The second coming of mbcms.

When I write this, I of course go by whatever has been announced so far. What will happen and be announced tomorrow, I don’t know and if something will be, then maybe all these speculations will fall through. But, I was thinking this back in late 2011 already and despite things having been announced and such, my speculations regarding a second Mobekimasu single remains the same.

I think it will happen – and if it won’t, then it definitely should. My reasons for why shouldn’t have to be written down but I’ll get to it later in this post.

I think a second Mobekimasu single will be released in June 2012, and that a similar compain like they had last year for “Busu ni naranai tetsugaku“ will take place.

What points to this, then? There is really only one big thing that points to all of this, and that has to do with how things are scheduled.

Morning Musume, Berryz Kobo and C-ute – three big and popular groups – have tours scheduled this spring, but none of them last past May. This is very normal for H!P tours, they usually have their final shows during Golden Week but not even that happens this time around. Berryz’ don’t even have tour until May – though they are going to be in the USA between 8-10 of June, three days that won’t make much of a difference.
Morning Musume have their final at Nippon Budoukan the 18th – where Niigaki Risa graduates – and C-ute have their tour going until May 20th. But none of them stretch to June. Berryz Kobo and C-ute have had tours stretching that far – sometimes even beginning in June before – but not this year.

Mano Erina and S/mileage don’t even have tours scheduled so far. Mano is constantly busy with acting and various other things, so maybe that’s the reason for why, but it would not explain the lack of concerts for S/mileage. S/mileage, a group that’s constantly growing in popularity ought to have more concerts than they do. They do however have a ton of events coming up. However, nothing that goes past March.

By June Morning Musume, and Hello! Project will have a new leader. Most likely Michishige Sayumi. Just like with Niigaki and how “Busu ni naranai tetsugaku became the first thing she did and promoted as leader, it would make a nice “tradition” of sorts, of the same treatment would be given to Michishige.

For S/mileage, it would be a nice way to promote a possible summer/autumn tour. That could possibly start at the end of June and last until October or November. It would be a long tour but fans would have waited for it, and being on various TV shows and in various cities to promote it, it would show to be good promotion.

In general it would also be a great way to bring Mobekimasu into the spotlight more, bring the new girls to the front, promote even more heavily and come out and reach more fans. If doing a campaign in June, many people would be outside all over the country and it could possibly reach even more people than it did back in November 2011, when it was getting a bit chilly.

As it is right now Morning Musume has a new single coming out in April. Berryz Kobo’s new single is out March (and their album in February), C-ute have their next single in stores in April (album was just released) and Mano Erina has her single out in February and an album in March. S/mileage haven’t announced anything just yet, but an album might be in the making. Tsunku has tweeted about new S/mileage songs but things have yet to be announced. Maybe we’ll get an album in May.

Either way, most groups would be due for a single in June/July. Would a second Mobekimasu single happen, then of course we would have to wait even longer for a single from each act on their own. But, as they would have the Hello! Project concerts in July/August, the singles would likely be scheduled for August/September instead. And that would still uphold a steady release schedule, pleasing the fans, while promoting the whole “agency” (Hello!Project is not an agency, but I would not call it a group). Of course, there ought to be more than one b-side and having the same b-side by each group was – to me – a terrific idea so it could/should happen again.

Of course, maybe this won’t happen at all. Maybe Mobekimasu was a one time thing and maybe the girls will just get some well-deserved summer vacation in June or just rehearse for the H!P concerts starting in July. But damn, I hope that Mobekimasu will become a tradition that happens twice every year. In summer and winter. Just about a month before the annual Hello! Project concert. It would be like the old shuffles but – in my opinion – even better.

Morning Musume.

The flagship of Hello! Project and Tsunku’s baby. They’re entering their 15th year in the business in 2012 and for that I hope that UFA (the management of Hello! Project) has something special in store for them just like they did for their 10th anniversary when they had their Asia tour etc.

If I was the one in charge of things over at UFA, I would have done a lot of things differently over the years. But let’s say I was given the opportunity to work with someone from today and I got a lot to say, then I would go about things like this.

First off I would definitely keep up with putting the girls in dramas. For the spring season (Apr-Jun) I would try to get Riho put in a drama on a major channel/time slot. She has had training in acting and she’s one of the aces from Morning Musume. She is also a new member and having her in a drama with someone from SMAP/Arashi would be great. The ideal would be to have her in a drama with Kimura Takuya but even I know that would be too much to ask.

Secondly, I would push Haruna for modelling. The girl has done modelling in the past so she clearly has experience and she is absolutely gorgeous. In addition to that, she doesn’t only look like a model but seems to have the values of one too. With her “slim theory” and such, I would say that trying to get her for Seventeen or whatever other girl magazines there are, would be great. Girls would look up to her if she would  be exposed well. They would follow her advice, want to read what she says about diets and make-up as well as watching what outfits she has so they can copy her.

I would push Reina towards a similar field. I would want Reina to get some kind of attachment to 109 or even just with one of the stores in it. As she goes there a lot (which we find out at least once/month from her updates in her blog), to me it has been an obvious move for ages but who knows maybe they’re trying. Making her the model for one of the shops in the store would be a great way to promote her as a fashion icon of sorts. And if needed be, if “Tanaka Reina” isn’t big enough as a name, I would bring in Natsuyaki Miyabi from Berryz Kobo on this as well.

Erina is already being pushed as she’s on the children’s show Oha!Sta a few days/week. It’s very possible that UFA are already thinking/working on this and if they are I’m definitely all for it, but as it is we know nothing about what’s going to happen on there. If I was in charge I would do my damn hardest to find an anime for Erina to be the main voice actress in. I would however find one that has a second lead, or at least a character that’s close to being main without being so and for that I would cast Masaki as the second voice actress. This because she’s inexperienced, but has shown to grow quick. Getting a job like this would add to that growth, and along with her young age (12 years old) she would get many fans among the kids as well. Especially if it would follow the typical pattern that brings big characters to the show every now and then. Masaki wouldn’t become a regular on the show (aka. Oha Girl) but she would get a lot of exposure.

Kanon would get her own radio show. As it is right now only Risa, Sayumi and Riho has radio shows but I would love for Kanon to get one as well. This girl has shown ever since her audition that she has a big personality and isn’t very shy. This comes through easily when you see any footage, but having to show it all just through her voice would be a challenge, I think. One that she would manage of course, but it would probably help her grow a little and teach her when to be calm. Even now just after a year we can see a notable change between Kanon then and now, she definitely isn’t all over the place anymore as she was when she joined. But I think it would be good for her to have to deal with the responsibility that comes with having a solo radio show.

As for Haruka I would try to push her towards TV. As it is, she is way too young to go for the same kind of variety shows that Sayumi are going to, but I would definitely want to push her towards something, what I am not quite sure of just yet though. However I wouldn’t have her go alone, but actually send Kanon with her. Together they would be hilarious in the  sense that Kanon is the more outgoing and hyper of the two and Haruka could definitely take on a indifferent or maybe even annoyed attitude towards it. They would be the typical manzai.

Risa and Sayumi I would continue to push towards stage plays/variety/drama. They do really well with what they do right now so not too much adjustment is needed, especially not in Sayumi’s case. Risa I hope gets more roles in stage plays and dramas from now on as she is the leader and has started off as one really well. Sayumi I hope start getting more drama roles in the next year, to me she comes off as an acceptable actress. The only demand I have is that they give her roles that are different from how her TV-personality, if she only get roles as the cutesy girl she won’t be able to make much of an impression.

As for Aika and Mizuki, I would like for them to grow more as idols. Aika has been an idol since 2007, but even so she still needs to grow a bit more as I would say she’s a late bloomer. I would give both of them, but especially Aika more singing lessons, and have her work more on her expression when singing. I would push for photobooks and DVDs for both of them – maybe somewhat of an essay/photobook for Mizuki, I don’t know why I just think she has that aura. And then I would love for the two of them and Ayumi to go on a bus tour. Aika needs to grow as a performer and bus tours are the perfect weapon for this. Mizuki needs to come out of her shell more, which is also something that is bound to happen when on a bus tour. And for the new member Ayumi, a bus tour would be perfect for her to show off her abilities and to get more fans and more acceptance among fans – even though it seems that she is quite popular.

Of course, outside of all these solo activities, I would love for Morning Musume to do more handshake events much like the ones they did for Mobekimasu. Double A-sides should become a standard for the group and they should start doing what S/mileage does, and do multiple b-sides, even if one is just a cover of an old song with an updated arrangement.

And lastly, I would give it my all to manage to get a second time-slot for a new TV show. An hour would be wanted, but even if just half an hour that would be great, and this would be Morning Musume’s TV show. The girls would still do their things for their current show Hello!Pro Time, but would do more of a variety show for the new time-slot. If it would be like Hello! Morning or not, I don’t know. But it should definitely be more variety-inspired. Have a few guests, possibly, have them do interesting stuff. With Korean music being popular, I would suggest some Korean-inspired day and have them try make-up, do dances, maybe have guests (TENSI LOVE would be great?) and so on.

Aside from these long-time things, I do have a few things I would want to happen in the near future, that really wouldn’t help their popularity nor exposure too much, but I would want for it to happen:
– Morning Musume x S/mileage concert tour
– Niigaki Risa, Michishige Sayumi, Ikuta Erina appearing on Shiawake Eito (Sayumi has appeared on this show once before when it had a different time slot)
– Michishige Sayumi x Tanaka Reina concert @ a Live house
– 10th gen bus tour
– 9th gen gets separate blogs & 10th gen gets one blog for all of them
– Niigaki Risa x Ikuta Erina segment of sorts
– Morning Musume related UStream show

Anyone has Tsunku’s number? 😦 He’s slow at twitter.

A producer in training – or just observing.

After having thought about doing this for a while, and now finally after a last push from a person over at Hello!Online I finally did this blog. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it up, but as it’s not just a fanblog I would like to think I could use this in order to just clear my mind of ideas sometimes.

I will most definitely try to keep this blog only for those ideas that I have, but it’s very likely it might get some more entries, such as opinions on singles/albums/videos or new/graduating members and I think I’ll have polls of some kind as well. Of course there will also be an introduction post like this, so I’ll just get to it.

Online I go by the name Sohee, which is also my middle-name since 2008. I live in Sweden, but have every intention of going to Los Angeles fall ’12, for studies. From early 2009 to late 2011 I lived in Tokyo, Japan and I can say without doubt that those were the best years of my life so far. My Japanese is good. I’m not fluent and wouldn’t be able to go on professional business meetings without messing up, but I had no problems living over there once I learned enough.
I’m born 1986 and my birthday is 24th of September making me now 25 years old. I would like to say that I feel more like 22 though with the mind of a 35 year old. I have come to realize that those I converse the best with are those around 30 and over, we have the same values and think of society in similar ways. Of course there are those my own age and younger that I get along with just fine as well, though.
I am still a student and if I could I would love to just study forever. In the future I hope to be a scriptwriter, but if one’s allowed to dream big, I want to be a producer of music and movies. I’m a dreamer to 200% and a bit too optimistic sometimes but I strongly believe that one day I will be one.  Question only is when and of what.

I joined the fandom that is Hello! Project in early 2005 thanks to a friend trying to convince me girls can sing. She sent me a song by W, and since that day I was absolutely hooked. Though having just been in the fandom for 6 years, I feel like I know a bit too much about Hello! Project as I have a tendency to memorize everything when I start to like it. The same thing happened to “Johnnys” and they have a history since the mid  60’s. It was a pain, haha.

My favorite group from Hello! Project is without doubt Morning Musume, but I don’t dislike any act. My all time favorite member is Kamei Eri who unfortunately graduated in December 2010. I was at the concert, cried my eyes out and cheered for her with all my might. I shared that wonderful experience with my best friend and her husband – and our other friend who had a seat in the arena section. It was a moment I’ll never forget.
From the current line up, Michishige Sayumi, Tanaka Reina and Niigaki Risa rank as my favorites, however I do like the new girls too. From the 9th generation my favorites are Suzuki Kanon and Ikuta Erina, and from the 10th I have fallen in love with Sato Masaki, who I disliked during the audition. How ironic, but Hello! Project seems to have a tendency to do this to fans.

A list of my favorites from Hello! Project, and the order of how I like the groups.
Morning Musume: Michishige Sayumi/Tanaka Reina
Cute: Okai Chisato
Smileage: Wada Ayaka/Takeuchi Akari
Berryz Kobo: Sugaya Risako
Mano Erina

I would start talking about  my favorite songs, but as it is I really can’t choose many except for my favorite Morning Musume single which is Shouganai Yume oibito.

This will have to do for now. If there are any questions, please do ask them and I’ll answer the next time I’ll make an ego-post like this. Of course you are more than welcome to comment on any post I make about my ideas and such too – it’s always fun to hear what other people think of the ideas that I usually feel so strongly about.