[2016.11.02] °C-ute - Mugen Climax / Ai wa Maru de Seidenki / Singing ~Ano Koro no You ni~

[momoirosaya]

I loved Ai wa Maru! It felt very idol-y and pure. The song was cute, the girls were cute, the outfits and dance were cute...and it's such a contrast from Mugen.

Singing is like Berryz "Idol 10nen", just less fun. It fits C-ute though for it to be a ballad, and I like the song for its uplifting lyrics. I hope C-ute gets their own "Love Together" style song.

[arcobaleno]

I really like the MV for Singing, very much my aesthetic. The song started off okay, but died out for me.
 
Seidenki wasn't bad, but it was so elementary level for C-ute it almost felt insulting. I would've preferred CG or Tsubaki have gotten it.

[JPope]

[quote="Saya"]
I loved Ai wa Maru! It felt very idol-y and pure. The song was cute, the girls were cute, the outfits and dance were cute...and it's such a contrast from Mugen.

Singing is like Berryz "Idol 10nen", just less fun. It fits C-ute though for it to be a ballad, and I like the song for its uplifting lyrics. I hope C-ute gets their own "Love Together" style song.
[/quote]
 
Totally agree on the Ai wa Maru! video. It's perfect for the song, and the girls look better than ever in it. I still think it's better suited for Kobushi, but it's a killer song and a great performance.
 
"Singing" sure feels like a Goodbye song. Couple that with Oomori saying that she changed the lyrics of Mugen Climax to reflect their impending graduation, and I'm guessing there are no more new songs for C-ute after this. Too bad it's such a throw-away uplift-mojo song, the likes of which Tsunku used to effortlessly crank out at a far higher quality back in the day. Whatever, this is still the best single of their career, and it's a hell of a strong way to go out.
 
C-ute is my favorite idol group now. It took them 12 years, but they finally won me over.

[DonJuan]

I like all the songs. Aside from Mugen they're not impressively amazing but they're nice to listen to.

[Shoujo Q]

I like this single. If it is their last it feels like a good end cap. Release a mega best next year and I'll be happy. I'd much rather end it here than a half assed release next year just to do it. I'd rather they put the money into a proper farewell for the girls.

[Shoujo Q]

PV for <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=X4S14Fhfdmg' class="bbc_url" title="External link">Singing ~Excuse me while I sit in a corner and cry~</a>


PV for <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=qHTelLgxGLg' class="bbc_url" title="External link">Ai wa I don't think static electricity works that way but it doesn't matter you're cute.</a>

[JPope]

 Ai wa Maru! is everything that's great about J-idol music. fun, innocent, and catchy as fuck.

[arcobaleno]

Hey, JPope, please don't take any offense, I don't mean any at all, it's just that I'm EXTREMELY nitpicky like your usual Common Asshole, but there's no actual ! in the title for Seidenki; it's just Ai wa Marude (or Maru de, depends on the person) Seidenki. When Saya included it in her original post, it was just used to express her happiness of it, rather than being part of the title.

[Noa]

These are both wonderful. Singing made me emotional and Ai wa Maru is adorable. This definitely has the makings of a final single though.


What do the signs at the end of Ai wa Maru spell?

[arcobaleno]

[quote="Molly"]
These are both wonderful. Singing made me emotional and Ai wa Maru is adorable. This definitely has the makings of a final single though.


What do the signs at the end of Ai wa Maru spell?
[/quote]
 
They spell ありがとう/arigatou, "Thank you."

[Elpis]

I'm pretty impressed with both songs. Ai ha Maru surprised me a lot since I didn't like the radio rip nor the PV preview. While Singing had a white background and white dresses, it was very pretty and well done and didn't just feel like they were in an empty room. It was also super emotional and made me realize just how much I'm going to miss them once they're gone. 
 
This single does feel like a final single and I like the mixture of songs on it. Singing feels like their goodbye song,Ai wa Maru feels like a classic C-ute song but shows that that side of C-ute is still there. Mugen Climax shows them at their best and what they've achieved over their career and how far they've come since 2005.

[showraniy]

Excellent, this is the perfect single.


I'd say too bad C-ute are leaving when this is what they're capable of, but we know their creative team pulled all the stops for this one, and most other releases would've been lackluster at best.


"Singing" will be the tear jerker song in concerts for sure, and I ended up enjoying Ai wa Marude much more than I initially thought I would.

[smtmissin]

All 3 MVs are pretty, but I am only interested in Mugen Climax as a song. It's unfortunate, since I like 2 songs out of Angerme and Country Girls singles. At least Mugen Climax is almost perfect, except that I wish the chorus was longer.

[MejraThea]

I played all three of these for my mother the other day, and when I was playing Mugen it made me think. 
 
I've heard JPop + classical done before, in a much, much better way. Mugen, the classical bits were shoved in between the regular instrumental and vocals, just to fill the space it seemed like.
 
The person it reminded me of was Kanon Wakeshima, a JPop singer that I was into before H!P. She is both a singer and a cellist, and her cello works its way into most of her songs. I bought her album Shinshoku Dolce, which I still love though I no longer listen to it as much. Any one of these songs with the cello is a better combination of JPop and the classical element (cello). 

[Shoujo Q]

Funny you should mention. Kanon's two albums are on Apple Music. I was just listening to them yesterday.

[JPope]

[quote="Thea"]
I played all three of these for my mother the other day, and when I was playing Mugen it made me think. 
 
I've heard JPop + classical done before, in a much, much better way. Mugen, the classical bits were shoved in between the regular instrumental and vocals, just to fill the space it seemed like.
 
The person it reminded me of was Kanon Wakeshima, a JPop singer that I was into before H!P. She is both a singer and a cellist, and her cello works its way into most of her songs. I bought her album Shinshoku Dolce, which I still love though I no longer listen to it as much. Any one of these songs with the cello is a better combination of JPop and the classical element (cello). 
[/quote]
 
<div>I'm not going to argue which is better, because at this level it's purely subjective.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I think we fundimentally disagree wrt the sampling on Mugen Climax. Far from being merely "classical bits ... shoved in between the regular instrumental and vocals, just to fill the space," I see it as one of the most creative and successful examples of sampling I've ever heard in any context. </div>

[Meikochi]

#2 on first day, with 44 072 copies sold ! It's very close from their last single first day (about 44 800), which was released before Oricon changed its way of counting.

[JPope]

Nice! Wonder what Billboard says.

[TicTacAnyone]

Did Mugen Climax have a new choreographer? I don't think I've ever seen an "Auchi" presented as one until this week's H!S. She looks cool. She did say it was her first time working with these 5.

[JPope]

<div>The <a class="bbc_url" href="https://youtu.be/mpLIwucmIPw?t=2294" title="External link">new episode of Upcoming</a> features the girls recording Mugen Climax! In order are Mai, Saki, Chisato, Maimi and Airi. The level of performances are about what you would suspect.</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Also, here is what Chisato thinks about your band:</div>
<div> </div>
<div></div>

[arcobaleno]

Man, I watched because I'm an unapologetically horrible person and wanted to laugh at Mai's voice, but she looked in pain and sad, so I just ended up feeling bad for her. 

[Mugi]

[quote="arcobaleno"]
Man, I watched because I'm an unapologetically horrible person and wanted to laugh at Mai's voice, but she looked in pain and sad, so I just ended up feeling bad for her. 
[/quote]
 
She looks like she's in actual pain! I don't understand why something can't be done to help her! I don't care that she isn't good at singing but I don't like that she looks like it hurts to do so.
 
Edit: Or maybe it's just annoyance at how she sounds.  I can't tell.  Whatever it is I'm glad she will be done with it soon.  I've enjoyed my time as her fan.

[arcobaleno]

I feel the same way; I like to make fun, that's just my type of personality, but I do like Mai a lot a person, and it just makes me severely sigh at how they haven't helped her, that her voice came to this point. Before, while she was never the best, she did sound unique and seemed to sing despite it, but now...
 
She did say, in her comments after recording "Singing was a bit of a mess..." so she herself knows, too. It's just sad, but I am glad as well, it is definitely not fun when singing causes you pain.

[showraniy]

Airi is the only one who could sing that song without looking like she was hurting herself. Sound-wise, Chisato, Airi, and Maimi seemed to hit most of the notes, but Chisato had veins in her neck and Maimi scrunched her face up a lot.


It's probably a difficult song to sing with the timing and high notes, so I'm impressed anyway! Also, Mai sucks at singing but she's still my favorite. ;D

[JPope]

The jumps from chest to head voice are a bit extreme for an idol song. Chsato and Airi seemed to handle them better than the others.
 
If anyone would be willing to translate the gilrs' comments -- even a rough outline -- I'd be mighty appreciative.
 
Regarding Mai's voice, she's a really bad singer, but her voice is how I was able to differentiate between C-ute and Berryz songs when they'd come on the streaming J-idol stations I listen to back before I was into C-ute. In that respect, Mai's voice is the defining voice of C-ute for me, which I totally understand is a ridiculous thing for long-time C-ute fans to wrap their heads around. 

[arcobaleno]

I went back and listened, and though my listening comprehension isn't as good as the good ones here, like TicTac, I did my best to tide you over until someone who can understand things better comes along. 
 
<div>Hagiwara: She talks about the lyrics (I couldn't make this part out too well...), said singing was hard, but she did her best.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Nakajima: This isn't part of the comments, but I have to mention it: When she first does her "...Samishii" line, she cracks up and says it sounded like an old man. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Now, the comments: She said she has yet another new way of singing with this song. It was super hard, but she thinks it's a song that lots of girls will sing at karaoke when it comes out. I think she said something about the way of singing feeling like "blowing off the bad things" or something, not quite too sure about that.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Okai: This was the first recording she's had since her throat problems. She mentions something about how much head voice there was, like she was glad that ___ happened. (Recovery, most likely?) She challenged herself with the recording, thinking "It'd be nice if my voice could level up." Because of that, in lives and such, she... wants to sing it better or some such.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yajima: She says the melody basically goes all over the place (that's what her hand movements are about ), and it was super hard, something like her mouth couldn't keep up with it well. She wanted to sing with a more passionate "agh!"-type feeling, but... it seems like because of how it goes all over the place, it was a lot harder to do that. At the end, she just says something about it was hard, again.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Suzuki: She says C-ute lately hasn't had songs with speaking parts. She mentions the falsetto during the chorus, saying she wanted the change between chest to head to be smooth.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>She had the least to say of them by far...</div>

[Meikochi]

Just to add a few things, in addition to what Arco said :

(I couldn't get what Mai said in the middle either)

- Chisato mentionned she isn't good in this type of tune (thus being a challenge for her).

- Maimi said some parts were like tongue twisters (Airi mentionned it as well).


This wasn't in the comments but during Airi's recording :

At a moment she made a mistake while singing so she ended by singing "I did a mistaaaake", which is why they all laughed after.

(Not 100% sure about this one) after recording her "samishii" (lonely) line, she said she had the impression it sounded light, just like sashimi .

[JPope]

Thanks for that, guys! I had a feeling that Airi was saying something like that when messed up that line!

[yuzuriha]

Nakky really surprised me on this one.  Except for those high parts which were honestly painful to listen to for all of them (*Except for Airi).  It was kind of obvious that Chisa's still recovering for me so that kind of hurt too...
 
Also just wanted to say Maimi is just so freaking gorgeous.  I think she has finally overtaken Mai as my #1 in C-ute but does it even matter at this point? I stopped caring about them as a group a long time ago.

[arcobaleno]

Maimi's hair is gorgeous.... I'm not planning to grow my hair out that long, but if I did, she'd be my model for it.