Rakuten Eaglesuu !!!

Now personally I dont care for baseball at all, infact I dont care for any sports whatsoever ... unless its womens singles at wimbledon or volleyball (is that a sport?) but anyway ... I guess I just like watching girls getting competitive and sweaty ... where was I?
Yes, the new C-ute video!
The video itself follows a very basic formula, singing, dancing, close up, baseball bat.
I dont like the parts with the dudes, they kinda get in the way of the girls singing and jumping about, the dance itself is pretty funky, they do a cool move where they all point to the sky and do a lovely leg wiggle ^_^
The clothing they wear is kinda cool, red and white baseball style outfits with skimpy white short shorts (oh my).
The girl that really stood out for me in this video is Maimi, that girl just drips with confidence and win, infact .... shes so awesome I just did this
Anyway heres the video! enjoy!!


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Panda Love

It's been roughly just over 1 year since the pandas joined Morning Musume so I thought I would talk about them a little.
For Junjun and Linlin it must of been one hell of a crazy year, not only were they selected to join the super group Morning Musume they also moved from China to Japan and now are now in the full media spot light as idols.
I'm curious what conditions are on the girls Visa's, are they on a renewable working Visa? or will they eventually apply for joint citizenship? I know that China and Japans diplomatic situation is not the healthiest in the world ... I just hope there isnt any diplomatic event that would cause China to snatch back the pandas ... but thats just me being overdrematic (or am I?).
Since the pandas have joined Morning musume they have had the mammoth task of learning Japanese, learning idol etiquette, learning a majority of the song lyrics AND dance routines, I really cannot comprehend how overwhelmed and pressurized they must of felt while undertaking (and still pursuing) this daunting feat.
So how have they done? looking at their behavior around the rest of the girls they seemed to have slowly come out of their shells, obviously with limited Japanese there was only so much they could speak about, the first few months must of been the toughest for them (considering it was a total life change and culture shock).
Personally for me, Jun Jun is the girl I'm keeping my eye on, she started off as such a timid shy girl, but now she seems the complete opposite, everyweek on haromoni she stands out above everyone else, and I'm sure I dont need to remind everyone of her trademark move.
As for Lin lin, she comes across as very energetic and trys her hardest to fit into Morning Musume, I dont think that she has fully come out her shell yet, and Im looking forward to seeing more opportunities for her to do so, something that really gets my attention is her beautiful smile, it really melts my heart.
I'm really looking forward to the year ahead and I hope Tsunku pushes them in the right direction *cough double photobook plz please cough*.
Below is a really sweet clip of Jun jun taken from the Morning Musume DVD magazine 16 ... ah kawaii.


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Recent Hello! project goodies

I consider buying h!p merchandise much like a herion addiction, the only difference is that buying h!p goodies far more expensive.
Below are a selection of photos of recent things I got...


Berryz Kobo - Sakura Mankai DVD - Best berryz concert ever? or bestest?



Momoko photobook - an absolute essential.



Berryz Kobo - welcome berryz kyuden! - An adorable selection of behind the scene photos.



Berryz Kobo - VERY BEAUTY (with mini photo bookelet)



Kusumi Koharu POP - why didnt I buy this when it came out?



Berryz Kobo - Dschinghis Khan



Massa Sudo scarf and photo - to go along with my Koharu scarf :D



And various Berryz Kobo and C-ute photos!

Morning Musume's concert of absolute victory!

When I logged into MSN yesterday my good friend Silverglade started to bombard me with messages and nudges, normally I would be a little annoyed with such behaviour so early in the morning ... yet I looked at what he was shouting about and he had kindly provided me with a download link for an audio rip of the new Morning Musume concert (Haru -Single Daizenshuu).
As I franticly clicked the link he bombarded me with more messages involving such words as WIN, AWESOME, AMAZING, TOTAL VICTORY, and WIN GET .. so I was kinda anxious and looking forward to what was laying ahead of me.
After about 20 minutes or so the download had finished ... I opened a cold can of Grolsch, sat back and cranked up the speakers ... little did I know my ears were about to be violated by by soundwaves of EPIC WIN GET.
First off, the recording itself is very clean, brilliant quailty, the recorder must of been placed very close to the crowd as you hear alot of wota chanting (and most notably some wota screaming out Sayuuuu! sayuuuu!).
Now ... bearing in mind, I thought their last concert 'Bon Kyu! bomb' was fairly poor to say the least, I was thinking Morning Musume really need to deliver an awesome performance thick and fast ... I was not disappointed.
The Girls perform every single Morning Musume have released (in some shape or form).
Now with every h!p concert theres normally a few songs I'm not overly keen on, so I tend to skip to a better song ... not with this concert though, EVERY song is performed flawlessly and flows beautifully.
I could go on and continuously babble about the WIN this concert provides, so I'll just keep it brief, the concert opens with 'Resonant Blue' which is actually sounding alot better contrary to my earlier thoughts of it being medicore.
Second up is the epic 'Onna ni Sachi Are' ... this track never fails to get me pumped up and break out the glowsticks, the energy that comes from the crowd is immense and really sets the tone for the oncoming win.
As expected they dont perform every single in it's entirety, some of the songs are cut short and flow into another segment, some are blended together in a glorious medley.
A mix that really stands out when the girls perform 'Chokkan 2 ~Nogashita Sakana wa Ookiizo!' this is a personal favorite of mine so I'm really loving it already, but then it slowly blends into 'sexy boy' which is another favorite of mine, it sounds totally amazing and I would happily sell both my kidneys and lungs to be there.
Now as I said before, this is only an audio rip so we still have a while to wait before we see the actual concert released, this is a 100% must buy, I will be
amongst the first to put my pre-order in when possible, an experience like this is not to be missed, so please click below and get ready for a massive win injection.

Morning Musume Concert 03-22-08 Chiba Day version

Morning Musume Concert 03-22-08 Chiba Night version

Enjoy!!! ^_^

Mongolian Berryz ...

It looks like there is a third version to the 'Jingisukan' video from Berryz Kobo, not content with the usual 'dance shot' or 'close up' versions we regualry come to expect, the berryz have gone all out and done a 'Mongolian Dance Shot' ...
When I first found out about this version I thought It was some kinda of prank, but after seeing some screencaps and a very short clip of the video it became a reality.
Now I (like many others) will be thinking WTF? ... and yes you'd be quite right, the video itself is fairly odd indeed, its filmed from a fixed camera postion and edits 3 dance versions together, the difference between each version is the alternating mongolian costumes (the mongolian clothing is called a 'Del' ... the more you know...)
Basicly the 'Del' is a sexed up bathrobe made out of silk with some random paterns.
The berryz understanably look strange, Momoko is wearing a red silky number with a hat about 4 times bigger than she is, how she dosen't break her neck is a mystery indeed, and most notably out of all the girls is Yurina, not only is she super tall anyway the hat she wears makes her look about 10 feet high, I guess thats why they kept her dancing at the back.
The video is great, and a very welcome supprise, I'm just curious if they will ever perform Jingisukan wearing these clothes ... there not exactly sexy ... but regardless ... BRAVO!


Online Videos by Shirow

Morning Musume Jimmy Jam party!

Premature nosebleeds ahoy!
The idea of the girls of Morning Musume having pillow fights and goofing around is glorious idea, so its good to see 'Gravure the television' have commited this concept to dvd, I'm taking a wild guess that this will come with a photobooklet or something, I'm gonna keep my eyes on Yahoo auctions, I'll probably keep pestering Ohta and see if I can get hold of this through his Hello project! goods shop.
Considering there is the word 'Gravure' in the title I can confirm that there isnt any skimpy bikinis and slow motion banana eating (much to Junjun's dismay).
I think the two girls that really stand out in this are Jun Jun and Reina, they both have beautiful hair and the colours of their pjamas really suit them, also I might add that Koharu really stands out also (she looks adorable as always).
It would of been good if they all had a battle royale style pillow fight ... but anyway, the video is well worth watching and hopefully it will be easy to pick up for us gaijin wotas.





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Berryz continue to dominate

It would seem that Berryz Kobo have broken a new record with their 16th single release 'Dschinghis Khan' for the most first week sales ever for a H!P kids release!
Selling a most impressive figure of 30,667.
It will be interesting to see if this continues to sell well, I'm also curious if online sales are included in total sales figures? I would like to think so as I got an email the other day telling me my order is the way.
With The berryz growing popularity I see no reason why their 17th single and subsequent 5th album (yet to be confirmed) wont continue to sell brilliantly.
Below is a photoset for the single and the dance version to Dschinghis Khan, note at the end of the video Risako looks absolutely exhausted, bless her.




Berryz Kobo - Jinngisukan (Dance Shot Ver.)

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The obligatory Resonant blue rant

*deep breath*

Ok ... After much thought of the actual song itself I've come to the conclusion that Morning Musume's latest venture is nothing but MEDICORE.
Bear with me ... the song is smooth, sassy and fairly slick .. but it just lacks any WOW or PIZAZ ... it just hums along then ends.
I consider it to be 'Eago yes nude ver.2' its got a similar feel to it, theres a chance it will grow on me at some point ... yet I dont hold out much hope.
I've read alot of peoples mixed opinions about this song, it dosent do anything new, its nice and all but just fails to give Morning Musume that push that they severely need, I am interested in seeing how this sells though, will it sell more than the poorly performed 'Mikan'? I really hope it does ... but I have this horrible feeling it wont.
And now the video ... I like many others are wondering if this is the dance shot version ... it bloody well looks like it to me ... but if it isnt .. that means that there will probably be a close up version to follow ... and that means we will be seeing a 5 minute video of Aichan and Reina singing.
Aichan and Reina are wearing identical outfits which consists of sexy black strapy short dresses, a white shirt and black tights, they have equal screen time and seem to take up about 90% of the video, the other percents go to Koharu 8%, and Sayumi 2%.
This video just pretty much fails to show any other other girl than Aichan and Reina, Aika is on the opening shot, and Sayumi has a little shot all to herself near the end ... but thats it folks.
Who knows? maybe in a few days we will be given the real version? but if not I will have to condem this video to the title of 'medicore'.
Maybe it will grow on me, maybe it wont, but I'm not very impressed.

Idol in waiting ...

Beautiful... busty... bouncy.

Isn't it bizarre that an idol such as Tokito Ami remains to be sat on the shelf over at TNX towers?
It's fairly easy to understand if the 'Gyaruru' unit is on indefinite hiatus due to the lackluster sales and the whole Tsuji Nozomi events.
But to keep the super talented singing/gravure idol away from the limelight is a crime against humanity.
As of this moment there is no word of any future works with TNX ... but do not despair! I am a keen reader of her Japanese blog and it appears her days are filled with career activity! she seems to be doing alot of tv work and fan club events, she also updates her blog fairly regularly so its well worth checking out, for those that dont read Japanese Nightlord is running a full translation blog site, which contains full translations and pictures of Ami's life ... click here for it.
I like many other people will be hoping for a musical release from Ami as soon as possible! ... but for now let us indulge our eyes in some sexy gravure...
Below are a selection of photos from Sabra.jp






Download full set here.