2009 Year End Hello! Project Rankings

27 12 2009

As a mark for me I’d like to remember this year as this year is one of the more important years in Hello! Project history. As far as I can remember I may have lightly sprinkled a ranking before, but I have never really solidified my rankings. And I would like to see year by year, through major developments and small subtle influences, how my rankings differ. Since becoming a fan of Hello! Project, many things have changed, many people have come and gone, and my likes and dislikes have varied.

Hello! Project after Elder Club had graduated in February

As for the year 2009, the collective group known as “Wonderful Hearts” was made the real core of Hello! Project with the mass graduation of Elder Club. As we see above, the core consists of Morning Musume (9), Berryz Koubou (7),    C-ute (7) and Mano Erina. That’s a grand total of 24 girls. Quite amazing to think that the core of Hello! Project is actually now 21 girls...

This year Berryz Koubou is the only group that hasn’t seen any change in members. C-ute was silently dropped to 6 girls soon after FOREVER LOVE. Kanna was later officially announced as resigned. Erika graduated in October. Finally, Koharu graduated earlier this month dropping Morning Musume down to 8 girls. This makes for a grand total of 21 girls in Hello! Project (excluding Eggs).

So here we are read more for my rankings for Hello! Project as of December 2009.

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Song of the Week 005 – Chocolate Disco

21 12 2008

I apologize for the missing song of the week last week. I had finals and the like so I didn’t have time to prepare the material. So to make up for the lack of posting, I will be posting a new Song of the Week everyday of this week (today being Sunday). Think of it as a Christmas present ^_^!

This “week” (Sunday I should say) we have a song that I have been listening to a lot lately, “Chocolate Disco” by Perfume. Honestly, I only recently started listening to Perfume and am actually currently watching some videos of them on Youtube. But here are my two cents.

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Song of the Week 004 – Flavor Of Life

7 12 2008

 

This week’s song is “Flavor of Life” by the one and only, Utada Hikaru. It’s a somewhat more recent song compared to the other songs I had been reviewing. It was released in early February and was extremely popular (then again most of Hikki’s songs are). The popularity can definitely be attributed to the fact that it was the insert song for the very popular drama, Hana Yori Dango 2. You know those drama songs… they get mad popular. But hey Hikki is big in Japan so it’s not wrong to discriminate on her. It’s certainly not wrong to discriminate on a good song either (unless you just don’t feel it is good to your ears, in which case never mind).

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Song of the Week 001 – Just Communication

14 11 2008

In my growing effort to keep up with my blog, I will be now updating at least weekly with a (hopefully) short article about a song. I’ll give my 2 cents about it and of course tell you why I picked it for display (I mean if I’m talking about it, it must be quite a song! ^_^)

That being said, I want to say that I’m quite happy that I was tagged by Intlwota the other day. That was by far my busiest day and I have all the visitors (whether or not they went farther than my front page) to thank. So thank you readers, I’m sure I have some readers out there who are just to shy to comment. It has been a hectic past 2 weeks on top of a lot of exams and it’s far from over but I suppose I can update during my studying breaks. So without further ado I present to you, the Song of the Week!

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Elder Club dropped like they’re hot.

21 10 2008

The Elder Club is hot (most of em, imo). But they’re being dropped soon. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news. And if you are a wota and you like H!P in anyway, then you know already. If not, then I’m glad I was the first to inform you.

That entire group of girls right there will be graduating March 31st of the year 2009. Wow, that’s lot… about 25 girls (I did a quick count, I apologize if I’m off) are going to be “graduated”. From what I understand they’ll still be a part of UFA, maybe. Either that or they’ll continue their lives as stars in some way and others will just go back to a normal life (though that in itself will take time). Here’s my perspective on the big move as a whole.

Old Morning Musume members:

  • Nakazawa… the leader of all H!P, the commander in chief who wields 50+ girls at her disposal!!! Though I know she hasn’t really done much of anything in the past couple of years. It’s a really big shock to me. When I first saw Morning Musume on Hello! Morning, she was there. I remember Nakazawa Yuko as Morning Musume. It does sadden me to see her go.
  • Yaguchi Mari… my I love her too. She seems to be pretty set as a TV personality for now so she’s got something to do. Yasuda Kei is also acting in some things so she’s pretty set. Abe Natsumi, the face of Morning Musume no more… for many years now and maybe now she can be the face of herself or the face of some other group/record label. She really hasn’t been doing much lately anyway.
  • Oddly enough I don’t see Mikitty up there^… But she hasn’t been doing much lately either (I believe she’s doing a Grease musical right now?). Love her voice, so let’s see if she’ll continue singing.
  • Yossie and Ishikawa are doing Hangry and Angry (which I need to look into soon) and I guess it’s a one-shot deal if they’re going to be graduating in like half a year. H!P is really famous for all these one-shot groups. Yossie has got her own tv show though, so I think she’ll still stick around and do stuff. And Ishikawa, well she has a lot of fans so I don’t see her stopping for anything.
  • Iida and Tsuji are busy being mothers. Maybe they will come back and do something but for now I’d count them out of it.
  • Ogawa was pretty much already gone. I never really identified with her anyway. Konno, awww I liked Konno. Now she can go and completely focus on her studies I guess.

And the others:

  • Melon Kinenbi… hahahaha they…. yea….I don’t really listen to them. So I can’t say much. I will admit I have a softspot for Megumi’s glasses. So I hope to see her wearing her glasses someday again. ^_^
  • Inaba Atsuko does about as much as Ayaka has in the past years before Ayaka even stopped doing stuff.
  • Maeda Yuki doesn’t do much either, she may just become an obscure enka singer.
  • ex-Biyuuden… I was amused to hear the idea that Yui should become a gravure idol from another blog. But that sure would make a lot of sense, I have to admit. Erika can keep singing… somewhere.
  • Matsuura Aya, I definitely want to see her continuing entertainment. I really like Ayaya. She’s cool.
  • Ongaku Gatas: I can see Satoda Mai graduating. But just like everyone else, I’d be confused about the eggs graduating too. They haven’t been given that much time but I guess it’s time for Tsunku to axe the eggs.

I wonder why the sudden move to graduate everyone. I guess it makes sense since half of (if not 3/4) the Elder Club is sitting around doing nothing. I’m sure it’s a ploy to squeeze some sales. Or maybe it has something to do with the economy? (Hah, I hope not).

The one thing that really irks me is… This means Takahashi will now be receiving the black uniform that Nakazawa once donned. Takahashi, the star of the 5th generation of Morning Musume is now… not only the leader of Morning Musume, the flagship group of Hello! Project, but now she’s the commander in chief of all of Hello! Project. Hah, that means my love, Gaki-san is vice. Hopefully this is a good move. I hope this will give some more quality to the big three groups of H!P (Berryz, C-ute, and Morning Musume). Admittedly, I only recently started getting into the H!P kids. And hell, they’re really not kids anymore, in a matter of a couple more years they may as well just be Morning Musume’s sisters.

On another sidenote, this HAS to mean Takahashi has to be the face of Hello! Project now. She’s gotten so much special treatment for this moment. She’s either going solo sometime soon or she’s going to be stuck in Morning Musume. Not that I mind. I like her so no problem with me.

But I will miss the old days and the fact that those old days are going away now. But not all change is bad right? I hope so.

Congratulations to all and I hope their life after H!P is successful and prosperous!

~Siggy, who felt compelled to write this post after joining wotachat~








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