Music Video Mini-Reviews: Hello! Project [part 2]

I'm finally back with part 2 of my mini-reviews! Today we're doing 5 different videos -- two groups', and two soloists'!


Morning Musume - Morning Coffee

It's Morning Musume's official debut single!

I'm sure nobody knows this, but I love this song! It's actually one of my top Morning Musume songs. From a composition standpoint, this song is much, much, much better than "Ai no Tane"! The layering of harmonies is just beautiful, and the music is lovely as well! All of them have beautiful voices, but Abe Natsumi stands out far above the others in both vocal ability and stage presence (or... camera presence?).

The video continues the singing-in-the-town theme like Ai no Tane had, but it also has some lovely scenes in a dimly lit room, which I feel focus more on the members themselves and show us their beauty.

You can see that the members have gotten slightly more comfortable for their video this time! They are all smiling when needed and remaining serious when needed, and I feel like they conveyed the emotions of the song very well. There were some slightly awkward parts where they were just standing there like statues with nothing moving but their lips, but these moments were brief so I'm not even going to count that.

All together, I give this lovely song and video a 7/10. As you can see, I'm not being very lenient with my scores yet. :D


Heike Michiyo - Sotsugyou ~TOP OF THE WORLD~

Heike Michiyo follows up with her second single, a Japanese version of The Carpenters' song "Top of the World".

This is by far my favorite Michiyo song. The vocals are absolutely stunning, even with a fairly simple melody. The guitar in the background also adds a nice touch.

Okay, so Momusu gets a great PV, and then they give Heike Michiyo this? Sitting on a chair is hardly entertaining. "Okay, so let's switch it up; we'll have her sit on the stairs during this scene!" *facepalm* Alright, I'm slightly exaggerating, but really, there's hardly anything special about this. The only thing I liked was the random balloon thing (for some reason I find balloons to be fascinating).

One thing I have to point out is that despite having a lovely voice, I actually don't think she was ever fit to be a soloist. She entered a competition to be in a band; she won the competition to be in a band; she has the stage presence of a lead singer of a band, and suddenly she's made a soloist. To me she just has the kind of voice and presence that would better fit a band. Oh well, guess it's way to late to complain.

Overall, I give this PV a 4/10. The only reason it even got that high of a score is because the song is awesome.


Morning Musume - Summer Night Town

Double dosage of Momusu today, and now we have the 2nd generation's debut song!

Remember how I said how much I loved Morning Coffee? Well, I love this song 10x more! I can't tell you how many times I've blown out my voice jamming to this song. The first generation once again completely owns the vocals. All the second generation got to do was sing the background vocals on the pre-chorus bridge. I feel kinda bad for them, especially since they were in the back during the whole video. They're definitely the most unappreciated generation; in fact, they're the only generation in which I can't remember a single person's name (family or given).

Back to the video: this isn't their best video. The cool thing is that it's the first video in which they get to dance, but of course the dancing is mostly just side-stepping and arm-swinging. I loved the scenery of the city at night. I wish we would've gotten to see more of that in the video. The costumes were nothing special at all. The lighting in the video was so odd; I felt as if I could barely see anything.

So I guess this is yet another case of "amazing song, sucky music video". Go figure. I give it a 6/10, simply because the song is amazing.


Nakazawa Yuko - Karasu no Nyoubou

It's Nakazawa Yuko's solo debut single!

Okay, before I talk about the actual song, can someone tell me what genre this falls in? I don't know what to call it. Also, was the piano at the beginning and end supposed to sound like The Turtles' "Happy Together"? That's all I can think of whenever I hear this song. Anyway, other than that, I love Yuko's voice in this song! It's hauntingly beautiful.

I love seeing PVs that are outside (especially since it looks like Momusu will never go outside again...) and the scenery here is just too pretty! I especially love it when PVs have water in them (weird thing about me) so the little stream in the background just made me happy! Another thing I loved about this PV was Yuko's kimono! She looks absolutely lovely!

Overall, I really like this music video, although there doesn't seem to be much of a plot to it. I'll give it an 7/10. It might have gotten more if it wasn't so forgettable.


Tanpopo - Last Kiss

It's Morning Musume's first sub-group, Tanpopo!

Oh...Em...Gee! It's been forever since I've heard this song; I forgot how much I love it! The keyboard part gives me chills every time. The instrumental, melody, and harmonies are just so haunting and sad. It makes me feel like I'm a part of this song (or whatever, I don't know how to explain it). I mean... GOSH!

Okay, back to the PV. To be honest, I can barely even pay attention to it because I'm thinking about the song the whole time, but the music video was beautiful as well! Everything felt dark and cold, which helped project the feelings of the lyrics. I loved the parts where they kept fading in and out. It reminded me of the past, slowly fading away. You can remember it, but you can never go back.

Yeah, I'm making no sense. Whatever! This song is amazing, the music video is good, so I give it an 8/10.


FYI, I started writing this post a week ago and never finished it until now. Can you say "lazy"? I'm really sorry it took soooo long, but I hope it was worth it! Until next time! PEACE!

Music Video Mini-Reviews: Hello! Project

I'm starting a new series. I'm going to review every music video Hello! Project has ever released! Ambitious,  I know. But I'm going to start from the beginning and work my way towards the current stuff. Most of these videos I have seen, but some of them I have not. Some of them I've seen but haven't paid close attention to, but either way you'll get a new perspective from me, and I may find out things that I never even knew!

I plan on doing several a day. Remember that I have a life, so I can't promise a steady schedule or anything. Anyway, enough talk, let's get started!


Morning Musume - Ai no Tane


Oh gosh, we're starting all the way back in the 90's! Morning Musume -- the girls who couldn't pass the audition to be the lead singer of Sharam Q, and were given a small opportunity to make their own group. Next thing you know, it's the greatest idol group in Japan of all time, and after 15 years, it's still around!

Granted, Momusu is not as popular nowadays as they were in their earlier days. The goal for this demo single was to sell 50,000 copies. They could have sold more if they had more copies available, I'm sure. These days, they sell around 40,000 on average. Sad, but at least their still around.

I love listening to this song. It gives me a happy, calming feeling. A feeling of new beginnings and peace or something cheesy like that.

The lyrics are a little hard to explain. It's basically about getting rid of all your worries, and looking toward your future with a positive attitude.

"I want to scatter the seeds of love"


The video basically consists of three things: 1.) Their singing in a field of flowers, 2.) singing at various places throughout the town, and 3.) blowing bubbles in an empty field.

The thing I didn't really like about this video is that even though the vocals and lyrics were so happy, the singers in the video just seemed... dull. There's pretty much no emotion coming from them whatsoever. This is a bit disappointing, but I'll cut them some slack since it was their first single.

Overall, it's a decent video for a 90's debut. I rate it 6/10.

Heike Michiyo - GET

This is the girl who actually won the previously mentioned contest. However, do to the fact that Tsunku (the mastermind behind H!P) focused more on Morning Musume, she never actually became the lead singer of Sharam Q. Instead, she became a soloist under Hello! Project. Sadly, despite her exceptional voice, she never became as famous as Momusu. However, there are still people like me that appreciate her voice and the songs she put out during her career.

This is one of my favorites of hers. Apparently, this was the song that all the finalists at to sing at the last round of the competition. It made a nice little single that showed off her talent.

There's not a lot to say about this video. She sings the song in different locations, the most prominent to me being 1.) she sings behind some weird wire fence, and 2.) in a white/blue room with a fuzzy boa around her neck.

This video to me is just meh. It's quality isn't very good so you can't really see what's going on, but even then there's not much to see. Great song, but very crappy video. I give it a 4/10.

That's all for today. Goodbye.