From the category archives:

H!P

Morning Musume Tanjou 10nen Kinentai

by Aprilis on July 1, 2009 · 1 comment · AddThis

Morning Musume Tanjou 10en Kinentai was a special Hello! Project unit that was created in 2007 to celebrate Morning Musume’s 10th anniversary. The name of the unit translates to “celebrating Morning Musume’s 10th birthday special unit”. The unit consisted of 5 graduated and present Morning Musume members. Tsunku explained that the original Morning Musume members debut age ranged from 13 – 24 years old, so for this special unit he selected members that was close to this age range to make it appear like the original group’s formation. Interesting enough, all the members selected came from an odd number generation.

Though the group was only active in 2007 they released 2 singles and had a concert tour before going on hiatus at the end of the year.

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LET’S GO Rakuten Eagles

by Lainay on August 28, 2006 · 4 comments · AddThis

LET'S GO Rakuten Eagles DEF. DIVA 2nd Single: LET’S GO Rakuten Eagles
RE-9531
1,050yen
01. LET’S GO Rakuten Eagles
02. LET’S GO Rakuten Eagles (Instrumental)

Although they were judged as another one of those one shot H!P groups, such as Nochiura Natsumi and Gomattou, DEF. DIVA actually released a second single all the way back on March 25th. It was not really a “real” release, as it is only being sold here on the Rakuten Eagles website, but it is a single nonetheless. There is, however, no b-side.

Following in the footsteps of Morning Musume’s single “The Manpower!!!”, LET’S GO Rakuten Eagles was/is being used as the official song of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team.

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Mini Moni ja Movie Okashi na Daibouken!

by Aprilis on August 25, 2006 · 6 comments · AddThis

Mini Moni

Mini Moni ja Movie Okashi na Daibouken! (also known as “Mini Moni The Movie The Great Cake Adventure”) is Mini Moni’s debut movie. As the title suggest, the movie is about cakes and adventure. As cheesy as that story line sound, there are more to this movie than cakes and adventure. The movie was used to explain why Mari Yaguchi was leaving Mini Moni, how Ai Takahashi joined the group and how Mika became the new leader.

The movie stars all five members of Mini Moni: Mari Yaguchi (the then leader), Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Kago, Mika Todd, and its new member Ai Takahashi. It also feature the voice and songs of Yuko Nakazawa (former member of Morning Musume) and 4 girls from Hello! Project Kids: Risako Sugaya, Mai Hagiwara, Airi Suzuki and Maasa Sudou. And of course, any Mini Moni movie wouldn’t be complete without their beloved mascot, Minimo.

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ROMANS

by Lainay on August 25, 2006 · 3 comments · AddThis

Sexy Night ~Wasurerarenai Kare~ ROMANS: Sexy Night ~Wasurerarenai Kare~
Label: ZETIMA
EPCE-5230
1,050yen
01. SEXY NIGHT ~Wasurerarenai Kare~
02. ROMAN
03. SEXY NIGHT ~Wasurerarenai Kare~ (Instrumental)

ROMANS (which is a play on words and is pronounced “romance”) was a one single group of the Hello! Project, consisting of Mari Yaguchi and Rika Ishikawa who were from Morning Musume, Mai Satoda from Country Musume, Hitomi Saitou from Melon Kinenbi, and Ayaka of Coconuts Musume. They took on a sexy theme, with a mature and sexy single and clothing. They released their only single, SEXY NIGHT ~Wasurerarenai Kare~ on August 20th, 2003.

ROMANS was formed because the members were all in a TV show together, Sexy Onna Juku. This one-shot group was different because it didn’t consist of solo singers, like Gomattou and Nochiura Natsumi. Instead, this group had members of Morning Musume, Country Musume, Melon Kinenbi, and Coconuts Musume, which made it somewhat like a shuffle unit.

I actually really like this group and their single. The c/w is kind of.. off, but the a-side is so good! It doesn’t even sound cheesy. You know.. when you get a bunch of H!P girls together, and they sing a cool hip hoppy song, it’s hard for it to not feel too fake. These girls really sound good together, with Ayaka and Hitomi just rapping, and the others singing. That style was later seen in 7AIR.

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Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND

by Lainay on August 20, 2006 · 6 comments · AddThis

Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND Berryz Koubou 11th Single: Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND
Label: PICCOLO TOWN
PKCP-5069
1,050yen
01. Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND
02. Suhada Pichi Pichi
03. Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND (Instrumental)

(First and foremost, I’d like to give everyone my deepest apologies for not making a review on Berryz Koubou’s 10th single, Jiriri Kiteru. It kind of slipped by me. o_o I did, however, update my original Berryz post with the download in the discography, so no worries. ^_^)

Berryz Koubou is back, with their 11th single, Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND, which was released on August 2nd (the day after my birthday, yaaay!). This time, they come with a wonderful American 50’s/60’s pop/rock summery, fun song, of course with the H!P twist! The Hello! Project hasn’t done this style very much, but one other song notably in this fashion is Country Musume’s Shining Itoshiki Anata, although much slower and not summery. Anywho, this single is really unique, once again showing that Berryz Koubou can take on almost every genre.. even if they don’t always succeed. I’m happy to say, though, that this is a big success in my eyes. I actually think this is my favorite Berryz single!

Let’s see why!

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