this woman of legal age, who we know can look just as hot as the best of them, and we’re given that old fogey PV where she wears a shawl and has her hair up in a tight bun to rival Professor McGonagall. It is just so frustrating to watch! I actually have no complaints with the song. Just keep the PV away from me.

So, with all of my complaints about Aya, why is she still my favourite Hello! Project member? Well, her history far outweighs her current track record for me.

She first joined H!P in 2001, when she was 14 years old. For anyone who doesn’t know this, Aya is the same age as Morning Musume’s current leader, Takahashi Ai. I first saw her while watching Morning Musume’s 2001 Live Revolution 21 Spring concert. At the time, I hadn’t seen or listened to any of her releases, but she was so cute and she had this infectious energy about her that you couldn’t help but notice her. And keep in mind she made her appearance to me in the midst of a Morning Musume concert during Momusu’s prime.

However, what got me irrevokably committed to my Matsuura Aya fandom was the release of “Love Namida Iro”. That song is one of my favourite H!P releases and my second favourite of Aya’s singles.

Aya’s ability to pull a crowd in with her performance is quite remarkable. She has been a concert headliner for almost her entire career in Hello! Project. She mainly performs alone and is able to last through an entire 1.5 – 2 hour long concert. Her ability to stay in pitch and maintain a high level of energy with no one to fall back on is impressive. She has had concerts with special guests like W, Melon Kinenbi, or Inaba Atsuko who sometimes sing along with her, and these concerts give some moments of reprive as her guests also perform their own songs without her on stage. However, she has definitely done entire concerts on her own and she doesn’t disappoint. Unlike other H!P girls where you can hear it when they start to fatigue during a concert, I find that it’s not as noticeable with Aya. The most I can fault her for is cutting off notes that she holds in the recorded versions of her songs, but I can’t really hold that against her after she’s already been running around on stage for almost 2 hours with a seemingly endless amount of energy.

Outside of SecondBlossoming getting confused with Aya’s age, he made a comment of having to get used to her voice after listening to my recommendation of “Zutto Suki De Ii Desu Ka”. That surprised me just about as much as the mix up in her age, mainly because I love her voice. Is it one you need to get used to? I can see why some people take some time getting to like Yajima Maimi’s voice from C-ute, or why some people simply can’t (and probably never will) get on board with Kusumi Koharu’s voice, but Aya’s voice has never struck me as one someone would “have to get used to”. This is why I love talking with other H!P fans, old or new. It gives you a new perspective on things. Personally, I have loved Aya’s voice from the beginning. I find it very soothing in ballads (and I’m a huge fan of Aya’s ballads) but at the same she’s able to pull off cutesy and playful seemingly effortlessly. You could see this from her first album where she had a range of songs going from as cutesy as “Doki Doki Love Mail” to as serious as “Hajimete Kuchibiru”. Her first album is definitely my favourite album if hers.

Why else do I love Ayaya? Well, she’s just so freakin’ adorable! Of course, I haven’t watched anything too recent (other than her Hey!Hey!Hey Music Champ appearance for “Kizuna”). However, in the behind the scenes for the Sukeban Deka movie she did, she was still as cute and adorable as ever. I realize that that was in 2006, but I don’t see her changing her personality. She was still had her adorably cute personality after singing “Zutto”, so I think she’s still got it now too. One example of Ayaya’s adorableness was displayed in my second installment of Memorable Snippets. And, although it was Hitomi being highlighted in the third installment Aya’s still adorable there, what with Rika pointing out that Ayaya didn’t even recognize her own song. XD

So many H!P girls list Aya as a fellow H!P member that they admire. I can’t quite remember who exactly said it, but it was definitely more than one girl. I’m also pretty sure that I read Takahashi say at one point that she forgets that she and Aya are the same age.

Ayaya was placed into the H!P spotlight at a young age and she has handled all that has come with such recognition with grace and professionalism. You could say other girls have been placed in the spotlight at a younger age than Aya, but have you seen that happen with a solo artist? Risako’s been the centre of Berryz Koubou for some time now, and she’s only 14. But really, she had Berryz to fall back on. And as for Koharu, yes she’s a solo act, but she’s also in Morning Musume, so I don’t find that it’s the same there either.

Aya is H!P’s most successful solo artist, even though recently that’s been falling off some. However, all the recognition she’s received has been rightly earned. I do hope that she can gain back her popularity. She can sell ballads, previous sales have shown that… But please, give her better PVs! Her last ballad that sold well was “Zutto” and that one had an interesting PV. I loved the camera movement in that PV.

Anyway, this post has gone on long enough, I think. Quick run down, Matsuura Aya is just all around WIN (or she could be if she was marketed properly)! For any H!P fan who hasn’t given her a try, where have you been? Living under a rock?!? … err… I mean… Check her out! She’s quite fabulous and may just surprise you! (side question: Do you love Ayaya yet, SB? XD)