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

Double A-side Madness

Everything stated in this post is purely my opinion. Mine. Wait a minute while I buy a billion labels and stick them to my computer screen. Jokes. But really, I have every ounce of right to state my opinions, just as you have every ounce of right to disagree with them. Please don't take offence if there are such clashes, and please be mature about it if there are. Enjoy~.

I gotta pass time before I spend the next 3 hours refreshing my tracking tag, so what better to pass time then blogging? Yeaaah... That sounds like a good idea. But I have no idea what to blog... So lets just rank all of H!P's double a-sides like a boss. And by all of them... I just mean the Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, S/mileage, and Juice=Juice ones (Yup, including JuJu's Triple A-side) cause who got time just to find all dem other double a-sides? Not me, well technically I do... But I don't have that kind of determination.

The easy part is always listing stuff. Especially since I'm kinda making this up as I go along and haven't ranked anything even for my own sake yet... I don't even know if I'm ranking the songs themselves or the overall singles yet... Probably songs... But for now: Lists! Something I'm actually good at.

Morning Musume:

- Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatterun da yo! / Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai

- One Two Three / The Matenrou Show

- Brainstorming / Kimi Sae Ireba Nani mo Iranai

- Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke / Ai no Gundan

Berryz Koubou: 

- Seishun Bus Guide / Rival

- Watashi no Mirai no Danna-Sama / Ryuusei Boy

- Otakebi Boy WAO! / Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda

- Golden Chinatown / Sayonara Usotsuki no Watashi

- Motto Zutto Issho ni Itakatta / ROCK Erotic

C-ute: 

- Kanashiki Amefuri / Adam to Even no Dilemma

S/mileage:
- Atarashii Watashi ni Nare! / Yattaruchan

Juice=Juice:

- Romance no Tochuu / Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne (MEMORIAL EDIT) / Samidare Bijo ga Samidareru (MEMORIAL EDIT)

So for the rankings I'll be going in reverse order from least favorite to favorite, and these are relative that I just made now, so positions are subject to change and don't justify how much I actually like the song(s). So in 25th of 25, is Morning Musume's The Matenrou Show. I honestly don't understand why this single was a double A-side. Despite being Morning Musume's 50th single, the "double a-side" part of the celebration was really poorly done. But as for the song itself, it's okay, but with the squirrel duo leading it, with literally NO solos to anyone besides them, I am already disappointed. Also, I've never been one for the idea of having most people do echo-y bits while the lead singers own all of their butts (yes, I'm talking about you, chorus of doom). But even the Type 0 version, with Gaki's epic lines, doesn't hold my attention much.

In 24th is Berryz Koubou's Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama. This song was overrated off the bat, if you ask me. As a dubber at the time of it's release, everyone wanted to dub it, which isn't uncommon with new songs, but I have YET to hear an interesting version of this song. Mostly because the song isn't interesting to begin with. It's repetitive with little to no creativity in the line distribution, with a boring sound to it. This type of song is basically what defines most of Berryz songs, to me. Miyabi and Risako lead, with Yurina and Momoko the only others to get actual solos, while Captain, Chinami, and Maasa are left in the background. However, this and Koi no Jubaku are probably the worst of these such songs.

Number 23 is a song that I honestly only dislike due to strong negative bias from my dubbing days. It's in the same category as Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai. But Berryz Koubou's Ryuusei Boy has even worse line distribution than Danna-sama, and this overall single is my absolute least favorite double A-side, with the only good part from it being Ryuusei Boy's outfits (I don't even like Yellow and I can't help but love them <3) The reason for my negative bias from dubbing is because I was almost always cast as Shimizu Saki for this song, which I wouldn't mind... if it weren't for the fact she literally has a total of 3 lines. All of which are chorus lines. But the hatred from that went down a little bet when my friend cast me as Rii (or was it Miya?) in the song simply to try and make me not hate it so much xD That's proably the main reason this song is higher than Danna-sama for me. Love you Rae <3

Juice=Juice's Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne (MEMORIAL EDIT) is my number 22, mostly because I've never been a fan of remakes of songs when so little has changes since the initial song was released. Redoing the song because Aina left was completely unnecessary, and it very much bugs me that Aina's first line was given to Karin... but then Karin's first line was given to Sayuki...? Why not just give Aina's line to Sayuki then? OR BETTER YET! Aina has 3 solos? One to Yuka, one to Akari, and one to Tomoko. Problem solved. Basically I don't generally like remakes...

Guess what my number 21 is? I'll give you a hint. The reason is almost mirrored as to #22. Hint 2 - the pictures are corresponding to the songs. It's Samidare Bijo ga Samidareru (MEMORIAL EDIT). Honestly this is about tied with Watashi ga Iu, because it's basically the same reasons. It just so happens that I like the song itself better than Watashi ga Iu, so it's just a hair higher ranked than that one. I initially liked the idea of the triple A-side when it was announced, but the result just disappointed me. BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG, I LOVE THESE GIRLS! JUJU OWNS. I just dun like remakes much to begin with, as mentioned...

Berryz Koubou's ROCK Erotic is number 20. It's not a bad song... it just fails on too many levels to count. The song definitely didn't live up to the title and the outfits levels of expectations. I like the song, but I wouldn't be able to give much reason why. I almost feel like I like the song because I want to like the song, which isn't the best reason to have for liking a song, which is the primary reason that it's so low on my rank.

19 is Morning Musume's Kimi Sae Ireba Nani mo Iranai. Since it came out, there's something about this song that I just can't seem to like. It's a song I'll listen to once in a while when I'm in the mood, but any other time and I'd skip it. It's uninteresting unless I'm specifically in the mood to listen to this exact song. When I am in the mood to listen to it, it's definitely a fun song to flail around to (erm... dance?) I'll give it that much for sure. But I can't get over how much yellow is in the video. MY EYESSSS. And the outfits annoyed me from the beginning, reminding me too much of v-u-den's yellow Hitorijime outfits... 

 

Kinda... But that's just me and my stupid brain. Pay me no mind, continue!

Really close to #19, and possibly interchangeable with it, is #18 - Morning Musume's One Two Three. First of all, I hate this over use of autotune. Also the fact that they gave everyone a syllable and called it a day, giving the rest of the lines to Reina and Riho (exaggeration is intentional, don't hate me k?) irritates me. However, I do have have to say, this song it's enjoyable to listen to once in a while, even if I'm not in the mood to listen to it. Plus member color outfits... Yup. I'm not biased in the least. Not at all. "#Membercolors" needs to be a thing if it's not already.

I LIKE THE SONG, OKAY? I'm starting off with this, because I really do. But in 17th place is Juice=Juice's Romance no Tochuu. The song is really cool, and fun to listen to, the big problems I have with it is the very apparent absence of a 6th singer. I'm not necessarily referring to Aina, as much as I'm insinuating that the difference between solos from the leads to the back ups is even more apparent in this song than any of their indies singles. To the point I actually attempted at color coding it with Aina to see how easy it would be to place her. And, go figure, it was a relatively simple task. Anyone who's interested in how that turned out can -click here- and see. This was based off of the idea of a Karin/Aina lead with Sayuki/Tomoko slightly behind them as it seemed in their first two indies singles.

My #16 is Berryz Koubou's Motto Zutto Issho ni Itakatta. I really like the sound of the song, and the line distribution is... interesting, if nothing else. But I like how the song sounds, and I always have my weakness for songs that express pain or sadness, and I really thing the girls pulled off that sound well. Also I think Risako's talking line really fit in with the song, it's placement, as well as it's existence in the song in general. Though overall, I just like it. Nothing more. FRIEND ZONED BIACH.

The first Double A-side of these groups. I can't believe how long it's been. But Berryz Koubou's Seishun Bus Guide is my #15. I love the song when it first came out, which is probably why it's so low now. I kinda... overplayed it for myself. It's a really repetitive song, so it's really relatively easy to wear yourself out on it... But I love the song, if only on a sentimental level. It holds a lot of memories for me, even if it's one of those songs I almost never listen to anymore.

From the same single as #15, my #14 is Berryz Koubou's Rival. This song is really fun to listen to, dance to, or sing along with, but it gets old fast. It's one of those songs which will come on my ipod for the first time in forever, and I'll listen happily, but any other time I'll basically forget it even exists. Nonetheless, I love this song, and rarely decline listening to it on the occasion that it does come on. 

"Let's take advantage of Aichan graduating to finally give Shige a lead song A-side!" Yeah, sounds about right. Maybe Aichan wanted to see it happen at least once before she left? I'd like to think that. But in 13th place is Morning Musume's Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai. The song is really fun, and it's nice to hear a Rokkies lead song. Shige's voice has improved so much since she initially joined, and it's not painful to listen to anymore. Well, this song is halfway up my list, so that says something, right? Right.

Despite how amazing the out of place the skill in the PV's editing is, C-ute's Kanashiki Amefuri is my number 12. The PV impressed me on so many levels when I saw it, I think my jaw dropped a good 5-10 times, and it was the first PV I watched all the way through come from H!P since... probably since... uhm... I don't remember. But since then, the initial impression it's left on me has died down, and the song itself has become much less interesting. I still think it's it's an amazing song, I just tend to skip it, usually in favor of the single's other a-side, quite a bit.

I know a lot of people disliked this single as a whole, but I loved it, and Sayonara Usotsuki no Watachi by Berryz Koubou is my #11. It's a really powerful song that, once again, pulls at my weakness for sad songs. The song itself is a lot of fun to sing along to, and it's one of those songs that, when I sing it, I get drawn into it a bit more than I intend to and, if I'm not careful, can end up belting it or even dancing in public while listening to it. "Kirawaretakunakute, Waratteita..." I think one of the things that draws the song down, though, is the lack of vocals outside of MiyaRii. There are plenty enough lines for them to have shared a bit more, I think.

Ignoring the pedophilic feeling I get when watching the PV, my number 10 would have to be S/mileage's Atarashii Watashi ni Nare! Despite the constant transition from attempted sexy, to absolutely ridiculous silly in the PV, this is actually a really good song. The meaning is similar to that of SONGS, in my opinion. Cross between inconfidence and breaking free from such feelings. Plus the song is very fun and a very entertaining listen. AND I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK OF THAT PART AS THE DINOSAUR PART AND I BLAME CHIIMA. -would link to her blog, but I'm too lazy atm, sorry. Check my last post.-

 

Like I said with Sayonara, I know most people hated this single, and I think most people liked Sayonara more than this song also, but I love this song. Berryz Koubou's Golden Chinatown is my #9. Probably one of my favorite line distributions from Berryz Koubou ever. And no. It has nothing to do with with MiyaRii's "lack of solos" shit. If you ask me, they have more lines in this song then a lot of others, because when there are that many of them, duos are almost even better than solos. But even so, I really enjoy this song, I love the sound of it, I think the vocals suit their placement, and the high notes don't kill my ears. I personally think kudos are well deserved to the composers and singers of this song, and I kinda wish Berryz released stuff like this single more often.

#8 is none other than Tanaka Reina's graduation single's first A-side, Morning Musume's Brainstorming. First of all, I'd like to voice my irritation at the fact the song doesn't have anything to do with actual Brainstorming. Yes, this actually disappointed me. >.> Don't judge me. Other than the... still present autotune, this song is amazing, and I honestly thing it brings out some of the best of the vocals from Reina and Riho. I might have slightly overplayed it when the song was first released... but I don't hate listening to it, and I don't skip it everytime I hear it now, so no major damage was done from that. 

Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatterun da yo! by Morning Musume is my #7. Despite being so "old," it was an amazing song and I still love it. It was a perfect graduation song for Aichan, I think. Very inspirational and heart warming, but fun and energetic at the same time. I love listening to it, I love singing it, I love dancing to it, I love watching it, it's really an amazing song.

S/mileage's Yattaruchan slides in at 6 for this. Initially, I refused to let myself like this song more than it's double a-side counterpart, but the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. It's a very encouraging and fun song, that's a lot of fun to sing and listen to. I love the different "-chan"s that they use in the song. While normally the honorific doesn't make much sense in English, in this context it works. It reminds me of when people say things like "Well aren't you 'Mr. Know-it-all'" so changing "Yattaruchan" to "Mr. Can-do" and the like actually works for this song. /Ignore my random excitement.

Not to spoil anything for you, but I'm at my top 5 now, and I haven't mentioned a single song on two singles yet. -cough- ^^ But one of those singles' songs falls in at #5 and that's Berryz Koubou's Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda. I've loved this song since it came out. I'm not sure if it's "despite" or "because" of the fact the only good friends I really have are online. And even now I don't fully understand what it really means to be a "friend." So a song like this is really one that pierces partially even into my jealousy. But overall I love the song <3 I also have a weakness for fast lines, despite not being able to sing them, and this song has an abundance of them. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Failed, but accepted nonethless.

HEY LOOK. That other unmentioned single. Number 4 goes to Morning Musume's Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke. You have no idea how happy I am at this song. I don't even care that half the girls don't get lines, I'm just happy that not ALL of the lines went to RihoSaku, which was honestly one of my biggest fears at Reina's departure. Since when Aichan left, and especially after Gaki did, the group basically just became ReinaRiho, I was concerned that would happen with RihoSaku, but not only did they get an amazing single, but it's NOT just Riho and Sakura whoring their asses out! Oh yeah, and Masaki sub-lead <3

Number 3 is Morning Musume's "GUNDAN of the LOVE" or rather Ai no Gundan. Although the line distribution, I feel, is quite a bit worse than it's fellow A-side, I would listen to  Gundan over Wagamama probably 7/10 ish times. It's much more fun to listen/sing/dance to, to me. Also MORE MASAKI LOVE. You really can't imagine how happy I was at the Masaki solos in this and Wagamama, you can't even try. Masacchiiii <3

My Number 2 is Berryz Koubou's Otakebi Boy WAO! I've loved this song basically since it came out, the power/strength in the vocals is amazing, and it's one of those songs that's fun to shout-sing just for fun. Even though doing so will kill your voice... quickly... don't do it. Bad idea. The line distribution isn't the best, but considering all girls got at least one solo, I can't complain too much, especially since it's not overly predictable either. I'm at the point with these songs that I can't even really explain why I love them so much anymore, I just do...

Finally, in first place (when did this become a competition?) is C-ute's Adam to Eve no Dilemma. This song is just such an amazing combination of powerful and sexy, there's no words. Well yeah, there are, but that doesn't sound as cool. I can't get over how much I love this song, to the point even I don't understand. It's strange because initially I hated it, mostly because of the fact even Maimi was back seated to Mai, while Nakky, the sexiest member of the group, is still in the back when it comes to lines. I actually refused to listen to the song for a while because of this, but then when I translated it, I seem to have unlocked an almost obsessive love for the song. So I guess it has something to do with the meaning of the song? I don't even know LOL I just love the song <3

So, for the heck of it, I'm going to try and rank the singles in general based on the above rankings. That would be: 

01. Otakebi Boy WAO! / Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda

02. Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke / Ai no Gundan

03. Kanashiki Amefuri / Adam to Even no Dilemma

04. Atarashii Watashi ni Nare! / Yattaruchan

05. Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatterun da yo! / Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai

06. Golden Chinatown / Sayonara Usotsuki no Watashi

07. Seishun Bus Guide / Rival

08. Brainstorming / Kimi Sae Ireba Nani mo Iranai

09. Motto Zutto Issho ni Itakatta / ROCK Erotic

10. Romance no Tochuu / Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne (MEMORIAL EDIT) / Samidare Bijo ga Samidareru (MEMORIAL EDIT)

11. One Two Three / The Matenrou Show

12. Watashi no Mirai no Danna-Sama / Ryuusei Boy

That's all I really wanted to say/do. Hope you enjoyed. Have a nice day/night/morning/whatever time it is!

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