I’ve been doing basically nothing but music reviews lately. I consider myself an extremely casual blogger, anymore — not really worth getting caught up in the old whirlwind like I used to. Sure, I can still sit here and wax poetic about Kanna leaving and what her role in °C-ute exactly was and get all pissed about the fact that Berryz is actually more fair to their individual members than their Kids counterpart is nowadays, but what’s the point? I’m not even getting pingbacks on my latest updates, lol (not like I mind, but I used to write those pseudo-philosophical posts for the sole reason that I wanted to get my thoughts out…to people who would read them).

Thing is, Hello! Project just doesn’t cut it for me anymore. It stopped cutting it for me…around the time I began to pay attention to the newest releases rather than the antique grooves of the past (remember, “Go Girl” was my first Momusu song, and that was quite a while ago) and found the former to be drastically insignificant when pitted against the latter, unfortunately. This stretches to most of the other groups we have lurking in UFA’s Tidal Basin of Japanese girlie pop music: when I decide between Sheki-Dol vs. Buono, it is overwhelmingly obvious to me which one I prefer based solely on talent and musical diversity. It’s like enjoying an alternate reality of H!P, one that used to exist but no longer does. The fact that it doesn’t exist, and is instead obscured by a much more subpar version of itself, causes me to feel a bit lonesome. I would rather be excited for a new T&C release than Buono’s next single where they are so-very-cute and the choreography has a section where they do the air guitar in super short skirts and thigh stockings. They are purely fanservice. Most of H!P is purely fanservice. This is good for things like Sudou Maasa’s photobook (which, BY THE WAY, that did come out exactly on my birthday this year) and the cover of Momusu’s upcoming single, “Nanchatte Renai” (on said cover, Junjun is mysteriously hot). This is not good for musical value or artistic integrity, and definitely not good for a group’s overall longevity in the mainstream (Japanese!!) market. Especially when the fanservice is often geared towards lonely young men (and sometimes women!) with fat wallets.

…Which, by the way, not all wota are actually rich enough to afford all ten limited edition CDs of the same album. There have been countless times where I’ve been faced with a friend of mine who is lamenting over how their funds have been decimated by their love for a certain idol and collecting said idol’s goods, or seen randomly on forums how somebody is giving an offhand statement concerning the empty status of their bank account after preordering a ton of new H!P releases and getting official photos/posters of their favorite idol(s). Sometimes, I wonder if there are Japanese fans out there who would exile me from their little club because I do jack shit to ’support’ my favorite idols. I own a couple Maasa photos and that was only by the kindness of one of my friends who wanted to buy a present for me. I really do want her photobook, but I’m content to look at it online when I feel the urge to cloud my vision with a girl I consider extraordinarily pretty, rather than actually purchase a copy. Maybe that’s bad? Should I be more supportive of her? This is a debate in and of itself.

I don’t put people down who do buy things pertaining to their favorite idol(s), though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against it. Just when I see somebody crying about how they’re broke, I feel a tad uneasy. It’s not worth the money, in my opinion. It’s an extremely shallow business, which explains exactly why most of the “lead” girls in any H!P group are the prettier ones, rather than the members who could carry a tune or put on a mean Irish stepdance. Ideally, H!P opts for pretty faces who can sing/dance marginally, but really… Why is Michishige Sayumi front-and-center on the “Naichau Kamo” single cover? Shouldn’t she be pushed to the back, being a subpar singer and dancer?

In any normal musical group, probably. In the realm of superficial idol groups, not really. Pretty, charismatic, cute faces sell to the wota, H!P’s primary demographic. Fuck, they can sell to basically anyone — looking at this picture of Suzuki Airi makes me want to downright fall in love with her.

I have a track record with Airi. I used to call her Osuzu and dote a little bit on her. I loved her fucked up teeth and ability to sing better than her peers at the time could. She was incredibly endearing to me, and really stood out in the “Sakura Chirari” PV (obviously, she was in my face the entire time) and sold me on °C-ute ‘after Murakami Megumi’. Gradually, however, I became disenchanted with her. I lost my footing in °C-ute, only to regain it with Maimi’s interesting talents (I actually sort of looked at Maimi as a rolemodel — still do, and I refer to her as Yassui — due to her athletic prowess) and of course, pretty face. Yassui was probably where the desire for wanting more out of idols picked up after Megumi’s departure from my wota life. I couldn’t settle with only a cute face. I needed more substance, if I was going to care about an idol as much as “normal” wota do.

I became frustrated with H!P’s lack of idols with substance to them. The ones that were interesting to me were often pushed to the background, eclipsed by those I deemed “typical shallow idols” who were around to seduce money from fans’ wallets. So I turned to the aged H!P, the one nobody seemed to care for very much. There was plenty of eyecandy back then, but talent was more palpable; the music was fun, creative, emotional, and harmonic; the sales didn’t suck fantastically; Japan didn’t hate Momusu and want them to go away, but on the contrary, craved more and more from them.

Perhaps, this is where H!P went wrong. Goto Maki resulted in a huge soaring of popularity for Momusu, perhaps — she is so often credited as being their harbinger of stardom. Supposedly, the fans couldn’t get enough of this cute, fresh young face that stood prominently out from the grouping of older, more mature women. I wonder often if “Love Machine” would have done as well without her.

We all know you have to be pretty to make it in any part of the entertainment industry. H!P has idols who fit this criteria, definitely. But it takes more to attain the acknowledgement, respect, and interest of the mainstream consumer market than just winking at them from a well-lit stage — a combination of brains and beauty is often considered ‘deadly’, just as a combination of talent and beauty is deadly in the idol world. Goto Maki still charms us today because she’s gorgeous and she can sing extremely well (especially for someone who started off not so good, and gradually improved as she advanced through Momusu’s discography and eventually into her own), and I think she’ll go far in avex for having this combination alongside her own notoriety. She is the heyday of Momusu, the one person most people tend to still recognize.

I’m okay with photobooks (in fact, I believe H!P shines in their photobook production). I’m cool with having soloists who come out with PVs like this one from Mano Erina. As long as I’m not expected to sit here and seriously consider their ‘music’ to be top-of-the-line, A+ pop. If you’re the type of person who feels the kind of music H!P puts out now is superior to what they used to, then we are clearly two very opposite individuals and I respectfully agree to disagree.

I just can’t sit here and be satisfied with a shallow H!P anymore.