They should just rename the group B-adass.

Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate, all! :) I don't have a super awesome gift to give you, other than the promise that I'm returning to regular posting now.

However, I did get many a J-pop purchase for Christmas, so I'll be posting those later.

Anyway, here's a post from about October or November:

*****

I thought that they called this group C-ute because they were cute. This is not true. "Tokaikko Junjou" is not cute at all.

It is awesome.

And HOLY SHIT MAIMI. She's my favorite member of C-ute , and this is like the only group where my favorite member actually gets most of the lines. And once again, Maimi shows off how incredibly similar to Yossie she is by doing a distressed intro monologue, a la "Osaka Koi no Uta." Only without the Gackt hair and fairy outfit. (Seriously, Maimi is like a mini-Yossie-in-training, only without the lesbian angle. Have you ever noticed?)

I do like her monologue - she's got a good voice for it, much more mature than the other C-utes, but still youthful enough to pull off whatever the hell she's saying. (Though lulz at "I'm not a child" - you lead a group called C-ute. Who the hell's going to believe that?) I also like the way they arranged it so that she seems to be shifting - you don't concentrate on Maimi as much as the motion of Maimi and her voice.

Wow, this dance is fucking awesome. It's like actual dancing.

 

Some shots of the C-ute girls looking emo. And awesome. It's funny, but this is 30 seconds in and it already feels like a better PV than anything Momusu's done since "AS FOR ONE DAY" - the last PV to be made up of more than a close-up and dance shot.

Airi is AWESOME. She's not my favorite C-ute member by far - I find her to be a little overrated. But she's definitely worthy of praise - and so is her outfit. And um, shit, is that KANNA?

And forget Kanna, is that NAKKI?! She's always held a special place in my heart, because she was the first H!P Kid whose name I learned. And that special place feels all warm and fuzzy looking at her. She looks great here - a little strange, maybe because I'm not used to her without bangs, and her teeth are a little more than obvious...but those are just details. The whole picture is amazing, and she - not to mention all the other C-ute girls - manage to really work these three-second closeups.

Erika dyed her hair! And she's not wearing it all weird and close to her head! (Didn't v-u-den Erika wear it like that too?) It really looks good on her - makes her look older.
 

C-ute has always felt like a motley crew to me: some girls stuck out more than others, and I always felt they didn't really work as one, cohesive unit. Despite the fact that they're at 7 members and actually give each girl a fair share of lines, they still feel as unwieldy as the 15-nin Momusu did.

It honestly feels sometimes like despite being together for OH MY GOD IS THAT KANNA? THAT IS SO NOT KANNA. EXCEPT FOR THE PART WHERE IT'S TOTALLY KANNA. I never knew she was so gorgeous! Kanna was the one that used to be an Egg, right? It feels weird, because she honestly sometimes seems to know what she's doing more than the other, original members of the group. Maybe backup dancing for the veteran idols let her watch them better than C-ute could (since they were concentrating on their own act.)

Anyway, so now we've got all the C-ute girls coming at you. Chisato looks almost disturbingly tan...and actually, she looks a lot like my friend's younger sister. Heh. Much as I love her, Chisato is the only one that I think doesn't benefit from this PV. Even Maimai gets something out of the stylistic decisions of this PV. She looks much older. How old is Maimai, anyway? Last time I bothered to check, she was eight. Or...maybe she's twelve now? Someone help me.

Though, watching this, I'm kinda getting this feeling like this lineup should be called "Airi Suzuki ft. C-ute". It's not that Airi's not talented - she definitely deserves spotlight. But this song? Mehhh. The PV makes it look better than it actually is. Though "ARE YOU READY? *crazy beat*" is one of the greatest song moments in H!P history. (I'll have to make a list of that, one day.) The C-ute girls sound more squeaky than usual, and would it kill anyone to give someone besides Airi lines in the verses? Considering how tired the dancing makes H!P girls, it doesn't feel right having one girl getting a majority of the lines if she can't carry them. I'm not talking about Aichan, because she's able to sing all her lines without falling down too hard. But Airi? I worry. She's too young, and the Kids (while definitely proving to be major competition) probably don't have the same amount of training that Momusu girls have for this kind of thing.

Nakki looks like she's going to cry, while Kanna takes the "I'm so distraught, help me!" look to a whole new level.

And Airi's face looks weird. It's so...square here. Miyabi might be a beanhead, but Airi's got a box for a jaw.

Oh, and can I just express my complete and total love and devotion to Nakki's outfit? Yes.

"FREEZE!" Everybody clap your hands...oh, come on, you've never had to do the Casper slide? No? Um, okay then. *shifty eyes* I...I never have either...totally.

Oh, who am I kidding. I have been forced to do that dance since I was ten.

Anyway, moving on from my fifth-grade trauma...

Maimi is hot. And she's got a new PB out...yeah, I know what I'll be doing with my Christmas money.

(I love how I make it sound like I'm going to remember to buy it.)

A shot of Airi looking all introspective and emo! Which I really can't get into because I just noticed her upper lip is shaped kinda funky.

"OMGWTFMAIMI?"

Maimi is totally that horrible playground bitch that steals the kids' money. She snatched that baseball right out of Chisato's hand, earning perhaps the greatest "WTF" face ever in H!P history. I think Chistao even managed to knock Iida down in that respect. ("Nee, waratte!"...maybe not.) The best part, in my opinion, is that Maimai just keeps doing her emo stare, completely oblivious to Maimi ruining Chisato's playground experience.

After the bizarre pelvice thrusts of "Massara", we get...chest thrusting. Hey, it's that general no-touchy area. Not much difference.

Though it still looks as wrong on Maimai as it did in "Massara."

THE BASEBALL EXPLODES! Into...a very meaningful line of meaningfulness across the sky. Maimi plants her feet apart (showing off her lovely and awesome legs) and watches it.

Chisato, deciding she must exact revenge, goes to stand next to Maimi. The rest of the C-uties follow. Yes, they are allies...but only for now.

You know, after seeing that baseball incident, I'd like to see "Tokaikko" continued, if in a slightly sillier vein. I call for a "RIVAL ~Leader to Chisato~" single, in which Chisato leads C-ute in a rebellion against Maimi and her ball-snatching ways. Really. Chisato can be the lead vocal, with Nakki backing her up in this rebellion of AWESOME. Maimi and Erika can take the other side. Kanna, Airi, and Maimai...they can stand there. Especially Airi.

...okay, so that will totally never happen. I can dream, dammit. (MORE LINES FOR CHISATO KTHX.)

Anyway, this single kinda proves that the Kids aren't really Kids anymore. They're mature young women, for the most part. The ones that aren't mature young women are at least under the guidance of mature young women that will surely help them become mature young women themselves

And is it just me, or is the phrase "mature young women" starting to sound weird?

So what does this mean for Berryz? Despite their initial advantage, they've been the target of a lot of criticism from blogs, while C-ute's been getting praise. Truthfully, I've begun to root for Berryz a little more, if only because Maasa > C-ute in my eyes. Also because they brought on "Special Generation" and "Munasawagi Scarlet." And well, also because everyone likes C-ute more. What can I say. I like to be contrary.

Furthermore, what does this mean for Morning Musume? I'm one of the few people that isn't thrilled at all by the rise of the Kids. The Kids are little sisters to Momusu that aren't going to grow up for me, and the decision to have them start eating at the big kids' table makes me wince. I don't want them to become Momusu's successors. I could write a whole other post about it, and I think I will.

Oh, yeah, and this single has a B-side as well. (I don't even know what it's called..."Shiritsu Kyoukagu"? Pfft, I don't even care enough to look it up.) The awesomeness of the A-side is unfortunately not matched in the B-side. This is the kind of thing Country Musume should be doing. Satoda Mai, where are you? Their voices are also very noticeably squeaky here, while it only showed slightly in "Tokaikko." It's also around five minutes, so I didn't really bother to listen to the whole thing. I should, because now that I've completely dismissed the B-side, I'll bet I'll listen to it again next year and think it's the greatest thing ever. Just watch.

"Tokkaiko" has proved that the ragtag group that is C-ute is definitely a force to be reckoned with, music-wise. (Chemistry-wise, even the Eggs have them beat.) "Tokaikko" was their breakthrough, and as 2007 draws to a close, I'm wondering what I'll see in 2008.

(For those of you who want to know where I was: finals, Christmas, a brief interlude of teching, and sleeping. Now that Christmas is over, I might be able to touch up the drafts that have been waiting to see the light of day since...like, August, haha.)