Review: Juice = Juice – First Squeeze

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I wasn’t planning on even listening to this album, much less reviewing it. While Juice=Juice started off strong with songs like “Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne” and “Romance no Tochuu,” their quality took a bit a of a dip (which, frankly, happens to a lot of Hello!Project groups when they get their major debut).

Juice=Juice is also a group I haven’t paid too much attention to – while I like all the members of Juice=Juice, none of them are idols I consider to be one of my particular favorites that can carry a group even if the music is a little subpar.
So, it was a huge surprise when a friend recommended First Squeeze and told me I had to listen to it. I got the album on iTunes (all the songs I didn’t already have, anyway) and it was an almost revelatory experience. It was almost like a cheesy movie, where I had this realization that maybe, just maybe, Juice=Juice is the strongest group in Hello!Project right now, at least musically. I’ve liked quite a bit of their previous output, but it took First Squeeze to really make me appreciate how strong Juice=Juice is as a group.
Disc 1 – The Best Juice
1. Ten Made Nobore
I always forget this song is considered to be a Juice = Juice single – the Hello!Project Kenshuusei version is more memorable. And for good reason – this type of upbeat anthem song really fits a large group singing it over a group of five girls. That’s not to say the Juice=Juice version is bad – it does fit as the opening track. It’s light-hearted, happy, and a pleasant song. It’s just even less memorable with a smaller group of girls singing it. I enjoy the brass instrumentation, and in general it’s a pleasant listen, but it’s not Juice=Juice’s best. 6/10
2. Romance no Tochuu
Recent H!P groups have had some really strong major debuts, and Juice=Juice’s Romance no Tochuu is quite a great major debut. It has a lot of punch to it – it has a catchy melody but a really funky feel to it. The song has a great back and forth between all the members, and works really well for the group. The sound mixing in particular sounds superb in the chorus – the starting lines of the choruses, “Aishiteru wa to yue!” sounds particularly good. My biggest complaint is that occasionally the instrumentation of the verses sounds a little bit empty. There are some great horn sounds and the outstanding bass solo and those could have been utilized a tad better in the verses – the bass is still there, for example, but not doing much of anything interesting. That’s only a small complaint, though, because ultimately Romance no Tochuu is an excellent pop song and one I’ve come back to again and again. 9/10
3. Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya Ne (Memorial Edit)
Oh man, what a way to start a group. It’s hard to put into words just how much I love this song.
First off, the saxophone. This is surprisingly divisive as I know people who just hate the solo sax here. However, I absolutely love the saxophone in this song. It’s such a catchy and fun riff that adds a fun flavor to this song.
This is a surprisingly mature song for a group to debut with, but the Juice=Juice girls all manage to pull it off. There’s a bit of darkness to this song in the backing track but somehow they make it work.
As for the memorial edit it mostly just messes around with the instrumentation a bit and removes Otsuka Aina’s vocals. However, it still works just as well as the original song.
This is pretty much a perfect Hello!Project song.
10/10
4. Samidare Bijo ga Samidareru
Confession – I can’t really compare this to the original song because I barely listened to it when it came out. However that was a mistake because Samidare Bijo ga Samidareru is a great song with a ton of energy and a lot of flair to it. It’s also one of the more catchy Juice=Juice songs – after getting this album I know I’ve sat around my apartment belting out the chorus because it’s just in my head again. The verses aren’t quite as strong as the chorus, but they do a great job of building tension before the chorus comes in.
This is another song with a lot of great brass sound to it, especially the brass that starts out the song. This is the sound that defined most of early Ju=Ju, and rightly so – it sounds fantastic.
Samidare Bijo’s biggest weakness is its placement in the Juice=Juice discography. It’s an excellent song in its own right, but doesn’t quite hold up to Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya Ne or Romance no Tochuu. That shouldn’t be the thing to hold against it, but that does unfortunately mean that it’s not quite as fondly remembered of a song as the others. 8/10
5. Ijiwaru Shinaide Dakishimete Yo
Other than Ten Made Nobore, every Juice=Juice song so far has had a little quirk to its instrumentation that has endeared the song to me. This time it’s the piano that immediately begins the song and pops up occasionally throughout. It’s a great little hook that sets apart this song.
In general the instrumentation for this is pretty great – there’s quite a bit of bass that makes for a great beat, and the brass and background vocals add a lot to the energy of the song. The members add a lot to this as well – I particularly enjoy Kanazawa Tomoko’s emphasis on “watashi wa rose quartz” and they all shine in the bridge before the last chorus.
This song has a lot of energy and is a consistently fun song to listen to. One of Juice=Juice’s greats, and a song I don’t have any complaints on. 10/10
6. Hajimete wo Keikenchuu
This song is weird – I enjoy the melody line as well as the instrumentation and arrangement, but as a whole I’m not sure how I feel about it. The guitar-heavy instrumentation sounds great, and the melody is cute and feminine, but together they feel out of sorts. It’s almost like this is a weird mashup, where the vocals are from a different song and they put it over a karaoke track that almost fit but doesn’t really.
I do really like both parts of this, which is why it’s hard to justify this. And I don’t think these sounds have to be at odds with each other. I feel like a song about experiencing love for the first time can have a big, brassy sound – it’s why Watanabe Mayu’s Rappa Renshuuchuu works so well. However, the melody and vocal performance reminds me more of S/Mileage’s Asu wa Date na no ni Ima Sugu Koe ga Kikitai, and I don’t think it quite fits with the arrangement.
It is a shame because I like all the individual elements of the song, and I think it could have worked, but it just doesn’t. 6/10
7. Hadaka no Hadaka no Hadaka no Kiss
I love the flamenco feel of this song – it’s so unlike other idol group sounds. I also love the acoustic guitar and it works very well here.
Above all, this has a very catchy melody and the members of the group do a great job of emoting during this song – while the vocal performance of Juice=Juice has always been pretty solid, this is one of the early songs where they really make you feel the emotion of the piece.
While this isn’t quite as good as Ijiwaru Shinaide Dakishimete yo or Romance no Tochuu, I don’t know if I can quite describe why. On a completely subjective level this is just not quite as memorable as those two. Also, while the heavy acoustic guitar is great, the times that the song relies on electronic instrumentation is where the song struggles.
Still, this is yet another Juice=Juice song that doesn’t sound like other idol groups, and that combines a great melody with some great instrumentation, so any complaints I have are mostly nitpicking. 8/10
8. Are Kore Shitai 
It feels strange to be praising a Juice=Juice song that’s relatively generic after praising the more interesting and unusual songs, but Are Kore Shitai is generic, cutesy and one of my favorite Juice=Juice songs.
For the most part when listening to idol music I ignore the lyrics. My Japanese skill is a little bit rough, so while I can pick out phrases and concepts I can’t quite get everything. Even if I do understand everything or I read translated lyrics, for the most part idol songs, especially ones written by Tsunku, leave a lot to be desired. Even when they seem relatable, as an adult they aren’t completely, mostly because I’m older than most idols.
However, Are Kore Shitai in parts almost perfectly reflects the perspective of someone like me – a single woman in my early 20s. Granted there are things that don’t line up perfectly, but it feels like a song that has a lot of maturity in its lyrics, a maturity that not a lot of idol songs carry.
In addition to some of my favorite idol lyrics, Are Kore Shitai is a catchy song. One of the reasons that I love idol music so much is because the generic idol pop is really appealing to me – I love well-written pop tunes. Are Kore Shitai is a very upbeat, happy song that’s pretty generic but does it well, and happens to have some great lyrics. 8/10
9. Black Butterfly
Recently, a Hello!Project Facebook group I’m a member of had a thread about our favorite and least favorite singles by the current H!P groups. Black Butterfly was a popular choice for least favorite for Juice=Juice, and it was my choice as well. Here’s why.
The thing is, the recipe for Black Butterfly isn’t a bad one. Tango/Latin sound? Great! The repeating part of the chorus going “Black Butterfly” is a great section. The melody is pretty uninspiring but not bad at all.
However, my biggest issues stem with the arrangement and instrumentation. Every instrument in this sounds completely fake. I don’t mind idol groups using some fake instruments here or there – if I did, I would probably hate most idol music. But they are not at all trying to hide it here. Additionally, the instrumentation just sounds empty most of the time, like some of the instruments were added in later. At points it reminds me of the backing track you’d hear while singing karaoke. It’s technically a backing track but by no means a good one.
The biggest misstep of Black Butterfly is that it sounds lifeless, empty. The tango is a sensual, passionate dance, but none of that is reflected in Black Butterfly. Juice=Juice has the ability to sell a song – some of the energy that they used in Ijiwaru Shinaide Dakishimete yo or even Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne would really work here. Instead, everything about Black Butterfly sounds empty. It was the seed of a good idea, but it did not pan out. 3/10
10. Kaze ni Fukarete
Listening to Kaze ni Fukarete, there is immediately oodles more passion in this song than in Black Butterfly. It’s also an example of how to correctly use artificial instruments – there is an artificial bagpipe sound throughout this doing things that I don’t believe a real set of bagpipes could actually do, but it adds a lot of flavor here.
The song itself is pretty typical H!P-at-its-best. There is a lot of energy, the melody is great, and it’s paced well. However, the synthesized bagpipes add a really unique feel to the song. The opening of the song is a pretty perfect section – the almost melodramatic delivery, the strings, and how the song unfolds to the bagpipes. The rest of the song is quite good, but it doesn’t quite live up to that perfect 35 seconds. 9/10
11. Senobi
This is another song I see get quite a bit of dislike in the Hello!Project fan community. However, unlike black Butterfly, I just don’t get it. Senobi isn’t the best Juice=Juice song by any means, but it’s certainly not bad. The back and forth in the chorus between the sung sections and the “woah woah woah”s is a great idea, and I particularly enjoy the loud “Aitai!” at the end of the chorus – it sounds nice.
This is a pretty middle of the road Hello!Project song for me. The melody is pretty solid, and while the arrangement is uninspiring it is just fine. I don’t quite get the inclusion of the dubstep break, but it isn’t terrible. Senobi is pretty much just harmless. 5/10
12. Date Janai yo Uchi no Jinsei wa 
Speaking of middle of the road H!P! This is pretty typical H!P – there’s a bit of a light funk sound to this that makes it more interesting to me, but otherwise this is very typical. To the point where, when writing this review, I’ve been sitting listening to this song and just not writing anything down.
There are some good ideas in the melody – the “yes” part in the chorus is quite good, and I like the artificial horn sound at points (though it does sound really fake). And all of Juice=Juice sounds great doing this. However, there’s  not much that’s actually remarkable about this song – I just can’t remark on it. It’s good. 6/10
Disc 2 – The Brand New Juice
Disc 2 is Juice=Juice’s most recent single in addition to 9 new songs. So not entirely new for the album, but H!P probably just went “eh, close enough.”
1. Wonderful World
I’ve seen a fair amount of negative reaction to this song, which makes me ask the H!P fandom: How do you enjoy being wrong on this?
I kid, but seriously I find Wonderful World to be very charming. The opening is very broad and almost theatrical in how much they are overselling the song, but I feel like that’s almost the point. How else do you sing a song about how wonderful the world is because you’re in love without belting it out and overselling it?
However, the song won me over in the verses. Suddenly the song was transformed  into a great classic idol song – the pizzicato strings, the phrasing, the melody. It’s the type of song where, if you told me “this is a cover of a Matsuda Seiko song” I would not be too shocked, because that’s exactly what it is. While the vocal performance is different, I could picture someone from that era performing this song.
I understand if you don’t enjoy classic idol music and therefore don’t like this song. However, framed in this light, I can’t help but enjoy Wonderful World a lot. 9/10
2. Choice & Chance
 This is a pretty fun rock song. The real strength of Choice & Chance is the chorus because the melody is great and it shows off Juice=Juice’s vocals – every member sounds fantastic throughout this song, but especially within the chorus. While this is a pretty guitar-heavy rock song, it doesn’t sound too much like standard idol rock, which I appreciated. There is some electronic/dubstep elements and interesting things thrown into the instrumentation.
However, while I do appreciate all the elements, Choice & Chance doesn’t do too much for me personally. While the chorus sounds great, it’s not entirely memorable and doesn’t hit Juice=Juice’s heights. It does do a good job of showing off the members and their vocal prowess, which I like. 7/10
3. Ai Ai Gasa
When I first listened to First Squeeze this was the song my friend directed to me, and when I listened to it I immediately understood why – this is 100% old-school H!P, and I love old-school idol pop. This has an 80s/early 90s vibe that reminds me a bit of a light Especia. Just laid-back, funky idol pop. All of the members sound great together, and the arrangement is pretty perfect. This is a mellow, pleasant song to listen to and it drew me into this album. 9/10
4. Umaretate no Baby Love
OK, so look at the title of my blog. It is called “Happy Disco.” So, in looking at this title, you’d assume I like happy disco music, right? That is correct. And so, I like Umaretate no Baby Love. And like is VERY much an understatement.
Basically I love every single thing about this song. The melody is cute and fun. The arrangement is undeniably very disco-inspired, with tons of electronic horns, keyboard and strings. The lyrics are delightful, focusing on an innocent, first love work REALLY well. The lyrics even go “Boogie Woogie Baby.” This song was written for me.
Right down to the ending of the song (which ends PERFECTLY), this song works perfectly. I’m getting started on selecting my favorite idol songs of the year for my year-end blog posts, and this is the first song I immediately wrote down.
I could go on and on about how much I love this song, but I’ll just end this here – this is the perfect “happy disco” song. 10/10
5. Erabareshi Watashitachi
Coming off my high from Umaretate no Baby Love, it’d be hard to beat that. And to be fair, Erabareshi Watashitachi doesn’t try – it goes from the happy, upbeat disco to dark, guitar-heavy rock sound. Juice=Juice pulls this off, and I enjoy all the guitar here. But, even listened to separately, this doesn’t quite live up to the rest of this disc of the album. The melody doesn’t quite energize me, and while it’s clearly intended to be a high energy song the melody and performance don’t do that for me. So while it’s guitar-heavy and fun in that regard, some parts of the melody feel a bit sluggish. It’s another song where the original songwriting and the arrangement don’t quite match – it’s not a bad song, but doesn’t hit everything I think it’s trying to. 6/10
6. Ca Va Ca Va
And just as I’m not entirely digging Erabareshi Watashitachi comes Ca Va Ca Va, a song I already loved. While I’ve seen a lot of people compare the initial “Daabada” melody to Buono’s Rottara Rottara, the rest of the song reminds me of the French song “Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son” by France Gall, which is great because I love that song. This song is such classic French pop, and I love it. Juice=Juice sell the vocals completely. The song builds very nicely to the chorus, and the whole song works very well in that regard. The accordion (??) sounds great in the background, and I like how the instrumentation backs off so that one of the members of Juice=Juice are just singing alone. This doesn’t quite pack the punch of some of the earlier songs but it is just as nice. 9/10
7. Girls be Ambitious
Don’t they mean “boys and girls be ambitious?” (bad Hello!Project joke, please ignore). This is a great rock-lite upbeat of a song that I’ve seen has been performed at some H!P concerts already, and for good reason – this seems like a song that would be perfect for a concert. It’s upbeat, and the repeating section of “girls be ambitous” works really well, as does the rest of the chorus. It’s the type of song that I’d love to belt out in karaoke, and has a fun vibe to it.
The only thing I’d really wish they’d improve is that during the chorus a lot of the instruments drop out so it sounds a bit empty. However, for the most part the song is bright and upbeat enough that it’s hard to think about that sort of thing. That’s just the type of criticism I thought of after several listens of this song. 8/10
8. Ai no Diving
Another song that gives me those classic H!P vibes – this honestly wouldn’t sound too out of place as an early Morning Musume B-side or album song. At first, this isn’t the easiest song to like – the melody is kind of weird and not the most pleasant. However, this is the type of song to just grow on you, and I think part of this is just how well produced the song is. The vocals are mixed to perfection, especially in the chorus, and I love how featured the solo instruments are – there’s a fantastic electric guitar solo, as well as a small bass solo and drum solo at the end. However, despite those this song is one that is greater than the sum of its parts. While I especially appreciate how much it feels like H!P’s early days, I think this is one to appreciate in general. 9/10
9. Chikutaku Watashi no Shun
This is such a cute song, which I’m glad that Juice=Juice got to sing. Since their start bypassed any sort of cute younger idol stage and went straight for Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya Ne, there aren’t a ton of straight up cute songs for Juice=Juice.
One of the things I like about this song is that it trades raw vocal skill in favor for performance. The vocal performance focuses more on emoting in almost an exaggerated way that’s pretty fun.
This is one of the more addicting melodies of this album – it’s one of the songs that gets stuck in my head the most. I also like the (artificial) horn throughout the song as well as the instrumental break – it works really well here.
This is such an almost silly song and I really like that. This song in particular works great for Juice=Juice. 8/10
10. Mirai e, Saa Hashiridase!
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot since this album came out is that most Hello!Project songs don’t actively focus on the groups themselves – they instead try for more relateable songs. What I mean is that most H!P songs don’t tend to say the name of the group they’re in or be focused on the actual members of the group – there’s not much room for songs like Momoiro Clover’s Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo or AKB48’s Pioneer, for example. There might be some exceptions, like Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari or some of the Mini Moni songs, but those are in short supply.
Those types of songs are a bit of a double edged sword, really. Unless you retool the song (like a Joshi Kashimashi) it’s not going to work for multiple groups or sets of members. SKE48’s song Omatase Setlist is not going to have the same punch for any group that isn’t SKE48 Team KII, because the song is literally about Team KII wanting their own stage. Also, it’s the type of song that can’t be about the person listening to it. I can feel a personal connection to Are Kore Shitai because of the ways I feel it reflects me as a person, but I don’t have that same personal connection to Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari.

At the same time, though, I like songs that are about a specific group, and I think they are effective in getting you to follow a group. Hearing a song about a group’s struggles like Pioneer makes me want to support them (even if that group is wildly popuar).

This is all a long rambly review to say that I like the fact they sing “Juice=Juice” in the song. It’s a small thing, but it makes this song much more personal to them. Instead of being a generic “let’s work towards our future” song it’s more about “let’s run to our future, us, Juice=Juice.” It’s a very nice touch
Aside from me liking the lyrics and message of this song, I like the musicality of it as well. While the song has a steady beat and is by no means slow, I like how Mirai e Saa Hashiridase builds up in sound throughout the entire song, adding new instrumentation and punctuating the growth with a small drum roll. It could have worked a bit better, as some of the instrumentation does get cut out during the chorus, but for the most part this is great.
Honestly, my biggest complaint is that this isn’t  the last song. This song would work so well as the ending song – the lyrical focus on heading to the future/a new era as Juice=Juice and even the build up works great. But still, that’s a small complaint to have. 9/10
11. Tsuzuiteiku Story
I mean, I get why this is the last song. It has a lot of the thematic elements of the last song, only it’s about a continuing story. I get it. It just feels like H!P had two songs they liked that would work for the last song of the album and went “eh, let’s throw both on there. I think this would have worked a bit better before Mirai e, Saa Hashiridase! but I think that’s more of a matter of personal opinion.
This is not a bad song by any means. I’m not a big ballad person, so this isn’t a song I choose to listen  to on my own very much. It’s very pretty – all the vocals sound great, the strings in the background are great, and the melody is pretty. However, for a ballad to be a song I actively like or listen to it has to do something interesting or be somehow extraordinary in a way. For example, Matsuura Aya’s perfect vocals maker her ballads  work for me, and Momoiro Clover Z’s Hai to Diamond has a great melody and interesting instrumentation. This is purely personal preference though.
There’s a lot to like about Tsuzuiteiku Story, but it’s just not really my thing. At the end of the day, while this is pretty, it doesn’t hit my marks for being an interesting ballad. 7/10
I’m not going to review the third disc of this album as it is all covers. However, I think it’s worth mentioning that all of the songs they chose for this are excellent. Taiyou to Ciscomoon’s Magic of Love is one of the all time great H!P songs, Narihajimeta Koi no Bell is fantastic, as are all the others. I think the choices of songs is very telling – it’s mostly some of the great, classic H!P songs with one newer song thrown in I’m assuming because it’s more disco-y (Narihajimeta). If that’s the vibe they’re going for with this album, they nailed it.
Overall: I did not expect to be blown away by this album. I’ve gotten used to not caring about H!P album releases, and I hadn’t paid that much attention to Juice=Juice in the past. However, after listening to this album I’ve realized that Juice=Juice is trying for some interesting things musically, and focusing on a sound that I personally enjoy a lot. While there are some tracks that are stronger than others (Umaretate no Baby Love for one), this is overall an incredibly solid album that I’ve been listening to regularly. If you tuned out of Juice=Juice at any point I urge you to give this a listen, at least the second disc. It is well worth your time.

Idol Thoughts: YouTube Red

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It’s been two months since I’ve last posted to Happy Disco. What has pulled me out of my unannounced and frankly unplanned blog hiatus?

Why, possibly the biggest thing to impact foreign fans of Japanese music, of course!

YouTube Red

Let me take a step back. Recently, YouTube announced YouTube Red, a new subscription service where, for $10 a month, users can watch YouTube free of ads (plus some additional features). However, the way it has affected foreign Japanese music fans (as well as Korean music fans too) is the implementation. A lot of this is speculation, but right now YouTube is requiring its creators to sign off on this subscription service. This is essentially forcing creators to take it or leave it with YouTube Red, and causing quite a bit of disruption with creators.

Let’s stress this again – YouTube Red being the culprit is still speculation – it hasn’t been confirmed yet. However, the fact that multiple Japanese music channels all got region-locked at essentially the exact same time that other Youtube channels began to be affected means that it’s probably pretty accurate speculation.

Honestly, I don’t think YouTube Red is a terrible idea. The price is a bit steep – it’s more expensive than Netflix and Hulu Plus, which both offer much more long-form content. However, I could see myself paying maybe $3-5 a month to enjoy YouTube without ads – I often listen to Youtube videos in the background while I work, so being able to have a playlist of music without ads would be worth that much.

However, this move is very divisive. I don’t think I’ve seen any posts that are unabashedly praising YouTube Red; at best, people are being cautiously optimistic. That said, while it’s not a popular move, it’s one that YouTube CAN do – they’re the main host of internet videos, and for most people there aren’t other alternatives. Sure there are other video hosting sites like Dailymotion or Vimeo, but those haven’t caught on in the way that YouTube has.

I honestly don’t know how the Japanese music channels will respond to this. Before this, there wasn’t much of a downside to having your channel be completely open globally, even if the music group wasn’t actively looking for foreign fans (which is honestly most of the Japanese music industry). However, now this is actively making Japanese music channels accept YouTube Red, which means they have to actively accept foreign fans, in a way. I can imagine that Up-Front will want to do this for their artists; Hello!Project has put in multiple efforts to try and maintain its foreign fanbase, and I can’t see them giving it up just yet. However, I could also see the Japanese music industry collectively shrugging, thinking that they aren’t aiming for foreign fans anyway so it doesn’t really matter.

The biggest impact I see in this is the foreign fanbase, specifically new fans. I found a lot of JPop groups through YouTube, and I consider it to be the biggest tool I utilize in my JPop fandom. While I am now at a point where I know my favorite groups well enough and spend money buying DVDs to not necessarily NEED YouTube (though I would still like to use it), I’m concerned that this will have a negative effect on newer fans. If someone is curious about Japanese music, they’ll probably turn to YouTube. If they can’t access this music from YouTube, will they care enough to buy music or look to other streaming sites? I doubt it.

Right now, there’s not a lot you can do. I’d personally suggest not subscribing to YouTube Red and urging friends and family to do the same. The Japanese music fan community is pretty small, but we absolutely don’t want YouTube to think this move is a success (I’d suggest avoiding YouTube altogether, but I’m sure most of us use YouTube too frequently for this to be a very viable option). I’d also try to make your voice heard if you can. Up-Front Promotion’s official English language page, Up-Front Link, is getting quite a few comments asking about this – I doubt it’s something that they can ignore. Other groups unfortunately don’t really have an official English language page, but if you have the opportunity to say something then do.

Tokyo Idol Festival 2015 – Part 6

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TIF is long over, but there are still many many more groups to cover!

GALETTe

Despite two of its members unfortunately graduating, GALETTe got its start as a bit of an idol super group – all the members had been idols before and this wasn’t their first thing. If 48 groups are your thing you’ll probably remember Komori Yui from early HKT48, and I’ve been happy to see Shishima Saki’s success with this group after CQC’s, an indie group I was fond of. (The other member, Nonoko, was in the group Chimo before joining GALETTe).

Since their formation in 2013 they’ve done well for themselves, with five singles and one mini album doing fairly respectably on the Oricon charts. I personally wish I’ve kept up with their music more; they tend to have disco/funk music that works really well. They are a group that can really go far, and have some great members. Unfortunately, the thing that makes it hard for me to follow them is that their management only uploads short CM spots for singles rather than PVs; they have PVs, but they’re not online. GALETTe is not one of those groups who I’ll buy singles from without knowing the song, so it puts me (and I imagine it could put other foreign fans) into a position of not wanting to do this.

So GALETTe is great, but not the easiest to follow from a foreign fan perspective.

Ganbare! Victory

Ganbare! Victory is a five-member girls’ band that was initially formed in 2007 with the goal of performing and promoting 70s/80s era rock music. They were initially known just as Victory, but recently were renamed to Ganbare! Victory. They released three singles and one mini album before 2015, when they made their major debut with Pony Canyon. They have since released one major single with another on the way next week.

In idol settings girl bands are pretty rare, so if that’s something you’re interested in Ganbare! Victory is a group to check out. Further, at least the recent songs I’ve heard, they tend to focus on bright, upbeat rock as opposed to a heavier rock sound. As opposed to being more serious, considering they’re a band more than idols, they seem to have a fun approach. I’ve enjoyed the songs I’ve heard, and their live shows seem VERY fun.

If  you want more band in  your idols, Ganbare! Victory might be the group for you to check out. They seem like a lot of fun to me, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for this group.

Kikkawa You

I’m sure many of you are well aware of the story of Kikka, so I’ll keep it short. She auditioned for the 8th generation of Morning Musume, made it to the final round but didn’t get into the group. She then became a trainee under the Hello!Project Egg program. After some years of training she became a soloist under Up Front promotions.

While I know of many people who were upset she didn’t make it into Morning Musume, her solo career makes it seem like it was the right call. Would she have had this opportunity to go solo had she joined Morning Musume? Maybe, maybe not. But, from her output, I’d say it’s worth it.

While I think that her song “Konna Watashi de Yokattara” is a genuine masterpiece and I’d consider it to be one of the greatest idol songs of the past several years, Kikka hasn’t grabbed too much of my attention. She’s a talented singer, has a lot of charisma and appears to be doing well for herself, but she hasn’t done too much for me. Still, idol soloists are fairly rare nowadays, and she’s a talented one to follow.

This year saw the release of her 17 minute epic “Hana,” which, while I don’t think succeeded in the way they were intending, at least tried something. If Kikka is going to try and be more experimental, I’m excited to see what she does!

Caramel

Just as I was writing about how bands are rare in idol spaces, another band! Caramel is a three member group that was formed two years ago. One of the first things that the group lists on their bio on the TIF site is that their average height is 149 cm, so they’re pretty short.

Unlike Ganbare! Victory, Caramel is a bit tricky to find much about. They have a twitter, an official page on Gyao (Yahoo! Japan’s video player that is region locked), and not much else. A couple of videos of performances (mostly street lives) are on YouTube, but not much else. So this is another group that might be tricky to follow if you’re a foreigner.

Honestly, the one video I’m seeing doesn’t have me too impressed; most of the sound is a prerecorded track, and it’s hard to see how much they’re actually playing. They are playing some, and I have no issues with having some prerecorded elements, but here it feels more like they’re trying to cover up lackluster performance rather than adding to a performance.

If you are so starved for idol bands and groups like Ganbare! Victory aren’t enough, maybe then you should check out Caramel, but being their fan won’t be easy and I’m not sure if it’s worth it.

Cupitron

Cupitron is a 3-member group formed in 2014 which focuses mostly on techno pop songs. So far since formation, they have released one digital single and three singles. They have gained a fair amount of attention since formation, especially for the costumes for their 3rd single “Robot Boy Robot Girl,” which featured 200 LED lights on each costume which lit up in various combinations.

The most obvious comparison for Cupitron is to Perfume, considering they are a three member group that performs techno-inspired songs using a lot of autotune. However, Cupitron seems to focus a lot more on the technology aspect than Perfume really does. Perfume has also eschewed the idol label, so I think there’s room in town for a group like Cupitron that was very clearly inspired by Perfume.

The members are cute and the technology-focus is pretty fun;  I don’t know if I see myself following them too much more than that, but they are doing some fun stuff, so if you want a group that is like early Perfume with a technology focus, you’ve got Cupitron.

Tokyo Idol Festival 2015 – Part 5

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Trying to ignore how behind I am and push ahead… But seriously, if you’re going to TIF this weekend, HAVE A TON OF FUN. And know that I am intensely jealous!

Otome Brave

Otome Brave is a very new group, formed only in March 2013. Their theme is RPG; the goal is to “level up” the group, and they do this at concerts and events; they even call their live events “battles.”This is a very cute concept, and I do like when an idol group chooses to be a high concept group. A lot of idol groups similarly “level  up” but without the naming convention.

Unfortunately, if you think this sounds like a cool gimmick, it’s going to be hard to do more with it unless you’re going to TIF. They don’t have any singles out and not even an official Youtube; I’ve found three Youtube videos involving them. The little I’ve seen of them I do like; they have a lot of energy. However, it’s hard to know more about the group without having more to go off of.

Oyayubi Princess

Oyayubi Princess is a local idol unit from Ishikawa prefecture! Formed in 2012, they mostly perform in local areas, often at the “Hokuriku Idol Festival.” While they hadn’t put out much music before (an album and a single) they recently released their first major debut single, “Idol Heart.”

Despite their major debut the group still has a long way to go; listening to even their PV the vocals and dance are pretty rough, and the song isn’t very appealing. That’s not to say they can’t surpass this, but despite their major debut there’s not much that really draws me to this group. I wish them all the best, but there’s not much about them that stands out to me.

Orange Port

Based in Shizuoka, Orange Port is produced by music producer YANGARIMAN. Notably, for international fans, they have performed at France’s Japan Expo twice, so they have done their international concerts multiple times. They recently released their first full-length album, “Hello World,” which is a very appropriate title for the group.

According to their TIF profile they’re apparently considered to be very strong in performance, to which I’d say they’re pretty good, but not necessarily the top group in performing out there. Additionally, none of their music has really grabbed at me. Still, they do seem to be aimed at being a performance-focused group, and I can see them being very appealing to a lot of idol fans.

Onnajuku All Stars

Here are some familiar faces! This group was formed in 2014 for the internet show “Nukegake! Onna Juku” by the comedian group 2700 and features some former SDN48 members (including my favorite, Urano Kazumi) as well as a member from Afilia Saga and two from Akishibu Project, as well as other idols who have done work before. So these aren’t some fresh faces. They’re making their major debut on August 5th, just after TIF.

For being a group formed by comedians, they can be a pretty standard group. One of their songs off their single, “Rappā to ka ko shita 2-nenkan no hibi” is a pretty basic ballad. Waki wo Minaide is a pretty basic idol song. That’s not a bad thing, I’m just surprised, given that this was formed by comedians.

Still, it’s good to see these girls again, and I’m always happy to see a group with some older members, so I hope the best for these girls.

Camouflage

Camouflage is a Nagoya-based group that appears to be doing pretty well! In April they put out their first album, and they’ve held a successful live at Zepp Nagoya, which is a pretty decent sized venue. Considering they formed in 2012, they’ve done quite a bit – they’ve put out 7 singles, two DVDs and now this first album.

While they might not be wearing camouflage in all their PVs, they are a bit of a camouflage act in that they fit a lot of different styles. Their recent song “GAMSHALAGE” is a slightly strange, fast paced idol song, while they prove they can do things in a more subdued, classic style with their cover of Moritaka Chisato’s “Futari wa Koibito.” There’s definitely a lot of potential here; while I’m personally not drawn to much they’re doing, there’s a lot to interest potential fans of Camouflage.

Tokyo Idol Festival 2015 – Part 4

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Anmiran

Anmiran is a special unit created for this year’s JAM Expo, and will only exist this summer! It’s comprised of a member from Tokyo Performance Doll (Kobayashi Anyu), a member from callme (Mimori), and a member from Cheeky Parade (Mizorogi Seran) to be a special short-lived unit. They will have an original song and are doing various activities throughout the summer.

While I’m not a particular follower of any of these groups (though I like some songs from Cheeky Parade and from Tokyo Performance Doll), I really like this idea. My favorite part about following the various idol festivals is seeing different groups work together, and these super group units are really exciting. So while this isn’t a group to follow if you want any sort of longevity, it’s a cool idea in general.

SKE48

I mean, at least SKE48 is going to be there on a different day from HKT48 so the entire festival won’t be overclogged with 48 fans.

If you don’t know SKE48, they are the AKB48 sister group from Nagoya. They’re very similar in style to HKT48, though in the past SKE48 was known as being a group of strong performers and dancers. I haven’t personally cared for a lot of their songs lately, but in the past they’ve had some fantastic songs like “1 2 3 4 Yoroshiku” and “Kataomoi Finally.” While SKE has never really been my group of choice, they’re still a fine group.

At this point, though, if you’re reading this you probably have an opinion one way or another about SKE48 so I don’t really need to explain more.

Osaka Lapilarz

Osaka Lapilarz is a five member unit as part of Avex’s iDOL Street label. They’re essentially a group of members still waiting to debut, and these are girls from the Kansai region (hence, Osaka). It’s hard to know much about these girls unless you’re a super iDOL Street fan; however, if you are a big fan of Avex’s idol groups, you might want to follow these members. When Avex decides to debut another group along the line of Super Girls, Cheeky Parade or GEM, they will likely look to the undebuted members of iDOL street. Aside from that, I’ve yet to find any performances from Osaka Lapilarz so finding more about them might be tricky.

Otome Shinto 

Otome Shinto is one of those groups I really WANT to get but just haven’t been able to get into. A six-member idol unit, Otome Shinto was formed in December 2012 as a four-member idol unit. After two of the girls graduated, they got four new members and became a new Otome Shinto. So far they’ve released six singles, their latest being “Kimi to Piikan Natsu Sengen” and one album. Their goal is to energize Japan, and also mention being positive.

While being positive is something I can absolutely get behind (this IS Happy Disco after all) the group just hasn’t grabbed me. I know a lot of idol fans are super into Otome Shinto, which I get, but nothing about them particularly stands out. They’re a very cute unit and the members all seem great, but the music mostly falls flat to me (though I do like their debut single a lot) and nothing about their performance really stands out to me.

That said, I do like the PV to their latest single; it was filmed in Australia and is super fun to watch. And there’s nothing wrong or bad about this group, but I just haven’t been able to get interested in them.

Otome no Junjou

Otome no Junjou is a four-member idol group from Kyushu. While I’ve never heard of them, one thing does stand out – they won last year’s U.M.U contest, a fairly well known and respected indie/local idol contest that looks to find the best of the best. So Otome no Junjou already has a lot going for it with this win.

Despite this win they don’t have a lot out yet; there’s no singles or PVs so far as I can see, and there’s not too much online. And, to be honest, there’s not much that’s very extraordinary about this group, either. However, from the video on the UMU award Youtube channel, what they do have is a VERY old-school feel – the look and the sound reminds me a lot of classic 70s-80s era idols. The song I’m going to link is very reminiscent of Matsuda Seiko’s Aoi Sangoshou, one of my favorite idol songs.

While a lot of idol groups have done a tribute to classic idols or even emulated some of their sound or look after classic idols, this performance in particular is very close to classic idols. So if that’s something you’re interested in, Otome no Junjou might be a group to follow.

Momoiro Clover Z – Fan Event + Concert Write Up

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So, before this trip I wrote five posts about Momoiro Clover Z and their trajectory, how they kept growing and how my fandom wavered a bit.

Well, my Momoiro Clover Z fandom is back in full force now, maybe even stronger than ever. Even though Momoiro Clover Z’s sales aren’t even close to groups like AKB48, there’s the reason they’re considered the top group in Japan – their live events are considered to be top notch. They regularly sell out the largest venues in Japan with ease, and so, before going to their performance in conjunction with Anime Expo, I knew that I would be in for a treat. Still, I don’t think I knew just how great of an experience I would have.

Day 0 Fan Event
Momoiro Clover Z came to the US in conjunction with Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the US and one of the largest conventions period in the US. It’s so big of a convention that they even have a “Day 0” for the convention in addition to the four day weekend, and that’s for attendees to pick up their badges for the convention (in previous years attendees had to stand in line for hours to get their badge, but this year it went much faster). To just about everyone’s surprise, there was a fan event announced about two days prior to the convention for Day 0 (which is apparently not something that happens), with the idea that it would teach American fans the fan calls and cheers for the concert while watching a concert DVD. However, just a day before the event it was announced that MomoClo would actually be at the event, so I knew I had to be there.

After waiting a couple of hours in line (A bit unpleasant, since Anime Expo doesn’t really manage lines well), we went in and it was a fantastic event. While some of the concept of teaching fans fan calls and cheers was there, it really became more of a fan meet and greet type of event. MomoClo answered a lot of questions in a Q&A type format (with Sasaki Ayaka being the chattiest of the bunch), which was pretty entertaining. They then proceeded to show us clips from their Nissan Stadium live and have us go through it for the calls. I thought it was kind of funny, though, because they made sure we got the timing right for the jump in Wani to Shampoo and they didn’t perform that live, but they did perform songs that required more fan calls/cheers and dancing. I think ultimately the day 0 event ended up being less about teaching new fans and more of a fan event for existing fans. Which I don’t mind at all.

My super exciting moment came later, though. At one point they were teaching fans the call and response introductions each member does. Below is a very old video showing this (circa 2010) but you get the idea.

https://youtu.be/LEkQI19bRDw?t=2m53s

They had American fans come up (they specifically asked for non-Japanese fans to do this) and be quizzed on the intros. While I’m definitely not the type to jump up and do something, here I knew I had to. So when they got to my favorite member, Sasaki Ayaka (AKA A-rin) I shot up my hand. I was helped by a friend who was right in front who pointed directly at me, and by Takagi Reni who, after seeing my friend point at me, started to point at me as well (thanks Shioka and Reni, I appreciate it!) which meant A-rin ended up picking me to go up and do it. Which was insane and amazing.

(Photo courtesy of a really nice guy who I met at the con)

When I was up there she immediately gave me a big hug; getting a hug from one of my favorite idols has been a dream of mine for years, so this was insane. We then proceeded to do her introduction, which had been hyped as being the most difficult (I guess because you need to to know multiple Japanese words?). We did her intro together, she gave me high fives and told me she liked my headband (her 2012 birthday goods that a friend gave me, you know who you are and thank you SO much).

(These and a few other photos courtesy of TheNumber244 whose blog you really should be reading if you aren’t already).

The event continued and, when it ended, we were able to walk out ahead of the members and say thank you. It happened fast (there weren’t handshakes and they even had the people pushing you forward!) but it was still nice to say thank you to the girls. On the way to do that, however, I did see the manager known as kwkm who has become pretty legendary. I said hi and thank you to him by name, and I think he was kind of surprised.

After the event, I got asked to film an interview about my experience at the day 0 event and why I liked idols. Not sure when/if that will come up, but I basically rambled so I hope I don’t look too bad. HOWEVER, at the end of the interview they asked me to do a pose or a dance move or something from something MomoClo. I was trying to think of what I could do and suddenly A-rin showed up next to the camera guy and interviewer (I was focusing on my interview and did not see her come up). I knew what I had to do so I did her catchphrase “A-rin da yo.” She then proceeded to jump in front of me in front of the camera and do “A-rin da yo” 5000 times better than I ever could, and then she gave me more high fives and such before leaving.

Again, not sure if this is going to show up anywhere on video, but it might.

Concert

After a day full of waiting to pick up my ticket for the show and picking up merch, the concert finally came and it was honestly amazing. It’s easy to see why Momoiro Clover Z is the live event to see in Japan.

(note that the concert ended at Ikuze! and they didn’t perform Chai Maxx twice, haha).

While they performed mostly anime-related songs, as to be expected, there were still some surprises on the setlist. I wasn’t sure if they would do Nippon Egao Hyakkei, for example, and that was a real treat for me because it’s a particular favorite song of mine. Saraba was fantastic live, as was Mugen no Ai, as was Lost Child (I got serious chills during Lost Child). Really it was all fantastic live.

Chai Maxx was a major surprise for me, and a very welcome one. It’s an older song and one that doesn’t have an anime-tie-in, but it was one of the biggest highlights of the show for me because the crowd always dances along. Chai Maxx was possibly the second most exciting song of the night, and was a ton of fun.

The biggest highlight, though, was seeing Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo performed live. This was the song that got me into Momoiro Clover and really helped expand my horizons as an idol fan and blogger. It is also, in my opinion, the single best idol song of the current idol boom, so I was absolutely thrilled to see it. It is a song that has a LOT of audience participation that I was excited to be a part of. Not going to lie, halfway through the song I had to start crying because it was such a moving experience for me, to see this song performed live.

Ultimately though, Momoiro Clover Z is known as a group that excels at live performances for a reason. Even if this was a slightly watered down version of their concerts in Japan (a bit shorter, no major setpieces or staging) and even if there are still songs  I want to see performed live, it was probably the best idol concert I’ve seen yet.

As always, the few days I spent in Los Angeles were filled with meeting new people and seeing friends from previous live events. I’ve already gushed about this on Twitter, but a good part of the reason I keep flying out to idol events across the country from me is because there are so many good people in the idol fan community. Being able to spend several days hanging out with friends I’ve met online and at these events makes these trips worth it, in addition to the actual concerts and events. If you have the financial means to go to these events, I really urge you to make it happen.

As a fan, this has spurred me on to continue going to these events, continue being a MomoClo / Stardust fan, and hopefully be able to make a trip to Japan happen in the near future. So hopefully you’ll be reading about me making that trip soon!

A Week With Momoiro Clover Z – Day 5 – Kohaku Uta Gassen

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2012 is a very interesting year for my relationship to Momoiro Clover Z. While their popularity continued to increase, my fan fervor waned. I really loved their first single of the year, “Moretsu Uchuu Kōkyōkyoku. Dai Nana Gakushō “Mugen no Ai” a lot (all three songs on that single are top notch), Otome Sensou, their follow-up single, was the first MomoClo single to really disappoint me. In hindsight I don’t mind it very much and I think there’s a lot of good ideas in the song. However, it is a very flawed song as well, and didn’t quite live up to the concept that had been teased.

2012 was also the year that I became a Team Syachihoko fan, and so in general a lot of my attention moved to them. So if these next few posts are a bit overly simplistic I apologize – After 2012, Momoiro Clover Z  was no longer my favorite idol group.

Still, while at the end of 2012 I was just discovering Team Syachihoko, I did pay attention to one Momoiro Clover thing, and that was their first performance on Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Like many Japanese music fans, I follow who’s listed for this annual event pretty often. And Momoiro Clover, like many idol groups, set Kohaku Uta Gassen as their ultimate goal. So seeing them on the list of groups announced, while not entirely surprising at this point, was still really amazing.

https://youtu.be/isrGlwcOaS8

I feel like this Kohaku was a turning point for MomoClo – while they were already achieving a lot of fame before that point, their invitation to Kohaku Uta Gassen 2012 cemented Momoiro Clover Z’s place in Japanese pop culture. At this point they weren’t just famous for being idols, they were nationally famous. While there are always disputes and questions about why some artists get invited versus others, If you get to Kohaku it’s pretty clear that you have achieved a certain level of fame.

What really got me as a fan, though, was during the performance of Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo, the members included Akari in the chant of their names. It still gets me to tear up, honestly. It’s pretty special and lovely that a group remembered and mentioned a member who had graduated over a year and a half prior. It says a lot about how important Akari was, and it also says a lot about Stardust Promotions. While Stardust hasn’t always been perfect, it’s moments like these that make me proud to be a Stardust fan.

While Kohaku isn’t the be all end all of idol popularity and preesence, it does say a lot that Momoiro Clover Z has performed at it for three years in a row. It also set Momoiro Clover Z on the hunt for a new goal (which I will talk about next time!).

A Week with Momoiro Clover Z – Day 4 – Becoming Momoiro Clover Z

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2011 was another big year; they released four fantastic singles (though Z Densetsu Owarinaki Kakumei and D’ no Junjou were pretty basic as far as singles go) and they put out their first album, the stellar Battle and Romance. While I’ve reviewed Battle and Romance before so I won’t do that again (it’s a phenomenal album, though), the biggest things that happened this year were the graduation of Hayami Akari and the rebranding of Momoiro Clover to Momoiro Clover Z.

As a fairly early fan of MomoClo, the video where Akari talks about her plans for graduation honestly breaks my heart a little bit. While I’ve been a fan of Sasaki Ayaka from the start, I like all the members of Momoiro Clover a lot, so hearing Akari say that she doesn’t feel suited to be an idol hurts. She’s been relatively active post-MomoClo and has had a reasonably successful career, so I’ve been glad to see her doing well. Still, I just hope she’s been happy.

The main thing that I think is interesting, though, is the rebranding from Momoiro Clover to Momoiro Clover Z. While Momoiro Clover gained traction as a group, Momoiro Clover Z is where they skyrocketed. So my question is – without this rebranding, would Momoiro Clover still be where it is today? It’s a really tough question. I want to say yes, but at the same time becoming Momoiro Clover Z is when they started to get more and more experimental and more out there with their music and presentation.

I think it shows a great deal about how much Stardust focuses on the members, though; rather than continuing on without Akari, Momoiro Clover chose to change to Momoiro Clover Z, almost because there isn’t a Momoiro Clover without Hayami Akari. And while Battle and Romance features Z versions of all the songs (so you don’t get the Akari versions of Ikuze, Pinky Johns and Mirai Bowl) I think it’s a lovely way to show how the group valued Akari. Momoiro Clover Z doesn’t shy away from remembering Akari (their first Kouhaku Uta Gassen performance included Akari in the chant for Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo).

The rebranding did, however, allow them to adopt a more super sentai image (rather than the lingering traditional Japan image) which I think suits their current music and style. Even when their current music doesn’t focus on sentai heroics, it still fits MomoClo Z as a group.

Even though I was unsure of the rebranding at the time, and kind of went back and forth as to whether I even liked “Momoiro Clover Z” as a name, I think it’s served them really well and was ultimately a good call on management’s part.

A Week with Momoiro Clover Z – Day 3 – Major Debut

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2010 was a big year with a lot going on for MomoClo. Well, to be honest, the same could be said for almost every MomoClo year, but 2010 was the year that put them on the idol map, I’d say. The biggest thing was that this was the year that MomoClo went major, with the release of Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo.

Honestly, my praise of Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo knows no bounds. As an idol song, it’s just about perfect, to the point that I would possibly name it the best idol song of the current era of idols. It’s energetic, paced perfectly and has just enough interesting sections. It’s incredibly fun to watch performed live (it’s the song I’m REALLY hoping for the AX performance). Maeyamada Kenichi is the master of creating catchy, memorable idol songs, and Ikuze is one of his best songs. Additionally, the PV is pretty fantastic too; it’s another instance of using what limited resources they have to create something special, using spotlights and a few extra costumes to make something memorable. (That said, the choreographed fight scene is always delightful). Everything in Ikuze is perfect, and it’s no wonder that it’s become Momoiro Clover Z’s most memorable song, despite having more ambitious pieces later on.

However, while the release of Ikuze is personally what caught my interest, what solidified MomoClo as my favorite idol group at the time and what I think lead them to make such a splash in the idol scene was MomoClo’s live performances. While Momoiro Clover’s sales are marginal compared to those of, say, AKB48, they have always excelled in live performances. The six of them have always managed to fill a stage and put on an exhilarating performance, which is part of why I immediately knew that I would have to go see them when they came to LA.

The big performance that I think garnered some serious buzz for MomoClo was from the 2010 Music Japan female idol special.

This show featured some of the biggest names in the idol world – AKB48, Morning Musume, Idoling. Momoiro Clover was grouped off with Tokyo Girls Style and S/Mileage as newer acts. While both of those acts did just fine, Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo was a powerhouse performance, with tons of energy, real dance skill, acrobatics and the television debut of Kanako’s Ebi Jump. While MomoClo always performs well, this performance of Ikuze has stood out for me over the years as being a major stand out performance. While I have no real proof of this, I really do think that this TV performance was part of the start of MomoClo’s rise to fame.

The group did have a couple of hiccups this year; they dealt with controversy with the infamous weigh-in event, where all the members had to be under a certain weight… and Reni didn’t make it. MomoClo ended up switching labels to King Records, and took quite a bit of time to get to their next single, Pinky Johns (yes, it’s not Jones. I’m still shocked it’s Johns and not Jones). However, Pinky Johns ended up being an excellent song with an even better B-Side (Coco*Natsu) and ended up keeping up MomoClo’s momentum nicely. However, Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo remains MomoClo’s biggest success of 2010, and I think that without a song like that they might have never achieved the amount of fame they have gotten now.

A Week with Momoiro Clover Z – Day 2 – Indies

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2009 was the year that both of Momoiro Clover’s indie singles, Momoiro Punch and Mirai e Susume came out, and I really think that they are the best example of how far Momoiro Clover has come. However, it’s not the singles themselves that show it (though they do show their age), but the videos that came from Momoiro Clover events around the time of the single releases, where management tells Momoiro Clover the oricon rankings for these singles. If you like Momoiro Clover and you haven’t seen these videos, you owe yourself to watch them.

Now, these videos mean a lot to me – they were two of the first videos I watched when I became a MomoClo fan a year later in 2010 (they also were really the first ways I learned more about the personalities of MomoClo). But I think they show just how far MomoClo has come – starting from tiny street lives and freaking out at peaking at #11 on the Oricon daily chart, to performing in the largest stadiums and arenas in Japan. These girls have come a long way, and it’s incredibly exciting to see them thrive.

As for these songs and PVs, I think they do an excellent job of setting up MomoClo as a group. While Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo grabbed my attention in 2010, Momoiro Punch and Mirai e Susume solidified for me what a special group Momoiro Clover really was (and still is).

For Momoiro Punch, the song is pretty perfect for an intro song for an idol group, and does a lot to introduce Momoiro Clover specifically. It’s just about a perfect mix of idol pop with some traditional sounding instrumentation. In a way, it’s a great thesis statement for what MomoClo was at the time – idol pop meets traditional Japan, but in a totally accessible way. The song is perfectly paced, as well; it rarely drags (apart from the overly long intro section) and it moves along nicely. It’s a really great intro son gin that regard; it’s catchy, fun, and says what MomoClo intended to do (idol meets traditional).

As great as the song is, the PV is an incredible introduction to the group. While the intro of the song might be long-winded to listen to, it allows for the PV to take a nice amount of time introducing each member without breaking up the song to do so. It also takes time to show some behind the scenes shots, showing the members working together, practicing, and spending time together (something pretty much all idol fans enjoy seeing). The rest of the PV is very simple, but it uses what it has in a way that not all simple PVs do. There is always something visually interesting going on – different shots, new (simple) visual effects, etc. While I think most of this PV is very well done, what I think is really brilliant is the use of the different takes with peaches and bananas replacing microphones. They start this late in the PV, when you might be relaxing into the rhythm of PV. Then, all of a sudden, you see they’re holding peaches, but it only lasts for a shot or two before going away. These shots are never dwelled on, but pop up infrequently. Additionally, the editing is so good that the shots match up very well, to the point where you might not realize that it’s a different take. This makes a bit of a visual illusion, like peaches and bananas are appearing and disappearing. This makes you want to pause and look again or, ideally, rewatch the PV. That’s the genius of it, really – Momoiro Punch’s PV is almost entirely engineered to make you pay attention all the way through and perhaps watch more of it more closely. All this for a fairly basic PV.


Mirai e Susume’s song is a bit less immediately intriguing than Momoiro Punch’s, but it’s still a very solid idol song. It’s transitioning a bit more to the idol image than Momoiro Punch, but still retains a bit of traditional sound in the instrumentation. It’s hard to really say much other than it’s just a fun, high-energy idol song. The verses allow for more variety in small-groups as well as allowing for four members to get a solo line. It’s hard to give Mirai e Susume a lot of credit, given that it’s sandwiched between Momoiro Punch and Ikuze Kaitou Shoujo, but it’s all the same a solid idol song.

PV wise, Mirai e Susume is what I like to call “Personality: the PV,” in that it really lets MomoClo’s personality speak for itself. While you might wonder if this is an excuse for a super low-budget PV, I think it speaks to how much energy and personality MomoClo has. This PV is carried on the strength of the members of the group; if MomoClo was any less compelling, this would fall flat. That could be said about a lot of idol PVs, but man I have watched this PV a LOT because the members of MomoClo are just so much fun to watch here; seriously, what is Reni even doing? There isn’t a lot visually beyond that, but I do like the contrast between costumes and scenes. Half of the PV is on a white background with bright, colored costumes, and the other is with plain school uniforms on bright colored backgrounds. It adds a nice visual contrast.

Also, while Momoiro Clover can’t claim to have come up with the concept of member/image colors (I know Morning Musume has been doing that for a while), they certainly drive it home. A lot of Stardust PVs and costumes rely heavily on the color-coding in a way that has become pretty common-place in recent years. And for good reason – it’s a very easy way to follow members. It’s super easy to go “I like the pink member of the group” after watching a PV and go look her up by the color later. It’s an easy way to follow a specific member when you start following a group. Again, while MomoClo didn’t invent image colors, they certainly have utilized them well.

MomoClo’s early singles, while unpolished and simple, are honestly really great, and I personally think it’s super easy to see why they’ve had so much success. Both PVs and songs ooze with personality, and are ultimately a ton of fun.