While on the eurowota chatroom Dran posted a video. This video was called "Rival - Short version"
This is what it look like.



Seiouly it made me laugh my ass off. Its not that its mean to be funny, but it just struck something in me and caused me to burst out laughing....I wouldn't be suprised if H!P were to release something like this.

Morning Musume's 40TH!!!! single titled "Nanchatte Renai" is to be released on the 12th of August, and as it is their 40th sinlge Tsunku decided to not just have a reg version with limiteds, there will also be a commemorative single including a second C/W track. The b-side tracks are called "Aki Urara" & "subete wa ai no chikara". The title of song translates to something like fake love or joking romance or something along those lines.

The cover was released as the girls were over in L.A and as you can see, they are SEXYY. Corset type dresses, heeled shoes, white arm shirt things and cute lil hats, not to mention some gloves thrown in for good measure. People also remarked that the cover looks a lot like Daite! Hold on me's cover.

Well anyway, the song was aired on japanese radio today and of course our faithful wota's ripped and it zoomed into our hard drives. At first listen I was pleasently suprised, I also happened to fall in love with the song.





The song opens with a nice piano solo which then breaks into a tune a la SYO. Ai-chan is the 1st to sing, sounds great, sounds good so far. The shockingly Koharu get a solo, quite a long one at that, and she actually doesn't sound to bad. Reina's bit is up next and it is here that the song picks up tempo, he "aa" part in the end is quite nice. Then huh, rapping yup, supplied by the panda's, mitsui [the main rapper in the song] and sayu. Gaki ends that verse off with a powerful performance <3

The chorus then kicks in, dominated by Ai and Reina with breaks with a communal "Nanchatte", sounding good. After a little music break Ai takes another verse followed by Sayu! The second shocking choice. Reina takes over, nice to hear after sayu's pok lines.

After another bout of rapping we hit the GakiKame part of the song.

Risa is first. God she sounds great, powerful, in control and skillful, might have trouble doing it live though. Eri quickly follows Risa with a higher pitched tone. These two always sound great togther.

Ai again........Nanchatte.............Reina again....... Nice one line by Sayu actually.

Final chrous in the rip [could be more after this, you never know] is sang by whats sounds like all the girls. Its great to have that bit of a crechendo at the end. Ai finishes the song with emotional and echoed words that I dunno who to spell. As with SYO we get a musical exit also, sounds lovely though...lets hope we arent 'treated' to 15 seconds of Ai staring at us in the end.

Overall I really love this song and have deathlooped it at least 50 times. Bring on the pv...bring on the sexy gaki in a mini hat ...yum

And here are the lyrics in case anyone wants them :)

Ai, Risa, Eri, Sayumi, Reina, Kusumi, Aika, JunJun, LinLin

Akubi ga hitotsu dechau hodo
Tsumaranai koto ni nattana
Nanpa toka shinaidekureru kana
Shirakechau

Shibaraku wa genki na kyara de
Nantonaku ikitekita kedo
Ki ga tsukeba
Iroke mo detekiteru mitai

Aa nande nandarou watashi
Yuugata ni naru tabi
Nakitai kimochi ni naru aa

[Mic/Mit] Oh baby yume wa zenbu [Mic/Mit]shinkenu
Dakara otona ni naru [Mic/Mit]jouken wo
Oshiete hoshii


[Jun/Lin]Dakedo nandaka mendokusai
[Mic/Mit]Sono uchi terebi wo kai kae [Mic/Mit]naito
Ikenai ne

Nanchatte renai wo shita toko de sabishikunaru dake
Sorenanoni nukumori wo kanjitaku naru
Nanchatte ii yatsu wo enjite mo munashikunaru dake
Sorenanoni tekitou ni aisouwarai

Hanbaagaa kajirinagara
Machi yuku hito wo nagameteta
Honto ni waratteru ko nante iruno kana

Heddohon kara nagareteru
Oki ni no kyoku ga kuri kaeshi
Kono kashi wa watashi no koto utatteru

Aa nande nandarou watashi
Sunao ni amaerarenai
Okaasan ni denwa ga shitai aa

[Ku/Mit]Oh baby ato wa nanisuruno?
[Ku/Mit]Watashi nani wo motometeruno? [Ku/Mit]Ah yeah

ai ga tarinai

[Jun/Lin]Dakedo imi naku gonetari shinai
[Ku/Mit]Datte sonna no mottainai [Ku/Mit]You know?
Ai shitai

Nanchatte renai wo kuri kaesu onna no ko no kimochi
Dare ni demo wakachauwa onna no ko nara
Nanchatte iroiro to iukeredo kagayakitai dake
Watashi de mo nareruka shira
Honmono ni

Nanchatte renai wo shita toko de sabishikunaru dake
Sorenanoni nukumori wo kanjitaku naru
Nanchatte ii yatsu wo enjite mo munashikunaru dake
Sorenanoni tekitou ni aisouwarai

Nanchatte renai wo kuri kaesu onna no ko no kimochi
Dare ni demo wakachauwa onna no ko nara
Nanchatte iroiro to iukeredo kagayakitai dake
Watashi ni mo nareruka shira
Honmono ni

It was announced a while ago that the current H!P line-up would be coming together to create a new album full of cover songs. The reason I hadn't said anything before was because not much was known about it but now that more info has been released I decided to write something.

When it was announced people had mixed feelings of both joy that the project was coming together to create a new album as well as aprehension that all the somgs will be covers.

It all started off when it was announced that the album was to be released. That was it. No one had any idea what was going. Then it was announced that MiniMoni was to be revived. WHAT!!!

This brought more discussion, more like argueing between hardcore original MiniMoni wotas and the more open minded fans. It was then announced that MiniMoni would have a song on the new cover album. After that 2 members were announced that would join the new MiniMoni, they were LinLin of Morning Musume and Fukuda Kanon of S/mileage. After a bit of a lull in info it was also announced that PucchiMoni and Tanpopo would also be revived. This again sparked heated discussions.

So after a while the tracklist was released. I had no clue who any of the origianl acts were besides sweets but I had never listened to them I only knew them by name.

so I just waited until I saw who was going to sing what. Thats when I got excited:

1.DIAMONDS ＜ダイアモンド＞
／High-King（Takahashi Ai・Tanaka Reina・Shimizu Saki・Yajima Maimi・Maeda Yuuka）

2.愛は勝つ
／℃-ute・Mano Erina

3.YES-YES-YES
／Aa! （Natsuyaki Miyabi ・ Suzuki Airi ・Saho Akari）

4.てんとう虫のサンバ
／New Mini Moni （LinLin・Fukuda Kanon・Takeuchi Akari・Miyamoto Karin)

5.君がいるだけで
／Pucchi Moni V （Nakajima Saki ・Hagiwara Mai ・Mano Erina）

6.部屋とYシャツと私
／Tanaka Reina (Morning Musume)

7.守ってあげたい
／Niigaki Risa・Kamei Eri (Morning Musume)

8.秋桜
／Takahashi Ai (Morning Musume)

9.未来予想図II
／ZYX alpha （Niigaki Risa ・Kusumi Koharu・Tsugunaga Momoko・Tokunaga Chinami・Sudo Maasa・Umeda Erika・Wada Ayaka・Ogawa Saki）

10.ONLY YOU
／続・V-u-den (Michishige Sayumi・JunJun・Sugaya Risako)

11.赤いスイートピー
／Tanpopo＃（Kamei Eri・Mitsui Aika・Kumai Yurina・Okai Chisato）

12.for you・・・
／LinLin (Morning Musume)

13.関白宣言
／Berryz Kobo・Mano Erina

14.世界は二人のために
／Michishige Sayumi ・Kusumi Koharu・Mitsui Aika・JunJun (Morning Musume)

As you can see, ZYX as well as Biyuuden were also resurected but Aa [minus reina plus an egg] and High king are making a return.

Ok so here is what I think of each line-up:



1. High-King - I loved this group when they were formed so I am hoping something great from them.

2. C-ute plus Erina - I dont like mano so I am hoping for airi plus chisato but I know I am gonna get mano shoved down my throat



3. Aa - I absolutly loved "first kiss" by the original group so I was kinda annoyed like nearly all Aa and Reina fans to find out she is no longer in the group. Instead we get this egg that I call "Mini Yurina" as she kinda looked and sounded like Kumai. Still looking foward to this though as I like all three girls.



4.MiniMoni - Awwwwww lookat 'em. Aint they so cute. New mini moni comprises of awesome linlin, the Aibon looklike and 2 eggs that I dont know. I like Kanon and LinLins voices so hopefully the group will work. By the looks of it they will be going back to their original cute image...god I hope so.



5.PucchiMoni - Here is where I become aprehensive. Saki and Mai sounded great together in disco queen, but lately Mai's voice hasn't been sitting too well with me. Saki should be good though, she is energetic and a great dancer. Mano ah god why! This was originally a genki group which is why I understand mai and saki being in the group, but boring piano girl here, od she bores be to death. Maybe she is a good singer I dont really know.... I am on the fence with this one....btw whats the 'V' about?

6. Tanak Reina - I expected this. meh I just hope its not her usual nasal tone

7. Niigaki Risa + Kamei Eri - Squueeeeeeeeeee!!! I have wanted a GakiKame Duo for sooo long. I am so glad that we finally get one. Sooo happy. woot.

8. Takahashi ai - as if this wasn't going to happen. She'll sound great as usual. Next



9.ZYX alpha - Originally when I found out that Gaki was going to be in XYX, I was 2 minds over it. One the one hand I was really happy that she was put into a new group. On the other I hated the style of the girls in the original group, those street rapper style clothes...yuck! But when I put pics of all the girls together like this I was pretty happy with all the girls in the group. Koha, growing to like her, very Genki. Gaki HELL YA. Momo, love her. Chinami in my top 3 fave kids. Maasa, really funny. Erika, good singer nice to see her get a chance. Wada, she's good I suppose. Saki, love her, one of my fave eggs. I look forward to see what they come out with.



10.V-U-DEN - I liked the old group. I like sayu and junjun, risako is ok but if they go for their old sexy image I will feel a bit weird risako being 14 or something. Looking forward tho this though.



11.Tanpopo # - Eri, Yurina, Chisato.....FOOOOOK YEAH!!! aika ...hmm can't get everything right I suppose. I had wanted Gaki to be put back into Tanpopo but seeing this line-up makes me happy too. Eri, my 2nd fave current MM meber, Yurina, my fave Berryz member, Chisato, my 2nd fave C-ute member makes this group very pleasing to me. I really look forward to their release. Oh and the # symbol has something to do with the kanji that looks like that is in each of the girls names.

12. LinLin solo - BOOOH YERAH. Cant wit for this. Her azora solo in the P9D concert was amazing. Nice to see her get some much deserved attention

13. Berryz plus mano - Love berryz... gah I have had enough of mano and I havent even heard the album yet.

14. Michishige Sayumi ・Kusumi Koharu・Mitsui Aika・JunJun - I really dont know whats going on here. 3 worst singers in MM plus JunJun. I really have no idea what.... next

overall, I am really looking forward to this. Will do a review when it comes out so please stay tuned