Here’s what’s going down.

I’m sorry to say, but I think ChanceChanceBoogie is writing its final chapters.

Sayonara, See you again, Adios BYE BYE!

At the first performance of Morning Musume 2009 Fall tour ~NINE SMILE~, sole 7th Generation Member of Morning Musume announced that at the final performance of the tour, she will be graduating from both Morning Musume and Hello! Project.

Sup Hello! Blog Poll

Yeah, My computer at home broke.  So I’m currently doing this late DD  Real late D:  My results won’t be counted, but I still want to express my opinions about H!P’s members D

I had no official Elder Club members in my favourites D:

4000!

Wow. I only opened this blog in July! And now I have over 4000 hits! :O I’m really excited now Thank you, everyone, for reading it

Wota Wonderings 03: TV Tie-ins!

Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

lol uncreative D:^

It seems like many animes and TV dramas have had some sort of tie in to music that we like. This month, this is what Wota Wonderings is all about.

What’s in a Soloist? Pt 4

Berryz 1, 2 and 3, check!  Time for 4, 5, 6 and 7.

What’s in a Soloist? Pt3 (Berryz pt1)

Morning Musume’s been covered, but what of our lovely Kids?  Both groups show individual promise, but not every member would be strong enough to handle a career on their own.

What’s in a soloist? Pt 2 (8th gen)

Morning Musume’s ever changing lineup has produced many soloists, so let’s finish up the current lineup to see what the newbies can bring us.

Koharu’s been skipped, as she’s already a soloist, even if it’s for an anime.

Mitsui Aika

Mittsi’s relationship with the fans is love-hate right now, as far as i’m aware.  About half the wota population thinks she looks and acts like an old lady, and the other half thinks she’s adorable and would love to see her grow and hear her sing more.  I am part of the latter half of the wota, but to be honest I think pushing her as a soloist would be a risk right now.  It’s somewhat obvious that Tsunku and the bigwigs at UFA are pruning her into a soloist, what with a solo performance in her first fall concert and a solo performance in the recent fall concert as well.  I’m sure she will eventually grace H!P’s list of soloists, but for right now it’d be too much of a risk.

SOLOIST?: It’d be a risk, but it’s obvious that H!P and UFA are primping her to be one.

JunJun

JunJun, JunJun, JunJun. . . You’re too darn cute, y’know that?  Hello! Project’s recent expansion into mainland Asia and Taiwan has brought about the two most curious cases for H!P soloist material, especially after the debut of H!P’s Taiwan based Ice CreaMusume.   If JunJun, generally considered the more popular of the two pandas, were to debut as a soloist, would it be under Hello! Project’s new “Hello! Pro Taiwan”? or would she stick to what she’s already got and stay with Hello! Project’s main group.  She’s considered the worst singer of the two pandas, but she is a decent singer.  Her voice has a nice tone to it and because Japanese is her second language, when she sings in japanese it sounds Chinese, which is, to me, one of her charm points.  It’s really hard for me to foresee where she’ll be in H!P in 2 or 3 years, even though she’s been in H!P for 2 years already (wow, i can’t believe it’s been that fast!)  I guess that since Morning Musume was so slow in 2008, no one was really given a chance to see what kind of stuff JunJun can do, but if her minor corners on Haromoni@ and her cute impression of Ayaya in the 2008 summer concert were any implication of what kind of idol goodness she’s got stored away in her reserves somewhere, I think she’d be a good soloist.

SOLOIST?: I’m not 100% sure.  She has the personality, but she’s definitely not ready, and her voice isn’t quite there yet. . .

LinLin

LinLin’s got some of the same complications as JunJun:  She’s one of the two pandas, so if she were to become a soloist, where would she go–Hello! Pro Taiwan or regular Hello! Project?  Her voice is superior to her 8th generation peers and she’s been in the entertainment business since she was 8, but as an idol, her personality is still under construction.  She had a number of hilarious faces in the recent Alo Hello! DVD, but even then it seemed like she was just putting on a show–even if we know that all idols do that.

Ever since she debuted on Haromoni@ back in July 2007, she’s been kind of out there.  She doesn’t seem comfortable acting goofy or dancing around like a maniac, but she does it anyway.  I’m not sure if she’s told to or if it’s just what she thinks is right, but it’d be nice to see the real LinLin sometime.   Even Sayumi, who’s always seemed like such a bubbly character, admitted on Music Fighter in April 2008 that she was a reserved kid and her only friends in elementary school were pillbugs.  It’s silly stories like that that you completely believe that make an idol, not the making silly faces and acting cute.  Getting to know an idol is like getting to know a classmate, almost, but this time they don’t know who the hell you are, but you know absolutely every detail about them and chances are you’ll never get within 20 feet of them.  All I’m saying is that LinLin’s got the voice, but right now I can’t believe her personality so I think she needs more time before she does anything outside of Morning Musume.

SOLOIST?: not right now; her personality still needs work, even if she is a great singer.

There you have it:  Morning Musume.  A lot of these are just my opinions, so you have your right to give your two cents in the comments   Next time I’ll be writing about Berryz Koubou’s three oldest members, so wait for it!

What’s in a soloist? Pt 1(5th & 6th MoMusu)

One question that has been going through every wota’s head since Hello! Project announced that the Elder Club is going to graduate is: who the hell will fill in where nacchi, ayaya, mikitty and all the other soloist big shots were just a few years ago?  Our best bets are within Hello! Project right now; it’s too dangerous to start an unknown audition winner as a soloist as was planned for v-u-den’s Miyoshi Erika, so H!P’s best bet is to dip into the current stock of vocalists from the remaining groups and let them try their hand at soloist work.

Best of 08

This is Amy of  Merry Go Round’s ‘Best of 2008′ poll.  From what I gather, we’re supposed to give our opinions for the topic.  Here’s what I thought of 08:

Bests

Best Group Single

This one’s tough.  I’m pretty sure the honors go to Buono!’s Rottara Rottara, though.  Their releases never cease to impress me and Rottara Rottara’s b-side, My Love, is my favourite Buono! track, so far.  The song’s catchy and I love listening to it.

Best Soloist Single 2008 was a slow year for everyone in H!P, and because of that, soloists didn’t really release anything.  I’m going to give this one to Lucky Aura from Mano Erina.  The song itself was worlds better than her debut indies single, Manopiano, and she seemed more comfortable performing this one.

Best Group Album This one is no contest, Morning Musume’s COVER YOU gets this one.  Even though it wasn’t original, I liked every single song on it, and have listened to the entire album over and over again. It’s nice to hear older material get a makeover, too, and who better to give it to them than Morning Musume.

Best Soloist Album Kirari to Fuyu came out a few weeks ago, and I really like the whole album.  It’s a little crack, like all of Koharu’s music, but you can tell she’s trying to give Kirari a less squealy voice and has more vocal control compared to her first two albums.

Best PV This one goes to Berryz Koubou’s MADAYADE.  It’s nice to see H!P use extras in their PVs again, and this is the closest to a storyline a Hello! Project PV has had for a while.  Plus making two sets and everything is pretty cool too.

Group With Best Overall Releases unbiased, this award goes to C-ute.  Their music has the most variation of the three flagships right now, and, though for me it takes some warming up to, the music is good.  They started the year with a cracky song and ended it with an intense one, with some random songs in between.  That’s why the get this one.

Best New Group This one is really tough, as there weren’t really very many new groups this year, but for me, High-King gets this one.  I don’t know how many times i’ve listened to Kioku no Meiro or C\C, but I know that I really like both of those songs.

Best New Soloist I don’t like Suppin Rock, but Ogawa Mana is definitely the superior vocalist.  When I first heard Hitomi ga KiraKirara from Canary Club, I heard Ogamana’s voice and immediately was amazed.  When I looked her up, I was completely flabbergasted that she’s only 15.  I hope to see more from her, and maybe she’ll be NGP’s version of Matsuura Aya!

Best Established Group Berryz Koubou is one of my favourite groups, so they get this award.  I usually don’t like H!P Kids group concerts, but I loved their ~Berikore~ concert, and even though they got sillier releases this year, I loved all of them.

Best Established Soloist Merp.  Soloists had a horrible year, so this goes to no one.

Best Photobook I don’t look at photobooks, but I fell like Re:(Return) gets this one.  I loved Reina’s bunny outfit.

Hottest Idol of 2008 hottest idol?! That’s a really tough one D:  I’m going to go by who seems to be getting the most attention, and that’s Takahashi Ai.  She’s got a drama starting in a few weeks and she was the lead in a musical.  Not only that, but she was in another musical at the beginning of the year (With Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri and Tanaka Reina) and she did a great job of leading Morning Musume.  I think this year was her year, and next year can only get better.

Worsts

Worst Group Single This goes to Come Together.  I’ve already claimed that OG gets the songs that Tsunku writes when he’s drunk, and this one proves my point.  The song is basically the Satoda Mai show and even fan favourites Ishikawa Rika and Yoshizawa Hitomi get overlooked for H!P’s newest celebrity.  And the poor eggs get nothing at all.

Worst Soloist Single I have no idea what to put here.  Okitegami bored me the most, so that gets the spot.

Worst PV Even though I love monkeys to death and the song is amazing, Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance gets this spot.  The PV was cheap and the outfits were probably found in a thrift store.  Sorry ;-;

Worst Vocalist of 2008 Um. . . From what i’ve heard from Ongaku Gatas, Ishikawa Rika still sounds like a shrieking baby.  She gets this one.

Least Attractive Girl of 2008 Korenaga Miki.  She looks like a boy with hips/Tsunku.  No girl should look like Tsunku.