madara_blog's Journal

AX '09 Part 1: Talking to Morning Musume—20 minutes of heaven
Well, folks, I was so nervous in the build-up to Anime Expo that I never said a word about it here. I had to buy a cellphone for the first time, a digital camera for the first time, and some new-fangled digital audio recorder. And I had to submit requests for interviews with the guests of honor. And when it became clear I had no guarantee of getting an interview with Morning Musume, I had to make sure I got to L.A. in time for the press junket in which I’d at least be able to get a 15-minute sitdown with them on a first-come, first-served basis.

Long story short. When I got to the hotel on Wed. July 1, on time, it soon became apparent that there was no guarantee of getting even the 15 minutes. MM was late, having only just arrived from the airport and, as we were waiting, getting ready with hair, makeup and clothing to do interviews. They weren’t even ready until 3PM, so their time would be limited. After an agonizing wait of two hours, I got squeezed in as the next-to-last interview, most likely because I was covering MM’s trip for a national magazine as opposed to a fan site or blog (more about that when the article is published).

When I was ushered into the hotel suite, recorder in one hand, list of questions in the other, there I was, face-to-face with them. Wow! There is simply nothing that can compare. I had a welcoming speech all prepared (and given before I set up my recorder):
“Irasshai! Welcome to America. You have many fans all over the country and they’re all flying here to see you. I came from New York and I’ve been a fan since 2005.”
They were delighted. I then counted them off by name, one by one in the proper hierarchical order, pointing to them as I did so, since they weren’t sitting in that order: “Ai-chan, Risa, Eri, Sayumi, Reina, Koharu, Aika, JunJun, and LinLin.” They squealed with delight and applauded and some of them said “Thank you” in English. I probably should have used their family names, too, which would have impressed them even more. (At my funeral, I want that audio clip played.)

My strategy was to ask each girl a question tailored specifically for her. Ai-chan was the only one who got two questions and the only one to whom I brought up the American trip. I only asked one group question, “Who’s learning English?” and only Ai-chan, JunJun and LinLin raised their hands. And then it was one question each for the remaining eight and the absolute simplest of the questions I had devised for each of them. It was all I had time for. Even so, I wish I’d simplified some of the questions even more. Some of my questions were misguided, although, even in those cases, the girls handled them well. The answers were never going to be particularly revealing, no matter what the questions were, but they were all interesting answers nonetheless. In thinking about it later, I realized that I had “pre-scripted” some of the questions, meaning I was hoping to get certain pre-conceived answers, none of which I got. If I had simply asked what their thoughts were on coming to America for the first time, I would have gotten better sound bites for my article, but it wouldn’t have had as much impact on them.

Ultimately, it didn’t really matter how I composed the questions or what their answers were. What mattered is that they saw I had done my research and knew something about each of them and gave each of them equal time. Here was a grown-up, an American journalist who took them seriously. This was my way of welcoming them to the U.S. I believe that Ai-chan picked up on this and recognized what I was doing. She even translated some of the words I used for them into Japanese and coached them a little in their answers. And she beamed at me when I was finished, the kind of smile I wouldn’t trade for anything.

What was it like sitting in their presence? They were all on sofas in a U-shape and I was on a single sofa seat facing the center, with my recorder on the coffee table. (The male interpreter was sitting on a seat to my left and somewhat behind me and he spoke in a low voice, which the recorder didn't always pick up adequately--but the girls are loud and clear.) Aika and LinLin were on either side of me, as close as if they were sitting with me at a table in a restaurant. They all glowed. After seeing them in so many videos, concerts, TV shows, etc., it was amazing to see that same aura around them in the flesh. Reina was...Reina! And even more delightful in person, if such a thing is possible. JunJun was absolutely beautiful and at one point, while someone else was answering a question, she looked at me in such a nice way that I could have just melted. (And I must say she was a particular audience favorite at each of MM’s public appearances during AX.) Aika was breathtaking. She has such an amazing face, like a silent movie star. Whatever it was that Tsunku saw in her during the 8th Gen auditions, it’s right there when you see her. And, yes, Koharu is tall. She had heels on which made her very close to my height (5’10”).

After the questions, which went over by five minutes and lasted 20 minutes, I presented them with a signed copy of my book on anime, in which I mention them twice, and they were excited about that. Then I posed for a picture with them, which I’ll post here when I get back to work on Monday with the help of one of my more technically-savvy co-workers. (In the meantime, you can see the picture over at MM-BBS in the AX '09 Reports thread.)

After the session, I had to wait outside in the hallway for one of their handlers who was going to give me some background info about their U.S. itinerary for the article. I thought the girls would be ushered out a side door on the other side of the hall, but instead they came out right past me, giving me waves, smiles and "Thank you"'s once again. In my entire professional life, I’ve never encountered “star behavior” like this. So sweet, so nice, so excited, so beautiful.

All in all, something I can still barely believe has happened.

I will try to post the audio files here when I learn how. This is only Chapter 1, so I’ve got more to tell, including an account of my interview with a special guest at AX, none other than “Hangry” herself, Hitomi “Yossi” Yoshizawa, as well as accounts of MM’s Q&A with the fans and the concert itself. Not to mention reflections on finally starting to understand how the girls see themselves, as opposed to how I THINK they should see themselves, which was a real obstacle in the path of composing my questions. As Kappa used to tell me, "Think like a Japanese girl."

"Berikyu!" Recalling the glories of "Hello Morning"
Ever since “Hello Morning” went off the air and my local Japanese video store refused to carry episodes of its replacement, “Haromoni@,” I’ve been having to make do with all the “Making of” segments accompanying the concerts and videos to get my Hello! Project “reality show” fix. Well, now that “Berikyu!” has come out on DVD—four volumes so far—I have another place to get my fix and one that much more closely resembles “Hello Morning,” with its mix of games, contests, trips outside the studio and musical segments. Featuring the 14 girls making up Berryz Kobo and C-ute, it’s calmer and more restrained than “Hello Morning,” and also much less inspired, with a certain formula setting in very early on and seemingly unchanged by the end of the fourth DVD. But still, it gives us a chance to see the Berryz and C-ute girls interacting with each other offstage and making each other laugh constantly, something I enjoy immensely.

BK and C-ute offer a much less distinctive set of personalities than we got in Morning Musume’s heyday, but it also means an air of harmony on the set that’s sometimes ennobling and reassuring. They all seem to genuinely get along. In an earlier blog entry (May 17), I’d implied that one of the girls was more vacuous than the others and might get made fun of behind her back and I’d wondered if “Berikyu!” offered any insights into offstage tensions. Well, I take back what I wrote, since I don’t see any evidence of that at all. In fact, the one you have to watch out for is little Chisato Okai, who is the most intense of the 14 and overreacts to everything. She’s scarily aggressive at times and is seen in the background of one shot speaking emphatically to Yurina and leaning in dangerously close to her. (Yurina, of course, is twice Chisato’s size, and seemed quite unfazed.)

The one who is, overall, the most fun to watch is Momoko Tsugunaga, who quite clearly has the greatest face in all of Hello! Project. Her elastic face has, literally, hundreds of expressions and she runs through most of them in any given sequence. Among the rest of the girls, only Chisato comes close. They should have a camera focused solely on Momo-chan in every segment and offer that as an alternate angle on the DVD. She could make a great comic star in the movies or on TV, if only someone in Japan knew how to write comedy for female stars. In one sequence, she and Saki Shimizu enter a museum at night and wander the halls in semi-darkness, not knowing what to expect. Saki has a bemused expression throughout, but Momo-chan reacts wildly to everything, especially when Chisato leaps out of the darkness at them, dressed in a dog suit. I suspect it’s an act on Momo-chan’s part (I hope so), but it’s still very funny. (And very cute, too.)

The games and contests are not terribly interesting and usually involve filling in a song lyric or looking at a peculiar household object and trying to figure out what it’s used for (e.g., a thing that pulls the shell off a hard-boiled egg). The best studio segments involve food and there are lots of those, with pairs or trios of girls from each group competing to make the best dish with the ingredients offered. In Volume 1, Maimi, Airi, and Kanna from C-ute go up against Berryz’ Chinami, Miyabi and Momo-chan to make a salad, seaweed wraps and cooked dishes of meat, vegetables and spices over rice. The C-ute dishes made my mouth water. That food looked GOOD! The Berryz girls didn’t do such a good job and they lost each round. Maybe Berryz should stick to singing and dancing and C-ute should open a restaurant! The cooking segments in Vol. 1 lasted 30 minutes, a good use of the time. In Vol. 4, Maimi and Erika from C-ute are paired off against Saki and Momo-chan to make some kind of beverage with a juicer, choosing assorted ingredients from a table of dishes prepared for them . Then the other team, separated from the juicer table by a screen, has to drink the concoction and guess each of the five ingredients. The drinks didn’t look too appetizing.

There is “Making of” footage from BK and C-ute videos in each volume, although never for as long as I’d like. But it’s often stuff I haven’t seen before, including BK’s “Monkey Dance,” where we actually get to see the girls in full-out monkey costumes. Kawaii!

Each volume also ends with a song by one or more of the girls, done as an "Uta Doki! Pop Classics" segment with Erina Mano serving as DJ. My favorite of the four I’ve seen is a duet of Misato Train’s “My Revolution” performed by Maimi and Momo-chan on Vol. 4. Utterly delightful. Pair these two some more!

June Birthday Match-ups
Tomorrow, June 13, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turn 23. (They don’t like to be called the Olsen Twins anymore, so I have to spell out their friggin’ names.) On June 25, Aya Matsuura turns 23. It completely boggled my mind when I learned that Mary-Kate and Ashley are OLDER than Aya (if only by 12 days). When they did NEW YORK MINUTE back in 2004, the Olsens were still kids, in my eyes. Aya was, at the same time, headlining solo concerts. My first glimpse of Aya was, in fact, at the Hello! Project 2004 Winter Concert, the same year as NEW YORK MINUTE, where she did a very nice set (with more numbers than anyone in the concert outside of Morning Musume) and really impressed me as a performer. There was a confidence, a vivacity, a command of the stage, some true diva grandeur that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, as we all know, have never quite aspired to. (Nor have they needed to, given their capacity for making million$ hand over fist.) Emboldened by the NEW YORK MINUTE trailer, which promised a spunky, New York-flavored comic farce, I watched the beginning of the movie on cable one night and couldn’t last more than ten minutes with it. Mary-Kate and Ashley acted completely uninterested in being there, breezing through their lines so they could rush back to their trailer to continue making calls to conduct their other business as soon as they heard the director call, “Cut! That’s a wrap!” It never seemed to occur to them that for a big-screen movie, as opposed to a made-for-video holiday/travel-themed quickie, you actually have to ACT. If only Martin Scorsese had directed...

(Oh, and for comparison purposes, TRANSFORMERS hottie Megan Fox turned 23 on May 16. Her very first movie was with the Olsens and it's referenced in her hilarious interview in the current Entertainment Weekly: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20246950_20263258_20284375,00.html
P.S.: Her TRANSFORMERS co-star, Shia LaBeouf, turned 23 on June 11, two days before the Olsen Twins.)

Anyway, I have a co-worker whose younger sister turned 23 on June 4, nine days before the Olsens, but my co-worker thinks her sister will be utterly unimpressed at her distinguished birthday company, so she’s never bothered to tell her. Thanks to MM-BBS, I have learned, much to my dismay, that not everyone is as fascinated by this stuff as I am.

On to other June birthdays. Nozomi "Nono" Tsuji turns 22 on June 17. My nephew in California, Niels, turns 22 on June 30. (In related turning-22 news, Asami Konno turned 22 on May 7, while my New York niece, Tina, turned 22 on May 2. Quite a nice quartet to be born in the space of two months back in 1987, if you ask me.)

I have a lot more of these, including an American star and a French star who were born the same week as Yuko Nakazawa (who turns 36 on June 19), but I get the feeling that this is more than you can take in one sitting. It fascinates the hell out of me, though.

ADDENDUM: I saw a photo in the New York Post this week of Ashley Olsen at the Council of Fashion Designers Award Ceremony and she's looking a helluva lot older than Aya these days.

The MM Gumi period: 4 songs, 8 videos
I finally got all versions of the Sakura Gumi and Otome Gumi videos done by Morning Musume in late 2003 and early 2004. Otome Gumi’s “Ai no Sono – Touch My Heart!” and Sakura Gumi’s “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” were the very first MM songs I ever heard—as performed at the Hello! Project Winter 2004 concert, a VHS tape of which introduced me to both Morning Musume and Hello! Project. Nine days after that first viewing, I bought another MM concert tape, “The Best of Japan Spring 2004,” which included a full Gumi set where these two songs were performed along with their subsequent singles, Sakura Gumi’s “Sakura Mankai” and Otome Gumi’s “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!” I’ve been obsessed with these songs because of their place in my MM fandom timeline and I’ve been anxious to see every version of the videos made for them. And now, thanks to CDJapan, my goal has been achieved. The Single-V’s for these each include alternate versions and “Making of” footage.

One of the best things about these videos is the opportunity to see more Aibon and Nono—but separately! It makes a difference. Aibon is more serious and Nono is more frenetic. These videos show me that Nono was clearly the best dancer in Morning Musume after Ai Takahashi. In fact, the one glaring flaw in this collection is the lack of a Dance Shot version of “Ai no Sono – Touch My Heart!” Nono’s got some great moves in it but we don’t see enough of them in the main video and the alternate is a lame Close-up version showing the girls in slips lolling about on sand in the studio, a complete mismatch of song and image. I want my Dance Shot Version! The alternate version of Otome Gumi’s other song, “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!” is called the “Oi! Oi! Version” and is essentially a dance shot version. The choreography is not as intricate as that in “Ai no Sono,” but we at least get to see more of Nono dancing.

The two later songs got a little more budget for their videos. While the first two made creative use of limited sets, “Sakura Mankai” offers a nice indoor recreation of a traditional Japanese village street, with the girls all wearing different kimonos and engaged in different activities suited to the setting. Dance shots are filmed on a different set, with different costumes (the short pink kimono-like satin numbers with white boots that they wore when they performed it on stage) and involve more photographic tricks, including a clever superimposition of a revolving cherry blossom. “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!” has a more contemporary setting and was filmed on sets designed to look like a modeling studio and fashion show runway, complete with dressing room and make-up tables. The production values on both are pretty impressive.

Of all the videos my favorite is the Close-up version of “Sakura Mankai.” Four of the seven girls, Mari, Ai-chan, Aibon, and Yossi, give great close-ups and the other three, Risa, Eri, and Asami, are good also. Mari's are especially amazing. She was beautiful! And that smile as she throws up the ball. The close-ups are all done with them in their period kimonos against the traditional backgrounds. It’s the most cinematic of the videos.

The only song of the four that I’m not crazy about is “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!” but I love the two videos so much that it doesn’t matter.

Nacchi was part of Sakura Gumi when they did “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” in the fall of 2003, but she’d graduated MM before they did “Sakura Mankai,” so she’s not in that one. One of the best things about “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” is hearing Nacchi, Ai-chan and Aibon hitting the high notes.

Yossi looks very odd in “Hare Ame Nochi Suki,” where long straight hair and bangs have the unusual effect of making her face look flat and squat. Or did she have a sudden weight gain? She looks like an overgrown child. I’ve never seen her looking like that anywhere else. In “Sakura Mankai,” she’s got short hair and her face is back to normal.

The “Making of” portions are only about five minutes each on the “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” and “Ai no Sono – Touch My Heart!” single-V’s. Since “Sakura Mankai” and “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!” are combined on one DVD with the two versions of each, they get a longer “Making of” segment of just over eleven minutes, with Sakura Gumi’s portion longer than the other one by two minutes. The “Ai no Sono” Making of segment includes a surprise visit from Aibon, in her “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” outfit, making a cameo appearance in a shot with Rika. Both Aibon and Nono are up to their usual mischievous selves in their 'Making of' bits, meaning more fun for me. It’s interesting to watch the way the older girls react to super-cute Sayumi (who has the most awesome ensemble among the black-and-white patterned costumes the girls wear in “Yuujou - Kokoro no Busu Niwa Naranee!”). Kaori, overwhelmed by her adorability, pats Sayu on the head, while Miki, wearing a coat during a bit outside the building where they’re filming, puts her arms and coat around the coatless Sayu and embraces her from behind. Which seems like as good a place as any to end this review.

Crackdown on the hopes of the Chinese people: Tiananmen Square 20 years later
Twenty years ago today, the Chinese troops opened fire on pro-Democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, thus putting an end to a nascent pro-Democracy movement. While the Iron Curtain began to be lifted from the rest of the Communist world in that fateful year, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, leading to freedom, in varying degrees, for millions of Russians, East Germans, Eastern Europeans and citizens of the former Soviet Republics, the Bamboo Curtain remains over China, where freedom of speech and dissent are routinely suppressed as people are thrown into jail time and time again merely for writing letters, submitting posts to a website, talking to a reporter, signing a petition, or seeking a permit to demonstrate.

I remember watching the TV news coverage of the growing crowds of students, workers and average citizens in Tiananmen Square that June and calling people up and telling them to watch. It was exciting, a historic moment forming before our eyes and we could witness it thanks to the magic of international television transmissions. And then, suddenly, it was over. The images stopped coming. The newscasters reported scenes of violence in Beijing as troops stormed the area firing into the crowd. We couldn’t see this, we could only hear reporters recounting it via phone calls to their stations.

There are probably a million things you can read about this on the web today, but not if you’re in China.

Here are a few things from today’s New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
This is a piece by Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, who was Beijing Bureau Chief for the Times at the time and was an eyewitness to the slaughter. He tells of the brave rickshaw drivers who risked being fired on as they sought to retrieve the bodies of the dead and wounded from the scenes of carnage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/world/asia/04soldier.html?ref=todayspaper
Here’s a piece about an artist who was a 17-year-old soldier in the army at the time and was part of the crackdown and who now paints pictures of what he saw that night.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/world/asia/04china.html?ref=todayspaper
Here’s a piece about an activist leader who was jailed for his part in organizing the demonstrations and has finally broken his state-imposed silence to talk about what happened.

Will the Chinese ever be able to speak their minds and criticize their government and take part in their own governance? The Communist party thinks that as long as everyone’s making money, nobody should be allowed to speak. Well, what happens when the money dries up and the “economic miracle” implodes? We’ll see...

More Uta Doki! Pop Classics
I’ve now got six volumes of “Uta Doki! Pop Classics”—volumes 1-5, and 12. A few words on Volume 5, which features a lot of the older girls, plus more old-timers from Japanese pop’s past, including four different male singers and two female singers, one of whom I’d never heard of before. Of the 24 songs, I’d only heard three before, and all on previous H!P CDs. One of them was Maki’s own single, “Secret.” The other two were on Folk Songs CDs.

There were four male performers partnered with the girls in ten numbers: Akira Inaba (4), Sugita Jirou (2), Gen Takayama (2), and Takao Horiuchi (2). Three play the guitar and sing, two while sitting, one while standing. Horiuchi just stands and sings. Sugita Jirou has the voice, looks and demeanor of an American Indian. He could pass for a Navajo singer. I enjoyed the numbers with Inaba, Jirou and Takayama. I like the way they look and sound. Like old hippies. They all have nice voices and harmonize well with the girls. They’re also very respectful. Takao Horiuchi, on the other hand, comes off like a lounge lizard, in his dark, short hair, jacket and vest. In his number with Kei (who was 26 at the time), he puts his arm around her at one point and touches her lightly on the back, the first time I’ve ever seen a guy touch one of the girls during a performance. When Yuki duets with the same guy, she sits while he stands, so she's somewhat of reach. I’m trying to think who these guys remind me of from American music, at least the first three. I can’t think of any clear parallels, although the ones who came to mind, for whatever reason, were Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Richie Havens. Just a thought. I’m assuming the Japanese guys are a few years younger than Dylan et al.

This volume didn’t have weekly themes like Vol. 3 did (e.g. “Growing up,” “Anime,” “Farewell”). As a result there wasn’t enough variety in the choice of songs. Most of the songs are soft and low-key; a few more upbeat songs would have broken up the saddening mood. Thank God for Nono, who rocks out with Yoko Oginome’s “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up),” which has some English lines in it ("Do you wanna dance tonight?...Do you wanna hold me tight?"). Taisei, always a party boy, accompanies her on keyboard, insuring a good time will be had by all.

A female singer named Shoko Aida does a duet with Nacchi and then performs with Akira Inaba in another number. I don’t know who she is or even if she’s affiliated with H!P. Aya performs with older female pop singer Miki Hirayama (whom I’m guessing is even older than me). Not a good pairing here. Ms. Hirayama did better duets in past volumes (including one with Aya). For some reason, Mari Yaguchi is nowhere to be found on this volume.

This is the first volume where other girls from Hello! Project introduce the songs. Here, the “Weekly DJ” is a member of Morning Musume, but we only hear them; they’re never on camera. Later volumes feature other H!P performers acting as DJ’s live on set with the performer to introduce them, most memorably in Volume 12 when Ayaka introduces Yossi and Rika doing “Get Wild” from “City Hunter” and then joins them in the middle of the number. Another good time had by all.

The highlights tend to be solos by some of my favorite soloists. Maki has three solos plus a trio with Kei and Sugita Jirou. Nono, Kaori, Aya and Yuki each have one solo, although the latter three have duets with other performers as well. Yuki’s duet with Sugita is very nice also. That’s nine highlights out of 24. Lower ratio than usual for these volumes, but still worth getting. (Volumes 3 & 4 remain the best of the ones I have.) Other performers featured include Nacchi, Ayaka, Ayumi Shibata, Yuko, Yossi, Mai Satoda, Erika Miyoshi and Yui Okada. Yossi’s solo is more soulful than usual for her, definitely a change of pace and one deserving an “A” for effort. Mai Satoda’s solo appeared to be fun for her, but the song wasn’t very good and she seemed to be speaking the lyrics rather than singing them. She also does a trio with Erika and Yui, but it’s kind of awkward. The two Biyden girls are more low-key than usual, with Mai’s out-of-control perkiness throwing them off their game. They look like they sure miss Rika (who is a master at controlling her perk and parceling it out in the proper doses when needed and going all-out when needed). The graduated Country Musume girls (Miuna and Asami Kimura) were much more used to Mai’s antics. They are missed.

Interestingly, both Nono and Kaori were pregnant when they did these performances. Nono’s performance here aired only 12 days before her pregnancy announcement on May 8, 2007. Another performance of hers aired on May 3, just five days earlier, and is included on Vol. 6, which I just ordered.

New Berryz, C-ute videos
I'm enjoying the two latest videos from Berryz Kobo and C-ute, "Dakishimete Dakishimete" and "Bye Bye Bye!," respectively, both solid dance numbers. The songs are catchy and pleasant and the dancing is well done. The BK video is easily their best yet, in my opinion, even edging out "Madayade," and outclasses anything Morning Musume has done in the last two years. The Single-V DVD includes the Dance Shot version and either version is a delight to watch, thanks to the energetic dancing and the fact that all seven members get significant play, unlike the C-ute video, where Maimi and Airi tend to dominate. The close-ups, posing shots and individual dance shots used in the main video are all attractive and creatively done. There's a DJ theme to the video, with each girl taking a spin at the turntable, and a set filled with columns of giant speakers. The whole thing is very well shot and edited and it makes me wish this crew was in charge of shooting the concerts.

I really like the BK costumes here; each outfit is different and each quirky and funky in its own way, e.g. Saki S. wears one white boot and one black. Saki, Maasa and Miyabi each wear hats, short-brim fedoras, but in different designs. All the girls look good and sound great, but Momoko and Chinami really stand out. Momo-chan's red-and-black ensemble, with a black leather jacket, fits her style perfectly and there are dance shots where she takes center stage and gives Saki a run for her money as the best dancer in Berryz. And she's got these great closeups where she flashes that strong jaw and jutting chin and those thin, straight lips and piercing eyes. There's a closeup of Chinami in the 'Making of' segment where we see a timeless Japanese beauty in the making, like you'd see in classic Japanese films or old woodblock color prints. Her hairstyle adds to that image. Yurina's hair is worn long, dark and curly and it's gorgeous. Everyone just keeps getting better and better in all respects. There isn't a weak link in the group.

In the C-ute video, the girls wear cute space-age go-go outfits, silver with a little pink trim, with white boots, and put on a vigorous display of dancing that ranks with their last great dance piece, "Forever Love." The costumes and the choreography here remind me of earlier eras of dance units in TV music shows I used to watch ("Shindig," "Hullabaloo," "Solid Gold," etc.), esp. when they're shot in silhouette. There are only six C-ute members here, since Kanna Arihara apparently took ill (or so we’re told). I always considered her the weak link in C-ute anyway, so I can't say I miss her. On the Single-V DVD, the main video is followed by the "Close-up" version, rather than the "Dance Shot" version, which is featured instead on the Limited Edition CD. This version offers a series of rather plain close-ups, since their blouses in these shots are bland off-the-rack items and no special effort was put into hair or makeup for these shots. I'd prefer to have the Dance Shot version, so it looks like I'll have to double-dip.

Both DVDs offer 17 minutes of "Making of" footage, a nice amount for a Single-V. The BK girls are especially fun to watch in theirs. They all seem to have great rapport offstage. If there are any cracks in the armor, I sure never see them. Same with C-ute, where the girls do more comic antics, including a couple of bits where Erika does "interviews," one at a time, with two of the other girls, each ensconced behind an opaque glass wall and responding to questions in fake voices, the idea being that we're not supposed to know who they really are. It's funny. No seams show here either, although in speculating about this it occurred to me that Saki N. comes off as pretty vacuous at times and the one with the shallowest sense of humor. I imagine that if anyone gets made fun of by the others when she's not around, it's her. I've never seen any episodes of "Berikyu," so I'm not sure if there are any behind-the-scenes insights to be gleaned from that show. Not that any of this matters as long as everyone just keeps singing and dancing up a storm like they've been doing. Which keeps me hoping for another Berryz/C-ute joint concert.

Wonderful Hearts Summer 2008 – Good, not great
In catching up on unseen Wonderful Hearts concerts—the ones headlining Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo, C-ute, and, now, soloist Erina Mano—I finally watched the “Hello! Project 2008 Summer Wonderful Hearts Koen - Hishochi de Date Itashima Show” concert DVD. It's highly entertaining, but just not as good as the Winter 2009 Wonderful Hearts concert (reviewed on 4/26/09).

Everybody gets a lot of play here, with sets from MM, C-ute and Berryz, and then lots of new units mixing and matching members of each, with occasional H!P Eggs thrown in. There are a lot of costume changes and they’re all very nice, although not quite as dazzling as the costumes in the Winter 2009 concerts. (But I DO like the attractive tennis outfits they wear during the opening set.) The Eggs get a lot of play here as well and feature performers who we know from other units, including Ongaku Gatas, High-King, and Shugo Chara. I would say that this concert has the most substantial participation by the Eggs I’ve ever seen and, for once, it’s a good thing. Some of them are starting to stand out on their own and bring additional helpings of youthful charm and energy to the stage. Arisa Noto, from Ongaku Gatas, is worth highlighting and it should be pointed out that she’s older than every member of Berryz and C-ute and all but four members of MM.

For the most part, it’s a lively, fast-paced concert and the girls all look and sound great. While the choices from the H!P songbook aren’t terribly inspired (did we really need “Manatsu no Kousen” from this bunch?), there’s nothing too tired either. I was unfamiliar with the opening song and the big finale where they all stand and sing, with no dancing or movement. (I don’t have a tracklist for this concert.) In the course of the finale, JunJun and LinLin each sing verses in Mandarin, which I thought was a very nice touch.

MM, C-ute and Berryz each do their then-current singles. Reina leads a group in a rendition of a Melon Kinenbi song. JunJun leads others in an old Aya song. LinLin leads Airi and Saki Ogawa (an Egg) in an old Biyuden song. Buono and High-King each do two songs. All of these are quite enjoyable. Koharu is joined by her partners in Milky Way (Sayaka Kitahara and Yuu Kikkawa) for a lip-sync’d number, which would have been nice if it had been live.

Ai Takahashi does a great solo, but I wish she'd been on stage alone, without a group of Eggs standing around. It ruins the mood. Erina Mano sits at the keyboard and performs “Mano Piano,” a simple, slightly catchy piece and the same one she performed at the Elder Club Graduation special. The only other soloist is Koharu, who performs “Papancake” with H!P Eggs as back-up dancers and she is, of course, lip-sync’d. I wish there’d been more solos, e.g. Maimi and Airi.

The 2001 shuffle unit, 3-nin Matsuri, is recreated here with Sayumi and Risako singing “Kiss! Summer Party,” originally performed by Rika, Aya and Aibon. Why not make it a trio, as in the original, and add Maimai or Chisato? For that matter, why not bring in more of the girls and recreate “Summer Reggae Rainbow” and 10-nin Matsuri’s “Dancing! Natsu Matsuri?” Seeing Maasa, Chinami, and Chisato in traditional costumes drumming would be supremely awesome. Why not Ai-chan, Aika, Saki S., Momo-chan and Erika in a recreation of Salt5 and “Get Up! Rapper!”? This is what I mean by the lack of inspired choices in this concert.

The winter concert had far more standout musical and staging choices, such as Ai-chan’s rendition of “Mr. Moonlight”; a redo of Zyx’s “Shiroi Tokyo”; “Mikan” with Maimi and Risako joining MM; and Maimi’s solo of “Natsu Doki Lipstick,” among others.

Makoto (the drummer) and Atsuko Inaba act as MC’s here and there are way too many segments with them, some of them too long and none of them particularly interesting to me. MaiMai and Erika from C-ute do their oft-performed routine involving what I swear they’re saying is Scott Towels (“Scott-a-toweru”), something I’ve never quite gotten.

There’s only 8 min. of backstage footage on the disc, supplementing a concert that’s already under two hours. I would have liked more. This footage includes an onstage bit from one of the concerts where the Berryz girls sing “Happy Birthday” to Yurina Kumai, whose birthday was that day, August 3.

I like the stage used here, but I don’t like the camerawork. There are many numbers where the girls work together and dance in unison and even do some fancy footwork, but we hardly see any of it. The camera crew is focused on their faces when we want to see full-body shots. It got very frustrating during some numbers. Again, note to director and camera crew: full frame of the group whenever they’re dancing, closeups ONLY when an individual is singing. It’s very simple--TV 101. Enroll in it sometime.

Elder Club 2009 Graduation Special – the big one!
So I got the 2-disc “Hello! Project 2009 Winter Kettei! Halo Pro Award 09’ – Elder Club Sotsugyo Kinen Special” The first disc is the three-hour (well, 174 min.) Graduation special featuring the Elder Club’s last joint appearance and the Wonderful Hearts groups taking up the baton. The 2nd disc is 64 min. of backstage footage, the longest “Making of” disc I’ve ever seen from H!P.

In my earlier review of the Elder Club “Thank You for Your Love”concert (April 25), I’d lamented the absence of a graduation ceremony or any kind of goodbye, but that was because I’d forgotten that this second set was on its way. It would have been pointless to do such a thing multiple times. D’uuuhhh. So this was the big one. Even Nono came back for it. Someone had mentioned on MM-BBS that she was there, but it was still a surprise, especially since she’s in several numbers.

That’s the most astounding thing, to me, about this concert. All three of the 2007 “scandal” girls, Kaori, Miki, and Nono are here. All were missing from 2008’s winter concert tour, as was Mako-chan, who’s back in this one as well. Nice. It makes me wonder if things have finally changed in Hello! Project Land. Are the suits a little more tolerant and understanding now? What kind of behind-the-scenes arguments ensued? I wish I could know. Does all this compensate for Aibon’s absence? Not really, but it was still great to see Kaori, Miki and Nono there, even if it’s for the last time. Although it seems odd to bring Nono back just to graduate her.

The high point of this concert for me, of course, will always be the recreations of Sakura Gumi and Otome Gumi in the exact costumes they wore for their sets at the Morning Musume Spring 2004 “Best of Japan” concert, only the 5th MM concert I saw (during my initial 2-week spurt of MM fandom almost four years ago). I’ll always have a soft spot for the “Gumi” units because my very first exposure to MM in the very first H!P concert I saw was in the opening numbers of the “Hello! Project 2004 Winter~C'MON! Dance World” concert and they were the exact numbers they perform here in the 2009 Graduation special, “Hare Ame Nochi Suki” and “Ai no Sono ~ Touch My Heart.” The 7-member Otome Gumi unit here is intact (and includes Kaori, Miki, Nono and Mako-chan), while the Sakura Gumi unit is missing only one, Aibon.

A lot of the stuff here was seen in varying forms in the two previous concerts (reviewed in the two previous entries). For instance, “Love Machine,” which was performed by ten former members (including five of the original eight) in the Elder Club concert, is here performed by a total of 20, including all present former members and all current members of MM.

Some highlights that are new to this concert:

MM's 5th Gen reunites to do “their” song, “Suki na Sempai.”
The three remaining founding members of MM (Yuko, Kaori, Nacchi) do “Morning Coffee.”
“Koko ni Iruzee” is performed by 10 former MM members, including Yuko, who had graduated before the original, and two current, Ai-chan and Risa, who were in the original.
Yuki Maeda has a very nice solo.
Mai Satoda does a Country Musume song, “Honey Pie,” backed up by Arisa Noto and the three other young members of Ongaku Gatas. Nice to see Mai in the spotlight.

I liked the choice of “All for One and One for All” for the finale, but I was annoyed at the camera crew’s continuing inability to get the proper progression of generations into shot at the right moments. As usual, they botched 4th Gen’s entrance, and every one after that, including 7th & 8th Gens, which are new to the performance, even though the girls’ movements were exactly right.

The jury’s still out on IceCreamMusume, a novelty six-girl act recruited from Taiwan, who do one simple song in Japanese. Sure, it’s interesting to see H!P go all pan-Asian and multicultural and to see LinLin speaking Mandarin to the girls and watch them falter cutely in their little intros in Japanese. But I don’t think they're good enough yet to introduce them here.

All the women and girls on stage look better than they ever did, with one exception, which I’ll get to in a moment. Nono has become—dare I say it?—quite beautiful. She’s also a lot thinner than when we last saw her. Aya is absolutely stunning, as always, and just keeps getting better in every respect. I could go on, but I’ll get to the one exception—Yuko. Maybe it was the hair color, the hair style, and the minimal makeup, but she’s looked better before. Maybe it’s because she was crying a lot.

I was kind of dry-eyed during the graduation ceremony myself, which was pretty long (and appropriately so, given the gravity of the event). Maybe I’ve just shed too many tears over past send-offs. Maybe I’m just still pissed about the way they treated Aibon. Maybe I'm baffled at the whole notion of this mass "graduation." In any event, the younger girls seemed to react the most emotionally. Miki was her usual dry-eyed self. Yossi was supposed to have shed a tear, quite uncharacteristically, but they didn’t show it. I still don’t understand why they had to have a graduation. Why can’t they just go on doing these big lineups every year? What’s to stop them? All because of some corporate realignment? I don’t get it. I’m going to try to interview Tsunku at Anime Expo in July. Maybe he can explain it.

Also, I still don’t get why they didn’t put all four discs (the three winter concerts, plus the backstage disc) in one box set like they did in 2007 and 2008. So I had to buy two separate 2-disc sets for a huge amount of money. And I bought them separately because they had two different release dates, so I paid extra for shipping. Not a good deal. Especially since I bought the 4-disc 2008 set for $34 at a Chinatown store—and it was a legit HK import edition, too. If I had waited, I could saved quite a bit of $$. But I couldn’t wait. Oh well...

Wonderful Hearts 2009 – another great concert
So I went back, in a better mood, and watched the “Hello! Project 2009 Winter Wonderful Hearts Koen – Kakumei Gannen” concert from the start. After getting past the anime numbers with Shugo Chara and Koharu and her cohort, it really picks up late in the first hour, when Morning Musume comes out and does “Naichau Kamo.” Even though I’m not crazy about the song, it’s a great live dance number and has some real drive to it, easily the best thing in the concert up that point. The girls all look awesome in their leather jackets (some in white, most in red), short black dresses and boots. And the number sets the tone for the rest of the 112-minute concert, with a fast pace and one high-energy song after another. One of my favorites is a new version of “Mr. Moonlight” with Ai Takahashi taking on the male role and performing off a group of select members of Berryz and C-ute, with a couple of H!P Eggs thrown in. Ai-chan lends her own wicked spin to the character, dressed in yellow plaid suit and snappy black fedora, less flamboyant and more subtly seductive than Yossi's take on it when she did the part in countless past concerts. Just wonderful. Ai-chan has so many tricks up her sleeve, I just wish they’d let her play them.

Among the many other good ideas carried out in the concert is a recreation of special unit ZYX for a performance of “Shiroi Tokyo” and it’s got Risa Niigaki in the Mari role with Chinami Tokunaga, Maasa Sudo, Mai Hagiwara, Erina Mano and Saki Nakajima taking up where Maimi Yajima, Momoko Tsugunaga, Erika Umeda, Saki Shimizu and Megumi Murakami took off. Utterly delightful.

Erina Mano does a solo where she accompanies herself on keyboard. The song is not as good as the one she did at the Elder Club concert (see yesterday’s entry), but it’s still quite enjoyable. She’s turning into quite a charming performer, with a whole different vibe than the other girls, thanks to the fact that she has to sit down for the whole song. But her impossible high cuteness and angelic face means she can get away with not getting up and dancing. (Thank God they don’t have her doing those anime songs and making her bark like a dog. If only Koharu had known how to play the piano!)

Berryz Kobo and C-ute do most of the heavy lifting throughout the concert, forcing MM to work a little harder at holding their own. There’s still a more mature energy at work in MM, something a little edgier and more womanly and that counts for something, especially in contrast with the girlish teenage charm of the other groups. 6th Gen gets more to do here, especially Eri, while 8th Gen just keeps getting better and better, with Aika starting to come into her own with a totally unique look and style. But Berryz and C-ute are closing in fast as they get older and more womanly themselves. In fact, in the second number of the MM set, “Mikan,” a song that’s really grown on me, MM is joined by Maimi and Risako Sugaya who take over the lead lines and kind of steal the number, which I thought was a very clever touch. I'm astounded at how confident and polished Risako has gotten. I used to complain about her getting the lead lines in Berryz songs, but not anymore. And Maimi is a true star. Her one solo is pretty amazing and I wish they’d given her more. Other standouts among the Berryz and C-ute crews: Airi Suzuki (of course), Momoko, Chinami, Yurina Kumai, and, one more ‘of course,’ Captain Saki. But they all just keep getting better.

There were a lot of songs that were new or unfamiliar to me, which is good, because sometimes one gets tired of the same ones over and over. And the choices from the H!P songbook tended to be good ones. In addition to the aforementioned “Mr. Moonlight” and “Shiroi Tokyo,” there was MM's rendition of “Renai Revolution,” which normally would have set me off since none of the original performers were in it, but they did such a good job and seemed to be enjoying themselves so much, I thought, why not let them take an old classic and run with it. Also, the big finale of “Go Girl ~ Koi no Victory,” performed by the ensemble, was quite rousing. I would have picked a different, less commonly-performed song myself, but they were all so good in it that I couldn’t complain at all. It perfectly matched the exuberant feeling that had built up gradually during the first hour and exploded in the second. This was a far cry from the depression I felt at the end of the Elder Club concert.

There are tons of costume changes, with lots of bright primary colors alternating with gold and silver fabrics, and I loved them all. I’ve had problems with the costumes for these girls, particularly Berryz and C-ute, in past concerts, where I thought they were often either bizarre or sometimes just inappropriate, but here they’re all consistently dazzling. Maybe it’s because the girls have gotten older and taller and blossomed into such striking-looking young women that the costume designers have simply been inspired to new heights. The costumes are attractive and imaginative without being vulgar or provocative, and they allow the girls room to sing and dance up a storm quite comfortably.

I was initially thrown off by the two Makotos pairing off as emcees—Makoto the drummer and Makoto Ogawa, the former MM member. That was quite a surprise, but Mako-chan is so beautiful now and so full of enthusiasm and infectious charm that I thought she did an even better job than Mari Yaguchi when she does these things. And her hair was so different from the way it was in the Elder Club concert. These two concerts must not have been taped close together. Definitely a whole new side of Mako-chan.

P.S. Neither disc offered any extras, which means there was no backstage footage. I'm still waiting for the next DVD in the set, the big one with the Elder Club graduation included, and I'm hoping there'll be backstage footage on that one.

Elder Club 2009: Thank You for Your Love
Yesterday, I received the two-disc DVD set containing the Wonderful Hearts and Elder Club Winter 2009 concerts. The third concert comes in a separate box set which I’ve also ordered. I started watching the Wonderful Hearts one last night, but I got thrown off by the high sugar content of the Shugo Chara song and the Kirarin/Milky Way set. The solo of “Hapi Sunday” was one Koharu lip-sync solo too many and, in a fit of pique—I just wasn’t in the mood, man--I popped the disc out and put in some classic Morning Musume videos instead. I’m so used to seeing “Souda, We’re Alive” in their peak-years concerts that I’ve forgotten how great the music video is. And I was bowled over by the Dance Shot version of “My Dear Boy.” What a superb dance number that is, featuring the girls at a glorious moment just one more single away from the post-Aibon-and-Nono decline.

Anyway, rather than give Wonderful Hearts another chance, I decided to watch the Elder Club concert today. It’s a good one, but much more low-key than I’ve ever seen them. It opens with “I Wish” and closes with “Never Forget,” decisions which kind of set the "fin-de-siecle" tone for the whole thing, as if the pall of knowing this would be the last one hung over the proceedings. Which is okay, because I wouldn’t want a high-energy concert on such an occasion if it was forced. And, besides, these are mostly mature performers who know how to play low-key very effectively. So I was pleased by most of it. But thoroughly depressed after the finale, which ends with a whimper, not a bang. I mean, there was no goodbye ceremony at all. The closest thing was Yuko’s heartfelt tears. If anyone else cried (like Yossi), I didn’t see it or they didn’t show it. I think Kaori had a wet face at some point, but I’m not sure if it was tears or sweat.

Will we truly never see this lineup again? How can that be? Why SHOULD that be? Why can’t the management just call them all together again next year for another concert? Elder Club Reunion Tour, anyone? Who else does what these performers do? Certainly not the Wonderful Hearts lineup.

In any event, the women in the concert were all quite stunning, the costumes were beautiful, and the performing was top-notch. For some reason that I won’t even try to explain, I didn’t expect Miki or Kaori to be there. They were, which made me very happy. It was also great to see Asami and Mako-chan together again. I like the way the girls were mixed and matched for the different numbers, with ten former Morning Musume members (Yuko, Kaori, Nacchi, Kei, Mari, Rika, Yossi, Asami, Mako-chan, Miki) doing the opening and coming back for a set that included “Morning Coffee,” performed by three from 1st Gen and two from 2nd Gen, and a medley performed by all ten—“Ai Araba, It's All Right,” “The Peace,” and “Love Machine,” which featured five of the eight original singers of that 1999 hit. (Ten years ago!) There were reunions of Tanpopo, Pucchimoni, and V-u-den, plus an odd, but enjoyable recreation of the Aoiro 7 shuffle unit, three of whose original members were joined by five of the other girls to do “Aoi Sports Car no Otoko.” Aya, Miki, Nacchi, Yuko and Kaori did solos. Yuki and Atsuko belted out “Magic of Love,” which was originally performed by Taiyo to Ciscomoon (of which Atsuko was a member). Melon Kinenbi performed a few songs, including “Give Me Up,” which I’d only heard before on one of the W albums. Nice.

In two of the MC segments, early footage of Miki and Rika is projected on a screen above them. I don’t know why they didn’t do this for any of the others.

A couple of things threw me off. Erina Mano came out to perform a song and accompany herself on the keyboard. It was, indeed, very nice, and a pleasant surprise to see a Hello! Project performer playing a musical instrument, but at 17 she really shouldn’t be in an Elder Club concert. Why couldn’t they have her do this at the Wonderful Hearts concert? (Which, of course, I can’t be sure she didn’t until I finish watching it.) Also, the young members of Ongaku Gatas seem out of place here, too. The only one I know is Arisa Noto, who has a way of standing out—to such an extent that I wish they’d let her do something more. The other three young members of Gatas are so indistinct from each other and so colorless as performers that I’ve never even bothered to learn their names. There were eight members of Gatas at this concert, down from ten last year. I knew that Erina had left the group last year, but I didn’t know another one had left as well. I’d be happier with this unit if it had just five members--Yossi, Rika, Asami, Mai and Arisa.

Ayaka Kimura wasn’t there. Maki Goto, of course, was gone and her presence was sorely missed. Coincidentally, I was in a Japanese video store on Friday night and picked up the Avex A-Nation '08 concert disc, which is supposed to have Maki’s Avex debut. Well, the disc I purchased turns out to be an all-region copy of the R2 original and does not have the last three numbers of the Live Digest part of the disc. It just stops before the last three songs on the menu. Trying to access them through the menu, which lists them, or by skipping chapter stops didn’t work. Maki’s song, being the last one on the menu, is one of the missing ones. I got cheated.

Anyway, I will get back to “Wonderful Hearts” and report on it, but I’ll do without sweets for a day or so first so I don’t get hit with too much of a sugar rush.

Hollywood remakes “Dragon Ball” - Why?
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION opened in theaters nationwide on Friday without benefit of critics’ screenings, so there were no reviews in the daily papers. I’m a big fan of the wildly popular Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z anime and manga series and I’ve written about it extensively, so I felt I had to see it if only to see how Hollywood would (mis)treat such an important anime franchise. (I saw SPEED RACER last year, based on a much older anime series, so I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect.)

What I don’t understand is how they could choose to make such a film and then completely ignore everything that was appealing about the original series. “Dragon Ball” and its followup, “Dragon Ball Z,” represent a sprawling, epic saga of interplanetary warfare and the growth of a young hero, Goku, into a champion who consistently defends his adopted planet, Earth, in the face of constant assaults from all sorts of formidable enemies, originating here or from outer space. (I've always thought of "Dragon Ball" as the Japanese equivalent of Superman.) Through it all, we are struck by Goku’s innate goodness and sense of justice, moral dimensions that by all rights should have been totally alien to him given his long-shrouded origin as the scion of a race of super-powered killers from the planet Vegeta who was sent to Earth as a baby programmed with a mission to wipe out its human population. (But then...something HAPPENED...) In the original comic, Goku starts out as a peppy, fun-loving boy with a healthy appetite who starts off on his long journey alone, but is soon accompanied by a growing circle of disparate, eccentric characters, drawn to him by his open heart, ever-present cheer, and ability to overcome any obstacle with his wits and super strength.

None of this is in the film, which turns Goku’s saga into a Disney Channel-style high school comedy-romance-special effects fantasy, lacking only the musical numbers that would have made this a natural for Disney. Goku is a handsome teenage white boy (played by Justin Chatwin) who is bullied at school because he won’t defend himself, thanks to his adoptive grandfather Gohan’s wish that he never fight. He spends much time courting the hot Asian bombshell, Chi Chi (played by Jamie Chung, TV’s “Samurai Girl”), a character who, in the original series, was never remotely the sexpot on display here. (For one thing, Goku and Chi Chi meet as children in the original and wind up betrothed to each other.) The whole story of searching for and collecting the seven Dragon Balls is condensed into less than 90 minutes here and comes down to a simple showdown between Goku and his companions, Bulma and Master Roshi, and the designated villain, Piccolo, an alien warrior roused from a 2000-year imprisonment, who has collected all the Dragon Balls and seeks to use them to destroy the earth as revenge for his imprisonment, quite a change from the original as some of you may recall.

The film transforms Bulma, an overbearing, loudmouthed, but inventive teen in the original, into a Lara Croft-type female adventurer, complete with automatic weapon in a thigh holster, played by Emmy Rossum as quite a bit older than the Bulma we first meet in the original comic. But at least she carries (and uses) some of those fancy capsule gizmos, one of the very few props from the original to make it into the movie. The one used here transforms into a sporty motorcycle big enough for three. Rossum’s Bulma is the only truly interesting character in the piece and Rossum plays her with a certain amount of voluptuous flair, not unlike the character at a later stage in the original series. When I first heard about this production and the casting of Rossum as Bulma, I was dismayed, thinking JUNO’s Ellen Page would have made a better fit with the character. But Rossum manages to pull it off, the only performer in DBE I can say that about. (Interestingly, Rossum was born on Sept. 12, 1986, two days before Morning Musume’s Ai Takahashi was born.)

I didn’t like SPEED RACER when I saw it last year, but I will give it credit for trying something DBE never even considers. The Wachowski Brothers (THE MATRIX), the makers of SPEED RACER, sought to create a CGI equivalent of an anime world. All the backgrounds were created via computer and the visual scheme employed a candy-colored spectrum to try and replicate the look of the original anime (which never quite looked like that, despite its reliance on primary colors). I don’t think they succeeded, but at least they tried to create a world where the character of Speed Racer and his quirky family made sense. The makers of DBE never quite figured out what kind of “world” they were presenting, so nothing’s ever consistent. Everything is a mix of contemporary American society with vague hints of elements from the anime thrown in, including a desert setting for the climactic action (courtesy of Mexico), and a futuristic city that’s glimpsed only briefly.

Ayumi Hamasaki sings “Rule” over the end credits. I didn’t recognize her as the singer because it’s more of a rock song than I’m used to hearing from her. But I waited till the end of the end credits to learn this. It’s nice that Ayu gets some exposure here, but it would be even better had it been a film that people will actually go and see.

In other news, Hitomi “Yossi” Yoshizawa turns 24 today, a week after my nephew turned 24 and 18 days before my goddaughter turns 24. All in all, April 1985 was a good month for babies.

Oh, and thanks to Angelachibayuy for her informative response to my last entry. It’s always helpful to get a perspective from someone who actually LIVES in Japan, rather than from an article about it in the paper. This wasn’t the first time I’ve had an alarmist overreaction to an article about Japan (or China) in The New York Times and, sadly, it probably won’t be the last.

Saluting the flag while Tokyo sinks...
Every other day or so I read another news or business article about Japan’s flagging economy. It seems they’ve been hit worse by the current global financial crisis than all the other large economies, including that of the U.S. After the bubble burst in the 1990s (prompting Tsunku to write “Love Machine” to pump up malaise-ridden young people), the Japanese government spent billions on public works projects around the country to keep money flowing into rural areas and continue to buy support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. There were a lot of “bridges to nowhere” and local governments eventually realized that maintenance and upkeep on these projects in the years ahead could nearly bankrupt them.

Today, there’s an article in the Times about the crisis facing rice farmers. Rice production is down, the market for it is shrinking and the majority of Japanese farmers are over 60 years of age. Attempts to consolidate traditional family rice farms and introduce more streamlined production methods for more efficient farming have met resistance from bureaucrats. Also, there’s not a word in the article about the need for immigrant labor to help work those farms.

So, in the face of all this, what is the Tokyo Board of Education most concerned with? Forcing teachers to “stand and face the rising-sun flag and sing the national anthem, which reveres the country’s emperor.” A group of 172 teachers filed a lawsuit asserting that “the board breached the Japanese Constitution when it censured them for refusing to follow the directives.” This is from an article in Friday's New York Times entitled, "Japanese Court Rejects Teachers' Suit Over Flag."

So how did the Tokyo District Court respond? Here, read the rest of the article yourself:

"Shigeru Nakanishi, the presiding judge of the Tokyo District Court, rejected the plaintiffs’ assertions, saying the board acted within constitutional boundaries.
The board’s directive “does not constitute an act of forcing students to follow a certain philosophy,” and it is “necessary for schools to require uniformity at group-oriented ceremonies,” Mr. Nakanishi wrote in the ruling.
Toru Kondo, a teacher who led the lawsuit, said, “The ruling is blatantly unjust,” and added that the plaintiffs would appeal the decision.
“We are prepared to fight to the end to bring freedom and democracy back to education in Japan,” Mr. Kondo said.
The teachers say that the national anthem — “Kimigayo,” or “His Majesty’s Reign” — harks back to the emperor worship that was a rallying point for Japanese imperialism. Japanese troops fought under the Hinomaru flag, which depicts a red sun on a white background, during Tokyo’s invasion of the Asian mainland in the first half of the 20th century.
Postwar Japan was long ambivalent toward its flag and anthem, and they were made legal national symbols only in 1999. But a recent swing to the right in Japanese politics has spurred regulations making respect for the flag and anthem mandatory.
The Tokyo government, led by Shintaro Ishihara, a nationalist governor, has been especially zealous in enforcing respect for the national symbols at its public schools.
Supporters say the move is a step toward remaking Japan as a normal, patriotic country.
But Japan’s Asian neighbors, especially China and the Koreas, remain suspicious of any resurgence of Japanese nationalism.
The regulations introduced by Tokyo in 2003 require that the national flag be raised at graduation and enrollment ceremonies. Teachers and students must rise, face the flag and sing the anthem.
Board or school officials instruct teachers to stand and sing — and take down the names of those who refuse."

Here’s a link to the whole article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/world/asia/27japan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Tokyo%20Board%20of%20Education&st=cse

Sounds to me like Japan’s response to its various problems is to start behaving more and more like Communist China. I don’t see how this “circling the wagons” policy is going to help them one bit. Behavior like this discourages all the bright, creative types, the ones to turn to in order to solve Japan’s problems, and pushes them to leave the country outright for greener pastures elsewhere. I wonder how all this is going to affect anime, manga, and pop music in Japan. I’d really like to see a generation of young artists start using these media to find ways to protest Japan’s calcification. That’s if any activist-minded artists will even bother to stay in Japan.

When teacher Toru Kondo declares, "We are prepared to fight to the end to bring freedom and democracy back to education in Japan," we can only hope that enough other teachers and students--and creative types in all fields--will join him to make this a reality. I wonder what position Tsunku is taking on all this. Maybe he can run for governor of Tokyo and replace that dinosaur, Shintaro Ishihara.

Yuko Nakazawa co-stars in a giant robot movie
TETSUJIN 28 came out in 2005 and I only just caught up with it. It’s a live-action movie based on a famous giant robot manga from the 1950s created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. An animated series based on the manga was produced in Japan in 1963 and ran on American television in an English-dubbed version when I was a kid under the title, “Gigantor,” and had a famous theme song that we used to run around the house singing ad infinitum. (“Gigantor the space age robot/he’s at YOUR command/Gigantor the space age robot/his power is in your hands.”) The movie is pretty annoying and made me long for the more refined giant robot stylings of Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS. The boy hero in the film is weak and cowardly and never really steps up to the plate to become the gung ho hero the story requires. He whines a lot, just like the wimpy boy heroes in other recent live-action Japanese films based on old properties, GAMERA THE BRAVE and THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, both also made in 2005. What happened to the youthful Japanese heroes of old, the ones who used to cheer giant turtle Gamera on as he gored alien monster opponents in the Gamera movies of old? I want these kids to leap into action the way Ash Ketchum takes on bad guys in “Pokémon,” dammit!

Also, while the early scenes of giant robots on the loose in modern Tokyo are pretty well done and give a good sense of what it would be like to be on the ground during such action, the later confrontations between Tetsujin 28 and his evil counterpart, Black Ox, never deliver the action-packed goods such movies are supposed to deliver. The two robots throw a few weak punches at each other and kind of shove each other around and it never gets more intricate than that. Every time Black Ox hits Tetsujin, poor Shotaro (the boy hero controlling Tetsujin with his remote device) doubles over in pain--a pointless twist that serves to slow everything down when the pace needs to pick up. So we never get a real fight going and the robots never fly up into the air and pummel each other the way they would have in the comic and the anime. You get better giant robot-style fights in any average Power Rangers episode (and, of course, the TRANSFORMERS movie).

Anyway, Yuko Nakazawa, one of the founding members of Morning Musume, shows up in a supporting role as Ejima, a young police detective investigating Black Ox. She’s partnered with a goofy young assistant. They give her dark hair and a plain navy blue suit, clearly meant to cover up her extraordinary good looks and not distract anyone from the giant robot action. She’s in a lot of scenes and gets to run around with everybody else and even gets to shoot a gun in one scene. She even gets to be funny. It’s always great to see her in anything, so I’m not going to complain about the part. She could well have played the bad guy’s sexy assistant, who wears hot pants in every scene, but that was a much smaller, more thankless role (and I can't identify that actress). I’d love to see Yuko in more movies.

Former idol Hiroko Yakushimaru is also in the cast. She was big in the 1980s as both a teenage actress and pop singer and I remember seeing her in an amusing film called SAILOR SUIT AND MACHINE GUN (1981), in which she played a cleancut schoolgirl who, by some extraordinary contrivance, inherits leadership of a moribund yakuza clan and, after some initial reluctance, proceeds to inject new spirit into it and earn some respect from Tokyo’s Underworld. (Think Lucy Liu’s O-ren Ishii in KILL BILL VOL. 1, but without the violence, bloodshed, profanity or evil temper.) Here Hiroko plays Shotaro’s mother, who gets injured early on during the first attack by Black Ox. It’s nice to see former idols getting work.

The movie has a nice background score by Akira Senju and I have the soundtrack CD (picked up in a bargain bin for $5 at Asahiya Books). Too bad Yuko doesn’t sing on it.

Blast from the Past: negative MM Concert review by a "J-fan" in 2001
I was searching online for a tracklist for Morning Musume's “Live Revolution 21 Spring Concert,” the one where Yuko graduated. I found one in a review on a website called J-Fan J pop. The review was particularly interesting because it was done when the concert was new, one of the earliest English-language MM reviews I’ve found. The reviewer considers the notion of a member graduating to be an "ulterior motive" for holding the concert. He also takes issue with the abundance of "non-Morning Musume performances" in the concert, despite the fact that most of the non-MM acts featured have MM members in them (e.g. Minimoni, Pucchimoni, Tanpopo). He calls Minimoni's opening act "disgraceful and annoying" and calls Kaori "the least physically attractive girl in the group."

In discussing how the older songs sound as performed by the larger lineup, he says "The vocal sound is often very crowded, and even a bit messy in places. The group is just too big. There's a fine line between a group and a crowd, and the difference is in the sound."

And this was when there were only ten girls in the group, not 13, as there were after 5th Gen joined, or 15, after 6th Gen joined.

Here's his final lament about the graduations:
"But please, why does every Morning Musume concert have to focus around one particular member who is departing? At this point the idea of their members leaving is very old, and it would be better if they just handled all of the members' leaves behind closed doors, rather than making a huge emotional spectacle out of it in front of all the fans. Sure, maybe it makes the fans feel more involved in the group, thus buying more CDs and videos, but ultimately most of us don't care about who is in or out of this group anymore, and neither should the hard core fans."

And this was written in 2001.

I found the piece "disgraceful and annoying" (especially the insult to Kaori), but also quite amusing.

Here’s a link to the review, although a week after I found it, it doesn’t appear to work anymore:
http://www.j-fan.com/jpop/jpop.cgi?action=viewrev&artist=Morning_Musume&album=e-LIVE_REVOLUTION_21_SPRING_fdsaOSAKAJO_HALL_FINALfdsa-v

Interestingly, I dug through my MM files and found my own first reaction to this very same concert that I wrote on September 4, 2005, six days after discovering MM, and posted on the J-pop Forum (before I found MM-BBS). I’m pretty surprised at my own "disgraceful and annoying" negative remarks, especially the mild disses of the older girls for not selling the songs "aggressively" enough, especially since this has become one of my most-watched concerts and the four members that I single out quickly became four of my favorites. Granted, it was only my 3rd MM concert, and the first pre-5th Gen one, and I still had a lot to learn.

Here is my initial reaction from Sept. 4, 2005:

Watched my third Morning Musume concert
This one’s pre-Fifth Generation and suffers for it

Okay, third one in a week. After watching the HELLO! PROJECT WINTER 2004 CONCERT and MM: LOVE IS ALIVE! CONCERT TOUR SPRING 2002, both of which I did posts on, I watched my first pre-Fifth Generation MM concert: LIVE REVOLUTION 2001 SPRING – OSAKA.

I expressed fears in the earlier post that maybe I’d been spoiled by what I’d been watching. My fears were justified. The one I just watched really suffers from the absence of the Fifth Generation members (Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Asami Konno, Makoto Ogawa). Too many of the older members are too much alike. There’s not a lot of diversity or contrast. As for the younger ones here, Nozomi Tsuji and Ai Kago, they look so much alike, I’d swear they were twins. And they’re kind of stuck here in their overly “kawaii” act. The only one of the ten I really paid close attention to this time was Rika Ishikawa. Although I must say this is the first time I’ve seen Yuko Nakazawa—this is her graduation concert—and she’s quite a looker. She’s also quite a bit older than the rest, which is kind of nice for a man my age.

There are a few genuinely catchy numbers (I think one of them is called “Love Machine”), but they’re few and far between. The songs are, overall, just not that interesting. Nor is the choreography as good as it is in the other, later concerts I’ve seen. There’s a lot of movement, a lot of frenetic activity, but it all seems kind of rushed, slapped together.

I would argue that the better choreography in the later concerts may simply be a result of the Fifth Generation members inspiring the choreographers. They’ve got more energy and more—dare I say it?—rhythm. These girls, especially Ai and Risa, can really MOVE. They’ve got the stuff. They can WORK it. The older girls are pretty and charming and competent (Maki Goto, Natsumi Abe, Kaori Iida, Hitomi Yoshizawa, etc.), but they don’t SELL the numbers as aggressively as the younger girls and I think their own performing improved when the younger girls came on board.

This is all speculation, of course, and I’d have to see a lot more than the three concerts and one music video (Go Girl) I’ve seen to make a more fair assessment. But those are my thoughts.

I did enjoy a lot of it, but it pales next to the high entertainment value of the other ones I’ve seen.

One thing I noticed about this concert in Osaka: there were actually girls and women in the audience. First time I’ve noticed this.

Aibon’s Birthday – Watching the W Videos
I wanted to do something for Ai Kago’s 21st birthday, but the only thing I could think of for most of today was to cover her notorious photo shoot, my dismay over it, and my outrage at her barbaric treatment at the hands of management during her suspension as revealed in her blog. But I didn’t want to go to those dark, depressing places today, so instead I dug out the five W Single-V DVDs I own and watched them all from start to finish in one sitting. That’s 80 solid, glorious minutes of Aibon and Nono together. Each DVD has two versions of the video followed by “Making of” footage, which is often the best part of these things.

The five are, in order of release:

Koi no Vacance (6/23/04)
Making of: 7:30
Total time: 13:39

Robokiss (11/17/04)
Making of: 7:12
Total time: 15 min.

Koi no Fuga (2/23/05)
Making of: 12 min.
Total time: 17:31

Ai no Imi wo Oshiete! (6/1/05)
Making of: 10:50
Total time: 19 min.

Miss Love Tantei (9/14/05)
Making of: 8:18
Total Time: 15 min.

“Robokiss” is probably the best video of the bunch, simply because it’s the most elaborate and has so much going on in it and it’s one of the two W videos that actually have a storyline. Plus it has multiple Aibons and Nonos, always a cause of celebration in my book. And it has a guest appearance by Berryz Kobo. What’s not to love? One great effects shot has Nono pushing herself out of the way. The alternate version, “Happy ver.,” is them doing the song in one take in front of the camera in their robot outfits and jockeying with each other for closeups. It’s cute and funny, but not one shot from it is used in the main video.

“Miss Love Tantei” is the second best video and I would argue that the Dance Shot version is easily one of the very best things W has ever done. I like the song a great deal, it’s got a more rousing beat than the others, and I would say this is the best original song they did outside of “Aa Ii Na.” It has a nice rap part to it and the girls handle it with great flair. I like the dancing. There are three costume changes in the main video, including shots of the two in schoolgirl outfits and “ganguro” makeup (tanned skin + light-colored lips). Nono’s main costume is quite an eye-popping vision in white, with a midriff-baring tank top, hot pants and boots. She’s 18 here and they finally allowed her to be sexy.

“Koi no Vacance” has a Dance Shot version, which I was eager to see, although the main dance bit is nearly ruined by strobe lighting effects meant to simulate multiple camera flashes. Why don’t they just leave them alone to dance in medium shot unhampered in front of the camera?

“Koi no Fuga” – nice white dresses and dancing in front of brightly colored ‘60s-style graphics. A short one: 2:35.

“Ai no Imi wo Oshiete!” – They have cute red outfits on but the video is the weakest of the five. They’re meant to be inside a computer and are surrounded by unimaginative CGI graphics. The setting never changes. They shot the whole thing in front of a green screen. The Dance Shot version is not much different from the main video.

The best parts of all of this are often found in the Making of portions. “Koi no Fuga” has, at 12 min., the longest Making of section. Which is great. I could watch hours of this stuff. This section includes one of the greatest moments in Aibon history. At one point she’s in her white dress and is fooling around by herself among the different-colored columns making up one of the sets. She dances around the columns in a sprightly and elegant ballet style before coming back to the front and doing a split. It’s just a beautiful moment. Later, she and Nono embrace after a shot and she kisses Nono on the cheek. Way longer than a peck.

Berryz Kobo is seen briefly in the "Robokiss" Making of portion. They come into the studio, are so polite and bow to everybody, do their dance and leave, but not before bowing to everyone again. They are all so cute here (2004). Maiha Ishiura is with them. I wanted to see more of them, but I guess this was W’s show and no one wanted the dominant set of cute stars to have to share the spotlight with another, younger set.

Aibon and Nono don’t interact much with anybody in the “Making of” portions. There’s an occasional quick word from the director and a brief bit of attention from the lady choreographer. But no real conversations with anybody outside of themselves, except for words of thanks voiced by them to the crew at the end of the shoot and the clapping routine they lead the crew in at that time, as seen in three of the videos. But for the most part, it’s just the two of them vamping for the camera or doing schtick with each other. Or wandering around the set or outside on their own. Or watching themselves on the video monitor and laughing. At one point, a crew member puts a heavy jacket over Aibon's shoulders as she’s watching the monitor. The first and only time I see one of the crew actually DO something for either of the girls. (Why is it always so cold on these shoots?)

Through it all, Aibon has the most remarkable closeups. The camera really did love her. There’s something magical, mysterious, beautiful, playful, innocent, and naughty in her expressions. A sense of all sorts of possibilities. Which could, of course, go either way--as they well did. She’s clearly the brains behind the two girls’ mischief. What would Nono do without Aibon? Well, thanks to the geniuses running the organization, we all got the answer to that.

Happy Birthday, Aibon!

Birthdays in February
February’s a big birthday month for Hello! Project and other J-pop performers. Saki Nakajima from C-ute leads off the February Birthday Cavalcade, turning 15 today, Feb. 5. This Saturday, Feb. 7, is the birthday for two more from C-ute, Maimi Yajima (17) and Mai Hagiwara (13), as well as former H!P great, the one and only, incomparable Aibon, aka Ai Kago, who turns 21. In between Feb. 5 & 7, Rinne Toda, formerly of Country Musume, turns 28 on Feb. 6.

JunJun from Morning Musume turns 21 on Feb. 11 and Miuna Saitou from Country Musume turns 22 on Feb. 12.

Two older J-pop greats, Yuma Nakamura (“Sukeban Deka”) and Junko Iwao (anime singer and voice actress) turn 39 two days apart, Yuma on Feb. 16 and Junko on Feb. 18. (Junko did the voice of Mima Kirigoe in the anime film, “Perfect Blue.” Her CD Album, “Appear” is one of my favorite J-pop solo albums.)

A contemporary J-pop favorite, Mika Nakashima (“Nana”), turns 26 on Feb. 19, two days after my own daughter turns 26 (Feb. 17). Mika is the only female J-pop star I’ve actually seen in the flesh (so far). She came to New York to promote “Nana 2” in December 2006 and I was there at the event.

Two from Melon Kinenbi have birthdays at the end of the month: Ayumi Shibata turns 25 on Feb. 22 and Masae Ohtani turns 27 on Feb. 25.

Finally, there’s Feb. 26, the day Miki Fujimoto turns 24. It’s also the day former H!P performer Rika Ishii turns 29. Also that day, Lina (aka Ritsuko Matsuda), the most gorgeous member of Max , turns 32.

February’s also a big bicentennial month. Composer Felix Mendelssohn turned 200 on Feb. 3; Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin both turn 200 on Feb. 12.

In my birthday entry for January last month I forgot to mention Edgar Allan Poe’s bicentennial—on Jan. 19, the same day Rika Ishikawa turned 24. I would like to add Jan. 18, the day Anya, the beloved daughter of Gypchan (from MM-BBS), turned 2. Jan. 18 is also the birthday of Hollywood greats Cary Grant (one of my favorites) and Danny Kaye (whom I once saw in person); Hollywood not-so-great (or near-great, if you prefer) Kevin Costner; Japanese actress Shinobu Nakayama (so wonderful in “Gamera: Guardian of the Universe” and “Fist of Legend”); late author Robert Anton Wilson (another favorite of mine and one whom I saw give a lecture once); my friend Theresa, and my nephew Brandon. Not a bad lineup, huh?

Cinderella: The Musical - MM version
So I finally finished watching Morning Musume’s 2008 stage production, “Cinderella: The Musical.” It took a few sessions to get through Act 1, but I did—a few weeks ago. On Sunday night, I finally watched Act 2 (disc 2 of the DVD) in one sitting. Back in the 1960s, I saw a live version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” musical on TV when I was a kid and I don’t remember much about it. (It may not even have been live.) I’ve never really cared much for Lesley Ann Warren, who played Cinderella in it, and I wonder if it’s because she just left such a negative impression on me back then. I’ve never felt the urge to see the musical again and I don’t recall any of the songs from it. And it’s not like I wasn’t into showtunes or Rodgers & Hammerstein at the time. I had the original cast album of R&H’s “Sound of Music,” along with various other cast albums and LP’s of showtunes, and I listened to them regularly. Still, hearing the songs of “Cinderella” again—in Japanese—did nothing for me. I’m familiar enough with the Cinderella story (well, d’uhh) that I don’t think the lack of subtitles was that big a problem. Yet, for me, the whole thing seemed kind of unnecessarily long and slow.

My main reason for watching was, of course, Morning Musume. I’ve watched all their other musicals, even that ridiculous ecology one with “Help!!” in the title. I looked forward to “Cinderella” because I wanted to see them in period costumes again, after enjoying them so much in “Edokko Chushingura” and “Ribbon no Kishi.” The main problem with “Cinderella,” though, is that there aren’t enough suitable parts for all nine girls in MM. Once you get past Cinderella, the Prince, and the two stepsisters—parts that went to Ai, Risa, Reina and Eri—where are you gonna put the other five girls? You can’t make Koharu the Queen or Sayumi the Fairy Godmother. You need more imposing actresses for those parts. So Koharu & co. got short shrift. Koharu, JunJun and LinLin play uniformed attendants of the Prince, while Sayumi and Aika play cute little fairy girls working for the Fairy Godmother. None of them had many lines. I don’t recall either Sayumi or Aika actually saying anything. They mostly just flit about. This is quite a contrast with “Chushingura,” where you had twelve girls in major parts, plus a few for other H!P performers.

So we’re left with the four main girls to provide the bulk of the Morning Musume flavor in the show. Ai-chan is quite beautiful as Cinderella and sings the songs very well. Risa is properly dashing and handsome as the Prince (a part Ai-chan could just as easily have played, but then you wouldn’t have had anybody suitable to play Cinderella). I love Risa’s uniform and boots. And she sings the Prince’s solos competently. (Finally some solos suited to Risa.) Reina and Eri are cute and funny as the wicked stepsisters. But they don’t sing as much as I’d like.

But I wanted to see more of the other girls and the show just wasn’t able to accommodate that. I enjoyed the few scenes we get of Koharu and the Pandas in those great uniforms (damn, do I love a girl in uniform)--Koharu in blue, the Pandas in pink. Sayumi and Aika were very cute, especially in their green fairy outfits, but they didn’t have much to do.

I love Ai-chan, but her performance lacked something. She was kind of sappy. She smiles sweetly and obediently and puts up with lots of abuse without a peep of protest. Granted, the song lyrics or dialogue might have included some words of protest or lament that I didn't understand, but I didn’t see any sign of it in her face or body. I wanted to see a dark side, some dissatisfaction, an edge. Something a little less saccharine. But I didn’t get it. She looks beautiful and sings superbly, but I wanted more than that. Not that the show necessarily could have given any more than that. Risa looks great, but she’s somewhat stiff and I wanted to see more passion. Too bad they didn’t stage it a year or so earlier when Yossi could have played the Prince with Miki Fujimoto as Cinderella. That would have given it some edge. Wow. Imagine what a little improvisation could have yielded. The mind boggles. Or Miki as the Prince and Aya Matsuura as Cinderella...quick, cue up GAM’s “Melodies” video!

Anyway, MM does a four-song set right after “Cinderella,” opening with High-King’s “C/C (Cinderella/Complex),” which works well as an MM song, followed by “Shabondama,” “The Peace,” and “Resonant Blue,” which at least appears to be sung partly live, unlike the performance they did of it at the “Resonant Live” concert.

The Takarazuka ladies playing all the other parts were great, esp. the women who played the stepmother, the Queen, the King, and the Fairy Godmother. The ones who play the Queen and the Fairy Godmother come out after the show, following the MM set, and do three famous showtunes in Japanese translations, “Blue Moon,” by Rodgers & Hart; “Shall We Dance?” from “The King and I,” by Rodgers & Hammerstein; and “The Sweetest Sounds,” from “No Strings,” by Richard Rodgers. Nice.

MM's latest concert is a winner!
I can’t believe I’m finally catching up. This morning I watched a DVD of “Morning Musume Concert Tour 2008 Autumn: Resonant Live,” which was taped on November 3, 2008—less than three months ago! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this current from H!P since the days I was picking up new “Hello Morning” episodes hot off the duplication machine from the Japanese video store in Manhattan that used to carry them. I don’t think I’ve ever before seen a Hello! Project concert so soon after they did it.

It’s a great concert, easily the best thing I’ve seen with the current MM lineup outside of the 2007 "Aki ~Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! Bomb~" concert which I wrote about on December 6, 2008. If there’s any improvement in this one, it has to do with Reina’s increase in lead spots, always a good thing with this bunch. I was just complaining on MM-BBS about how little most of the girls got to do in so much of their recent work, but then I watched this concert, which gives each of the nine girls a lot of fun stuff to do. That’s probably the single best aspect of this—actually seeing all the girls showcased, either in smaller units or in greater amounts of solo lines within the songs. I really enjoy seeing Reina and Eri do some of the heavy lifting, because they’re really good at it and they should get those opportunities more often. Ai-chan and Risa do a great job of anchoring the lineup and the new girls all contribute heartily. (New being somewhat relative, since Aika debuted almost two years ago.) Of the new girls, LinLin seems the most enthusiastic in embracing a true MM style of performing. And the other two are getting there. I still wish they’d give Sayumi more to do than look cute and utter the “cute” lines of each song, although it IS something she's well suited for. As for Koharu...well, let’s just say that at certain points, her behavior borders on manic. Which is fine with me. A whole solo concert of her played at that pitch would be Koharu Heaven.

The girls all look great, as beautiful as I’ve ever seen them, and Ai-chan, Risa and Reina are absolutely gorgeous. Ai-chan, in particular, is just stunning. And, as leader, she carries herself with greater confidence than I've ever seen in her. The costumes are fantastic, with a total of 13 costume changes throughout. (If you only count the 16 numbers featuring the entire MM lineup, then the number of costume changes is seven, still a high number for an MM concert.) The outfits are attractive and sometimes dazzling, but also practical and functional, with plenty of room for the skin to breathe during all the high-energy numbers. The girls are encumbered in longer outfits (that cover soon-to-be-revealed nicer costumes underneath) in only three numbers. What all this adds up to, of course, is that, more than ever, Morning Musume functions today as a true idol group built on looks and visuals, a far cry from the days when it was ruled by disparate, quirky personalities and Kaori, Mari, Yossi, Aibon, Nono and Rika would run riot over the stage and get in your face, the very antithesis of idol behavior, and the reason so many of us fell in love with them in the first place. Those days are gone, never to be retrieved, so if you’re gonna craft MM as an idol group, make them the best damned idols you can make them. Make them look great and give 'em great costumes and dance numbers that play up their strengths and even an MM-glory-days-curmudgeon like me will be entertained.

It’s a fast-paced concert with a total of 23 songs, 16 of them performed by the entire nine-girl lineup, leaving seven songs to solos or smaller units, such as a trio made up of Ai-chan, Risa and Reina, in great dresses and doing a nice dance routine. Koharu comes out as part of Milky Way, accompanied by Sayaka Kitahara and Yuu Kikkawa, the only non-MM performers onstage for the entire concert. Ai-chan and Aika do solos in the concert proper. Risa’s solo of “Indigo Blue Love” is seen as an extra. Reina, Eri and Sayumi sing “Lemon Iro to Milk Tea” in the concert, with Reina taking the lead, but in the extras, there are two other versions of the song, one with Eri taking the lead and one with Sayumi. Nice.

Of the 23 songs performed, nine were unfamiliar to me. And of the 14 I’d heard before, only nine were songs I’d say I was really familiar with. To me that’s a solid—and welcome--dose of fresh material. I can’t say I’d put any of the newer, unfamiliar songs in the same league as classics from the MM songbook, but they had a lot of energy and kept the girls moving and smiling and basically did the job they were supposed to. There weren’t many old classics in the concert's repertoire, but the ones included were well chosen for this lineup: “Souda, We’re Alive,” “Roman - My Dear Boy,” and “Koko ni Iruzee.” Normally I’d object to “Souda, We’re Alive” being performed by any lineup that didn’t include Mari or Yossi, but the girls here have such a good time with it, that I can’t object at all. And that’s the other great thing about this show: the girls have a great time and seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. And that good feeling carries over to the audience.

From a technical standpoint, the only real problem I had was the use of red lighting in some numbers. It’s a bad choice for the camera because it makes the girls look bad and their movements hard to see and was used too much in some numbers. The camerawork and editing are otherwise above-average. I also had a problem with “Resonant Blue” because it seemed lip-sync’d to me and I really wanted to see that one live. Milky Way’s “TantanTaan” sounded live in the solo lines, but lip-sync’d in the chorus. I really don’t like lip-sync’ing at these concerts.

Another C-ute concert – second half is great!
The latest C-ute concert to be released on DVD, “Cute Cutie Circuit 2008 - September 10 wa Cute no Hi,” is not as good as the previous one (the summer concert I wrote about briefly on Jan. 18), but only because its first half is so weak. The girls wear these bulky red plaid outfits adorned with distracting gold chains and it slows down their movements. Plus they sing the weaker songs in their repertoire and engage in long skits that I couldn’t understand. But once they perform their only costume change in the entire concert and get into those cute white and red sequined numbers with white boots, they’re much more liberated and they launch into a 45-minute set that’s as good as anything they’ve ever done, with some of the best high-energy numbers in their repertoire saved for this part. It’s quite a sight to behold. They do “Edo no Temari Uta II,” “Namida no Iro,” and “Jump,” three numbers I like very much, plus some songs I don’t know the names of. They also do “Massara Blue Jeans” in a manner that I really like. Now that their voices have changed, the song sounds better.

Preceding that set (which starts at 46:30 on the DVD), there’s a delightful skit (the first to feature the new costumes) in which “DJ Mai Mai” (“Check it out, check it out”) tries out different covers of other H!P songs with Chisato and Airi, including “Morning Coffee” and “Fly High,” before they launch into “That’s the Power.” They’re then interrupted mid-song by the other girls, including Erika, who seems to accuse them of taking the scarves they use as props in the song from Biyuden and incurring the wrath of Ishikawa. (At least I think that’s what she said. It’s sure funny that way.) Chisato, as adorable as ever, seems to blame everything on “DJ Mai Mai.” (She’s really a delight in these skits.)

The major problem with this concert is that it’s shot in one of the tiniest venues I’ve ever seen used for a Hello! Project concert. It looks like a garage refitted as a music club. The stage is tiny and narrow, with speakers blocking certain camera angles. There’s so much clutter on the stage, with lights and speakers all around, that it’s a wonder the girls manage not to stumble or bang into something during the performance. The lighting is incredibly dark at times. And then there’s this terrible tendency to bathe the girls in red light, a real blunder when the girls are wearing red outfits in the first set and, thus, can hardly be seen. It was very frustrating. In future viewings, I’ll just start the DVD at Chapter 10, with DJ Mai Mai, and take it from there. Once the pace picks up in the second half, it’s easier to overlook the distracting lighting and cramped stage. (The whole performance is under 90 minutes.)

There is no extra footage on the DVD, but there is an option to listen to the girls themselves provide an audio commentary over the concert. Which is great if you understand Japanese, since, of course, there are no subtitles. And which is great if, not understanding Japanese, you simply like hearing the girls laugh. Which they do a lot.

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