Pyoko Pyoko Baby Chicks!!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!! Harunan and Masaki center chicks!
Wave yo feathaaaaaaaaaz!

Mame graduates.

Well. Happy New Year, indeed! Once again, we start off with goodbyes.

I knew someone would have already used this, but I need to say it all the same. When I read this news, my first thought was what Mame said to Yossy when she graduated: “With your departure, the Morning Musume in my heart will completely disappear.” I shouldn’t say such things, of course. Yossy is my favourite and I’ve loved Momusu even after her grad. It’s just…

It’s MAME. Beanie. Gaki-san.
She’s the last of the Gokkies.

In Which Isilie Reviews 2011*~~

This year is just…I can’t even get my head around it and it’s already pretty much over. I feel like I blinked one day in January and then the year was just done.

Need I even list all the insanity of this year?  If you’re an H!P fan, odds are you already know. If you aren’t, then you’ll at least have heard of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March and how continuously devastating it is to those still living it. It is hardly over, even if the news has moved on. Reading translated tweets from Japan, reading as much as could online and just seeing the photos in newspapers everywhere is something I will never forget. I suppose it’s trite – I don’t live there, I have no family there – but the feelings I had during that month…not something I will forget. Something that changed a lot of things for me.

Just to digress for a moment, I was very touched when the online fan communities rallied this year and donated money, time, effort, and headaches into fundraising campaigns. You can look at it however you want (I’m sure there are more than enough people out there who think donating money is/was a bad/ignorant/naive idea because blahblahblah, but hush for a bit, ok?), but I thought it was awesome. I love that our self-indulgence could help, even a little bit. Love of idols tends to lead to a love of Japan, the desire to learn the language and a love of the culture outside of anime or Johnnies or whatever it might be. At least it has in my limited experience. That is the best part about this sort of fandom. I was very, very touched.

Ok~! Onward, one more time in 2011!

Shining Butterfly !panic!

Dream Morning Musume. Nacchi, Yuko-sama, Rika, the Gooch, Makochin, Kaorin, Kemeko, Nutjob (for some reason) and YOSSYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

XD

Unsurprisingly, when Dream came along, my initial reaction was an unthinking, “YAAAAAAAAY!!!” I hadn’t seen this group together in years and years. Aside from Nutjob, who I am at best ambivalent about as an idol, there is no one in this group who isn’t an engaging, strong performer. I didn’t sit there analyzing it and thinking, “uh oh”, I just let out a squee and waited to see the concert.

Which was completely epic.
But now they have a single. An original single.

When I needed cheering up

Today, sick with a cold and miserable, I clicked on a favourite I didn’t recognize. I got this.

our randomly-generated Hello! Project unit:

The one-time only unit Egao Matsuri will be made up of Yaguchi Mari, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Tsuji Nozomi, Matsuura Aya, Ayaka, Maeda Yuki. Their single will have a 80s New Wave sound and they will wear black leather tube tops with matching pants for the PV.

…

…

Thank you Cult of Pop!!!!

I read that and went out of my crappy reality into a happy visual place.

PS: Thanks for letting me know about all the H!P happenings guys. I have lots of stuff to check out now.  XD

~Isilie

Where is H!P!?

Ok, seriously, where are you H!P? You just had a graduation, you just had a play, you just got several new members, new tours, random collaborations etc – so where are you?

All I keep seeing is this Mobekimasu stuff and I just – I don’t care about that! It’s DONE. No more promotions where Momoko makes an idiot of herself trying to be Shige, no more performances where they pretend that dance isn’t completely ridiculous (stop bending over and shaking your butts when you’re wearing the huge skirts – you look silly)…

Mobekismasu will be fun at H!P concerts, but it’s DONE now. Do something else.

In Which Isilie can’t keep up

Ok, work is getting the way of blogging time.

There are a bunch of things I haven’t commented on (yet again) that I want to talk about, but none of them warrant their own posts.

At least I don’t think so.

It’s odd, I’m still kind of stuck on the recent graduation, if only because I recently saw the actual ceremony (and I cried yet again). The poor new members…one was so nervous she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Ahhh, so small…

The whole thing really did feel intimate, like it was done at a tiny theater or something. I loved Ai’s casual outfit, how humble and cool she was, even when she was crying too hard to sing. Niigaki’s eyes when she told her friend that she should live for herself now…*sniff*

It was a fantastic goodbye.

Anyway, here’s just a few things I wanted to talk about.

Remembering the Ai-Era

Well, it’s done, the Takahashi Ai era of Momusu (we are calling it an era!!). Now that I have some much needed time away from work, I can  think through how I feel about this. It’s still new for me, so bear with me a little?

Takahashi Ai had to take the reigns from Yossy, the last of the ‘Golden Era’ musumes. She led the group through nearly four years of big moments: their first trip to America, their first (I assume) trip to Paris, their first number one since ‘Aruiteru’ and two major member additions – the Chinese half of our eighth gen and the delightful ninth gen. I’ve read so many blogs saying that under her lead the group ‘stagnated’ (people rely on that word a lot) because the songs all started to sound alike and because the line-up of front-girls never changed. I’ve also read talk that claims because she was such a powerful performer she overshadowed everyone. To paraphrase another blogger (if this is you, tell me and I will credit you properly) “There’s no need to push anyone else to improve. Takahashi will carry everything!”

I don’t think there has ever been a case quite like that in Momusu history. Even in the Goto era we had such powerhouses that it didn’t matter how hard they pushed her – the others kept speaking up and getting in our faces (and that is why Dream Momusu can exist). With the Ai era, I don’t think it was even just that she overshadowed everyone. That was part of it, but I think Momusu was just missing that senpai-kouhai dynamic that was so prevalent before Yossy left. Let’s face it, none of the Gokkies are leader material on first glance. I think that is largely why Momusu became so close and familial. There was such an emphasis on unity, very few line-up changes and much less of an age gap so everyone became comfortable with each other. They were comfortable enough that some OGs mentioned it specifically. Eventually Ai herself commented that Tsunku’s advice was to make it a “close and family-type” group because it would work for her.

Takahashi led the group and then H!P itself through a very strange time. Getting rid of the Elder Club and restructuring H!P back into a place for the younger performers was a huge step. I personally loved this era and after Yossy left I didn’t even know if I would still be a Momusu fan. But I am, perhaps moreso than ever before. I just wanted to reminisce about Takahashi’s lead because I don’t want to write another post about how great, adorable and talented she is and how she will be missed (even though those things are all very true). I wanted to really look at the things that I loved most about it and see what conclusion I can come to.

This ended up quite long, so forgive me.  m (_ _) m

Congratulations Ai. Welcome 10th gen.

I really wish I had more to say on this right now. There will be more, but for now I’m just saying goodbye like everyone else. It’s a new world again, people. No more relying on Takahashi in every way possible. We have a lot of new blood (so to speak) so Tsunku or whomever’s in charge will have to start using it again.

It’s funny…

This morning I was listening to Honki de Atsui theme song from Ikimasshoi!, Takahashi’s first album with the group. I was thinking about how strange it is that she has graduated and how it never really sinks in that one of the girls is leaving until she is long gone. I was listening to her unpolished enthusiasm and thinking over all the different evolutions she’s lived through in this group. It became something else for awhile when she became leader. Whether that something was good or bad is really a matter of opinion.

I personally loved it. But that particular song triggered something.

In which the title is as long as the pv itself

FINALLY a new Momusu pv. Not just one, mind you. TWO! Well, one really long one that incorporates two by using a dream sequen-you know what? I’m happy. Let’s not quibble about such things.

Uh oh. It’s about to get DISCO in here!