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Hello!Party UK Stylie!

Thursday, 4th February 2010 13:42 | 9 Comments


Whilst we wait for the second Hello! Party (which by the looks of things could actually be happening, check this out Alo-Hello! Party) a few of us have taken it upon ourselves to meet up on a regular basis get a little bit tipsy and have a sing song.
There's some minor differences between the two UK and the US parties, the first difference is beer, there's lot of it, along with plum wine and the most evil tasting vodka know to man. Our organisational skills comes down to Matt_D setting a date, TasukiDaisuki booking the karaoke and the rest of us turning up and destroying the place XD With the UK fans being spread out over the country there's always the little problem of getting people down, so there's no large numbers just a small group of pretty damn cool (but ultimatly geeky ;P) people. And lastly there's and a first for one of out meets, a few tranvesites and a whole horde of Polish and Russian table dancers.

Along with the usual crowd of myself, CDevil, Choco, Lampshade, Matt_D, TasukiDaisuki, Tom and Yoriko we up'd a numbers by two and had the ever drunken Shirow and Blister.
Things started off fairly normal, meeting up, getting punched by Yoriko, buying Lampshade his plum wine, CDevil getting denied booze and finding the best deal Tesco has on larger. Having met up with Shirow in Picaddily Circus we trundled off to Epoch to do some drinking and some singing.

The thing I've realised about karaoke and videos is that the girls get off so lightly, there can be no denying that Choco, TasukiDaisuki and Yoriko all have damn good voices and being girls they don't look like total idiots when doing H!P dance moves. So, the video stays pretty much on us guys attempts at stringing a couple of notes together and the odd drunken dance before we realise the cameras on us and we stick a couple of fingers and dive out of the way. I'm going to mentally set a reminder in my brain that on the next one I'll be keeping my eye on the girls, camera in hand ready for any embarassing moments!
Personally I've still yet to attempt a Japanese song, I stick solely to English songs that I feel I my unique voice can compliment. To put it simply, I attmept a Black Grape and sung it badly...if you don't know who Black Grape are (and generally I find that not many people do) check out the link and be amazed at how I could possible sing In The Name Of The Father badly...but on the plus side I'd wager I can dance as well as Bez :D I also attempted a few more great songs but oddly I can only remember two of them, Despardo (which you'll find a short 15 second clip of below) and an awesome duet with CDevil of It Wasn't Me by the just as awesome Shaggy <_<
But, me aside there was some equally great performances by the likes of Lampshade, CDevil and Shirow. If you follow me on Twitter chances are you may have seen Lamp-pinku and Devil-Pinku's version of Rainbow Pink, for those of you that think listening to the original is painful, you're in for a treat :D And also there's Lampshade and Shirow getting stuck into Tan Tan Taan!, this little clip may give you an indication as to how much I'd had to drink at this point.






After Karaoke a few of us decided to carry on drinking, whilst the others headed home or waited at the wrong cashpoint for 30 mins ;P Tucked into some tasty chinese food, unfortunatly we turned up too late to tuck into duck tongue and pigs trotters, much to my dissapointment. Next we headed out to carry on drinking, I don't think anyone can remember why we ended up where we did all I know that both places were recommendations of mine.
First up was the transexual bar on Charing Cross, with nice glittery red walls, golden statues, a disco ball in the middle of the room and a couple of oddly attrative girls who looked like they needed a shave and were called Geoff... Sadly only CDevil got stopped at the door and asked if he knew what this place was and if he was sure he wanted to come in, the rest of us apparently looked like we frequented this place every Saturday night.
Once inside and a few drinks down Matt_D needed an idol fix and out popped some Reina PBs, this got an interesting reaction from the guys in the bar. One even enticed Matt over but quickly realising that Reina doesn't have a penis his interest declined, but that's not to say that stopped people looking over his shoulder guys were checking out Reina and to be fair who can blame them, she is stunning... and I guess if you squint she kinda looks like a lady boy *hides from Reina fans*

Moving on and possibly in an attempt to reaffirm ourselves myself, Shirow and CDevil headed off to Shoreditch. In all the places we could have ended up we ended up at the not so reafirmingly titled Rainbow Sports Bar. Having described "one of London's most popular and premier strip tease venue" as a table dancing club with the worlds ugliest Eastern European girls I don't think anyones hopes were up for much, but surprisingly the girls weren't too bad, or perhaps it was the fact that we'd been drinking for 10 hours straight... who knows? All I do know is that within seconds of entering the place a cute little blonde approached me asked is I wanted a dance and when I asked "why would i want one with her?" the reply i got back meant that what I had planned as some sort of trick question that meant I could sit down and start on my beer ended up with me in a room trying to see if she did really mean 'anywhere'.... and for the record, she did XD

Finally when everyone realised that were coming to close to have no money at all, those girls were aggressive as hell. We headed home, a nice trip on the bus... unfortunatly it's been quite awhile since I got the night bus back from Liverpool Street I used my wonderful navigational skills (for those of you that have wandered around with me no how great I am with directions) to get us back, which only took a few hours :S

All in all, it was a great day and a night, a little different to the usual meet ups, but different is always good. So it's just a matter of time for the next meet up, at the mo I know there's a Hello!Online meetup this month which in London which a few of us are going along to and there's talk about a big Wota gathering heading down to Alton Towers (or somewhere), so if you're in the UK get involved! It's always good family fun!

TAGS [ Fan Meetup Stuff ]
Posted Thursday, 4th February 2010 13:42 | 192 Reads | Leave a Comment

Hangry & Angry Live In Your Bedroom

Friday, 29th January 2010 12:47 | 13 Comments

Can't make it over to Shibuya O-EAST on Saturday? Well don't worry you can still catch a bit of Hangry & Angry's LIVE CIRCUIT 2010 "Sadistic Dance".
The opening and first couple of songs will be streamed live over the internet both on :::Dohhh Up!::: and CrunchyRoll, apparently they'll also be a live backstage broadcast on Stickcam where we can all chat and show our support.
It's all kicking off at 2am PST which by my calculations (and be warned I'm never sure when it comes to work out time differences) is 10am GMT, wooop no staying up late for me!! A bit of Hangry & Angry whilst I much on a tasty bacon sandwich and slurp a cup of tea :)

Finally, I see the point of H!P working with CrunchyRoll, the whole we'll show PVs... and then not updating was just a total dissapointment :S
It's really great to see that Yossie and Rika are again pushing the way for internation fans to experience their performances, fingers crossed if this is a success (and how could it not be?) we'll start seeing more streams of concerts, I can only hope. Especially if they show at an awesome time like 10am, no staying up late and if it's done on a week day I'd finally have something worth doing in work.

TAGS [ Hangry and Angry ]
Posted Friday, 29th January 2010 12:47 | 346 Reads | Leave a Comment

H!P vs AKB

Monday, 25th January 2010 14:36 | 34 Comments

"I love Morning Musume, I know nothing about AKB, I'm eating a sandwich"

- the H!P vs AKB post I'd started writing as abbreviated by Matt_D, I think it says it all XD

TAGS [ Hello!Project ]
Posted Monday, 25th January 2010 14:36 | 648 Reads | Leave a Comment

Hello!StoreUSA Purchases

Tuesday, 19th January 2010 23:59 | 5 Comments

I've had these sitting on my side for some time now, but I've just not had the time to write up a post... that and again I've lost my camera, so apologise for the poor photos as I've had to resort to my phone.

This is the latest lot of purchases from HelloStoreUSA. Taking advantage of the pre-ordering that was available before Christmas I ordered a selectiogn of photoss and a Everyday Zekkocho!! tshirt.
With the photos I decided that I need to focus on members that I love but I just don't enough merchandise of. Chinami, Hagiity and Ayaya, all members that I just can't get enough of, but I don't think with any of them I have more than 8 photos of each. My lack of merchandise for Ayaya still shocks me, but with her latest DVD turning up in the post yesterday (well, I say turn up... I had to drive to the post depot after they delayed it for 2 weeks and pay them additonal £20 in tax and handling for the pleasure) my collection of her concerts is now building up, next on the list is to hunt down her PBs. Chinami, another member where I really need to grab her PB, but until then I'm going to work on building up my photos. She looks so amazing in these photos, much like Chisato it's great to see her grow out that boyish look she once had, she's just so stunning now. Haggity, or bobble head as quite a few people I have on MSN are calling her XD this girl is so cute, oddly aside from the group series of photos all the photos of Maimai are this larger size, not that I'm complaining :D

Lastly, because it's been awhile a Morning Musume photo set from the Nine Smile concert. I really love this photoset, I love the outfits so bright!! And metalic-ness of the photos adds an odd something to them. My last photoset with Koharu in them :'(


Also, last week I received a slightly odd present. I say odd mainly because it was unexpected, getting a phone call at lunch saying that I'd got a lunchbox in the post had me a little confused. Thinking about it I could only presume that it was the new Hangry and Angry album, the only problem was... I hadn't ordered it yet XD
Turns out it was a little Xmas present from the guys at JapanFiles. So, thanks guys for an awesome gift!! And a late Happy Xmas!!
Much like the first mini album release, the limited edition verison comes in a tin lunchbox, the added bonus aside from the packaging is a DVD containing the PVs for both Kill Me Miss me and Sadistic Dance. I've yet to watch the DVD but I'm presuming it's going to be just the two version of the PVs, which is a little bit of a let down, I'd of much prefered another luggage tag ;) seeing as these weren't available elsewhere it's all good. And for packaging alone, the limited version still kicks arse over most of the other H!P releases.


Also, if you're not yet following Hangry & Angry on Twitter you can here here, don't forget to wish Rika a (belated) Happy Birthday and don't forget to "retweet the video for 'Sadistic Dance' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwHLlfkYSWM.

TAGS [ C-ute Hangry and Angry HelloStoreUSA ]
Posted Tuesday, 19th January 2010 23:59 | 266 Reads | Leave a Comment

Harajuku H!P Store to Shut

Tuesday, 12th January 2010 14:51 | 6 Comments

Ngh!! WTF!!
So, just scrolling through my tweets when I came across one from Hello-Online, "the H!P Shop in Harajuku will merge with Shibuya 109 store, March 1st. The Harajuku store shuts down on Feb.28th, @ 7pm", DAMN!

The news that any of any of the official Hello Project stores were to be closed would be a sad and slightly worrying thing, but for me the news that the Harajuku store is to close makes it that extra bit worse. Out of all the stores that I've been to; Harajuku, Shibuya and Ueno, my favourite out of all of them was the Harajuku store, there's just something about it.
This was the store where Chris and his girlfriend ventured into to buy me some H!P gifts and came with an amusing little story (Holiday Horror for Non H!P Fans) and Chris's photo infront of the store even got Chris from JPopCovers to take a similar photo of his wife Sandra infront of it (A Couple of H!P Gifts) so it holds that extra value as I associate with some good friends.
It's also the first store that I ever went into, and going into your first H!P store is quite the experience, being surrounded by so much merchandise, walls and walls of photos, never had I been into a shop where I literally wanted to buy everything.

Harajuku is a place within Tokyo that I love as well. I love the variety that you see there, with their being so many fashion shops around you get to see some clothes and a great mix of styles (plus some amazingly hot girls) but going down on a Sunday you also get to experience the people hanging out on the bridge inbetween Harajuku and Yoyogi Park in their Lolita style outfits (Gothic Lolita ruleZ!) mixed with all the older people going to the Meiji Shrine dressed up in the more tradional kimonos. It's a really nice to place be.

Admitedly, as a store the Shibuya branch is quite possibly better. Located in the basement of the 109 building, it has a lot more space and even a little museum type area where you can go in and see outfits (prett much like you can outside the Harajuku store), photos and written messages from members of H!P. The merging of the two is something that I'm a little confused about, do they simply mean that by mergin they'll just pass all the current stock over from one shop to the other? I'm a little unsure as to whether the store carries specific merchandise but even if that's the case surely there's not enough to say that the stores will be mergin? Even when it comes to staff, there's only so many people you can have behind their counters, so presumably they can't be keeping all the staff too?
If the shop were to expand, then they'd have to lose the museum bit which although probably slightly pointless if you're a regular visitor to the store, is a nice touch for us fans as it's always fun to see.

My personal feelings aside, there's also the point of why is it closing? Well, when a shop shuts and joins with another there's generally only one reason, they don't have enough money to run them both, which is quite worrying. Sure the stores are within walking distance from each other (although I'm sure getting the train is the more sensible option) but the fact that it's closing down... I guess people are spendig as much as they used to, what with the recession and everything? Or perhaps, it's slightly more worrying than that, people are spending as much because they aren't liking Hello!Project as much?

What ever the reasons, I'm genuinely gutted that this store is closing, I spent far too much money in that shop, good times :'(
(For more info and photos on the stores check out this post, H!P Official Stores in Tokyo)

TAGS [ Hello!Project Stuff ]
Posted Tuesday, 12th January 2010 14:51 | 475 Reads | Leave a Comment

Going On! Full PV

Monday, 11th January 2010 15:22 | 4 Comments

Sublty over in your face randomness, that I think is the real debate I have with the PV.
My first watch of the Going On! had me pausing after watching the first 12 seconds, mainly because :::Dohhh! Up::: was being it's usual slowish self, but also because the little that I'd of seen had me very excitied. A room, with the girls in being filmed, directed and (I'm guessing) styled by the Lion Production company, which conists of a lion in a bowler hat, a green elephant and a purple mouse. There was the instant reminder of my teenage years watching the ever so slightly trippy Banana Split show (I actually can't believe I haven't sang the Tra La La song at any of the karaoke meet ups :S but, there's always the next one!!) as Lion (I'm guessing that's what he's called seeing as the elephant is called Elephant) reminds me a hell of a lot of Drooper, well minus whatever Drooper used to take before the show :P
This association in my head then lead me down a trail of how I thought the PV was going to play out, with these characters filming the PV I thought to myself that we're going to see some amusing incidents with them involved, something a littlw wacky, something out there, ultimately something amusing. Unfortunatly rather than like most of their other animal suit counter parts, Lion PR is really quite professional. At no point do any of them fall over, walk into walls, skip over their tails or do anything remotely stupid, Elephant does a fine job behind the camera, whilst Lion and Mouse enjoy the performance bopping along throughout. Which in mind at least raises the question, what is their purpose?
Sure, the subtly of it is good I suppose, I enjoyed the roar at the start and at the end, albeit not that much, it gives that 'different' feel which I find all of their previous PVs have had, but ultimately it just feels a little lazy. If you remove these characters from the PV you don't lose anything it's still the same PV, whereas with their others if you remove the non dance clips you lose a lot of the fun.
It just seems a little strange to include them and then don't use them in a way that's not only entertaining but that doesn't add anything of any real value, here's no personailty with any of these characters, there's no real reason to have them there.

But, as the clapper board says this is the Dance Version, so perhaps this is the finished versoin Lion PR released (haha, I love how I'm thinking that Lion PR is actually real and they actually made this) and we'll see other versions where the characters play more of a roll? If that is the case then I have no complaints, I see the purpose and it's actually quite an amusing idea, I guess I'll have to wait and see what if any other versions are made available.

Giant coloured animals aside, the PV much like the song is very Guardians 4, the dance routines and positionings, the group singing everything fits into their usual style perfectly and I can't really complain about it, as a unit I love them and any excuse to see more of Nakki, Mittsi, Risako and Yurina is a good in my opinion. The colour of their outfits this time around has got me on the fence, I love the brightness of them and they do look great them, but bright yellow tartan? It just somehow doesn't feel right, but then what do I know about tarten?



CD Release Date : 20 - 01 - 2010    DVD Release Date : 03 - 02 - 2010

Much like the covers for Buono! the covers for the Guardians 4 releases are always something that I enjoy, the girls always just look great plus there's that fun feel to it. As to whether I put an order in for this release I haven't quite decided, I need to try and save some money and with the exchange rate still being fairly crappy, £6 for the regular release and £10 for the limited release (and that's not taking into consideration shipping) it seems a little much, especially when there's albums and DVDs being released that I've got my eyes on.

Guardians 4 - Going On! (Regular CD)


Guardians 4 - Going On! (Limited CD + DVD)


Guardians 4 - Going On! (Single V)


TAGS [ Guardians 4 PV ]
Posted Monday, 11th January 2010 15:22 | 275 Reads | Leave a Comment

Hello!Project Winter 2010 Concert Review

Saturday, 9th January 2010 22:11 | 9 Comments

Matt_D and Lampshade living the life of Maid Cafe's and H!P concerts for the past few weeks (and just generally being in Tokyo, you pair of buggers!), when Liz emailed a few weeks ago saying that she was going to pop along to a concert and that she "dared" me to come along, well who wouldn't be tempted?
The plan was simple, find a cheap flight, fly over for the weekend, not worrying about a hotel and just crashing somewhere. Yes, as ever my planning sucked, but where would the fun be if I plan these things properly, both LA and France were poorly planned by myself and through shear luck more than anything else (well, I have to thank jyuro for planning LA otherwise I'd of spent the trip with a blanket and the same clothes on like that random guy I met whilst out drinking one night) have turned out to be amazingly fun trips.
Popping out to Japan for what would have essentially been a concert isn't something new for me, well at least the attempting to isn't, the actual getting out there has always been my problem. My previous attempt was quickly halted by my girlfriend at the time, who managed to convince me that the idea was just plain silly... looking back on it what did she know?

This time around with no one to stop me (although Chris did attempt to talk some sense in to me) I hunted for flights and actually managed to find an indirect flight with the worlds most obscure airline for £200 minus taxes, but after talking to the travel agent about it I couldn't get in touch with them again through out the Christmas break or even to the run up to New Year, so that was that and I spent New Years getting drunk in Shoreditch with a nice pirate hat on!!
But, that didn't stop Matt, Lampshade and Liz all meeting up at the concert and having a good time, Liz says "damn you Matt and Lampshade" I say "damn you Lizzie, Matt and Lampshade!" ;P
Liz kindly said she'd write up her thoughts of the concert, and here it is. Thanks Liz!! --


The last time I went to an HP concert was in summer of 2008, when I bought a ticket on a whim and was totally put off. I returned to my dorm afterwards, did some research, became a fan, which brings me to my review of the Hello! Project Concert Winter 2010 Mobekimasu concert.

I bought my ticket for the 3:00pm show at the Harajuku store that sells tickets to idol concerts. I got mine for 5000 yen, right in the middle of the theater and a bit to the right. I got to the theater around 1pm since I didn't want to wait on line for the merchandise booth. I got my MO red concert t-shirt and 2 green glow sticks for gakki pride. I met up with Matt and Lampshade at 1:30pm, and became jealous of their awesome seats. (T^T) We entered at 2pm, and I was dumb enough to say I had a camera so it was confiscated... whatever. I changed into my concert shirt, and it began.

1. Bonkyu Bonkyu BOMB GIRL / All
The curtain went up with the girls posing on the stairs. I was immediately struck with how damn sparkly their costumes were! The gold and red were great. Gaki-san has indeed cut her hair in a bob, and she looked so amazing. She has got just terrific stage presence, so I've never understood why Tsunku doesn't favor her more. She got a few solo lines in this song, which was nice.

2. Jingisukan / All
One tiny little egg stood out for me in this song. She's by far the littlest one, so someone help me with her name (--;;;;). The eggs were wearing pink t-shirts and dark blue skirts. One was wearing glasses, I guess she's the token megane-chan lol. The crowd really got into this number. They turned the lights on in the audience for the "WA HA HA HA" parts.

Intro
The intro sucked, it was like a little kid drew it. MM got the loudest cheers with BK in second. S/mileage got a decent sized cheer too, which surprised me since they are brand new. It must be so exciting for them to FINALLY not be eggs any more!

MC
They did a role call of the audience. The second floor was just scattered yelling. Then they asked how the female members of the audience were, and I screamed as loud as I could! There weren't many of us though lol, maybe 20 or so?

3. Sukichan / S/mileage
The costumes were boring black and white, and very short skirts (O__o;;). This group is ADORABLE, every member is cute as a button! Kanon is my favorite, but only because she looks like Kago Ai. Despite this group's super super cuteness, it's srsly like listening to chipmunks singing, painful. I look forward to when their voices drop an octave or two, but until then, I just can't, I can't do it.

4. LOVE&PEACE = Paradise / Mano Erina
She wore a big feathery dress. The guys on either side of me were clearly Mano fans because they went crazy, which meant every time they bumped into me my elbows were covered in sweat. So gross.... S/mileage did her backup dancing, and they were honestly more fun to watch than Mano. I like the song though, and Mano sang live so that was nice.

5. Lucky Aura / Mano Erina
Poor Mano kind of warbled a lot at the beginning, like straight up warbling. She laughed it off though, this is the risk you take by singing live.

MC
This MC was with MM. Makoto congratulated her on doing so well on the tarento shows, and she said she's made 2 or 3 enemies lol! Eri said something to offen Gaki, which was funny.

6. SHOCK / C-ute
This is just like Furusato except Airi is Nacchi and Furusato is actually a good song. I was so annoyed watching this. The costumes were the same as the PV, except more glittery.

7. EVERYDAY Zekkochou!! / C-ute
I can't remember anything about this performance, which is how I feel about the single lol so I'm sensing a trend. I would have LOVED to see them do Bye Bye Bye. The guy behind me kept screaming "BYE BYE BYE ERIKA" whenever it got quiet.

8. Tokaikko Junjou / C-ute
This song was SEXY! Our little girls are growing up (T^T) The wotagei for this song is self explanatory, so I got into it.

9. Otakebi Boy WAO! / Berryz Kobo
They were wearing these horrible pink camo costumes with ginormous head bows. Inexplicably, they also had silver bags in the shape of guns on their hips, I was like, wtf? But their energy was great, and I love me some BK! Everyone looked really great, especially Risa I've got to say. The "OH WA-O-WAAAAA-OOOO"s were fun.

10. HAPPY! Stand Up / Berryz Kobo
This song is so much fun! I loved this, it's one to look out for on the DVD.

11. Rival / Berryz Kobo
Meh rival. The air guitar playing was cute. The audience LOVED the "go go fight"s.

MC - Berryz Kobo
They did a photo attack, with Risa making a cutesy sad face and Chinami making a yakuza face lol.

12. Manopiano / Mano Erina
Omg, what a buzzkill this song was. She looked so pretty in her yellow dress, and it's always nice to see Piano-kun, but damn. It was, I hate to use this word, boring.

13. Otona ni Narutte Katashi / S/mileage (new single)
They changed into really cute black and purple costumes, these I actually liked a lot. Adorable as before, but too high pitched.

14. Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai / Morning Musume
The girls came out in giant white costumes with enormous white bows and hats. From where I was sitting, it looked like they had been splattered in blood (O__O) but it was strategically placed red flowers. Jun Jun looked really really pretty! Lin Lin's hair is darker now. Everyone else is the same I think.
The new single is... okay. I like parts of it, but the dance routine was so-so, everything was just so-so. Typical distribution of lines as far as I remember, since Reina and Ai had a lot of singing parts.

15. Subete wa Ai no Chikara / Morning Musume
I LOVED this. I had never heard the song before, but it's been on repeat for the past few hours on my computer lol. They put dark pink clouds racing past on the screens instead of video of the girls, which contributed to the cool vibe of the song. In the instrumental break, they did a staggered robot motion by lining up on the stairs. You could really hear the bass line in the theater too. It's not the most energetic song, but please look forward to watching this on the DVD, I can't stress enough how much I loved it.

16. Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii jan / Morning Musume
LOVE THIS SONG, the crowd was really into it. I wish they would do more old songs, there's nothing quite like the old discography. I went a bit crazy, this is one of my top MM songs! The energy of the girls was awesome!

17. Kimagure Princess / Morning Musume
I'm not really a fan of this song, but I had fun. That's all I remember. Side note, as I left the theater, a girl in a full Eri Kimagure Princess cosplay walked by, a PERFECT cosplay! Everyone turned their heads as she walked by and were like, "MAJI DE???" So I thought of the Happy 7 Utaban performance lol!

MC - Mano Erina, S/mileage
They talked about their joint tour in a few months, and went down the line to answers some questions. Kanon's got a lot of laughs, she's got Kago's funny side too XD

18. Medley / All
Everyone changed into different costumes. Everyone knew the wotagei for these songs, each got about 30 seconds. Aika stood out for me throughout in this, Risa too.

19. Seishun Song / C-ute
What a fun song! The audience sang along with them.

20. Ryuusei Boy / Berryz Kobo
I went a bit crazy for this song lol! I just love this song. The audience did the dance with them, if that counts as wotagei? Fun fun fun.

21. Souda! We're ALIVE / Morning Musume
I also went crazy for this, I adore this song, great call-response opportunities.

22. Aozora ga Itsumademo Tsuzuku You na Mirai de Are! / All
S/mileage was in lime green sparkly costumes, loved the color. C-ute was orangey, BK was silver, and MM was blue with light blue fabric accents. No encoru, but I left feeling satisfied.

When I went to pick up my camera, I walked through hallways of guys changing their t-shirts. The pale, paunchy skin nearly blinded me, DON'T DO THAT IN PUBLIC GUYS!! bmsvunainlafd....

I had a great time overall. The guys next to me were fine seat mates, although the one to my left spent more of his time reading the wotagei he had written down than actually doing it! I love my t-shirt too (:3) I think that if you go to an HP concert, it's worth investing in going to the front of the theater, because it must feel more "real" if that makes any sense. If I weren't an impoverished student, I would have done that, so damn you Matt and Lampshade, damn you!


TAGS [ Hello!Project Stuff ]
Posted Saturday, 9th January 2010 22:11 | 453 Reads | Leave a Comment

JunJun's 22nd Birthday Project

Wednesday, 6th January 2010 23:55 | 6 Comments

Awhile ago I was asked by Thonkz to help promote JunJun's 22nd Birthday Project (the link to the site is http://chuki0211.bbs.fc2.com/ and instructions on the form can be found at Erien #1223), I've been really lazy as you can probably tell by the lack of recent posts, but finally I'm linking so that any fans wanting to wish JunJun a happy 22nd birthday and aren't aware of this site can do so.

Now, to be completely honest I'm not a JunJun fan, well I'm not, not a JunJun fan, I like her and all I just miss her appeal that it would appear a lot of others see, I look at her and just think Romford :S
For me, the only time I've ever really showed a passing interest in JunJun was in the Morning Musume Alo-Hello! 3 DVD, for fairly obvious reason...she has great boobs XD
But, although I'm a huge fan of a great pair I do like a little bit more and at the moment I don't quite see it. So, just throwing this out there and seeing if anyone want's to help me see what I'm missing, I'll gratiously study any links posted XD

TAGS [ JunJun ]
Posted Wednesday, 6th January 2010 23:55 | 444 Reads | Leave a Comment

Happy New Year

Friday, 1st January 2010 22:12 | 18 Comments

Having spent the night with a little too much to drink and getting back in the early hours of the morning I'm sure every one I sent a text to wish a Happy New Year thoughly enjoyed being woken up around 5ish to read their little message, going through my contacts I thought seeing it as was New Year's, I'd send messages out to all the H!P fans I've met abroad and have numbers for... lol I've no idea about time zones so who knows whether I woke them up as well, but on the other hand it's New Year! You should all be up celebrating ;P

To everyone else, I hope you all had a great start to your New Year! And to celebrate it :::Dohhh Up!::: have uploaded a clip of Hangry & Angry counting down the start to a New Year!



This year for me has been really enjoyable and certainly one that I'm not going to be forgetting anytime soon. I managed to see both Morning Musume and Hangry and Angry in concert, which was just mind blowing. I never actually thought I'd get to see a H!P artist outside of Japan but to see both and in the same year... well all I can say is thankyou to UFA for recognising that there are fans in both the States and Europe and for catering for us, also if they feel like attempting to bring Buono! back to Europe then I'm definetly up for a trip to see them!
I know I keep saying this when ever I talk about these Western performances, but aside from the obvious greatness of catching the girls first hand there's the meeting up with the other fans, it's been amazing to be able to spend time with all of you guys enjoying something we all love so much and I really hope that in the coming year we'll all be able to do it again and catch up some time. Closer to home I've managed to meet up with some great H!P fans and spent some interesting weekends with them generally having a little bit too much to drink, I'm sure you've all seen the posts I've made about our meet ups (although I imagine most of you have done the sensible thing and avoided listening to our attempts at karaoke) and hopefully in the coming year we'll see more UK fans coming down and joining in!

This year has also been a fairly amazing for releases. For me the most exciting thing is the debut PB releases for the C-ute and Berryz members. It had gotten to the stage where I was beginning to think that we wouldn't actually get to see releases for certain members, but with the likes of Chinami, Hagitty and Nakki getting them my hopes have returned that we'll see releases for some of the other members too. Roll on PBs for LinLin, Aika and Chisato!

It's also been a great year for singles. Well, with the possible exception of Morning Musume. I know a lot of people are fans of their releases this year but for me this has been probably the least exciting year for their music. But (and yes there is a but) the fact that they've released more than the whopping 2 singles they did in 2008 is a sign to me that they're not being over shadow by the younger units, I'd much rather have single releases I wasn't totally keen on then minimal releases.
For me the year much like last has been about the Berryz Koubou and C-ute, both having some really amazing releases. As much as I love C-ute (they are my current favourite unit) I think 2009 has been all about Berryz, I only need to look back at their previous couple of double a-side releases to see how great they're been this year, with quality PVs and songs to match.
Berryz have also provided me with the funniest Hello!Project moment this year as well, with their Alo-Hello! release and the wanted fugitive asking for smokes! I've seent he clips online for quite sometime but only actually managed to watch the full DVD a couple of nights ago and the whole setup and reactions to this whole part of the DVD is great. Who could belive that UFA could be so mean, but damn it I'm glad they are :)

Obviously the year has had it's downers to, and it would seem that if I'm a fan of you then chances are you may be leaving soon. C-ute took the biggest hit with both Kanna and Erika leaving. And then there's the recent graduation of Koharu from Morning Musume. But as ever no group is just one member (well... perhaps that's not the case with C-ute :S) and as sad as it is too see someone you like leave, especially if they're you're fave within that unit, it leaves you open for oppurtunity to go and explore the rest of the members, which is always a good thing and although they won't be forgotten they've already been replaced with other members. 2010 is the year of LinLin, FACT!!

CDJapan has their Top 100 Sellers up for 2010 (full listing for all the charts can be found here) and I always enjoy looking through these and seeing H!P fair against everyone else on their.

CDJapan Top 100 JPop CDs (Complete List)

	No. 31 Morning Musume Platinum 9 Disc [Regular Edition]		No. 32 SWEET BLACK feat.MAKI GOTO Sweet Black [CD+DVD] [w/ Booklet, Limited Edition]
	No. 42 Morning Musume Platinum 9 Disc [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]		No. 48 Hangry & Angry Sadistic Dance [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] [w/ Lunchbox]
	No. 49 Hello! Project Chample 1- Happy Marriage Song Cover Shu - [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]		No. 58 Morning Musume Morning Musume. Coupling Collection [Limited Edition]
	No. 62 Buono! Buono! 2 [Regular Edition]		No. 76 Aya Matsuura Omoi Afurete
	No. 93 C-ute Akogare My Star [Regular Edition]		No. 95 Buono! Buono! 2 [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]
	No. 96 Berryz Koubou Berryz Koubou Special Best Vol.1 [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]

It's great to see that there's so much H!P related artists in the Top 100 JPop CDs, with almost double the amount that appeared last year (Top 100 Sales According to CDJapan) and out of all of them I'm most happy about seeing Hangry & Angry in there. I don't know I just on occasion feel that they don't get as much support as they should, but then I love this unit so I'm slightly biased.

CDJapan Top 100 JPop DVDs (Complete List)

	No. 18 Morning Musume Morning Musume Concert Tour 2009 Haru - Platinum 9 Disco -		No. 24 Morning Musume Sweet Black [CD+DVD] [w/ Booklet, Limited Edition]
	No. 25 Morning Musume The Morning Musume 5 -Single M Clips-		No. 27 Hello! Project Hello! Project 2009 Winter Wonderful Hearts Koen - Kakumei Gannen - / Elder Club Koen - Thank you for your LOVE! -
	No. 29 Hello! Project Hello! Project 2009 Winter Kettei! Halo Pro Award 09' - Elder Club Sotsugyo Kinen Special - [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]		No. 31 Morning Musume Shingle V "Shoganai Yumeoibito"
	No. 34 Hello Project Hello! Project 2009 Summer Kakumei Gannen - Hello! Chanpuru -		No. 37 Morning Musume Single V "Kimagure Princess"
	No. 38 Morning Musume Single V "Naichau Kamo"		No. 42 Buono! Take It Easy!
	No. 43 Buono! Live 2009 Hybrid Punch		No. 51 Buono! Single Video "My Boy"
	No. 56 Berryz Koubou Berryz Kobo Concert Tour 2009 Haru - Sono Subete no Ai ni -		No. 57 C-ute Cute Concert Tour 2009 Spring -ABC-
	No. 59 Berryz Koubou Single V "Dakishimete Dakishimete"		No. 63 Buono! Single V: co. no. mi. chi
	No. 70 C-ute Music V Tokushu (2) Cutie Visual		No. 73 Guardians 4 Single Video "School Days"
	No. 75 Sayumi Michishige 20's Time		No. 76 Berryz Koubou Single V: Seishun Bus Guide
	No. 77 Erina Mano Manoguam		No. 80 Berryz Koubou Single V "Ryusei Boy"
	No. 81 Erina Mano Sinle V "Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo"		No. 83 Erina Mano Single V "Sekai wa Summer Party"
	No. 84 Berryz Koubou Single Video "Rival"		No. 85 Ai Takahashi I
	No. 86 Erina Mano Single V "Hajimete no Keiken"		No. 89 Koharu Kusumi Single Video "Hapi Hapi Sunday!"
	No. 92 C-ute Single V "Shochu Omimai Moshiagemasu"		No. 93 Erina Mano Single Video "Hapi Hapi Sunday!"
	No. 94 C-ute Single V "Shochu Omimai Moshiagemasu		No. 95 Berryz Koubou Berryz Koubou Alo-Hello!
	No. 96 Guardians 4 Omakase Guardian		No. 97 C-ute Single Video "Bye Bye Bye!"
	No. 98 Aya Matsuura Single V "Chocolate Damashi"		No. 99 C-ute Cute Cutie Circuit 2009 - 9gastu 10ka wa Cute no Hi-

Again, there's an increase in the amount of H!P DVDs in the Top 100 JPop DVDs, but no where near as much. But impressively H!P does account for over a quarter of this chart. And pratically dominating the last 20, and I'm actually shocked by how much Mano is in there. Sayumi is again at the top of the solo DVD list, with Mano and Aichan behind her. I'm really surprised about this, no matter how much I love Sayu when it comes to a DVD of a member of Morning Musume that involves a bikini I'd probably go for Aichan every time!

Look through this list upsets me a little, it upsets because I realise how many of these DVDs I don't own and haven't watched. And this rolls onto my New Years resolution, to be better with money. I really need to start being a little bit better with my money this year and making sure I have the cash and am aware (there's the odd concert DVD that I've just totally not realised had come out) of when concerts are coming out. For me the live perforances are the things I enjoy the most, you can't beat lounging around with a beer and H!P concert on!

TAGS [ Stuff ]
Posted Friday, 1st January 2010 22:12 | 567 Reads | Leave a Comment

Happy X'Mas

Saturday, 26th December 2009 03:59 | 10 Comments

A very short and slightly late post (considering it's now Boxing Day) but Happy XMas!!!

To give the post that H!Pness it needs, here's a short little message from Hangry & Angry made available by the lovely people who are pushing them in Europe, Gan-Shin.


It's always amusing when any of the H!P girls talk english, it's just one of them enjoyable moments where you can sit back and have a little giggle at accents and in particular moments like this where it's actually been done to engage with an English speaking audience (although interestingly Gan-Shin is a German company) a sense of happiness that the effort has been put in for us.

I really enjoy the awkwardness of this video, I especially love Yossie first message which I can only make out as "Celebrate it with you love it once", I know what she's meant to be saying but LOL! Luckily this has been edited together a lot better than their previous English message (I would post a link but I seem to have lost it) where after the message they just kind of sat there and looked really uncomfortable for a good few seconds before the clip ended.

It's great to see that Hangry & Angry are still being pushed to a Western audience, but what interests me more is that this appearing on Gan-Shin rather than on the JapanFiles website, could this be an indication that they'll be returning to Europe again before they go to America? I'm hoping this might be the case, I still want them to appear in the States, I'm dying for an excuse to meet back up with all the fans I met at AX (and the non-Europeans I met at Chibi Japan), but it's a lot easier (and cheaper) for me to travel around Europe than it is to go to the States... lol, although I think the coach ride to France took about the same time as it took me to fly to LA :S But the US has already had both Morning Musume and Hangry & Angry, whilst Europe have only had the latter and a cancelled Buono! concert, we need something to even things out a little bit :D
I'm still presuming that with Gan-Shin being a German company and the site itself saying they are "working hard to bring this unique duo to germany", that the next European appearance they make will be in Germany. I need to start having a look to see when the next expo is happening there, I'm guessing they won't break from the current trend of appearing at these.

TAGS [ Hangry and Angry ]
Posted Saturday, 26th December 2009 03:59 | 349 Reads | Leave a Comment

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