True Life Seek

What’s So Great About Ongaku Gatas? EVERYTHING!

Eight days, not bad!

Ongaku Gatas is a fantastic group. I’m aware people get attached to certain groups (Berryz Koubou) and refuse to look towards alternatives (C-ute). However, I think you can get a different appreciation of your old group (Morning Musume) by seeing how amazing a better group (Ongaku Gatas) is.

The 7th and 8th gens have definitely brought some like to Morning Musume. Koharu Kusumi was fine on her own, but the addition of Aika Matsui has given her a perfect foil. Qian Lin and Li Chun are still fresh and built up formidable fan bases for themselves. As for the rest, there’s something about Ai, Risa, Eri, Reina and Sayumi that invokes indifference. While I do like Eri and Sayumi, they aren’t immune. With every passing Morning Musume single, there is the same thought: “Oh here is the 5th and 6th gens doing the same thing as always.”

But enough of that! Ongaku Gatas! There are some people who will have such unbridled hate for one a particular piece of this group that they won’t be able to appreciate how great of a grouping this is. However, I think the majority should be able to see a piece of this group that they like and just ignore or be indifferent to the rest. How is this different from Morning Musume? Well, I see more options in Ongaku Gatas than Morning Musume. If you don’t like Ai and Risa, then good luck watching Morning Musume. If you get annoyed by Reina or Sayumi, then again, good luck. Ongaku Gatas has 4 different groups that it can reach out to. In these 4 different groups, you can basically encompass the entire range of H!P fans.

There are the 4th gen/Golden Age fans. The fact that DANCE*MAN has arranged Yattarouze will only appeal to these people more. Rika Ishikawa and Hitomi Yoshizawa will, most likely, appeal to these people. Rika fans probably, or at least should be, frustrated with the lack of quality coming out of Biyuuden and Hitomi fans are probably thrilled she hasn’t gone quietly in the night.

Mai Satoda appeals to the Early H!P But Not Morning Musume fans. Mai missed the first three years of Country Musume, but still managed to appear on half of their singles. I supposed there could be more appeal to this specific if someone like Ayaka Kimura was involved with Ongaku Gatas. Still, the inclusion of Mai brings certain fans that couldn’t be achieved elsewhere.

Then there is Asami Konno. Konno had strong, if not apologetic, fanbase while she was in Morning Musume. It wasn’t the largest group of fans, but they were there. Still, Konno represents the 5th gen of Morning Musume and there is a number of fans of that group.

Last, and definitely not least, we have the Eggs. In my mind, there’s two groups of H!P Eggs in Ongaku Gatas. In Group 1, we have Yuri Sawada, Arisa Noto and Erina Mano. In Group 2, we have the rest. Yattarouze has only solidified my views there, as Yuri, Arisa and Erina are the most prominent. It could just be that I am only looking for those three of the eggs.

The glory of Morning Musume was in its diversity. While I do see some diversity in the current lineup, it is not as strong as I’d like, and certainly not as strong as in Ongaku Gatas. I saw a STRONG difference in Tsuji/Kago and Kei. I see it in Gatas with Arisa/Yuri and Rika/Hitomi. Maybe I just don’t care to see it in the current lineup of Morning Musume.

All that being said, I did like Mikan.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the PV (The Arisa Noto Show):

She is money!