Single V: Iku ZYX! Fly High

The video for "Fly High" became one of my favorite H!P videos once I saw it earlier this year for the first time on the Petit Best 4 DVD. Made in 2003, it's one of the best dance videos H!P's ever done and it's got four of the finest talents from Hello! Project Kids just at the dawn of their awesomeness. Zyx's lineup consisted of Morning Musume's Mari Yaguchi and five H!P Kids: future C-ute members Maimi Yajima, Erika Umeda and Megumi Murakami and future Berryz Koubo members Saki Shimizu and Momoko Tsugunaga. As seen here, Maimi, Saki and Momoko are just beginning to display the extraordinary charisma that would blossom in just a few short years, but they still have a way to go before polishing their dance skills to become three of the best all-around performers in H!P. Megumi Murakami, on the other hand, is already supremely accomplished here. Arguably the best dancer in Hello! Project at the time (with keen competition back then only from Morning Musume's Ai Takahashi and Nozomi Tsuji), she possibly would have remained so had she not unceremoniously resigned in 2006, nearly three years after this video. (To the top brass at UFA, I continue to ask, "How can you let one of your greatest talents slip away like that?") The great thing about this DVD, and the reason I purchased it, is the inclusion of the Dance Version of the video. This way we get the splendor of the main PV, with its wonderful closeups and energetic leaping shots, but we also get to see a separate take where the girls dance in full long shot glory, unhampered by cuts away from them. We get to follow Megumi for the whole number and she is just incredible. The choreography is more intricate than usual for these numbers and Megumi just soars with it, moving with ease, strength, confidence and a keener sense of rhythm than the others. Poetry in motion and destined to be one of my most-watched H!P videos. There's almost six minutes of "Making of" footage as well. And I happen to like the song a great deal, too. In the recent Hello! Project Summer 2009 concert, "Fly High" is performed by a reconfigured Zyx with 8 current H!P performers, including two from the original Zyx lineup, Momoko and Erika. The singing is good, but the original choreography is considerably toned-down and the dancing somewhat half-hearted. There's no one in it even remotely on a par with Megumi. I'll stick with the PV's.