Hello! Project 2009 Summer Kakumei Gannen - Hello! Chanpuru -

I love the big Hello! Project concerts staged at the beginning of the year and in the summer. Here, in the Summer 2009 H!P concert, the first without the Elder Club, we get Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, C-ute, Erina Mano and the Hello! Pro Eggs, a total of 49 performers. I esp. love the six big numbers featuring the entire ensemble, each of the groups wearing different costumes, making for a stage awash in color and high energy. They're all upbeat group songs, including MM classic "Koko ni Iruzee," and two with "Jump" in the title. The elaborate choreography keeps the girls in constant motion around the fairly small stage of the Nakano Sunplaza. MM does three numbers and BK and C-ute do two each. Mano does one and S/mileage (with four Eggs) does one. The rest of the 39 numbers mix and match from the various performers on hand to recreate old H!P units such as Tanpopo, Minimoni, Aa, Zyx, Pucchimoni, and V-u-den, or appear in existing side units such as Buono and Guardians 4. It's a varied and well-rounded program and moves at a fast clip through its 128 minutes. My favorite number is the one featuring the new Pucchimoni V, Erina Mano and C-ute's Saki Nakajima doing the song, "Pira! Otome no Negai." (Mai Hagiwara is in the unit also, but was absent due to illness.) It's a fun novelty song with a delightful chorus of nonsense lyrics and it's sung and danced at a fast pace as the two girls hold their mikes up as if they were playing piccolos and sing and dance and scurry cutely about the stage. Other highlights: High-King's "C/C" which lets Saki S. and Maimi prove what great dancers they are. Ai Takahashi does an old Momoe Yamaguchi song, "Cosmos." "Fly High" performed by a recreated Zyx, featuring Risa in the old Mari role and two of the original Zyx members, Momoko and Erika. Risako rocks out as one of the new V-u-den. Lots of costume changes and all beautiful. This is the last H!P concert to feature MM's Koharu Kusumi and C-ute's Erika Umeda, both of whom have since graduated. On the negative side, I could have done without Shin Minimoni (the two new Eggs in it are way too young) and Ice Cream Musume, an inexperienced group recruited from Taiwan. And why not make better use of the Eggs and put the most talented ones--Arisa Noto, Minami Sengoku, Yuu Kikkawa and Sayaka Kitahara--into units? It's a wonderful concert nonetheless and proof that H!P still has fire in it.