Hello!Baka : Am I really a fool?

I wonder how this happened. One minute I'm minding my own business and enjoying my simple wota life and the next minute Liamers, of Mayuge Madness, has roped me into singing karaoke with his newly formed fandub group, Hello!Baka. Lets take a step back in time so I can figure out how I got here.

Lets see. I think it all started over on the Musume-Central forums quite some time ago, when Liam tried to put together an M-C karaoke team. It worked, he managed to get a decent sized group together and they performed Morning Musume's Aruiteru on our podcast back in July (see below). He tried to rope me into doing it back then, but I flat out refused. I was pretty adamant about it too. For a long time afterwards he would ask me, "So why didn't you do Aruiteru with us?" I don't think I ever had a solid excuse, I just didn't want to do it.

Liamers, Shwee & Dran Podcast (July 08) :

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Well, recently he decided to have a second attempt at an M-C karaoke. Once again, he tried to convince me to join. At first I refused. But then I agreed. I said, "I'll do it, but under the condition that I get Maasa's lines!" And he accepted my terms. He wasn't supposed to do that. I just said that as something of a joke to get him to stop bothering me about it. There were 8 of us in the group (including myself) and I figured that since 3 or 4 of them weren't big into Berryz Koubou Liam wouldn't be able to agree without asking the rest of the team first. And I knew that EtherealMotives would have much rather performed a Momusu song. But does he play his role in my plan?

No he doesn't. He jumps at the chance and the rest of the group is forced to perform a Maiha-era Berryz song, thanks to my attempt at getting out of it and Liam's damn initiative. We took a vote and we all agreed that Koi no Jubaki was an acceptable song. (Much to my relief. Maasa has no solo lines in that song. I never thought I'd be so happy about Maasa's lack of lines, but there we go.)

Well, Koi no Jubaku hasn't been released yet. But for those of you who like to listen to people embarrassing themselves with a fandub, rest assured... It's well on the way.

Well, Liam didn't waste any time in pitching his latest idea to us all. A fandub group (I believe his reasoning is that he wants to try compete with SacredCultivator's Hello!Dubs) where we of-course sing H!P songs. Although I have suggested singing a JE song or two, just to get us some fangirls (*wink*). Oddly enough, I signed up for this one myself. No attempts at escaping. I thought, "Sure. Sounds like fun. I'm in!"

I know, I know. You are thinking I've lost my mind. I have. There is no other explanation for it. But here I am. Performing in Hello!Baka's First Generation debut song - Ai no Tane - actually suggested by me... Seemed almost poetic to make Ai no Tane our debut song. What? It's just a cliché? Who asked you?

Our version does differ from the original. Liam decided to become the second coming of Tsunku (despite the little tongue-in-cheek Mars symbol appended to the end of Cotton Cloth, or mixer,'s credit in the cover at the top of the post) and redistribute the lines to make it more even. Even though I was supposed to be singing Ishiguro Aya's lines, sometimes other members are singing one of Aya's lines or whatever.

I'm treating this as a learning experience. Doing these karaoke things is much harder than it looks. I found that I can maybe sing a bit better than I originally thought (maybe). But I am awful at holding notes. I think I also need to sing louder. And apparently I was a bit off-time with everyone else. This song was riddled with timing problems, but Cotton Cloth did a great job with the timing on this one - he's definitely the MVP of the show. It can't have been easy for him. And we, no doubt, couldn't do it without him.

Without further ado, here is Hello!Baka's debut song, Ai no Tane :

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Also note that Hello!Baka is accepting auditions for it's 2nd Generation. There we go, Liam. A shameless plug, I hope you're happy.

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Stockholm Japan Expo

A few days ago a rumour surfaced that the Stockholm Japan Expo was going to be cancelled, and when the site went offline it made us all incredibly worried. Then the official confirmation arrived around mid-day yesterday.

Dear Customer,

Unfortunately we have to inform you that Stockholm Japan Expo 2009 is cancelled.

There are several reasons for this, the financial change in world economy, severe competition from other festivals/concerts as well as poor ticket sale.

This means you will get your ticket purchase back by www.ticnet.se. More info about this will be announced on our website (www.japanexpo.se) next week.

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused and hope that Stockholm Japan Expo will be feasible in the near future.

With sincere apologies,

SJX-Crew

Needless to say, I was angry. Angry that after paying for it all and investing so much money and stress on the fact that I was going to see Buono! perform live. Angry after this had been snatched away from me. I felt like I, and thousands of other people, had been lied to by the Prime Minister himself.

Now, I've had a little time to think and clear my head though. I feel a little calmer, although the reality of it all still hasn't fully sunk in yet.

It's clear that Buono! and UFA have nothing to do with the decision, and it's trully a shame that we're sending such a message to them of the European fans. After this, I'd be reluctant to have the girls perform in Europe any time soon. I'm sure UFA are probably thinking the same. But I really doubt that the girls had any intention to perform here before this, they were invited by the SJX organisers (in collaboration with NewNippon, I believe) to perform at the expo. Much the same way I imagine Morning Musume were invited to Anime Expo. UFA were promised a sum of money, and they agreed to have the girls pay LA and Stockholm a visit. I guess the hope then was to have this kickstart a western expansion by the agency and the talents.

We Europeans haven't gained anything, nor have we lost anything short of an oppertunity. The Battle for Britain is clearly much further off than we had thought.

The biggest consolodation that I have found in the cancellation is that I will no longer have to perform wotagei for Buono! I said I wanted to learn and perform wotagei for them, and I still have that dream. But if there's one thing I've learned from my practice, it's that Buono! are a difficult group to learn the wotagei to. Their music isn't exactly traditional J-Pop, and I've had a little trouble differentiating between who is actually singing and when - particularly Miyabi and Airi, as when singing as part of Buono! the two have very similiar voices. I really don't think I'm ready for them.

Had the group been Berryz Koubou instead, I probably wouldn't have that sense of relief, as I'm much more confident when it comes to Berryz songs which are much more familiar to me, and the voices I can tell apart in an instant.

I had bought myself a happi coat specifically for this concert though, and I will regret that I won't be able to use it.

Despite this, I know many of us have still got money invested in visiting Stockholm as non-refundable and are still planning on visiting. I'm one of these people. And I look forward to meeting any fellow fans and wota who will make the pilgrimage, even if the prophets are gone. I'm confident that we will have a wonderful time regardless, after all... Stockholm is supposed to be a wonderful city and the Swedes a wonderful people.

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SweetS

Okay, some of you may remember my post on the Japanese gore film Suicide Club, and more importantly how I talked about how much I loved the fictional girl group, Dessert, featured in the movie. Well, back then I wrote that I had been pointed in the direction of a real idol group who weren't at all unlike Dessert, that group was SweetS. So here I am talking, once again, about things outside of my realm of Hello!Project.

SweetS was a 5-nin group which debuted in 2003 as a part of Avex. While the group met little success, it did garner something of a cult following and, even though the group dissolved in 2006, still retains much of that following. The five then-aged 12-13 members: Aki; Aya; Haruna; Mai; and Miori managed to produce 11 singles, 1 album, 2 mini-albums (and a Best! compilation) and 2 photobooks during their 3 years in the public eye. An impressive set of numbers, to be sure. It is a shame that the group disbanded when it did, as the members were nearing the prime Idol age of 16-17 at the time. They disbanded about 6 months prior to me taking up an interest in this industry, which is regrettable, but I feel this group, with it's great cult following, will stand the test of time well as we take a trip down memory lane and remember those grand years of the modern Idol industry.

Now, the first thing that strikes me about this group is that they are under the Avex Group. And that comes as no surprise when you listen to the music they produced. The odd thing is that I usually don't like Avex artists. Sure there are a couple that I have a passing interest in, (BoA, for example) but none that I really paid great attention to - that is enough to actively seek out their songs and listen. That is, until I heard SweetS. The chorus for their debut single "LolitA☆Strawberry in Summer" haunts me for days after listening to it, and I keep coming back to these tracks. I guess you come back thinking that if you finally listen to the song after it has plagued your mind all day, you'll finally be able to move on with your life and concentrate on what you are supposed to be doing... But, as we're soon made aware to, that just sets the cycle off again. In fact, it sounds very much like trying to break a drug addiction. So that's their plan, huh?

Of course, these are idols, therefore it isn't just the music that makes them so interesting. TV helps to show their personality. I haven't seen very many TV clips, but I have no doubt that there are plenty out there to find. If you find any good TV shows featuring these girls, don't hesitate to let me know. Thus far my favourite TV clip would be this video where we get to see Haruna's house and meet her family.




One thing I do find odd, though, is that Haruna's older sister comes in while filming and tries to hide out of embarrasment, probably doesn't like being on camera. But it doesn't seem to take her very long to go from that quiet, shy 15-year old to almost loud and obnoxious. Dual personality, perhaps? She does seem like an entirely different person. Of course, this video doesn't show of Haruna's personality much, but her family (and her room) definately make that video an interesting watch. Oh, for the record, Haruna is shaping up to be my favourite member of the group. These are still young days though, this will no doubt change multiple times until I get to know the girls a bit more.

I think one thing that helped me adapt (and adopt) this new group was because of how much they remind me of the Special Generation-Era Berryz Koubou. The two are very different from one another, and yet for some reason which I can't even begin to fathom a guess at, they remind me of one another. Take a peak at their PVs yourself, I'm sure you'll understand what I mean and be just as confused by the fact as I am. Either way, I've no doubt in my mind that it is the feeling of familiarity created by this that has led me to becoming something of a SweetS wota (Jr Grade, of course).

So on that bombshell, let's sit back and watch as SweetS Grow into Shinin' Stars. And even though those stars have since faded, we continue to honour them today.

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