Hello!Spam :: 2020 ~Anniversary Mode~ 830 replies to this topic Started by Shoujo Q , Jan 01 2018 10:00 PM ·

[JPope]

What did I just watch? 

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=ZgPEKzO2Yj0

[Saya]

^These have been all over since spring. I see a lot for TWICE.

[DonJuan]

Next episode of Hello Pro Collabo Night is out. The guest this time is Mori Keaki, a retired top Takarazuka star.

 

Episode Description
The fourth episode is "Hello Pro x Takarazuka". The guest is former Takarazuka Snow Troupe top star Mori Keaki. They collab with a medley of famous songs from Takarazuka! In the talk, Mori Keaki lectures them on how to descend and greet people on the grand staircase! The members were so moved that they cried a lot!

 

Performers : Ishida, Oda, Kawamura, Ise, Miyamoto, Inaba, Kishimoto, Maeda, Takase, Hirai

[WonderBuono]

What did I just watch?

https://www.youtube....h?v=ZgPEKzO2Yj0

I’ve seen the Lovepedia one but K&K (by K.K.!) just took it to another level 😂 the amount of time that must have gone into this...

[JPope]

Rio sings "Oribia o Kikinagara"

 

This is nice, Not amazing, but it's pretty good. Rio has a naturally pleasant voice that I think is going to age really well. Mei is a technically better singer, but I'd rather listen to Rio.

[DonJuan]

Sakura and Sayuki were guests at CDTV's christmas special and sang "Part of your world" from Arielle and "When you wish upon a star" from Pinocchio. https://youtu.be/lnt4UDH0KvI

Really nice.

[JPope]

Hoshibe Sho's Christmas gift to the fans.

[Shoujo Q]

Ah. You know that just makes me wish, once again, for some proper Christmas songs from H!P groups. Mainly Morning Musume. But I’ll take any group at this point.

[JPope]

It's really strange that Morning Musume, of all groups, has never done a Christmas single. Not doing one at some point between "Love Machine" and RR21 was a huge missed opportunity, too, as Christmas hits are the gift that keep giving for decades into the future. A MM Xmas single released during that period would have been a guaranteed hit, and almost certainly would have been a great song, as Tsunku wasn't producing many duds at that time.

[JPope]

Maria Makino solo: Sotsugyou Shashin

 

It's not bad, but not great. I was hoping she would become a better singer, but Maria is what she is, and for a primarily visual member she sings well enough.

[DonJuan]

To me she's basically the modern Charmy. If she had the chance and coaching in variety she'd probably do as well (considering Charmy never really went into variety after graduating either).

[JPope]

Guess who's blogging again? I saw a lot of H!P end-of-the-year lists going around online, but didn't see this one, so I did it. My top five H!P solo videos released in 2020. I wrote blurbs about each one on the blog, but here's the list for those not interested in my babbling.

 

1. Sayuki Takagi - "Aitakute Ima" 

2. Momohime Kiyono - "Kosui" 

3. Miyo Hirai - "Umi no Koe"

4. Layla Ise - "Mikazuki" 

5. Mei Yamazaki - "Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)" 

[DonJuan]

Great read, JPope! You definitely picked some of my favourite performances.

- - -
Hamachan posted that today marks the 6th anniversary of Kobushi Factory's formation. It's also MM's 9ki's 10 anniversary - which means later this year both 10ki as well as Takechan will celebrate their 10th year, too. (I doubt anyone of them will leave before that.)

The last 10 years of H!P were great. I'd say halfway through we had a renaissance - °C-ute went out with a bang, MM had some amazing songs (despite how much I like to criticize some of them) and lately Juice=Juice and Beyooooonds have gotten some attention.

The general production quality went up (compare the MVs to 2009!), there weren't too many horrible scandals (basically only Oota and Risa in 2020) and due to the OG's slow retirement the girls finally get to be there for themselves, not as shadows.

Of course, not everything has been amazing. I don't like most of MM's music and I'm a bit tired of people acting like H!P is the most talented idol pool out there. The variety quality is low - both because of the general cookie cutter idol wave as well as missing opportunities. And I think a lot of older members have gotten a bit too comfortable. Sometimes I wish management would pull the classic "have you thought about your life after graduation?" stunt with some of the long runners.

However, I'm optimistic about the next year. Changes will come. The new members have ambitions, and the post-Tsunku song writer/composer group has given us good material so far.

[JPope]

Ha ha, I've got a War And Peace length entry about ready to post that echoes a lot of what you just said. 

[DonJuan]

Can't wait to read it then

[JPope]

Here is my State of the Hello! Project 2021 Address.

 

Yeah, it's long af.

[DonJuan]

Thank you, I loved it! It's true, there's a lot of things we agree on.

"Tsunku going on about how Fuku should stay in MM into her 40s actually pissed me off a little, lol."

This. Don't give her ideas, Tsoonk. She doesn't seem to have ambitions or anything outside the group so she'll probably stay forever. That's good for her, but probably not for the group.

And MM really feels a lot like late Platinum era now. Some members are overlooked for the sake of their moneymakers being in the spotlight. Some songs are great, but most are just produced to release anything at all. I guess at least the MVs are better?

[JPope]

The H!P SHOW YT channel has started to translate some of Hoshibe Sho's videos.

 

Breakdown of the creation of Shaka Shaka To Love

Reality of the composer's job

 

Both of these are really interesting.

[DonJuan]

They absolutely are. They made me realise I'd never make it in this business

I'm "surprised" (well, not 100%) about how structured this field of work is. Writing songs was always a more emotional thing to me. But then again, they're being employed to do so, and not to make their own songs.

 

It's great that the videos get translated. I knew they had incredible information in them, but they're hard to understand if you don't speak Japanese.

 

- - -

 

Sawayaka Goro & Suzuki Keita (the two dudes who do many MCs with H!P acts, especially for birthday events and the like) have been tested positive for Covid 19. 

Japan really gets hit now, don't they.

 

- - -

 

I did try to to an "H!P at a glance" kind of thing. Unfortunately H!P has so many acts (and years) so that I could only take a screenshot after zooming out to 10%. It was still a fun project nevertheless.

 

[WonderBuono]

I got bored and made a lame edit of the Junjou Evidence MV that combined the dance cuts from the promotion edit and the full dance shot.

 

Edit: and Gyuu Saretai because why not

[DonJuan]

Thank you, these are pretty damn good! Really smooth. And Junjou Evidence looks definitely better without those weird stops in the official MV.