Petit (Pucchi) Best 2 DVD

14 videos, each one a winner. Hello! Project sure knew how to make videos once upon a time (oh, say, 2000-2004?). The newer Petit Best collections often have some weak numbers, so when I re-watch them, I find myself skipping some. This is not the case with the older ones. The songs here are all catchy and the videos are done with great imagination. The girls are all brimming with youthful energy and get to have real fun with the songs. And we get multiple helpings of some of our favorite performers. The Petit Best 2 DVD offers PVs of 14 releases from 2001, starting with the three shuffle unit videos from that year: 3-nin Matsuri ("Chu! Natsu Party"), 7-nin Matsuri ("Summer Reggae! Rainbow"), and 10-nin Matsuri ("Dancing! Natsu Matsuri"), each a classic in its own right. Morning Musume, in its pre-5th Gen lineup, is represented by "Renai Revolution 21." There are also three special units made up of Morning Musume members--Tanpopo, Pucchimoni and Minimoni (joined by one member of Coconuts Musume). And solo videos by Maki Goto, Yuko Nakazawa, Aya Matsuura and Michiyo Heike. Heike, of course, was the winner of the original talent contest to become a vocalist with Sharan Q but got shunted aside as Tsunku focused his attention instead on the five runners-up who became...Morning Musume! Poor Michiyo became a footnote in Japanese pop music history, but her solo here is achingly beautiful. Also featured are Melon Kinenbi, Coconuts Musume, and Country Musume (with Rika Ishikawa, Asami, and Rinne Toda). Rika, Mari, Maki and Aibon are in 4 videos each. Yossi, Nono, Kaori, and Kei are in 3 each. Outside of MM, Coconuts Musume's Mika Todd is in 3. Everyone else is in 2 each. The Petit Best 2 CD album has a different version of "Renai Revolution 21," a remix which is somewhat slower and less exciting than the regular version offered here. The CD also offers the "country version" of Country Musume's "Hajimete no Happy Birthday!," the difference being in the instrumentation, not in the girls' wonderful voices. The CD also has two songs not on the DVD: "Merry Xmas for You (Holly Night Version" by Aya Matsuura, and "Hello Mata Aou ne (20nin Matsuri version)" (Hello! Let's Meet Again) by 20nin Matsuri. The DVD has one song not on the CD: "100kai no Kiss," by Aya Matsuura. So this DVD has one song not on the CD and two better versions of songs done differently on the CD.