Pictured is the limited edition cover of “めぐる恋の季節”, ℃-ute’s second (and latest) single. I posted a review of it some days ago, and now that the word of the first week sales is out, I’m more amazed than anything else. ℃-ute doesn’t even match up to Berryz工房 in terms of online fanbase, but in the real world they seem to be dramatically catching up to the latter group in terms of sales. 23,810 in just the first week, and debuting at #2 on the charts? Berryz工房 couldn’t have managed that if they tried with “Fighting Pose wa Date ja nai!”, much as I love that song.
Then again, could ℃-ute just be enjoying the success because of the landmarks Berryz工房 made before them (such as performing at Saitama, etc)? I personally believe ℃-ute has more talent vocally on their side, with Suzuki Airi singing solos quite often in their singles. I also think that their four indies singles contribute to their major releases’ sales (they didn’t just come out of nowhere to some devoted fans who attended their concerts before). All in all, Berryz工房 is looking more like an experimental group to me as time goes by: Tsunku learned from Berryz工房 and made sure he didn’t make any mistakes with ℃-ute. No matter how many extra forty copies goes to “Kokuhaku no Funsui Hiroba”’s name, ℃-ute is steadily catching up to their supposed ‘rival’ group, and as a ℃-ute (and Umeda Erika and Suzuki Airi and Yajima Maimi and Okai Chisato) fan, I couldn’t be more delighted.
(Though Hagiwara Mai looks totally stoned in that picture.)
