Hello! Project 2005 Natsu no Kayo Show - Selection! Collection!

This is easily one of the best Hello! Project concerts I've ever seen. Taped on July 24, 2005, it appears to be the first time the older performers are grouped into a semblance of the "Elder Club," long before that label was formalized, and also the first time we see the members of Berryz Kobo and C-ute come into their own as full-fledged participants in an H!P concert, performing in multiple numbers with the older girls. As such, this concert seems to be the model for the "Wonderful Hearts" and "Elder Club" winter concerts we'd start seeing in 2007. It's also significant for being one of the last big concerts with Aibon and Nono before Aibon's suspension and it also features Koharu's first concert performance after joining Morning Musume two months earlier. An interesting strategy here is the mix-and-match approach to many of the numbers as solo stars and girls from varied groups are put together in different combos to perform songs from the H!P catalog. The opening and closing sets feature the full ensemble--46 girls in all, not counting the 24 Hello! Pro Eggs--opening the concert with the "Hello Morning" theme song and closing it with the magnificent "All for One and One for All." Both opening and closing sets feature the girls in eye-popping "Pop Art"-style outfits. Other highlights: 1) Aibon and Maki singing the leads on MM's hit, "The Manpower." 2) "Love Machine" performed by 8 former MM members, including 5 of the originals (Yuko, Kaori, Natsumi, Kei, Maki). But Mari is missing. 3) Morning Musume opening their set with the best performance ever of "Iroppoi Jettai," their then-newest single, in snazzy new costumes. 4) Biyuden looking absolutely stunning in sexy gold cocktail dresses as they sing "Hitorijime." 5) The 2005 Shuffle Units, the best being Elegies (Ai Takahashi, Reina Tanaka, Ayumi Shibata, Mai Satoda). 6) Anything with Nono in it. 7) 12 minutes of delightful backstage footage. But everything else is pretty awesome as well. The MC segments feature Sharan Q drummer Makoto and Mari Yaguchi, who'd been kicked out of MM earlier in the year. These segments are thankfully short and few, which allows for more musical numbers, a total of 28. Still, the concert is way too short--only 107 min. It could have used solos by Yuko and Yuki, and separate numbers for both C-ute and Country Musume. But it's still a great concert and one filled with abundant joy.