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So whilst searching the net for a bit of inspiration (just got an XBox360 Dev Kit...exciting times!) I found myself searching a Japanese site linking to quite a few Freeware and Shareware based games, having downloaded a some of them I started to load a coupl up and try them out, then I got to one called "Hello Project Battle Festival"...it can't be can it??!
Having seen screen shots from another Hello! Project fighter (Hello Project Game) quite sometime ago I knew that they existed but I've never found a download link before, so you can imagine how please I was that the installer was already sitting on my hard disk without me even realising what the game was.
The game is actually really amusing, the people that created the game obviously have a great sense of humour and love of H!P, the Nono and Gakisan characters are the most amusingly designed in my opinion and they really play with the aspects of the members characteristics to great comedic effect. But for me Yossie's character is the one that impresses me much in turns of effort put into moves, the Mr Moonlight outfit is genius as are the moves associated with it, but what I love the most is when she turns into her Gatas uniform and kicks you across the screen, so much thought and effort has gone in here.

I did think about putting images up of the game, but I felt I'd attempt to upload a video of me playing the game (...badly, lol) annoyingly, if only I'd recorded my previous game as I got past Reina (who is really difficult) and up to Kaori.


If you want to download game it can be got from here, but don't forget to check the rest of the site out as there's quite a useful character control guide, check it out here, ハロプロ格闘ゲーム作ろうぜ！

I had a little trouble getting it installed, but switching over the Regional Setting of my PC over to Japanese fixed the problem. Basically switch the Regional Setting over to Japanese, unzip the file and play!! The only downside is I haven't figured out a way of playing it with the setting on UK...oh well, a little annoyance for some H!P gaming!!

TAGS [ Hello!Project Stuff ]

Damn the current financial crisis that seems be gripping everyone at the moment! Damn the crappy exchange rate that makes buying H!P goods even more expensive than it already is! Damn UFA for always releasing merchandise that's always so tempting to buy!

So whilst I've been cruising Hello Shop trying to think of reasons why I shouldn't go spending money on a pair of C-ute Chopsticks (how else am I going to eat the Kare Raisu I cooked tonight, thanks for the recipe Hexi!! If you anyone feels like giving it ago check out the recipe here, I can vouch that it tastes pretty damn good!) or a Morning Musume Umbrella (it's always going to rain, especially in the UK!) I've noticed that Ohta has the latest Wonderful Hearts tour merchandise up for sale at his eBay store. Mr Bank Manager is really not going to like me if I decide to get a tshirt from this tour...especially after the C-ute photo frenzy I went on a couple nights back whist hunting around eBay.

As ever with the preview shots provided for these types of thing the quality isn't too great and they're of a tiny size, so actually making out the exact design is a bit hard but if I squint and stare about 1cm away from the screen I can get a rough idea of what they look like. By the looks of things the Wonderful Hearts logo is on the front with the group name running across the top of the back of the shirt with the member listing beneath it. Although the design of the group shirts isn't the most exciting I'm loving the colour combinations especially Berryz Koubou and C-ute's, I guess the question can I afford to buy any of them? With the amount of releases schedule for January...probably not.




TAGS [ Berryz C-ute Manoeri Morning Musume Ohta ]

I hope everybody is having a great start to their New Year! Is it me or did last year go so quickly? It feels like only yesterday that I was taking taken down my W 2007 Calendar and replacing it with 2008's Morning Musume Calendar and now this morning that's replaced with the 2009 version.
What a year 2008 was, for me it's certainly been an eye opener, I've discovered a few more artists outside of H!P that I just can't get enough (Wonder Girls, Hey Girl and Kayo Aiko being the ones that really stick in my mind) but also within H!P I've taken more of an interest to the other Wonderful Hearts units.
Although I really feel that Morning Musume should have done so much more on the whole Singles front last year it's thanks to this lack of releases that has really allowed me to sit back and get into both Berryz Koubou and C-ute. In my opinion 2008 was all about C-ute, they really smashed it with their releases, with each single release better than the last. Also it's given me the chance to really get to know the girls within each unit and instead of just having a handful of favourites from both units I can say that all the girls now appeal to me much like they do within Mornning Musume and actually putting them into an ordered favourites list is something that I would have to give serious consideration to. And as for favourite releases of 2008 that's another thing that is going to need some serious consideration, the only thing I can say for certain is that the PV for Yuke Yuke Money Dance has to be my favourite. I'm about half way through typing up my answers to Amy's H!P Best of 2008 Poll but before I finish it off I thought that it would be good to see what actually were the best selling releases of last year. CDJapan has it's usual end of year Top 100 Charts (full listing for all the charts can be found here) and it's always interesting to see where H!P feature in these.

CDJapan Top 100 JPop CDs (Complete List)

	No. 42 Morning Musume Cover You		No. 54 Buono! Cafe Buono (Limited Edition)
	No. 56 Buono Cafe Buono		No. 71 Berryz Koubou 5 (Five)
	No. 74 Ongaku Gatas 1st Goodsal (Limited Edition)		No. 96 C-ute 5 (Five)

I think the most impressive thing with H!P's first appearance in this chart is the fact that it's Morning Musume's Cover You album, with it only being on sale for a little over a month it must have sold a great deal which I guess is understandable, with a year extremely short in CD releases from them an album is always going to draw the fans in.
Although, when looking at it Buono!'s Buono Cafe kicks the arse of Cover You with both the Regular and Limited versions appearing within a couple of positions of each other.

CDJapan Top 100 JPop DVDs (Complete List)

	No. 19 Morning Musume Concert Tour 2008 Haru - Single Sai Shugo!!		No. 25 Morning Musume Concert Tour 2007 Aki Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! Bomb
	No. 27 Hello! Project 2008 Winter Live DVD Box (Limited Release)		No. 30 Morning Musume - Single V Resonant Blue
	No. 35 Berryz Kobo & Cute Nakayoshi Battle Concert Tour 2008 Haru - Berryz Kamen vs Cutie Ranger - with Berryz Kobo Tracks		No. 38 Berryz Kobo & Cute Nakayoshi Battle Concert Tour 2008 Haru - Berryz Kamen vs Cutie Ranger - with Cute Tracks
	No. 43 Morning Musume Single V: Pepper Keibu		No. 44 High King Single V: C/C/Complex
	No. 50 Buono! Single V: Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!		No. 51 V-u-den Single V Clips 2 -Arigato V-u-den Debut Kara No Dai Zenshu
	No. 54 Hello! Project 2008 Summer Wonderful Hearts Koen - Hishochi de Date Itashima Show		No. 56 Berryz Koubou Single V: Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance
	No. 57 C-ute Cute Cutie Circuit 2008 - Love Escaration!		No. 58 Berryz Koubou Single V: Dschinghis Khan
	No. 61 Buono! Single V: Gachinko de Iko!		No. 70 Buono! Single V: Renai Rider
	No. 72 Ongaku Gatas First Concert Tour 2008 Haru -Mizaru Iwazaru Goodsal!-		No. 73 Aya Matsuura Concer Tour 2007 Aki - Double Rainbow
	No. 79 Aya Matsuura Concert Tour 2008 Haru Aya The Witch		No. 88 Ongaku Gatas Single V: Come Together
	No. 89 V-u-den Concert Tour 2008 Shoka Biyudensetsu - Saishu Densetsu		No. 90 C-ute Single V: Namida no Iro
	No. 94 C-ute Concert Tour 2008 Natsu - Wasuretaku nai Natsu		No. 97 C-ute Single V: Edo no Temari Uta II
	No. 100 Sayumi Michishige Love Story

Much like the previous years I've checked this, Hello!Project really comes into it's own when you look at the JPop DVD releases. Although there are no releases within the Top 10, H!P still manage to take up a quarter of this chart which is amazing. I'm also really pleased to see that Sayumi's Love Story DVD managed to creep in there, although it's at the bottom it seems to be the only DVD of that sort within the whole list!

Well back to finishing off Amy's poll.

TAGS [ Hello!Project Stuff ]

For the first time ever in the 10 months (must be something like that) that I've been subscribing to UTB I got a call from the Japan Centre telling me that copy was ready to be picked up, to be honest I was quite shocked as it was so unexpected. I've always presumed that when I signed up for the subscription I put my old mobile number down and this was the cause of it, but on looking back I think the reason must have been just my complete eagerness to get my copy, as when I think the new issue is due out I visit the Wani Books Up To Boy page to see if any updates have been made. Oddly with this issue the regular Up to Boy section of the site still hasn't been updated (oddly it has been updated in the Weblog section of the site) and because of this I haven't done my usual harassment of the Japan Centre staff, which I think has given them enough to call me.

This issue is actually quite a lot of Hello! Project within it, although you might not think it from a quick flick through. Featuring in this issue we have; Shugo Chara Egg!, Yurina, C-ute members Chisato, Nakki and Mai, Rika, Kohachan, Kamei and the now regulars Manoeri and Maimi.
What makes this issue interesting is how it takes a slightly different approach to the norm. We still have the regular black and white sections but with regards to the promotion of the three PB releases feature in this issue (well, Manoeri's doesn't really count I guess as she's featured in big coloured sections in every issue) only one of them promoted within the black and white section and surprisingly it's Charmy's. PB veteran Rika an extremely pitiful 3 grey scale stills, what's that about? I know as per usual I'm repeating myself in the posts about UTB, but I can't understand the reasoning behind who gets a decent 4 page colour spread and who doesn't. If perhaps sales were to feature in the reasoning behind this than surely Rika would be getting one? With the amount under her belt and that it's her last one under H!P I would of thought perhaps that a little more fuss would have been made of it? But things could of certainly have been worse, just take the time when both Sayu and Nacchi appeared in black and white section one page each, both promoting their new PB. At least with this issue along with the colour segments for both Maimi and Manoeri, we get some great shots of Kamei's new PB 20 Hatachi, this is the first real look I've had at this release and I have to say I'm loving her hair!!

Also featured in the magazine are a couple of adverts which I've also scanned in, the first is for the Hello! Project Best Shot magazine. This is obviously going to be a magazine to keep an eye out for 100% H!P, who could ask for more? But as per usual the Japan Centre won't be getting this is...actually on thinking about it I might see if they could actually order it in? And secondly is a promotional page for Manoeri's debut PB release. Now although I'm excited about this release, Manoeri is just too cute and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we might see a couple of bikini shots as well ;p, I'm not as excited as I thought I'd be about this. Personally I'd rather see a Berryz or C-ute member who hasn't had a PB get one before Manoeri does, what I'd really like to see from Manoeri is a single release with a PV!!! Or even an upload of a live performance that isn't Manopiano!
She's appeared in so magazines lately (appearing in every issue of both UTB and Kindai for I don't how long...and I'd imagine there's many more magazines she's appeared in) that this was the obvious goal, but I think this is the very reason that I find myself less excited than I should be, I have a ton of photos but I have no PV, Manoeri's cute there's no doubt about that, so well done on a new member breaking through into the PB (fingers crossed it's the start of many new members releases) but I just don't quite feel ready for this release just yet...am I being odd? I know I've more than likely said I wanted in an earlier post lol.

One final thing, I'm not to sure if I'll get a chance to post tomorrow or not if I don't I hope everyone has a great New Year!!



TAGS [ Chisato Koharu Maimi Manoeri Nakki Rika Up to Boy Yurina ]

So, unfortunately tonight has been a late one for me, unfortunate because it's not exactly been out of choice I'd of really liked a semi early night...I spent most of the evening watching Christmas TV (which reminds me, I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas!!) and a few of the DVDs I got as presents, but during this time I managed to drink far too much coffee which is a bit unusual for me as I'm in no way a coffee drinker (I love my tea) but as the rest of my family is tonight I've followed suit. This means that it's now stupidly late and I'm still wide awake!! So what better way to pass the time and hopefully get me in a mood to sleep than to make a post!

It feels like ages since I've posted about my latest purchases, I had a number of CDs sitting around that I just haven't got around to posting about and now to add to these I have the wonderful gifts that MorningBerryz has sent me. I'm sure I have a couple more items that I've purchased but at the moment I'm unable to go and get them without waking people up, so for the minute this all I've been able to grab.


As you can see from the photo not all of these items are Hello!Project related. We have the latest Buono! and C-ute singles and Morning Musume's Cover You album and the wonderful H!P photos from MorningBerryz. But also we have an awesome poster from Taiwanese girl group Hey Girl and another wonderful present from MorningBerryz, Meteor Garden Hana Yori Dango DVD.
Unfortunately the CD to the self titled album Hey Girl is one of the items I can't get to at the moment, this is a real shame as the packaging and accompanying photo booklet are of excellent quality! Having totally fallen in love with one of their earlier singles Shake It Baby which I commented about in another post (Tan Tan Taan! Limited CD) I thought I'd give their new album ago. It's always such an amazing thing when you take a chance and it works out, Hey Girl is an amazing album and quite possibly my most listened to album at the moment, probably even more so than Cover You. Much like with the recent Wonder Girl releases I've bought, I can't help but feel that H!P are falling behind in the packaging department, admittedly it's a bit stupid to compare the packaging from these three groups as they're all from different countries, but one I feel I haven't moaned about H!P packaging in sometime and two they're flipping amazing, why can't we get a H!P release like this?! Included with the album along with the photo booklet was a poster, when I read this in the description I wasn't expecting much, at most I was expecting a poster folded up and put into the casing, but how wrong was I! The poster was actually shipped seperatly, all rolled up so that it arrived in perfect condition!! I really can't recommend this album enough, if anyone is interested it's available at YesAsia and if you're after a sample I've just noticed that the first two tracks of the album (and coincidentally my favourite two tracks) have videos out and they can be watched here (Jiao Jie Jie) and here (OOXX). Also if anyone knows of any English fan sites I'd be really grateful if you could let me know as I really want to follow this group and learn more about the girls.


Over the passed couple of years myself and MorningBerryz have exchanged Christmas gifts (My 2nd Christmas Present, Christmas Gifts) this year has been slightly different with both of us breaking away from H!P, well except for great looking H!P photos that was sent over along with the DVD and branching out into things that neither of us have tried before. For me MorningBerryz sent over Japanese drama Meteor Garden Hana Yori Dango and in return I sent over my most favoute of UK comedy series The Mighty Boosh...as to whether this was a good idea by me I've yet to find out, I find that the show is rather hit or miss but personally I love the wackyness and the whole music orientated feel of it.
Meteor Garden is my first delve into a Japanese drama and at the moment I've only watched the first episode, but I have to say I'm already hooked! I'm a sucker for cute girls and Maoh Inoue certainly falls into the category, but aside from this the show actually had me feeling for the lead character Tsukushi right from the start and when her lunch was thrown on the floor I was willing her to punch the guys lights out...and I was so happy when she let rip with an almighty punch!! I'm only one episode in and I can tell this is going to be right up my street, can't wait to watch some more, thanks MorningBerryz this was a great choice!

Moving onto the H!P related part of the gift, is a photo set from Morning Musume's recent appearance in Hawaii. As always the Morning Musume girls look amazing, my personal favourite photo out of the set has to be Aichan's, ther outfit and pose are just great. And as for Sayu's shirt, has anything ever been more accurate? "Best Damn Thing"....yes, she most certainly is!



TAGS [ Buono! C-ute CD DVD Morning Musume ]

So we're an hour and a bit into Christmas Eve and I'm not entirely sure when I'll be able to post again today, I've work all day (annoying!) and then a few (in reality I mean far too many) drinks. So chances are I either won't have time or will be far too drunk to post tomorrow. I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and they get all the prezzies they've been after!

I had a brief period of boredom this evening and during that time I popped over to JibJab and uploaded some of my fave H!P girls heads into their ElfYourself application, I was actually quite amused with the outcome!


And whilst I was there I decided what the hell let's change the style, so as well as Disco Christmas we have a Country Christmas as well.



TAGS [ Chinami Erika Koharu Nakki Sayumi Stuff ]

This post is now over a week late, it's been sitting on my desktop in semi finished form for days (damn, these busy weeks)...but better late than never, right?
First impressions are an important thing, apparently they're what people remember most about you so it's always good when meeting someone new to give out that good first impression. With that in mind, I met up with Hexi in London on Sunday last week, to pretty much bum around the shops. Aside from the obvious shops (Forbidden Planet, Japan Centre, Mitsukoshi that strange shop I've always thought was dry cleaners but sells tons of 2nd hand Japanese book and CDs) I wanted to try and grab a Christmas present for my parents, in particular my dad (hope he doesn't read this as he'll know what he's getting...I think the chances are very slim, lol), one thing he always enjoys this time of year is some port and cheese, so the obvious choice for a present...cheese, port and glasses. So I headed down to London early in the hope of grabbing a couple of presents before hand, first I checked out Gerry's on Old Compton Street (if you like your alcohol it's worth a look, although I haven't bought anything from their in a long while I did use to grab the odd bottle of Absinthe from there when at Uni...helped the lessons go a lot quicker ;p) then realising I had no idea what brand of Port my dad likes so I headed out and made my way towards the Seven Dials, but just as I was nearly there I got a text from Hexi telling me she and Tom were heading down to Forbidden Planet so a quick detour and I met them outside. After a shop around Forbidden Planet I asked if anyone minded if I continued my hunt for a shop I'd once found by accident a year ago that sells cheese, no one minded so off we went. To skip right to the chase, I not only lead us to worlds most smelliest shop, seriously it stinks so bad you can smell it from down the street, both Hexi and Tom came in with me and then made a quick exit after the smell hit them, upon leaving I then managed to get us lost...well I think we were already technically lost when we found the cheese shop. Lol, what a first impression...I wouldn't be surprised if the smell of that first impression is still lingering on Hexi's Hangry and Angry shirt :S

Meeting up with Hexi was a slight worry I'll admit, it's the first time I've ever met anyone I speak to online so there was the whole nervousness of that, but it thing turned out to be a fun little trip and Hexi's just as cool as in real life as she is online, or should that be she's just as geeky in real life as she is online *hides* (lol, I mean that in the nicest best possible way ;p), she has a wicked dress sense which I completely loved (for obvious reasons that will become clear, lol)...Hangry and Angry shirt (if you haven't seen it check it out here and here), shorts, knee high socks and leg warmers!! I was actually surpsied that she wasn't cold, there was me in my jeans, Chisato shirt and coat, absolutely freezing!
So in all the time I've been a fan of H!P I now know someone (well I know quite few people into H!P, but I mean in real life) I can chat about what all my other friends consider to be my weird little obsession :)

So whilst we were down London, we popped into the Japan Centre and I managed to pick up the latest issue of Friday (which was H!P free and now the latest issue, lol) and a copy of CDData, a magazine which I've neglect to buy in months, so much so that I had no idea as to whether Reina's article was still being printed. Thankfully it is, plus there's also a page dedicated to C-ute and their drawing abilities.


It's been sometime since I uploaded a magazine translation, last time I spoke to Shohei he was moving to Tokyo and he'd got himself a job so he didn't have much spare time to look over my magazine scans (which is understandable), I may give him an email over the Christmas break and see how things are going, lol although I'd feel a little bad "Shohei how's things? Good? *cough* *cough* Translation?".
Anyway, translations aside, the C-ute article appears to be fairly obvious. The C-ute members are given the task of drawing fellow member Chisato, Airi is the clear winner here with an amzing looking picture. The other members drawings are really cute, but I'd have to admit if I didn't know who they were supposed to be drawing I wouldn't have a clue who it was, which I think really goes to show how good Airi's pic is!
Reina's article I'd love to be able to read, I'm sure there must be a translation of it somewhere online, I'll have to have hunt around tomorrow at some point (it's far too late at the moment) I love the two pictures on the bottom right of the page, with Reina, Mittsi and Koha, and not for the obvious reason (i.e. Koha...I think I may Koha'd myself out tonight if that's at all possible, spent most of the night watching through her PB making ofs) I'm really enjoying the faces that Mittsi is pulling lately, she looks so cute! I really hope that in the new year we get to see a PB release from her filled with some great facial expressions.

TAGS [ C-ute CD Data Reina Stuff ]

:::Dohhh Up!::: have uploaded a preview of Morning Musume's Alo Hello 3 due out for release on Christmas Eve...it'd certainly be one of the few things to drag me out to the shops on Christmas Eve if it was sold over here.
As ever it looks to feature a ton of bikini and beach and pool side moments, which is always an enjoyable watch! Seeing Mittsi in the preview reminded me how good she looks in a bikini, plus we also get to see some more of the other 8th Gen members and I can imagine a lot of people are going to be into seeing Junjun in her beach wear and I have to admit she does look stunning! Even Linlin, who I've never really considered as a 'looker' looks amazing.
It certainly sounds to like it will be an interesting watch, from what I've been reading the girls split into 3 teams and their wishes are granted...surfing and swimming with dolphins are shown on the preview and personally I can't wait to see Koha attempt to surf, it's all just going to go terribly wrong, which can only mean it's going to be hilarious to watch!



DVD Release Date : 24 - 12 - 08
Morning Musume Alo Hello 3
Amazon | CDJapan | HMV | YesAsia

TAGS [ DVD Morning Musume ]

So it looks like what a lot of us, and by a lot of us I mean all of us, have been hoping for has finally come to light. The news that Hangry and Angry will indeed be touring outside of Japan is certainly something that has got me excited, so excited in fact that as I type this I have numerous airline sites open in my browser checking to see how much return flights are (£351 is the cheapest I've found so far, if anyone finds any cheaper let me know).
Head over to the Hangry and Angry MySpace for more details. But the short of it is that they will be making their US premier at Sakura-Con 2009 on April 10-12 (Sakura-Con 2009). I'm so jealous of everyone in the states able to attend this event as it's an amazing opportunity.

I guess all our questions about if, when and where H!P will tour outside of Japan are finally asnswered, my only hope though is that it's not just limited to the Sakiura-Con 2009 and also not just within the US, with all the amazing work No Life does in France promoting the works of Japanese artists on their TV station and with France having the biggest Expo outside of America it seems like the perfect place for Hangry and Angry to start their European tour? Even better is if they decide to pop over to the UK and pay a visit to the London Expo, my fingers are tightly crossed.

TAGS [ Hangry and Angry ]

I've been intending to post for a few days now but work at the moment is a bit full on. I've had a couple of CDs delivered and also a delivery from Ohta, hopefully I'll be able to post them all up over the next few days.


In all the things I've bought from Ohta the concert towel is something that I've never purchased until now, I've purchased a towel before from Ohta but not a concert towel. The towel I have is a Hello! Project Sports Festival 2006 and it is essentially a cool looking hand towel, a bright yellow thing with a red tomatoe and green asparagus on it. Although I love the towel (I love everything H!P related) I've never really seen the point in expanding my towel collection favouring the tshirts more, however with this range of ~Berikore!~ tour merchandise I had to have a towel, the choice for me was either Saki or Chinami both look amazing on the towels. In the end Chinami and her draw droppingly amazing legs won me over.


I'm so impressed with the towel, if it can indeed be called a towel as it's something that I'd never use in that way. First off the material isn't really a towel like material and secondly the piece of paper that came with it telling me not to get it wet because the colours may run. So it's not going to be used in the general way of a towel, so what will I use it for? To be honest I don't really know, I'd love to be able to put it on show somewhere as Chinami looks so good but I get the feeling that it will be folded up and put away somewhere safely so that I can't damage it, lol. Having got this I'm eagerly awaiting the release of more, the only real problem with being a H!P fan is this addictive hook.

And it wasn't just Chinami and Saki looking good, all the girls within Berryz Koubou were looking great and so I decided that it would probably be best to also feed my H!P photo addiction as well and grab some Berryz photos. Again much like the towels, the quality of these are amazing, the two large photos are possibly the best H!P photos I've ever seen and not just because of the girls, just look at the aquarium in the background, it makes for such an amazing shot...plus with Chinami and her legs been center stage again I really couldn't pass on it ;p



TAGS [ Berryz Chinami Ohta ]

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