The first generation is finally finished, and I’m becoming lazy about writing these things. But now I get to cover the three-member second generation, which I think was only added to the group for more harmony in songs, since…that was generally what they did when they were in Momusu. But as individuals, they’re quite interesting. I mean, I really like Sayaka, she was kind of cute, and Mari—

Whoa. Hello there, Yasuda Kei.

Kei, I think, was a member of Morning Musume and still a member of Hello! Project who doesn’t deserve the “idol” moniker whatsoever. It’s not at all who she is, even though it’s the kind of profession I think she can be considered currently in. But the good news is, you don’t have to be decent at singing and dancing and look conventionally pretty to be a winner in my book, and that’s why I think Kei is ‘dynamite’ and always will be. A lot of people look at her face and think she’s enough ugly on-par with Frankenstein’s bride, because, well… Kei is different.

Kei has “special eyes”. I guess you could call them “wonky”, like the kind Tanaka Reina and Korenaga Miki have. And I personally believe that wonky eyes are both a gift and a curse. I’ve seen pictures of Reina where she didn’t too great at all (actually, once you get over the exotic aspect of her catlike eyes, she’s really nothing special), and I’ve seen more than enough pictures of Korenaga that aren’t very flattering to her (it looks like a botched eyelid surgery went on). You can’t claim that one pair of wonky eyes is superior to another because they’re all made the same: wonky.

Kei is an anomaly as far as H!P girls go for the exact reason that she joined Momusu far back enough to be considered an “original” and the originals were…not a lot like today’s idols in H!P. She’s talented at real musical instruments and her singing is almost too good for Tsunku to produce it. The only other person to ever match her in this abnormality is Goto Maki, who was an idol powerhouse at singing, dancing, she was beautiful enough to appease the nay-sayers of Kei, charming, charismatic, and with an ability to take on any genre and turn it on its side.

Sleeping beauty~

But I like Kei because she’s equal to Maki but in different regards. Maki was the essential idol, Kei is the essential performer. I think in H!P she is widely unappreciated for her talent, both by the management and the wota. Why did Maki have an edge on Kei whatsoever? Because she was youthful, newer, and more at the forefront of the group at her debut. It’s rather depressing that she was also one to receive a solo career, whereas Kei never got one and still hasn’t to this day.

Then again, I’m not ruling out the possibility that Kei may not want a solo career with H!P. It’s damn smart of her, too, if that’s the case. She would be much happier as a stage actress, whether famous or not, than stuck in a dead-end music “career” while H!P focuses on its new blood. I just hope she realizes her dream to its full potential.

You could say I’d like to hear her singing and playing instruments and such. The prospect is refreshing in a world where almost all the backing noise is synthetic. Though I guess Kei herself is refreshing, in general, and that’s exactly because she’s not Ishikawa Rika or Mano Erina. Listening to an old Morning Musume B-side like “Wasurerannai” (from the “Furusato” single), I really took notice of Kei’s vocal quality. She has a very lovely, deep voice kind of like Ishiguro Aya’s, but lacking that distinctive Aya sound. Like it was just deep. Other great Kei-centric songs include “Wagamama” (from the first album) and “Otome no Shinrigaku” (from the second album), the latter being a duet she sang with fellow second-gen member Ichii Sayaka. In it, Kei sounds a bit too much like Kaori for my tastes, but it’s still a good representation of what she had to offer Momusu back then.

Any way you look at it, she’s the most talented wonky eyes I’ve ever seen, and without her backing harmonies, Momusu just isn’t the same. :)