Change is Good Part 4: AKB48

Long time no see, blog world!  Recently, with university and a few personal events I haven’t been blogging, but I still feel like I need a medium to get what I want to be said out there.  While I have forums and personal friends to tell about it, I think blogging is the easiest and most expressive way to get things out there, and I’ve recently found myself in an idol slump.

Don’t get me wrong; I really really love idols.  They are an endless source of entertainment for me and as I get better and better at Japanese I see myself watching things over again and finding them even more entertaining on the fourth or fifth watch.

While the world of idols might seem like the land of milk and honey, especially for fans of AKB48 and it’s sister groups like myself, I’ve actually found that as their popularity has gone up, I find myself more and more bored by their news and new releases.  I want some variety, and AKB just doesn’t seem to have that nowadays.  So, without further ado, here’s my first batch of opinion cookies for how I would fix AKB.

Why 2011 is turning into a good year

First off, I would like to say hello people who read this blog 8D  Thank you for reading it all through last year because i got over 4800 hits last year~ I hope to try and stay active as a blogger, but to be honest I haven’t been that inspired recently.  However, today I feel like just throwing a bunch of events and opinions into one post for today

In this post:

• 9th gen members
• Aichan graduation
• AKB48 stuff
• DANCEROiD

More than Singles

Recently I have met more and more idol fans in person and learned about their likes and dislikes about their idols.  Meeting someone who was still very interested in Hello! Project brought back my waning interest in the veteran idol company, and as a result I’ve regained some of my opinions about the groups and sought out to listen to their music more than I had all summer.  While part of my fandom will die when JunJun graduates in December, I’ll try to keep my eye on Hello! Project and I’ll hold a candle for their 9th generation in support.

However, one thing that was surprising to me about these fans that I’ve met is their lack of knowledge about some of these group’s full discography.  I may follow groups differently, but when I get into a new group I try to listen to as much is available to me as possible, so I try to get their full discography and listen to songs that I think have interesting titles.  Over the years as a Hello! Project fan, I’ve listened to most of Morning Musume’s discography.  I’ve listened to almost all of their albums and picked some of my favourite songs from them.

Here’s a partial rant, but also a guideline about how to approach an idol group– they’re more than just singles and PVs, after all.

Seriously, Tsunku?!

Today I decided to go onto my computer to play some StarCraft II or something, to pass the time. Usually when I do this I check twitter before I do anything to see if there’s any news in the idol world. I check H!O, S48 and various other news sites. I never expected to log on and see one of the biggest bombshells that Hello! Project has dropped on fans and wota since the addition of two of the soon to be graduated members, JunJun and LinLin.  I’m in utter shock.  Graduations are always exciting, but I never imagined that my favourite Morning Musume member would be gone so soon.

Change is Good Pt 3: S/mileage and Soloists

I have already discussed what I would do if I was given control of Hello! Project, with changes to Morning Musume and the lineup of the Hello! Project Kids groups.  I mentioned giving Suzuki Airi and Natsuyaki Miyabi solo careers, along with already established soloist Mano Erina, but I never gave them any real direction.  What style music would they release on their own?  And what of S/mileage, Hello! Project’s newest unit consisting of four of the most popular of the long neglected H!P Eggs.  Here’s how I would handle them:

Change is Good Pt 2: H!P Kids

My overhaul of Hello! Project is not done with Morning Musume.  Who can forget our lovely H!P Kids?  They’ve been around about as long as the 5th generation members of Morning Musume (which is really hard to believe ._.) and they’ve been performing at concerts and in groups for almost as long.  While their groups seemed to be stable for a long time, especially after Maiha and Megumi graduated/withdrew, the rapid change in the lineup of C-ute has revealed some problems with both groups, and they need to be fixed.

Here’s what’s up:

Change is good pt 1: Morning Musume

In November 2008, I did a “Here’s how I would change H!P!!!!!” post in extremely hopeful speculation for what direction Hello! Project would take after the dead weight Elder Club was dropped from H!P graduated.  Back then, I was not 100% educated in the world of Idols (and I’m still not, but I know and understand a lot more now than I did a year and a half ago.)

So how would I change Hello! Project?

Sayonara, See you again, Adios BYE BYE!

At the first performance of Morning Musume 2009 Fall tour ~NINE SMILE~, sole 7th Generation Member of Morning Musume announced that at the final performance of the tour, she will be graduating from both Morning Musume and Hello! Project.

Sup Hello! Blog Poll

Yeah, My computer at home broke.  So I’m currently doing this late DD  Real late D:  My results won’t be counted, but I still want to express my opinions about H!P’s members D

I had no official Elder Club members in my favourites D:

Wota Wonderings 03: TV Tie-ins!

Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

lol uncreative D:^

It seems like many animes and TV dramas have had some sort of tie in to music that we like. This month, this is what Wota Wonderings is all about.