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Mano Erina Android App

Thursay, 23th February 2012 00:48 | 432 Comments

Mano Erina has an official App out on Android (which can be downloaded here), it's prety basic stuff it's a portal into the social networking sites that she's on. So we get links to her Twitter account, her blog, YouTube video, images etc.


In theory, for fans this type of App is always useful, a quick an easy way to group and view all the activities of Mano. And since owning a smart phone I've had a large number of these style of Apps installed, but the unfortunate thing is that this is less professionally done than the majority of fan made equivalent Apps... although I've yet to see any of these for Mano.
There's a number of issues I have with this app, first off the presentation is awful. If you look at an AKB48 equivalent app (AKB48 App) you'll see that although it's not the best looking thing it's not the eye sore that this is. There's a bit of colour going on, things aren't always just links to web pages and the menu system running accross the bottom works better (as it's scrollable). And whilst I'm on the subject of the bottom bar, the biggest problem I have is that under the menu bar we have some intrusive adverts! I don't quite understand why an App like this, especially an official one would have adverts in it, well obviously I do; to make money. But surely there's no need to?
Something like this should really sell itself without the need for ads, well at least intrusive irrelevant ads. Something like this should be used to the full potential of the artist, the first thing that a user should see when opening this is the latest release, tap that latest release and then it redirects the user to more details on said release and/or redirects the user to a page online where they can buy it, set yourself up an affiliate scheme and you can even cash in a tad more in selling your own releases and then suddenly the need for "Vodafone Free Sims" etc adverts are gone, everyones happy, we don't need to look at pointless adverts and we buy more releases in the long run.

The look and adverts aside, the rest of the app doesn't get any better. It's esentially a web browser, click on the Twitter button and you're taken to the mobile version of Twitter and the same goes for the rest of it. Movies, ultimately link you to YouTube videos, but we access these videos by a screen within the app, we get a little background photo on Manoeri with video thumbs over the top. This isn't too bad, but the problem with this is the background image isn't fixed, you scroll through the list of videos and the background image scrolls to, so after 3 videos you're left with a black screen which just looks ugly.
As for the blog, photos and more options, well on my phone at least they're all a bit buggy. They do load but not all the time, sometimes I have to pinch the screen for anything to appear and with the gallery the page is to large for the screen from the get go so you have to scroll left and right, and when you tap a photo a pop up appears which you again have to scroll to that's too big for the available space.

Overall, I'd say this is an extremly badly done app, which is a shame as so many other equivalently functioning Apps are around that do things much better. All it needed was a smigding of thought and effort, but instead it looks like they've thrown some links together in the hope that something good will come out of it and things like this, especially official things like this just reflect badly.

TAGS [ App Mano Erina ]
Posted Thursay, 23th February 2012 00:48 | 19550 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Moulin Rouge Gets Some Buono! Action

Friday, 17th February 2012 03:45 | 401 Comments

Getting off the coach in Paris on a Sunday morning at 7am in the Winter is one of the best things I can suggest for waking you up in the morning.
First, you're rudely awakened from the lovely sleep you was having by the coach driver, in a half asleep state you try to remember why a tubby Portuguese guy is waking you up (...was it another one of THOSE weekends?...) you stumble off of the coach with your coat in your bag out into the freezing morning. Suddenly things become clear; Paris, BUONO!... MUST GET TO THE QUEUE! But Paris has one last wake up call and that's the walk across the bridge over the motorway. Usually (well at least every other time I've been) it's quiet, but on a Sunday morning it's filled with the oddest market I've ever seen.
It was selling questionably stained blankets and all manner of 20 year old broken electrical goods, AND then there was the people buying. You'll never see anyone scruffier or smell more of urine.
So, after I spent €5 on a top loading VHS player that would finally let me watch my copy of Top Gun I made my way towards the venue, La Machine du Moulin Rouge.

Having somehow managed to walk a few days before hand to the Palais omnisport de Paris Bercy for another concert (that post is for another time and another blog... PTOM.co.uk) I'd decided that I could walk to this venue too, but in the end I finally caved and jumped on the Metro, Google Maps estimation of a 2 hour walk was slightly off when I reached about half way and it'd taken an hour and a half.

A couple of stops later and I was walking up from the metro and into Paris's Red Light District. Being a frequent visitor to the London's Red Light District in Soho (...would anyone believe me if I said it's a great shortcut and that's the only reason I use it?) and having spent an evening or two in Japan's Red Light District (...would anyone believe me if I said there's a tasty Korean restaurant around that way and that's why we went?) I gotta say I was a little disappointed, admittedly I didn't explore it in any great depth but from what I could see there was one Sex Shop, a Lingerie Shop and obviously the Moulin Rouge. From what I understand there's a couple of other places similar to the Moulin Rouge which are a bit more racey... but come on, I like my Red Light Districts filled with crack heads and old worn out women trying to entice me into a grotty little club where I'll pay £50 for a pint of beer, maybe I'm just not classy enough for Paris?

It seems that people we're slightly more sensible than those that had gone to the Music Bank concert a couple of days before and although there was a queue it wasn't particulaly long. Apparently the queue had formed around 8am-ish so I was only a couple of hours late. Jumping at the back of the queue I waited for familiar faces to turn up.


After awhile, Shirow, Lolli and Kea turned up and we all watched in amazement as a handful of French fans decided that they were going to to be the Boss of the queue, they organized into thinner queue, took names so no one pushed in and talked about wacky schemes of running the queue inside the Moulin Rouge's little entrance bit... all crazy stuff... if only the rest of the world was like England, we don't need queue bosses, we all instinctively know how to queue, tsk. Anyway this whole thing lasted up until the point a transit van pulled and the girls jumped out, the queue vanished into a crowd of people trying to get a glimpse of Mono, Miyabi and Airi. Due to the mass crowd I only managed to see the back of Airi's head as she dissapeared inside the venue, on the plus side however our position in the queue had got considerably better and we was now about 150 people in front of where we was before... shhhhhh don't tell anyone

By this time some more familiar faces had turned up; Sswishbone, Krv, Nimrod and Oraboros had all turned up and the discussion turned to yesterdays signing event.
Having missed the news about the signing event I took the chance to hear tales of it and to look through photos taken. And then the inevitable conversation of "Why are the girls being driven around in a white transit van that looks like some fan has kidnapped them and is now driving them off to some dodgy warehouse?"... seriously, wtf? Come on UFA surely you have a bit more of a budget for this than to buy a white van, sure you stuck some stickers on it, but really?

And eventually after much line standing and getting in alphabetical order we entered the venue. The mad rush for merchandise started, out of all it I had my eye on one thing, and Airi towel. And for once it wasn't going to be an emotionally attached purchased item to do with the love of an idol, because to be fair, im not the biggest Airi fan. But on taking a peak at was available I saw that already the towel had been sold out, in-fact by the end of the concert most of the Japanese merchandise was sold out.
So heading down to the stage we got ourselves a fairly decent spot, about 6 from the front (although with the push forward at the start of the conert and the jumping through out I found myself at times as close as 3 away from the stage). We watched a good 20 mins of PVs and people in our surrounding area were already suffering from ringing ears due to the loudness of Sswishbones cheering... luckily their were no fatalities with the swinging of his arms.
And then the moment we had all been waiting for (and probably what you've been wanting to read about) the lights went out, glow sticks were cracked the cheering started and finally the girls came out!
The excitement was crazy, from where I was standing I had a clear view of Miyabi and as she stared at the floor in her spot on the stage getting ready to start the gig, I could see her raising her eyes looking over the crowd and cracking a little smile over the reaction they were getting, and the reaction was amazing, probably one of the best starts to a Hello! Project concert I've attended. Literally the place was a glow with green, red and pink, the crowd was jumping and thrusting and the chanting was just overwhelming.


To say I was expecting great things from Buono! wouldn't be a lie, they've been one of the most consistently great groups within H!P and have an equally great line up, but what I got was so much more. And as ever seeing the girls live has totally changed my perceptive on them and how I rank them, I've always had it Momo, Airi and Miyabi in that order. But seeing them perform live that's totally changed, I'm actually in love with Airi whose now my fave, she was amazing (I even gave her a little wolf whistle after their costume change), followed by Miyabi who was just... adorable, her smiles at the start and her performance throughout, so good! And although she does have a chin reminiscent of Beavis, she so damn pretty! And finally Momo, I actually feel really bad saying I preferred Momo the least in the concert because she was just as amazing. I think getting caught up in the moment and noticing something about two idols that you've always kind of passed on in the past can be a very dramatic thing. You only need to look at my time in LA and seeing LinLin.

We got a little break with an MC where the woman from the previous French concerts came on stage and done a bit of translating. And I felt as much hatred for her as I've felt at every other concert, first as we're all cheering the girls she walks on stage telling us to be quiet... REALLY? You're going to tell fans to be quiet for cheering the idols they've come to see and hear? Well the answers Yes, and she does it everytime she comes on the stage, talk about runing the moment. And then as per usual, her time on stage was not only fairly boring but just took way too long. They're was some fun moments in it, but if I'm honest I'm here to see the girls, I'm here to listen to the songs that I love, I'm here to show support for a group that's just damn amazing, I don't want to be told to stop cheering, I don't want to have some random talking on stage.

Anyways... after the management popping out and presumably telling her to hurry the F up, the girls carried on. We had a little moment of dance instructions for Rottara Rottara which was great fun, and then proceeded to pretty much just rock out to 3 jpop idols! Until the end of the concert.

The concert finsihed the girls went off and the cheers carried on, they quickly popped back on stage gave a bow and headed off again, then the cheers for ENCORE came and they came strong and they lasted for felt like ages I've got to guess that we were cheering for 5-10 minutes at least, during this time the lights stayed off and the backing music played, the cheers never died down and the glow stick were a-waving. Unfortunalty like most (all?) of the European/US H!P concerts I've attended and encore wasn't going to happen, and a lovely random lady who came on to tell us this got the full brunt of the BOOOS from the crowd. Come on guys, organize the encore into the performance, you know we're going to be calling for it.

And with that, those of us lucky enough to be attending the after performance signing hung around whilst the rest of us left to get some snacks and drinks.
Unfortunatly for me my coach was leaving at 11pm so I couldn't stay for long, I had a swift burger and whilst everyone else went off to get a bit typsy with fellow Wota I headed to the coach with my iPod playing Buono! and me remembering the awesome experience I just had.

TAGS [ Airi Buono! Live Miyabi Momo ]
Posted Friday, 17th February 2012 03:45 | 7809 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Buono! European Concert... Take 2

Sunday, 13th November 2011 23:45 | 356 Comments

So it looks like Buono! will be making an appearance in Europe afterall... it'll only have taken them nearly 3 years since their first scheduled appearance at the failed Stockholm Japan Expo 2009. Luckliy (well for me at least) this time around things are slightly more closer to home, in that country that me and CDevil love to frequent so often, France. Also, the date of the performance is extremely convinient for myself as I was already planning on heading to Paris for the 8th/9th of Feburary for the Music Bank K-Pop Festival, this'll save me from heading home and coming back at a later, I can find myself a nice cheap place to stay for a few nights and catch 2 events! Also, with my birthday coming up on the 16th it'll be a nice little birthday treat :D

The prospect of being able to see Buono! in concert is one of being looking forward to for a long time, the mix of the awesomeness of Momo, Miyabi and Airi and the amazingness of their concert performances is hopefully going to make this remember. Hopefully this time we won't have issues out of the control of H!P causing the dissapointment that was their Sweden appearance.

Also, there's news that Berryz Kobo will be making an appearance next June as well, about a 30 minute drive away from the gateway to Hell at AnimeNEXT. The liklihood of me making it out to the US is rather slim, but I'd really like to go to New Jersey and maybe find a Quick Stop? Snoogans!

TAGS [ Berryz Buono! ]
Posted Sunday, 13th November 2011 23:45 | 11521 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Sayuminglandoll

Tuesday, 18th October 2011 01:13 | 462 Comments

If there's a member of Hello! Project that's going to get me excited about a PB release, it's pretty much hands down going to be Sayu. I might winge (on the odd occasion) that she has bad skin but the bottom line is that she's been the one member that has consistently, from the start of my collection of H!P PBs, got me thinking "I NEED THAT PB!". There's been the occasion where I've been strapped for cash and haven't been able to buy it the moment it's been released, but unlike over members where I get the urge to spend some cash on their latest release but after awhile the need dies down, Sayu's books always stick in mind, I just have to have them.

So, it won't really come as a surprise then that I'm looking forward to her upcoming PB release next week. But it wasn't until I saw a preview of the cover a little earlier today that I really got excited about it.
The format that the majority of the Hello! Project PBs follow is fairly standard, if you've seen one you no what to expect with any of the others. But there's a few that break that exception, I'm thinking along the lines of Ayaya & Mikitty's PB or any of Aibon and Nono's PBs, something where the likes of a bikini doesn't crop up something where we're given that little bit more. And although I know I'm literally going by the cover of the book and I know that Sayu has even mentioned on her blog that there's shots of her in a bikini, I'm hoping that we see a bit more fun had... sure I'm not complain about seeing her in a bikini, hell I've literally just finished flicking through the latest Alo-Hello! 5 PB and chances are will flick through again by the end of the night seeing as it's sitting right in front of me, but come on look at the cover and tell me you don't want a book filled with photos that are as quirky/cute/original/sexy as this?


In a lot of respects the cover really does remind of Ayaya and Mikitty's joint book, you've got the same styled stripy background, the curved almost bouncy looking title font, the girls in the middle all bordered off and even the outfit Sayu is wearing looks like they hacked Ayaya's bunny outfit down to a boob tube, mini skirt and a pair of boots.


Am I going to be disappointed if this turns out to be regular affair? Not really, it's Sayu and I know I'm going to like it either way. But I will appreciate it more if they make it even slightly more quirkier than the rest of her releases.

Michisige Sayumi's 8th PB "Sayuminglandoll"


TAGS [ Ayaya Mikitty PB Sayumi ]
Posted Tuesday, 18th October 2011 01:13 | 11702 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Japan Expo 2011

Sunday, 3rd July 2011 22:40 | 351 Comments

My plans for this years Japan Expo were very sketchy, based all around whether my wages cleared or not, unfortunatly they'd be clearing on the Friday of the weekend that the event was taking place. This as you can imagine was a major pain in the backside, not only for me but for CDevil who for pretty much everytime he asked me if I was coming my response was "maybe"... not particularly useful when you're going for the whole weekend and need to book a room (soz about that >_<").

Friday rolled along and after getting up early and driving to the airport at 4 in the morning to drop Chris off for a flight to Germany my plan for the day was to do some work and crash into bed at a reasonable hour to catch up on the 5 hours of sleep I missed that morning... that was until Aqua decided to txt me at 7am saying that we should fly to Paris... this started our minds ticking. The cost of flying and the train was just too much for a day trip at such short notice and Aqua wasn't overly keen on getting the coach over, so that left one option, to drive!

So, with a couple of hours sleep in the evening, I left my house at 11pm to head over to Aqua's and then off to catch our ferry at 3.20am. For those of you that know me, my timing sucks, I'm late for most things, but for this I made sure that I'd be not only on time, but early! Unfortunatly for me I didn't take into consideration the possibilty that I could be stuck in traffic for just over 3 hours <_< SERIOUSLY who drives that late on a Friday night and why were they all driving down the same road as me?!
In the space of an hour I'd managed to move 1 mile, it was a mix of road works (merging 3 lanes into 1), the odd crash and peoples cars breaking down... there was at least 3 people who'd turned their engines off but had left their lights and radios on and so when it came to starting them back up and getting moving, they weren't going anywhere, IDIOTS! So, an hour before we were meant to be getting on the ferry and 15 minutes before we were supposed to be checking in, I pulled up outside Aqua's. The amusing thing was that neither of us were too concerned, she jumped in and we headed off.
First we pulled into the euro tunnel to see if we could make up for lost time and grab the next train over, but that was going to set us back £140 (one way), slightly more than the £30 (return) ticket we'd bought for the ferry. So, off we drove to the ferry. We wandered around a bit trying to see if we could find any information points that were open, but all we could find was a slightly drunk man who reaked of booze BUT he was helpful! He pointed us in the right direction and off we went. Pulling up at the check-in area for the ferry I rolled down my window, stuck my head out the car and said "can you help, we've missed our ferry", to which the reply I got back was "No problem, Mr Paul Thomas you can get on the next ferry"... I can't thank P&O Ferries enough for their pyschic members of staff and their helpfullness!!

6 hours later, we pulled into Japan Expo's car park and headed towards the entrance! My phones battery was in the red, I sent a couple of messages, tried to ring CDevil a couple of times and then it died and with no idea what peoples plans were or where to meet them, it left only one logical thing to do GO AND TRY TO WIN A TICKET FOR THE SIGNINGS!!!
This was initially met with some disappointment. We first came across the Dream Morning Musume booth and asked where the raffle was taking place for the signing. A sad look came back to us from the woman behind the counter, she then told us that "all the tickets had been given out at 10" <_<
So, with less spring in our step we headed to the h.NAOTO booth to check out the Hangry & Angry merchandise and to see about the their signing later that day. Here we were told that they weren't doing a signing on the Saturday... which they wasn't and which the schedule on the leaflets handed out showed... lol, my bad although I'm sure the web site said that it was h.NAOTO and Hangry and Angry signing.
The stall had some new merchandise and I have to say the new set of photos look AMAZING! There was also a large selection of clothes and I couldn't resist the urge to buy a funky looking shirt!


With us both now on a slight downer we aimlessly wandered around for a bit, until we came across the queues for the signing sessions where we soon found out that the tickets HADN'T already been given out, so in we both rushed. A quick look around showed some recognisable faces, the "tallest Japanese man in the world" and all the other Japanese Hangry & Angry fans that have shown up for all the other appearances were a few people in front, we waved said our hello's and as both of us are Yossie fans, were given some photo of her as gifts :D

On our first attempt neither of us won. The Japanese hadn't either, but had come up with the cunning plan to keep buying tickets to the event until they did, now that's dedication! We opted for the more sneaky tactic of licking out tickets and rubbing out the marks that said we'd already queued and jumping back in. By the time we'd got to the front CDevil had turned up and I'd swapped my ticket for his (it was blatantly obvious that I'd rubbed mine out lol) and we took our second attempts at getting a ticket. Aqua wasn't lucky with her go, but as for me I got lucky and pulled out a yellow ticket with a smiley face! And being the gentleman that he is, CDevil offered it to Aqua with the condition that she got him Rika's autograph... which as it happens was perfect as she was only after Yossie's.

The signing started, myself and CDevil had positioned ourselves infront of the railing and had a pretty good spot to fanboy over the girls. Aqua, Kuekan (who we bumped into a bit earlier) as well as all the Japanese fans all got in line ready to get their items signed. And then the girls came out, Yossie in jeans and a tshirt (she looked stunning with her long dyed blond hair) followed by Rika in a pair of really short jean shorts!... she wasn't just wearing those (if only XD) but that's all I could focus on, I'm guessing she probably had a tshirt on as well or something?
Although I hadn't gone up for a signing it was amazing seeing the girls again, CDevil had a moment of excitement when it came to Aqua's turn and she asked if Rika could sign the book to him as we saw her say his name. Aqua, also got the messaged personlised and Yossie wrote a little congrats for her upcoming birthday. I'm so jealous of these!


After the signing we managed to bump into Yossie and Rika (we wasn't attempting to stalk them or anything <_<) as they headed outside to their car, I got a little wave from Rika which made the whole trip worth it!!

Next up was the "Dream Morning Musume Conference & projection", which was... a bit... um... disapointing. Don't get me wrong by the end of it I loved it, but as I sat through it I did wonder WTF was going on. It started with a DVD of Dream Morning Musume performing a couple of songs. I know the title said that it was a projection, but come on! I can watch a DVD at home, infact I can do a better job of watching a DVD at home as I have the common sense to put VLC into full screen mode, so after sitting through (I think) 3 songs where we could also watch Norton Anti Virus do it's thing and see how strong the computer WiFi signal was the girls came out gave a little talk with the annoying "No Life" woman we then watched another few songs, luckily this time who ever was in charge of the PC had the common sense to fullscreen it this time!!
My only real complaint with this is that if I had wanted to watch a DVD I could do this at home, in a comfy chair with a cup of tea. But, it was fun, seeing everybody getting into it doing the little dances and the chants made it an amusing to watch. After this Rika and Yossie came back out and sung a performance of Ai wa Katsu the charity single released by Up Front Works. Again, much like the little wave this made the trip worth it, such a bonus seeing both of them out of character from their Hangry & Angry alter egos.

Once the event had finished we had an hour to spare, we said our goodbyes and went to grab some air. Here I bumped into one of the European organisers from last years European Hangry and Angry concerts we had a brief chat and on finding out that I'd only came down for the day told me how I'd "missed something awesome", which of course was their performance on the Friday. I'm truly gutted that I missed a live performance of their new single Reconquista, but luckily there's an upload on the Hangry & Angry YouTube Channel or you can watch it below. I'm loving the new outfits, gotta be their best look so far!


It was truly an amazing day, the mix of the unexpectedness of it and getting to see the girls was great, the more I get to see the Yossie and Rika the more I love them!

TAGS [ Dream Morning Musume Hangry and Angry Live Rika Yossie ]
Posted Sunday, 3rd July 2011 22:40 | 19742 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

H!P Latest Videos Android Widget

Monday, 23rd May 2011 01:07 | 286 Comments

I got my hands on an Android phone awhile ago and decided that it was about time to get my hands back into Java programming, I haven't really touched it for a good 3-4 years so in an attempt to make the re-learning process that little bit more fun for myself I decided that it would be best to set myself a project on something that interests me and a little bit more cheekily based on some code that I've already done for this site, but a little bit more importantly something that I'll actually use.

Obviously as I'm posting up here it's Hello! Project related app... well techincally it's not an app, it's a widget that'll happily sit on your home screen. It's a reworking of the video list at the top of the page and over at HelloStoreUSA, it does however work in a different way.
The widget shows the latest video uploads from Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, S/mileage, Manoeri and Buono! and send you a notification when a new video has been uploaded and just a little tap of the widget will play the latest video for the particular unit. It's not the worlds most exciting widget, but it does mean that i won't miss any uploads and it also means that I get to have a nice little widget with the H!P girls on it XD
If you want to check out the widget have a look in the Android Market and give it a little download :)
If you have any problems with it please let me know and I'll take a look, but fingers crossed it should just work.


If anyone has any ideas for any future Apps let me know as I'm keen to try and get some more H!P apps out there and if anyone wants to lend a hand again please get in touch, I am officially the worlds worst drawer so anyone who can would be useful ;)

TAGS [ App Berryz Hello!Project Japan Mano Erina Morning Musume PV S/mileage ]
Posted Monday, 23rd May 2011 01:07 | 15981 Reads | 5 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

10th Generation Auditions Announced

Sunday, 8th May 2011 14:07 | 302 Comments

We've only had the 9th Generation of Morning Musume with us for 5 months, as a unit they're released just one single (with a 2nd one coming out next month) but, it looks like that soon we'll be seeing yet another generation of girls enter into the ranks of Morning Musume as today the announcement was made that the hunt is on for a 10th Generation girls to step up. Applicants are now being accepted at musume-audition.com from today, with it closing on June 10th.


I'm guessing, like most people, when I read this news I was shocked. Obvioulsy the introduction of a 10th gen was going to happen sooner or later, but we've barely had enough time to get to know the 9th gen and now we're told that another lot of girls will be joining up. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, additions to the unit (and obviously the graduations of current members) has always been what has kept the unit interesting, but I am however slightly curious as the reasons behind all of this.

Obviously we have Aichan's graduation coming up later this year, could this announcement be an indication that she might not be the only member to be graduating this year? The audition process is going to last a fair few months and I'd imagine we'd see the new members joining around the time that Ai graduates, so to lose another member would mean that the younger inexperienced 9th and 10th generations would dominate in numbers over the more experienced members, to be fair they'll do that anyway even if no one else graduates, but even if we presume that only one new member joins and one current member graduates, it would be a 3 to 5 ratio. As to whether that's a good or bad thing whose to say, fresh sounds, personalities and looks are always a good thing, but would something like that put too much work on the current older members?
And, not only that you've got the age gap. With the age restriction for the auditions being 10-17 it's going to bring the average age of the group down again and leave the likes of Gaki, Sayu, Reina and potentitally Mittsi depending if they recruit from the lower end of the range looking slightly out of place? And, also one thing I'm sure I'd never be able to get my head around is having a Morning Musume with the majority of members being younger than those in Berryz and C-ute.
There's always the possibility that it's just a good business decision, at a time when the country is recovering from such disaster it's always good to have a distraction that people can get behind and enjoy.

No matter what the reason is behind this sudden announcement, one things for sure, it's something that will no doubt get us all talking and excitied and even if it does turn out that we'll be seeing someone else graduation in the near future, it's never really a bad thing, we all love it really.

TAGS [ Auditions Morning Musume ]
Posted Sunday, 8th May 2011 14:07 | 8721 Reads | 0 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Hangry And Angry Attending Paris Japan Expo 2011

Wednesday, 4th May 2011 12:13 | 249 Comments

Yesterday, the Japan Expo in Paris updated their website with some more information about the surprise at h.NAOTO's fashion show, that of the appearance of both Hangry and Angry making an appearance.

As yet the only information that's been put out is that both Yossie and Charmy will be making an appearance at the main stage during the fashion show. There's no mention of whether they'll be any sort of performance/concert or signing with the girls (although h.NAOTO will be doing a signing) but I'm sure given some time and as the schedule for the event becomes available we'll be able to see what else the girls will be up to... as much as I can imagine h.NAOTO wanting them to coming along to help push the brand and get an interest in the fashion label, it seems a bit of a journey for them to just make an appearance at the fashion show? Even when Yossie made an appearance in LA she held a signing session, so fingers crossed at the very least we'll get another chance to go and say "Hi" and get something signed!
Hopefully, we'll see some sort of performance as I do really enjoy a good Hangry and Angry concert! And any reason to go and meet Yossie and Charmy again has to be a good one!

TAGS [ Hangry and Angry Rika Yossie ]
Posted Wednesday, 4th May 2011 12:13 | 13796 Reads | 2 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Koi ni Booing Buu! PV

Friday, 15th April 2011 13:56 | 226 Comments

When it comes to skills, making animal noises isn't any Japanese persons strong point. There's some that I'll let them have, a rooster does sound similar to a "kokekokko" and I could be persuaded to belive that a cute little kitten could make a sound like "nyaa nyaa", but at no point can I belive that a pig makes a noise like "buu!". Japan, sort your pig animal noise out!

After waking up one morning and discovering that I did indeed liked a S/mileage song (Onaji Jikyuu de Hataraku Tomodachi no Bijin Mama) I've been looking forward to hearing more songs from them, hoping that it could be that moment like I've had with both Berryz Koubou and C-ute when I realise what I've been missing out on for all this time. So, did S/mileage's latest single Koi ni Booing Buu open my eyes to the potential wonders of the unit? Well...

The concept of the song and the PV certainly appealed to my love of cuteness, an overly cute song, with a strange nose obsession going on, with pigs in the PV and with a cartoon-esque feel to it. Just the thought had me reminising over Koharu and her awesome Hana wo Pu~n! single with Hagiity.
The PV isn't the worlds greatest, but on the grand scale of the Hello! Project PV this is certainly pushing the limits of the norm. It's kind of what I'd imagine a Buono! PV would look like if they decided to get really childish and cute, everything has that overall feeling that a little bit more effort than usual has been put in and even though those little piggy noses and ears look like they cost as much as the Lady GaGa type outfits that Berryz were wearing in the Heroine ni Narouka! PV, they actually look good!
I've still yet to grow any sort of affection to any of the girls within the unit, even in this PV I'm still not totally convinced with them. They're certainly aren't giving me that vide that they're uncomfortable in front of the camera like they used to, but then with this being their 5th major single I'd hope that would be the case by now, but what I do get is this impression that the whole cuteness and interactions is staged. I know that's a silly thing to say as it obviously is, this is a music video and everything will have been planned out to a tee perfectly, but it's like when you watch a bad actor on the TV and you can tell that this is someone trying their hardest to act, but they just can't quite pull it off.

As for the song, well I'm still undecided. When I started this post I was going to be my usual self when it comes to S/mileage and just moan about how I don't like it, but I've had the song on repeat all morning and I just can't figure out whether I like it or not. My opinion literally changes with each listen, one listen and I'll love it and then next I won't. Very odd.
The intro to the song, sounds very promising and much how I described the PV as a Buono! type affair, the song starts off feeling very much the same, a very cute kiddy-fied Buono! song, but then the singing starts and it veers off. It does however get this feeling back when it comes to the chorus and I think it's the intro and the chorus that I'm liking with this song, the verses are lacking that something that these parts have, which is a shame as I'd of probably really liked otherwise. I'm going to keep listening to it and hope that it grows on me some more, but it's a shame that this is probably just going to be another S/mileage which I won't come back to.



CD Release Date : 27 - 04 - 11 DVD Release Date : 11 - 05 - 11

S/mileage - Koi ni Booing Boo! [Regular Edition]


S/mileage - Koi ni Booing Boo! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type A]


S/mileage - Koi ni Booing Boo! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type B]


S/mileage - Koi ni Booing Boo! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type C]


S/mileage - Koi ni Booing Boo! [Limited Edition / Type D]


S/mileage - Single V "Koi ni Booing Boo!"


TAGS [ PV S/mileage ]
Posted Friday, 15th April 2011 13:56 | 9205 Reads | 0 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

Maji Desu ka Ska! PV

Sunday, 12th April 2011 20:30 | 76 Comments

I've attempted to write this post a few times this weeks and am oddly finding it a struggle to finish, so I've scrapped all that I've previously wrote and am starting afresh and hopefully (and unlike all other attempts at this post) keeping it short and sweet.

It's been some time since I've REALLY been into a Morning Musume song (since about Pepper Keibu... and does that one really count?), but this release has been on a death loop pretty much the whole time I've been at home sat in front of my PC. Sure it's a little repeatitive, but that just makes it even more catchy! It's the kinda of happy, cheesey song I've been longing for.

And although the PV isn't anything new, it's somehow refreshing. The 9th Gen girls are all given a decent amount of lines and screen time and although Aichan is still the main focal point everyone else gets a decent amount of screen time. Ultimatly the PV is fun and energetic and it suits the song perfectly. Also, LOL at Mittsi as an old man, random!

In short, I fucking love Maji Desu ka Ska!.



TAGS [ Morning Musume PV ]
Posted Sunday, 12th April 2011 20:30 | 7271 Reads | 1 Tweet Count | Leave a Comment

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