True Life Seek

If you like Ai Takahashi smiling into the camera and using her deep singing voice for no reason, this is the concert for you.

If you like Reina Tanaka’s blinking, then this is the concert for you.

But this was not the concert for me.

1. Onna ni Sachi Are intro - This was cool.

2. Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! BOMB GIRL - I truly dislike this song. The high pitched yeah’s only serve to infuriate me.

3. Mikan - The group sounds much better than they did in Bon Kyu, I can be thankful for at least this. Bon Kyu should never be sung again. Nothing in this performance is different from any other Mikan performance. It was too close to its release for that to be possible. They did the stupid sound effects for Reina at the end of the song. Ugggh.

4. Hand made CITY - Going right into Hand made CITY. Then… they run off stage? Koharu was hurting live in this song. Such is life. Haha, in this song’s chorus, they are supposed to repeat and then shout the solo lines as a group. But at some points, Risa was doing it so much louder than everyone else. Anyways, wave them terrible towels. I would have loved it if they broke out into tomboy - superstar. That is one sexy song.

5. MC1 - Whatever.

Wait no, I usually just say yah whatever about the MC1. But look at Aika… damn look at those rolls!!

6. Kacchoii ze! JAPAN (w/ v-u-den) - What the hell? I don’t even know what to say about this. Why is v-u-den in this concert? I HEARD SOMEONE BOO, YES! My hero. What a surprise, Rika is in the spotlight. Glad to see Morning Musume running backup to Rika. Some things never change. Hahah Erika does the funniest “hai hai hai hai hai.” So awkward and shouted with no emotion. I wish Seishun Love Lunch did the hai’s like that. This sucked and the crowd wasn’t into it at all. I kinda forgot the eggs were on stage with v-u-den during this.

7. Please! Jiyuu no Tobira - Eri is doing a good job of standing out in this concert. But it is still the Ai & Reina Show.

8. Kanashimi Twilight - They are going to ruin this song. I know it. I KNOW IT. Here we go. Reina takes over for Miki. SHOCKING. Ai takes over for Hitomi. SHOCKING Did I miss something here? I remember other concerts giving other members some time. Even Berryz concerts aren’t all about Risako. I actually enjoyed Eri here. Of course, I would have enjoyed more Aika and JunJun in this. Ai & Reina Show.

9. MC - Whatever.

Ok again, I usually don’t care about these things. But Sayumi telling Reina to shut the hell up made me so happy.

10. Chance! (Koharu Kusumi) - Koharu does Chance, lip-synced. Meaning it is nothing different from any TV live. Seriously, what is the point of protecting Koharu here? At this point, she’s not going to lose fans for not being able to sing. Anyways, Koharu is great.

11. Suki na Senpai (Jun Jun & Lin Lin) - Oh cool. This is an unexpected surprise. Personally, I’d like it if Jun Jun would just take this over. Neither girl is grating and they are putting out a nice effort. This will go a long way to endearing them (especially Lin Lin) to me. Jun Jun has to stick around for a while.

12. Shanimuni Paradise (Ai Takahashi, Risa Niigaki, Eri Kamei, Reina Tanaka) -I’ve been avoiding this whole concert because of this. I know that Eri and Risa will be playing backup and Reina will do something to annoy the ever living crap out of me. Ok they have a trampoline, something Hello!Project doesn’t utilize enough. What is this dancing? It is worse than the clock stuff in Ajisai Ai Ai Monogatari. I think I built this up to be so bad that I didn’t think it was as bad. But don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t wait for this to end.

13. Ikimasshoi! - NO. Reina blinking to the beat of this song. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. NO. No a hundred times. And here it is, the point I stop caring for this concert. That is not something for you to be doing Reina. What the hell is this? How do you possibly make this song boring? I can’t make sense of it.

14. MC3 - Whatever.

15. Jaja Uma Parade (v-u-den) - Yui Okada is hot. This song is not.

16. MC4 - Whatever.

17. Bi ~Hit Parade~ (v-u-den) - Fun stuff, too bad we know that v-u-den is dead, and even if they were alive, they’d not be doing song like this.

18. Koisuru Angel Heart (v-u-den) - In somewhat normal costumes, I see the value in this song sung by Rika featuring Erika and Yui. It sure is too bad that Erika and Yui harmonize together in a way that makes me smile.

19. Otoko Tomodachi (Aika Mitsui & v-u-den) - Wow. I watched this in its entirety before typing a word and was truly shocked. v-u-den called out Aika Mitsui. Instead of doing the usual crap, Mitsui just came out and started her song. Here we have Mitsui in a dress standing next to v-u-den. Talk about contrasting styles. I feared that at any point, Rika was going to take this over. To her credit, she stayed backup the entire time. And Aika. In the most unassuming way possible, she did a great job taking over the stage. At various points, her voice would creak and crack. She didn’t really do much besides stand there, smile and sing. AND I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT. Truly proof that you don’t need to be all that talented in the singing and dancing department.

20. MC5 - Whatever.

21. Gyutto Dakishimete (Ai Takahashi) - Then came Ai. Ai can sing better than Aika. Ai can dance better than Aika. Ai is more talented than Aika in most ways possible. She will never be better than Aika to me. Have fun with your solo career doing boring ballad after boring ballad Ai.

22. HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN? - I don’t like this song and not many performances of it will appeal to me. Furthermore, I’ll never buy the rocker stuff from this current group. At least when Hitomi and Miki was in the group, it was believable. With performances like Shanimuni Paradise and Ikimasshoi in the same concert, I can’t buy this. At least they are finally splitting the lines. If you wonder why I don’t like this song, watch it here and go to 2:35 and you have your answer. Hitomi Yoshizawa can get away with it. Ai CANNOT. I was ready to just write this off and move on. I was even complacent in this concert thanks to Aika’s performance. But we are back to square one. Risa struggling to say “I like Tokyo” made me laugh.

23. Shabondama - Nothing special about this. Honestly, why do this in concerts after Hitomi/Eri’s performance. It’s not like it can be topped.

24. NATURE IS GOOD! - Reina and Risa. Don’t really care.

25. MC6 - Whatever.

26. Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan - So-so.

27. Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~ - Significantly better than many of the other performances. Mostl because they have to perform it as a group (or shared lines) and they avoid many of the overused irritating expressions (for the most part).

28. Love & Peace! HERO ga Yattekita. - I saw more unnecessary expressions in this. Overall, it was fine. If they are going to pull these tracks out, why not try a Happy Summer Wedding or Koi no Dance Site. I’ll never be satisfied.

29. HELLO TO YOU ~Hello! Project 10 Shuunen Kinen Theme~ (w/ v-u-den) - More of this and less of Shanimuni Paradise next time.

30. MC7 - Whatever.

31. Onna ni Sachi Are - This concert is getting boring. Thankfully it is almost over. Everyone is pretty much hitting lines because they are lucky if they get to sing one per song. That is unless you are Ai, Eri or Reina.

32. Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! BOMB GIRL - I don’t even want to acknowledge that they did this two times in this concert. But I will. It was bad. This concert mercifully ends.

Let’s take a quick look at my Morning Musume rankings from a week ago again.

Reina and Ai are at #8 and 9? No wonder I put this concert off for so long. I intended to watch it last Friday. It took me until Wednesday morning to finally accept the fact that I will have to watch it.

I would rank Reina 9th and Ai 8th after this.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe H!P concerts have always been about 1 or 2 members. I know that v-u-den concerts were all about Rika, but v-u-den was essentially a solo act anyways. In the two hours that this concert lasted, I can only remember Koharu doing Chance and Sayumi telling Reina to shut the hell up. Think about this. Koharu and Sayumi are two of the biggest camera hogs around.

Aika’s performance was fantastic. I’ve talked about it already but there’s more to say for it. Compare it to Shanimuni Paradise. The constant barrage of pouting and blinking that has come into Morning Musume since Hitomi and Miki left is out of control. Aika did none of that crap in her performance, and it was the best of the night. Who cares if her singing wasn’t as strong as Ai’s? I’d rather watch her go out there and struggle singing with a huge smile on her face than watch the overacting found in Shanimuni Paradise.

Aika’s performance alone made this concert watchable. You should watch it here and forget the rest of the concert.

All the costumes sucked. There we no exceptions to this, they all sucked.

I didn’t want to take screenshots of this. It was going to take too long. However, Ray from American Wota had plenty of them. Therefore, I give you my reason for watching this concert:

Posted on February 21st, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Concerts, Reviews.
Tags: Ai Takahashi, Aika Mitsui, Eri Kamei, Erika Miyoshki, Hello!Project, Junjun, Koharu Kusumi, Linlin, Morning Musume, Reina Tanaka, Rika Ishikawa, Risa Niigaki, Sayumi Michishige, v-u-den, Yui Okada