Following the graduation of Ai-chan, つんく♂ has decided to add more girls to his famed group, モーニング娘。. I find that a little fast since the 9th generation members have barely blended in with the other members, but I guess つんく♂ couldn’t bear seeing モーニング娘。 become a smaller 8-member group compared to rival AKB48. Of the 9th generation members, I think only Erina has managed to blend in well and beginning to look like a star. Despite everyone cooing over talented Riho, I think she’s only so-so. Yes, she does look cute and has the best singing voice among the 9th generation members, but in terms of star appeal…nope, not quite there yet. Perhaps Kanon’s redeeming factor for now is her cheerful nature and the ability to make people laugh. I’m sorry to say this but Mizuki is the only one who doesn’t look like she fits in. Don’t care whether she had some experience as a Hello! Pro Egg, she just doesn’t fit in.

But who knows? Things might change in the future like how Berryz工房 changed. Risako started out being cute as a button, but now she just looks like another pretty girl — nothing too wonderful. In fact, Miyabi has grown up to be the pretty girl with the star appeal instead. Even captain Saki is beginning to bloom and draw more attention. Oh, but I’ve digressed.

Presenting the 10th generation members of モーニング娘。:

Kudou Haruka (11), Satou Masaki (12), Ishida Ayumi (14), Iikubo Haruna (16)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ9z4m6i6zk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6-78W1Olw

 
Of the new members, I think Haruna has a good chance of standing out like ex-C-ute member, Erika — not so much of singing talent, but of height and beauty. Haruka looks promising too being a little cutesy girl. Masaki needs a bit of an image change, but I’m sure it’ll come in time. Ayumi looks odd, but she seems rather enthusiastic when singing and dancing. Just hope she doesn’t turn out to be like Koharu — trying hard to gain attention to the point of being rather annoying.

Those who didn’t make it need not despair. There’s still a chance with rival AKB48 and judging by their popularity now (seems to have surpassed モーニング娘。), all’s not lost.

Oh hey! Isn’t that Satou Sumire and Kashiwagi Yuki? Both seemed pretty good during their 8th generation モーニング娘。 auditions so I have no idea why つんく♂ didn’t choose them. While both have managed to secure places in AKB48, I think they would have fared much better in popularity if they were in モーニング娘。 simply because it’s a much smaller group, but I guess they are happy where they are now. I mean, there are pros and cons. They get an older sexy girlfriend image in AKB48 rather than モーニング娘。‘s young girl image. And Yukirin is captain of Team B in AKB48.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBvOWCMoWvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nvCuVgGtgI

A bit of an overdued post, but here’s my two cent’s worth of the SCANDAL concert…

It began with a bit of chaos with the queue. Sis, Jie Yu and I arrived at 1.45pm to join the unofficial queue outside the theatre at LASALLE. Yes, it was an unofficial queue thanks to a note right where the entrance to the theatre was that said no queue was to form before 3pm. But hey, Singaporeans are Singaporeans and we will queue when needed no matter what. There was a “chunk” of people in the middle — read: fan club forum, SCANDAL Heaven — but that didn’t bother us too much. There were a few people not in the queue and standing at the side which kind of irked us, but we still kept our cool. After all, we were armed and prepared with boxes of food, mats, and Monopoly Deal.

At about 3pm, a security guard came to tell the us that if we all cooperated and formed a proper queue (sans chunks of humans), he would let us into the theatre at 4pm. What happened next was annoying. People who were not in the queue took the chance to shove themselves into the haphazard “queue” while others who were right at the back took the chance to close the distance between themselves and the entrance. In other words, it was their unspoken cue to cut the queue. We found ourselves pushed right to the back of the queue. No, we were not about to give up the few hours of queuing just to find ourselves pushed out of the first 200 people bracket. (Note: the first 200 people who bought merchandise would get a ticket to the meet and greet session after the concert.) To make things worse, 4pm rolled around and there wasn’t a soul in sight to let us into the theatre. I wanted to talk to someone in the organizing team…like NOW. I must say that the event was poorly organized because there wasn’t any official person in sight. Finally when we managed to get hold of someone (think she was a LASALLE staff), that lady bitch wasn’t even the least bit helpful. She answered like she was annoyed that we even complained about the situation and asked for something to be done to improve the situation. She said she would get hold of someone from the organizing team and get back to us, but lo’ and behold, she didn’t even bother to get back to us. We were left standing like idiots right outside the LASALLE office door.

So alright, what do we do now? Some random dude from the front of the queue came to ask us why we were standing in the middle of their queuing party — probably meaning why were we cutting the queue. That was when Sis said that she’ll let out her inner bitch if she had to. Talked to the dude about the situation and finally we came to an agreement that as long as we don’t cut in front of their party, he didn’t care if we cut the queue. And so that was what we did. You know how they say “if you can’t beat em’, join em’.” Shaz and his two friends came later, saw us, and joined us after asking if they could.

After that whole queuing fiasco, we managed to secure front row seats! (Rejoice! Rejoice!) It wasn’t so much of how I could be much nearer to SCANDAL, but more of not having some random tall person block my view. Hell yea, it was good being in the front row. We were at the left of the theatre which gave us the clearest view of Tomomi. I must say that I was a bit lost with the songs they sang because I haven’t kept up much with their songs. Hey, when you’re a full-time student, you spend most of your time studying to earn those As. And although I would have much preferred to be at the right side of the theatre to be closer to Mami, being on Tomomi’s side wasn’t that bad too because she noticed us and threw her pick to us! Her aim wasn’t great as it fell at the barricaded part, but we managed to get the attention of the photographer to retrieve it for us. Oh! Oh! They sang 「瞬間センチメンタル」! And no, I’m not an FMA lover neither did I get started on SCANDAL because of the anime.

We found out later at the meet and greet session that Tomomi was focusing on Jie Yu most of the time because she said 「見えた! 見えた!」 excitedly when Jie Yu shook her hand. Rina commented 「可愛い。」 when she saw my outfit and Mami said the same too! <3 I only managed to blurt a mere 「マミも可愛い。」 before I was hurriedly “pushed” forward by the security guards. It’s true, Mami is cute because she has long natural straight hair and thick dolly bangs that I long for and can never have.

To end off the entry, this was our biggest present from the concert.

This was what I wore to the concert. Same thing I wore for my first J-Net fashion show…

And what would an entry be without some videos. The video that got me started on SCANDAL. Although they cannot replace ZONE, they have their own songs to make them a great girlband of their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtFGnRtr-Iw

My top 3 SCANDAL tunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkz0K1NIff8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mpDLhppveI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOTQ6Bf33tc

Morning Musume is going to release a new single soon and the PV for it is already out. I gotta agree with most that this isn’t one of their best songs. The tune isn’t really catchy. However, their costumes are nice. (Bonus points for being pink.) Don’t quite like the puffy accessory in their hair though.

Who’s missing? Koharu. I’m celebrating this one. I’m sorry, I cannot stand her. Her voice sticks out like a sore thumb. She’s fine as a solo artiste, but I think she just ruins it when she was in Morning Musume. Even Sayu, having the weakest voice blends in even if all she gets to do is just that little sigh thing. If you’re wondering where Koharu went, she quit. She has moved on in her career and would like to go down the modeling path.

My new song on replay mode.

I don’t necessarily like their outfits or hairstyles in this PV…

BUT.

Miyabi, Risako, and Chinami with lined eyes = WIN.

My latest favourite spin. Not as nice as “Dream Fighter,” but will definitely be one of my Perfume favourites. Kashiyuka has nice straight dolly hair~~~

I’m a sucker for ballads. I love Ayu’s new single and the pv for it.

I don’t really like sad endings, so I sort of gasped when I watched the pv. You have to watch it to know why…

I don’t care if she’s 30. She looked so cute when she was excited in the pv.

The first time I listened to a mihimaru GT song was “I Should Be So Lucky”. A remake of Kylie Minogue’s song. 1) I was curious to hear the remake. 2) I have heard people talking of mihimaru GT, but have never listened to their songs. By the way, the song was kinda cute.

The second time I come across another one of their songs was when I went blog hopping and got to Celestine’s sister’s blog. Her sister put “いつまでも響くこのMelody” on her blog. Now, I’m kinda hooked on the song.

Recently, I downloaded a new mihimaru GT pv. I really love the new song. It sounds like one of those meaningful songs.

Enjoy all 3 songs now…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x809Q4NMvXg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do_t09_qtog

I have to say this coz I just can’t stand it anymore…

I just can’t tahan Koharu. Her dancing is like so forced. Maybe for certain energetic songs that kind of dancing would be ok, but not for a remake of an old song. No doubt the song is kinda lively, but hello, you are dancing to a 经典歌曲, I would expect the dancing to be more fluid. Look at Takahashi Ai’s dancing. She does it perfect.

The song I am talking about is Pink Lady’s “ペッパー警部“.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O014_X7WNOQ

For the past few days, I’ve been listening to Ayu’s remix albums. Now, I can safely say Eurobeat is the best. At least it’s easy on the ears. After listening to 3 Ayu-ro-mix albums, it has my stamp of approval to be played in deary’s car. On the other hand, I started listening to the new Ayu-mix albums (Gold & Silver), 3 songs and off to the bin it goes. What a huge contrast ehz.