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Sexy Otona Jan |
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Elegies |
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Puri Puri Pink |
Yes, it’s time for my last (until summer this year!) installment in my Hello! Project Summer Shuffles. Year 2005 brought another big change in the shuffles, mediocre songs, and sexy adults.
The three groups last year were Sexy Otona Jan, Elegies, and Puri Puri Pink. The themes for the groups were basically being sexy, elegant, or pretty. Unlike other years, the whole Hello! Project did not participate. In fact, only 11 members of the H!P participated. Holy fishsticks, right? :o They all released their song on the same joint single CD thing though, on June 22nd.
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Sexy Otona Jan (which roughly translates to Sexy Adults) consisted of H!P Kids Miyabi Natsuyaki (Aa!, Berryz Koubou) and Megumi Murakami (ZYX, °C-ute) and Morning Musume star Miki Fujimoto. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “BBQ? Um, hi, the group name is Sexy Otona Jan, shouldn’t the members be, oh, sexy? I mean Miki sure is *drool* but the others…? o_O” Those exact words (alright, perhaps altered a little) were my exact thoughts. Their contribution to the single was their song Onna, Kanashii, Otona, translating to Girl, Sad, Adult. Hm, this does seem to point to maturing into an adult from a girl with sadness in between, but let’s not go there. Anyways, the song is very jazzy, slow, and yeah, mature. Miki Fujimoto starts off the song beautifully. After that, I’m sorry, but the kids really don’t work well with this song. I’m sorry. I just think it doesn’t suit them at all. Plus, I’m not much of a fan of the kids (their singing! x.x) so I do have a little bit of a problem with this group. The song is kind of nice…not amazing, but it’s different. I can’t say I’ve heard this kind of song coming out of the H!P before. But I’m not amazed.
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Now, in huge contrast, I love Elegies, made of Morning Musume members Reina Tanaka and Ai Takahashi, Melon Kinenbi’s Ayumi Shibata, and Country Musume’s Mai Satoda. Their song, Inshouha Renoir no You ni, is an upbeat, funky dance song. It’s got a very catchy “dakishimete~” line, nice verses, and an exciting chorus. (not to mention that Reina Tanaka and Ai Takahashi are pretty much my favorite members of the H!P, so maybe I’m a tad biased…) Heck, even if they weren’t the members I’d still love this song. It’s so upbeat and fun!! I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that this group was supposed to be the group with the singing skillz, and I have to agree (atleast with this group compared to Sexy Otona Jan).
iPod version (25.7 MB)
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The third and last group of these shuffles is Puri Puri Pink. Wow, sounds like a fun, hyper, pink group and song, dontcha think? ^____^ However, it is NOT. Whatsoever. First off, the members of this group are ambitious- former Morning Musume members Kaori Iida, Kei Yasuda, and Yuko Nakazawa, and concert MC/former T&C Bomber Atsuko Inaba. This makes their average age 28! (and a quarter, to be precise) They’ve obviously got the years under their belt, and not much hyper pinkness. Their song was Hitoshirezu Mune wo Kanaderu Yoru no Aki. (wow, what a mouthful!) It’s a very slow ballad, but it’s different. There’s some piano, but mostly computer generated sounds, and extremely annoying background “oh yeah yeah yeahhhh mmm hmm” vocals. All the girls sing together, which makes it boring. Heck, the whole song is boring. It had the potential to be a nice pretty ballad, but nope. It doesn’t make the cut. And I still want my hyper pink pop song!!! *stomps feet*
This was, no doubt, my LEAST favorite summer shuffles. I would give the year a rating of 4/10. It would have been 1/10, however Elegies rose the number a bit. Mediocre songs, mediocre singing, and totally misleading group names!!11!1 However, you should still check them out, or else that wouldn’t be fair to Elegies.
- Onna, Kanashii, Otona (Sexy Otona Jan)
- Inshouha Renoir no You ni (Elegies)
- Hitoshirezu Mune wo Kanaderu Yoru no Aki (Puripuri Pink)
- Onna, Kanashii, Otona (Instrumental)
- Inshouha Renoir no You ni (Instrumental)
- Hitoshirezu Mune wo Kanaderu Yoru no Aki (Instrumental)
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Elegies Sugoi!!!
I actually didn’t think that Sexy Otonajan was that bad (I thought if was pretty good, really). Although I do agree that the name is misleading.
well i have to say that Elegies were the best.i heard that they were the lead in 2005.
Ha! I’ve been going up in order to this one, and I have to agree with the review that this the the worst one. I’ve listened to all of them briefly, none of them turned me on to the music. I’m much more attracted to happy and peppy songs, and even Elegies could not satisfy my need for such things.
Better luck next year?
Telling for the whole Elegies thing, they really are pushing Reina and Takahashi to the front aren’t they? even in morningmusume in terms of singing parts and being the center.
Overall I rather enjoyed all the songs hahah, they were really different from the usual stuff. Still, Elegies was my favourite, they had the best sound. I’m not going to trash puri puri pink, because those members are like the Goddesses of H!P hahahha.. Abe should be in there too.
i really enjoyed reading this.
and thanx for all the downloads.
for me, puri puri pink’s memebers were so surprizing…it was unexpected from the group name…haha:D
a thing to say…Megumi Murakami was not in Aa! was she??
as far as i know, Aa!’s member was Miyabi, Airi and Reina.
Also, im kinda curious that you have written most of the H!P groups, =but you dont have the main, Morning Musume…or…i just cudnt see it…
anyways, im looking forward your next articles because i really really enjoy reading and downloading the songs :) thank you so much
Well what attracted me most to this article were the elegant outfits. But anyhow onto the single – “Onna, Kanashii, Otona” sounds allright. Though it’s nothing spectacular it has a nice beat to it. Really soothing and relaxing though it borders in being boring.
“Inshouha Renoir no You ni” sounds more interesting. Vocal-wise it’s already miles better than the previous song. Their voices blend in so well. I love how the song slowly builds into the chorus. The chorus is quite catchy and pleasant.
“Hitoshirezu Mune wo Kanaderu Yoru no Aki” wasn’t bad but it was lacking. The piano intro promised a lot but it ended up being quite disappointing. The chorus is quite enjoyable though it’s not entirely satisfactory. However overall this song had a cheesy factor which is not good for me.
Anyhow another great review Laina. I’m looking forward for more awesome articles by you!