Author: JPope

H!P Tweet Beat 8/15/2021

I still have tabs open from July, so might as well well get back on the beat so I can close them already. Seeing lots of tweets like this in H!P Twitter recently, and it’s not surprising. The last proper release was Angerme’s “Hakkiri Shiyou ze / Oyogenai Mermaid / Aisare Route A or B?” single back in June. Sure,...

Thank you, JPope

Re-imagining ⑮ Thank you, too. 2017 marked the begining of the MMMAGA movement — Make Morning Musume Albums Great Again — which kicked off with ⑮ Thank you, too. Four years later we were treated to 16th – That’s J-Pop, which I lauded as the best MM long-player since No. 5 in my review here. If 16th – That’s J-Pop...

H!P Tweet Beat 07/25/2021

It’s been a few weeks, but I’m back on the beat. I feel like I should be more surprised by this than I am, but it almost feels like Morning Musume has remained unchanged for even longer to me. Maybe it has something to do with all of the changes that have happened elsewhere in H!P over the same time...

Minding The Gap

Up-Front and the Hello! Project have filled the gap in their release schedule with solo videos from two of their more popular idols and two full-length videos for ad campaigns. Let’s start with the most recent and work our way backwards. Morning Musume and H!P leader Mizuki Fukumura gets her first proper (digital) solo release, a cover of KAN’s “Extra.”...

In With The n00bs

I’ve avoided writing about the new members selected for Juice=Juice and Tsubaki Factory because I didn’t really have too much to say in the immediate wake of the announcement, but now that we have some audition footage, I have something I can sink my teeth into. First off, I’m stunned at how many girls were added to both groups (not...

H!P Tweet Beat 7/5/2021

H!P Twitter is about to explode in about an hour, so let’s see if I can clear some tabs before the New Unit bomb drops. AKB vs MM’21 on The Music Day show was the big story for the last days of the week, so let’s get to it. Social media posts like those being translated above are common whenever...

H!P Tweet Beat – 6/27/2021

Let’s wrap up the week in H!P Twitter, or at least my H!P Twitter feed. Lots of talk about future graduation. Impending Morning Musume graduations isn’t something that any MM/H!P fan hasn’t thought about for a while now. In fact, it gets brought up every time a different group graduates a member, but Anna floats a unique possibility: a change...

Sayonara Kasahara

Here we go again. I feel like I might have jinxed this group when I used the headline “Angerme v2.0 (stable)” for the review of their triple-PV drop last month. It really did feel like Angerme had finally stabilized after losing six members in two years, with mid-tier members seizing new opportunities to shine, an exciting new generation bubbling with...

H!P Tweet Beat – 6/19/2021

I’m gonna try out a new format where I comment on tweets I see from H!P Twitter that interest me beyond a single tweet response. Long Twitter threads tend to be a drag, as pithiness is the coin of Twitter’s realm, so I’ll do my long-form babbling here. I’m of two minds on this: there are times when I’m shocked...

Risamaru’s Redemption?

Woke up today to see that Up-Front had decided to dip their toes into the waters of forgiveness with a solo recording and video from former Tsubaki Factory member Risa Ogata. Nothing too crazy — no swan-dives or cannonballs — just a quick check to see if the water is worth wading into a little further. Ogata officially joined the...