Berryz Koubou - 5 (FIVE) [5th Studio Album] (Amai Wana)
[Album Review] Berryz Koubou - 5(Five) (Wings of my Heart)
Berryz Koubou 5th Album [5(Five)] review (Sazaki’s H!P Weblog)

Recommended reading. More blogs have their thoughts to share on Berryz Koubou’s 5th album and it looks like there’s a positive response going around.

amaiyume of Amai Wana is generally impressed with Berryz’s 5th album, finding only a few weak points. amaiyume goes through the entire album, giving a rundown the strengths and weakness of each song. Overall, amaiyume found that the girls gave strong vocal performances, however some of the instrumentals/melodies just weren’t memorable for amaiyume.

Julia of Wings of my Heart chimes in with her thoughts and surprises even herself with her desire to write a review on BK’s latest album. It looks like Berryz Koubou were able to bring themselves out of the rut they settled into in Julia’s H!P world - a rut caused by their recent string of childish releases. Julia takes a detailed look into the songs that have really caught her attention, with some passing thoughts on the rest of the album. Like amaiyume, Julia find that the vocals are pretty strong on the album. And Julia, I totally feel your pain…

…Okay, and I wish there was more Miya, once I start thinking about it. I really love her. I might just need some quality Buono! time right about now.

Sazaki is very impressed with this album. They go through each track and give a score out of 10. While not particularly in depth, you can feel Sazaki’s enthusiasm for the album. The one downer looks to be the Special Generation remix, which they find sounds like a fan-remix). While I agree with Sazaki that BK’s 5th album “overcame and surpassed C-ute’s album”, I can’t quite agree with their following conclusion:

I must say that this is the best Berryz Koubou album, if not best in all Hello!Project.

The best in all of Hello! Project? That’s 10+ years of material to go up against, with albums by Golden Age Momusu and Matsuura Aya in her prime… That’s definitely a bold statement to make. However, to each their own. XD

A Challenge

Julia goes to camp Krusty, fights a dragon named steve, discovers bigfoot, heads an uprising, steals a car and robs a five year old child of her shoes, and now she’s back, jaded by idolism and wondering why we put up with it half the time. A post that asks a lot of questions, or one big one. it’s a write-up that might just turn Julia’s woes into a nice thought-piece if people get active in the comments. Anyway, I sympathise with Julia on this one, since I’ve lost a lot of interest in Momusu recently.

-Sigh- (Aitakatta!)
明日の道 (Wings of My Heart)

It’s a sad day in Akahibara.  Well maybe not for a few delusional wota.  We found out earlier via Tokyograph that AKB48 Team B’s Kikuchi Ayaka has been fired from the group.  This seemed like it was inevitable for a little while now.

Cat takes a practical look at the situation, noting the difference between Japanese fans and fans from the outside.  She hypothesizes on what the future of the unit will be, and asks us to lend some needed support to Team B.

Julia took the news a lot harder, especially since it ruined what seemed to start out as a very good day.  Ayaka was one of Julia’s favorite AKB48 members, and she questions why she continues to be a fan when she is repeatedly disappointed by these scandals.  Not the scandals themselves, just the fallout.  And you know depression has really set in when you begin reciting Phil Collins’s lyrics.  Just thinking about Against All Odds is enough to make me slit my wrists.

Once again, good job wota…morons!

Member Roundup - Ijiwaru Crazy Love Edition

Another typically epic-in-length post from Julia, this time continuing her coverage on THE Possible, and the focus is on their Ijiwaru Crazy Love single. The members of the group are discussed individually when describing their role in the single, and actually, there’s a lovely overview of where THE Possible are at the moment and how they’ve fared up until the present.

THE Possible Recapped, Pt. 3

Recommended Reading.  THE Possible have started to make a little noise since moving from Hello! Project to TNX.  Julia goes over the last year of activity, giving her impressions of the last four singles and the subtle changes that have taken place around the group.  Julia seems most fascinated (for better or worse) by THE Possible’s recent image.  Taking note of the lolita fashion and crazy hairstyles they’ve recently worn in magazine spreads and PV’s.  And she’s really excited about their brand new single, Ijiwaru Crazy Love!

I’m also finding it fun watching the development of Tsunku’s NICE GIRL Project.  Granted, they haven’t taken the music industry by storm.  But we are starting to see more regularly released singles, and a bit of experimentation that has been rare around UFA and H!P…

Well, rare at least until Koharu’s latest photobook was released.

Mean Crazy Handball

Admittedly, I’ve not been on Wings of My Heart for a good few months, but it’s nice to see that little has changed. The blog still sounds like a blog, that it’s clearly Julia we’re hearing, and not some hierarchy of artistic license, and to my amusement I see many of the write-ups still look as long as novels. What has really improved is Julia’s writing in general. It’s simply not as messy as it used to be, and it’s a welcome refinement for a blogger whose stuck in there all these years. Anyway, this is just me thinking aloud because it really has been that long since I was on Wings of My Heart.

So, the latest entry. Julia listens to two preview songs and gives her initial reactions to them. The first is Ijiwaru Crazy Love by THE Possible, whilst the other one is C-ute’s Edo no Temari Uta II. In short, she’s liking what she hears and she gives good reasons why. Oh and yes, I have no idea if these singles have been released yet, and I cant for the life of me be bothered to find out. I’m lazy. Anyway the post reads well and it’s worth your while if you’re interested in any of the two groups mentioned.

Meguru Kisetsu…

Recommended reading. Our Julia gets nostalgic and sentimenal as she talks about her favourite Hello! Project kid. As she mentions, we’ll soon be hitting the 2 year anniversary of Megumi’s leaving, and in that time, she hasn’t been able to immserse herself into C-ute’s development because of the gaping hole that MeguKami left with her departure.

I can’t quite relate to Julia in this regard, but I know that there’s definitely one idol that would devastate my H!P fandom if she left on bad terms… It’s an interesting read into Julia’s MeguKami fandom and how she has coped with the loss of an idol very close to her heart.

Love Your Seed

There have been previews recently from Perfume and Hey! Say! Jump and Julia takes a look at the both of them.

Perfume’s “Love the world” is an upbeat song, which means it’ll have to earn a stamp of approval from Julia. I’ve listened to this preview myself and I couldn’t agree more that it cuts off at the worst time, just as it sounds like it is heading a nice direction.

Hey! Say! JUMP’s “Your Seed” is not the typical pop-happy song and this makes Julia happy, which is yet another thing I find strangely appropriate. Furthermore, this is probably the best-titled signle all year.

Maki Goto joins Avex (Shiny Days)
Hands Up, Who Saw This Coming? (Stuck in a Pagoda)
Attention: Life After H!P Does Exist (Wings of my Heart)
It’s Gocchin TIME! (J-Riff)
Gotou Maki signs with avex (unchained)

Charmy☆Renai looks forward to the material that Maki will be releasing under Avex.

CJ goes over the Koda Kumi connection and anticipates material similar to Kuu-chan.

Julia goes over the end of Goto Maki’s H!P career before looking towards the next phase. Personally, I love the releases at the end of her H!P days as well. Julia has an interesting emotion over Gocchin’s decision: pride. It makes sense to me. As a fan of someone, you quite often will support whatever they do - but that doesn’t mean you can’t hope for certain career decisions. If they take those career decisions, why not have joy over what that person decides?

Riff goes over the possible paths that Maki can take. Again, the comparison to Koda Kumi is almost unavoidable. However, as Riff argues, even if she does become the next Koda, there is something about Gomaki that keeps her from being entirely alike.

Pengie is excited about the move to Avex and pledges to follow Gomaki’s next move.

Attempting the H!P Break

Recommended reading. Julia continues to try and find a balance for her H!P fandom. It’s interesting to read as she reasons out why it doesn’t make sense to just stop listening to H!P all together. I mean really, why would you stop listening to things you enjoy just to make a point?

It looks like she’s going to focus on certain H!P personalities and skip everything that annoys her. It’s a good policy to employ, and it definitely helps keep ones sanity. While Julia is obviously a Koharu fan, I keep myself sane by pretending that Koha does not have a solo career… To each their own, right? XD