Berryz Koubou "Heroine ni Narou ka?" PV

Well, Berryz Koubou's new single "Heroine ni Narou ka?", to be released the first week of March, now has a PV which, it appears, has attracted very mixed reactions.

I guess I'll throw my own into the fray.

The PV is good. Like everyone else, I'm sure, my first reaction upon seeing it was "Holy crap, it's Lady Gaga." So let's get this out of the way first. 

The whole Lady Gaga controversy (does it count as a controversy?) seems unavoidable. The parallels between those solo close up shots and Lady Gaga's own music video run so closely that one might forgive you for actually thinking they came from the same place. I'm not sure what was going through UFW's mind when they created it, but I'm sure plaigerism wasn't it. Can anyone seriously expect them to be stupid enough to do something like that and expect everyone to not notice? No. Some people may give them a hard time for their apparant foolishness, but they are a business which has been going (in one form or another) for decades. It takes a certain degree of intelligence to run a business like that, and that certainly wouldn't be on par with the intelligence required. 

Anyway, that aside, the PV turned out to be pretty decent. The dance shot and story parts of the PV proved to be interesting, with sexy outfits all round - especially Maasa. There was a brief debate (or rather an exchange of views) on the dance shot earlier in #wotachat. It seems Magatsu17 didn't really like the PV because of the dance shot and his inability to see it. And I guess it sort of makes sense. They aren't very well lit, and they are all dressed in black. But it did give the dance shot an interesting vibe. And with the crazy light show going on in the background, it was like watching a rave inside TRON. I think it was also intended to contrast the close up version with the Lady Gaga wigs as it jumps from dark to light and back again.

The song itself is really catchy, though something I'd more expect from C-ute than I would from Berryz. There's a fairly decent distibution of lines for those that care about such things and each girl does a fantastic job performing it.