I’m going to go over a few points initially, but the purpose of this entry is the survey at the end of it. I would like to get answers from all different bloggers and perspectives, even from people that dislike this blog. I care what other people have to say because, as I loosely connect before the survey, blogging and community go hand-in-hand. I didn’t write out a reasonably argued thesis on the subject, but I believe it to be true.

I’ve been told that on a “return post” not to waste time by saying “blah blah this is why I won’t be posting” or “blah blah I’m back.” I agreed with that at the time. Of course, now that I am in this situation, I am going to be a hypocrite.

I haven’t been blogging lately, not for True Life Seek nor International Wota. It’s not due to time constraints or other commitments. When those reasons come up, I’ve dealt with them and returned to blogging without a peep afterwards. I have been able to start writing entries for blogs lately, but have had no desire to finish them. And I see a much larger problem here.

I’ve been questioning the reasons to blog. I’ve been wondering what I hope to gain and my reasons to continue blogging. This was predictable. Lots of blogs in the jpop blogosphere die off within after a few months. I’d be at that stage around now.

Writing, and thus blogging, is written to be read. I’m not sure myself if this is an absolute, but it is true for nearly every case that I can think of. It can be written to an audience that is tangible or imaginary. It can read alone in thought or aloud. Whatever the case, writing is written to be read. Thus, I can’t imagine a blog that does not consider an audience, even if the audience is real or, in the case of Nocchi Drives Me Wild, imaginative.

Blogs are written to be read, but that in and of itself is no reason to blog. Wanting to be read because it’ll cause happiness, ego boosting, money gains, etc.; these are reasons to blog. So what are my reasons? I’m struggling to pinpoint it.

Originally, blogging was something fun and exciting. I was doing something that I’ve never done before - writing for an audience. Furthermore, I was becoming a part of the International Wota community. I had been following it, so I knew who was who. Seeing these people notice my blog had its own allure. The thrills of blogging have decreased lately. If I’m not enjoying myself, why even blog?

As blogging is very much a public activity, I feel the best way to getting some inspiration to start blogging again is to ask other bloggers some questions. So I’ve written up a little survey. You can pick and choose what questions in this survey you wish to answer. Answer all, answer some, even answer none if you please. Providing some sort of answer to “Why Blog?” is all I’m asking for. The questions are just to help those who don’t have answers right away.

I asked a number of bloggers (use the IW community!) questions to form this survey. If I asked you, please consider this me asking you again. It is already difficult to keep track of who said what.

Answers emailed to me will remain anonymous. If you feel you have a blog entry that answers this sirvey and don’t want to write up an email to me, leave a comment. If you want to turn your answers into a blog entry of your own, I highly encourage it. I just ask that you leave a comment or pingback so I am aware of your entry. Also, I ask that you not title your entry “Survey Says…” Come on now.

Why is this important? Well, you could possibly help in motivating me to start blogging regularly again. You could also help change the direction of TLS. I’m hoping the answers I get give me a better sense of why I should be blogging. If I have that in mind, I can create better entries. I also think you can help your own blog. If I believe that direction and stated goals will help me better focus my blogging, then why shouldn’t it help you?

I will share the answers here on TLS. Concerning the emails, I am not looking for which blogger says what. It’d give me a better understanding of your answers to know this, but it’s not necessary. Email me from an anonymous return address, that’s fine. All I ask are two things:

One, that you are a blogger. What kind of blogger doesn’t matter. Hello!Project, Johhny’s, J-Rock, SuJu, Halicali, whatever. If you stumbled upon this entry and don’t write about the entertainment industry, that’s fine. Obviously, I’m going to prefer to hear from blogs similar to this one, but I’m looking for any perspective that I can get. The amount of time that you’ve been blogging doesn’t matter. You can be active or inactive. Just so long as you’ve blogged at least one entry, I think that’s enough to satisfy. As for regular and consistent readers that don’t blog, I think that your position will have to be covered another day. Granted, the success of blogging is hinged on the reader. I am looking for first-hand experience in this survey though.

Second, be honest. This is obvious but it needs to be emphasized. This is why I am keeping emails anonymous. I don’t want anyone to feel they will damage their reputation by taking this survey. If you are blogging to impress someone or to make a quick buck, don’t be ashamed to say so. The only thing I ask you not tell me is if your blog is a part of scheme geared towards global domination. I don’t want to know too much.

Let’s get to the survey. Again, you don’t have to answer all of it or do it by the letter. Email anything you come up with to broomhead AT truelifeseek DOT com. Sorry for being paranoid about the formatting, but I get enough spam as it is.

Goals:

• Why do you blog?
• What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?
• Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?
• If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?
• What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?
• Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?
• For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?
• Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?

Subject Material:

• What do you blog about?
• Would you be keep a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?
• Do you write about the material to promote it to others?

Readership:

• How much do you care about readership?
• Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?
• What effect does receiving a comment have on you?
• Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?
• If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?

Community: (The International Wota section)

• If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?
• When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
• When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
• How often do you read other blogs?
• How often do you comment on other blogs?
• If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?

Commitment:

• How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?
• How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?
• What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?
• Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not

Personal:

• Would you say you blog for yourself?
• What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?
• What needs does blogging fulfill?
• Do you consider yourself a writer?
• Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?
• How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?

Thank for any time you spend doing this!

I may have missed out on a major aspect of blogging. If I have, let me know. But again, this is just a guideline. I want to know why you blog, and that answer can come in any form. Again, if you decide to email me, my address is at broomhead AT truelifeseek DOT com. I will put up an entry going over any response I get by Monday the 19th at the earliest and Friday the 23rd at the latest.

Chisato Okai
Age: 13
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 15. Erina Aoki, 10. Yui Okada

vs.

Yuu Kikkawa
Age: 15
Member Since: 2007
Beat: 6. Yuko Nakazawa, 3. Reina Tanaka

Activity: Chisato Okai. Milky Way was some nice exposure for Kikkawa, but Chisato in C-ute is so much better.

Looks: Yuu Kikkawa. Yuu is still in the fresh face mode to me.

Charisma: Chisato Okai. I shouldn’t bring this into play but Yuu Kikkawa on Oha Star is pretty disappointing. I’m sure Chisato would take her out in a knife fight.

WINNER - Chisato Okai 2-1. Chisato has had a pretty easy schedule so far - at least in terms of ranking. Yuu Kikkawa made an effort after some upsets, but I still prefer Chisato.

Mai Satoda
Age: 23
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 13. Yuki Maeda, 5. Nozomi Tsuji

vs.

Atsuko Maeda
Age: 16
Association: AKB48
Beat: 9. Mari Yaguchi, 1. Momoko Tsugunaga

Activity: Mai Satoda. I can’t even pretend like I pay attention to AKB48 more than Ongaku Gatas.

Looks: Atsuko Maeda.

Charisma: Atsuko Maeda. I can’t explain why Atsuko Maeda grabs my attention out of AKB48, I really can’t. She just DOES.

WINNER - Atsuko Maeda 2-1. Atsuko done did it again. How is it possible that a non-H!P member is on the verge of making it to the Final Four?

Chisato Okai
Age: 13
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 15. Erina Aoki, 10. Yui Okada, 11 . Yuu Kikkawa

vs.

Atsuko Maeda
Age: 16
Association: AKB48
Beat: 9. Mari Yaguchi, 1. Momoko Tsugunaga, 4. Mai Satoda

Activity: Chisato Okai. C-ute triumphs over AKB48, no surprises here.

Looks: Atsuko Maeda. Chisato isn’t going to come close in this category.

Charisma: Chisato Okai. Something finally beats the Atsuko charm! I find it very entertaining thinking of Chisato making other idols cry and winning knife fights.

WINNER - Chisato Okai 2-1. Finally, the mystery idols are gone. Chisato Okai wins the Tsugunaga Region, admitedly the weakest of the 4 regions. I mean, Chisato only beat one single digit seed, and it wasn’t even a H!P member. The TLS Selection Committee will need to due a better job of seeding next year.

The finals of the TLS March April Madness are now set.

Hitomi Yoshizawa vs. Maimi Yajima.
Arisa Noto vs. Chisato Okai.

The Nocchi vs Chisato matchup really is coming out of nowhere. That’s what happens with seeding though. Hitomi vs Maimi may very well be the real finals. I guess I need to this by tonight or else we will be venturing into May Madness, and that’d just be ridiculous.

Airi Suzuki
Age: 13
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 16. Kanon Fukuda, 9. Asami Konno

vs.

Risa Niigaki
Age: 19
Member Since: 2001
Beat: 13. Makoto Ogawa, 5. Yuri Sawada

Activity: Airi Suzuki. I don’t think this was very tough for Airi. You’d think Risa would have a bigger role in Morning Musume, at least a bigger one than Reina.

Looks: Airi Suzuki. Haha she may have the body of a 14 year old boy (and that boy may be more stacked than her) but I’m giving this category to Airi. I think she does a very good job for someone that is promoted as a sex object that shouldn’t be.

Charisma: Risa Niigaki. My problem with Airi is the same that I had with Maimi. A lot of times, Airi is just another pretty face in the crowd. Sometimes I wonder that if she wasn’t promoted so much, would she command the attention? I’m not so sure 100% of the time…

WINNER - Airi Suzuki 2-1. I’m really impressed with Risa. She shouldn’t have been able to make this far being lined up next to Ogawa and Sawada. But she did and it is impressive.

Ayumi Shibata
Age: 24
Member Since: 2000
Beat: 6. Ai Takahashi, 14. Masae Ohtani

vs.

Arisa Noto
Age: 19
Member Since: 2004
Beat: 15. Minami Sengoku, 7. Natsumi Abe

Activity: Arisa Noto. Ayumi Shibata’s position in Melon Kinenbi hurts her again, at least lined up to a reason why I watch Ongaku Gatas.

Looks: Ayumi Shibata. Shibata’s beauty is gonna win this one.

Charisma: Arisa Noto. Nocchi really is entertaining. It is kind of unfair. Nocchi is a lot older than the Eggs she leads. Naturally, they are going to look up to her than treat her as one of their peers. Then again, Aichan is a lot older than Aika/Koha and I don’t see any great situations of Aichan bossing those kids around.

WINNER - Arisa Noto 2-1. Like Risa, I’m really glad that Shibata made it this far. It is Suzuki vs Nocchi so let’s get right into it.

Airi Suzuki
Age: 13
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 16. Kanon Fukuda, 9. Asami Konno, 4. Risa Niigaki

vs.

Arisa Noto
Age: 19
Member Since: 2004
Beat: 15. Minami Sengoku, 7. Natsumi Abe, 11. Ayumi Shibata

Activity: Airi Suzuki. I’m not sure exactly what is making me lean towards Airi, since I consider all things even here. I think that the photobook of Airi was the decider here.

Looks: Arisa Noto. Yah yah, how can Airi beat Risa in Looks but lose to Risa? Look, I have a complicated, scientific method for these categories and I’m not gonna share it with those who can’t appreciate it.

Charisma: Arisa Noto. I’m a little surprised here. At this point, I’d rather see Nocchi perform than Airi though. Airi has been stuck in her current state for a while now and I’m waiting for her to take the next step, either by getting hotter or showing a more entertaining personality.

WINNER - Arisa Noto 2-1. Suzuki loses her own region. What, were Korean pretty boys around? Ok that’s awful. Nocchi takes the Suzuki Region. It’s not a surprise really, there were not strong contenders in this region.

Maimi Yajima
Age: 16
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 16. Konatsu Furukawa, 9. Eri Kamei

vs.

Kanna Arihara
Age: 14
Member Since: 2004
Beat: 13. Saki Shimizu, 5. Junjun

Activity: Maimi Yajima. It’s the photobooks that pushed Maimi on this one. Kanna will never get a photobook before Mai Hagiwara and that depresses me.

Looks: Kanna Arihara. The change in looks in 2006 Kanna to 2007-present Kanna really is amazing to me. Honestly, I didn’t care much for Kanna when she was an Egg coming into C-ute. Once her body started changing, then my opinion did as well.

Charisma: Maimi Yajima. Ah this pains me. I think that if Kanna was more open (yes) with the groping of fellow members, it’d be a different situation. On camera, she doesn’t do it enough. Meanwhile, Maimi has no problems locking lips with Chisato. I don’t think Maimi is a lesbian, I think she was just doing what she was told to do to entertain the crowd. I can appreciate that.

WINNER - Maimi Yajima 2-1. When we analyze what we enjoy, sometimes we don’t get the results that we hope for. While I will proudly cheer for Kanna before Maimi, comparing them to these categories see Maimi moving on. If, in a week, I claim Kanna is better than Maimi, don’t be surprised.

Chinami Tokunaga
Age: 15
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 15. Saki Nakajima, 7. Erina Mano

vs.

Sayumi Michishige
Age: 18
Member Since: 2003
Beat: 14. Hitomi Saito, 6. Aya Matsuura

Activity: Sayumi Michishige. I started the March April Madness before Dschinghis Khan came out, so I think it’d be unfair to give this category to Chinami based on that PV. That would have swung it to her. For now, Sayumi telling Reina to shut up in the Bon Kyu Bon Kyu Bomb concert still pleases me to no end.

Looks: Chinami Tokunaga. Sayumi and Chinami are both hot.

Charisma: Sayumi Michishige. I love Sayumi’s vanity gimmick. Seriously, it’s so great. She can get away with anything and it’s just Sayumi being Sayumi.

WINNER - Sayumi Michishige 2-1. Sayumi somehow beats what I feel is a more talented idol in Chinami. Then again, isn’t this always the case with Sayumi? Yajima vs Michishige. The battle of pink.

Maimi Yajima
Age: 16
Member Since: 2002
Beat: 16. Konatsu Furukawa, 9. Eri Kamei, 4. Kanna Arihara

vs.

Sayumi Michishige
Age: 18
Member Since: 2003
Beat: 14. Hitomi Saito, 6. Aya Matsuura, 2. Chinami Tokunaga

Activity: Maimi Yajima. There is no contest here. Maimi in Tokaikko Junjou alone is enough.

Looks: Maimi Yajima. I think that “Maimi in Tokaikko Junjou” works here again.

Charisma: Sayumi Michishige. Again, the vanity gimmick! Look, Maimi can sometimes best described as “seen, not heard.” Not all the time… but sometimes on variety shows, she just smiles away and ends up being another face in the crowd.

WINNER - Maimi Yajima 2-1. Ah, two #1 seeds win? That’s slightly boring. Maimi Yajima took the toughest region - one that consisted of Kanna, Junjun, Chinami, Manoeri, Sayumi and Ayaya. It wasn’t easy as Kanna and Sayumi were tough idol competition. But if she made it this far, you have to say it is deserved. Maimi will face Hitomi in the Final Four.

Hitomi Yoshizawa
Age: 22
Member Since: 2000
Beat: 16. Akari Saho, 8. Danny Noriega

vs.

Rika Ishikawa
Age: 23
Member Since: 2000
Beat: 10. Atsuko Inaba, 4. Miyabi Natsuyaki

Activity: Hitomi Yoshizawa. With Gatas (Brilhantes and Ongaku), they do a lot of the same things. I can’t figure out how to split the two, so I’m giving it to Hitomi out of bias.

Looks: Rika Ishikawa. I had been proclaiming that Rika’s sexy looks doesn’t work. Well, that caused her to lose to Miyabi in this category. She still edges out Hitomi, for whatever reason.

Charisma: Hitomi Yoshizawa. Is it a surprise to anyone that so many variety/quiz shows snatched up Yossi when they got the chance?

WINNER - Hitomi Yoshizawa 2-1. The first real challenge to Hitomi, Rika had a strong run. She freaking took out Miyabi.

Aika Mitsui
Age: 15
Member Since: 2006
Beat: 14. Erika Umeda, 6. Ayaka Kimura

vs.

Koharu Kusumi
Age: 15
Member Since: 2005
Beat: 15. Asuna Okai, 7. Risako Sugaya

Activity: Koharu Kusumi. For some reason, those in charge like to play a cruel joke and give Aika as little to do as possible. Although Aika’s recent pregnancy made a nice challenge at the activity - Koha has done much more at this point.

Done much more in songs I mean…

Looks: Aika Mitsui. Where’s the photobook?

Charisma: Koharu Kusumi. Aika keeps it real, there is no questioning that. She’s quickly becoming the Queen Bee(tch). For now, I am going with Koha.

WINNER - Koharu Kusumi 2-1. Hold up. Did Koha really just beat Aika? Let me explain myself here. For the record, I like Aika more than Koharu. But where would the fun be if I was just exclusively going by who I like. When I match up Activity, Looks and Charisma - I have to (somewhat begrudgingly) admit that Koha is bringing more to the table right now. But I like Aika more! Please forgive me for putting Koha through to the next round!

This leads us to the finals for the Yoshizawa Region:

Hitomi Yoshizawa
Age: 22
Member Since: 2000
Beat: 16. Akari Saho, 8. Danny Noriega, 5. Rika Ishikawa

vs.

Koharu Kusumi
Age: 15
Member Since: 2005
Beat: 15. Asuna Okai, 7. Risako Sugaya, 3. Aika Mitsui

Activity: Koharu Kusumi. Koha and Yossi offset each other in nearly everything that I could consider. For Koha’s solo career, there is Yossi’s Ongaku Gatas and futsal career. For Yossi’s getting the hell out of Momusu, there’s Koha trying to make it worthwhile. It came down to getting drunk. They both do it (Yossi on TV and Koha in her albums). But it is legal for Yossi to do it. Boring.

Looks: Hitomi Yoshizawa. Koharu’s looks have brought her far in this tournament. I can’t give this category to here just because she wears more revealing outfits though. Hitomi is a lot more confident and I find that sexier, at least in this comparison.

Charisma: Hitomi Yoshizawa. Koha is a wound-up crack fiend, there is no questioning that. I’m left shocked and confused at how much energy she can have. Hitomi is more reserved, but that adds dimension. She obviously has a wacky side. Let’s take Rainbow Pink. Whenever Koha performs Rainbow Pink, it’s obviously the hypercute angle. When Hitomi (and Mikitty) performed it at that fanclub event (which? I forget), she realized how goofy it was and was laughing throughout the entire thing. She may have hated performing Rainbow Pink, but I thought to myself “if I had to perform Rainbow Pink, I’d react the same way.” Now, hopefully that day will never come, but I found it entertaining that I could see myself in Hitomi. I pulled that one back.

WINNER - Hitomi Yoshizawa 2-1. It’s a deserved win for Hitomi and she takes the region that she was the #1 seed. It was a strong division with the likes of Aika, Koharu, Rika and Miyabi also involved. It depends on who she’d face from the Yajima Region, but I think she has a chance to win it all.

I still have not watched this week’s or last week’s Haromoni or made any progress on the TLS March April Madness. This is the week for that! Well, so long as no H!P scandals pop up (when’s your yearly scandal coming Nacchi??). I’m using this category as a sort of quick State of the Blog or where I’m at in blogging post. I like keeping things in nice categories… and State of the Blog should be for big news!

I only want to talk about one blog today. And that is ★ ☆ yossha yossha YOSSHA! ☆ ★. Yoshimi’s writing rubs some people the wrong way, I’m sure she is aware of that. I’ll even say myself that I don’t like it all. But there is something underlining with Yoshimi, behind all the threats of violence to Risako. When she likes an idol, she REALLY likes an idol.

The whole point of the wota-idol fandom is for this type of fan connection. It doesn’t have to be the level that some of the Japanese wota take it. However, if you can claim that you are dedicated to a particular idol, no matter what happens to that idol or their career, then you are exhibiting the type of connection intended. I think it is clear that, when it comes down to it, Yoshimi has this.

Now, she recently said that she is done posting pictures of JunJUn. I admit, I’m selfish. I’d rather her keep up with JunJun than with who she replaced JunJun with, Maasa Sudou. But I’ll admit that this is a good idea for Yoshimi.

hi, minnasan (JunJun posts) and now chotto matte (Maasa posts) provide a nice contrast to the combative style in some of her other posts. It’s variety within a blog, and I love variety. It almost makes sense for her to promote less popular H!P members as she slags on the more popular ones.

Even if it isn’t for everyone.

I purposefully used an awful image of her. It didn’t take much searching. Ok, that was the last Mika Mutou joke, I swear.

I never thought I’d be writing this. I never thought I’d care that about Mika Mutou graduating. I never thought that I’d be upset that Mika Mutou was leaving. But, here we are.

some boys! blog has the report that Mika Mutou is graduating from Ongaku Gakas and Hello!Project.

And I am actually wish that Mika Mutou, OF ALL PEOPLE, would be staying.

It is an industry where looks matter. Yes, personality, singing, dancing, hard work, all of these matter as well. But looks matter.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This is also true. Just because the industry dictates who is pretty and who isn’t doesn’t mean you should listen to it. Make your own decisions on who you think is attractive and ugly. It doesn’t have to be based on looks. Your own personal reasons for calling someone beautiful can be based on personality. But for the industry, looks matter.

She may have good photos of her. But almost everything we see is a bad photo - whether it is due to the angle, lighting, her face, whatever. She may even look better than other girls if none of them wore makeup. The fact is that, as an idol, Mika Mutou was not pleasant on my eyes.

But she stood out. Oh boy, did she stand out.

Now, I don’t know the business plans that UFA/H!P both have for each girl. But is it possible that the promotion of Mika Mukou was intentional? That the fan reactions - both in Japan and overseas - were intended? That’s a stretch to say without any real evidence. But it wouldn’t be the first time an idol has been promoted as an ugly puppy. I don’t know every single girl of Onyanko Club and AKB48. While my brain thanks me for this, it prevents me from citing specific examples. However, with so many girls, and ones that I have seen that were ugly, I’m sure it is plausible that creating an “ugly” idol has, and possibly will, be done.

If Mika Mutou was supposed to be an ugly puppy, it worked. People have stood up for her. I’m sure if she stayed with Ongaku Gatas longer and the group got more promotion, there’d be even more supporters.

I’ve actually grown to appreciate Mika Mutou, in some weird, backwards way.

You see, I am somewhat dismayed as a Hello!Project fan. Sure, there are some moments where everything is gravy. The decisions being made do not sit well with me though. I am powerless to stop or change the directions that the groups are going. I can only sit back and watch. And in a way, Mika Mutou has been the outlet of my frustrations over H!P. I could always count on something that I could compare to Mika or say “well, at least is isn’t Mutou on TV.”

When I see a walrus on Haromoni, what am I supposed to think? Great TV? No, it’s not. When Risako Sugaya sings or Aika Mitsui is part of the background in music videos… Great entertainment? No. But putting Mika Mutou on display and allowing me to get a cheap giggle in, I’m all for it. It become a rare constant in today’s H!P. I actually started to look forward to it. She was a walking punchline, but I could always count on it.

And, for whatever reference one may desire, here are all the horrible, awful things that I’ve called her over the last few months:

• Walrus
• The Hulk
• Elephant
• 
• An ox in the Oregon Trail
• A pig/boar/whatever that thing was
• A train
• Another walrus

I’m gonna miss her.

Buono’s Kiss!Kiss!Kiss! PV was released and can be viewed at some boys blog. I haven’t watched it yet so I don’t have any opinion. I just like that, after 2 previous singles, it’s possible to label this PV as “Typical Buono.”

There are more reviews for Perfume’s GAME. Shanimuni Paradise and boylikesmusicPerfume. It pains me to see that neither of them enjoy “take me take me” as much as I do. I will freely admit that I’m liking this song because it was made for the exact reasons Shanimuni points out:

If there was ever fan service in a song…….

They had an album called Fan Service, they are not above this!

I do enjoy that GAME is getting reactions to Perfume across the blogs. It’ll take some time to win over more fans and there are some who simply won’t pay attention to this group at all. This is slowly changing.

Posted on the Hello!Online tracker was Morning Musume’s appearance on Utaban. I am going to review this for TLS later on today as I have some fun comments for it. But real quick, this is a combination of mainstream Japan’s opinion of Morning Musume (Utaban doesn’t care about Momusu anymore) and an episode of Haromoni (boring rubbish as we watch Momusu watch other people do nothing). I would recommend watching this but it really is no different from the last few years of Morning Musume on these shows.

As for Airi Suzuki’s third photobook (from strawberrie)…

Aika. Kanna. Junjun.

I picked a lucky time to start looking around at other blogs. Right at the top of my most recent feeds was Tokyograph reporting that Ai Kago is going to be in a Hong Kong film. I like to joke around about dropping SCOOPS for International Wota - and I outscooped them all today! As for the news, it’s way too early to pass any real judgment. She could have a legit role or just a quick cameo - who knows at this point? I’ll be interested in what everyone else thinks of this though and I’m sure tomorrow’s Daily Links will be filled with Aibon reactions.

Maize of fields and maiZe and berryZ was the first one to tell me, but lots of blogs have information on Berryz Koubou’s 17th single. You can read it up at Just Another H!P Blog, some boys! blog, Strawberrie or Totally Hello! Project - they all have pretty much the same information. I’m pretty happy about this because it’ll mean a final end to Dschinghis Khan videos at the end of H!P programming. This is also big news for Berryz Koubou as it’ll push Berryz Koubou into a tie at 3rd place for sheer amount of singles released under Hello!Project:

Number of Singles Released (5 or over):
Morning Musume: 36
Aya Matsuura: 21 (20 released, 1 announced)
Berryz Koubou: 17 (16 released, 1 announced)
Maki Goto: 17
Melon Kinenbi: 17
Mini Moni: 12
Yuko Nakazawa: 12
Country Musume: 11
Natsumi Abe: 10
v-u-den: 10
Taiyou to Ciscomoon/T&C Bomber: 8
Tanpopo: 8
Yuki Maeda: 8
W: 7
Miki Fujimoto: 6
C-ute: 5 (4 minor)
Coconuts Musume: 5

While it is conceivable that Melon Kinenbi will get another release, Berryz Koubou will most likely take sole possession of 3rd place by the end of the year. Aya Matsuura’s releases have slowed down considerably - 4 in the last 3 years - so it should only be a matter of time until Berryz passes her. As for one day taking the #1 spot, I would imagine that BK would break up before that point.

Looking the list over, can you believe that Yuko Nakazawa has 12 singles or that Yuki Maeda has 8?

To finish things up today, everyone visit wotachat! It is pengie’s (of unchained) hosted chatroom. She wants to populate it even more so I’m passing along the word of my own will and volition (read: forced). I’m usually there at some point every day and many IW bloggers/contributors make a daily visit at some point. It’s pretty fun - although the conversation always starts getting bizzare when a certain resident of Hawaii shows up.

There is a new wave of podcasting in our International Wota community. My Pleasant Vista, Pink Wota, Stuck in a Pagoda with Motoko Aoyama, The H!P Opinions of a Metalhead and Raid My Minibar all have new podcasts within the last few days. It is a much more personable style that lots of IW bloggers have taken to. I really am interested to see not only who keeps at it but who else decides to try their hand at podcasting.

As for the current podcasts, I have to admit that I’ve skipped over the music that is played. I either know the song already or would rather listen to the suggested music at my own leisure. I wouldn’t suggest to anyone that is going to be podcasting to completely drop the idea of playing music. It depends on what type of audience you want. Personally, I love talk radio. Therefore, I am going to enjoy the parts where the host is talking more so than the music the host plays.

The big news today that I want to share comes from wiki.theppn.org, which has the sales charts for Oricon Week 17. What’s important to me is Perfume and Morning Musume.

Morning Musume clocks in at 3rd with 48k sales. Is this good? I think lots of fans will definitely be happy. I wouldn’t call it a resurgence yet though. It’s an improvement in sales but that’s only because Mikan sold so horribly on the Oricon chats. It’ll be interesting to see where RB goes from here and what style Morning Musume uses for their next single. With Kanashimi Twilight and now Resonant Blue being reasonable successes (at least compared to other recent MM singles), it wouldn’t make sense to switch things up again.

Perfume’s GAME sold 154k and is #1 for the week and I am so happy about this. When I first became a fan of Perfume, I never expected such things. I am under no illusions that they got #1 because of a relatively weak competition in albums this week. However, 6 figures is still 6 figures. Perfume’s popularity can be maintained if handled properly. Releases from the group have been spread apart, so overexposure doesn’t scare me at this point. I do know that the higher they climb, the harder they will fall.

It is time for another new theme here at True Life Seek. My excitement over the last theme wore out quickly. I can’t really put my feelings into words - I just didn’t like the theme anymore. This new theme is the same theme that’s used for Nocchi Drives Me Wild. It is simplistic like the original TLS theme, but also makes more effective use of browser space. My previous theme was very disappointing in this regard.

I am hoping that TLS will get a bit of a spark from this change. TLS hasn’t been completely stagnant in the last few weeks but the lack of entries is noticeable. I have topics that I have been planning or written up the beginnings of a draft to - Kaela Kimura, Namie Amuro, Perfume - but finishing entries has become more and more difficult.

Finishing March April Madness is a priority at the moment. I apologize for abandoning the project. Truth be told, I got burned out on it after doing so much in such a short time. For next time, I plan to space entries further apart. Labeling it “March Madness,” while good for posterity, is also unrealistic.

There will be a new feature to TLS: a Daily Links category. I am aware that I blog for International Wota. I have a few reasons for wanting to try this with TLS.

Philosophically, the purpose of Intl Wota entries is to share a particular blog entry. The purpose for linking blogs on TLS is so that I could respond personally to certain entries. This will mean that there will be some instances where I am talking about the same entry on TLS and Intl Wota. I’m also sure no one is going to complain that their blog gets more exposure. I’m not sure how I would I respond to that…

Furthermore, it is not just blogs that I’ll be linking as I have no reason not to link media - pictures, video, etc. - as well. Don’t be surprised if there is a ton of links to hello-online’s picboard.

I am always willing to try out new plugins, so any suggestions of plugins that you love would be helpful.

Regarding a style of entries, I am not planning on honing that down just yet. I actually like that some entries will contain nothing but pictures and others will be semi-researched pieces. Some days I will continue being absolutely negative (whenever I watch Haromoni) and other days I will have nothing but positive things to say (when I listen to Perfume).

Lastly, thank you to people that keep reading TLS! There are times when I slow on responding to comments. I feel bad when I see them coming from the same people and I don’t give any response. I might as well call some of them out now. 5 of them come to my mind: renaye, Yoshimi, Chris, Vee and Andrea. Thank guys! I appreciate anyone that comments but I realize that there are lots of readers who simply like to read and not comment. I don’t comment all the time on other blogs so I understand this line of thinking.

Artist: Perfume
Album: GAME
Publisher: Tokuma Japan
Released: 2008.04.16
Sales: 154,304

Nocchi Drives Me Wild

He has a post about what voices he would marry. Yes, only the voice.

The thought of marrying only a voice is truly a horrifying one to me. A disembodied voice could theoretically follow you wherever you went. You could not escape it. Furthermore, if you got into an argument with your vocal spouse - think of how insane you’d appear. Oh, you could try to tell the men in white that you are not crazy; that you are just married to a voice. That’ll get you far. In the end, you’d be locked in a room with padded walls, rocking back and forth as you argue with your spouse (who only you can talk to and hear) about who left the milk out on the kitchen table.

That being said, if I am going to go insane, I’d like to do it with the following:

- Orson Welles. I can’t be the only person who has wanted Orson Welles to narrate their life. My boring life would be poetic and interesting if Orson was dictating.

- Sou Matsumoto. Of Going Under Ground. His voice isn’t that strong and powerful type. It’s not sultry or sensuous. It is just pleasant on my ears. If I were to delve into insanity by being married to a voice that only I could hear, I wouldn’t mind it being his.

- Bonnie Pink. Again, not the best singing voice or anything. It’s not sexy or booming. It’s just that right flavor or pleasant that I’d be fine with for the rest of my days.

- Randy Savage. As in Macho Man Randy Savage. Come on, that’d be GREAT. If I want Orson Welles to make my life more poetic, I’d want Randy to make it absolutely insane. Because he’d take me to The Danger Zone, east of the Pacific Ocean, west of London, England, south of Mars, and north of Hell.

- Koharu Kusumi. If I am going to go out, I am going out IN STYLE.

I just realized that there’d be no backing out of this marriage. In a divorce, all the voice could take would be half of your brain. I’ve already lost so much of that watching Haromoni -I can’t afford to lose anymore.

Ah geez Resonant Blue. I’ve barely sat through this song. In fact, I watched the Another Version (what the hell kind of name is that, why not just call itTHE REAL PV) to the tune of Seasons of Love. It was much better. I don’t really like the song but I guess that should be saved for another post. But hey! Look at that! The Haromoni stage doesn’t have a black background so I can see Aika, even behind Koharu’s ugly femullet. I really dislike the femullet and I blame Gwen Stefani for bring that rubbish mainstream again! As expected, they look stupid doing this dance.

Where’s Ami Tokito when you need her?

Ah, our generation of music video gamers.

This guy has got to have more videos on Haromoni than Koha by now. Sayumi hates it, good for her!

On the bright side, Risa will appear like a (relatively) big deal when Momusu goes to Korea. The problem is I don’t live in Korea and don’t care about Risa impressions anymore!!

Whenever a video on Haromoni starts and that star moves slowly across the bar, I cringe.

Well look at that, a successful Haromoni after all.

Linlin takes a crap.

So Junjun is gonna memorize all these cats and that’ll be that. Seriously, when is one of them gonna screw this segment up completely? And when they screw up, they get punishment - like a leaf blower to the face. Oh wait, that’s idoling. A show that I’ll talk about on this blog later.

Junjun does some ridiculously cute Sayumish stuff.

And Aika trolls Junjun for it.

So last week’s episode had a preview of another Superkoha segment. There was no Superkoha segment on this episode. Bullshit!

This week’s was slightly better.

It’s been 4 months of regularly watching Haromoni now. This scares the everliving daylights out of me: I regret not watching Haromoni on time last week. It is bad television 95% of the time. Do I really enjoy watching bad TV THAT much that I regret almost missing an episode? Most of the time that I am watching Haromoni, I am extremely bored and feel like I am wasting my time. Am I addicted to that feeling? Do not end up like me - avoid Haromoni.

Aika’s the only reason why I watch this show diligently. I can’t even say that I watch it diligently anymore.

He chops stuff for 3 minutes. Whatever.

Lame.

Who’s flying this plane. A penguin? And he’s drunk! Wait a minute. Penguins can’t fly… penguins can’t fly!!!

I really am sick of watching this show.

You are trying Junjun. You are trying. The fact that Junjun can (or at least appear to) have so much fun doing this is refreshing.

I have nothing witty to say - I’m bored out of my mind at this show.

Linlin memorizes a bunch of fish. Finally, it is over.

At least some episodes of Haromoni can anger me. Invoking anger is enough to watch a television show. What we have here is a big blog of nothing. Nothing but me being bored out my mind.

When it happens, you can all call it the Rakuten Eagles Curse.

* Morning Musume doesn’t count since The Manpower was A) not intended for the baseball team, B) did not have Rakuten Eagles in the title and C) would ruin my theory.

My guesses as to how:

1 - Chisato Okai pulls out a knife in the middle of a concert and finally cuts a solo line. In who is debatable.

2 - Erika Umeda gets caught in a scandal and rocks the foundation of the unit - haha, yah right.

3 - Japan gets sick of teenage girls - haha, yah right.

4 - Airi becomes a full-time member of Buono. What something that could seriously happen?

5 - Either Maimi or Mai is getting pregnant, or both - and potentially with the same baby daddy.

Because that’s what we get in the Secret Secret PV!

The PV has loads of shameless promotion for what may or may not be a real product. I don’t really care. The videos from Namie Amuro’s 60s70s80s were shamelessly promoting something like hair products. It doesn’t matter - I’m used to pop culture being a 24/7 commercial. The budget has to come from somewhere right? H!P should allow their PVs to be one giant commercial.

The preview of Secret Secret was my favorite of the bunch (of the two). Enough of my blabbering. Lots of screenshots time!

The fembots aren’t in function right now. They need something to wake them up.

Ah, yes. Chocolate. Chocolove from AKB48 has already stated that the lifeline of idols is not blood but in fact chocolate. It took Perfume for me to believe it though.

Well, my day is made.

Kashi!

So even though they need chocolate to function, A~chan decides to tease Kashiyuka and Nocchi by keeping chocolate away from them. I think I like this evil A~chan.

Damn Nocchi.

By the way, I’m really hating on Kanye for bringing these sunglasses in effect.

Kashi has malfunctioned. Maybe if A~chan would have given her the chocolate we could have avoided this.

But no need to fear!

Hehe.

And Perfume turns into mannequins. This is quite sad actually. Maybe it means that anybody can be the face of this commercial. Perfume are just in the right place at the right time. And one day, Perfume will fade away and new mannequins will replace them…

Ah but it doesn’t matter for now! We are young, popular and have chocolate!

Expect a ridiculous amount of screenshots from this, much like Namie Amuro’s 60s70s80s post.

For now:

Kashi blow up doll…

Again, ahhh Nocchi.