Single V: Hare Ame nochi Suki

This was the first single by Sakura Gumi, a group made up of eight of Morning Musume's then-15-member lineup. It's a soft, yearning love song that includes the English line, "I love you for what you are." I've always liked this song, esp. since it's only the second Morning Musume song I ever heard. When it was performed at the Hello! Project 2004 Winter Concert, Ai-chan cried as she sang her lines and it took me a couple more viewings of the tape to realize that it must have been a reaction to the crowd chanting Nacchi's name a moment earlier in anticipation of Nacchi's impending graduation and departure from MM, resulting in quite a tear-jerking ceremony at the end of the concert. The song includes some serious high notes and they're handled beautifully by Ai-chan, Nacchi and Aibon. The video plays up the pink cherry blossom motif with the girls in attractive pink dresses with black trim on them and an interesting mix of hairstyles, with Risa, Asami and Eri boasting Punk hairstyles with their hair sticking up a bit. It looks good on them. Nacchi and Mari look particularly beautiful in the video. Aibon has long hair here and it looks good on her. Yossi has long straight hair and bangs and it makes her face look very odd. I've never seen her look like that anywhere else. The sets are creatively done with lots of imaginative lighting effects, falling cherry blossom petals and occasional cuts to shots of clouds and a full moon. The backgrounds are pink flats that are used in practical ways to make the set look bigger than it is. The Close-up Version is not as interesting because it just photographs them against the pink flats, with their faces either lit or made up to look very pink. It's not the most flattering photographic strategy for these girls. A Dance Shot version would not have made sense since there isn't much dancing in the video. In fact, the few dance shots are actually included in the Close-up version. The "Making of" portion lasts just over five minutes and includes a funny bit where Aibon draws a face on a cup and adds ears to it. The next Sakura Gumi video, "Sakura Mankai," was made after Nacchi's graduation, so she's not in that one. And Yossi's back to normal in it.

Great! If you like Morning Musume, then you can't miss this!! Watch them and love them! ^3^ Eririn is so cute in the booklet pics!!