"Find the Good" Game!

All opinions expressed in this post are my own. If you happen to share them, great! If you don't, I'm sorry. I will not be censoring my opinions (EVER) for fear that they may differ from someone else's. If you leave me with a criticism, please make it constructive. Otherwise, enjoy :D. Or don't. Up to you.

Let's play a game! I like games :3. Recently I've put up quite a few posts regarding or referencing to some pretty negative stuff. It's kinda saddening... So today I wanna play the "Find the Good" game. This may or may not be a real game. As far as I know, I made it up, but original ideas are hard to come by nowadays, so it probably exists somehow already. Anyway, I'll be playing this H!P member style, so here's how I play: I'm going to go through every H!P member and talk about what I like about them. Even if I don't like the member, I will find something in them that I like. The main rule is just that I can't skip over any members using the excuse "I can't find anything I like about them." Everyone has charm points and, even if I have to spend an hour staring at them/watching videos of them/etc I WILL find something about them that I like. The other rule is that I'm not allowed to talk about anything I don't like about the members. Yup. Here we go.

First up is Michishige Sayumi. One of the things I love most about Shige is that she looks good in just about any style. When she's dressed cute, she's adorable. When she's dressed mature, she's gorgeous. When she's dressed cool/sexy/etc she's somehow able to work it. I love photos of her, and seeing her in different outfits. Another thing I love is her dedication to Morning Musume. After Aichan left, she did everything in her power to help Morning Musume stay popular, despite only being sub-leader at the time. Shige is my favorite leader for Morning Musume thus far because she really cares about the group and the members.

Next is Fukumura Mizuki. Firstly, Mizuki is gorgeous. That said, I love Mizuki's voice. It's very soft and mature. But at the same time, she can pull of cute songs like Aishuu Romantic so easily and sounds amazing. Also, despite being mature, she seems to have a bit of a playful side from what I've seen. I don't watch near as many videos as I want to, but from the bit I've seen, she seems like one of the members that most others enjoy the company of and gets along well with everyone. 

Ikuta Erina seems to be really good at pulling off styles like Shige, which I like. I also like that she's starting to find a personality in the group other than the "Gaki-Wota." She's always had the "strong" thing going for her, which is very admirable to me, but she's also made it her goal to become... what is it? "The number 1 idol" or something? I don't quite remember, but I think it may be interesting to see where that goes and if she takes it seriously. Lastly, Erina's is very pretty, especially in the right outfits and poses. Probably one of the best short-but-still-semi-girly-ish haired members H!P has had.

Sayashi Riho is an amazing dancer. Ever since the top 5 for gen 9 auditions were announced, I wanted her to get in because I loved her dancing so much. And now all the more so since she can dance without being held down by a certain lazy co-lead -cough-. Anyway, in addition to her dancing, one thing that I love is that she's gotten a lot better at smiling. I think it may have to do with feeling more comfortable in the group? Maybe? I don't know, but her old smile always scared me, but now she has a beautiful smile. Just look at it! It's adorable <3

My absolute favorite part of Suzuki Kanon is when she smiles wholeheartedly. Her "real" smile is one of those that I look at and can't help but smile along. Zukki also has a really unique (in a good way) voice that's enjoyable to listen to. Not to mention, Zukki has one of the most energetic personalities ever. Zukki really reminds me of Ogawa Makoto in that aspect. She's very playful and always seems to find some way of having fun.

Iikubo Haruna is really pretty, especially in the right photos. My initial bias towards her is because of the fact she's the closest H!P member ever to me in age (she's 2 days younger than me). Harunyan also has some funny reactions. She's very enjoyable to watch in misc. videos.

As for Ishida Ayumi, like Yasushi, she's an AMAZING dancer. She's also a really good singer, and even more so, an absolutely amazing rapper. If she ever gets a solo it better have rapping in it, for sure. Daishi's also very pretty. She especially looks amazing in cooler styles. I love when she wears outfits that involve ties, it somehow suits her. Haha, ties, suits, oh puns. 

Pretty sure anyone who has read most any of the posts on my blog already knows I absolutely LOVE Sato Masaki. So I will try and keep my fangirling to a minimum and just summarize what I love about her. First of all, she has such an adorable smile. Secondly, she has an amazing voice, though  when she uses her cutesy voice it may sound annoying, I still somehow like it. She's also a total airhead, but not in the fake "I want attention" kind of way. She's a legit airhead, and, at least for the time being, I find it adorable. Lastly, one of my favorite things about Masacchi is that she somehow has the ability to bring out the worst in everyone. And by "worst" I mean like "inner child." I'd gladly post an array of gifs and videos of such moments, but that's not what this post is for, so I'll be moving on now.

Despite being the youngest member of Morning Musume, Kudo Haruka is very mature. I love her tomboy style and would dare to say it rivals, if not beats, Yoshizawa Hitomi's (though I'm sure a lot of Yossie fans would beg to differ). Duu also has an amazing, strong voice. I also love how, despite how different they are, Duu is like the perfect match for Masacchi. Duu keeps Masacchi in check, and Masacchi brings out the kid in Duu. Perfect, right? :D

I remember when I first heard Help Me!! and my jaw literally dropped at Oda Sakura's first solo. Sakura has a very powerful voice. I also love her dancing. However, I'll admit, when she first joined, the thing I loved about her most was her sense of taste when she said "I want to be able to sing like Takahashi Ai and Niigaki Risa, and dance like Nakajima Saki." Now, though, I love Sakura for herself. She also has a cute, but still rather timid personality. I can't wait to see how she is when she gets completely relaxed in Morning Musume.

Shimizu Saki is probably my 2nd favorite member of current H!P (after Masacchi). I love her voice, both her cute-ish voice and her mature voice. Her dancing is also amazing, and her rapping is even better than her singing. Plus, she pulls of both mature and cool styles flawlessly. From what I can tell, Captain cares a lot about Berryz and is trying her best to keep them afloat even as they seem to be deteriorating slightly. I love that she dubbed Miiya as Sub-Captain despite her being the 3rd youngest. Captain's also very playful and silly sometimes, and it's fun to watch her in videos.

What I love about Tsugunaga Momoko is how, when she's not pulling her cute Momochii bullshit, she is so pretty. And when she wants to be, she can actually be drop-dead gorgeous. I think I'd fall in love with her if she looked like she does in this photo more often! <3

Tokunaga Chinami has to be one of the best personalities in current H!P. She's cute and funny and always smiling. She always seems to be messing around, but not in the annoying way, more like in the lightening the mood kinda way. She's also got a great smile that always looks like she means it with her whole heart when she smiles, even if it's just a smile smile. She's also adorable, and even some more serious styles suit her well.

I'd have to say that Sudou Maasa is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite voice in Berryz Koubou (not sure if Miiya would be ahead of her or not). I love her deep, mature voice, as well as the uniqueness of her voice.

Natsuyaki Miyabi is a big bias for me with the title of "first H!P bias." I've loved her since I first got into H!P through Buono! Her voice is great and her dancing is good. She also is gorgeous when she doesn't have ridiculous hairstyles. Miiya has always come across as mature to me and I feel like she would make a great leader (another reason why I was so excited that she was made sub-captain of Berryz).

Kumai Yurina has always fascinated me, to some extent. Between being the tallest member of Berryz, and having an extremely unique voice, she's one of those members that always seems to stand out (pun intended).

Somehow, Sugaya Risako has always seemed to me like one of the most relate-able members. I can't really explain how, she just gives off a really... well... "normal" vibe to me. I also love her voice. She's probably one of the strongest singers in lives out of Berryz Koubou. Even though her voice isn't my favorite, I really do think she deserves most of the lines she's given in songs.

Yajima Maimi is one of my favorite members in the "sexy" category. Definitely. She's also a pretty good dancer and has amazing hair. Maimi's probably one of the few/only members that I actually really like her hair, even when it's straight.

Nakajima Saki is another one of those "amazing dancer" things that I've mentioned before. She may possibly be my favorite of those, not sure on that one. Nakky also has potentially the best legs in H!P. Again, not sure, but hers are basically the only ones I've noticed, so I like them best. That's enough, right? Despite it being cutesy, I really love Nakky's voice, and don't find it near as annoying as most other cutesy voices. (I think Masacchi and Nakky are the only two super cutesy voices that I really like)

I think Suzuki Airi looks better in her member color than any other member looks in theirs. I swear, Airi looks perfect in pink. It's like she was made for the color. But Airi has this thing about looking good in most everything, it's just that making it pink makes it like 20% cooler (/MLP reference). Her voice is amazing too.

I'd have to say Okai Chisato's voice is probably my favorite out of current C-ute. I think Airi's is better in that it has an amazing range and such, but there's just something about Chisa's that is much more fun to listen to than Airi's. Plus she somehow always gets some badass songs for solos/leads and she pulls them off with ease.

Hagiwara Mai has really grown into a beautiful young woman these past few years. And her voice is much more tolerable then it used to be for me. I feel like she's gotten a lot better at controlling her voice, and rather than nasally cutesy voice like Masacchi, Momocchi, and Nakky tend to use, she seems to have a more naturally cutesy voice.

Okay, I lied. Wada Ayaka is also on my list of cutesy voices that I still love, as is Aika and Yukan so... uhh... forget I said anything. Anyway, I love DAWA's voice, in case you didn't catch that. I also love her hair. She's on the list with Maimi of "people who's hair I love even when it's straight." DAWA's also gotten extremely beautiful since the old Shugo Chara Egg days. (BTW I've had a DAWA bias since SCE in case I never mentioned that.)

As for Fukuda Kanon, I would have no complaints if she became a full time cosplay-model. I love her cosplays. Amulet Clover, Princess Kaguya, Suzumiya Haruhi, I've loved them all.

I can't seem to decide if Nakanishi Kana is adorable or beautiful. Maybe both? But with most people who I think are both, it varies with the outfit, however with Kananana, I'll look at the same photo and not be able to determine how I would define it. Outside of looks, I also love Kananana's voice. It's mature-ish, but in a cute kind of way.

I feel like if she wasn't a singer, Takeuchi Akari should be a model. I know I've commented on just about every member's looks, but something about Takechan just really makes me think she'd be a good model, especially for "cool" style fashions. Takechan also has a great voice, with, again, a very uniqueness to it.

Katsuta Rina comes across as a more mature, calmer person to me. She's also really cute when it comes to her looks. There's just something about her that makes me love her. <3

When it comes to Tamura Meimi, I don't even know where to start. I love her energetic personality, I love her deep, strong voice that doesn't seem to fit properly with her adorable image. Her dancing is always full of energy, and she always looks like she's having fun in videos, be it a PV, a concert, or another misc. video.

Mitsui Aika has only gotten cuter since she graduated from Morning Musume. I really wish she would do something as a solo artist, be it actually release songs or even be her own little modeling soloist of H!P. But I love her voice, and her looks, and she's just perfect and I wanna see more of her. ;A;

I've loved Miyazaki Yuka since she showed up out of no where in GREEN FIELDS. When it was announced she would be in a new egg unit, I couldn't have been more excited. Yukan is gorgeous and mature, and I love her voice. I feel like she's perfect for Juice=Juice and I'm infinitely glad she was added to it.

I know I've used this word a lot, but Kanazawa Tomoko has the most unique voice in current (and possibly all-time) Hello!Project. Her accent affects her singing voice enough to stand out and it sounds really cool. Plus, Tomoko is really pretty. I hadn't even heard her name until Juice=Juice was announced, but she's grown to be my second favorite member in the group since it formed.

I feel like Takagi Sayuki is the most energetic girl in Juice=Juice. I love her powerful voice, as well as her energetic dancing. I feel like she and Meimi would have a lot of fun singing and dancing together.

I have to say, Miyamoto Karin's gentle voice is amazing, I'm really not at all upset that she's one of the lead singers of Juice=Juice (yeah, now if only the gap between the leads and the back ups wasn't so big... :'3) She's also really pretty and seems to look good in most of the outfits she's had so far.

Lastly, Uemura Akari is really pretty and looks older than she actually is (I really didn't think she was the youngest of Juice=Juice at first). Her voice is also really cute. I don't love it by any means, but I do like it. She also has a really pretty smile. 

So that was my attempt at finding the good in everyone in current H!P. I hope you enjoyed, and I challenge you to try and look at some of the members you may not like so much and find something about them that you can honestly say you like. Have a good day/night/morning/evening/whatever time it is where you are, and see you next time.

New Surveys and Old Survey's Results.

My survey got 13 responses. That may not seem like much, but it was like 5-10 more than I expected to get, so I'm going to post the results here for it. I'll leave the survey open if people still want to take it (that link is dis one -click me- if you're interested in that). I may or may not post the results again in the future depending on how many more people vote.

Before I show the results, I did get a few requests for more surveys (as you will see later), so I went ahead and made two more for the time being. An official one, and a "preliminary" one.

Click here for the Berryz Koubou Survey

Click here for the Hello! Project Preliminary Survey

In regards to the H!P Prelims one, I'll probably narrow the nominated members down to the top 7-10 (depending on the question, and this only if more than that are nominated) simply to keep things a bit cleaner.

Alright, now that that's been said, let's look at the Results of the 13 responses to the "Random Morning Musume Survey"

What is Morning Musume's rank to you?

This really doesn't surprise me much. it seems to me Morning Musume is one of the most popular groups before taking a survey. Seeing the majority vote for "First" and 100% of the 13 responses are in the top half (First-Third), makes sense to me.

Who's voice do you like the best?

This is probably one of the ones that surprised me the most. Just by the fact that Masaki got the most votes thus far. I personally voted for her, but I know that a lot of people don't like her voice because she tends to use the "cutesy" one most of the time, which even I'll admit is extremely annoying. Sakura being 2nd isn't very surprising, I was personally expecting her to be first.

Who's dancing do you like the best?

Riho won by a margin. I got a laugh out of the random Erina in there though. 12/13 people voted for either Ayumi or Riho, and then just a random vote for Erina. Nothing against Erina's dancing or whoever voted for it. To each his own, huh? ;3

Who's personality do you like the best?

Other than being, again, surprised by Masaki's lead, I'm not surprised much elsewhere. It's to be expected for this category especially to be diverse. Well... All of them should be, but I just feel like what people like in other people's personalities would vary a bit more than their voice or dancing abilities, but this is just an un-backed prejudgement on my part. I have no evidence for it.

Which members would you say you "love"?

I'm very happy, and not just that 7/13 would say they love Masaki, but primarily that everyone has at least 2 people who love them. Fans are very important to an idol, and I may not necessarily love everyone in the group, but I do think they all work hard and deserve love.

Which members would you say you "like"?

This also pleases me greatly. It feels like people like to ignore the line between "love" and "hate," so I'm happy to see that so many people do incorporate that they may not "love" a member, but they still like them.

Which members would you say you less than "like"?

I think the thing I like most about this one is that, no member as more than 4 less than like votes. Unlike "Love" which varied from 2 to 7, and "Like" which varied from 4 to 8, this category only varies from 2 to 4 at the moment. I also like how most of the members are about the same. 6/10 of them are tied at 2, and 2/10 are tied at both 3 and 4. I dunno, I personally find that amusing xD.

Which generation made the biggest impact on your opinion of MoMusu's Colorful Era?

This is possibly the most surprising graph to me. Not only do Michishige and Oda have no votes, but Gen 9 and 10 are as tied as you can get with 13 people who have to answer this question. I guess I kinda expected Gen 9 and 10 to be about even, but I did expect people to vote on at least Sakura too...

As for the comments, I've gotten three things:

Compliments
"I like this idea"

"this kind of survey is fun :)"
"IT IS VEWY... SURVEY-LIKE~"

"<3"

"Nothing really. Neat and precise enough. Answering a survey is really the main highlight of it. As long as the topic is good and relevant enough, you can put up surveys as often as you like."
"Keep doing them"

"Great survey, would love to hear about the result soon..."

"Pretty good!"

Requests/Suggestions

"General Hello Project or Beeryz Koubou. I like that you asked about whose voice and personality differently"

"Great survey! I would enjoy more surveys comparing ALL groups of Hello! Project!"
"Recent song ranking?"

and two just random things
"IMMABAKA" (<-- that would be me btw)

"Why you make me pick only one?!"

Due to such positive feedback, I do intend on making more surveys in the future. I'll probably only make  one or two at a time, and probably make a preliminary survey for things that would involve a lot more choices like the song ranking and such. I'm glad that people had fun :). Thanks for taking part everybody, have a good day/night/gif.

SURVEY AND STUFF

I love making surveys.

The graphs with results look so pretty.

So I'm posting the one I just made here.

It's this thing: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19tPp3hZcvDJknvvsWCle_0TetFDu_pdf08HfauYc1Nw/viewform

I'll probably post the results if enough people take it.

I'll post the pretty graphs too~.

And maybe I'll make more surveys in the future if people have fun with it :3.

~SHAMELESSADVERTISEMENTFROMASTATSFAN

Have fun. kthxbai.

The "Bias" Factor

Everything in this post is my opinion, understanding, and/or experience with whatever I'm discussing. It may not always coincide with yours, and I'm always glad to hear what other people think, so long as it's constructive, mature, well-thought, and not insulting. Please keep this in consideration while reading, and avoid taking offence to anything here. Nothing written is meant to insult anyone.

So this is a post I've considered doing for a while now, but I had no idea how to go about it. I still don't. But really think it's something that people should be made aware of, so I'm going on a whim here and hoping for the best. In other words, please be patient with me if this post doesn't seem as organized or point-directed as it probably should be based on what it's on.

I really want to bring up the points of "bias" and even "prejudice". Specifically I'll be using examples of hypothetical instances within, around, or associated with the Hello!Project fandom, but by no means are any general ideas I'm going to bring in this post specifically in regards to this fandom.

Before I start, I do want to mention that in my Philosophy class this past week, my teacher brought up the point that "prejudice" is not always a negative thing, like we tend to think in the context we use it nowadays. Prejudice is a similar concept to bias, it can be positive or negative, and it branches from our human tenancy to make assumptions prior to an experience based on our previous experiences. What I'm trying to say is, I'll probably try and use the term "bias" when referring to "in the process" or "already experienced" moments, while I'll try and use "prejudice" when referring to "prior to experiencing" moments. This might sound confusing, so I hope you understand more-so as you go along.

If you read my blog regularly enough, you've probably noticed I have a tenancy to emphasis, or at least mention, when a "bias" I have may influence an opinion I have. As much as it probably sounds like a bad thing, and some people may wonder why I would mention it rather than pretend/bluff that there are other reasons. But, in reality, prejudice will always be present when approaching something new. Whether or not the bias carries into whatever you're approaching completely depends on what you're approaching, how open-minded you are about it, and who you are yourself.

If you have no idea what I mean, let's do a little pretending game for a second. Let's say you're going to watch the PV for Morning Musume's Ai no Gundan for the first time. Do you really think you're going to sit there and judge it for itself, in itself, and of itself without any outside influence affecting your opinion of it? Haha, nice try. Even if they're small things, you're going to have some prejudices going into it. Just a couple examples of these can be whether or not you like Morning Musume and their songs and whether or not you've heard the song without the video. Then there are even more biases at work affecting how you watch the video and what you think of it. For example, let's say you really really don't like Sayumi. You could watch it and notice how much attention/what lines she gets and think "Ugh, why does she have to get so many lines" or you could think "Wow... She actually pulled off that line pretty well." Although you start with a negative bias, that could, and will, influence how you look at the bias in either a positive or negative way.

Sometimes, biases can lead to disappointments. For example, Berryz Koubou was my favorite group for a long time. So whenever new stuff of theirs would come out, I would try to like the song more than I typically would for, say, C-ute or S/mileage. However, when Be Genki came out, I basically wanted to cry. Even though Berryz Koubou was my favorite group at the time, I couldn't even force myself to like the song (still can't btw). This was extremely disappointing because one thing about a positive bias is that it's much stronger to use words like "every" or "whole" to justify why the bias over everything else than it is to say "most" or "usually". And these "broken points" in your bias can also lead to getting overly defensive to people inquiring about why you love your bias. This is, of course, not how everyone is, but it's how I am, and how people I've seen seem to be.

Bias can also influence whether or not you even give something a chance. If you hate Airi's voice, for example, and you heard that SHOCK! is like 90% Airi solo, it may cause you to not even give the song a chance. It doesn't necessarily mean you're close-minded, but logically, if you hate someone's voice, or it drives you crazy, or irritates you, you may not even want to risk liking a song that has dominantly their vocals. Sometimes a situation like this can actually be a good decision to ensure you don't end up in an uncomfortable position (in this case - loving a song, but hating the vocals of it). You may be inclined to give the song a chance if you find out that Maimi did a solo of it at one of their concerts, so you can try the song without risking loving it OR your bias against the vocals leading you to hate a perfectly good song.

On an even broader sense, can you remember when you first found H!P? Or even Japanese music in general? Do you remember your thoughts from before trying it? During? A lot of people who aren't a fan of Japanese music (who aren't and don't know Japanese) will often have negative biases to Japanese music and say things like "how can you like it when you don't know what they're saying?" or even when they listen they my have decided in advance that "all Japanese girls have high screechy voices when they sing" (like my mom concluded) and may accidentally end up either listening for annoying voices, or be surprised by the ones that aren't. I'm pretty sure a lot of Japanese music fans came from the Anime side of things, so they may have had the "I (don't) like anime opening/endings" prejudice before arriving at non-anime based music. This will also have an influence on how they hear other music, like "does it sound like an anime song?" or the like.

Another thing I want to mention is that biases aren't a bad thing, so long as your not closed-minded. A lot of the time, Biases give you a reason for taking something on. If you didn't like Reina, would you listen to Lavendor? If you didn't like Berryz Koubou, would you watch ROCK Erotic? If you didn't like H!P, would you buy their CDs? If you didn't like Japanese, would you listen to the music? Sometimes these answer may be "yes". However, if you were, rather, in a situation where you 'did' like the provided examples, wouldn't the chances of doing their outcomes increase? If you love Morning Musume, aren't you likely to watch when a new PV comes out? If you love Sugaya Risako, aren't you likely to listen if she were to release a solo song? 

Biases aren't a bad thing in themselves. However, they become a bad thing when you go beyond the point of "prioritizing" based on your biases, and start "monopolizing" your biases. Loving Miyamoto Karin is not a fair reason to dislike/hate Takagi Sayuki. I'm sure this is an extreme example, but even I have fallen to the point of "monopolizing" my biases without realizing I was doing so in the past. For example, initially I loved Sayashi Riho, and wanted her to get in since she was in the final 5. However, when Only You came out, and she, not only got more lines than the other Cookies, but also more than even Gaki, I started to hate her. I realized my error later when I was watching something where she was dancing and remembered how much I loved her dancing. I really do like Riho, now. I just hate her voice. A lot. :)

Referring back to the SHOCK! example, a situation where you may come into something with a close-minded bias would be if you did give SHOCK! a listen, despite hating Airi's voice, but wouldn't give the song chance before concluding you "hated" the song because of Airi's voice. Or another example that, honestly, people (including myself) use a lot is the "My favorite member didn't get good/any lines, so I hate the song/leads." This is how I initially felt with Yattaruchan, to be honest. When DAWA didn't have any solos, I basically threw a childish fit and refused to let myself like the song. However, once Atarashii Watashi ni Nare!'s PV was released, and Dawa had a lead in it, I felt better, enough so that I could go back and give Yattaruchan a real try, and actually came to like it more than Atarashii Watashi ni Nare!.

Another piece I do want to mention is the instance of conflict of biases. A friend of mine really doesn't like slow songs much. She'll try them, but typically she just doesn't like them. However, she does like Yoshizawa Hitomi and harmonies. So one of the few slow songs she likes is Mushoku Toumei na Mama de. Yet, she doesn't like Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago. There's a big difference between these two songs themselves, but the three major biases (that I'm aware of) are met equivalently between the two. This is where your personality may come into play a bit. One of those instances where someone would use the excuse "there's just something about it..." or such. Which is perfectly fine. In the end, with or without a bias, it's up to you what you want to like.

Another example is with me and my love of Rock no Teigi. I don't like Reina's voice, but I love songs that have a "cool" sound to them. There's no real way to measure how much I dislike Reina's voice and how much I like cool sounding songs. Even if there was, it wouldn't be something I could apply to all songs, since I don't like Kira Kira Fuyu no Shiny G. I think the song sounds cool, and I still don't like Reina's voice, but I just can't get myself to like that song much. It's not a bad song, I just don't like it. There's always going to be songs where the conflict of biases may be equivalent, but your feelings towards the songs themselves are different. Most of the time, I'd say this links to your personailty/individuality.

Biases are part of everyday life, and to brush them off as "bad" is foolish an ignorant. However, to not realize they're there, or to close your mind off to any other possibility is even worse. One thing to do is be aware of their existence, and take the time to question your opinions of things, preferably as you're forming them. Ask yourself "now, do I just think this because of some bias I have?" and questions of the like. 

Of course, whether or not you think about this stuff in the future is purely up to you. I just felt the need to express my thoughts on it, since it's something that I mention slightly... pretty much every blog post I make. I hope that if you're still reading this, you got something worth while out of it. Thanks for your time. Good night/morning/afternoon, and may your biases blossom. (> * 3*)>

Colorful Couplings for a Colorful Era

Everything written in this post is purely my opinion. I've decided to share them here. Just as I have a right to share them, you have a right to disagree with them. Just remember that opinions are not facts, be them yours or mine, and everyone has a right to their own. Please don't take anything I say personally, and any criticism you have be constructive. Thank you, and enjoy (or don't, I don't tell you what to do.)

So I've wanted to blog recently. Nothing particularly... I just really wanted to blog... But I haven't been able to think of anything to blog about. So when I thought of something, I decided to jump on it and see how it goes. I'm going to try and review the small group B-sides (Couplings) from Morning Musume's Colorful Era (so since 123 anyway). I don't have much confidence in my song reviewing capability, so please bear with me if anything turns into fangirling/whining.

The first single by Morning Musume to feature, multiple "small group" couplings was One Two Three. When it was announced that, not only would the single have 4 b-sides, but 3 of them would be small group, I originally summed it up to be the "50th Single Special" and went along with it. Never did I expect that the small group couplings would continue on for 5 straight singles - not that I'm complaining, I love it.

The Limited A/B B-side for One Two Three is Watashi no Jidai, which is sung by none other than our Colorful Era Rokkies, Michishige Sayumi and Tanaka Reina. The song is a fun, upbeat song that comes across as one of those songs that you could bounce around to when you're sugar high. Shige and Reina have very different voice types, and this song really brings out that fact when you switch between Reina's breathy, forced, lower voice to Shige's nasally, stressed, cuter voice. I can't say that the blending is great either, I feel like Shige is really trying too hard in the song. That, or I'm just so used to her being auto-tuned nowadays that I forgot how she really sounds? Either way, this song is definitely not on my favorites list vocally. However, the song itself is really fun to listen to. I've kinda developed a habit of just ignoring how annoying the vocals sound if the song is good, and this song definitely falls into that category. 

The 2nd of the three small group b-sides from One Two Three is Aisaretai no ni... by the four cookies, Fukumura Mizuki, Sayashi Riho, Ikuta Erina, and Suzuki Kanon. The song is a slower, techno-ish sounding song that feels like it should be played at a dance club (I don't know if it would, though, since I don't know what they actually play at dance clubs...). I'll be perfectly honest, I was never able to get much into the song. The song is set up perfectly to where you can compare the girls vocals back to back to some extent, or could anyway, had their vocals not exponentially improved since this single. But one thing I like about the song is the diversity in vocals, and not painfully so like in Watashi no Jidai. You have Mizuki's gentle voice, Riho's forceful voice, and Erina and Zukki's in between voices. There isn't much opportunity to comment on the blending, though, as the song is mostly solos, and the group parts that are in the song, are duet at most. But this song has the opposite effect on me as Watashi no Jidai does. With Watashi no Jidai, I don't like the vocals much, but I love the song, so I'll listen to it on occasion anyway. In Aisaretai no ni... I love how the vocals sound, but the song itself just doesn't hold my attention, and annoys me after one or two listens (this being said while my head is pounding on my 4th listen since I started reviewing). For the sake of my sanity, I'll be moving on.

By far, my favorite B-side is the third one (go figure...), Seishun Domannaka by the Tenkis, Iikubo Haruna, Ishida Ayumi, Sato Masaki, and Kudo Haruka. This song is another fun song, like Watashi no Jidai, however, while that song had more of a "cool" sound to it, Seishun Domannaka has more of a childish feel to it. This song had initial bias with me because of Masaki (what? no way!) but overall, I don't care if it's "biased," but this is definitely my favorite One Two Three B-side. The vocals, considering these girls are the kohai of the single, I find far superior to the vocals of the other two tracks overall. Of course all of the vocals could use some polishing, but for the expectation level of the girls 3rd single vs. the cookie's 6th and the Rokkies too many-th, it's impressive to say the least. The song itself, as well, as repetitive at it is, takes much longer than the other songs to get annoying, to me. Plus, the blending, both between the full group lines and the duet lines, is mostly smooth, which is always nice to hear, not only from a group, but from a generation. Individually, as I mentioned, the vocals have their good and bad points, but like the cookies, we have a well balanced mix of vocals, with Masaki's cute, well-behaved voice, Haruka's mature, trained voice, and Ayumi and Haruna's in the middle, bumpy, but still pleasant voices. 

Jumping straight into the 2nd single's first B-side, Wakuteka Take a chance's Futsuu no Shoujo A is a trio featuring Reina, Masaki, and Haruka. This song has a bit of an anime opening/ending feel to it, and I've thought so ever since I first heard it. Needless to say, once again, this is my favorite B-side of the single (Heads up - all of my favorite b-sides except for Help Me!! are the ones that have MaaDuu in them). Vocally, the diversity is really nice to listen to. You have one of the cutest voices in current MoMusu (Masaki), one of the deepest (Haruka), and one of the dead-center (Reina), and surprisingly enough, the blending is very pleasant, between all 4 groups (All 3, ReiMaa, ReiDuu, and MaaDuu). Plus no auto-tune. Really this may be my favorite b-side out of all of the ones I'll be reviewing here, even. There's not much more to say about it. Other than maybe the song could have easily been a quartet if you just break Reina's lines in half..... -cough-.

The 2nd B-side of this single is Daisuki Hyakumanten, a duet between Mizuki and Ayumi. The song is a... cute-ish sounding mid-tempo song. This is really the most you hear from Ayumi in one place since her debut, since it's a duet she gets a lot more lines than she did in Seishun Domannaka, let alone every A-side/full group B-side since her debut. The blending in the song is amazing, as these girls have very similar voice types. Ayumi's unpolished voice really stands out, though, in her solos. Here we have her back to back with Mizuki, who's not only been in MoMusu twice as long, but had also been an Egg since before S/mileage formed. Don't get me wrong, I think this duo is an amazing pair vocally, and I do hope to hear more small group songs with these two in the future (especially if it's only 2-3 people), but for the difference in vocal ability at the time this was recorded, it takes a bit out of it for me. The song itself is okay, but it's one of those songs that I would only really listen to if I was specifically in the mood to listen to it. 

The last Wakuteka Take a chance B-side is Shinnen Dake wa Tsuranu Kitose! featuring the remaining five girls, Michishige Sayumi, Ikuta Erina, Sayashi Riho, Suzuki Kanon, and Iikubo Haruna. In my opinion, 5 of the worst voices of the time. I'd say that all of them (barring Sayumi) have improved drastically since this song, but listening to the song, as it was recorded, is extremely annoying. The blending works, but mostly in the "the sound is so bad, I can't be bothered to try and see if I can pick out voices" sense. Plus, I have no clue who's bright idea it was to give the song's opening line to Haruna, the absolute least trained voice in the song. The song overall isn't anything impressive either. Maybe I just can't get over the voices, but the song just doesn't stick with me for longer than I listen to it (if I listen to it). So, I guess I feel similarly about this song as I feel about Daisuki Hyakumanten in that if it came out around now, when the girls vocals had time to be polished up a bit more, I would probably like the song a lot more.

Help Me!! The single of amazing B-sides and terrible single covers. Oh, and it was the debut of the solo Gen 11 member, Oda Sakura. But in all seriousness, the B-sides for this single are amazing, so this is just a bit of a warning in advance that I may end up fangirling my way through the reviews for them :3.

The first b-side is our PinkuDuo Sayumi and Mizuki singing Aishuu Romantic. This song is, just like most songs involving Shige, auto-tuned to heck, but I really think it works for this song. For once, I feel like they worked well with auto-tune to make it work. It's really hard to say much about vocals and blending in a song that's auto-tuned to this extent, though I do appreciate that I can still tell who's singing a majority of the time. The overall song is one that I tend to forget exists, but when I remember it, I can't help but give it a listen. The only down side is that the opening sounds a lot like Lalala no Pipipi to me, so on occasion I'll hear the opening and think it's that song until the chuchuchuchupa~'s start up.

Second is one of the most well-thought out songs in H!P, Watashi no Dekkai Hana by Reina, Ayumi, and Haruna. This would be the only favorite B-side which doesn't contain MaaDuu. The song itself is a cool sounding song with bits of rapping throughout it. The first interesting thing I found about this song is that, between this and Futsuu no Shoujo A, Reina has sung with all 4 Tenkis. As for the song itself, if I recall, Tsunku himself said that this song would be a song fitted to suit the singers perfectly. And it does just that. Lines that suit Reina's center of attention/diva-ness, lines that suit Haruna's tenancy to almost "talk-sing," and rapping lines that suit Ayumi perfectly. Plus for the most part, the overall composition of the song works. The song is catchy and I love listening to it. The vocals suit their parts, even if they aren't perfectly polished by any means, and the blending works fine for what few bits are actually needed of it. As much as I wanted Nani wa Tomo Are! to be my favorite, this song just completely blew it away within one listen for me.

Next is Nani wa Tomo Are, by the underrated Erina, Kanon, and Haruna, and the slowly being recognized Masaki. I tried making myself like this song. I really did. But it wasn't until I saw the MaaDuuetto cover of it from Masaki's birthday event was I able to fall for it. The song is a fun song, but there's not much more substance to it than that. Especially after Aishuu Romantic and Watashi no Dekkai Hana, Nani wa Tomo Are comes across as a bland, "just another" b-side type of song. Which, honestly, is not the best type of song to give to some of the least popular members in Morning Musume unless you're just asking not to sell any of these singles. This coming from me even after I've started liking the song. However, on occasion, I have had moods where I just really wanted to listen to this song, so it may be one of those songs you listen to once in a blue moon.

The last B-side for Help Me!! is featuring our two newbie line whores, Sayashi Riho and Oda Sakura, Daisuki Dakara Zettai Yurusanai. The song is basically 99% harmonies. And whatever isn't a harmony is a solo. When I first heard the song, although I didn't like how the harmonies sounded much, I was really hoping it meant that these two were being trained to potentially bring harmonies back to Morning Musume, and I got excited... yeah that didn't happen. Another problem I had with this song is that it was released shortly after C-ute's Kanashiki Heaven, so I had a lot of trouble not constantly comparing the two songs since they are both heavily harmony based. However, once the Kanashiki Heaven phase died down a bit, I was able to listen to this song for itself without much trouble. The song definitely grew on me, even if it still can't compare to Watashi no Dekkai Hana or Aishuu Romantic. For the vocals themselves, the two voices are very similar and very different at the same time, especially in the harmonies. Even now, listening to the harmonies I have trouble differentiating between who's doing which harmony, even though I can clearly hear that they're both there and harmonizing. However, getting over the bumps, this song is a very cool listen.

Before I start reviewing this song, be warned, I do NOT intend on reviewing Rock no Teigi, as it's not a "small group" song. Anyway, the first of the two B-sides for Brainstorming is Tokimeku Tokimeke, featuring the 5 oldest (by age) members of Morning Musume (not including Reina), so Sayumi, Haruna, Mizuki, Ayumi, and Erina. The song is relatively similar to Aishuu Romantic with the way it sounds, but at the same time it's very different. Most of the vocals suit the song, if you ask me, the only one who seems to stand out to me is Ayumi. Her solos just sound out of place to me, perhaps it's because she's the lowest voice in the group, I'm not entirely sure what it is. The overall sound of the song is nice, it's fun to listen to, but it's also easily forgettable to me, so it will usually take actually listening to it for me to remember "OH YEAH, I LIKE THIS SONG."

Itsumo to Onnaji Seifuku de consists of the 5 youngest members of Morning Musume, Riho, Zukki, Sakura, Masacchi, and Haruka. The song is really nice, and I get a kick out of the fact that the two youngest members (Masaki and Haruka) seem to own the song. The mix of voices is a tad odd, but it somehow works for the song because of that, I think. The blending is good for the most part, so the only part where the difference in vocals matters is in the solos, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it makes the song a bit more interesting. Overall, however, this song, like Tokimeku Tokimeke, is a very forgettable song, and I'll realize that the only part of it that I can remember if I'm not listening to it is the line that says "Itsumo to onnaji seifuku de" in the choruses. However, between the two songs, for now anyway, I like Itsumo to Onnaji Seifuku de more.

Finally, the first B-side of the most recent single is Bouya, which is sung by Leader-san, Sayumi, sub-leader-sans, Mizuki and Haruna, and the best duo ever, Masaki and Haruka. The song is a bit faster, and another auto-tuned song. However, I personally think the song is really good, and I like the combo (I like when leaders and sub-leaders sing together :3). This song, though, like Aisaretai no ni..., is almost completely solos, and what's not is a duet, so you can't say much about the blending. Individually, though, the vocals seem to suit the song perfectly, as far as I can tell. The one who stands out the most in this group is Haruka, primarily because Shige, Masacchi, and Haruna have cute voices, and even Mizuki's gentle voice is much cuter than Haruka's more husky voice. Though, despite this, I still think the song sounds amazing as it is, and I probably wouldn't change it even if I could.

The last B-side is Funwari Koibito Ichinensei, it's sung by the remaining 5 members who weren't in the other song, so Riho, Erina, Zukki, Ayumi, and Sakura. And, honestly, this is the first time I've listened to it past the opening. The song is nice, it seems to be another "cool" song with rap bits mixed in. It kinda sounds like something that would have been a album song/b-side for Minimoni after Marippe was replaced with Aichan. However, overall, the song doesn't really have anything to it that holds my attention past the rap bits. So there's really not much I can say about it. 

And that was my review-ish thing for the "small group" b-sides of Morning Musume's Colorful Era. I'm really looking forward to future small group b-sided, and I hope that we get more 2-4 person ones and don't just convert to 5 and 5 permanently like it's been the last two singles. I doubt it will, but I really, really don't want it to, so I'm just putting them cards down now. I had fun listening back through these songs, and I hope those of you who actually read this post also enjoyed my input. See you guys next time I get random inspiration, and in the meantime, enjoy a random gif :D