Happy New Year 2010!

A quick post to wish everyone a happy New Year and a safe New Year’s eve with their loved ones. I know that it is somewhat early since it is still 2009 in most of the world, but it’s officially a new year in Japan and since this is a site for Japanese groups I might as well join in on the festivities along with them.

A lot has changed during the year 2009, but 2010 looks like a great year for Hello! Project, and with the support of the many current H!P fans around the world I know that Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, Mano Erina and S/mileage will achieve many more amazing accomplishments.

My New Year’s wish is that everyone has a great year 2010, and also that H!P continues to provide us with many more great songs and performances.

And even though I am only a fan I would like to ask all H!P fans to continue to support Hello! Project in the ups and downs during this new year, since support from the fans is the key to a groups great success.

So as another year starts so does another chapter in Hello! Project’s lengthy history, and I hope that you can join me in supporting Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, Mano Erina, S/mileage and the rest of H!P’s former artists during this new year.

S/mileage – “Suki-chan” PV Preview Released

A PV preview for S/mileage’s 3rd indie single titled Suki-chan has been released.

I have to admit that I’m impressed with what I have seen so far since they managed to add a lot of interesting shots to the PV.

One of the most interesting is the shot of the 4 girls singing the song while sitting near some hay wearing casual clothes since it gives us a chance to see the girls having fun while singing the song.

The dance shot is the main part of the PV and while that isn’t surprising I couldn’t have asked for a better shot since we get to see the girls dancing from various angles outside.

Overall I was really impressed with what I saw since the amount of shots included in the PV and the quality of those shots is by far one of the best I have seen from them.

The Single V for the single is set for release on 1/2.

Video uploaded by: BrsyKueE

Barks.jp Link To PV Preview For S/mileage’s “Suki-chan”

Mari Yaguchi to Straw Hat – “Kaze wo Sagashite” PV Released

The full PV for Yaguchi Mari to Straw Hat’s debut single titled Kaze wo Sagashite has been released.

For the most part the PV was a combination of live shots mixed in with some green screen shots, similar to Seishun Boku.

The live shots are done in the Hexagon studio, and everything about the performance was impressing but it seemed just a bit too rigid since everyone except Yaguchi just looked at the camera and did some basic choreography.

The choreography is a bit basic overall since it only involves about 3 moves, but it was kind of expected since it is a Hexagon single (I wasn’t expecting a “C-ute” level dance for the song since it is a ballad after all).

In my opinion this is a great PV, but it could have been slightly better if they would have tried a bit harder since the One Piece theme allowed for a more complex PV.

The release date for the single is set for 1/13.

Video uploaded by: BrsyKueE

EDIT: Added Youtube link

Wada Ayaka Official Blog Opened

S/mileage member Wada Ayaka has opened up an official blog.

I like how many members from S/mileage are suddenly getting a chance to set up a blog since we get many chances to hear about their daily life’s.

It also gives us a chance to see behind the scenes from new song releases and PV sets, so it is also a great advantage for S/mileage fans since she might post a preview of the costumes or some other type of preview (although hearing about her life is great as well).

Hopefully Wada is able to post each day (she says she will try her best to do so) and we get to hear about how she spends her day.

Wada Ayaka’s Official Blog

Kamei Eri 3rd Solo DVD and 8th PB Announced

Kamei Eri’s 3rd solo DVD has been announced for release, currently untitled. A PB announcement is expected to come sometime soon.

According to the description of the DVD the new PB is confirmed and it will be released on 2/25. The location for the PB has also been revealed to be Hawaii.

I’m excited that we finally get a chance to see Kamei in a PB again since it has been about a year that we saw her in her PB 20 Hatachi.

Hawaii seems like to perfect location for Kamei since we could get a shot of Kamei with some “kame” (turtles) for the PB and since it is a great location for PB shooting and the making of the solo DVD in general (we might have some interaction with English-speaking locals for the DVD).

I have no idea what the significance of 3 is, other than the match up with Kamei’s 3rd PB, but we will hopefully be able to see some preview for the PB sometime in February and the DVD in March.

The release date for the DVD is set for 3/3 and the PB is set for release on 2/25.

E-Hon Page For Kamei Eri’s 3rd Solo DVD

Shinseido Page For Kamei’s Solo DVD With Info About PB

Morning Musume 10th Album Announced, “10 My Me”

Morning Musume’s 10th album titled 10 My Me has been announced on E-hon. There are 12 tracks on the album and the limited edition comes with a DVD with Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai LIVE Ver and the solo Ver for each member.

According to the Yamano site there are 5 unconfirmed songs that will be on the album:

1 しょうがない　夢追い人　　 [Shouganai Yume Oibito]
2 なんちゃって恋愛　　 [Nanchatte Renai]
3 気まぐれプリンセス　　 [Kimagure Princess]
4 女が目立って　なぜイケナイ　　 [Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai]
5 Ｍｏｏｎｌｉｇｈｔ　ｎｉｇｈｔ～月夜の晩だよ～ [Moonlight Night ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo~]

Platinum 9 DISC included Naichau Kamo so at least 4 of those tracks are confirmed to be included, although the 5th one hasn’t.

The title, Moonlight Night ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo~ (English: Moonlight Night ~It’s the moonlight night~) sounds a bit like a ballad, so we will have to wait and see how it sounds and who is included (and if it is included since it is still unconfirmed).

For the most part I’m glad to see that we finally get to see the 10th album since it has been about 9 months since Platinum 9 DISC was released.

Hopefully everyone gets a chance to shine in each track and we get great covers for the album.

The release date is set for 3/17.

E-Hon Page For Morning Musume 10th Album

Neowing Page For Morning Musume’s 10th Album

Yamano Page For Morning Musume’s 10th Album

Morning Musume Nine Smile DVD Announced

The DVD for Morning Musume’s Nine Smile concert tour has been announced. This is Kusumi Koharu’s graduation DVD.

Here is the setlist:

Countdown VTR
01. 3,2,1 BREAKIN’OUT
02. How Do You Like Japan? ~Nippon wa Donna Kanji Dekka?~
Member’s Introduction VTR
03. Kimagure Princess
MC 1
04. Nanchatte Renai
05. Genki+
06. Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou? (Chinese Version) All Members
07. Sukiyaki (Niigaki Risa and Kusumi Koharu)
MC 2 (Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Junjun and Linlin)
08. Haru Beautiful Everyday (Kamei Eri and Mitsui Aika)
09. Kioku no Miero (Takahashi Ai and Tanaka Reina)
10. Aruiteru (Michishige Sayumi → Morning Musume joins in halfway)
11. Aki Urara
12. Shouganai Yume Oibito
MC 3 (Michishige Sayumi and Tanaka Reina)
13. Sakura Mankai (Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Mitsui Aika and Linlin)
14. Yuujou ~Kokoro no Busu ni Naranee!~ (Michishige Sayumi, Tanaka Reina, Kusumi Koharu and Junjun)
15. Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru
MC 4
(Start of Coupling/with medley)
16. Bonkyu Bonkyu BOMB Girl
17. Please! Jiyuu no Tobira
18. Handmade CITY
19. Odore! Morning Curry
(Coupling/with medley ended with Bonkyu! Bonkyu! BOMB Girl again)
MC 5
20. Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari (Full version, Junjun → Linlin → Mitsui Aika → Kusumi Koharu → Michishige Sayumi → Kamei Eri → Tanaka Reina → Niigaki Risa → Takahashi Ai)
21. Naichau Kamo
22. Roman ~MY DEAR BOY~
23. Resonant Blue

ENCORE
–久住卒業セレモニー–
E1. Furusato
E2. SONGS
–MC–
E3. LOVE Machine

I’m glad to see that we are finally getting a release date for the DVD since many people are looking forward to it mainly because this is the first graduation concert in a few years.

Hopefully the cover looks great and we get a chance to see Koha well among the other members.

The release date is set for 2/24.

E-hon Page For “Nine Smile” DVD

Morning Musume – “Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai” Single V Announced

The Single V for Morning Musume’s 42nd single titled Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai has been announced.

The DVD will most likely feature the normal version of the PV with the Making Of, and an alternate version of the PV which might be either a Close-up Ver, a Dance Ver or another version.

There are already many versions of the PV announced, for example the 3 possible versions with the 3 DVDs of the limited versions of the single, the “Live Ver” of the PV and also the 8 solo versions of the PV from the album, so right now I have no idea what might be the extra version of the PV that might be included.

We will hopefully find out soon when a tracklist is released sometime in the following month.

The release date is set for 2/24.

E-hon Page For Morning Musume’s “Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai” Single V

Guardians 4 – “Going On!” Covers Released

Left – Regular Edition, Right – Limited Edition

1. Going On!
2. ありがとう～大きくカンシャ！～ [Arigatou ~Ookiku Kansha~!]
3. Going On!(Instrumental)
4.ありがとう～大きくカンシャ！～ [Arigatou ~Ookiku Kansha~!](Instrumental)

The cover and tracklist for Guardians 4 4th single titled Going On! have been released on the official H!P site.

For the most part the tracklist was already known since most of Guardians 4’s singles have had the a-side and b-side with the instrumentals for both songs.

Although this time I’m actually looking forward to hearing the b-side a little bit more than the a-side mostly because this will be the first time we hear Tanabe Nanami sing.

As for the covers I really like them since they use a lot of traffic signs and things you could find around a neighborhood, and although the title is a bit bunched up I like how they used various colors for it.

It also seems that the PV will probably have some sort of relation to the traffic signs, so hopefully we get a chance to see a PV preview soon to confirm that.

The release date is set for 1/20.

Official H!P Profile Page For “Going On!”

EDIT: Added bigger covers

New Guardians 4 Profile Picture For “Going On!”

The official H!P profile picture has been updated for Guardians 4’s 4th single titled Going On!.

For the most part I like how the costumes look, although the yellow they used looks a bit strange. The rest of the costume looks like the others: black and white school shirt with some hair accessories, so nothing surprising apart from the color.

We will most likely get a preview of the song soon when the next season of Shugo Chara Party! airs so I will update when it is released.

The release date is set for 1/20.

Official H!P Profile Page For Guardians 4