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Saturday, November 1, 2014

November Update: Blah

Oh yeah, I forgot I was supposed to do monthly updates... oops.

Well, here we are. It's November. Thanksgiving is less than a month away and Christmas is soon after! WOOT!

But my blog has been... kinda dead. I've had other interests and responsibilities appear in my life since this school year started, and blogging has been at the bottom of my priority list. So I don't get to post the  things I want when I want, and then when I finally get the time, everyone else has already written about it so I feel like I'm too late, and then I just get discouraged and decide not to write anything at all.

I guess once again I set my hopes for this blog too high, which always takes away my motivation after a while.

I'm not saying all this to be depressing or anything. :P I know everyone has some form of writer's block all the time, I just didn't expect it so soon, that's all. And I figured anyone who takes the time to actually read my posts (y'all are awesome!) deserves an explanation for why I haven't posted in nearly two months.

BUT despite all this I refuse to start a formal hiatus for my blog. If I do that I'll have even less motivation, and I'm not ready to give up on this yet.

Oh, by the way, last month I saw my idols Morning Musume in CONCERT! In NEW YORK (my favorite city)! It was one of the most amazing days of my life. I started to write a post the day after, but didn't get to finish it, and well... I definitely waited too long. But it was great; I got to shake hands with the girls (Mizuki called me 'cute'!), talked to some nice people while waiting in line, and added a new CD to my collection. The whole experience definitely made me wanna support them even more. If only I had written my whole blog post about it...

But it can't be helped now. I'll write again whenever I get the motivation and energy. Thanks for reading, everyone, and have a great holiday season. <3

Sunday, September 7, 2014

EunB, RiSe, and Simone Battle

This past week was a dark time for girl group fans. All in one week, we lost three singers: EunB and RiSe (from Ladies' Code), and Simone Battle (from G.R.L.).

Ladies' Code was in a car accident on Wednesday, September 3. EunB died on site, and RiSe passed away at the hospital from her injuries today (Sunday, September 7).

Simone Battle was found dead in her home on Friday, September 5. Her cause of death is still being investigated.

I don't really follow either group that much, but I had obviously known of them and heard their songs before. I even watched G.R.L. perform on TV a few weeks ago so now that Simone is gone... it doesn't seem real. All three deaths happening in just once was truly heartbreaking for me, and today I just cried. Even though I don't know any of these girls personally, I know that they were surrounded by people who loved them, and my heart breaks for those people.

Simone was 25. RiSe was 23. EunB was just 21. But even thought their time on earth was short, I believe they fulfilled their dreams... and that gives me a bit of peace. Everyone dies at some point, but what matters is how you live.

That's why we should never give up living, never put things off until later... because it could happen to anyone at any time.

I only wish there was something more I could say... but I have nothing, so I pray for their families and friends. Even then I don't really know the words to pray... but I pray anyway.

Everyone, please pray.

R.I.P.
Go Eunbi (November 23, 1992 – September 3, 2014)
Simone Sherise Battle (June 17, 1989 – September 5, 2014)
Kwon Rise (August 16, 1991 – September 7, 2014)

Friday, August 22, 2014

Orange Caramel "My Copycat" MV


Orange Caramel has released a music video for "My Copycat", which is my favorite K-pop music video in a long time!

The music is standard Orange Caramel, so if you're not into that I guess you won't be crazy about this either. But what really makes the video stand out for me is that its interactive. I LOVE interactive videos!

In this one, the main goal is to spot the difference in the split screen scenes. There's a number in the corner that tells you how many changes there are. You can pause to spot them all, or if your like me you make a game out of it by seeing how many you can spot before the scene changes.

There's also a "Where's Waldo?" type challenge where you have to spot the members of Orange Caramel.

It's silly, but I haven't had this much fun with a music video since Girl's Day's "Hug Me Once". And "My Copycat" is even better!

There's really not a lot to say about this video because it really speaks for itself. It's simple, but it's so much fun!

You can find this song on Orange Caramel's fourth single album, which also comes with a new song called "Gangnam Street" (a really great dance song).

Check out the dance version of "My Copycat", too!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Country Musume Audition Results: No Winners


The results for the Country Musume New Member Audition came out today.

Finally, after six months of waiting and guessing and excitement (for me, anyway), the results are finally in.

And...

No winners. None.

We didn't even get to see any of the auditioning girls. No one even said if the finalists will get a chance at being Kenshuusei or not yet, either. No word on what's gonna happen to Country Musume from now on: Are they finished? Is another audition coming up? Will Satoda Mai remain the sole member of Country Musume? The world may never know!

I know Country Musume wasn't the most popular Hello! Project group, at least not without Ishikawa, Konno, and Fujimoto backing them up, so maybe it's just me, but I kind of feel betrayed. As a lover of all things 90s H!P, I was so excited to see such a great group make a comeback. I was eager to see new faces in Hello! Project.

But nothing happened and we didn't even get a good explanation why.

I guess I should have expected this after last year's aborted 12th generation audition. Those girls were apparently too good for Morning Musume and would have changed the image they have now. So maybe the Country Musume auditionees just didn't have the same image as the former members, and they didn't want CM's legacy to be tarnished.

It's also highly probable that UFP is just being difficult because they can and that's what they do.

Whatever. Let's all just pretend this never happened and enjoy this performance of a flamenco version of "Iroppoi Onna ~SEXY BABY~".

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

My thoughts on Berryz Koubou's hiatus


Yes, yes, I know this is old news now; forgive me, but I have to share my thoughts on this eventually.

Berryz Koubou announced on August 2 that they will be going on an "indefinite hiatus" after their spring 2015 tour.

While I'd like to say I'm happy they're not disbanding, I'm not sure how I feel about a hiatus either.

Truly I can see why they would not want to disband. I think they've grown so close these past ten years as a group that they're practically a family, and you don't just break up a family. If anything, when their time to quit really does come, I think they should "retire" Berryz Koubou, together. It seems so wrong to say that they would "break up".

But I'm getting ahead of myself; no one is disbanding yet, just going on hiatus. On one hand, some good could come out of this -- the members will have more time to try other things, take a break, or maybe even go to university if they haven't already.

The thing that stinks about a "hiatus" though is that constant state of uncertainty we're left with. No one really knows when or if they will ever come together again like they were before.

It reminds me too much of where the Wonder Girls are at right now -- they're a family, so they don't wanna just "disband". But some of us fans are left wondering if things will ever be the same again. And I hate it. I hate hiatuses.

The Civil Wars already broke my heart this week by announcing their split after nearly two years of a hiatus. Please don't do that to me in two years, BK!

I guess I should end this post with the cliché "I'll still support you!" comment to the girls. And it's true, I will follow and support you all until the day you retire for good.

Also, admittedly, my first thought when I saw the announcement my first thought was "This would be a great time for a Buono! comeback..." For real though, if y'all could make that happen, I would totally forgive this whole hiatus thing.

Now that I've finished writing down all my jumbled thoughts, I'll share with you the playlist of (nearly) all of Berryz Koubou's music videos. Watch them in order from the oldest, because it really is a delight watching them grow up from adorable kids to beautiful adults.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Girl's Day - "Darling" music video



Girl's Day has released a new video for their song "Darling".

It seems like lately K-pop music videos have been giving me the same mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm a not a fan of the "sexy concept" at all, and the number of shots of their butts in this music video is ridiculous. On the other hand, this song is super catchy, the video is well-made, and the girls are actually adorable when the camera focuses on something besides their rear ends.

Obviously Girl's Day has been trying to push this "sexy concept" a lot lately, since songs like "Expectation" and "Something" have been some of their most popular songs. (Those two were so over the top for me that I never finished watching either video.) But it seems now they're remembering that they also had a hit back in the day with "Twinkle Twinkle", which was cute and quirky. This video seems to be a combination of the two styles, which is rarely ever attempted, but in this case I think it actually worked.

The song is so catchy and fun, and probably one of my favorite summer songs this year. I've only listened to it a couple times and it's already stuck in my head. It sounds like something Secret would do, actually. It's bouncy, happy, sweet... it makes me wanna sing and dance along. The replay value of this song is very, very high, and I have no doubt I'll listen to it at least once more this summer.

The music video is where my feelings are slightly mixed, but I've already gone over how I feel about the "sexy concept" so I'll just skip that part, because I don't think I'll say anything that everyone else hasn't already said.

The video is very bright, with lots of yellow and orange, but your eyes will adjust after a few seconds (probably). There's lots of summer fun in this video, from chilling at the pool to playing darts or washing a car. None of it really has anything to do with the song, but it is amusing to watch. As I said before, the girls are absolutely adorable in this video. It makes me miss their "Twinkle Twinkle" days just a little bit.

I also enjoyed the combination of dance scenes; there are four different combinations of locations and outfits. It really gave the video a lot of variety, and I wish more groups would use this many different sets more.

Overall, I'd say my thoughts on this are mostly positive. If Girl's Day can continue to release catchy songs like this, I may forgive them for changing their image so abruptly. The truth is that the members really are talented, and I'd hate to stop listening to them simply because they look different now.

If you enjoyed this song, you can buy it on Girl's Day's new EP Everyday 4, which released yesterday! Let me know your thoughts on this song and video, too.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Juice=Juice - "Black Butterfly" music video



Juice=Juice released the full PV of their song "Black Butterfly" on Friday.

As with their last two singles, Juice=Juice continues the formula of having two A-sides: the first with a dark PV, the second with a light one. "Ijiwaru Shinai de…" was sort of jazzy, "Hadaka no KISS" had flamenco style dancing, and now "Black Butterfly" has tango.

I'm not really feeling this song to be honest. The tango style sounds great in the verses, especially on Karin's lines, but most of the song is pretty forgettable. Worst of all is those background vocals on the "black butterfly" line. It clashes with the soft sound of the song and just... sounds bad to me.

As for the music video, it's also lacking in memorability. Everything is black and dark, and the flowers on the ground remind me too much of "Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game". One thing that did stand out to me, however, was the dance formation that looked like a butterfly, with Karin in the center of course.

As I always say, maybe it'll grow on me. "Ai wa Itsumo Kimi no Naka ni" was similar to "Black Butterfly" in that it didn't have a pop sound at all, but after initially not liking the Berryz' song, it grew on me and is now one of my favorites. So maybe "Black Butterfly" still has a chance?

If you like this song, you can buy it on July 30 as part of the single "Black Butterfly / Kaze ni Fukarete".

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Sailor Moon Crystal - Act 1

I'M LATE!

Mom, why didn't you tell me Sailor Moon Crystal premiered on Saturday?!!! *falls down stairs*

...okay, so actually I knew that. If you must know, I was out of town over the weekend and didn't get to watch the episode -- er, excuse me, "act" -- until late Monday. And then I took three days to write about it because... I have no idea why. But I'm here now!

Disclaimer: please remember that I have barely seen any of the original Sailor Moon, and I don't share the same nostalgia that most fans have. So if I make some stupid newb comment during the course of this review, forgive me!

As I said, I watched this episode late on Monday. I was very excited before that it would be airing through Hulu, as I have Hulu Plus and could watch it on my TV, but unfortunately my Wii U is unable to properly time the captions, and I couldn't read what they were saying until a second after it was said. I tried to use this to practice my Japanese listening skills, trying to determine what they were saying before the captions came up, but bouncing between languages like that just hurt my head so I gave up on the listening part near the end. So, yeah, from now on I will be watching this on my computer. :(

Anyway, onto the show!



The new series opens with shots of space and planets in an intro lasting about a minute and a half. Kind of like how a movie would start. No credits, no narration, just music.

After a few quick shots of Serenity, we are shown the Tsukino house, where Usagi once again does her famous "late for school" gag. After Usagi falls down the stairs and runs out the door in a rush, her mom wishes she would learn something from Sailor V.


Then the opening sequence starts, and oh it is GLORIOUS!



"Wait a sec, is that CG?" you ask. Well guess what, you're gonna see a lot more of that later.

All you "Moonlight Densetsu" lovers had better also get used to the new rocking, energetic, girl-power-themed "MOON PRIDE" opening song by Momoiro Clover Z. The scenes in this sequence are great as well, but seriously, that theme song!



Sailor Moon classic episode 1: "The Crybaby: Usagi's Beautiful Transformation"
Sailor Moon Crystal episode 1: "Usagi - Sailor Moon-"
...how original.

Calling it now: episode 2 will be "Ami - Sailor Mercury-".
Oh I just checked Wikipedia and that actually is the name of it. Crap.



So Usagi runs full speed to school and accidentally trips over an adorable kitty with a band-aid on her forehead. Usagi peels off the bandage to reveal a crescent moon shape on the cat's forehead. Suddenly she remembers she's late for school and dashes away from the mysterious cat.

Even then, she's still late for school, gets thrown into the hallway, gets caught eating in the hallway, and learns that she only scored a 30 on her English test.

...does all this sound familiar to you guys? Because I'm getting really bored re-capping it.



Naru and Umino look the same as always, Sailor V is still a legend, Usagi is still crushing on the guy at the arcade, blah blah blah... exact same stuff we saw in the classic series, just with new animation. Yawn.



Oh, but here's a change: one of the highlights of the episode, Mamoru's first appearance. Now I know some people said they hated Mamoru's clothes from the classic series, but is making him wear a tuxedo on his first appearance really the answer? Do you know how much dumber this will make Usagi look in the later episodes? "Gee, I wonder what that Tuxedo Mask guy's real identity is. Surely he's not the same as the one who wears a tuxedo all the time!"

"Who wears a tuxedo in the afternoon? What a show off!"

As before, Usagi gets kicked out of the house for scoring horribly on her test. Then Naru discovers that the lady running the jewelry store earlier that day is really a monster disguised as her mother, and is using the jewelry to drain energy from the customers.

In Usagi's room, the cat returns and introduces herself as Luna. Luna then gives Usagi her transformation brooch. I was a little irritated that it looks totally different then it did in the original anime, but then I looked it up and realized that's how it looks in the manga.


And now the moment we've all been waiting for...

MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!


I told you the CG would come back, didn't I?

Usagi hears Naru in danger and rushes to her aid. (By the way, they didn't include my favorite scene from the original, which was when the monster lady turned her head all the way around to look at Sailor Moon. It was so creepy it was awesome.)



What would Sailor Moon be without her signature introduction speech?

And her signature obnoxious crying. It's so irritating I can't help but love her for it.



Moon also uses her first attack here. This attack has actually gone through multiple names. In the original manga, it was "Moon Frisbee". In the original anime, it was "Moon Tiara Action". In the live-action series, it became "Moon Tiara Boomerang", and since then the manga and anime have both changed to use this name. I sometimes like to shout the attacks along with the characters, so I have a feeling for the next few episodes I'll be screaming "MOON TIARA AC-- dang it!"

Thus Sailor Moon defeats her first monster and officially meets Tuxedo Mask. The episode ends with a look at a mysterious new character (spoiler alert: it's Mercury).



So there it is you guys, the long-awaited Sailor Moon re-boot.

Was I disappointed? Heck no! Great animation, great music, and Mitsuishi Kotono still rules at voicing Usagi.

Was I bored out of my mind watching this? ...maybe. Obviously you can't drastically change the first episode of Sailor Moon. It's practically iconic by itself. But to me, I just couldn't really get into it for most of it. Perhaps it was more entertaining for those haven't seen the first episode since the 90s, and are in this purely for the nostalgia. As for me, it was almost painful having to watch this twice so I could review it.

I'm extremely excited, however, for Act 2. Crystal will only be twenty-six episodes long (about half the length of the original series), so it's clear they're introducing the team members much quicker. Thank goodness. It took so freaking long in the original that I never even got to the episodes with Jupiter back when I watched it.

I hope you all enjoyed my first Sailor Moon review! Comment about what you thought of the episode, what you thought of my review, and what you expect for the next act! New episodes air every other week, so Act 2 will be next Saturday.

I will do my best to review every episode, so follow my blog if you want to read more of my stupid, newbie, rant-ish comments on what is looking to be a great series so far!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

G.R.L. - "Ugly Heart" MV

On Tuesday, G.R.L. released their second music video, "Ugly Heart".



The song is okay. The chorus is catchy, but musically I feel like I've heard this song before. The vocals sound good as well, but for some reason I seriously doubt that they would sound that good live. I kind of like the lyrics; I do enjoy hearing a song where a girl realizes that the inside is more important than appearances, and acts on that knowledge, instead of the "Oh you're so bad for me but you're so hot I don't wanna leave you!" crap that I've heard too many times before. I like that it's a more playful breakup song as well.

As for the video... bleh. The plot of the video basically features the girls getting arrested. For what? No one knows. And the setting has literally nothing to do with the song. My theory is that the producers thought having them be arrested would give them some sort of "cool" bad girl image. The worst part is the close-up shots at the bridge; I have a feeling most guys aren't watching the girl doing the close-up.

So basically G.R.L. proves in this video that they bring nothing new to the industry. It's the same catchy yet at the same time boring pop that can be sung by any other female artist. They're only purpose here is to look sexy for their male fans.

I don't know why I didn't expect this before, since they're created by Robin Antin, who's known for groups like this (think Pussycat Dolls, Girlicious, etc.). But I really wanted them to be consistently good, since "Vacation" is some of the catchiest crap I've ever heard, and their dancing looked really good and fun. But with "Ugly Heart", my expectations have dropped.

Will I stop listening to them? No, not yet. Will I ever buy anything of theirs? Highly doubt it.

I can't wait for Fifth Harmony to make their comeback and show these grls how it's done. #BO$$

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

KARA adds new member: Youngji

 
After Nicole and Jiyoung left KARA earlier this year, DSP launched the Kara Project. Seven trainees would compete, and two would be chosen by votes to become new members of KARA. Well, that two ended up becoming one, and the winner was declared to be Heo Younji (19), bringing KARA to a four-member line-up, similar to the one they had when they debuted.

Honestly, I didn't actually follow this audition. I saw it when it began, but I just wasn't interested enough to keep up with it. So I can't say if maybe another member should have been chosen instead. (Though I loved Puretty so any of the three former members who auditioned would've been great for me.) After looking up videos of Youngji (do you know how many times I've almost called her Jiyoung by accident?), I can say that she's a good singer, and a good dancer, and she has a face that would fit well with the group.

 

The thing about Youngji is, to me, she doesn't seem like she will ever stand out. The question is whether or not that's a good thing. On the one hand, this is a big change for KARA, who has had the same line-up for almost six years. If you add someone who has a totally different image, she would stick out too much and make it feel like it's not the same group that we've known all this time, possibly upsetting long-time KARA fans.

On the other hand, if she blends too much with the rest of the group, then she won't be adding anything, leaving all of us wondering why they even bothered to add a new member.

This is all speculation on my part; as I said, I didn't keep up with the audition, so I don't know as much about this girl as others do. As always, I will have to wait until she actually debuts with the group to make my final judgment.

For now, I will just say congrats, Youngji. I hope you have success and that the Kamilia will truly accept you as part of the group.

KARA will debut their new line-up in August in both Korea and Japan.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Little Mix - "Salute" MV

Little Mix has returned with a new video for their song "Salute", from their 2013 album of the same name.

My goodness I love this! I'm honestly having the hardest time deciding which is better, this song or "Move".

Let me talk about the song first before I get to the video. I haven't actually listened to the album Salute yet, so yesterday was my first time hearing this song. Everything about this song, in my opinion, is perfect. It's a metaphorical song about female empowerment, and one of the few pop songs these days that I can appreciate lyrically. Obviously this concept has been done before (my first thought was that it's like Beyoncé's "Run the World" meets AKB48's "RIVER"), but Little Mix, with their style and vocals, just do it better, and they make it feel fresh.

I love the lyrics which speak about being proud of who you are ("It's who we are, we don't need no camouflage") and celebrating diversity ("Get your killer heels, sneakers, pumps, or lace up your boots"). The Little Mix army isn't just looking for one type of woman, they're just looking for women who can stand up for themselves, plain and simple.

 

Now let's take a look at the video. Before I actually watched the video, I saw a couple of comments calling this video "raunchy" and "dirty". Of course I was preparing myself for the worst, expecting to be disappointed that they were going down the route that most girl groups go down, but when I finished the video, all I could think was "Did I watch the same video they did?" I mean, maybe those words apply in the literal sense that there's actually dirt in them, but sexually? I don't think so.

Yeah, it was a bit sexy; there was plenty of leg shown, and there were a couple of slightly awkward shots. But as a whole, I think the image shown in this video was less trying to be sexy, and more about showing off their womanly bodies. Normally I hate when people say things like that, because I feel like they're just trying to justify the overt sexiness that girl groups so often have to exhibit, but in this case, in this context of this song, I think it's the truth. It's not about being sexy for the men, it's about being confident in your body as a woman.

The one problem I did have with this video, however, was this particular scene:


Um, she pretty much has those men on leashes.

While on the bright side, this made for some pretty cool choreography, the apparent symbolism in it irritates me. For me, things like this seem to spread the idea that for women to powerful, they have to be manipulative. That's not a positive message for girls at all. Thank God this scene only lasted for a few seconds, and it's really not worth an outrage or anything, but this is a review and to be fair I had to bring it up.

The rest of the video is well done, though describing it is simple. Basically the girls show off their toughness and their beauty, dance with their army, and salute (duh). I love the aesthetics of this video. It's dark and it's grungy, but it's fabulous.

Yet another A+ song and video from Little Mix. Now will someone please tell me why they're not famous in America yet?

Kelsey Sowards leaves 1 Girl Nation



Two days ago, it was announced that Kelsey Sowards has left 1 Girl Nation, a Christian pop girl group. On April 30, 1 Girl Nation posted the following message on their Facebook page:

Change is constant in our lives, but often times isn’t something planned or expected. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” It’s with this hope, that we share with you a change in 1 Girl Nation. As many of you know, Kelsey is getting married this June and she has decided to step away from the road and leave the group. We are all excited for Kelsey as she starts her new life with Caleb and wish her all the best moving ahead. We are equally as excited to announce that 1 Girl Nation will continue as a four member group with Lauryn Taylor, Carmen, Lindsey, and Kayli!
Kelsey joined 1 Girl Nation back in 2012 when the group was formed. She was part of their self-titled debut album, released in 2013, and went on tour with the rest of the girls. On November 5, 2013, she became engaged to Caleb Grimm, member of the band Anthem Lights (formerly under the same label as 1GN).



Kelsey announced on her Facebook page that same day that her singing would not end here, but she would just have a new medium to share her musical talents:

#Team1GN, 
Kelsey here. Just wanted to let you know that I have made a decision to part ways with 1 Girl Nation. I had an absolutely wonderful 2 full years as a member and God did some incredible things in and through us over that time. As most of you know, I am getting married to Caleb Grimm in a just a couple months (Yay!) and am excited about the next chapter of our lives. I have now established my own voice studio here in Nashville and am teaching full time. I am passionate about teaching, instructing and coaching voice, so it's my desire to help others find THEIR passion for singing and using their gifts for Jesus too! However, my own passion for singing still remains, It will just look differently now. Please know how much I love you, each one and appreciate your support and encouragement! You all mean the WORLD to me. And remember, as the song says, you are treasured, perfect and beautiful in the eyes of the One who created YOU. 
All my love, Kelsey Taylor Sowards
It's always sad to see someone leave a group, but it's much more encouraging too see that they are still continuing their career in a different form. I'm also glad that 1 Girl Nation is continuing, and that they're not trying to find someone to replace Kelsey. I look forward to their next album.



Congratulations on getting married, Kelsey! I pray that you continue to live a blessed life.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

New Sailor Moon character profiles

This is so exciting! It has been announced that the new Sailor Moon anime will premier July 5, and will air a new episode every other Saturday. In addition, character profiles are now on the official website. And they are fabulous. You can tell they've been updated a little but are still very true to the style from the original show. In fact, I'm not completely sure, but I think it may actually be a little more similar to the manga style? I'm interested to see how it will look animated.

The Japanese voice cast has been confirmed, as well. Mitsuishi Kotono will be reprising her role as Sailor Moon. The rest of the cast of sailor soldiers includes Kanemoto Hisako, Sato Rina, Koshimizu Ami, and Ito Shizuka.

Please check out all the profiles on the website.

Have I mentioned I'm excited? I can finally start to call myself a Sailor Moon fan once this premiers! I won't be the weird magical girl fan-blogger who has never seen the most popular magical girl series ever. XD

I just noticed from looking at the profiles that all their last names end with "no", with the first kanji representing their "power" (moon, water, fire, tree, love). You see how much of a newb I am?

Are there any other new fans like me who plan to watch this series? As for the older fans, what are your thoughts so far on the new info?

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Magica Wars debut episode

Somehow I forgot about this... on April 8, a new magical girl show debuted: Magica Wars, a.k.a., Mahou Shoujo Taisen. It's a short program, being only four minutes long; and that's including the opening theme, so it's really more like three minutes. The series is part of a media franchise which as of now also consists of three video games: Magica Wars Lock-On, Magica Wars Tactics, and Magica Wars Zanbatsu.

This gag series centers around 47 different magical girls. Each character represents a certain prefecture of Japan, in both their style and their voice (each voice actress is from the same prefecture as her character). This is a 26-episode series so I'm not sure if we will get to see all the characters or not.

This episode introduces just one magical girl, Aoba Naruko, as well what I assume is her mascot, Takesuzume, who basically looks like he came straight out of Angry Birds.

As Naruko chases a group of little monsters called Magatsuhi, she jumps over an intersection while the crosswalk light is still red. After being scolded by a police officer, Takesuzume proceeds to yell at Naruko for slacking off on her mission.

So despite being tired, Naruko gets up and continues chasing the monsters (and getting yelled at by her mascot), only succeeding in hitting one right before it attacks a little girl. As she goes after the remaining monsters, she once again has to cross the road and is told by the officer to wait. Naruko and Takesuzume argue about whether she should listen to him or not. Takesuzume, who apparently cannot be seen by ordinary humans (I think?), calls the officer a "blockhead", which Naruko repeats, and angers the officer. Long story short, Naruko gets arrested for looking suspicious, and the episode ends.

Her weapon kinda reminds me of Dear Baby's rattle

... if this is really supposed to be a gag series, I'm not finding the humor. Watching that annoying angry bird scream for the entire episode is not my idea of funny.

The art in this is good; it's very cartoony, which I like, and I love Naruko's character design, particularly the ribbon crown thing on her head that resembles the flag of Miyagi.

I like short gag series, I really do, but this show just isn't cutting it. They took a very, very basic plot that could be from any other MG series, tried to make it funny, and failed completely. The character designs are fabulous, but design alone cannot carry a series. Episode 2 airs next Tuesday, and I will be watching and praying that the next episode will be better than the first.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Morning Musume '14 - "Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe" (MV)

Well it's been quite a fun week for my J-pop girl groups. Many new music videos have been released, one of which was the MV for Morning Musume's newest song. I was pleasantly surprised by this and have much to say about the song and video and more.




I absolutely adore the way this song was written. It's beautifully bittersweet, and the first time I heard it I felt like crying. The song, as I interpret it, is about a loved one who has passed away, or even a love that has just ended. It kind of reminds me of Selena Gomez's "Love Will Remember". Even when the love you have on earth is gone, somewhere deep down, beyond time and space, you still have that strong bond and a love that will never truly pass away. It's rather deep when you think about it, and it's something I don't normally see idols singing about; at least not in this way.

But... (why does there always have to be a "but"?) Tsunku is really the only one who gets any credit for making this single amazing. First of all, the arrangement; that dang repeating broken chord drives me nuts. If you're going to use piano in your song, make it sound pretty and not all disjointed and... unoriginal like that. I did hear a little bit more piano going on at the beginning but it was hard to hear because of the STUPID LOOPING CHORDS!
(Okay so I'm the only person on earth who's enraged by that but for real... it annoys me.)
The entire arrangement to me is just too staccato and broken. It's like someone just took a bunch of sounds that they think sound cool and threw them all in a pot with no though about how they would flow together, and this is what we got.
Oh yeah but throw in some violin and people will say it's beautiful.
It is definitely possible to make a song that sounds pretty and sad but still using electronic elements. I'm going to use another Selena Gomez example here and say "Forget Forever", which did have a different tone from "Toki wo Koe..." but still managed to make me rather sad during the main instrumental part by using only electronically created sounds.
I mean I'm honestly no musical expert or anything so maybe I'm just crazy, but in my opinion the arrangement for this could have and should have been much better.

The girls' voices could have also been a bit stronger, but they sound all right and I've ranted enough about this song already so I'll just leave it at that.

Going back to positives, I also love that they're mixing it up a little more with Morning Musume's singles. I think when "Ai no Gundan" was released was when I realized that their sound was starting to get a little stale. Immediately after that, though, they put a little twist on it by releasing the happier, more idol-like song "Egao no Kimi wa Taiyou sa", still keeping the EDM elements but making it stand out from the rest of their singles. Even beyond just the style they experimented with a unique rhythm for the vocals which took some getting used to but ultimately was awesome. (Because H!P is obsessed with multiple A-side singles they also included two other songs which are good but forgettable and I don't even want to talk about them.)
With this single they're doing their first ballad in a while, and I think many people are responding well not only because of the music but because of the variety. In the golden era, I believe Morning Musume was famous partially because of their variety. Their fluctuating line-up was the most obvious example, but they also were able to experiment with different styles of songs while still keeping the same energetic image that made them popular.
I think the key to keeping Momusu relevant is to grow with their new sound, instead of letting it hold them back as if they feel they have to do the same type of single every time in order to keep sales up. From what I've seen so far this year, I believe they are taking steps in the right direction.
(Now if only we can get rid of the double A-sides, because "Password is 0" is boring.)

The song is really the main focus for me, so I can't really say too much about the video. The outfits are pretty, and I like seeing the girls barefoot. The special effects are average. I did like the set for the dance shot, as it truly felt as though they were in space. To me, the whole setting and colors artistically reflected the beauty of the song, even if it was fairly simple.
The dance wasn't their best but it's not really a dance song so who really cares.
The first minute or so of the video did bother me at first because it seemed as if the girls were more focused on looking pretty instead of feeling the emotion of the song. But as the video went on I felt it a lot more from them.

Overall, the song and video give me mixed feelings, but the positive outweighs the negative. It's a beautiful song that can be interpreted in different ways, and I love that. Definitely worth purchasing for any Morning Musume fan.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Things that have happened in the past two months

You know that new Juice=Juice song about how "I want to do lots of things but I don't have enough time"? Yeah that song perfectly describes my life.

Now that I'm not sick, not lazy, AND not busy with school (most of this post was written on a Sunday), I think there are a few things that happened within the past couple of months that I need to catch up on. So here are my thoughts on news no one cares about anymore:

Country Musume Revival



Probably my favorites "news" of the moment is the announcement of auditions for new Country Musume members. A fun fact about me is that I'm actually a really big fan of 90s Hello! Project. Seeing one of my favorite groups from that era is now being revived makes me incredibly happy!

I only wish that Satoda Mai could still be a part of it, as she is one of my favorite H!P members, but her moving to the U.S. makes that impossible. However, I am definitely looking forward to seeing more fresh faces in Hello! Project.

I hope that they keep the line-up as being mostly members from Hokkaido, as that was part of their original concept. If that were a requirement, Inaba Manaka would be the only Kenshuusei eligible, leaving room for plenty of new members. Of course auditions are open to girls from all around Japan, so other Kenshuusei could join. But my dream line-up for this group is Inaba plus about three new girls. 

Though Inaba hasn't been in the trainee program for a full year yet, she does have some more experience under her belt as she was a member of the Hokkaido group PEACEFUL from 2011-2012. (This group was fantastic by the way.) Her voice is not the best, but her dancing is fantastic, and she has an adorable face. I, personally, think she'd be great for the group. But of course the exciting thing about these auditions is the thought of new members joining, and I'm super excited to see who will audition!

Most of all I am glad that Up-Front has started taking an interest in remembering and even reviving its OG acts. First there was the amazing New Years concert with the Taiyou to Ciscomoon and Melon Kinenbi reunions and the return of Heike Michiyo, and now they're reviving one of H!P's oldest groups. I hope that through all this fans of today will be interested in 90s H!P, and that that era will never be forgotten.

Shin Country Musume (Country Musume '14?), I will support you through everything! がんばれ!

Morning Musume 12th Gen Auditions



And speaking of auditions, Morning Musume is once again holding auditions for their 12th generation.

I can't say I'm extremely excited about this. Last year's audition with no results was a huge bummer, and I've grown used to their current lineup; but if my hopes for a spring 2015 graduation for Sayumi come true, then I realize Morning Musume is going to need more members to keep both the talent and variety of their rotational lineup alive.

I've been cheering for Cuca to make it into Momusu since the 11th generation auditions, and my cheering for her won't stop until she's either in the group or over 17. Aside from her, I don't have many people that I think should definitely be in Morning Musume. Danbara Ruru is an amazing singer, and for that I'm hoping and waiting for a solo debut for her. Some of my favorite Kenshuusei are Tanabe Nanami, Kaga Kaede, and Sasaki Rikako, and while I would love to see them all debut soon, I'm not sure if Morning Musume is the right fit for any of them.

I think I'll just wait to pick my favorites from the finalists. Until then, I probably won't comment on the auditions at all. I'm far more interested in Country Musume and Kago Ai's group at the moment.

Sailor Moon Crystal



Toei is finally giving us some info about the Sailor Moon reboot, with a teaser image for "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal", a plot summary, and a July 2014 release.

Admittedly I don't know much about Sailor Moon. I've seen about fifteen episodes of the English dub, six episodes of the Japanese version, and I own and have read the first volume of Codename: Sailor V. I know some of the basics of the characters but besides that, Sailor Moon is kind of a mystery to me.

With the announcement a while ago of a reboot, I wasn't sure if it would continue the story or start over. If it was the latter, I didn't want to know the whole story and then have no suspense or surprises or anything while watching the new version. If it ended up being the former, I would have very little time to rush my way through five seasons of the show before the premier. Thank GOODNESS it seems to be the latter (Usagi is still in her second year of middle school and Queen Beryl is the villain), and I was wise enough to wait it out and not watch the original. Now I can be really excited for the premier and be able to watch the series just as the original fans did back in 1992.

Moral of the story today, kids: the 90s actually weren't that bad.

Nickelodeon "Cancels" Winx Club



Many fans have erupted at Romi Dames' announcement that Nickelodeon has "cancelled" Winx Club; though it's really not a cancellation in the usual sense. Nickelodeon has simply decided not to renew their dubbing/co-producing deal after season 6 ends.

However, many many MANY people still can't seem to get the story straight, so let me give you the whole thing very clearly in a nutshell: Season 6 will continue airing as planned. Rainbow has already started preparation on season 7. Season 7 will be produced, but will not be dubbed in English by Nickelodeon. This means, as of now, no English-speaking country will get the show after this season, but Italy and others will. At the moment no other company has announced plans to dub the series after season 6. We do not know what will happen in the future; all we know is that once season 6 ends, the Nickelodeon dub will be dead.

Make sense now? Good, now show all your friends so people online will quit asking the same questions and potentially spreading misinformation. :P

My thoughts on this are mixed. There are petitions on the net to "save Winx Club" but I've refrained from signing any because I'm not sure what I want. On one hand, I love the current cast; particularly Romi Dames as Musa. I knew from the moment she was casted and every moment after that she was absolutely perfect for Musa. Morgan Decker and Amy Gross were other favorites of mine. On the other hand, I hate the way Nickelodeon has managed the series, and I'm partly relieved that their reign has ended.

I'm also really stumped on where to go from here. The series has already had three different English dubs and a fourth would just be overload. They could always go back to Cinélume but that likely wouldn't air in the States. And 4Kids Entertainment doesn't exist anymore (not that I'd want them back anyway, ew). 

So... what do we do now? Do we just accept that it has been a failure in the US compared to in Europe? That's a sad thing to have to say after ten years of effort...

If I could make everything go my way, I would have all the cast from Nick move to another dubbing company and have the series air on Cartoon Network (the channel it aired on when I first found the series). No co-production deals this time; just straight dubbing from the Italian. But alas, my goal of keeping the whole cast I think is probably unrealistic. And I don't see any "move Winx Club to Cartoon Network!" petitions anywhere.

All I can do right now, as a fan of what-used-to-be, is sit back and wait for something amazing (I guess....). I think I'm ready to move on if this is really the end of Winx Club in my country. If I have to watch all the episodes in Italian with subs from now on, so be it; I've always wanted to do that anyway.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Fairies "Run With U" music video released



After only releasing one single in 2013, Fairies is back with a new single! I'm sure many Fairies fans besides me hope that they have a much better year in 2014, so let's look at how Fairies is starting the year!

Fairies released the music video for their new song "Run With U" on their YouTube channel today. I'm having mixed feelings about this one. On my first watch, I thought it sounded very rough. For one, Momoka (basically the lead singer of the group) sounds very odd when she sings low. Secondly, the music does not have a very pleasant sound, and in the bridge it slightly overpowers the vocals. Finally, the dance in the chorus was unimpressive compared to the rest of the dance.

However, upon my second listening, as always happens, it began to grow on me. I can appreciate the song for being a fun dance song with a strong melody in the chorus, and Momoka does find one good line near the end of the song. While the song isn't technically the best, I wouldn't mind listening to it every now and then as background music for my day.

Though the music video is little more than a collection of dance shots, the girls show that they have fun with what they do, and I do enjoy the contrast between the vibrant highlighter-colored outfits and the beautiful black-and-white clothes they wear. The over-sized striped jackets aren't really my thing, though.

I wish Fairies had had a much stronger start to their year, and to be honest I haven't been wow-ed by them since "Beat Generation". But still I hold onto hope that I will adore them just as much as I did when they made their debut.

(If you like this song, please support Fairies and pre-order their single from CDJapan.)

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Berryz Koubou's new song "1 Oku 3 Senman Diet Oukoku" performance on Hello! Project Station #49

With my new blog name, I'm also trying to produce a nice balance of news and opinions in my posts. I'm kind of just experimenting here so we'll see how this goes!



On today's episode of Hello! Project Station, many high-quality performances from the Hello! Project concert at Nakano Sun Plaza were featured. Each of the groups, including Hello Pro Kenshuusei, sang a song from their latest single, and we finally got a preview of Berryz Koubou's next single song: "1 Oku 3 Senman Diet Oukoku" (which is one of two A-sides).

I really like this song. It's got that cool, almost-electronic-but-not-quite sound that I think fits them very well (see "Heroine ni Narou ka!" and "WANT!"). Tsunku has been having a lot of fun with these dance, electro songs lately, and I will bet you money that Okubo Kaoru arranged this one. Some people think it's repetitive, but I say if it works, the fans love it, and it's done well, then I love this kind of sound!

The choreography is great, too; I especially love the part where they do the wave!

I can't critique the song too much right now because we haven't heard the studio version yet, but so far I've got high expectations for this, and I'm very interested to hear how the vocals are mixed. Maybe we'll get a music video soon?

Berryz Koubou's 10th anniversary of their debut is March 3 (my birthday!) this year, so I hope this single and their compilation album are successful!

(If you like this song, please support Berryz and pre-order the single from YesAsia)

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Finding the Magic

For a long time this blog has been basically nameless. At first I was fine with this, because the simple "Shayna" at the top pretty much described the theme of my blog. But now it's time for a change…

I started this blog over a year ago as just a place for me to vent and share whatever I felt like talking about. I knew that no one really cared much about what I had to say most of the time, so I just said whatever was on my mind. And then the impossible happened: people started reading it. Oh, it wasn't a lot, and it's still not, but it was enough to make me realize that maybe this blog could be something more if I really put some effort into it.

For the past several months I've been asking myself questions like, "What kind of blog do I want to run?" and "What do I want to achieve by blogging?" Because, while writing depending on my mood was fun for a while, I began to grow bored with the lack of theme. Despite all this soul-searching, I couldn't come up with a single name for my blog. Normally when I'm stuck, I can at least come up with something awkward and cheesy as a placeholder, but I had literally nothing.

In my room, I have a very large collection of notebooks that I've acquired throughout the years, big and small. I use them for things like story- and song-writing, journaling, or just scribbling a quick to-do list. A couple of years ago, I was given a simple pink spiral notebook. Nothing particularly special about it, but this notebook became my new diary, and while I had tried to keep a journal before, I normal quit doing it regularly after about a month or even less sometimes. However, last fall, a very bad time for me emotionally, this diary became the only thing I had to talk to. I would be here all day if I told the whole story, but in short, this diary now means a lot to me. It is my most prized possession and I don't know what I would do if I ever lost it.

On the front of that notebook are the words "Find the magic in everything."

One day, when I was just looking at it, I realized that's what it's all about. It may just be a silly phrase from a cheap notebook, but I think it describes me quite well. I want to look for the positive in everything and everyone. Not that I'm a total optimist, but I like to be happy, and I like to look at the big picture of things and see how magical it is that everything in life just fits together so perfectly.

I think it describes my blog, too, in a way. I like to search through different groups and songs and find what I like and share what I like. Plus, since part of my blog is focused on magical girls, well… there's the magic right there!

So today I am officially renaming my blog Finding the Magic. I think it's cute and girly and adventurous and almost everything I want my blog to be.

Also, today I want to make it clear that my main focuses will officially be girl groups (from all countries) and magical girls (ditto). There's a lot I want to do with these concepts, and a lot of ideas that I have in mind, but I'm reminding myself to take it one step at a time for now. Today's step is the name, and a new layout.

The URL will stay the same, because, well... I like it. It may move eventually, but for now you can always find me at himynameisshayna. ;)

I love you all!

<3 Shayna