Ai Takahashi's Graduation Concert

Last night (this morning, whatever) or wherever you are, Takahashi Ai officially graduated form Morning Musume and Hello!Project after over 10 years of having that as a part of her life.  As I woke up this morning, it hit me that she was no longer going to be involved in H!P activities, and we wouldn't see her anymore in future concerts and singles.  This hit home.

I don't have much to say right now, since I don't have much information on the concert details as to what happened or what was said during the ceremony speeches.  A few noteworthy moments in my opinion were that Aika (on wobbly crutches) came on stage to say her goodbyes and give her speech.  Just the picture alone got me emotional.  While Gaki was giving her speech, it was noted Aichan said to her "Gaki-san, i'm sorry, but i'm graduating now."

To end this short post here is picspam of shots of the concert.

Ganbatte Aichan~

13nin for a day

Give a warm welcome to the 10th generation of Morning Musume!  Here are your winners everybody:

Haruna, Ayumi, Masaki, & Haruka

For one day (today), and one day only, Morning Musume is 13 members again. LOL

Overall, i'm very satisfied with the results.  I'm so glad that Haruka was added, since she was my favorite out of all the girls who auditioned.  I have a feeling Ayumi is going to be the next Riho, since she has the look, and the prior dancing experience.  She's already a step a head of the other juukies (excluding Haruka).  Masaki is a mystery.  I don't know much about her yet, but she seems cute.  I feel that i'm going to fall in love with her eventually, but she will probably be one of those members that gets frequently pushed to the back. Haruna, I have my doubts about though.  Of course, there's always the one in the group that i'm not too fond of.  Her singing was deplorable from what I heard on Hello!Pro Time, and she looked like she hadn't slept for weeks.  Some people say "she's rough around the edges," but i'd consider her to be more like sharp, with dangerously high falsetto edges if you catch my drift.  I don't know folks...i'm gonna keep my eye on that one. :glares:

Look at Sayumi all happy with the juukies.  I wonder how she (and the rest of the senpais) feel about them.  So this (sorta) makes the kyuukies senpai's right?  Even though some like Haruna are older? I dont know, whatever.  Either way, those orange Ai Believe shirts are cool.  Wait...those ARE the kanji for their names...but those colors...I really hope those aren't their official member colors.  We DO NOT need a third green, a third pink, and a third purple.  Give me a break! -rant over-

ANYWAYS, after today, Aichan is graduating, bringing the Musume count down to 12.  I really hope the girls perform well, and I can't wait to hear/see them in the next single/PV!

I really wanted Sara to get in.  She had one of the better singing voices :/

It's Almost Time

So i'm sure we are all familiar with the fact that it's the last week of Ai-chan's graudation, but the biggest moments are yet to come.  Tomorrow (9/28), the 10 generation Morning Musume audition winners will be revealed.  And then on the 30th, Aichan will officially graduate, passing on the title Morning Musume to Niigaki Risa.

Tomorrow is a big day, seeing as the line-up for Morning Musume will once again change.  I wonder how many new members will be added?  How many would you like to see?

In other Ai-chan related news, here's a clip of her Memorial DVD:

It's rather hard to watch, because you can tell how emotional Aichan gets while speaking.  Risa also shows up towards the middle of the video and surprises her, which induces a rather interesting reaction from Aichan.  In midst of their discussion, Risa has a graduation message from Ogawa Makoto especially for her. It's going to be an emotional couple of days for all of us.

On a goods related note, the new goods for Aichans concert look pretty awesome.  The entire list of goods can be found here, from their official website.  Some noteworthy goods are (in my opinion are the shirts and towels) are nice enough to pick up.  I'm definitely getting some.  Are you?

New CD GETS

Here's what I picked up this week:

Maji Desu Ka Ska woohoo! Kyuukie's very first single.  I thought I should get it.  I picked up Momoiro Sparkling cause I really liked the cover.  The song was good too, lol.  I'm not sure why I picked up two Uchouten Loves, but that's probably because it's one of my favorite S/mileage songs!  I'm planning on picking up Only You, Kono Chikyuu, and Tachiagaru soon.

Oh, the Uchouten Love CD also came with this:

Privilege Poster!

Also, I picked up a few more photosets from HSU that came with the Ai no Dangan stuffs~

Happy Weekend!

New Direction for Smileage

So first off, let's talk about S/mileage's new single Tachi Agaaru, shall we?  Since one support beams of S/mileage has decided to part with us, the foundation of the group has been rested on the remaining three full fledged members, along with a sprinkling of sub-member.  The whole single can be personified in a picture, since it of course, says a thousand words:

What i'm trying to get at is that the lines were distributed fairly between Kanon, Dawa, and Yuuka, and that's about it.  The sub members barely had a chance to scrape in, only opening their mouths during the WOW YEAH portions of the song.  They didn't even sing along to the chorus!  I found that rather ridiculous, since they've gone through so much already.  I know, I know, they aren't full s/mileage members, yet, and that's where their smile campaign comes in.  I mean, it's only fair right?  If the original 4nin had to gather up 10,000 smile's to debut, the shin members should as well!  I hope they can accomplish this daunting feat.

The sub-members are to S/mileage what S/mileage was to Mano Erina before they got their chance to debut. They participated in the singles, as background dancers and occasional WOW YEAHS!  For what it's worth, it's a step closer to their transition to full members.  From what I've witnessed so far, it seems like a great accomplishment and obstacle at the same time to become a member of S/mileage.  To give the subbies some more credit though, I've heard that they did a fantastic job at their first concert (the Mini Skirt Tour), so I do have high hopes for them!  I'll send them a smile~

Here's the full PV, courtesy of smileagechannel on YouTube:



Also, to be honest, it looks like they're dancing on one of the board maps of a Mario Party game...the music fits too! lol

Ai no Dangan GETS + Contest Winner

First off I wanted to start by saying that by default, the new winner of the contest; by sheer luck, would happen to be BleachGal101.  Congratulations!  I could tell how badly you wanted the item, and even by random selection, you still won! Please e-mail me at HelloRaffi@gmail.com with shipping info, and i'll get your Maasa card shipped asap!

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On another note, I finally received my package from HSU with my Ai no Dangan goods.  It's not a whole lot, but it's a couple of things that I love.  Here's what the contents of my package were:

Risako 2L photoset

Maasa 2L photoset (sorry, this ones mine!)

And the catch of the day: Ai no Dangan shirt

front                                                         back

I loved the look of the photosets and especially the shirt, so I had to buy it.  Besides, Ai no Dangan was a great single.  If you like goods like these, please visit HelloStoreUSA via the link on the right side of this page!

I Love S/mileage

Lately I've gotten really into S/mileage.  I think that it was Uchouten Love that made me really fall for them.  It's my favorite single of theirs to date, and it may be one of my favorite singles of H!P in 2011.  That means a lot!  I'm trying to complete my S/mileage CD discography now.

It's one of my favorite looks for S/mileage, even though the Black Ver for Koi ni Booing Buu didn't match one bit to the song.  It might have something to do with the lyrics, but I'm not certain about that.  Oh well.  Maybe Tsunku had a very high running fever that week (lol).

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Side Note: The winner of my first contest [Lily] has yet to contact me after almost 9 days.  Lily if you're reading this, please contact me ASAP at helloraffi@gmail.com.  If I don't hear anything by Friday the 16th, i'm going to redraw a winner from the original list of participants.

Riho Gone Wild

Well this explains a lot.

Oh dear lord.  It looks like she's gonna fight her way to the top.

Oh Riho, y u so kuh-razy?

What day is it?

September 10th is C-ute day!  Every year on 9/10 a Cutie Circuit is held.  I think it's a great tradition for C-ute, and it's a very cool thing to have an unofficial (it's official to me!) holiday in honor of your group.  I'm surprised that UFA has uploaded three performances of their concert to youtube, and in HD as well!



It's Kiss Me Aishiteru, Midnight Temptation, and Namida no Iro.  A very nice preview of their newest concert tour (even if it is from the back of the theater lol).

Here's a new C-ute photoset that I ordered off of HSU recently that I haven't shown yet.  It's from their Spring concert tour, Chou! Wonderful:

I've also created a new blog roll on the right side of the screen as you can see.  I hope you visit all my friends blogs!

I hope all of you have/had a great C-ute day (i know i'm rather late, since it's already the 11th in Japan haha).

Morning Musume 10th Generation 10 Finalists

In this weeks episode of Hello!Pro Time, the 10 finalists of Morning Musume's 10th generation auditions were revealed.  I wonder which of these girls are going to join the ranks of a Musume?  I'm excited to find out.  Here are the 10 finalists:

1. Kudou Haruka: Age 11

2. Ikubo Haruna: Age 16

3. Satou Masaki: Age 12

4. Tashima Meru: Age 11

5. Ougami Hinako: Age 13

6. Miyagi Ayumi: Age 11

7. Miwa Satsuki: Age 12

8. Ichida Ayumi: Age 14

9. Tanaka Huuka: Age 12

10. Murakami Sara: Age 13

This being the first time i've seen these girls, I obviously haven't quite warmed up to them yet.  I am still very curious to see as what Tsunku has in store for these girls.  Obviously, all 10 aren't going to join...well...you never know actually!  It took me a while to warm up to the kyuukies, and now I really like almost all of them, so I have high hopes for the future of these girls!!  From what I understood, the winners will be revealed on 9/29!