[The☆AEUGNewtype]

When MM first started with the Alo-hello! stuff back at the Sakura/Otome DVD, I was instantly in love and at that point I didn't know much about who all the members were or anything like that, but it was so energetic, fun, and funny that I think it was a big factor in making me want to care about who they were. After that, they released what is one of the most disappointing videos I think I've ever seen, that being the "group" one just called "Morning Musume Alo-Hello!" instead of Sakura/Otome. This DVD was extremely lame, with a disgustingly low budget and very uninteresting or entertaining games. All the hilariously-written skits were gone and all that was left just felt like a slightly extended, bad episode of Hello Morning. Ironically enough, about a month before the DVD hit, they aired a "Hawaii special" episode of Hello Morning that I thought for damn sure had to be what was going to be on the DVD when it dropped a month or two later. This episode was hilarious from start to finish, lots of interaction with white people, fun games, funny interaction and jokes about members, etc. so I was sold on the DVD. Unfortunately when I actually got the DVD, I found that the footage for both the episode and the DVD were from the same trip to Hawaii and the same outings, but they just must have used the overflow footage for the DVD or something.

Anyway, after that great disappointment and a very strong disinterest in the group and its members as a whole around the time when "Morning Musume Alo-hello! 2" came out, I never even ended up watching the whole thing. All the other videos that have come out since those days (Satoda Mai, Risa, Nacchi, Mari and Tsuji?) were pretty disappointing (though Rika's solo one was great..) so I just gave up on the series as of a short while ago.

Now that the pandas have been added to the group, it restored a lot of the interest I had previously lost in the group, because those two are so damn charismatic that it becomes easy to overlook most of the other girls being as shallow as a wading pool.

And now to actually get on topic, I loved this Alo-hello!, even if it felt a bit short. JunJun gets so much screen time she may as well be the star of the whole thing, and that's more than fine with me. Its really not terribly complex to understand, even if you have limited Japanese abilities, but the H!F guys over at Hello!Online just subbed this and its up for download from their tracker if you really think you need the help.

The part with Koharu, JunJun and LinLin learning to surf was just awesome, not only because of how awesome all 3 of those girls are, but you actually saw them progress from not even having the slightest clue how to surf to actually riding a few strong waves by the end of the 10 minute segment. There's another segment of about 5-7 minutes where they just sit there and talk to JunJun and she just runs her mouth constantly and is really adorable, which makes any video instantly awesome, and she has a lot of scattered random English phrases that are really cute and actually sound pretty good. A lot of the full group parts were good too, but I'm going to watch this again tomorrow, because a lot of the other parts didn't stick with me as much cause I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention to some parts when I first watched.

Anyone else have any specific thoughts, favorite parts, etc.? I think the Sakura/Otome DVD as well as Ayaya's first Alo-hello! are down in history and will be hard to ever top, but I think this is as close as they've come since then to re-capturing the glory.

Here's some links to some screen shots, because it would take me forever to make them.

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[Prinny Squad]

I was surprised how good this was. Seriously, this made me think of the old Hello! Morning episodes and long for those days back.

I WANTED RED TOO
MISTER GREG

This post has been edited by Prinny Squad: 22 January 2009 - 12:40 AM

[Gypchan]

I had some good laughs when that random white guy goosed (well, poked her or something) Takahashi Ai when they were posing with the big fish.
Also, the part where Risa, Reina, and Aika are with the dolphins was enjoyable to watch since Reina was freaking out, bordering on afraid of the dolphins.

[shadeedge]

Gypchan, on Jan 22 2009, 01:24 AM, said:

Also, the part where Risa, Reina, and Aika are with the dolphins was enjoyable to watch since Reina was freaking out, bordering on afraid of the dolphins.

I think there was something a bit back on Reina's radio show about the dolphins and her having trouble actually dealing with them in person, but I didn't realise how scared she actually was going to be. Hilarious.

All I really have to say about it is; more pandas, with bonus random English. That pretty much sold it for me. Also Sayu failing at sports, but that's pretty much a given.

[SacredCultivator]

Definitely an enjoyable DVD especially with JunJun as she did make herself very noticeable out of the rest of the members.

The only segment that i found boring (And please don't hate on me for this) was the Eri/Niigaki/Kusumi one with that "Stone", that just plain bored me.

The surfing segment was just awesome, especially when all three are pushed and eat it while JunJun just continues laying on the board looking back as to what happened to the others.

Reina and the Dolphin's. Having Mitsui 'guide' her to the deep end was just priceless.

Was a very entertaining DVD and it did feel short, but nonetheless a fun project to work on.

And for those that might have missed it, you can grab them here:
-H264
-XviD

[Falcon]

Just finished watching this mostly because of the reviews here.

I was thoroughly entertained and surprised. Lots of JunJun and the dolphin bit was not only funny but awesome.

I admit I yelled at the screen when they were failing to play volleyball. It's hard to suck more then they did but whatever.

And holy crap surfing! They learned how to keep their balance on the boards within the span of the segment, color me impressed!

As for a favourite part... tough call. Probably the dolphins.

All in all I'd say this is the most that I've actually enjoyed an Alo-Hello I think.

[RRR]

I've watched it twice. It's great. You can take lovely screens from this vid
I only wonder what's Reina's idea about the rules of volleyball

[kurosawa87]

I love this one, it differs in the attitude and composition of the group. Although, being from Hawaii, it is a pleasure watching people enjoy the weather. In addition, knowing people in the DVD was quite interesting too

[hayley]

I downloaded this entirely because of this thread, and I'm really glad that I did. The dynamic of the group is really nice at the moment. 8th gen have really added something special to MM, a really likeable, identifiable quality. Thanks to all for your recommendation.

I haven't really paid much attention to DVD releases like this in the past - have the Alo-hello!-like trips been exclusively Morning Musume, or have Berryz/C-ute/other groups ever done anything similar?

[The☆AEUGNewtype]

hayley, on Jan 27 2009, 03:25 AM, said:

I haven't really paid much attention to DVD releases like this in the past - have the Alo-hello!-like trips been exclusively Morning Musume, or have Berryz/C-ute/other groups ever done anything similar?

None of the kids or kid groups have them, but most of the other solo artists or groups have. This is what I think is a complete list.

Alo-Hello! (means its in Hawaii):

MM Sakura/Otome
MM 1
MM 2
MM 3
Abe Natsumi 1
Abe Natsumi 2
Fujimoto Miki
Ayaya 1
Ayaya 2
Takahashi Ai
Niigaki Risa 1
Niigaki Risa 2
Ishikawa Rika 1
Tanaka Reina 1
Yaguchi Mari & Tsuji Nozomi

And these ones aren't technically called "Alo-Hello!" because they're in another country/place, but they're H!P "vacation" type videos:

Iida Kaori in Greece
Yaguchi Mari in Vietnam
Michishige Sayumi 1
Michishige Sayumi 2
MM 6th gen

[Valerie]

Didn't Konkon also have an Alo Hello?

Erika and Yui also had a HelloHello I believe.

[SacredCultivator]

Yups, Konno Asami had one too, and it was subbed by H!F

[ozu]

Eri had a Love Hello! (in Phuket, Thailand).

[The☆AEUGNewtype]

I think you guys are right, but I hate all those members except Erika, so these are very far back in my mind XD