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.

Let's Talk about Winx Club's Season 6 Trailer

This blog needs more magical girls! So how about a little Winx Club?

Those who know me probably know that Winx Club is one of my all-time favorite shows. When Season 5 came out, I was convinced it was going to be amazing. And even when some of the episodes were horribly written, I was in denial, convincing myself that the show would become better as the season went on. But the longer it went on, the worse it got. I finally came to realize this recently, and accepted the fact that maybe my show is not as perfect as I once thought it was. Maybe it's time for me to let go of it.

But then, today, Winx Club Season 6's trailer came out, and I fangirled just as much as I ever have.

So it's official, Winx Club will always be in my heart. As I always say, I've been a fan for eight years; I've come too far just to quit now!

Now there's a lot in this trailer to talk about: some good, some bad, some... different. Even though we don't know a whole lot about the premise of the season, we can still get some good ideas just from watching the video (over and over and over again, as I did...).

You can tell from the intro that this season will be fairy-tale-themed. I've said before that I've really been missing the fantasy element from the series that they took away when they went to Earth in the fourth season, and then focused too much on the underwater theme in the fifth season. So the emphasis on fairy tales here is a almost a sure sign that I will get what I've been waiting for: more fantasy, more world exploration, more monsters, and more of the Magic Dimension! What interests me is wondering whether they will use classic fairy tales or create their own fairy-tale-like world. I mean, if you think about it, Winx Club is pretty much a fairy tale of it's own. I actually hope they don't use classic fairy tales too much, because, quite honestly, it will just remind me too much of Ever After High. And I know people will start comparing them if they do.

Now what do we have here? A new character! Looks like we're actually getting a female villain that's not the Trix. Well, okay, we did have Mandragora and the Ancestral Witches in the movies, but as far as the series goes this is are first main female antagonist since the Trix. Just from the look of this character, I already like her. She looks very devious, cruel, and manipulative. If you're a villain, those are some pretty awesome traits! She seems like a smart villain. She's able to use this book to bring "storybook monsters to life". I'm really hoping that they will give her an awesome backstory. Tritannus's motives were just so pathetic, so I'm really excited for this change!

EDIT: The character's name has been confirmed to be Selina. She is a new witch at Cloud Tower. (credit goes to Michael's Winx Club and his scan of the Licensing Show flyer)

Well I guess some things never change. The Trix are back. Again. You're kidding me, right? Why are the Winx still acting so scared of them? They've beat them *counts on fingers* five freaking times. The Trix obviously aren't even competent villains anymore. In fact, they haven't been since the first season. You know why? Because they keep acting as the minions to other villains! It may have been the 4Kids dub (I can't remember) but I seem to recall one of them, in Season 3, complaining about how they always team up with losers. And yet, they still do it. Will they ever learn? And I know this is a kids show, but you'd think after trying to destroy the world five times they'd finally take some real action: kill the stupid witches! If the Omega Dimension couldn't even hold them, why, oh why, are you still leaving them alive?

On the bright side: they look wickedly fabulous in their new outfits. Just sayin'.

Both the Specialists and the Winx are getting new uniforms this season. You've already seen a glimpse of Stella's, but we'll get to that in a minute. Right now, how about the Specialists? I like how it doesn't differ completely from their original uniform. They kept the blue, the cape, and the gem thing in the center. This one seems a bit more practical, though, as they've added some armor to the mix. I'm not completely crazy about the look right now, but maybe I'll like it more as I watch the actual season. The Specialists look just as handsome as ever, though. :)

I'm wondering who those guys in red are. My first thought was that they could be from some random, rival school, but then I found it ironic that the guys in blue are the ones that go to RED Fountain. XD Maybe they're from Eraklyon?

Now here's the fun part: MONSTERS! I'm not sure why, but I've been really into fantasy monsters lately. Maybe it's because of my recent obsession with The Hobbit, maybe it's Monster High wearing off on me. Or maybe I've just missed the monsters from previous seasons and I never knew it. But knowing that monsters are going to be a large part of their fights is soooo exciting for me!

Oh yeah, baby! New transformation time! These outfits are so fantasy-esque, and they remind me a lot of the original designs for the fairies before the series was released. Though the images in this trailer aren't super clear, I'm really loving what I see, especially the wings! My only complaint is that, from what I can see, the fairies' outfits look too similar, just like they were last season. C'mon Rainbow, where's the diversity?

Now we get a close look at them school uniforms. At least, I think that's what they are. Unless the Winx have just become so close they've decided to coordinate all their outfits. If it's actually a uniform, shouldn't they... all look the same? Whatever it is, I am not a fan. The collars, the pink and grey together... people have compared it to Japanese anime, but to me it's more like something out of a Barbie movie. Not that I dislike Barbie movies, but I swear I've seen an outfit from there that looks just like those.

But I must admit, Tecna is always stylin', even in those crappy colors.

And finally... this. Two questions: 1) Is that an alternate transformation?, and 2) 3D again? WHYYYYYY?

First off: we don't need two transformations. You tried that last season, and all it meant was that we got a very short time with each transformation (I miss Harmonix), and both ended up being very forgettable. If you guys do pull the same freaking trick again I swear I will scream.

Secondly: 3D. Just, ugh. It ruins the look of Winx Club for me. I dealt with it for one season, but not again, please. I just can't take it any more.

So what did you think of the trailer? What are you excited about? What are you not looking forward to?

Feel free to leave a comment.

Winx Club Season 6 premieres Sunday, September 29, at 1:00 P.M. EST on Nickelodeon.