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.

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)