Review by Madara
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Hello! Project Hina Fes 2023Hello! ProjectWarning: These Concerts Are Shortened
This two-disc Blu-ray set of Hina Fes 2023 is supposed to contain three of the four Hina Fes concerts done in April 2023: Angerme & Tsubaki Factory Premium, Morning Musume.'23 & Ocha Norma Premium, and Juice=Juice & Beyooooonds Premium. (The fourth, Kiki Asakura’s graduation from Tsubaki Factory, is contained in a completely separate set with an unrelated TF concert). Not one of the three concerts is complete. Disc 1 is 109 min., Disc 2 is 118 min. The three concerts are intercut with each other. There are whole numbers listed on the actual concert setlists that are missing entirely from the Blu-rays, including some songs I really like. This infuriates me. For what I’m paying for these Blu-ray sets, I should be getting complete concerts. I don’t know if Up-Front is reading these reviews, but I’d sure like to find a way to make my displeasure known to them. Why would they do this? The girls' actual performance quality is very high. The problem is we're only seeing excerpts of it. In the past, Hina Fes releases came in two sets with one complete Premium concert on one disc and a shortened one on the second, the reasoning being that numbers repeated in the second Premium in each set were cut out. I didn’t like that either, but at least we got two complete concerts out of the four. This is very different.
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Petit Best 20 2020V.A.2-hour bonus of great concert clips!
The Blu-ray edition of Petit Best 20 is easily one of the best buys a Hello! Project fan can purchase, although you wouldn't know it from the lackluster cover. It's got 113 minutes of music videos followed by a solid two hours of performance clips from H!P concerts from 1999 to 2019. There are 54 separate concert tracks and each was picked by a different member of H!P. It's interesting to see who picks what. A few pick clips they happen to be in, but most pick clips from other groups or their own group before their time in it. I love that three of them picked early S/mileage videos and that Rio Kitagawa picks the PV for "Mukidashi de Mukiatte." I love most of the choices, especially the concert clips. It's like sitting through two hours of the best H!P concert highlights.
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Hello! Project 2013 SUMMER COOL HELLO! - Sorezore / Mazekoze! -Hello! ProjectA new and dynamic H!P on display
This Blu-ray set contains two concerts, Sorezore! on Disc 1, Mazekoze! on Disc 2. Sorezore! is mostly comprised of standard sets from each of the five main groups--Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, C-ute, S/mileage and Juice=Juice--with assist from Hello! Pro Kenshuusei (the Eggs). Both concerts are quite good, but Disc 2 is much better. The first hour of it is one of the best things I've seen from Hello! Project in years and includes the mix-and-match shuffle-style units I like so much in these concerts, so the girls get to sing lots of older H!P songs and work with members from other groups to form interesting and unique combos. Plus it's got four ensemble numbers featuring the whole company. This is the first time I've seen Juice=Juice join the other groups onstage for the big opening and closing ensemble numbers. And their members are included in the mix-and-match numbers on Disc 2. For me, that's a big step in finally accepting them as an integral part of Hello! Project. The other big development is simply the fact that the newer girls--i.e. those who've joined in the last three years--are on a par, performance-wise, with the older girls. There isn't as much of a distinction between the former Hello! Project Kids (Berryz Kobo and C-ute) and the newer girls as there was, once upon a time, between the Elder Club and the H!P Kids. There are no solos here by any of the members of the five groups. It's all about the group dynamics. The only soloist we see is Asahi Tasaki, who sings and plays the keyboard on one song and that's it. Highlights include: "Kiiroi Osora de BOOM BOOM BOOM," one of H!P's very first shuffle unit songs and featuring two girls from Juice=Juice in the unit, the first concert number to show the J=J girls performing in a unit with any of the others. "Iku ZYX! FLY HIGH," one of my all-time favorite H!P songs and performed here by two of H!P's star performers, Miyabi Natsuyaki and Riho Sayashi. "Magic of Love," an old Taiyo to Ciscomoon song (from 1999!) gives us a formidable six-girl grouping including the three designated belters from their respective groups: Risako Sugaya (Berryz), Chisato Okai (C-ute) and Meimi Tamura (S/mileage). Morning Musume comes out in great red-and-black outfits, with awesome berets, for a new song, "Ai no Gundan." It's arguably the best-choreographed piece in both concerts and one of the best numbers in the show.
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S/mileage 2nd Original Album "(2) Smile Sensation" Hatsubai Kinen EventS/mileageShort and Sweet
This is a 67-minute mini-concert with 13 songs and one costume change designed to promote S/mileage's second original album, "2 Smile Sensation." They come out on a bare stage in black or black-and-white dresses and sing and dance up a storm. They look great and sound great. They're all in fine voice throughout. I've always had a problem with Ayaka's voice, but she sounds much better here than I've ever heard her sound. The girls keep their energy level high through the entire performance and give it 110%. My favorite S/mileage song, "Samui Ne," is performed, so I was very happy. All the songs work as performance pieces. There isn't a weak one in the bunch. If you're a S/mileage fan, this DVD is for you.
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Petit Best 14V.A.Weaker collection than usual...
With the increased storage space on a Blu-ray--and the fact that they weren't even offering this collection on DVD--one would hope that they'd include a lot of extra goodies on this. But they didn't. There are only 16 tracks, plus two bonus tracks. (Petit Best 8 had 19 tracks on the DVD!) Given all the good dancing in the Morning Musume, Berryz and C-ute PVs, especially MM's "Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke," I would like to have seen the Dance Shot versions of those videos. These PVs are okay, but not spectacular, and the inclusion of the Dance Shots would have gone a long way toward increasing the value of this Blu-ray. Granted, these PVs are a lot more tolerable than the Satoyama/Satoumi movement videos in this collection. I'm sorry, but I'm tired of seeing the girls out in the woods or on the beach for some vague back-to-nature message. Bring them back to the studio for some decent songs. I'll confess to liking the Mellowquad video because of the talent involved (Maimi, Miyabi, Chinami and Chisato) and because it has a festival theme like some of the great shuffle unit videos of old ("Dancing Natsumatsuri," anyone?). And I like the song that Peaberry (Riho and Ayaka) sing, although the video is dull. Of the other videos, I'll give points to S/mileage's video for "Yattaruchan" because the girls have nice costumes and they seem to be having fun. Overall, the best song and video in this collection is Erina Mano's "Next My Self." They put some effort into the video, adding a troupe of dancers and a crowd of Wotas as unpaid extras. And it happens to be a very nice song, very capably delivered by Ms. Mano. Too bad it's her last for Hello! Project. But, aside from the exceptions cited above, it's a pretty lackluster bunch of songs and videos from Hello! Project. Petit Best 13 was much better. Remember "Chou Happy Song" and "Cat's Eye"? I do. I wish the geniuses running H!P did.
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Cute Concert Tour 2012 Haru Natsu - Utsukushikutte Gomenne -C-uteAnother great C-ute concert
One of the pleasant surprises of this concert is the fact that it contains dance sequences where we can actually SEE THE GIRLS DANCE!!! I've been complaining for years about Hello! Project concert DVDs in which the choreographed dance routines are ruined for home viewers by bad photography, poor angles and quick cuts. In this concert, the girls break into dance segments in three of the first four songs and the camera manages to keep them all in frame for the duration of the dances, letting us see them head-to-toe, rather than cut to extreme closeups or blurry side angles. There are still too many cuts, but the angles are all good. I wonder if the producers of these concerts have been reading my reviews and blog entries. The song selection is very good here. There were a lot of songs that were unfamiliar to me. There are very few older songs and few numbers that have been done to death in concert after concert, i.e., no "Massara Blue Jeans" for the umpteenth time, thank God. They do one of my favorites of recent years, "Midnight Temptation," but add an enjoyable flag baton twirling routine that evidently required hours of rehearsal. There's even a "Flag Baton Trainer" listed in the credits. All the girls get solos, always a good thing in my book. Mai Hagiwara comes out with a guitar to do her delightful single, "Yuke! Genki-kun," but she doesn't play it. Still, it's a cute touch. My only complaint is that Airi's solo is too short. The encore leads off with a "matsuri" (festival) song called "Zuntaka March ~Hitorashiku Ikiyou~" and it's the kind of thing Chisato really excels at. All the girls are in peak form. Highly recommended.
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Buono! LIVE 2012 "R E A L"Buono!"Real" - Another great Buono! Concert
We're used to great Buono! concerts. The latest one is a little simpler and more streamlined than the past ones, with only three costume changes, and is staged in a small venue called Zepp Tokyo. But it's got everything we want from these girls--energetic singing and dancing applied to some of the best songs from the Buono! songbook, a catalog which is arguably filled with more good songs than any other Hello! Project act can boast in the last eight years (since the glory days of Morning Musume, that is). Momoko, Miyabi, and Airi just keep getting better and better and do as good a job here as I've seen them do anywhere else in the ten years they've been with Hello! Project. Their voices are stronger, their confidence is peaking, and their onstage chemistry is as good as it gets. It helps that they have a live band onstage with them for the bulk of the act, the four-member, all-woman rock group, Dolce, which has performed with them in the past. While I enjoyed the whole concert, I would single out two sets as highlights. At the 25-minute mark, they do a fast-paced medley of nine songs (ten numbers, since they open and close it with "My Love"), including my favorite Buono! song, "co.no.mi.chi." Then, at the 64-minute mark they do a four-song set that includes some of the best songs in this concert: "1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou," "Independent Girl~Dokuritsu Joshi de Aru Tame ni," "Deep Mind," and "Juicy Heart." Maybe it's just the fact that three of these had only been performed in concert once before, but the set came off as the freshest section of the show to me. Each of them does a solo. All were in fine voice and could easily have done these solos in their sleep. The fact that they were wide awake is practically icing on the cake. Still, it got me to thinking about what Buono! can do to take it to the next level. All but one of the 30 songs in this tracklist have been performed at past concerts, six of them five times or more. (The one new song featured is "Hatsukoi Cider.") While I'm not suggesting this concert would have been improved by doing anything different, I'd like to see the girls go in some different directions in the next one. They do as good a job with these songs as I believe they can. Why not give them some new songs? Why not challenge them a little? Give them more solos, but pick songs they've never done before. Just a thought.
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Colorful Character [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]Morning MusumeThe new gens hit the ground running
I like the new direction Morning Musume has taken with the eight members of 9th and 10th Gen. They give the group new energy and new blood. I like listening to them sing. We get a lot of them on this new album and they harmonize well. I like some of their voices, too. Riho, Kanon, Ayumi, and Haruka all have distinctive, pleasant voices. (Haruka's husky voice is quite a surprise for someone her age.) And the bonus is that, while we still have to tolerate Sayumi, Reina has become a much more powerful vocalist in her own right. She has a nice solo on this album. (Sayumi has a solo as well, but it's electronically altered to cover up her deficiency as a singer.) I can't wait to hear some of the new girls get solos. The twelve tracks include four of their singles from this year: "Pyocopyoco Ultra" (the first with 10th Gen), "Renai Hunter" (arguably the best song on the album), "One*Two*Three" (arguably the second best song on the album), and the song it was released with, "The Matenrou Show." I like a lot of the other songs as well, all written for this album, including "Be Alive," "What's Up? Ai wa Dou na no you~," Reina's solo "Namida Hitoshizuku," "Chikyuu ga Naiteiru," and "Zero Kara Hajimaru Seishun," which gives each of the girls solo lines. Another rousing highlight, "Waratte! YOU," is performed by 9th and 10th Gens only. Clearly, the new blood has inspired Tsunku to tailor new material for these girls. I'm eager to see these songs performed live in the Fall 2012 concert DVD. The accompanying DVD provides interviews with each of the girls (unsubtitled, of course), footage of the cover photography shoot, and two song performances from the Spring 2012 Tour that are not on the spring concert DVD: "Kaiketsu Positive A" and "My Way ~Joshikou Hanamichi~." Definitely worth getting.
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Dream Morning Musume. Concert Tour 2011 Haru no Mai - Sotsugyosei DE Saikessei -Dream Morning MusumeThere's life in the old girls yet!
Once the Elder Club graduated back on February 1, 2009, I thought I'd never see them again in performance. Well, the next best thing is Dream Morning Musume, a reunion unit made up of ten former Morning Musume members: Yuko, Nacchi, Kaori, Kei, Mari, Rika, Yossi, Miki, Makoto, and Koharu. I sure miss Nono, Aibon and Maki, but at least they added Koharu, which made me very happy indeed. This is almost as good as one of the classic MM concerts from their peak years: 2000-2004. The girls all look fantastic and sound great and seem to be having a grand time. 17 of the songs are from the old days (1997-2004), which means that five or more of the girls had performed on each of the originals. And they're the upbeat, dance-filled songs, including "Love Machine," "Happy Summer Wedding," "Renai Revolution 21," "I Wish," "The Peace," "Souda! We're Alive," and "Shabondama." There are no solos and no quiet songs, although, as part of a medley, "Do It! Now" is performed at a slower tempo than usual, making for an interesting variation on one of the group's greatest hits. MM's first single, "Morning Coffee," is performed by the five oldest (three of whom were on the original) and "Iroppoi Jettai," the first single after Koharu joined, is performed by the five youngest (four of whom were on the original). Then they mix and match for different groups of five on "Mikan," one of my favorite MM songs of recent years, and "Roman~My Dear Boy." There are two new songs created for this group, and only one song from the post-Yossi & Miki era: "Mikan," the only song here in which Koharu was the only one of the ten on the original. I think all ten of the girls are wonderful, but if I had to pick the outstanding performers in this concert, I'd go with Nacchi, Rika, Yossi, Miki and Yuko. I certainly hope they do more concerts, get Nono back and maybe even Maki, and pick from a wider range of songs in the Hello! Project catalog. Just for the record, there are four songs on the Dream Morning Musume CD that aren't in the concert and two songs and a medley of four on the concert DVD that aren't on the CD. There are no extras on the DVD. Some backstage footage would have been a joy.
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Futari no HitomiJapanese MovieFirst Japanese film with Hollywood star
I discovered Hibari Misora, Japan's top recording star of the postwar era, a little over two years ago and have amassed a collection of her CDs and movies, including a color musical entitled JANKEN MUSUME (1955). In researching Misora's career, I was intrigued to learn that she'd co-starred in FUTARI NO HITOMI with American movie star Margaret O'Brien in 1952 and even happier to learn it was available from CDJapan. So I ordered it and watched it. It's quite an eye-opener. It turns out to be, as far as I can tell, the very first Japanese production to import an American movie star. O'Brien had been a child star in the 1940s at the MGM studio (MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, LITTLE WOMEN, THE SECRET GARDEN), but her Hollywood career began to flounder when she hit adolescence. She has a very good role here as Katie, the daughter of an American diplomat in occupied Japan, ca. 1950. She speaks most of her lines in English, although she speaks a good many lines in carefully enunciated, American-accented Japanese. (Her character is learning the language.) The actress clearly worked hard on her portrayal and comes off as wholly sincere. Misora, who's the same age as O'Brien, plays an orphan in charge of four younger orphans, all of whom have refused to enter an orphanage because they would have to relinquish their dog. As a result, they sing and perform on the street for small change and live in an abandoned warehouse where they are subject to harassment by local thugs. Katie takes the children under her wing and, ultimately, works with a local Japanese Christian minister to raise funds to build an orphanage that will allow pets. Not the most exciting story, but it's fairly easy to follow despite the lack of English subtitles for the spoken Japanese dialogue. Most of the major plot points are provided in English. And Misora gets to sing a number of songs, always a good thing in my book. She and O'Brien have great chemistry together. They even do a charming non-singing dance number, with Misora in western dress and O'Brien in a kimono. The film offers a fascinating hybrid of Hollywood & Japanese cinema and I consider it a major discovery. I'm surprised it's so little-known. I only found one brief reference to it in one book on Japanese film. I'm curious to know if the film was ever released in the U.S. and if it ever had English subtitles for the Japanese-language scenes.
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Cute & S/milage Premium Live 2011 Spring - C&S Collaboration Daisakusen -Cute / S/mileageFast-paced joint concert
C-ute is one of the two best performing units in Hello! Project (along with Berryz). S/mileage is still comparatively new. I tend to prefer S/mileage in small doses, but I like them here because C-ute brings out the best in them. The groups' performing styles complement each other well, with C-ute (after almost nine years performing together) showing the more polished and mature style, while S/mileage is still in "girly" mode. C-ute is outfitted in sexier and more provocative costumes, while S/mileage wears their usual party dresses, which creates some interesting contrasts on stage. Saki Ogawa, S/mileage's departing member, comes off the best of her group, as always, but I was quite impressed this time with Yuuka Maeda, who showed a vigor and confidence I hadn't noticed before. There is some age overlap between the two groups. All of S/mileage is younger than the four oldest members of C-ute, although the two oldest in S/mileage were born the same year as three members of C-ute, while C-ute's youngest member, Mai Hagiwara, is younger than three members of S/mileage. (Saki O. is the youngest of the nine.) However, Mai, who's been performing for more than half her life, comes off as a much more seasoned and poised performer than any member of S/mileage. The highlight of the concert is the "Dance Battle Medley," which occurs a little over an hour into the show. It's quite a cute segment and a brilliant concept for a concert like this. And it's as elaborate a piece of concert choreography as we've seen since, oh, the C-ute/Berryz joint concert from four years ago. It opens with each of the nine girls doing a solo, one at a time (starting with the two Sakis), and then the two groups competing in a "dance-off." This is the first time I've seen C-ute do "Midnight Temptation" from their "Cho Wonderful!" CD. It's a catchy, rousing song and a great concert dance number, another highlight here and one of the best things I've seen C-ute do in a long time. I really don't have a lot more to say about this concert, other than that it's just a fun, light, bouncy piece of H!P entertainment without a single slow moment. And isn't that good enough? Saki Ogawa was the real draw in S/mileage for me. I'm reluctant to follow S/mileage without her, although people on MM-BBS are telling me I really should give the new girls a chance. I'll wait for their first video.
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Morning Musume. Concert Tour 2011 Haru Shin Soseiki Fantasy DX - 9 Kimen wo Mukaete -Morning Musume9th Gen concert debut rocks!
I was looking forward to this DVD to see how the four new girls from 9th Gen fared in their very first Morning Musume concert. I'm happy to report that they do a great job. They're full of life, joy and exuberance and they bring a welcome supply of new blood to a group that's long needed it. I loved all of them, but I was especially impressed with Riho Sayashi. She's clearly the best singer and dancer of the four and she seems to be given more solo lines than the other three during the course of the concert. She's even put into a strenuous dance number with group leaders Ai and Risa and she keeps up with them every step of the way! I'm also quite taken with Erina Ikuta, who's a good dancer also and brings the right spirit to the stage. She's clearly enjoying herself and is happy to be there, making us, the viewers, happy as well. Kanon Suzuki is terminally adorable and has a cute voice, but is a little rough around the edges and needs a tad more discipline. Mizuki Fukumura is pretty, poised and pleasant, but needs to pump it up a little more and remember that she's no longer just a back-up dancer. I'm quite confident that both will improve vastly over the next few months. I haven't been this excited about Morning Musume since they came to Anime Expo in L.A. in July 2009. The songs tended to be loud and bouncy, emphasizing group singing rather than solo lines. There was a high energy level and lots of dancing throughout the concert. If you like the slow, tender songs, this wasn't the concert for that. The five older girls all did a great job and work together seamlessly. I suspect the infusion of new blood affected them as well. Many of the songs were recent and unfamiliar to me. The last MM song to make a strong impression on me was "Kimagure Princess," which is performed here in a medley. They do such a good job on it that I wish they'd performed it full-length as a separate number. Another medley has three old-school MM hits, "Love Machine," "Ikimasshoi," and "Renai Revolution 21," ideal numbers for welcoming in the new girls. The only older MM hit that gets a full performance is "The Manpower" and I have to say it's one of the best performances of it I've ever seen, with revised choreography for a nine-girl lineup on a small stage and heavy-hitting on the vocals by Ai and Risa, who get up and WORK it! Now I can't wait for the next concerts.
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Single V: Ai no DanganBerryz KoboThe Berryz girls heat up the screen!
This single-V is an absolute must for Berryz Kobo fans. While the song itself is only about average, the real appeal is just how stunning the girls look in those form-fitting red patent vinyl jumpsuits and black leather boots. These are seriously sexy outfits, but also entirely age- and body-appropriate for these seven--unlike the hot pants and gold tube tops worn by C-ute in the video for "Kiss Me Aishiteru" earlier this year, which gave off a disturbing teen hooker vibe. The costumes here have more of a female action star look to them, reinforced by scenes of the girls sitting astride motorcycles, with hair flapping in the breeze. They're sexy for themselves, not just for the fans. The main video is very well put together, with a substantial portion of dance footage mixed with motorcycle shots and medium close shots when they sing, all done in the studio with assorted backgrounds, including a giant video screen with taped footage of themselves singing. Their silhouettes are displayed in a series of colored panels. "Another Dance Shot Version" is included on this DVD, although I would have preferred the main Dance Shot Version which came with the CD single (Type A), which is now out of print. I hate having to go to YouTube to watch the videos I like. I want them on DVD. "Another Dance Shot" basically keeps the girls in long shot for the entire song. Best of all, the DVD comes with 23 solid minutes of photo shoot and "Making of" footage. In a welcome new touch, the complete song plays again over the photo shoot, rather than an instrumental version, something I'm not sure I've noticed before in one of these Single-Vs. The girls all look extraordinarily beautiful here and they wear those hot jumpsuits the entire time. Saki's hairstyle, in fact, is much nicer in the photo shoot than in the video. She is, by far, the prettiest here. Miyabi is sleek and breathtaking, the most beautiful I've ever seen her. Chinami is an absolute knockout--the camera totally loves her. Risako's finally getting comfortable with being sexy and she breaks out her inner red hot mama. Why they don't make photobooks out of these photo shoots I'll never understand. As for the song itself, I found it catchy and pleasant, if not among the group's best. It offers plenty of opportunities for the girls to harmonize and gives them all ample solo lines in the bargain. What's not to enjoy?
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Hello! Project 2006 Summer - Wonderful Hearts LandHello! ProjectMegumi shines in 1st big summer concert
This was the first of the big summer "Wonderful Hearts" concerts, in which the younger Hello! Project contingent performed without the Elder Club members. Here we get Morning Musume, V-u-den, Berryz Kobo, C-ute, and, serving as back-up dancers, the Hello! Pro Eggs. It's obvious from the various ensemble numbers that Hitomi "Yossi" Yoshizawa is not only the leader of Morning Musume, but the unofficial leader of the entire assemblage. When she gets on stage in the group numbers, she clearly dominates and is quite wondrous to behold. I don't know that MM has ever had as a strong a leader as her. The other major star of this concert is C-ute's Megumi Murakami, seen in her last H!P concert and one of her last public appearances before leaving C-ute and H!P in October of that year. Megumi's on fire throughout, living up to her status, in my eyes, as the single best performer to emerge from the Hello! Project Kids. She's in two C-ute numbers and all the ensemble numbers, but also two of the special units, so we see a lot of her. She does these great dance moves in C-ute's "Soku Dakishimete" and, fortunately, the camera remembers to stay on her during those moments. She also participates in a re-do of the Def.Diva song, "Suki Sugite Baka Mitai," where she's joined by Reina, Maimi and Momoko. They're all spectacular in it, but Megumi just runs with it, never failing to maintain eye contact with the camera following her, urging the viewers at home to pay attention. And we do. Makoto Ogawa and Asami Konno graduated from Morning Musume during this concert. The ceremony begins at about the 75-minute mark and lasts at least 30 minutes. (The concert itself is 2 hours and 15 min.) It's quite an emotional spectacle, esp. when the four members of 5th Gen sing their trademark song, "Suki na Sempai," together with tears streaming down their faces. And in the individual goodbyes, Koharu just loses it, breaking my heart for all time. This was the last H!P concert to feature an MM graduation. They wisely kept them to MM concerts thereafter. As moved as I was by the ceremony, I was annoyed at the way it disrupted an otherwise lively, upbeat, energetic concert. The extras on the disc feature a solo by Nozomi "Nono" Tsuji, who was sidelined by an injury before the concert that's on the disc, and a Berryz Kobo number in which Miyabi participates. She was absent from the main concert.
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BD. Hello! Project 2011 WINTER - Kange Shinsen Matsuri - Kanzen Ban [Blu-ray]Hello! ProjectEnough winners to justify the high cost
Can there be too much of a good thing? This set offers five solid hours of material: two two-hour concerts + 21 additional songs that are not on the DVDs. I first watched all five hours in two sessions over two days and found it wearying. When I re-watched it for this review, I watched it in portions and skipped past the MC segments and the numbers I didn't like and appreciated all the rest so much more. There are enough top-notch numbers in this to earn it 5 stars. But it's best watched in portions. The Blu-ray experience has its pros and cons. You can see everyone quite clearly, even when they're sitting on the side of the stage during others' performances, which can be distracting. In the ensemble numbers, since everyone's in such clear focus, it's hard to know where to look when there are over a dozen girls in a single shot. A small price to pay, though. The girls all look fantastic in this format. The highlights of this set, for me, are in the extras. Disc A features 10 extra numbers by the special units, including Pucchimoni V, Shin Minimoni, Aa, Tanpopo#, Zoku V-u-den, and, best of all, High-King, who offer some great dance moves. Disc B features 11 extra numbers--all solos, including breathtaking vocals by Airi Suzuki, Miyabi Natsuyaki, Maimi Yajima and Ai Takahashi, and delightful turns by Mai Hagiwara, Saki Ogawa, Saki Shimizu, and Kanon Fukuda. Among the featured groups, S/mileage deserves to be singled out for consistent excellence in its numbers and, of individual performers, Risako Sugaya comes off best, whether solo, with Berryz, in V-u-den, or in the ensembles. Clearly the MVP of these concerts. The new members of Morning Musume make an appearance in both concerts. Little diva-in-training Kanon Suzuki is absent from Concert A, but present in Concert B. Mizuki Fukumura, still a Hello! Pro Egg here, dances back-up in both concerts and, thanks to Blu-ray, is quite visible. There are far fewer Eggs than in the past and few that I recognized. The backstage footage is reduced to a couple of minutes alongside the end credits. Interesting song choices, including lots of old Aya and Maki songs and plenty of catalog titles that were unfamiliar to me. No Morning Musume classics, though, just newer ones. The ensemble finales were pretty spectacular in both concerts, with intricate work in mass staging and choreography on that tiny Nakano Sun Plaza stage.
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Petit (Pucchi) Best 2 DVDHello! ProjectGreat PVs from the Golden Age of H!P
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.
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Slayers MegumixMegumi HayashibaraMegumi at her peak!
I'd heard Megumi Hayashibara before then, but the first time I connected singing voice and name was when I heard "Midnight Blue," sung over the end credits of "Slayers: The Motion Picture." I was hooked. From that point on I was determined to locate as many Hayashibara recordings as I could. This was in the dark days before I had the internet and before I'd heard of CDJapan, so I had to prowl Japanese stores in New York and dealers' tables at conventions and I usually came up short. I did find several CDs of anime song collections and invariably the best songs on them were Megumi-sung songs from different incarnations of "Slayers." After I'd finally compiled a collection of her CDs, I realized that what I really needed was a collection devoted entirely to all her songs from "Slayers." Well, my prayers were answered with the release of this collection. And it's easily one of my favorite anime song CDs ever. All my favorites are here: "Midnight Blue," "Give a Reason," "Get Along," "Shining Girl," "Run All the Way," etc. She remains one of my favorite Japanese singers ever and the songs here are generally quite delightful--melodic, driving, and musically clever. And her clear, high voice brings out the best in them. The songs are sprinkled with English phrases which she handles with relish. "Get along, try again." "Give a reason for life." "Don't be afraid!" There are two discs of songs plus one disc for Karaoke. I have sung "Midnight Blue" in karaoke and this disc would have come in handy for practice. Well, there are more karaoke sessions ahead for the other songs. Still, instead of a karaoke disc, I would have preferred the third disc to be a DVD with music videos for the songs composed of anime clips from "Slayers." That would have been pretty awesome.
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Nogashita Sakanatachi - Single Video Collection - [Regular Edition]AKB48Collection of ten early AKB48 PVs
If you're a fan of AKB48, you've probably already seen the ten music videos on this collection. If you're new to them and are looking for a suitable introduction, this DVD is the way to go. The videos were filmed from 2006-2008, so you definitely see some changes in the girls. I got this DVD chiefly because I wanted to own a copy of "Sakura Hanabira Tachi 2008," which I'd seen in a subtitled edition on YouTube. It's a graduation song and is sung choral style by the full assemblage of the girls. The video shows them singing at the graduation ceremony, intercut with nicely shot and staged scenes of high school life, drama and funny antics intermingled. It's all quite beautiful and extremely moving, a definite high point in the history of J-pop music videos. The songs vary in likability for me. Some are catchy and bouncy ("Aitakatta"), others more somber and less fun ("Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou"). But I like all the videos. For sheer entertainment value, you can't beat large numbers of very cute Japanese girls in attractive outfits dancing together in interesting settings while singing in full voice. Some are shot in the studio, some are shot on location, some are a mix of the two. Several include scenes of high school life. I like the videos where they smile a lot. Fortunately, those outnumber the non-smiling ones. There are lots of interesting locations around Japan, far away from Tokyo. "Bingo!" has them held prisoner on a tanker at sea and they all escape by leaping off the ship and getting washed up on a beach, where another version of them, 48-strong(!), dances on the sand in party dresses. Interestingly, there are several different styles of schoolgirl uniforms pictured in the videos. In the scenes involving typical school activities, the uniforms match what high school girls in Japan would normally wear. In the dance shots, the school uniforms are sharper and more imaginative, the work of some very clever designers. Two of the videos are obviously there for fan-service. "Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru" (My School Uniform Gets in the Way) and "Skirt, Hirari" (Skirt, Flutters) include images of the girls dancing suggestively in sexily stylized schoolgirl outfits. You won't see that in a Morning Musume video. The DVD also contains TV spots for each video. The one for "Seifuku..." begins with the voice-over, "Otosan, gomennasai" (Father, I'm sorry). I'll bet she is.
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Cute Concert Tour 2010 Natsu Aki - Dance Special!! "Cho Uranaito!!" -CuteEasily the best C-ute concert yet
In my review of C-ute's Spring 2010 concert, I said it was their best concert yet. Well, guess what? This one's even better. The girls just keep knocking it out of the park. They are solid performers who do a nearly two-hour concert here, with 22 numbers, without a moment's drop in energy or enthusiasm. And these are all dance numbers, too, with nary a slow song or solo performed at all. (We got those in the Spring concert.) Every song's a good one and there isn't a false note anywhere. There are a few lengthy MC segments and a "VTR" skit composed of slightly animated still images of the girls in male drag, but the pace is so fast and furious the rest of the time that you're not going to complain. There are six costume changes--all beautiful. In fact, they change some of the costumes too quickly, giving us fewer numbers in some of the best ones. I particularly liked the long white dresses with black twirling trim worn for two numbers and the color-coded sparkling midriff tops and short-shorts they wear for a long set (six songs) late in the show. The songs are a mix of old favorites, e.g. "Tokaikko Junjou" and "Massara Blue Jeans" (do they ever NOT sing that at a concert?); recent hits ("Dance de Bakoon!," "Campus Life"); and songs I'd never heard before, e.g. "Tachiagare Otome-tachi." "One's Life," a duet by Airi and Saki, is a highlight because it gives Saki a chance to do "patter," a kind of rhythmic jazzy rap style familiar to me from old jazz songs but something I'd never heard in Japanese before. And she's quite good. Another highlight is the Dance Medley, in which they do snippets of six songs from the Hello! Project repertoire, including "Boom Boom Boom," "Shall We Love?" and "Get Up! Rapper!" with elaborate dance routines devised just for the medley. The extras include alternate performances of two songs and 13 min. of footage from another performance on the same tour. My chief complaint is one I have about a lot of these concert DVDs. The director and camera crew frequently cut away from the best angles when the girls are dancing. Why so many closeups and extreme long shots when all we want is to see the girls dance? Also, they bathe several numbers in red light--which is very unflattering to the girls and their costumes. I take a star off the rating because of this, although the girls rate a ten out of five--they're that good. Every one of them.
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Love songs [CD+DVD / Jacket A ]Ayumi HamasakiAyu's best album in years
I liked Ayu's album from two years ago, "Next Level," a great deal, chiefly because it had a second disc of songs, taken from live concerts, and a third disc of videos and "Making of" clips that included four videos that I consider the best of the Ayu PV's I've seen. This album has only two discs, a CD with 16 tracks and a DVD with 8 videos and 7 "Making of" clips, but it has better songs than I've heard on any Ayu album since the great albums she made roughly a decade ago. These songs have distinct melodies, eloquent but understated background instrumentals, and strong, dramatic vocal power of the kind that made me a fan of Ayu in the first place (think "A Song for XX" and "M"). Of the 16 tracks, three are short instrumental pieces with no lyrics, so we really only get 13 songs on the album. One of the best, "Seven Days War," is a live track from "Live at Yoyogi, October 11, 2010." My favorite on the album is "Love Song," the first track, which gives us the closest thing to old-school Ayu as anything I've heard from her in at least the last six years. I'm also partial to tracks 2, 3, 4, 7, 11 & 14. However, when I listen to the album (as I have multiple times since buying it), I always listen to and enjoy the whole album in one sitting. The videos are generally over-dramatic but there are a couple of elements that make them noteworthy. For one thing, five of the eight were shot in California, three of them on Hollywood studio backlots, including Universal Pictures, and at Los Angeles landmarks like the Bradbury Building. I actually found the videos more interesting after I'd watched the "Making of" clips and realized the wealth of locations used. Also, Ayu's now-husband, Manuel Schwarz, is an actor in three of the videos and we see her meeting him for the first time (supposedly) in a location shot from the "Virgin Road" 'Making of' clip. (They play a bride-and-groom who drive around the desert on a robbing-and-shooting spree until the cops close in.) The two seem to get closer as the shoot progresses through "Last Angel" and "Love Song." (All three videos are thematically connected.) At one point on location, Ayu complains that she's cold and Manny, as everyone calls him, wraps her in his jacket and pulls her to him, beating a poor female assistant to the punch. For the record, Schwarz, from Austria, looks like a bigger, handsomer version of Keanu Reeves.