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!

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~".

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.