Bijou Gaku 9th Generation Auditions Special part two

The second (and final) Bijou Gaku Morning Musume 9th Generation Audition episode aired on TV Tokyo Thursday. Most fans believed that the winners of the auditions would be revealed then, but we all know how that went. Still, this episode was significantly better than the previous "special" (which was four minutes of audition footage max).

The episode starts with a small recap from last week: Tsunku talks about what kind of girl he wants and we are once again reminded that 9000 girls applied, but now only 5 remain.

The first girl mentioned is named Ikuta Erina, 13 years old.

Tsunku then comments on Erina, saying something about her having an imouto ("little sister") character, which is a sharp contrast to Aika (whom I would describe as having an oneesan/big sister character).

Erina singing a Lilpri song.

Suzuki Kanon, age 12, with a winning name.

After the girls are introduced, the next clip of them is of them doing some sort of talent.

Kanon decided to do some sort of weird/funny skit. Yay for personality.

Sayashi Riho, age 12,

is one freaking awesome dancer.

Mogi Minami is the youngest, at 11 years old.

She decided to sing as well, but it wasn't great.

Otsuka Aina is another 12 year old,

that chooses to sing.

There once was 9000, but now only 5 remain. Who will be Morning Musume's newest member?

Everyone is gathered to the gym for their first dance lesson by the unforgiving Yoko-sensei.

She demonstrates a 1 minute 30 second dance that they must memorize (also yay for Aina repping C-ute).

Afterwards, Marron-sensei has a present:

lyrics to C-ute's Aitai Lonely Christmas.

The girls sing together and sounds pretty nice.

Riho is definitely the most confident (she did sing this song earlier in the audition, after all).

The girls spend some time back in the gym practicing their dancing.

Kanon, as well as

Mogi are falling a little behind with a fast paced dance.

After sensei is done with them, they all break out their iPods and try to learn the routine.

The next scene has the girls back with Marron-sensei, performing Aitai one by one.

Mogi's turn comes up, but she forgets the lyrics

and gets emotional.

Once again, Riho is incredibly confident  and sounds great (though she does forget the lyrics at the end).

 Back in the gym, it's time to perform.

Kanon has some trouble.

And so does Minami.

Away from their teachers once again, the girls find somewhere to hone their skills,

even in the strangest of places.

They even continue their practice once they arrive home.

Having forgotten her lyrics and being overall inconsistent all day, Minami practices hard as well.

The next day (?), it's finally time for the real thing. Boss man Tsunku has arrived.

The five girls all walk in nervously Shitsureishimasu-ing ("excuse me for entering") and Onegaishimasu-ing ("I'll be in your care now") before they take their spots.

Tsunku then puts them through a series of "tests", which includes

laughing on cue and

crying on cue.

You weirdly brilliant bastard, you.

After that was out of the way, Tsunku had the girls dance that 1 minute 30 second routine that Yoko-sensei taught them. All of them, including Minami and Kanon actually did well.. I was so happy for them to see that. Not one of them made a mistake. The only thing they can improve on is smiling while dancing, especially Minami, but that's just nitpicking.

Next they take turns in the recording studio to show Tsunku that they learned Aitai Lonely Christmas.

Aina was first to step into the studio.

She does a pretty decent job all things considered. She didn't forget any words and sounded good.

Erina was second.

She sounds worse than Aina in my opinion, but also didn't forget any lyrics. She looked really nervous, which definitely can take its toll on one's singing.

Riho was third.

Once again she impressed me. She sounded the best by a country mile and brought her confidence with her again.

Kanon was next.

She looked really confident, but didn't sound as good as Riho. No one forgot the lyrics so far and it seems to be going pretty well. Kanon really has started to grow on me.

Last up was Minami.

She also looked quite nervous and spent half of the song singing with her eyes closed. She also sounded the worst of the five. In a mini-interview with Tsunku afterward, she tells Tsunku a story of how she practiced a little in the car with her mom and her mom shouted "dame!" ("that won't do!") lol.

Now we've seen them all dance and sing, what are the results?

Come to the H!P 2011 Winter concert (Jan 2nd) to find out! ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu

And with that, the special ended.

Overall it was a very nice episode. This is the most excited about Morning Musume that I've been, since I became a fan a couple of years ago. They are definitely drawing out this process by announcing the results two weeks later, but at least we (well, the wota) will get to find out live.

Out of the five, Riho is my favorite. Her dancing skills are off the chart for an amateur. And her singing ability isn't too far behind. She actually reminds me of Aichan, skill-wise. Both were great dancers when they auditioned and pretty decent singers. With some professional training and singing lead in a couple of songs, who knows how much Riho can grow.

But that doesn't mean that I want Riho to win. Yes, I'll be happy for her if she makes it (I'll feel the same way about any of the five, knowing how close they are and what they went through to get there), but I have others in mind.

I always am a fan of the underdogs. You know, the people that no one really gives a chance, but later on surprises people. Minami and Kanon both fit that bill, I think. During the first half of the episode, Minami cried multiple times, forgot her lyrics multiple times, and was slow with her dancing. She then put in the time to practice and did not forget any lyrics or dance moves. She may not be the prettiest of the bunch, nor the most talented, but I like her. I feel as if she's come a long way in such a short time. Can she be another Konkon?

And then there's Suzuki Kanon - awesome name molechan girl. She too had her struggles during bootcamp and she too came out victorious when it counted - in front of Tsunku. I said she and Minami are underdogs, but I think another title for Kanon is more fitting: a dark horse. The difference between the two is that Minami is getting there. She doesn't quite have the skill-set and who knows when she will be ready. Kanon on the other hand, despite her early struggles, performed just as well as any of the other finalists not named Riho. If I had to put money on one girl coming out victorious, it would be Kanon.

The other two finalists, Erina and Aina, didn't draw as much attention. That's good and bad. Neither royally screwed up, but they also didn't quite stand out like Riho did. They (especially Aina) are the safe bets. They may not have massive potential, but are solid all around and will likely turn out to be good idols, if given the chance.

I honestly don't want any of them to go home empty handed. They are all so young and have made it so far. It would be absolutely devastating to any one of them to not make it. 10nin Musume certainly isn't unheard of and I wouldn't mind seeing them all pass. After all, we did just have our biggest Morning Musume graduation of all time. Why not the biggest group of audition winners of all time?

But I doubt that happens. And if it does, it all but eliminates my wish for an Egg or two to join. With that said, I'm thinking three of them makes it. Riho should make it, no question. Either Aina or Erina should also make it (I'd pick Aina). For the last member, I'd take a chance on either Kanon or Minami. Right now Kanon seems to have the most upside, so I'd go with her. Minami is still very young (11 years old) and along with Erina, they would make great Eggs.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on the auditions.

tl;dr version: results will be revealed Jan 2nd. I want all 5 to join but I doubt it. I think 3 will make it - Riho, Aina and Kanon. I'd send the other two to join H!P Eggs and train.