You know you’re a wota when…

Midori is going all Jeff Foxworthy on us, and has compiled a list of fanatical Wota traits for us to compare ourselves.  Some of them, like owning photos and CD’s I think most around here qualify for.  But others, like doing cosplay, recognizing all of the Eggs, or color-coding AKB48 lyrics definitely qualify a person for Super-Wota status!  Midori scored seven of twenty, I scored an eight.  I’m sure there are a few around here that will beat that!  BTW, here’s one for ya Midori…

“If you watch Hello! Project concerts at home with glowsticks, you just might be a wota!”

Rottara Rottara PV (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)
Lotta Love Lotta Love for Buono!’s Rottara Rottara (H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business)
Lotta Love Lotta Love ! BUONO! Rock Way ! (hello!musume)
Lotta Love, Lotta Love Full PV (Hello!Blog)
Buono - Rottara Rottara video (Morningtime)
It’s Buono! … but not as we know it (Wotaku Now!)

Corny title, I know, but I HAD to do it… XD Anyway, the PV for Buono!’s upcoming single has been out for about a week now, and lots of reaction have already surfaced.

Midori goes over the amazing and the not so amazing. It looks like Midori’s a big fan of the song… The PV, not so much. She goes into quite the rant touching on various aspects of why this was a “terror of a PV”.

DJ_MaiMai of H!P Fangirling is a little confused with how to write out the song title, but that doesn’t stop her from loving the song. Though, like Midori, DJ_MaiMai has quite a few issues with the PV.

On the opposite end, Nakane of hello!musume loves the song, as well as the PV. She’s loving Miya’s hairstyle, and I have to agree! “That girl is so HAWT !”

Tom of Hello!Blog is a little disappointed in the low budget of the PV, but finds that the trio of Buono! can pretty much do no wrong. Being a hardcore Miyabi fan (obviously) I’m a little disappointed in her placing for his favourite for this PV, but if you’re going on a cute factor… Well, Miya’s hot in this PV (as mentioned by Nakane). Enough said. XD Tom mentions that he originally wasn’t that taken with this song, and I have to agree. But man, is this song ever addictive. Like Tom, I’m now in love with this single.

morningtime makes a comparison between Buono!’s pv and the new group Twe’lv’s PV for Seishun Oden. morningtime hopes for Buono!’s continued success in sales, for they like the way Buono! is able to pull off their style without looking like a “manga cartoon gone wrong or just a wota’s wet dream”. morningtime goes over why they think Buono!’s the best group in H!P at the moment, comparing their singles to the recent releases of other H!P groups… But I must ask - what happened to C-ute in these comparisons?

Shirow of Wotaku now is loving the new song, but is wondering where the edginess of Buono!’s style went with this PV. Unlike the other posts, who all just have the PV embedded, Shirow goes a step further and includes quite a few screen caps, showcasing how lovely the girls are looking in the PV.

So it looks like Buono!’s latest song it getting a lotta love, while the PV is evoking a little less enthusiasm.

WHAT THE #$^% UFA?!  (Midori’s J-Pop Overanalyzations)
H!P Mass Graduate.  Doomsday or Revival?  (Sazaki’s H!P weblog)
What.  The Hell.  (Shanimuni Paradise)
Good bye to the Elder Club  (Slasha’s Tatami Mat)
Thank you for the LOVE!  (ChanceChanceBoogie)

Just keep em’ coming, I can do it…

Midori lists the upsides and downsides for the fans, and UFA.  She notes that we might finally get to see some of the grads in a more natural light now that they are free from H!P.  Midori also thinks (hopes?) this might not be the last time we see Tsunku working with some of these girls.

Sazaki also has pros and cons, but ultimately thinks it is mostly a positive move for everyone involved.  The only con being H!P losing the fans of the members they let go, but also having the opportunity to build a new fanbase.

Tsukiki sees this as the worst mistake Tsunku has ever made.  Sure, it was probably about time for some of them, but Tsukiki is floored by the graduation of Ayaya and Noto Arisa, and is disappointed by the loss of the 4th and 5th gen. Musumes.

Slasha feels this is the right decision, but wonders if the youth of H!P will run amok without the Elders to keep them in line?  That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard yet!

Max notes how with this change, H!P will resemble in size the H!P of 1999 when they were really hitting their stride popularity-wise.  But ironically he finds it strange that there are no members left from the Love Machine days.

It’s amazing how with so many posts there can be this many different observations.  And in the immortal words of Terry Jones in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, “There’s still more!”

The amazing wonderful hearts summer preview!

Midori has a preview of the H!P 2008 Wonderful Hearts Concert! They’re performing Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou, and that’s quite a mouthful to say! I loved this performance, and Junjun and Linlin performed their solo lines amazingly. Midori brings us her usual review of the performance and finds nothing wrong with the song except for the ridiculous outfits. I personally liked C-ute’s outfits, but I agree with Midori when she says that Berryz Koubou had ridiculous outfits.

Kirarin Revolution & Koharu’s voice- declining together

As much as I like Koharu, I’ll never get enough of people poking fun at her.  Midori has noticed that Koha’s vocal chops have declined at the exact same rate as the animation from Kirarin Revolution.  I have never paid too much attention to the anime, but I think it is hysterical that Koharu seemed born to play the lead role.  Midori goes single by single.  She finds both of them bearable at first, but by Tan Tan Taan she feels that the show can’t get much worse.  I dunno, the one video that Midori posts of the anime looks to me like the same type of animation from the original Speed Racer.  The problem is Speed Racer is a 40-year old cartoon!

Just keep reminding yourself “Koharu is a comedy act” and she becomes a lot more palatable.  At least that’s what I do!

Pepper Keibu PV & clarifications on C-ute calender follow-up

Midori has watched Morning Musume’s latest PV and doesn’t have too much to say. She comments on line distribution, the costumes and dancing, but it seems like it hasn’t left too much of an impression on her. The one stand out point looks to be the pandas. Go Junjun and Linlin!

Up next, Midori has more comments on Airi’s dress from C-ute’s calendar, and actually it was me who was confused about comparing Airi’s dress to Makoto’s from Midori’s previous post. I don’t know what came over me, but I was thinking of Airi’s “Edo no Temari Uta II” costume, thus the confusion. I see the resemblance now. >_<

What would you do? (Wotaku now response)

Oh it scares the living daylights out of me if someone were to find themselves in a jam and actually ask themselves, “WWWD?”

Anyways, Midori responds to Wotaku Now’s Freaky Friday Situation. Instead of just limiting it to one idol though, Midori goes over what they’d do as each member of Morning Musume. As Tanaka Reina, Midori says, “If I were Reina, I’d eat.” I laughed.

Hello!Project & Sweeney Todd

Recommended reading. When I saw this post title in my feeds, I literally had to do a double take at first. Hello! Project and Sweeney Todd?! That is definitely a very intriguing concept…

I haven’t seen a stage performance of Sweeney Todd, but I have seen the recent movie release starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and the musical is just completely outside of anything H!P has ever done. That being said, I would love to see H!P take on a project as crazy as this, though as Midori says, “While this would be hilarious and rather win, it will never, ever happen, so I’ll just imagine what it would be like.”

Midori gives her ideas on who would best play each role, and the idea of watching a spastic Ai-chan puts a smile on my face.

PEPPER~ Keibu! (Stardust)
Doctored Pepper (The J-Pex)
wtf Pink Lady (LOVE Tantei)
Pepper Keibu… huh? (H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business)
Pepper Keibu and Cover You - Morning Musume (「☆☆☆」)
Pepper Keibu : Full single and Download (hello!musume)
Pepper Keibu and C-ute costume follow-up (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)

Recommended reading. A lot of blogs have something to say about Morning Musume’s 37th single announcement.

Mars at Stardust looks at the single’s covers and finds that Risa and Eri are the standouts on these awesome looking covers. Mars goes on to describe the upcoming single as well as announces the upcoming cover album. It looks like Mars is on the fence on whether or not to be excited about this release, but it seems this will not affect the selling power of the single.

Pex is not the slightest be discouraged over the fact that Morning Musume’s next single will be a cover. It looks like Pex is a fan of the original song, and feels that the Morning girls will be able to do it justice. What’s interesting here is that Pex gives us his ideas on how the PV should be.

On the opposite spectrum, chibon of LOVE Tantei is completely disappointed by the lack of originality in this upcoming release. Having thoroughly enjoyed Morning Musume’s latest endeavour, chibon wonders what is going on with UFA and why they can’t seem to release back-to-back releases of original and high-quality content.

DJ_MaiMai tries to look at the positive side by giving examples of previous H!P songs which have been covers. She also embeds a number of videos to further highlight her examples.

Bri of 「☆☆☆」 is disappointed at the announcement of this new single because she had a song in mind for Morning Musume’s 37th single. She’s also hoping that covering Pink Lady may shine some good publicity (eqaulling more sales) on Morning Musume.

Nakane of hello!musume has embedded audio files of Morning Musume’s 37th single - an instrumental and one with Morning’s vocals. Nakane has also added some colour-coded lyrics to the post, so you can sing some karaoke to the instrumental version, if you like!

Much like Bri, Midori is looking that the release of a cover as a possible sales booster for Morning Musume. Midori is looking forward to seeing the PV, and closes off the post following up on a costuming issue with Airi’s dress from C-ute’s latest PV. Though, in relation to the costume… Are we supposed to be looking at Makoto’s outfit? If so, I don’t quite see the resemblance.

C-ute Calendar ‘09

Midori has many complaints regarding the supposed cover for C-ute’s 2009 calendar. It looks like Midori is holding out hope that this is a joke, and that a much better photo will be released at some point. She tears down each girl on the cover (even Maimi, simply due to her inability to fit in with the randomness that this photo embodies - I actually find it quite amusing that with the completely un-related outfits all the girls are wearing, Maimi is able to stand out with an especially random outfit).

Personally, I feel that if this actually is their calendar cover, this may be the karma coming around, because they’ve had some pretty awesome outfits in previous singles (please ignore ‘LALALA Shiawase no Uta’). Maybe the wardrobe department realized that they’ve been too kind to C-ute recently and felt the need to even things out a bit. XD

Ongaku Gatas Come Togther Outfits and PV  (Tricia’s H!P and TNX Blog)

ongaku gatas “come together” pv  (Love マシーン)

Ongaku Gatas - Come Together  (The J-Pex)

Come Together PV  (Stardust)

Ongaku Gatas Come Together pv  (Morningtime)

Ongaku Gatas- Come Together PV  (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)

Ongaku Gatas - Come Together (unfortunately)  (Wotaku Now!)

Sorry for the delay on this one.  Here is what people are saying about “Come Together” by Ongaku Gatas…

Tricia quite simply says the PV and outfits are “super cute” and has screencapped the promotional photos

Markusantoine is happy that Konno, Rika, Yossie and Sotoda Mai are fronting a PV, noting it feels like the past H!P.  He also digs the outfits.

J-Pex really likes the rock feel to the song, and notes that this is the most “western” style PV Hello! Project has ever done.  JP also likes the behind the scenes footage.

Mars also likes the “documentary” style of the PV, but is concerned about the “pushing to the back” of the Eggs in the group.  Overall he is still not sold on the song.

Morningtime has a screencap bonanza!  And also hopes the song does well.

Midori bulletpoints the good and bad of the PV, although most of the good points seem to be critical of the PV too!  She is not crazy about the dance or the costumes, and is offended by the “fake” promotional newspaper they are reading.  But she feels Yossie carries the song with her vocals.

And then there’s Shirow.  Shirow gives us some well-detailed reasons why he doesn’t like the song or PV, which can be summarized by his title line…

“The PV Sucks”

So there ya have it.  Not a glaring endorsement.  Maybe I’m crazy, but I think it’s the best song Gatas has done.  But then again, I also like Koharu’s “Konnichi Pa”.  So consider the source.

Anatomy of a good (or bad) H!P concert outfit

I’m glad someone around here has some fashion sense.  Heaven knows I don’t.  Midori goes over the basic rules of what makes a concert outfit flattering, and what is a total mess.   The general rule here seems to be keep it simple and/or classy.  And the biggest violations all seem to involve excessive and huge accessories or big puffy things.  Midori displays examples on both sides of the spectrum to support her points.  I am so glad she pointed out how unflattering those Berryz costumes were from the Winter concert.

Along with subpar performances, costumes disasters are part of the fun of watching an H!P concert.  But I have one personal rule as far as the outfits are concerned…The tighter and skimpier, the better!

I’m Back and 2k8 summer WH Concert thoughts
Morning Musume Spring 2008 concert review

Midori returns to blogging. Her first entry briefly looks at the Hello! Project 2008 Summer concert tour’s set list. I have to emphasis briefly because there is very little over-analyzing here, which is Midori’s strength. Ah, but she was just on vacation, so we will just let this one slide.

The overanalyzing returns in the second entry though! In this piece, Midori looks at the Morning Musume 2008 Spring concert and gives out ratings based on the performance and singing in each song. Most of the songs get positive ratings from Midori, especially when Takahashi Ai and Niigaki Risa are the focus. In fact, it seems that it is only (live) Koharu Kusumi that draws the ire of Midori.

Upsides to UFA’s Policies

Midori takes an insightful look at the pros at the continually bashed policies that UFA impose on the girls. Midori has taken a more in depth look at the policies than what a normal fan would percieve. Some of the points she makes are very valid and are worth having a think about.

Biyudensetsu (hajimete no ROCK CONCERT)
Biyuden : Disbands (Hello!Musume)
Goodbye v-u-den (HNPH)
The End of v-u-den (I WISH;;)
V-u-den Disband (Let’s Laugh! Hello Project)
A sandwiched farewell to Biyuuden (OH NOES! Magi-Kat’s rambling again!) (Magi-Kat presents “Morning Meteora”)
Why I’m Missing Biyuuden (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)
Biyuuden- Nannimo iwazu ni I LOVE YOU pv (Morningtime)
Bye Bye V-U-DEN♥ (Nekocafe’s World!)
Never Forget (Shanimuni Paradise)

v-u-den disbanded over the weekend. There were lots of reactions and I apologize that they are so late on reaching IW. Some bloggers took it as an opportunity to revisit what they loved about the group; while others expressed frustration over the breakup. Most people showed concern about what the future holds for Miyoshi Erika and Okada Yui. Meanwhile, nearly everyone - some begrudgingly - are of the belief that Rika’s career will not be affected too dramatically by v-u-den breaking up.

My Answers (Bikkuri Project)
Survey Says (The J-Pex)
Pikkurishita! Save no Bikkuri!~ (Mayuge Beam)
Bikkuri Project Survey (Shanimuni Paradise)
Survey, yay: Bikkuri Project Version (Amasugita Kajitsu)
Bikkuri Project Survey (Slasha’s Tatami Mat)
Another Survey? (Raid My Minibar)
Another survey! YAY! (musical GAME)
~Bikkuri Project Survey~ (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)

Yayayay! Lots of responses to my survey coming in already, and a lot of the answers are really interesting (IMHO).

Monkeyz Koubou Dances (Shiny Days)
One, two, Monkey three … (LOVE Tantei)
Berryz Koubou - Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance (hello! girl)
OMG THEY REALLY DID WEAR MONKEY SUITS (I guess it really is Yuke Yuke…) (H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business)
“Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance” initial reactions (Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations)
See No Tsunku, Hear No Tsunku (The J-Pex)

Recommended reading. The PV for Berryz Koubou’s upcoming single is up and a lot of blogs have piped in with their thoughts.

Charmy of Shiny days is highly amused by this PV, but wonders how this will affect Berryz’s credibility in the future.

Chibon of LOVE Tantei is surprised by how much they’re enjoying this PV. It’s interesting to note that the thing that Chibon found most annoying in Tsukiatteru’s PV is they are loving so much here.

hello! girl is not too impressed with the song or PV.

DJ_MaiMai of H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business is loving the latest release. I’m surprised with one line in this review, though: “I’ve never noticed how beautiful Chinami is <3333″. If you’ve watched Tsukiatteru or Dschinghis Khan, I don’t know how in the world that could be, because Chinami was stunning in both those PVs.

Midori likes the line distribution, but like hello! girl, is not too impressed with the song overall.

Pex finds it hard to concentrate on the song due to a number of reasons listed in the post. Pex also has an interesting theory on how Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance came to be.

More PV reactions to come in an upcoming write-up. There’s a lot to go through…

Spring 2008 Momusu Costume Review

Midori is back and I am quickly becoming a fan of all the over-analyzing. There is nothing about fingernails here - instead it is a look at the costumes from the Spring 2008 Morning Musume concert. Midori goes through them and gives out a */5 Rating on the quality of the clothes as well as a “Alcohol Level” to determine how drunk the costume designers were when putting together the outfits. I would have just measured their blood alcohol level and used that as the rating for both cases. The drunker the costume designers are while making the outfits, the better.

More Flashy Nails!

Midori’s J-pop Overanalyzations is a new-to-IW blog.

I say this with the utmost respect. I’ve analyzed things too much in the past. Others have as well. We’ve looked at haircuts, body movements, clothing, facial expressions, the tiniest and the minuscule of moments.

But I cannot believe someone has analyzed the fingernails of Morning Musume.

So if you can buy the idea of fingernailogy as a level above palm reading, then this entry is definitely a fun read. The idea is certainly unique but requires a style in writing to make it believable. I get the impression that Midori takes it serious, which makes me take it serious. Midori takes a quick look at some fingernails of Miki Fujimoto, but the main content is on the fingernails from the “I WISH” covers. Some points actually make sense, if you agree with Midori’s associations of certain colors. It is a fun read regardless.