[2015.08.19] Morning Musume.'15 - Oh my wish! / SUKAtto My Heart / Ima Sugu Tobikomu Yuuki

[Banana]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Farrah" data-cid="190188" data-time="1437990565">
They uploaded the promotional edit of Oh My Wish.

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDw0rmCAZL4


I know that parts of it are incredibly generic digimusume (and even reuses at least two bits - something else sounds SUPER recognizable but I can't figure out what from) but I still really love this song - largely because I finally get to hear some pleasant voices other than Sakura LOL no shade to Riho but the constant strain in her throat stresses me out.  Video is super cheap and disappointing but I love the solo shots of the dance group dancing their asses off.  The new girls are still kinda awkward but they fit in decently until that completely unnecessary monologue that, imo, adds nothing to the song (how often do they, really? Shabondama is one of very few.)
</blockquote>

I think I like it. I'm still irritated about Eripon and her awkward dancing, but whatever. Some groups actually put only their best people on their "dance teams," but that would make too much sense for H!P.   The dance itself is pretty good. Not amazing, but I didn't expect that. I'd enjoy it more if they could all move like Riho, though. There are a couple moves that only she does really well. 

 

Kanon looks amazing. But with all the fuss about her weight loss, I'm a bit worried about how things will be if she just ends up gaining all the weight back after a while. That seems to happen so often.

[Farrah]

I know she didn't have much to lose (maybe 10-15 lbs?) but Kanon lost her weight really quickly to me.  I hope she did it healthily!
 
Eripon can't dance but I'm guessing they chose her because she's know for being very charismatic live.  Mizuki... LOL she only had like one or two dance close ups but she's sloppily flopping around with an awkward expression in both of them.  Never thought the day would come where I'd say something positive about Eripon in the same breath as criticizing Mizuki.  I vastly prefer Mizuki even if she hasn't lived up to my expectations.

[AquaChan]

Covers are gorgeous, but what is Akane doing on Reg C? XD

[Elpis]

The covers all look really good. I like Regular A, B, and Limited B the best. (Limited C is interesting).
 
The MV was definitely cheap, but I still liked it more than the H!S edit. If the song had used their usual vocalists, I don't think I would care as much for it, either way I'm glad Kanon and Haruka got some actual solo lines and screen time.

[mrsross]

The covers are very center orientated. Does that mean SUKAtto My Heart is Riho/Erina centered? They all look nice. I like Reg A, Reg B, and Lim C.
 
The MV does look cheap. I'm just waiting on the other songs' MVs to see how they look.

[Noa]

Well the best thing about Erina's dancing is that I didn't have to hear her sing.

Also I love this song and I love the MV. It honestly probably my new favorite MM song. Kanon looks gorgeous and sounds amazing.

[WonderBuono]

I love all the covers' designs (and Maa-chan/Miki center is just beautiful), but does it bother anyone else that idols seem to touch their faces ALL THE TIME. Especially the new ones. Ogata has the exact same pose in 4/6 of those photos.


Same complaint with the video, haha. It's okay though. And it is really great seeing Zukki finally getting a chance to shine. She's beautiful.

[Zoe]

They let the dance team wear sneakers for the video. I wish they all got to wear sneakers more often, but since they're more of an afterthought, it always looks so corny with their outfits.

[yuzuriha]

The sneakers make their legs all look fat and I know none of them have fat legs so I hate them haha

[showraniy]

The song is average, but the back girls being center make up for it a million times over. I'm just so happy to hear and see the more talented vocalists finally get a chance to shine that I can overlook everything else.


I love Mizuki, but that was an incredibly unfortunate shot of her dancing solo. She looked so bored and was moving with so much less energy than the other girls' solo dance shots spliced in around her.


And I'm worried that people will only start paying attention to Kanon now that she's lost weight, which has a chance to make her feel like her singing talent is less important than her size or something.

[momoirosaya]

The PV is nothing special, but I enjoyed it.

[TicTacAnyone]

The MV is just painful to watch because you know the company can do better... even if they just use the same set and everything! The parts where they zoom in or out feel off, sometimes like it should be the reverse. Shots of the dance team move around so much you can barely see them (editing-wise especially. Just leave it on one camera for a second longer please geez.) Like times when they could have zoomed in fast (Kanon's first opening line), they instead slowly move in. It feels like with how the dance team's outfits work with the main hall background, it makes it hard to focus on anything (even the dancers.) It doesn't help when you have odd angles. 
 

 
 
What is a shot like this supposed to accomplish? Harunan is the one singing this line, btw, if that helps. Which it doesn't in the MV because you get this shot for a whole second yet you wouldn't know who was singing within that second and because she's in the dark and just. JUST.
 
 
 
End director rant.

[Derby]

I won't listen to the audio/live/radio rip of Imasugu and Sukatto because I want to listen to it once the PV is released, but can anyone who has heard both songs tell me if Maria gets any solo lines or something?? Because I kinda feel she is the less featured member in the whole single, which is confusing...

[MejraThea]

In what we have of Sukatto, I didn't hear any 12ki solos. I haven't listened past the first few seconds of Imasugu so no observation from me there.

[momoirosaya]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Derby" data-cid="190213" data-time="1438020123">
I won't listen to the audio/live/radio rip of Imasugu and Sukatto because I want to listen to it once the PV is released, but can anyone who has heard both songs tell me if Maria gets any solo lines or something?? Because I kinda feel she is the less featured member in the whole single, which is confusing...</blockquote>
She has one I heard in Imasugu. But based on the dance positions for Sukatto, it's likely she might have one there too.

[smtmissin]

Haruna is mimicking Sayumi. Sayumi was much better when she was young and didn't overact (which she thought was sexy). Now Haruna is just as awkward as Sayumi.

[JPope]

Zukki really looks great. I wonder if they dangled the opportunity to front a single if she got serious about slimming down? She seemed to have accepted -- and pushed -- her image as "the chubby Musume" to the point of constantly talking about what and how much she eats at any given time. On one hand, owning her chubbiness (such as it was) made it difficult for people to make fun of her about her weight, but on the other hand, owning it pigeon-holed her as "the chubby Musume." Slimming down affords her an opportunity to taken a little more seriously now.

[Anderei]

She's 16. It's possible that now that she's getting older she just wanted to be slimmer.

[JPope]

That's certainly possible, but just three months ago she was all:
 

[Kalle]

The sitting-around parts of the MV are the most awkward for me honestly.

[Farrah]

What kills me about how low budget recent videos are, is that so many iconic MM videos come from a time where they were selling less than half as many copies as they are now.  Roman ~My Dear Boy~ - a fun video that I think most people remember fondly.  Now go look up how well that single sold, look up how well the ones before and after it sold.  Tell me why H!P allegedly can't afford videos like that now. 
 
This is why I feel like wota ruin groups - the company realizes they will still bulk buy 50 copies of the single even if they know they're not getting a very good product or something that had much effort or thought put into it.  Even if wota hate the song they're still going to order boxes of the single.  I just get pissed because UFP expects me as a fan to be satisfied with videos like Tiki Bun of girls dancing in an empty warehouse and nothing else, when they used to do so much better with so much less. New groups like Country Girls are getting more effort put into their videos because they don't have a steady fanbase yet but I'm sure the minute they do the quality will drop off just like it has for most H!P groups in the last few years.
 
Even Platinum era videos seem to have usually had more effort put into them than usual, and we're talking about a time when singles were barely pushing 30-40k.  I'd love another video like Shouganai Yume Oibito or even Naichau Kamo.  I don't mind if it's cheap as long as it's visually interesting.  Consuming idol media is just as much a visual experience as it is a musical one, if not more.  I feel like UFP are purposely scrapping by because they know they can, but if they're not - it's time to hire some new people!

[momoirosaya]

I think TIKI BUN is the worst PV MM has ever had.

[TicTacAnyone]

They need people like those who work on C-ute MVs--that's the kind of creativity MM could use in their videos right about now. I'm thinkin along the lines of Kanashiki Ame Furi, The Power, Adam to Eve no Dilemma, Aitai Aitai Aitai, you can even put Tsugi (along with many others) in that group--even if they're nothing amazing it feels all C-ute videos are at least appealing to watch. But the first ones listed use either good editing, good camera work, or a good set/idea (or a combination of those.)
 
Like mentioned, Country Girls has also had pretty good MVs so far... Get similar talent over to MM! 

[mrsross]

I thought aside from Ima Koro Kara and Seishun Kozou ga Naiteiru's main version MV, the last single's videos were good.

[Farrah]

The special version of Ima Koko Kara was interesting and thoughtful even if it had segments I didn't like, I appreciated the variety of it.  Yuugure wa Ameagari had a pleasurable color palette but was lacking in terms of any other sort of directorial or artistic creativity, imo.  It was still just close ups of them dancing on a sound stage.  It kind of frustrates me to see idol groups that are worth so much less money than MM getting really interesting videos - I'm not asking for a storyline because those are almost always cringe worthy due to bad idol acting.  But just coming up with an interesting aesthetic and some cool camera work goes a long, long way.  Simply having the girl dance on a sound stage in costume is incredibly lazy yet describes the vast majority of recent videos from them. 
 
Kanashiki Amefuri is a great example because it's still cheap, it's still just them on a set, but they added extra little things to the visual concept that made it interesting - the water scenes.  That sort of thing tells me the meeting to plan the video came out to more than "We'll rent a space and set up the equipment facing the girls.  Sound good? Awesome, see you next week!" LOL my previous example of Roman ~My Dear Boy~ as well - at the end of the day, it's just them in a warehouse.  But the idea of putting them on the conveyor belts and setting up the desks like they're at a UN convention, etc.  It just shows some thought and effort. 
 
When bands or such have shitty videos I don't care - because they're bands and the visual aspect is generally not a big part of their thing unless they make a point of it.  Some take great pride in providing an artistically stimulating visual experience to complete their art, some don't care.  But it kind of comes with the idol territory that the overall ~~experience~~ is what you're paying for, more than just the songs.  I think the main reason it annoys me so much is because I know they've just succumbed to total laziness because they know wota will buy it regardless, which to me feels like spitting in the faces of the non-wota fans.

[MejraThea]

I think I am with the wota fans in this. Not that I buy in bulk, but that if I hate the song, I hate the MV, I hate anything, I still buy and love it.

[showraniy]

[quote="Thea"]
I think I am with the wota fans in this. Not that I buy in bulk, but that if I hate the song, I hate the MV, I hate anything, I still buy and love it.
[/quote]
 

See, and this is not a personal attack against you, Thea, but I honestly feel like people like this ruin good things. When a company can make utter shit and know that it will sell like hotcakes, they literally have no incentive to make a quality product. The primary goal of a company is to make money. It'd be nice to live in a fairy world of sugar and magic farts where this isn't the case, but we live in reality where it is, and so a company that can accomplish its most fundamental goal with as minimal effort as possible is going to do just that.
 
I'm not necessarily with Farrah in disliking the recent slew of MM videos, but I've always disliked when fans buy everything an artist puts out, for this very reason. Ayumi Hamasaki has fallen into being a has-been because her fans coddled her in the same way, buying every horrible release she could fart out, and now she's creatively bankrupt from years of never having to grow or challenge herself.
 
Nothing good comes from coddling anyone.

[Elpis]

The recent MM MVs have frustrated me as well. At this point it feels that the company doesn't have to put much effort into MM's MVs and songs to make them sell well. But with the newer groups and groups that don't sell as well, you actually see more interesting stuff happen. I've seen this happening with AKB48 (and some of the sister groups), once AKB got well established, they stopped releasing interesting songs (matter of opinion here), and seem to have catered more towards the wota. Even with a mediocre song, they'll still sell a million copies. I'm seeing indies groups that don't have as much of a budget releasing more interesting stuff, but they don't really rely on the wota.
 
Also a MV preview for Sukatto my heart was released. Personally, I liked the other video that they had accompany it when they first introduced the song on H!S.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHoVmj6tt6w

[TicTacAnyone]

Well I bet we're gonna get SUKAtto My Heart Hello!Station edit tomorrow then, huh? Hahaha

[Farrah]

AKB is honestly a really great example because I used to be a huge fan of them until they got super big LOL.  Or not even then exactly - I still payed a pretty good amount of attention to AKB all the way up to 2012 but when every release they put out started breaking records (mostly due to bulk buying, let us not forget - their soundscan numbers are barely a fraction of their oricon numbers) the amount of visible effort in their music really took a gigantic nosedive.  Some of those old AKB stage songs are genius to me and are what got me into them in the first place really, but they haven't done new ones for a long time.  I know idol groups are fundamentally about money above anything else but I LOVE seeing that someone behind the scenes has an artistic vision that they're using idols as an outlet for.  I don't really feel that at all with MM and haven't for a long time.