Review by Madara
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Debut Concert "Prolog -Otome no Inori-"Erina ManoMano's 1st concert: short, sweet, catchy
Hello! Project solo star/idol singer Erina Mano, formerly with Ongaku Gatas, is seen here in her debut solo concert, entitled "Debut Concert 'Prologue ~Otome no Inori~.'" She's got two gimmicks--she's impossibly cute and she plays the piano and keyboard. She sings the first two songs while accompanying herself on the piano. She later switches to a Yamaha keyboard, but only sits at the keyboard for the entirety of two numbers, including the finale, "Manopano." For the others, she just plays a few notes and then gets up to sing and dance, accompanied for most of them by a group of exceedingly cute and bouncy members of the Hello! Pro Eggs (four of whom went on to form the group, S/Mileage). There are only nine songs performed in this 67-minute concert. (One of the nine, "Sekai wa Summer Party," is repeated by a showing of the song's music video, which struck me as a bit of unnecessary padding.) Some of these songs are as impossibly catchy as Mano is cute. I'm a big fan of "Hajimete no Keiken" and "Lucky Aura," both of which are well presented here. "Manopiano" is a fun listen as well, and "Summer Party" is cute. The fourth song performed in the show, "Mizuiro Omoi," is nice also. Five memorable songs out of nine. Not bad. One of the songs she sings with the Eggs is an old Maki Goto song, "Scramble." The rest of the time is taken up with MC segments, most of which involve Noriko Kato, who I remember from a gig as MC at the Hello! Project 2003 winter concert. She's pretty but is stuck wearing a drab olive-green dress. Mano wears cute solo concert-style party dresses. They make her look younger than she is. Since I did this review, Mano has also done a solo CD album, "Friends," and another concert DVD, "Erina Mano First Concert Tour: 'Introduction Hajimete no Kandou,'" both of which I've also reviewed on this site. (I still don't understand why her first concert is called "Debut Concert" and her second is called "First Concert Tour: Introduction." What's the third going to be called? "Premiere Concert?") Of the nine songs performed in the Debut Concert, seven are also performed in the later concert. In any event, Mano just keeps getting better. And so do her dresses.
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Erina Mano First Concert Tour "Introduction - Hajimete no Kando -"Erina ManoErina's second concert DVD is a winner
Erina Mano's first Concert Tour "Introduction Hajimete no Kandou" was recorded in Sept. 2009, three months after her Debut Concert "Prolog - Otome no Inori," which I've also reviewed here. (I still don't understand why one is a "Debut Concert" and the other is a "First Concert.") The newer one is longer (85 min. vs. the Debut Concert's 67 min.) and has more songs (13 vs. 9 in the earlier one). It also has better production values with very nice settings, lighting and stage design and three tasteful and very beautiful dresses for Ms. Mano (in yellow, red, and white). She plays the piano for three numbers and the keyboard for several others. She gets up and dances with six Hello! Project Eggs in several others. She has greater confidence as a stage performer throughout this one, despite a mishap which I'll describe later. There are MC segments featuring Noriko Kato, an attractive woman who served the same duties at the earlier concert. One of these segments is titled "Recitation Play: Perpetual Days," which features Erina and Noriko reading from big books and, of course, isn't subtitled. It's eleven minutes long and slows down the proceedings considerably. On repeat viewings, you can just skip it. Mano sings 12 of the 13 songs, while S/mileage (a group consisting of 4 of the Eggs) sings their song, "aMa no Jaku," without her. (It's a delightful number.) The twelve Mano songs include seven that she performed at the earlier concert, including her "indie single," "Mano Piano," her "debut single," "Otome no Inori," and my favorite of the bunch, "Hajimete no Kei Ken." Since I consider this a better concert than the first, I must say I don't mind her repeating these songs. The mishap I referred to earlier occurs during the piano bit at the end of the third song, "Lalala-Sososo." She flubs a note and winces and finishes the solo, looks up, starts to cry and buries her face in her hands. She stands up and faces the audience, wipes away the tears and apologizes. Frankly, I'm not sure any of the wotas in the audience even noticed the flubbed note, but once they saw her distress they started applauding and chanting her name, "E-ri-NA!" in a game attempt to cheer her up. The special features include an audio commentary by Erina in which she laughs about the flub, and about two minutes of rehearsal footage and four minutes of backstage footage. Not enough if you ask me.
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Petit Best (Pucchi Best) 10Hello! ProjectOne great song elevates this collection
I've previously reviewed the Petit Best 10 DVD and, when I learned that some key songs on the Petit Best 10 CD were not on the DVD, I immediately purchased the CD. Six of the tracks on the CD are not on the DVD, while only two of the tracks on the DVD are not included here. Of the six new tracks on this CD, four are by new units (actually revivals of old units), Pucchimoni V, Tanpopo#, Aa!, and Shin Minimoni. One is by Berryz Kobo and one is by High-King. The BK and HK tracks, "Seishun Bus Guide" and "Destiny Love," are both highly recommended, but the real find on this album and one of my favorite Hello! Project songs in years is "Pira! Otome no Negai," by Pucchimoni V (also spelled Petitmoni V). It's performed by a trio consisting of solo artist Erina Mano and two members of C-ute, Saki Nakajima, and Mai Hagiwara. I first heard the song on last summer's concert DVD, "Hello! Project 2009 Summer Kakumei Gannen - Hello! Champloo." Mai Hagiwara had been sick for that performance, so the song was performed only by Erina and Saki. It's a fast-paced, high-energy number that required them to dance around the stage singing lots of tongue-twisting nonsense syllables within the lyrics and holding their mikes as if they were playing flutes. It was utterly delightful. Too bad Mai wasn't there for it. But she's here on this recording, the highlight of this album and the main reason to purchase it. (And she's there when they perform it onstage at the "Hello! Project 2010 Winter Kacho Fugetsu Shuffle Date" concert, which I'll also get around to reviewing.) Other noteworthy tracks include Morning Musume's "Shouganai Yume Oibito," Buono's "My Boy," Erina Mano's "Otome no Inori," and contributions from a slender sampling of the Elder Club, Natsumi Abe, Aya Matsuura, and, in a welcome return to Petit Best after an absence of four years, Mari Yaguchi, performing solo. A revived Aa! sings "Yume to Genjitsu," which reunites Berryz' Miyabi Natsuyaki and C-ute's Airi Suzuki, who'd performed as Aa! seven years ago with MM's Reina Tanaka. Other performers represented here include C-ute, Guardians 4, Shugo Chara Egg and Koharu Kusumi. I'm really not crazy about the anime songs included, although I'll give "Hapi*Hapi Sunday" a pass since it's Koharu's last appearance on a Petit Best album, thanks to her decision to graduate from Morning Musume to go into modeling. I will miss her.
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Berryz Kobo Single V Clips 4Berryz KoboGood collection of BK videos
This DVD contains Berryz Kobo's single videos from the last two years. There are eight main videos, five Dance Shot versions, two Close-up versions, a series of TV promotional spots, and a "Making of" segment (length: 12:40) devoted to the photo shoot and video production of their latest single, "Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama." As one who tends to prefer Dance Shot versions, I'm glad to see the five included here for "Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance," "Madayade," "Dakishimete Dakishimete," "Seishun Bus Guide" and "Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama." The girls made a dance shot version of "Dschinghis Khan," called "Mongolian Dance Shot," but it's only on the Petit Best 9 DVD. It's a good one, but instead of putting it here, they put in the Close-up version, which is not as interesting. The other Close-up version is for "Rival," in which the poor girls have to feign enthusiasm for some obviously fake snacks. (Why not REAL ones?) "Rival" is also the weakest song in the collection and its two PV's are the dullest of the bunch. The real find on this DVD is "Ryuusei Boy," which was the B-side on the CD single of "Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama." It's a great song, with some jazzy old-school instrumentals, and my first viewing of this video was the first time I'd heard it. (It's also on BK's latest album, "6th Otakebi.") The video is very nice, sending the girls out into space in tasteful yellow dresses on a field of bright golden light to dance and perform the incredibly catchy song. No other version of the video is included and I'm wondering if, in fact, a Dance Shot even exists. Most of the video is of them dancing anyway, intercut with well-done special effects shots of the cosmos. And it's one of the best Hello! Project songs I've heard in quite some time. I like the "Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama" video also. The translation of the title is "My Future Husband" and the video has them dancing in a loft somewhere intercut with them looking at a TV screen offering a shot of a Shinjuku crowd scene filled with silhouettes of male passersby, which the girls point at and wonder if their future husband is among them. (Frankly, I wish they'd set their sights a little higher than a crowd scene in Shinjuku.) The Dance Shot version keeps the same room and costumes. The outfits are attractive and the girls look great. The "Making of" segment is, as usual, utterly delightful.
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We are Buono! [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]Buono!Buono's 3rd and Best Album
I like all of the Buono albums, but this one has a harder, more mature sound with several driving rock numbers, a direction they hinted at in their Live Hybrid Punch 2009 concert by bringing out a quartet of female rockers to accompany them midway through the concert, even though most of the songs featured were standard J-pop songs from their first and second albums. None of the songs from that concert are included in this album. Here they just plunge into a rock vibe and take the listener on the kind of ride you don't often get from Hello! Project. Eight of the twelve tracks are fast-paced songs with heavy guitar backing. Many of these songs sound alike, but the girls' pleasant harmonizing sounds really good with rock backing. The other four tracks are a little softer and tend to be nicer songs: "Urahara," "Blue-Sky-Blue," "Koucha no Oishii Mise," and "Tabidachi no Uta." Airi Suzuki, the smoothest singer of the three, does the heavy lifting and most of the solos. Momoko Tsugunaga brings solid character to the trio and I love picking out her distinctive voice in the solo lines she gets. Miyabi Natsuyaki's voice works best when vocalizing with the others. They're all in fine voice here. The single, "My Boy," was the only song on this CD that I'd heard previously. (Its lively video was a highlight of the Petit Best 10 DVD, which I've reviewed on this site.) It's easily the most imaginatively arranged song on the album and tends to be my favorite of the twelve. Regardless, I enjoy listening to the whole album. I've followed these girls since they were Hello! Project Kids and I'm happy to have watched them grow up to become such accomplished and dynamic performers. In checking the music credits to see if live instruments were used, I see guitar and bass credits on some songs and "guitar, programming" and "bass, programming" on others. I'm not sure what that means, except that I can't always tell whether it's live music I'm hearing or "canned," i.e. synth-created instrumentation. I would have preferred ALL live. Th accompanying DVD features "Making of" footage for the "Our Songs" PV. It's fun watching the girls dance on location and have such a great time with each other. I just wish the completed PV had been included on the disc. Now I have to buy the Buono Clips DVD just to get it. Too bad this edition is out-of-print, but you can still get the CD itself.
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Sweet Black [CD+DVD]SWEET BLACK feat.MAKI GOTOMaki Goto's first album for Avex
Maki Goto is one of my favorite singers and easily the best voice to come out of Morning Musume. She left Hello! Project for Avex back near the end of 2008. When this new album came out in Sept. 2009, it was after a long, agonizing wait. The good news was that the wait was over. The bad news was that the CD's only got eight tracks. And only four videos on the accompanying DVD. Still, it's better than nothing. And I'm always eager to hear new Maki. This album is quite a change of pace for her. She's definitely broken free of whatever restrictions the H!P management put on her. I miss her H!P style, and the new material will take some getting used to, but I'm happy for her. She's more herself here. The videos showcase an extraordinarily beautiful and sexy 24-year-old woman. And she's in fine voice. I like five of the songs better than the others, "Queen Bee," "Lady-Rise," "Candy," "Tear Drops," and "Plastic Lover." She wrote the lyrics for the following songs, "Lady-Rise," "Candy," "Mine" and "with..." Two of the videos, "Fly Away" and "Lady-Rise," are livelier than the others. In "Fly Away," she gets to dance--with two female backup dancers--and does it well. In "Lady-Rise," she gets to wear an assortment of sexy and attractive outfits and is even seen changing in and out of them. She's absolutely gorgeous here. And it's all for a date with a guy, something we never would have seen in an H!P video. The other videos, "with..." and "Tear Drops," both have way too much staged footage of other people. When Maki sings, she's all I want to see. The videos are well-done; they're higher-budgeted than H!P's, but lower-budgeted than Ayumi Hamasaki's. Three of the songs feature male singers performing with her. "Queen Bee" features heavyset rapper Bigga Raiji. "Tear Drops" features KG. "Mine" features Ken the 390. I found Bigga's aggressive reggae-inspired Japanese rapping quite entertaining. KG harmonizes nicely with Maki in a very pleasant song. The video for "Queen Bee" is not included on the disc. I've seen it on YouTube. It's easily the best video of the bunch and, arguably, the best video she's done in years. Bigga is quite a fun presence in it. I don't know why they didn't include it on this disc. It's a serious omission and it takes a star off the rating.
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Kimagure Princess [w/ DVD (Type A), Limited Edition / Type A]Morning MusumeLively MM song comes with Dance Shot PV
"Kimagure Princess" is one of Morning Musume's best songs in years. It's catchy, fun, fast, cute, and has clever musical arrangements, drawing on some unusual European folk strains. I was first exposed to this song on the Petit Best 10 DVD, also reviewed on this site, which contains the so-called "Recochoku" version of the PV. Listening to the song on the CD is even more enjoyable. I look forward to seeing MM's latest concert DVD and watching them perform it on stage. The B-side, "Aishite Aishite Ato Ippun," is very nice also. Ai Takahashi has lead vocal, of course, but all the other girls get solo lines as well and many of them stand out, esp. Risa. It's got a nice beat to it. It moves, but it's not insistent and doesn't overwhelm the singing. I should point out that this is the last time we'll hear Koharu in a Morning Musume recording. I, for one, will miss Koharu, who graduated from MM in December 2009. The video for "Kimagure Princess" is very nice, too. Of course, that depends on which version we're talking about. As mentioned above, I'd first seen the "Recochoku" version on the Petit Best 10 DVD, and was eager to see the Dance Shot version. Unfortunately, that only comes with this release, the Single CD/Limited Edition Type A, which is now out-of-print on CDJapan. I bought the KP Single V, which comes with a "Green Dance" version, but that is not at all what I was looking for. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a Japanese bookstore last week and found the "Kimagure Princess" CD/Limited Edition Type A on the shelf. So now I have my Dance Shot version. The only thing that would make me happier is if I had the Dance Shot version of "Shoganai Yumeoibito" also. But Kinokuniya didn't have that single and it's listed as out-of-print on CDJapan. I generally prefer the Dance Shot versions and wish they weren't so hard to find. I love the dancing, costumes, set and lighting in the KP Dance Version. The only problem, though, is that it's all shot in one take. The camera moves slowly in and out on the dance, but I would have preferred a multi-angle Dance Shot version with cuts to closer shots of the girls, which is the norm for most H!P Dance Shot PV's anyway. But it's better than no Dance Shot version at all. Still, the best of the four or so KP PV's I've seen is the "Recochoku" version, which contains just the right mix of closeups and dance shots.
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Yuki Maeda Zenkyokushu -Kenchana-Yuki MaedaOne of the finest albums from H!P ever!
I've been listening lately to a lot of Hibari Misora, the "Queen of Enka," so I was quite happy to hear about this album from Yuki Maeda, the one singer I know of who could even remotely be considered the heir to Misora's title. I've been listening to Yuki for years, but only when she's been featured in a larger Hello! Project concert or when her singles and music videos are included in H!P's annual Petit Best collections. (She was sadly absent from last year's Petit Best 10.) Even though she's been performing for ten years, this is, surprisingly, her first CD album. And it's a great one. One beautiful song after another for a total of 16 tracks. Some of them are clearly enka songs, described by journalist Mark Schilling in The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture as "sad, soulful Japanese ballads." Others have more of a pop inflection, while still being enka-flavored. Some hark back to folkloric "matsuri" (festival) songs. In track 14, "Kaze Kaikyou," Yuki even vocalizes drum sounds. My favorites are the ones with the most interesting background music. #7, "Sarasara no Kawa," has lovely melodious flute accompaniment. #8, "Nishi Shinjuku de Atta Hito," has soft guitar accompaniment. #11, "Kaeri Sobireta Furusato wa," is just an achingly beautiful enka song and arguably the best on the CD. #13, "Tsuki Ressha," features guitar and an instrument that sounds a little like an accordion, but nicer. #15, "Zanza Koi Shigure," is a soft, gentle song with evocative string accompaniment. I don't know if the music is live or, like most H!P recordings, conjured up on a keyboard and then played back for the vocalist. I'm guessing some scores are "canned," while others are live. I wouldn't have minded an upbeat song or two. Track 5, "Tokyo, Yoimachigusa," comes the closest, offering a festival song with traditional inflections, but a somewhat fast beat and electric guitar, a very nice mix of old and new. (The music, however, sounds canned.) #6, "Tokyo Kirigirisu," is more of a pop song, with a pleasant beat, but I can't help recalling how Yuki stepped up to the plate when she was part of Salt5 in 2003 and they performed H!P's sole hiphop anthem, "Get Up! Rapper." Yuki worked it. In any event, this long-awaited album is as full of riches as I'd hoped it to be and occupies a special niche in my J-pop collection. I just hope we won't have to wait ten years for the next one.
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Friends [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]Erina ManoErina Mano's 1st CD album is a good one
I'd seen Erina Mano perform as something of a novelty act inserted into the middle of Hello! Project Wonderful Hearts or Elder Club concerts where she comes out and sits at a keyboard and plays and sings a somewhat haunting little song mildly at odds with the rest of the concert. Then I saw her own "Debut Concert," which I've reviewed here, and was treated to a whole concert of such numbers, which wasn't a bad thing at all. Ever since getting hooked on "Hajimete no Kei Ken" and "Lucky Aura," I've been waiting for her first full-length CD album and here it is. I finally get to hear her songs without watching her seated at a piano or keyboard while wearing a party dress or dancing with the members of S/mileage. It's just her voice and the music. I like it. It's the best example of her work I've yet encountered. The highlights are, of course, "Hajimete no Kei Ken" and "Lucky Aura," songs that are sweet, bouncy and impossibly catchy. And the rest of the songs on this are pretty good, too. While the faster songs are fun ("Osozaki Musume," "Sekai wa Summer Party"), I especially liked the softer, gentler tunes, including tracks 4 ("Itsumo Itsudemo"), 5 ("Rara Sososo") and 9 ("Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo"). Several of the songs have an older American pop song vibe ("Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo" made me think of Connie Francis ca. 1960), which is fine with me. Track 11 ("Oyasuminasai") has nice Brazilian-flavored instrumentals. Only one or two songs came close to annoying me, tracks 8 ("Santa no Saxophone") and 10 ("Matsuge no Saki ni Kimi ga Iru"), but they don't do much damage. And Erina's actually a pretty darn good singer. You hear it more in studio recordings than in live performances. I wish they'd give her a greater range of things to do. The kid's got great possibilities. All in all, quite an enjoyable listen. This edition of the CD comes with a DVD that offers a 54-minute "History" of Miss Mano. Actually, after three childhood photos, it cuts to her stint with Ongaku Gatas, when she was 16, and continues on to last year (2009), when she turned 18. So it's really a short period, but there's lots of footage: concerts, backstage, rehearsals, promo events, press conferences, handshake lines, TV dramas, commercials, etc. And she introduces each of the 4 segments from some pretty odd settings. Fascinating stuff. The more I see and hear of Mano, the more of a fan I am.
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Petit Best (Pucchi Best) 10 DVDHello! ProjectNot the best Petit Best
Yossi and Rika are nowhere to be seen here. Of the Elder Club, the only ones represented are Aya, Nacchi and Mari. The CD version has 18 tracks while this has 14. Here's a rundown: S/mileage: "Ama no Jaku" - Cute video with 4 Hello Pro Eggs. Nice dance routine intercut with shots of the girls in school. Very pleasant. Erina Mano: "Otome no Inori" - Okay song. She sits at a piano in an odd pink set and has a number of costume changes. C-ute: "Everyday Zekkochou" - Almost a Dance Shot version, since it's just them dancing on a slick black platform on a high rooftop. Nice song and great dancing as usual. Berryz Kobo: "Rival" - Not nearly as good as the video for "Seishun Bus Guide," which was on the CD. Morning Musume: "Shouganai Yume Oibito" - the Drama version, which has the girls wandering around a college campus on a gray overcast day. Very few dance shots. I would have preferred the Dance Shot version. Aya Matsuura: "Chocolate Damashii" - Aya in a weird costume sitting on a bed surrounded by boxes of chocolate. Dull, dull, dull! Mari Yaguchi: "Seishun Boku" - The song is catchy, but the video isn't much to look at. Still, it's great to see and hear Mari again after all these years. Natsumi Abe: "Screen" - Better than Aya's video, with some interesting sets. And the song is good. Koharu Kusumi: "Happy Happy Sunday" - You either love Koharu's bursts of candy colors and impossible good cheer or you don't. I do. Shugo Chara Egg: "Shugo Shugo!" - 4 of the Eggs, including 3 from S/mileage, in costumes from the anime series, "Shugo Chara." Anime clips are included. Guardians 4: "Omakase Guardian" - Another song from "Shugo Chara," but sung by four different girls (1 from MM, 2 from Berryz, and 1 from C-ute). Also uses anime clips. Which is a GOOD thing. Buono!: "My Boy" - A highlight. The Buono girls (Airi, Momoko, Miyabi) just get more and more awesome. The video is fun to watch as the girls are put in a Mission: Impossible-style break-in plot, with a clever ending. Bonus videos: Morning Musume: "Kimagure Princess" - Another highlight and certainly better than the other MM video included. Lots of dancing intercut with attractive closeups. And I love the costumes. Fast-paced song with a gypsy beat. Mai Satoda and Gouda Kyoudai: "Bye Bye" - The two girls perform in a studio. The DVD allows you to see it from four different angles. Why? And who is Gouda Kyoudai?
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"Ikimasshoi!"Morning MusumeMM's 4th album is still their best
The only Morning Musume albums I'd put above this one are the two "Best" albums, which compiled all their early singles (up to 2003) and a few other favorites. But of their regular succession of nine albums (with a tenth on the way), I have to classify "Ikimasshoi" as my clear favorite. Every song on it is a winner and not just the four major singles on it ("The Peace," "Mr. Moonlight," "Souda! We're Alive," and "Renai Revolution 21"). All the songs are full of delightful energy designed to pump you up and most of them are group songs. There's only one ostensible solo on the album and it's "Otoko Tomodachi" which is sung by Natsumi Abe with light vocal accompaniment by the then-new 5th Gen members. Also, "Suki na Sempai" is sung only by the four members of 5th Gen (Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Makoto Ogawa, Asami Konno). This album is from that golden year (late 2001-to-Sept. 23, 2002) when 5th Gen had joined MM and Maki Goto was still in the group. MM was never better. After listening to this album again to prepare for this review, I went and dug out my DVD of MM's very best concert, "Love is Alive Spring 2002," at which they sang 12 of the 13 songs on this album. The perfect supplement. The only one they didn't sing at that concert, "Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru," was sung at the next one, "Love is Alive Fall 2002," held on Sept. 23, 2002 (Maki's 17th birthday), the one at which Maki graduated (a sad event for MM). The last track on this album, "Nanni mo Iwazu ni I Love You," was later recorded as a single by Biyuden.
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Petit Best (Pucchi Best) 4 DVDHello! Project10 great Hello! Project PVs in 1 package
The Petit Best 4 DVD comes from 2003, one of the peak years of H!P greatness. It was out of print for a long time, but then it came back into print early in 2009 and I bought it. Of the 14 videos included, ten are pretty awesome and the others will do just fine. It's got the Morning Musume Otome Gumi and Sakura Gumi videos that were hard to find for so long (although I eventually bought them as Single-V's), "Hare Ame Nochi Suki" and "Ai no Sono Touch My Heart," the first two Morning Musume songs I ever heard. It's got Zyx's "Fly High," one of the best non-MM videos from H!P. (I've since bought the "Fly High" Single-V, which has the fantastic Dance Shot version as well.) It's got Romans' "Sexy Night" video, which gives us five of H!P's sexiest girls, Rika Ishikawa, Mari Yaguchi, Mai Satoda, Hitomi Saito and Ayaka Kimura, all in lingerie dresses and bright red lipstick dancing and lounging around a spacious bedroom. Sexy night, indeed! Aa's "First Kiss" has the odd trio of Airi Suzuki, Miyabi Natsuyaki and Reina Tanaka, but it's a nice song and gave us our first real hint of Airi's awesome vocal potential. Morning Musume's "Shabondama" gave us our first video glimpse of 6th Gen. Minimoni is up to their delightful old tricks in "Kazoe Uta Bath Version"--Ai-chan, Nono and Aibon at their peak. The four gorgeous ladies of Melon Kinenbi offer one of their sexiest videos with "Chance of Love." Country Musume is joined by MM's Miki Fujimoto and Asami Konno for the disarmingly bouncy "Uwaki na Honey Pie." Aya Matsuura gives us four costume changes (including a bit in male drag) and a wild trip on a flying saucer in the rousing "Goodbye Natsuo." Rounding out the collection are a quartet of undistinguished videos featuring pleasant solos from Maki Goto and Yuki Maeda, a duet of Natsumi Abe with an older woman named Yosumi Keiko (playing her mother), and an awkward video of "Get Along with You" from Yuko Nakazawa. Not one of her best songs and given a low-contrast video look that's quite a strain on the eyes. (Why did Yuko, one of the best solo artists in all of Hello! Project and one of their greatest beauties, get consistently subjected to the worst video treatment?)
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Janken MusumeJapanese MovieEye-opening J-pop musical from 1955
JANKEN MUSUME (1955) is a movie musical featuring three Japanese pop stars of the time, Hibari Misora, Chiemi Eri, and Izumi Yukimura, identified as a trio by the name of "Sannin Musume." Hibari Misora, it should be noted, was the biggest recording star in Japan in the postwar era. The movie's in color and was part of the earliest wave of color movies in Japan. It's in Japanese and doesn't have English subtitles, so certain plot points weren't clear to me. But I enjoyed the movie a great deal nonetheless, thanks to its trio of beautiful and delightful stars, the large number of songs and musical numbers, and the gorgeous production design and color cinematography. There are 15 musical segments in all, 12 of them songs, ranging from traditional to pop. There are also lots of costume changes, with two of the girls in beautiful traditional garb for some of the numbers. At one point, Hibari sings a traditional song while Izumi dances in full kimono and hairstyle. Then, Chiemi, in modern dress, leaps up and adds some Latin moves to her dance with Izumi. It's a charming moment. In a fantasy sequence at a theater early in the film, each girl imagines herself as the star of her own modern musical number. Izumi sings a "Cha-cha" song, with some English lyrics, and back-up dancers. Chiemi, dressed in safari outfit and pith helmet, sings a "tropical" or "jungle" number about "Happy, happy Africa," mixing English lyrics with "native" mumbo jumbo, with male back-up dancers made up to look like "natives." Hibari puts on an elegant pink satin dress and stands alone to sing the French standard, "La Vie en Rose," in English. Later, Izumi sings "Smile," a famous song written by silent movie great Charlie Chaplin, in Japanese. Chiemi Eri is the short-haired, big-boned, tomboyish one and she's also the most confident, cheery, and aggressive. She proves to be quite a scene-stealer. All three girls were born in 1937, so they each turned 18 the year the movie came out. They all seem way more mature than the 18-year-old J-pop stars of today. I only just learned about Hibari Misora in 2009. I've since acquired a number of her CDs and other material featuring her. She's quite an amazing singer who went on to become the "Queen of Enka," and had a turbulent life before dying at 52 in 1989. I hope to see more of her movies, including the other two Sannin Musume films.
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Single V: Iku ZYX! Fly HighZYX (Mari Yaguchi & Hello Project)Megumi Murakami dances up a storm
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.
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Uta Doki! - Pop Classics Vol.5Hello! ProjectGreat lineup of Hello! Project singers
This one doesn't have many songs on it that were previously familiar to me. In fact, the only songs I'd heard before were both on one of Hello! Project's Folk Songs CDs and they're performed here by two of the singers on that CD, Yuko Nakazawa and Maki Goto (although Maki is joined by Kei Yasuda and Sugita Jirou to make a very nice trio of it). Other Uta Doki volumes had better and more famous songs, thanks to the practice of adopting "theme weeks" for picking out songs, but this one is blessed with abundant appearances by H!P's heavy hitters--Maki Goto, Aya Matsuura, Natsumi Abe, Yuko Nakazawa, Kaori Iida, Yuki Maeda, and Kei Yasuda. And they sometimes team up with each other for wonderful duets. Nozomi Tsuji turns up for a delightful solo ("Dancing Hero (Eat You Up)"), accompanied by Taisei (of Sharan Q) providing backup on keyboard. Hitomi Yoshizawa has a solo also. With this lineup, Volume 5 joins Vols. 3 and 4 among the must-have Uta Doki volumes released so far. Other H!P performers to appear here include Ayumi Shibata, Ayaka Kimura, Mai Satoda, Erika Miyoshi, and Yui Okada. Someone named Shoko Aida appears in two numbers, but I don't know anything about her. Miki Hirayama appears with Aya in one duet. Some of the great talents among the older folk-style male singers in Japan provide accompaniment in several numbers, including Sugita Jirou, Akira Inaba, and Gen Takayama, all of whom play guitars as well. Takao Horiuchi also shows up, but he appears to be more of a lounge lizard type with rock-hard hairspray keeping his coiff in place and, thanks to having no guitar, he even puts his arm around Kei at one point in a song, lightly touching her back. Which I found alarming because I thought there was a strict hands-off policy with these girls. This is the first volume I've seen in which each number is intro'd by a "DJ" from elsewhere in Hello! Project. In this case, each DJ is a current member of Morning Musume and we only hear their voices and see their pictures. They're not on camera in the segments the way DJs are in later volumes. Also, this one doesn't have theme weeks like the previous volumes did. Interestingly, both Kaori Iida and Nozomi Tsuji taped their songs only weeks before they announced their respective pregnancies in the spring of 2007. Tsuji's song was aired less than two weeks before her startling announcement.
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Berikyu! Vol.1Berryz Kobo, CuteVol. 1 puts the girls in the kitchen!
"Berikyu!" is a TV show featuring the members of Berryz Kobo and C-ute and is similar to what "Hello Morning" did with Morning Musume, only calmer and more restrained. Vol. 1 features three different themed sections and is 73 minutes long. The first section offers 15 minutes of the two groups competing in games and contests in a studio. The second offers up 20 minutes of concert and backstage footage. The third features a cooking contest that lasts about 30 minutes. Finally, as a bonus act, there's an "Uta Doki"-style solo number by Berryz' Risako Sugaya, introduced by Hello! Project soloist Erina Mano. Most of these are pretty accessible to non-Japanese speakers. In the opening games, five members of each group compete against each other in questions of knowledge, including identifying a tune played for them and figuring out the use of a particular utensil. The best bit involves the C-ute members being assigned to adopt Japanese superhero Ultraman's trademark pose and having to close their eyes as they do it so they can't copy each other. The concert footage is from "Berryz Kobo & C-ute Nakayoshi Battle Concert Tour 2008 Haru - Berryz Kamen vs. Cutie Ranger," a joint concert held on April 20, 2008 at the Yokohama Arena. (And one which I've reviewed quite favorably here.) We see footage of them rehearsing and then bits of songs from the concert itself along with ample backstage footage of the girls. The food contest is the best part and features three Berryz girls (Miyabi, Chinami, and Momoko) competing with three C-ute girls (Maimi, Airi and Kanna), one at a time and then all together. 1) Miyabi and Maimi make a salad; 2) Chinami and Airi put together seaweed wraps; 3) Momoko and Kanna cook up a mix of meat slices, vegetables and spices in a saucepan and then pour it over rice. Then they all work as teams to repeat #3 with a more elaborate mix of ingredients. The announcer guy comes out from behind the camera to taste the food and judge it. The winning team made some mouth-watering dishes and won each of the four match-ups. The losing team...? Well, thankfully they don't need to know how to cook in order to put on great concerts. There are short transitional bits featuring Erina Mano wandering outside, usually in a campus setting, reading from a book and then addressing the camera. I couldn't tell you what these are about.
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Single V: Hare Ame nochi SukiMorning Musume SakuragumiSakura Gumi's first song -- in 2 videos
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.
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Single V: Ai no Sono - Touch My Heart!Morning Musume OtomegumiGreat song, but where's the Dance Shot?!
This DVD contains two versions of the video for "Ai no Sono~Touch My Heart!," the first of two singles released by Morning Musume Otome Gumi, which featured seven MM members: Kaori, Rika, Miki, Nono, Makoto, Sayumi, and Reina. This is one of my favorite MM songs, chiefly because it's the very first one I heard, as performed as the opening song at the Hello! Project Winter 2004 concert, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. The video is a nice one, with the girls in some very attractive costumes, esp. Rika's, and features them dancing in a set designed to look like a desert tent with torch lamps on the side and stone temple structures in the background. The dancing is fast and frenetic, but it's frequently interrupted by lame close-ups of the girls lolling about on fake sand in a dark studio. And, unfortunately, the alternate video included is a Close-up version restricted to exactly those shots! What's really needed here is a Dance Shot version, especially since Nono does some of her best dancing here and proves that she was indeed the best dancer in Morning Musume after Ai Takahashi. But we don't see enough of the dancing in the main video. That's why I give this 3 stars and not more. The DVD includes about five minutes of 'Making of' footage, including some funny bits with Nono and a delightful moment where Kaori pats super-cute Sayumi on the head. Aibon, visiting from the Sakura Gumi set ("Hare Ame Nochi Suki"), makes a cameo appearance with Rika.
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Sakura Mankai / Yuujou - Kokoro no busu niwa naranee!Morning Musume Sakuragumi & OtomegumiSakura/Otome combined: 2 songs, 4 videos
This DVD contains two versions each of the videos for the second and last singles made by Morning Musume Sakura Gumi and Morning Musume Otome Gumi, which consisted of the then-14-member lineup of Morning Musume evenly split into two groups. The "Sakura Mankai" video is shot in a studio made up to look like a traditional Japanese street and the girls are dressed in kimonos in different designs engaged in different activities, e.g. Yossi hanging up patterned fabrics, Eri putting out parasols, Aibon placing branches with flowers in a vase, etc. The dance shots feature them in short, pink satin kimono-like garments with white boots against a white background tricked up with effects images, including a revolving cherry blossom. There's also a wall of pinwheels. It's a beautiful video, but the Close-up version, also included here, is even more beautiful. It focuses on the girls in their traditional costumes and they offer up some exquisite close-ups, esp. Mari, Ai-chan, Aibon, Risa and Yossi. "Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!" has a fashion show/runway motif and the girls are dressed up in individualized black-and-white fashions. Sayumi wears a white cap, long white gloves, a black skirt with white trim and white boots and she looks just awesome, clearly stealing the show in the looks department, although Nono dominates in the dance and comic antics sections. I'm not crazy about the song, but I love the video so much it doesn't matter. And it comes with what they call the "Oi! Oi! Version," essentially a dance shot version where the girls dance in what looks like a modeling studio. We get to see more of Nono here than in the earlier Otome Gumi video, "Ai no Sono Touch My Heart," which, unfortunately, did not come with a Dance Shot version. Nono is clearly the best dancer to come out of MM after Ai Takahashi and the Otome Gumi videos prove this. The "Making of" portion is just over eleven minutes, with Sakura Gumi getting two minutes more than Otome Gumi. Miki seems to be having a good time and wraps her coat and arms around Sayumi outside at one point. Aibon has fun on the traditional set. Nacchi was part of Sakura Gumi when they made "Hare Ame Nochi Suki," their previous single, but she'd graduated by the time they made this, so she's not in "Sakura Mankai." The girls performed all 4 of the Sakura/Otome Gumi songs in the "Best of Japan" Spring 2004 concert.
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2005 Nen Natsu W & Berryz Koubou Concert Tour - High Score!W (Double You) & Berryz KoubouAibon & Nono take the stage with Berryz
W, the dual act consisting of Aibon (Ai Kago) and Nono (Nozomi Tsuji), which was disbanded in Feb. 2006, did two concerts with Berryz Kobo, one in 2004 and this one in 2005. This concert is probably the closest thing to a true W concert we'll ever see. Even though the Berryz girls, in varying numbers, are onstage most of the time as well, we get to see more W numbers here than in any other concert the two did, including the "Hello Pro Party" they did with Aya Matsuura and Melon Kinenbi that same year (2005) and also reviewed on this site. We see them do their three 2005 singles here, "Koi no Fuga," "Ai no Imi wo Oshiete!" and a rousing performance of their last single, "Miss Love Tantei," one of my favorite songs of theirs. And they do it in these gorgeous white-and-blue party dresses with white boots, easily their prettiest outfits in the entire show. They follow it with a very nice song I'd never heard before, "Sexy Snow." They also do "Matsu Wa" and "Robokiss," this last one with a little help at the end from two of the Berryz girls. Aibon and Nono are at their peak here, and if you're at all a fan of theirs, this is the concert to get. Berryz Kobo is in a formative stage here, infused with youthful energy, good cheer and vitality, and always fun to watch, but not yet the formidable, finely-tuned dance unit they would become in a few short years (see the 2009 Single-V, "Dakishimete Dakishimete"). There are eight members here, since Maiha Ishimura hadn't left the group yet. In the opening number, they join W in a performance of "Aa Ii Na!," the video of which they'd appeared in only as back-up dancers. Here they sing along and dance with W for the whole number, another favorite of mine, and it's just pure delight. Later, they join W for the Morning Musume classic, "Mr. Moonlight," with Aibon taking on the lead role originated by Yossi, complete with her version of Yossi's rock-style howls. More delight. If I have any complaint, it's with the camera crew. Why the fast-cutting during the rap portion of "Miss Love Tantei?" I want to SEE the girls dance, not have my eyes shake uncontrollably. And why so many shots from the audience with fans jumping up and down in front of the camera and blocking our view? It's a stupid directorial choice. Audiences at Hello! Project concerts should be heard and not seen. Just for that, I take one star off the rating.