So much hate lately...

...surrounding Morning Musume's performance on Kouhaku the other night! I was going to wait until this weekend to download it, due to the fact that I couldn't clear off enough space on my computer for the entire performance before I had to leave for school today. (gotta watch the other special year-end shows this weekend) But everyone's talking about H!P's performance...so I had to check it out on Youtube. Instead of doing homework, but I only have one subject left and a two-hour free tomorrow, so...

Ok, this is Berryz Koubou and C-ute's first ever Kouhaku performance, right? I honestly expected it to be a big cool thing, and this was kinda disappointing. Question, have they always put all H!P acts together in a medley? The only other Kouhaku performance I've seen was the 2005 performance, which I personally loved- but I'll touch more on that later.
I also think that LOVE Machine has definitely been over-performed lately. I love LOVE Machine, and I like seeing current Momusu perform older songs, but I think they should leave it for the concerts. I would have preferred that they sing Mikan...haven't they basically performed LOVE Machine at all of these big music shows?
I didn't like the transition things between songs. I mean, wait, what? The Peace...and then Renai Revolution at the end...um...?
I think the newer members should have had solo lines in LOVE Machine, I don't think any of the 8th gen did. But honestly, they shouldn't have been singing LOVE Machine in the first place. That song's old- I know it was their most popular single, but relying on stuff from the past isn't going to work. Did the rest of you guys catch the audience when they showed them during LOVE Machine? They were bored, like 'ok, just get this over with.' D: And honestly, I don't blame them! Morning Musume is different now, but they're still singing this song from 1999. Even the best songs get repetitive after a while.

Berryz Koubou and C-ute got only small parts with their respective songs, and I think that wasn't really fair, especially for their first Kouhaku performance. They both performed a chorus from their latest single.
This was the first time I've heard Berryz' latest single, and I've already forgotten the tune and everything. Er...D: Yeah, not the best song I've heard from Berryz...
As for C-ute, I think their performance was done well, even though they got only a short bit. I guess I don't really know what else to say since I don't know much about C-ute, but I like the song and I didn't see anything wrong with their performance.

After that, there was a song with lots of "la la la"s. Er...what was this song? Never heard it before.


All in all, I'm disappointed with this performance, but I really don't think it was that horrible. Definitely could have been better. My suggestions? Momusu should sing a song OTHER than Love Machine, maybe Mikan. Berryz Koubou should sing a different song too, and C-ute should get more time and sing like a verse or something instead of just the chorus.


After I watched this, I decided to take a look back at one of my favorite H!P performances: the 2005 Kouhaku LOVE Machine performance. Actually, this was part of a medley with Ayaya's Ki ga Tsukeba Anata and DEF DIVA's Suki Sugite Baka Mitai, but...haha the LOVE Machine part is the reason this performance was great.

Now THIS is the type of performance I love to see. I watched this when it first came out, expecting just normal performances, and WOW. Wasn't expecting this. I actually have an mp3 of the entire medley on my iPod, and I listen to it a ton. It was GREAT to see every single past and present member of MM still in H!P singing this classic all together. I love how they started with the past members in the first verse, then the current members in the second verse, and then everyone together for the last set of choruses. I think I wrote an uber long blog post of this complete with screenshots WAY BACK THEN on my Gaia journal, haha.
...
Lol, omg, LOOK at this. I found it, but I dunno the settings on Gaia journals, so I dunno if everyone can see the post, not to mention the screenshot links were totally dead. So I'm reposting it here, I guess, with updated links. Now you guys get to see my first imporession of the 2005 Kouhaku performance. Screenshot spam much?
This is originally from January 11th, 2006.

Kouhaku 2005
If I remember correctly, it happens late December every year. And I just downloaded the Kouhaku 2005- or at least, the H!P part of it. It was a medley or something of that sort, with Aya Matsuura singing Ki ga Tsukeba Anata, DEF. DIVA singing Suki Sugite Baka Mitai, then Momusu singing LOVE Machine. Er, well, not Momusu exactly...but I'll get to that later. ^^

First off, Ayaya's performance. First it was just Ayaya singing, then a bit into it some members of H!P Kids started dancing- I believe it was 4 Berryz and 4 C-ute? With Berryz in blue outfits and C-ute in pink. Or maybe it was the other way around, I'm not very familiar with H!P Kids. Farther into it, all of a sudden the rest of H!P Kids came out along with....um...figures?... One of them was Domo- you know, . All in all, pretty good performance. I absolutely love the song. ^^

Next is DEF. DIVA's performance. DEF. DIVA is Aya Matsuura, Natsumi Abe, Maki Goto, and Rika Ishikawa. I don't really have too much to say about this one; just a pretty normal performance, nothing really special.

Last. LOVE Machine. Homg. This was awesome. It's not just Momusu performing. It's Momusu + all past members that are still in H!P. MARIPPE~!!!!!! Lemme do a quick run-down. There were 19 members in the performance, and there have been 22 different members of Momusu. If they aren't still in H!P, the name will be in italics. Format is this: Name (Current group/whatever)

First generation


Yuko Nakazawa (solo)

Natsumi Abe (solo, DEF. DIVA)

Kaori Iida (solo)

Aya Ishiguro (----)

Asuka Fukuda (----)

Second gen

Mari Yaguchi (solo...I think. I hope.)

Kei Yasuda (No clue, really. I suppose solo. She hasn't released anything yet, though she graduated back in 2003. She's still in H!P though.)


Sayaka Ichii (----)

Third gen

Maki Goto (solo, DEF. DIVA)

Fourth gen

Hitomi Yoshizawa (Morning Musume)

Ai Kago (W)

Nozomi Tsuji (W)

Rika Ishikawa (DEF. DIVA, v-u-den)

Fifth gen


Ai Takahashi (Morning Musume)

Asami Konno (Morning Musume)

Risa Niigaki (Morning Musume)

Makoto Ogawa (Morning Musume)

Sixth gen

Sayumi Michishige (Morning Musume)

Eri Kamei (Morning Musume)

Reina Tanaka (Morning Musume)

Miki Fujimoto (Morning Musume; used to be a solo artist but put that on hold while in Momusu)


Seventh gen

Koharu Kusumi (Morning Musume)



Kinda sad that I know all that, actually.

So anyway. First they start off with Kaorin, Kei, and Yuko rising from under the stage, and then they show Marippe, Aibon, and Nono doing the same on the other side. That's the beginning part, with the 'oooohhh's and stuff. Then they go behind the ball that's in the back, and as the music starts going faster, the ball kinda drops down to reveal all of them, plus Gocchin, Charmy, and Nacchi (they kinda had to change from their DEF. DIVA outfits. ). So they sing up to the end of the first chorus, then the rest of the girls (Yossui, Mako, Risa, Takitty, Konkon, Sayu, Reina, Eririn, Mikitty, and Koha; basically the current Momusu) come in behind them in these red outfits. They look really pretty...I think Hitomi looks especially pretty.

Hitomi

That isn't to say the others aren't, though. So then, the current Momusu does the second verse and chorus. Then they perform a chorus with two members singing at a time- one past and one current.

Reina and Nacchi




Gocchin and Takitty (they don't appear at the same time, though, so I needed two screenshots. )

Gocchin

Takitty



Mako and Marippe (my favorite, for hopefully obvious reasons.)

Mako and Marippe



Then, confetti bursts out, the H!P Kids come running out, the characters all come out, and basically it's just cuteness. ^^ At the very end, the last line, 'love machine', is said by Koharu. ^^

Y'know, I thought I'd never get a chance to see Marippe and Koharu perform together. Seeing as Marippe left in April, and Koharu didn't come in until later. But hey! It happened!



More screenshots! (Ayaya deserves a few. ^^)




Ayaya

Ayaya and Kids

Cute

Berryz

Ayaya and Kids (2)

random characters



Just kinda saving as a halfway point. It's almost midnight and I need to get to bed; I'll finish the screenshots later.

For the record, I never finished it. For all the times I look back on these old posts and go "WOAH I'VE TOTALLY CHANGED", there's always something that makes me realize I'm still basically the same as I was before. xD
Hmm, I wonder if this means I have more screenshots buried on my desktop computer somewhere? I'll have to check back on that when I go home for the weekend...