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...
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.”...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
TSUBAKI FACTORY – 2nd Step For their first three years as a major act, Tsubaki Factory had been the model of stability and consistency within the Hello! Project, in terms of both song quality and lack of group drama. But a week prior to the release of their seventh single, someone discovered and made public the secret Instagram account of...
ANGERME – Hakkiri Shiyou ze / Oyogenai Mermaid / Aisare Route A or B? Up-Front dropped PVs for all three tracks of Angerme’s forthcoming single today, nearly a full month ahead of its release date (June 23rd). I like that Hello! Project releases are not tied to predictable patterns of promotion — Kobushi Factory’s fun skits for “Oh No!” and...
It’s New Release Season at the Hello! Project, and we have radio rips of all new songs from the forthcoming Angerme single, and official teaser videos featuring all new songs from Tsubaki Factory’s new album, which is only two days from dropping. Without getting too far into the weeds on either release, let’s see what we’ve got. TSUBAKI FACTORYTsubaki Factory’s...
Hmmm… And now Momona is leading ME:I I suspect HP scraping the bottom of the barrel is why ambitious talents…
Well! Fukumura is graduating, but only at the END of this year - LOL!
Fukumura and her cahoots are doing everything they possibly can to prolong their idoling careers. There's a certain amount of…
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