Berryz Koubou and C-ute Joint Concert Announced!!

A Berryz and C-ute Nakayoshi Battle Concert is scheduled for Fall 2011.  I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh.  I feel like it’s been forever since their joint concert, and I’ve been wishing for another one ever since.  Well, I got my wish! XD 

It got me wondering, because remember how last time they performed “Darling I Love You”?  I wonder if they’ll do that “matching B-sides” thing again.  That would be kind of cool, since they’ll have something in common…on second thought, maybe not, because I didn’t like Darling I Love You that much…..it seemed a little too “theme-ish” to be really good; like, they focused on the main idea rather than actually making it a good song.  It’s probably just me, because I’m not a huge fan of guitar-heavy songs…..um…okay I’m going to shut up now.  This post is supposed to be about the concert! Geez.  Alright, well I don’t know if there’s much to say now, since the setlist hasn’t been released.  For now, let’s hope for an exciting setlist with interesting arrangements of who gets to sing what! 😀

Apology and some late updates

It’s been SO LONG since I have posted. Seriously.  School’s just been so hectic and to be honest, I’m kinda losing interest in this blog thing.  Anyway, things in the J-Pop world have happened since I last posted (like, A LOT of things…) so I want to make a list of them really quickly:

–Kikkawa Yuu has become a soloist, as well as Kitahara Sayaka
-The formation of UFZS, which was originally supposed to cover K-Pop dances but now is here to stay
–Addition of Saho Akari to UFZS
–Hayami Akari’s graduation from Momoiro Clover
-Momoiro Clover changed their name to Momoiro Clover Z (????)
-C-ute’s new single, Momoiro Sparkling, to be released on May 25th
-Berryz Koubou’s new single, Ai no Dangan, to be released on June 8th
–Buono! single (title unknown) to be released on July 20th
-Momusu’s new single, ONLY YOU, to be released on June 15th
-Announcement of MM 10th gen???? Already???? haha
–Marriage of Yaguchi Mari to Nakamura Masaya
-Charmy/Ishikawa Rika has a jaw problem and a cyst (I’m assuming in her jaw…)???
-Perfume’s new single, Laser Beam/Kasuka na Kaori, released on May 18th

Am I missing anything?  I hope not.  There are also just a few random things I’d like to say:

-Don’t kill me….but recently I’ve been getting into K-Pop.  I still like J-Pop (esp. H!P) more, though, because a lot of K-Pop kind of sounds the same to me.  They wear a lot of tight clothes and many of the singers have similar-sounding voices…but the music itself is good.  Once again, don’t kill me. 😛
-I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wish I could have gone to Sakura Con!  But I don’t live close enough to Seattle and it wouldn’t have been very convenient anyway.  Since the convention went so well, maybe C-ute will come to the States, too?  If they do, I hope that it’s somewhere else besides Sakura Con…
-I want to start learning more dances!! There are a lot of H!P dances I want to learn, as well as some by Canary Club and Perfume.  I sometimes feel like it’d be okay to post them on YouTube, but other times I think of all those stupid creepers who don’t have lives (like most of the wotas…just saying…you’re all too old to like that stuff.  Leave the H!P girls alone you idiots!  You’re scary! :P)  I’m not the best dancer, though, so we’ll see if I can even learn the dances in the first place.  I wish I had a dance instructor like the people in H!P.  Everything would be so much easier!  Even if they are kinda mean sometimes

Canary Club – “Canary Club Valentine Live” Announced

I was looking through Canary Club’s blog (which I haven’t done in a while) and I saw that their schedule had been posted.  One of the events was called “Canary Club Valentine Live” !!!! I’m so excited because they haven’t had an individual concert in a while (unless this one is also with THE Possible, etc.). 

Here’s the info:

【キャナァーリ倶楽部バレンタインライブ】
日時：2011年2月13日（日）OPEN13:45～/START14:30～
会場：新宿BLAZE
出演：キャナァーリ倶楽部
＊みっきーはスケジュールの都合上、出演いたしません。
チケット料金：前売り￥3,500（税込み、ドリンク代別）
ファンクラブ先行受付中！近日一般発売！

I’m still working on being able to READ Japanese, so I can’t really translate the whole thing.  But it’s on February 13th, 2011–that’s comin’ up fast!! 
It also says that since Niwa Mikiho has some personal scheduling problems, she won’t be able to perform.  I hope a DVD comes out so that we can all see the concert!!! I won’t be able to purchase it myself, but if I find it on YouTube I’ll post it 🙂

40th Post!/VERY SHOCKING NEWS!

First of all I’d like to say I’m very happy to have released so many posts, and even though this blog gets very few views I’m happy to be able to express my opinions regarding J-Pop groups through a blog.  Please visit my blog again if you get the chance!

And now….I don’t even know what to say about it.  Well, for those of you who haven’t heard yet…Takahashi Ai is graduating from Morning Musume and Hello! Project.  She will graduate in Autumn of 2011, and from now until that time she plans on still being leader and helping the new members. 

I really don’t know what to say about this….Ai was always one of those people whom I couldn’t really place; I never felt like she was my favorite, but I couldn’t put her anywhere else either.  She seems a little hard to read sometimes.  As a performer, she’s a pro — her voice is very powerful, her dancing is mesmerizing, and her stage presence is amazing.  Right now, she is clearly the “face” of Momusu.  But after she graduates, what will Morning Musume become?  Dont’ get me wrong, Gaki will make a great leader (she’s been one of my favorite members for a while), but I think things will be VERY different with Ai gone.  I don’t want Hello! Project to hold her back, or slow her down, so to speak, because she is obviously very talented.  She has a lot of potential and could become very famous outside of H!P.  But, as I’m sure everyone feels, I don’t want her to leave.  She’s been in MM for about 10 years, and I feel like it’ll be so different without her.  There’s nothing I can do about it, though.  In Morning Musume, a new era is truly beginning.  And only Tsunku knows how it will all turn out. ◊

MM – 9th Generation!!!

Yay!!!!!  The winners have been announced!!  They are:

Sayashi Riho
Suzuki Kanon
Ikuta Erina
Fukumura Mizuki (Egg)

I don’t have that much time for opinions and stuff right now, so I plan on editing this post and making it more detailed later.

I just discovered screenshots…

It may sound dumb…like, I should have known about these before.  Anyway, they’re really fun and I’ve taken a lot of interesting ones!!  I’ll put them in this post ^.^

S/mileage – “Shortcut” Radio Preview

I’m happy to see this released, but always a critic, I’ve gotta say some stuff.  I think that everything is extremely catchy, except the chorus.  Does Tsunku not remember anything?  It sounds exactly like the chorus for “Shooting Star” (a song from their recent album, Warugaki 1).  It may be hard for you to catch it at first, but you know that one part in Shooting Star when they sing “kimi to a-ru-ku” ?  There’s a little change in the melody there, when they go from a low note to a higher one and the bass melody changes – and that’s repeated exactly in this song. 

I’m sure that I could get used to it, especially considering how nice the rest of it sounds, but yeah.  I hope you’ll forgive me for being so critical as soon as I hear stuff.  That’s just how I am.

TNLyriX – Check out the translations!

Hi all (even though not many people read this blog) –

I just thought I’d let you know that I have collaborated with girlsummoner to translate a bunch of Nice Girl Project! songs, and they’re up on the TNLyriX website!!  The person in charge of the site has been accepting our contributions (so we’re extremely happy!) and…well…you should take a look at them!!! XD  Some parts might not be very accurate, but overall I’m very happy with how it all turned out!!  Hopefully we’ll be adding even more in the future.

The link to TNLyriX should be on the sidebar, or link area, or whatever you call it.  Look for it in my links, ok???

Momusu Graduates Tribute!!!

 

Okay, so I’ve been working with girlsummoner (if you recall, I worked with her on subbing a performance of Wasuretakunai Natsu) on a tribute video to Kamei, Junjun, and Linlin.  We subbed different videos and compiled them into one huge video!!  Girlsummoner did the bulk of the work, so most of the credit goes to her!!!  I hope you enjoy watching~~  And to the soon-to-be graduates, good luck in the future!  We’ll miss you and always remember you!!! 😦

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v20637364zbEB4P9b

(WordPress wouldn’t let me insert the video directly…so you’ll have to click on the link.  Gomen!)

Most Uplifting NGP Songs

Heh heh…not ranking them this time, ’cause I’m LAZY.  Therefore, these are in no particular order, just the order in which I picked stuff out from tnlyrix…

Young DAYS! (THE Possible)
SWEET AND TOUGNESS (Canary Club)
Yume wo Shinjite (Canary Club)
Seishun Banzai! (Canary Club)
Ready Steady Go! (CC)
Pika Pika! (CC)
Dream on Dreams (Canary Club; not to be confused with Dream more Dreams!, by THE Possible.  Two separate songs)
Dou ni Kashite! (CC)
FAITH! (CC)
Nishiki Kazare (CC)
ALIVE!~ARE YOU READY?~
Daisukki! (CC)
Genki ni Nare! (Ogawa Mana)
Suppin Rock (Ogawa Mana, LOVE THAT SONG SO MUCH)
Dream More Dreams! (TP)
Shiawase no Katachi (TP)
Ai no Energy (TP)