HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNJUN! <333333

Wow, Junjun turned 20 today! 20 is the age in Japan where you are considered an adult, and it's a big thing.
I remember I was really surprised when I found out she was 19 a couple months or so ago- I had thought that I had heard that she was really young, so when I saw her birthday on ThePPN Wiki I was uber surprised. xD
So, yeah, happy birthday to Junjun, and I hope she had a great day today~ xD

Morning Musume ranking

I was actually planning on doing a Morning Musume ranking soon anyway, so this provided a great opportunity to actually do it.



I didn't do the Berryz Koubou and C-ute ones, because while I FINALLY know their names (YESS) I don't actually know anything about them. Definitely not enough to rank them.

1. Junjun
Definitely my #1 right now, even though she's pretty new there's just something about her...
2. Reina
Reina's cute and has a good voice, but somehow her spot was just recently taken over by Junjun. xD
3. Aika
She's the only Musume younger than I am (only by a month), and I didn't like her at first but slowly I've grown to really like her.
4. Risa
I like her voice, and I'm glad that she has the Athena & Robikerottsu unit- though I don't think it'll be a permanent unit since it was created only for that anime.
5. Koharu
While she doesn't have the best voice in the group, I really like her solo singles. They're strangely addicting...
6. Ai
She has a really strong voice, and I think she would be great as a soloist. However, I can't help but feel like she's getting wayy too much attention in Momusu.
7. Sayumi
She's really cute, but she really doesn't have that good of a voice. She's definitely improved though, I saw a video of her singing Do it! Now with two other girls (I forget who, maybe Reina and Eri) and I couldn't stand her voice. X_x It's tolerable now.
8. Linlin
I don't really know much about her...
9. Eri
Sorry Eri fans, but I just don't like Eri that much...


Comparing it to the first Momusu ranking post I did, here, my opinions of most of the girls haven't changed that much. xD

Congrats, Kaori!

Iida Kaori from Morning Musume had a baby boy on January 22nd. This is the second child by a Hello! Project member (all the former H!P members that have had kids were out of H!P before they had the kid, I believe), the first being Tsuji Nozomi's baby girl Noa a couple months ago. I wish the best of luck to Kaori and her husband and baby. ^^
I guess they didn't want to reveal the name of the baby, but I really want to know...xD I kinda want to see pictures too~...

I think I've slowly become addicted to Junjun.

...and I think she's my #1 in Morning Musume right now. Sorry Reina, at least you're still #2.
I honestly have no idea why she's taken over my Morning Musume fandom, but it definitely happened. xD
I've now decided that I want my very first photobook purchase to be of Junjun. Whether it's the 8th gen together, a duo Junjun and Linlin photobook, or just Junjun solo. Preferably the last one. =P

And now for some picspam, because I'm pretty sure that's why I'm such a huge fan now. It can't have been the singing, because it's not like she's had many lines so far. xD

(click on the thumbnails for full versions)

Morning Musume's upcoming single

Morning Musume is releasing their 36th single on March 5th. Like all of their recent singles (aka, starting with Aruiteru), it's coming in three versions- however, unlike their recent singles, according to CD Japan's upcoming artist newsmail the two limited editions BOTH come with bonus DVDs. No limited photobook, I guess.

I was planning on pre-ordering both limited editions, but I'm not sure since they're both kinda expensive- each one is $17 on Yesasia, as opposed to the limited edition A being like $17.75 and the limited edition B being like $13 or $14 or whatever the price is, I can't find an example on Yesasia cause they're all out of print.
It'll probably depend on the song itself, and the content of the DVDs...it was so much easier back when they only had one limited edition so I didn't even have to think about it- as soon as they announced a new single I just pre-ordered the limited edition right away...xD (Plus it was cheaper.)

Two tech-ish questions

ONE:
How do you rip audio from a Youtube video? I really want an mp3 of this video I found of Niigaki Risa (as Athena from that anime she's in) singing Koko ni Iruzee!:

Haha, I wish there was a better version though, without the extra stuff from the anime. Oh well.
I think I like this version the least out of the versions I've seen so far (Morning Musume's original and Tsuji Nozomi's cover), but I still would love to have this on my iPod. xD

Oh, and we're reading The Odyssey in English class, and every time I see "Athena" I think of Risa. And I keep getting Shouri no BIG WAVE!!! stuck in my head while I'm reading. Hello Project has taken over my brain...


TWO:
How do you make ringtones out of mp3s? I think all I have to do is cut the mp3 down to a short clip, but I don't know how to do that- is there a specific program I should use? Haha, I want Mikan as my ringtone...xD

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...

2008 predictions

Haha, I wrote a list out like two weeks ago, but forgot to post it here. Oops.
Thankfully, I remembered it now, otherwise it would have been too late! xD
Some of these are predictions, some are more wishful thinking on my part...xD;

2008 Predictions
-Morning Musume will release 3 or 4 singles and their 9th album. Their 9th album has gotta be coming up soon, they've already released three singles due to be on it, and there's a fourth being released in March.
-Morning Musume 9th gen auditions. I know the 8th gen hasn't been around for that long, but...
-Takahashi Ai graduates, becomes a solo artist. I'm kinda neutral on Takitty, I don't love her but I don't hate her either. I could totally see her graduating to become a solo artist at some point...she has a good voice, and because of that, she gets so many solos in Momusu. I want the others to get lots of lines too...xD
-Hello! Project Kids become uber popular, get a #1 single. I keep hearing people say that the Kids have taken over Hello! Project...I think it's just a matter of time before some H!P Kids group, whether Berryz, C-ute, or Buono, gets a #1 single.
-One of the Berryz gets a boyfriend and is kicked out of Berryz. Haha, I kinda want to see this happen...8D I barely even know their names (I'm learning! I swear I am!) so if one of them got kicked out, I wouldn't really care all thaaat much...
-Yaguchi Mari starts a solo career. Or at least does something, please! She's my favorite ex-Momusu, and I really want her to sing again.
-Yasuda Kei does nothing. Still. Damn.
-Goto Maki signs with a new record label and releases first single. Please? I really loved Goto...
-GAM comes back. Even for just one single. I was hoping that because of GAM, Miki would still have something to do even after she left Momusu, but now GAM's pretty inactive...
-As for the new units...Ongaku Gatas is permanent, and continues to release singles. Athena & Robikerottsu releases maybe another single after their upcoming one, then either actually breaks up or just fades into inactivity. Buono! keeps going until Shugo Chara ends, singing all the opening/ending themes, then moves onto another anime.


And just a couple of quick non-j-pop predictions...
-Prince of Tennis ends. This is the one prediction that I'd hate to come true the most. However, the end of PoT is obviously happening soon- it's so close, they're on singles 1, the very last match of the final round of the National Tournament. The author once said that he'd like to go through Ryoma's second and third years at Seigaku. I think at one point this would have worked- when Prince of Tennis was really really popular. However, now it's not, and so I think that he's just going to end it where it is rather than go on with the chance of cancellation.
-Mx0 gets an anime. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE
-Sket Dance survives in Jump. YESS

[Scans] Morning Musume, Athena, and some manga covers

Explanation and music list

So, this is basically the scans post to go along with my recent orders that arrived on Friday. Sorry it's late, but scanning the two limited photobooks took forever, and I had a sleepover last night cause it's my birthday today (yay!).
I also didn't end up scanning the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Box, cause there's this 4-DVD case that's too big for my scanner and I was too lazy to figure out how to get it all. xD
I might end up scanning some more CDs soon cause I'm on winter break, but I can't make any promises. xD;;

EDIT: Sorry that the small versions of the preview images look crappy! In my earlier posts, I actually uploaded them to Blogger, but this time I uploaded them to Photobucket instead. Guess the site handles it differently. Just click the preview images for the full-quality version.


Morning Musume's latest single Mikan, normal edition. I scanned the photocard of Risa and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan scans


Morning Musume's latest single Mikan, limited edition A which comes with a DVD. I scanned the photocard of Koharu and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan limited edition A scans


Morning Musume's latest single Mikan, limited edition B which comes with a photobook. I scanned the photocard of Sayumi and I also scanned the photobook- both are included in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Mikan limited edition B scans


Athena & Robikerottsu's first single, Shouri no BIG WAVE!!!, limited edition which comes with a photobook. I scanned the photobook and included it in the .rar file.
Download the .rar file for the rest of the Shouri no BIG WAVE!!! scans


I scanned the covers of the manga for my personal collection, so I thought I'd share them here too if anyone's interested. For SKET DANCE 1 and Prince of Tennis 40, it's just the one image so I didn't bother to upload a .rar file- just click on the preview image. The dust jackets just barely fit on my scanner- I didn't include the inside back flap because all it is is like a list of Jump tankoubon. For the Prince of Tennis Fanbook 40.5, the book's really thick, so the dust jacket was too big for my scanner. I scanned the inside flaps separately, so there's a .rar file for 40.5.

SKET DANCE 1 - Penki Kamen / Paint-Mask


Tennis no Oujisama / Prince of Tennis 40 - Tennis wo Wasureta Oujisama / The Prince Who Forgot Tennis


Tennis no Oujisama / Prince of Tennis 40.5 - Official Fanbook
Download the .rar file for the rest of the 40.5 scans

Recent purchases

It took us 4 hours to get home yesterday from my school, which usually only takes one...and it was uber dangerous, too. D: I love snow, but not when I'm trying to get home on the highway...I got uber bored, so I ended up romanizing lyrics to some Prince of Tennis songs I had lyric scans for on my laptop. I would have done j-pop songs instead, but the only scans I had were for the Prince of Tennis ending singles WHITE LINE and Wonderful days. xD; I'll post the romanizations later...
Anyway, I think the two packages sitting on my bed when I got home actually kinda made up for the long drive. 8D

I love Kinokuniya. I used to get pissed because there isn't one nearby where I live, but I ordered Prince of Tennis volume 40 and the 40.5 Fanbook on Saturday, and it's already here! 8D I'm so used to Yesasia which takes forever to ship, so...I think in the future I should use Kinokuniya to buy books and stuff, otherwise they'll slow down Yesasia orders like it did with my latest order. >> Sadly, this strategy doesn't work with Hello! Project photobooks. I checked it out when I went to make the order with the Tenipuri books, and you can't get them from the New York stores. It redirects me to their Japan store site instead, which a) I can't navigate very well and b) the shipping would be hell anyway, and take a while. But Kinokuniya is good for manga, so...xD
And then, I FINALLY got my Yesasia order that I placed over a month ago. I'm still pissed that it took so long- it really should have shipped out once Mikan was released. It's all because Sket Dance took so long...but I think it was worth it. Three copies of Mikan (haha, I know, I'm an uber crazy fan), Shouri no BIG WAVE!! limited, Sket Dance volume 1, and the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Set.



First up, the three copies of Mikan. I love this song so much. xD Which is part of the reason I bought all three editions. The other part is because there were special photocards in each one, and I love stuff like that. xD
I'd share some more pics of the booklets and limited photobook and stuff, but I'm going to scan these later today, which is even better! 8D
And now...which photocards did I get??
SUSPENSE! xD











Risa, Koharu, and Sayumi.
If I could have chosen which I got, I would have chosen Reina, Junjun, and Risa, my current three favorite members. (or the group card, which I totally didn't know existed until like five minutes ago...?) I absolutely LOVE Reina, and I love how she looks in the promo pics for this single! She has some really nice shots in the limited photobook- I love her outfit and her hair and like EVERYTHING! @_@ Sadly, luck was not really on my side when I opened these last night.
I'm really happy I got Risa, though. =) She's my second favorite member, and I like her photocard.
Sayumi's cute too- she's not one of my favorite members, but I like her appearance in this single, so I'm fine with getting her card.
Koharu, however...don't get me wrong, I like Koharu, but...I don't really like her here. I just don't think she looks that good- and honestly, she's not very high on my member ranking, so...



Next up is the limited edition of Shouri no BIG WAVE!!, which came with a photobook. I actually had no idea it had a photobook until I opened it up and it came out...xD I totally never saw anywhere just what the limited edition actually had in it.
I love this song- it's really cute and upbeat, and the Engrish makes me laugh a bit. Though, as much as I love this song, I think I've had enough "OKEY-DOKEY!"s for a while. @_@
The photobook has some pictures of the four girls involved in this single- the two Momusu, Risa and Aika, and the two C-ute members, Nakajima Saki and Okai Chisato. Aika's really cute. xD And, I'm sorry, I still don't really know who Nakajima and Okai are. I had to look them up to find out which group they're in. ;-; I seriously need to get my act together and learn the names of all the H!P Kids already...


Then there's the H!P 2007 Winter Live DVD Box. I feel like such an uber crazy fan having this...it cost $100, but I think it's worth it- three concerts and a bonus backstage disc. It's my first H!P concert I've actually bought- I've thought about buying some other concerts in the past, but turned them down in favor of more music. I can't wait to sit down and have an H!P concert marathon...xD
What I really like about H!P concerts is that unlike concerts by a solo artist or a normal group (lol, as in like, one that stays the same rather than constantly changing), there's always new groups of people singing an old song. Like current Morning Musume singing a song like LOVE Machine- I love always being able to hear different people sing older songs like that. Compare that to a concert by someone like BoA- you don't really hear anything new when she sings her older songs, because it's still the same person singing it- just live instead of a studio recording.
Now if only they'd record some of these new versions in the studio and release them separately...xD


Last but not least, there's the three manga I ordered. Sket Dance 1, Prince of Tennis 40, and Prince of Tennis 40.5.
Sket Dance is a new manga in Shounen Jump, and it currently has 21 chapters. It's a random school comedy manga, and it's really funny. Most new manga hasn't been doing so well in Jump lately, but I hope Sket Dance survives- it's really cool and funny, definitely one of my favorite series in the magazine.

Prince of Tennis 40...oh this is so much crack. xD The title of the volume is "The Prince who Forgot Tennis"...you really wouldn't think there would be this much crack in a tennis manga, but there seriously is. Basically this volume starts out in the middle of the National Tournament finals with Tezuka's arm being UBER DEAD (xD) and Sanada winning...then Ryouma comes back with Momo, Atobe, and Oshitari (because, see, Ryouma didn't show up to the finals, so Atobe WITH HIS HANDY HELICOPTER THAT HE JUST SO HAPPENS TO HAVE AT THE TOURNAMENT takes Oshitari and Momo to go find Ryouma. Who knows why Oshitari went, he's absolutely pointless), and the rest of the team is uber excited ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT RYOUMA HAS AMNESIA AND DOESN'T REMEMBER TENNIS! DUN-DUN-DUN
Then Inui and Kaidou play doubles against Yanagi and Kirihara, and Inui gets uber beaten up and basically dies in the middle of the court after stopping Kaidou from going into devil mode. Which is an uber scary sight that I hope I never have to see again, btw.
I know, wtf, people actually can get sent to the hospital for playing TENNIS?
Inui wakes up, he has UBER UBER BANDAGES WRAPPED AROUND HIS ENTIRE BODY (ahahaha I love that panel), and then it switches to Fuji vs Niou.
Niou, with his Illusion or w/e it's called, apparently can turn into Tezuka. I DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS EITHER. I mean, he's not just using Tezuka's moves, Konomi's actually DRAWING TEZUKA instead of Niou. And then it turns out that, ZOMG KONOMI PUT AN ANIME FILLER EPISODE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS MATCH FOR A FLASHBACK, and Fuji played Tezuka as a freshman. Angst happens. Then the volume ends.

40.5 is not, as you may think, half of a volume. xD It's the new fanbook, taking after 10.5 and 20.5 (no, it's not that they don't know how to count...30.5 was an artbook rather than a fanbook.). It has tons of information on all the players, and tons of other interesting pages that I'm sure would be much more interesting for me if I could understand any of it. Some of my favorite facts:
-Marui's favorite music is ORANGE RANGE. That's some good taste right there, huh? xD I started skimming to see if anyone else mentioned specific bands, but I got bored after getting halfway through and put it down. Eiji apparently loves idol groups, but he didn't specify H!P. I bet he has a collection somewhere, though. xD
-Ooishi's special skill outside of tennis is that he's able to tell whether a baby chick is a boy or a girl. Wtf, Ooishi. That's weird.
-Jirou carries Marui's wristband in his bag. STALKER
-Sanada carries around the "Sanada Family Rock". xDDDDD oh Sanada. A rock?? Why does his family even have a 'family rock' in the first place??



Haha, look at Inui. xD Who knows why he still wears his glasses. Can he even see with all those bandages? xD
(oh, and Koharu and Yuuji are there too- they hold the honor of being the ONLY EXPLICITLY STATED CANON GAY COUPLE in the series. <33 Now if only Konomi would just admit that the Golden Pair has sex behind the scenes...xD)



So, there we go. Scans and lyrics should be posted soon.

SHUFFLE GROUPS?!

I think I've had a half-written post about the lack of shuffle groups sitting on my desktop for like two weeks now. I've been planning on finishing that, but now I'm not 100% sure....
ARE SHUFFLE GROUPS COMING BACK?? <33
Take a look at this post from HPNH.
This certainly sounds like shuffle groups, though we'll have to see what exactly they're doing in their respective places they're going. I really hope this is the return of shuffle groups, which I really miss....maybe I'll finally finish up the shuffle unit post over the weekend. I have to rewrite like half of it, which is why I haven't finished it yet. xD;
Anyway, I can't wait for more information on this. I think my favorite group right now is the last one...it has my favorite current Morning Musume member, Reina, and my favorite former member, Mari. <33 I also like the group with the rest of the current Momusu- though I wish it had been shuffled around a bit more, I'd love to see just the newest Momusu (and Risa, who's probably my 2nd favorite current member) perform together.
If these are basically like shuffle groups, I think this is an interesting idea- I never considered the idea of there being more than 3 shuffle groups. xD Well, we'll see how everything turns out...

Mikan first week sales are a record low for Morning Musume

Aw, fuck.
I think that basically sums up my thoughts right about now. I can't believe it, and I really don't know how to react to this.
In my opinion, Mikan is Morning Musume's best single since...well, a while ago. Not that they've been really bad, but none of their singles measured up to their old releases back when they were really popular. Mikan...I thought it was a great catchy song, nice PV, it seemed more Golden Age-ish than any of their singles in the past year or two, or even longer. I thought this single would do way better than their more recent singles. Didn't mostly everyone on the H!P blogosphere like this song?
So what the hell happened to make this their lowest selling single ever?
Not that I ever expected this single to have sales rivaling Golden Age singles, but I definitely expected more than their recent singles. Instead we get a huge drop from their last single and it ended up beating out Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan as their lowest first-week single sales.

Well, I guess all we can do is cross our fingers and hope that their next single doesn't somehow drop even lower...and I think I've learned not to expect so much from Momusu. *sigh*

BUT I STILL LOVE THEM <3
xD No matter how badly they sell, I'll still support them. <33 They still remain my favorite j-pop group...

Congrats, Nono! ^^

As I'm sure most people on the j-pop blogosphere know by now, Tsuji Nozomi had a baby girl yesterday! Sugiura Noa was born at 12:45 am yesterday morning, weighing 2730 grams. Both Nono and Noa are in good health~
Wow, I still find it so hard to believe Nozomi has a kid now! @_@ I mean, NOZOMI of all people! As I think I said back when the pregnancy was announced, I never would have thought that Nozomi would be the first Momusu to have a kid. I guess I was expecting one of the older members of H!P like Nakazawa Yuko or Iida Kaori to be the first...well, Kaori's #2, with her child due soon (January, maybe?)...



On a random note, I romanized the lyrics to Mikan and the b-side today, but I'm not sure if the kanji lyrics I got from a Japanese fansite are 100% correct so I'm going to wait until my copies arrive (just to double-check) before I put them up here...

Broken headphones, connections, and a little bit of angst

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Grr, my headphones finally totally broke this morning on the way to school. They were at least usable before, but now the left headphone doesn't work at all and the outer part of it is like GONE...what a horrible time for my headphones to break, now I have to live with these all week until I go home for the weekend. My mom's going to buy new headphones from the Apple Store, but yeah, I still won't get them until the weekend.
I use my headphones so much during the week too- I can't fully wake up in the morning unless I listen to my iPod from breakfast straight through until assembly, and since I have such weird music tastes (well, to the normal American world =P) that once I'm back in my dorm room I have to listen to my music with headphones rather than just using my computer speakers. This is definitely going to bug me all this week...


Connections: Well, I just had teh uber shocking discovery. I was listening to Ibu Shinji's first character single from the Prince of Tennis anime, Can See the Light, and looked it up on Yesasia to add it to my cart cause it's a great song, and then I noticed that Yesasia said that it was by Moriyama Eiji. Ok, I definitely recognized that name, so I went to look him up on Wikipedia, and I found out- he's Momo's first-cast actor in the Prince of Tennis musicals!
What the hell...? So then I redownloaded the full single (I lost it when my hard drive crashed a while ago, but the song was still on my iPod) to listen to the voice message, and sure enough, as soon as the seiyuu started talking I immediately recognized him as Momo. It's so hard to tell though, when he's actually voicing Shinji! I definitely would -never- make that connection...
Moriyama Eiji as Ibu Shinji in the Prince of Tennis anime - Can See The Light
Moriyama Eiji as Momoshiro Takeshi in the Prince of Tennis musicals - Ore wa Momo-chan ~ Seigaku no Abarenbou
Seiyuu Voice Message from Shinji's CD- the first voice is Moriyama as himself (which is basically his voice for Momo) and then he has a 'conversation' or something with Shinji (aka, himself but with a different voice)...xD
Moriyama also plays Renji in the Bleach musicals, but I haven't watched that yet. I seriously need to, cause NAGAYAN (aka the cutest Eiji actor ever) PLAYS HITSUGAYA ASASDFKAJESLRIJASDLKFJASDKLFJ



And last but not least, I'm having an angsty moment on the inside cause my Yesasia order with my precious 3 copies of Mikan hasn't even shipped yet. It's been almost a week since Mikan was released~! DDD:
And since I chose free shipping, it'll be another week after it ships before it arrives at my house! And knowing my luck, it'll end up arriving on like a Monday and then I'll have to wait until the weekend before I actually get it. *sob*

roar @ Yesasia

I really really want my copies of Mikan...but it still hasn't shipped out yet. T_T I didn't think it would take this long to find a copy of the first Sket Dance volume...grr, now I know not to put a manga volume in the same Yesasia order as something I'm uber looking forward to...
Hopefully it'll ship out soon, then it'll arrive next weekend or so. I really don't want to have to wait ANOTHER week...even if it comes on a Monday, I still won't get it until that weekend since I board...D:

Morning Musume + America = ...?

Well, everyone's talking about this right now. I don't think I've ever really seen a debate like this in the j-pop fandom- the anime fandom, sure, but not the j-pop fandom. I guess it's cause I haven't been part of the blogosphere or anything for too long...but anyway.
I'm going to follow the crowd and be unoriginal and write a post about my opinions to the idea of Morning Musume coming over to America! 8D

I'd LOVE it if Morning Musume came to America. Honestly, it would be like a dream come true. To hear Morning Musume on the radio, to be able to buy their albums without paying like $30 + shipping, to even maybe get the chance to go to a concert...and if everyone knew about Morning Musume, I wouldn't be the considered the freaky girl at school who listens to weird Japanese music anymore. 8D Now that would be cool. I have a couple of kids at school who also like anime, but when it comes to j-pop (and especially H!P), all I have is the j-pop blogosphere. Oh how I'd love to have friends who I could actively chat with about this stuff. xD
HOWEVER, I'm trying to be realistic about this...and so I'm not exactly sure if they'd actually do really well.

Now, I haven't listened to the radio in years- well, I've listened to a couple of stations in the morning cause my roommate at school wakes up to the radio in the morning, but it's not like the popular music station or anything, so...
I haven't watched MTV or VH1 or any music station, either. However, from what I -do- know about popular music these days, it's that there isn't ANYTHING like Morning Musume. Pop used to be popular, back in the days of boy bands like NSYNC and solo girl singers like Britney Spears. But now I don't think anything like that's popular- so Morning Musume would be totally different than most of the stuff that's on the radio. Now, for me that's definitely not a bad thing. I don't like American music, so having more pop music like Morning Musume on the radio would actually get me to listen to the radio sometimes. However, for most American music fans, I'm not sure if that would be a good change- people aren't really used to that. It would be different, definitely- but I'm not sure whether it would be considered a good thing. I know a lot of people who love rap music, so if all of a sudden a Morning Musume song came on the radio after some popular rap song, I'm pretty sure they'd turn it off.

I guess this kinda also ties in with tours and sales- they have fans in the US already, but would they really be able to become popular with the people that don't already know them or watch anime? I want to say yes- but I'm really not quite sure. They'd get some fans- but I'm not sure if it would really be enough for it to really be worthwhile to come to America.

However, I think it would be a great idea to come to America for something like an anime convention. At an anime convention, they don't have to worry about the language barrier or anything, since everyone there obviously knows anime and everything. That would give the already-existing fans a chance to actually see them in concert, and also draw in more people to the fandom- they have a much better chance with anime fans than with your typical American who just listens to the radio everyday. And for the record, if Morning Musume ever goes to an anime convention, I'M THERE. 8D Unless it's on the west coast, then I'm screwed since I live in Massachusetts...>_<
I'm not exactly sure how all this stuff works, but maybe they could release their 10th anniversary album in America- just to start off, since it's all their singles (which, in my opinion, are their best songs), and see what happens with that. And if that's popular, then they could go ahead and try releasing more albums and maybe come for a tour or something.
I think putting Momusu on US iTunes is a good start. Now, I personally refuse to buy songs from iTunes- if I'm willing to pay for a song, I'll buy the physical copy, thank you very much. >_< But so many people use iTunes for all their music- so making H!P music available on US iTunes was definitely a good idea. It's much easier (and cheaper) for non-hardcore fans to buy a song on iTunes rather than import an album from Japan.

I don't believe they could just all of a sudden come to America, tour, release an album, and just become popular just like that. If it's not like American music (which it's not, obviously), then they can't just break into the market right away- but if they start small, maybe they could possibly get enough attention to get on the radio and become popular.
I know that a lot of people have strong opinions either way- either saying that Morning Musume would totally work in America, or that they would fail and they shouldn't even try. I'm kind of in the middle of this- I don't want to totally rule out the possibility of them coming to America, since I think they could have a chance, but I don't want to be overly optimistic and say that they'll definitely become a huge hit.


I do think that there are other artists in Japan who could become huge hits in America- but I think I'll save that for later. ;)

Since when did Morning Musume have a manga? @_@

I was totally unaware Morning Musume had a manga...called Musume Monogatari, and it was in Nakayoshi. @_@
Lol, not like I pay any attention to shoujo magazines, but someone was selling some Nakayoshi issues and said that 'Musume Monogatari (morning musume manga)' was in it...so basically my Morning Musume fandom requires me to get those issues. xDD The LJ user was also selling two issues of some other manga magazine (dunno which one, couldn't read the title) that apparently had a Minimoni manga, and Morning Musume + Minimoni interviews.
So of course I got them all. xDDD I seriously vowed last week to wait a couple of weeks before I bought more things, cause I bet my mom's gonna start getting suspicious considering every week when I come home there's always at least one package waiting for me. =P Except this week, but those two packages should come tomorrow. xD
BUT THIS IS A SPECIAL EXCEPTION. xDDD
Cause, I mean, manga and anime and stuff like that, you can get other places, but when people sell manga magazines, especially old ones like the ones in this post (2002-2003), it's pretty hard to find elsewhere...so yeah.
That totally doesn't rationalize buying them, but...8D They were cheap...?

You know, now that I think about it, I have an issue of this other shoujo manga magazine Ciao that I got from my camp that has a manga involving Minimoni in it. Hmm...xD





On a random note, I have this post about H!P shuffle units that I wrote today, but I wrote half of it during history class so I wasn't 100% focused on it, and now I'm too tired to read it over and edit it so I'll do that in the morning. xD

Morning Musume - Mikan PV OUT!! <333

WHEE

watch it on Dohhh UP!

Ok, I LOVE this song. I don't usually absolutely LOVE a song after one listen. There are some songs that I like after the first listen, but I don't really LOVE a song until I've listened to it a couple of times.
I LOVE this song. After watching the PV once.

I mean, I love all of Morning Musume's singles. Except some of their early ones (a couple of pre-LOVE Machine singles like Memory Seishun no Hikari and Furusato), but w/e. That's totally besides the point, they had kinda a different style back then.
But lately, their songs have taken a few listens before I really start liking the songs. When I got back into j-pop after not paying attention to it for a couple of months (this was...about April-ish I think, cause the Kanashimi Twilight PV was out, but the single wasn't), I downloaded Egao YES Nude, and thought it was...different from Momusu's usual style. I like it now, but it's not really my favorite of their songs...
Kanashimi Twilight was great, but again, I didn't really like it after I watched the PV once. It really took a couple more listens before I actually liked it. And again, it doesn't really seem...Momusu-ish to me.
Onna ni Sachi Are had more of a dance-style to it, which not only was totally different from the previous singles, but it was something that I don't think I've ever heard before in a Momusu single. I mean, maybe there was a song like it on an album or as a b-side or something, I dunno. To be perfectly honest, I tend not to listen to b-sides/album songs very much. ^^;;; I liked Onna ni Sachi Are on the first listen, but not really like...'zomg this song is great', like I thought when I first heard Golden Age Momusu songs.

Mikan, however...
Wow. This song really reminds me of the Golden Age of Momusu- like Koko ni Iruzee!, as I've seen other people say. It's really pop-ish and cute, and it's totally different from their last couple of singles, which seemed almost like experiments in other styles of music. This song, however, takes them back to what worked in 2003-ish.
The music video, while not really loading correctly on my computer and freezing every couple of seconds (grr >_<), was...well, I didn't think it was anything too special, but it's good. And the baby pictures are so cute! <33
I think Takahashi Ai looked better with long hair. >_<
Linlin reminds me so much of Ayaka in a couple of scenes in the PV...xDD; Am I the only one that thinks they look similar?
And I really like Junjun. At first, I saw a picture of her that wasn't really a good picture, and I didn't think she'd be that good as a Momusu member. However, I think she looks nice in this PV, so...<3

I know Momusu hasn't been doing too well lately- at least, compared to Golden Age and everything. But I really think this song will do well~ <33

I might buy both limited editions of this single. I've never done that before- I really don't like the idea of two limited editions for a CD. >_< I mean, before, you didn't really know what would come with a limited edition of a Momusu single. It could be photocards (like Chokkan 2 and SEXY BOY), it could be a DVD (like Ambitious!), or it could be a photobook (like Rainbow 7), or maybe something else (yeah, those are the only ones that came with a CD I got). But then they started releasing two limited editions for a single, one with a DVD and one with a photobook. I don't like having to choose. xD If possible, I might seriously get both limited editions. Not sure yet, though...

So I ordered new music today.

Yeah...
Buono! - Honto no Jibun (limited edition)
byTachikiritai - Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy! (limited release)
Gyaruru - Boom Boom Meccha Maccho! (limited edition)
Morning Musume - 7.5 Fuyu Fuyu Morning Musume Mini (limited edition)
Morning Musume - ALL SINGLES COMPLETE ~10th Anniversary~ (limited edition)
Morning Musume - Eizou The Morning Musume 4 ~Single M Clips~
Ongaku Gatas - Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell (limited edition)
Prince of Tennis 2008 calendar

I think this is the first time in a while that I've bought more general j-pop than PoT music...anyway, with this I'm finally caught up with Morning Musume's CD releases, so now I have to start heading back and collecting everything before Chokkan 2...
Aaand I actually bought a Morning Musume DVD! YAAAAYYYYYYY I downloaded this DVD a while ago, and I liked it a lot~ it's all their PVs from THE Manpower!!! to Kanashimi Twilight. Plus, it's the only place to find their PV for Koi wa Hassou Do The Hustle!...
Then there's Gyaruru's single- it's the limited edition, so it comes with the DVD. I heard that the DVD of this is basically like an H!P Single V DVD, so I'm looking forward to it~
I'm not exactly sure what the DVDs for Nari Hajimeta Koi no Bell and Honto no Jibun have, but whatever~
Lol, then there's Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy!. I wasn't actually planning on buying this, but when the opening video came out the other day, I ended up listening to it a lot and getting addicted. xD;;;;; It's too catchy...though I STILL don't like it as much as Flower or Kakaeta Kiseki, it's definitely good. So that resulted in me pre-ordering the single...
And the calendar, of course. Someone posted the images on the tenipuri LJ community, and it looked amusing. xD So...yeah, I bought it.
I was tempted to choose the split shipment option, but it was $10 extra, so...guess I just have to wait until the end of October for this to ship out (since Honto no Jibun and Koi no Gekidasa Ecstasy aren't being released until the 31st).


On a totally unrelated note, Ao to Bin to Kan's single Gather FINALLY SHIPPED! I ordered that over a month ago from one of those places through Amazon. Believe me, I'm not ordering from that site again...I almost forgot about it, but I got an e-mail a day or so ago telling me that it shipped. YAAAAYYYYY]

And on another totally unrelated note, 6 more PoT character CDs have been announced. From the looks of things, it's the Shitenhouji Best of Rival Players set. Dunno how they're gonna get 6 CDs...Shiraishi definitely gets one, same with Chitose and the freshman kid. Then I bet there's gonna be one for Koharu/Yuuji...maybe Ishida Gin? And that's only 5...maybe Oshitari's cousin, Oshitari Kenya? Not like he plays an important role in the story at all, but...well, whatever. We'll see when it gets closer to the release dates- two are coming out on November 21st, two on the 28th (Eiji's birthday btw, yaaay), and then two are coming out the Wednesday after that (too lazy to look up the date).

I NEED TO GET THIS

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[/keyboardsmash]

Morning Musume - ALL SINGLES COMPLETE ~10th ANNIVERSARY~

I think it's the cover for this that made me keyboard smash. XD I mean, damn, I wanna see a better version of that...
I'm comparing it to the original cover of LOVE Machine right now on my computer and they even got the outfits pretty much exactly the same~! And even some of the hairstyles look the same, too...like Reina's and Mari's...
Can't wait until it pops up on Yesasia/CD Japan, I'm really interested in this. Hope it's not too uber expensive~

lolz I just remembered the LOVE Machine curse.
Oh noez, hopefully it doesn't curse the current Momusu~