Hydrangeas In Bloom

I’ve been on a kick with random Japanese artists/bands lately. Call it restless ear syndrome; I’m trying to discover something in a broad genre that can entertain my imagination moreso than Morning Musume or Perfume are right now. I’ve been semi-successful, nothing about what I’ve found truly grips me like Morning Musume did a few years back. So my focus has turned to sort of “J-rock” artists.

…J-rock is a kind of doomed subgenre for me. I either really, really love it or it’s tolerable yet undesirable. There is no inbetween. Why did I decide to download Stereopony’s new album, then? Because I’m crazy and like to take up hard drive space. (Okay, no, that’s not it. I thought the cover was pretty.)

I Love Taiyou & Ciscomoon More

I haven’t done an album review in a pretty long time. I still have last year’s GAME album review backlogged to hell and back, so whenever I have a spare moment on my hands (which is going to be, like, never?), I think I’ll have to venture back to that frame of mind and complete it.

Today, I’d like to cover a four-piece idol group that most of you should be pretty familiar with. No, it’s not SPEED (although I do now have their first album), but Hello! Project’s antiquated Taiyou to Ciscomoon! *applause* Certainly a classic album in H!P’s discographic roster, their first album TAIYO&CISCOMOON 1 is what I will be covering on this humid, foggy Florida evening before I fly on a plane back to frigid Ohio to freeze my ass off instead of write blog posts. Oh, the sadness.

I Might Cry, Though On Second Thought, Maybe I Won’t

It’s been a lengthy absence and it’s going to continue to be one. I find little time in my days to sit down and put some serious thought into a good blog topic, and if I can’t produce something of quality, then I figure I might as well just not produce anything at all. But, seeing as I’ve been on vacation for almost two weeks now (and it’s fixing to end; I return to my hush-hush silence on January 5th, with some regrets that I didn’t immediately focus my ideas on blogging), it would be a damn shame to not write a little something, if not anything, in here. And what better than for it to be relevant to everybody else’s conscience?

I downloaded a “Naichau Kamo” radio rip a day before it was officially Wednesday in my time (the Wednesday where Tanaka Reina would be playing the first official radio broadcast of “Naichau Kamo” on FIVE STARS). I…really was not expecting anything spectacular, and anything spectacular is definitely not what I got.

A Notice

First of all, I’m horrifically sorry that I haven’t updated at all for at least a month or so. Circumstances in real life have come up with a startling ferocity and even as I type this, I’m not on my own computer (hasn’t been set up yet). I’m not going into details and I’m not answering questions pertaining to my leave of absence, but you can ask about the status of any of my series, or my Sudou Maasa worship blog (separate from this one, you can find the link in my blogroll). I will tell you this, though: I am not closing down yossha yossha YOSSHA! or ceasing all blogging activities. Just that at this time, I don’t have the means to sit down for an hour and make an entire, fleshed out entry with pictures and thoughtful subject matter, and if I can’t deliver that to you, then I’d rather not try to at all. If things ever settle down, you can expect me to come back in full force.

Don’t fret.

Miyoshi Chinatsu? YEEEH!

I often find myself shaking my fist at all you young whippersnappers who can’t stop gushing about the disgustingly LQ cellphone video of High-King’s new PV or excitedly discussing Kusumi Koharu’s upcoming single for that anime disaster she voice acts in. Maybe it’s because I’m not old and I find more value in old things. Or maybe it’s because, back in Hello! Project’s heyday (Christ, how long has this company been around?!), they actually employed singers who could sing decently, and had songs that weren’t total crap. Don’t even try to defend your precious Sugaya Risakos, your “Resonant Blue” singles, because I’ve heard it all and my judgment remains the same.

Recently, I’ve come into possession of the music of some really obscure Hello! Project artists whom I have admired from afar. Sheki-Dol is one of these artists (their PVs are on YouTube, and I encourage curious parties to go check those out), but today, I’m going to discuss Miyoshi Chinatsu. This means reviewing each of her singles (and her short-lived career). She was, by no means, any Fujimoto Miki or Matsuura Aya, but if she’d stayed, I think she would complement them nicely (and them likewise).

Jumping My Blogging Shark, Rofl

I’m going to get back on-track by doing something I’ve been contemplating doing as a blog post for a while now but steering clear of it because I consider it to be kind of lazy. This is posting straight Instant Messager conversations as they are. It’s done to great effect in some blogs, but in yossha yossha YOSSHA!, I’m afraid it’s just this shy of being too offbeat. In this case, however, I had a conversation with my good friend and fellow blogger Vulpi, and since she sort of spawned the entire conversation, her opening quip is central to getting the message across. I would like to be capable of translating it in a way that is more typical of me (read: boring), but after reviewing it for a total of five minutes… Nah.

Disclaimer: CJ, don’t hate me. I’m serious. Don’t. Don’t hate me because I LOVE YOU. Feminists, I do not endorse the word “bitch” as sexists do. It’s already bad enough that I have to bring that up because I’d really prefer no association with those kinds of people whatsoever, but it’s happened to me before where feministic persons have given me shit for being lax about my various assortment of words I use to refer to women by (even though I, myself, am a bitch, yes!). And Tanaka Reina fans, I have a special extended disclaimer for you.

And Now, For Something Retardedly Unusual!

Whenever I blog, I usually try to examine things from a different perspective. Because I get lost in writing. When I used to write short stories and the like, I got stuck on a train of thought and had to stop myself periodically so that I wouldn’t run into the cow standing on the tracks. Right now, I’m thinking silently to myself, “Wow, done with the really lame self-insight yet?”.

Sometimes I’ll ask myself, “What kind of blogger am I?”

Why I’m Tired Of Idols Like Aibon

The only reason I am ever excited for more Hello! Project auditions is because there is a 50% chance that someone will get through those auditions who isn’t under fifteen years old, who isn’t fucking kawaii or moé, and who has some realism in the content of their character. After much brainstorming and the announcement of the upcoming three-month Taiwanese Hello! Pro Egg audition which “[will be] seeking new members from 6-24 years old”, I’ve realized this. It’s amazing because it makes up 80% of the basis of why the original Morning Musume lineup is my ideal image of the group.

Think about it. What kinds of girls — what kind of women embodied the first generation? There was my shining example of a good H!P member, Nakazawa Yuko. The best damn leader for a lameshit Japanese pop group that there will ever be. This woman had style, class, confidence, maturity, and a voice that wasn’t tossed into a proverbial vocal meat grinder just to sound like a chipmunk on the finished product. Everyone else followed suit.

A Whole Bunch Of Thoughts But Nowhere To Put Them

I’ve been frustrated with the status of yossha yossha YOSSHA! for almost a month now. I feel as though the blogosphere is sick of me and I’ve hit a dry spot regarding topics to spew 2000 words about, which used to be my “claim to fame”. Why is blogging such a big fucking deal to me on a more than merely subconscious level? Am I becoming just like all you attention whores out there, leaping at the chance to release an exclusive PV or some groundbreaking new information into the vast sea of overlapping thoughts and words so that your penname will be attached to it forevermore and immortalized in some 300 views in a day that only serve to make you feel better about yourself?

Fuck no, I say. Fuck no. I’ve always written about things I feel from the heart and opinions that are earnest. But this lapse in blogging is pissing me off. I am in a rut and it is one lacking in creativity, bigtime. What can I do to help myself?

The Most Beautiful Ongaku Gatas Member In The Room Isn’t Rika Or Yossie…

It’s Sengoku Minami, and today is her 17th birthday in the United States. Happy birthday, Mina!

Mina is my favorite member of Ongaku Gatas, despite the fact that I couldn’t give two shits for the music, tour schedule, or Hello! Project alumnae of that group. She’s just absolutely drop-dead gorgeous in every sense of the word. I can’t even think of going one more day without her having a solo photobook but I know I’m going to have to because she’s probably not on UFA’s “To Pimp” list. Hell, now that Mano is gone, I’m not sure who is. It’d be much more productive of them to continue to let the alumnae of the group sit on their long-cultivated fame and focus on building decent idols out of all the Eggs in the group (including Korenaga the former Egg).

In truth, Minami is not really good at much. She has no interesting special talents, not much of a dancer, not much of a singer. Even her personality is flat (for now, but I feel it’s something she’s trying to work on). But c’mon, how can you look at a face like that and say “sry give me more Mano plz”? Especially when Mano isn’t much better in the talent department…