In this round:
2. Chisato Okai vs. 11. Yuu Kikkawa
4. Mai Satoda vs. 8. Atsuko Maeda
Tsugunaga Finals

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2006: Def Diva
2007: GAM
2008: C-ute

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.

Will I keep up with Berikyuu? Probably not. I didn’t keep up with Musume Dokyu or Uta Doki. Too many files to download, too much to keep up with. It’s going to need to be some kind of show for me to follow it regularly.

But before I get to watching it - I have high hopes for Berikyuu.

Haromoni is not the same show it was when I started watching it on a weekly basis. Two months ago, the majority of the show consisted of the Musume girls watching videos. Now an episode of Haromoni is more about the girls themselves. In an ideal world, the show would be better due to the changes. It isn’t. It is true that the girls are acting out the majority of the videos. However, the videos are still boring, predictable and repetitive. It makes me wonder if they filmed a month’s worth of episodes at a time. It’s possible to get a hit using the same format and the same gags over and over, but more often it’ll be a miss.

Berikyuu will save me from this! It just HAS to. We are all starved for variety entertainment from the H!P Kids. DVDs of material only come by so often. Appearances on the music shows only come with releases. There has never really been a steady stream of variety material from the H!P Kids. I am of the belief that the majority of them can be great entertainers in these situations. But am I giving them the benefit of the doubt? The fact is that the Kids - unlike Morning Musume - haven’t have the chance to disappoint yet.

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Yoshizawa Region

1. Hitomi Yoshizawa vs. 5. Rika Ishikawa
2. Koharu Kusumi vs. 3. Aika Mitsui

Yajima Region
1. Maimi Yajima vs. 4. Kanna Arihara
2. Chinami Tokunaga vs. 3. Sayumi Michishige

Suzuki Region
1. Airi Suzuki vs. 4. Risa Niigaki
2. Arisa Noto vs. 11. Ayumi Shibata

Tsugunaga Region
2. Chisato Okai vs. 11. Yuu Kikkawa
4. Mai Satoda vs. 8. Atsuko Maeda

Representatives
C-ute: 4
Morning Musume: 4
Ongaku Gatas: 4
AKB48: 1
Berryz Koubou: 1
Melon Kinenbi: 1
Milky Way: 1

In this round:
3. Reina Tanaka vs. 11. Yuu Kikkawa
2. Chisato Okai vs. 10. Yui Okada

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That’s David Banner.

Yesterday, there was a gamma ray burst that may have been visible to the naked eye. Gamma ray bursts can be very scary things. The amount of energy that they realize is something that just cannot simply be imagined. However, they are weird phenomena. I would expect a star blowing up to release energy in all directions, but this doesn’t happen.

For those more interested in this gamma ray burst, here is an article (with a photo of the light). Even though the light is just reaching us now, the star that exploded was 7.5 billion light years away. That means 3 billion years before our solar system was in its current form, this star blew up. And it is just now reaching us. That is crazy!! I would also imagine that there were no objects in space that was in the line of path of the light for us to see it. No asteroids, comets, planets, space junk, American flags or babies for this light to deflect off of. I can only imagine the odds of us seeing this light were pretty low.

I would have been satisfied just seeing this event without capturing it. Because only by witnessing some sort of a gamma explosion could I have transformed into The Hulk.

Which begs the question, what H!P member would make the most convincing Hulk? Well it’s not going to be Edward Norton.

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In this round:
2. Chisato Okai vs. 15. Erina Aoki
7. Linlin vs. 10. Yui Okada

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It’s been a week of negativity here at TLS. Looking over the history of the Japanese music industry, I realized that there are many, many ugly endings. American Idol disappointed by sending off one Colton Berry. We’ve also seen lots of blinking and death by snakebites.

And as amazing as it sounds, the negativity ends with this week’s episode of Haromoni.

After hitting rock bottom, the only direction one can go is up. Well, I guess you could linger around rock bottom, but most people will elevate, even if only a tiny bit. This is the situation we find Haromoni in this week. Last week’s episode was so bad that I think it’ll be impossible for me not to enjoy this week’s episode more.

Plus, I have a new theory on why this show doesn’t work, but more on that later.

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Haromoni@ has a tough task this week as it not only has to entertain me (which it fails at often) but put me in a better mood. It’s been a long week (Fujimoto returning, Buono’s new album, the Khan PV) and I’m falling behind on stuff. Perhaps I am trying to tackle too many things at once with some planned entries I have ahead of me. I also have the feeling that today will be the third day in a row that I put off watching the Bon Kyu Bon Kyu Bomb Concert.

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Paul Thomas is a TLS HERO! I’ve been holding off rankings for a while. But I have no reason not to now.

Also, I know that Paul is going to do rankings based on everyone voting in his poll. However, I am interested in my rankings compared to other International Wota bloggers. Therefore, I’ve figured out which bloggers have the closest rankings to me.

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