New Stuff

Got a package from cdjapan in the mail today.



- Berryz Koubou 'Dschingis Khan' Regular Edition Single
- C-ute 'LALALA Shiawase no Uta' Regular Edition Single
- C-ute '3rd~LOVE Escalation' Regular Edition Album

So far I'm not all that impressed with the C-ute album, but it generally takes a little while for me to warm up to their releases. I haven't gotten around to listening to the singles yet.

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Dschingis Koubou!

Well, after giving Dschingis Khan a few watches, I can officially say that my first impressions of the video were mostly right (I was going to write this a couple days ago, but I kept on running into problems with my approach, so I let it sit over the weekend). This is undoubtedly a step up from BK's previous material, and a massively fun video at that. It's nice to see the Berryz girls really coming out of their shells and having fun with the camera (which is one crucial idol ability that I feel the H!P kids have always been a little lacking in...understandable, since they're so young). Also, after the Risako-fest that was Tsukiatteru no ni Kataomoi (not to say that I don't like Risako - she's gorgeous - but holy hell UFA, cool it), I find it relieving that Khan divies out the focus more fairly. On a related note, despite not being my favorite members, it's obvious that Maasa and Chinami have much stronger, more-developed personalities than the other girls, and I think this video does an excellent job of giving them the camera time they deserve compared to previous releases (or, at the very least, they stand out more to me in this video than in others).

Point proven:


Another blogger (who it is I don't remember - sorry!) said that they'd like to see an alternate version of this video made entirely of the hallway shots, and I couldn't agree more. As much as I like the whole 'doing a play in front of wota kids' idea, I think it looks kinda lame in comparison to the other half of the video, and I'd probably enjoy this PV more if those scenes weren't there to distract from the awesomeness. Aside from that, I haven't got any complaints. March 12th can't come soon enough.

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2007 H!P Purchases

Starting with the easy stuff...
I'll give a quick summary of everything H!P related that I bought in 2007. But first, a quick history.

I got into Berryz Koubou in mid-late June of '07, and have spent most of my spare (and some of my not-so-spare) money on H!P merchandise since then. I discovered C-ute shortly after Berryz, and my interests stayed fairly even until early December, when I discovered Morning Musume. By that time I had begun saving up for Ohayocon (which I'll talk about in another post or two), so the only Momusu-related merch I bought before the end of the year was their 10th Anniversary PV Collection. There was some Buono! in there too.

I'll recap by way of pictures.

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• All Berryz Regular-Edition Singles and Albums
• Ditto for C-ute
• H!P All Stars Single
• Buono! Honto no Jibun LE Single
• Buono! Honto no Jibun Single V
• BK Concert Tour 2006 Haru ~Nyoki Nyoki Champion!~ DVD - sadly, bootlegged (I had just gotten into them and it was cheap...what can ya do?)
• Berryz Single V Clips 3
• Momusu 10th Anniversary PV Collection

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All H!P Kids photobooks to date, with one exception - Risako's 1st. Disappointingly enough, I had ordered it along with her second, and HMV reported it out of stock shortly afterward. I'm hoping for one to show up on eBay, but I'll probably have to use an import service and pay out the ass. Also, Berryz 2007 Summer Live photobook (couldn't resist all those kawaii-tastic self-cam pics).

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• Berryz 2008 Calendar
• Berryz 4th Ai no Nanchara Shisuu Poster
• Also: car keys, jacket, spheal, and Point Blank 3 box

I suppose there's not much else to say here.
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