As expected, Berryz Koubou's
second Alo-Hello hit Japanese stores today (or rather yesterday). Their first trip to Hawaii contained some of my favorite moments in Hello! Project history, so naturally I had high hopes for their second trip. Could they create another masterpiece?
The DVD actually starts off really, really well.
 |
| Captain staring out into the Hawaiian sunset |
The DVD begins as Captain rides a hotel elevator up to the 20th floor. She quickly finds her room and begins to settle in before her phone rings.
 |
| Captain's fake ringtone happens to be Maji Bomber, cool |
|
Who could it be?
 |
| Miyabi of course! |
From here we get a cheap looking intro screen that leads to Captain looking at a map of what I can only assume is Hawaii.
 |
| You're not in Japan anymore, Captain |
Shortly after, Captain gives the cutest look ever into the camera. I think my heart melted.
 |
| Don't worry Captain, keep looking like that and I'll help you |
This begins a short introduction of all of the Berryz members. Momoko appears next handing out some sort of pink card to random strangers.
 |
| Why aren't the people who hand out random crap in my neighborhood as cute as Momoko? |
Afterwards Chinami is shown sitting on a stool smiling, Maasa is looking cool with a surfboard, Miyabi is out posing with a creepy looking stuffed animal, and Yurina and Risako are seen together on a park bench.
 |
| Seriously, that creepy bear thing is not cute. Thankfully Miyabi is. |
The music dies out and the screen fades to black. Chinami is shown coloring some sort of flyer before Yurina and Risako show up.
 |
| Girls WANTED BEACH PARTY HAPPY BEACH |
Oh well, I guess us boys aren't invited.
Luckily there happens to be a Japanese girl sitting across the table.
 |
| Yes, they're talking about you, Captain |
One thing that I must say about this DVD is the cinematography and editing is seriously superior to what I'm used to seeing from a normal UFA DVD. It totally feels like I'm watching a movie about Berryz's adventures (you hear that UFA? sounds like an epic idea for 2011).
Anyway, back to the DVD. Chinami asks if Captain is free, but Captain is busy being lost.
Chinami pulls out her ultimate weapon - her smile.
 |
| Seriously, what sane human being could resist that face? I know I can't. |
Meanwhile, Maasa is bored out of her mind in some yogurt shop, waiting for her order to be made by a familiar face.
 |
| Momoko appears to be pleased with her creation |
Granted, I don't eat much of the stuff, but is this really what is considered yogurt now-a-days?
 |
| Fruit and.. sprinkles? Not sure if want |
Momoko plops down next to Maasa to make sure she enjoys every bite of her hard work.
 |
| Maybe it isn't that bad after all. Maasa seems to be enjoying it. |
However, it seems like working as a yogurt employee was only a disguise for Momoko's real plan.
 |
| The return of the beach party. Oh hey this DVD actually has a plot. |
Maasa agrees to go, which was exactly what Momoko wanted. Momoko shoves the remaining beach party invites into Maasa's hands and entrusts her to finish the job.
 |
| Is that... Miyabi eating and conversing with random Hawaiins? Lucky people. |
Like a good girl, Maasa carries on her new job of advertising the mysterious beach party. She runs into Miyabi in some sort of shop. After greeting her with an "aloha!", Maasa decides to do nothing else but stare at Miyabi.
 |
| Maasa REALLY wants you to come to her party |
The story moves back to Captain's side of things. She is seen using her cellphone once more.
It's Miyabi again. She wants to go with Captain to the party, but Captain declines. This is where the DVD takes a turn for the worst. I was legitimately enjoying the DVD. It wasn't your typical Alo-Hello, but it was something interesting nonetheless.
Instead of continuing on with the story as they did for the first six minutes, each member is filmed staring into the camera for ten minutes each. I'm not kidding.
Seriously, it's like the director of this DVD decided to use the greatest idea ever and then found the best (or should I say worst) way possible to make this DVD suck.
I wanted to like this. I really did. Berryz Koubou was my first love, after all. But this DVD isn't one of my favorites. Honestly, if the DVD had just started off with the members just posing for the camera like they did for the remainder of the DVD, then I probably wouldn't have had such a big problem with it. It's the fact that they teased us with such an epic opening and then decide to pull the rug from underneath us before we even got anywhere.
With that said, it's not the worst video ever. I can certainly think of a million things worse I could be doing than staring at Berryz Koubou for an hour.
And not all hope is lost. After each member is done doing virtually nothing for the camera, they show us a really nice re-interpretation of one of the songs of Berryz's twenty-second single, Tomodachi wa Tomodachi Nanda!
Honestly the whole DVD was worth it just for the awesome opening and this PV. Plus there's the whole thing with Berryz in bikinis together. Win.
After that there is a short offshot/making of (and by short, I mean a couple of seconds). The girls are still in their bikinis, so it's even more win.
 |
| After being told by Miyabi to pose for the camera, this is apparently the first thing that popped into Chinami's head, nice. |
Overall, this DVD was quite a letdown compared to their first
Alo-Hello. If you don't compare it to that, it's okay. There were some pretty nice moments. I skimmed through most of the staring into camera thing, but if you have a favorite Berryz member, you'll almost definitely enjoy watching her onscreen by herself for a couple of minutes. Also, the PV at the end was a very nice touch.
However, UFA's biggest mistake wasn't what is in the DVD; but rather, it's what is not.
 |
| Can you spot what's missing? |
Oh, the irony.
