Berryz Koubou to hold a concert in the States

They've technically been to the United States twice (Alo-Hellos), but this will be their first time performing in the mainland USA.

It hasn't been made official by UFA yet, but apparently Captain announced it in an audio recording. They will be guests at Seattle's annual Anime convention called Sakura-Con April 22-24th. Sakura-Con's website confirms the information: http://www.sakuracon.org/

This isn't H!P's (well UFA) first time in Sakura-Con. Hangry&Angry (Yossie and Rika) performed there last year.

The only problem with this announcement is once again its on the West Coast, meaning my chance of attending is pretty close to zero. Come on UFA, the US is bigger than Hawaii, California and Washington state!

Ah well, I guess I'll just have to see my favorite idols the old fashion way - traveling to Japan.

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Boyz II Men to release a J-pop cover album

Apparently acappella and R&B legends Boyz II Men will release a cover album of some popular J-pop songs (sung in English) on the 22nd.

I honestly don't know how to feel. I've heard something like this before and that did not go well. At all. But after listening to a quick preview it doesn't make me want to vomit, so that's a good thing.

There's no way I'm buying this (unless I find it in the 99 cent bin at Walmart), but Boyz II Men are normally pretty awesome (It's So Hard to Say Goodbye To Yesterday brings back High School graduation memories) so they've at least warranted a download.

Plus, they are covering a Utada Hikaru song. I must listen to see how that goes.

More info at Tokyograph: http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-7179

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Best of 2010: Albums

Well, it's the end of the year so I'm going to look back on nearly everything H!P released in 2010 and rank them. I will re-listen to every song and re-watch every concert and PV to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

Since there are no more albums releasing this year, I'll start with them.

Top 5 Album Songs

I tried to pick songs from a variety of albums, but a few of the albums had a bunch of really awesome songs so that didn't work out too well.

5.  Grand Demo Rouka Demo Medatsu Kimi (from Berryz Koubou's 6th Otakebi album)



I would not have predicted this when the album first released. I didn't really like any of the songs on it. But slowly and surely, this Yurina/Maasa duet grew on me. Oddly enough, it's the two of them that make the song and not the other way around. If, say Momoko and Miyabi were singing it, I don't think it would have the same impact despite those two being better singers.

4. Aa Koi (from C-ute's Shocking 5 album)



This song is nothing short of amazing. Again this was a song that I didn't really like after hearing it for the first time (surprised?), but now it's one of my favorite C-ute songs. Airi really owns this live (see above). It's songs and performances like this that make me into the Airi fan that I am today.

3. Kataomoi (from Buono!'s We Are Buono! album)



I almost forgot this album was released this year. It seems like forever since Buono! has released new songs. Not only is this one of my favorite album songs of 2010, it's one of my favorite songs period. It is #6 on my iTunes most played song list. It takes a very special song for me to listen to over and over again without tiring, and Kataomoi is exactly that type of song.


2. Namidacchi (from Morning Musume's 10 MY ME album)



And here we have a third song that I didn't like at first. Actually this was the only song from Morning Musume's 10th album that I didn't like. Ironically enough it's now the one that I like the most. You will almost definitely see the performance above in my favorite performances of 2010. It gave new life to the song after I had played it to death on my iPod.

1. Independent Girl ~ Dokuritsu Joshi de Aru Tame ni (from Buono!'s We Are Buono! album)



I don't have much to say about this besides the fact that I absolutely love this song. It's my #1 most played song on iTunes of all time with no competitor in sight. This is Buono! at their best. I'm so glad we will get more Buono! songs in 2011. Hopefully they will be as epic as this one is.

And that's it for this post. When I finish ranking my top 5 songs, performances and PVs, I will make one more post where I reveal my overall #1 album, single, performance, and PV of 2010.

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Engrish fun at the grocery store

So the other day I found out about a pretty cool Asian supermarket that is somewhat near me. I scored a couple of pretty nice Japanese food items: frozen Nikuman, Yakiniku Don, Vermont Curry, as well as some typical weeaboo items like Strawberry Pocky and a six pack of Melon Ramune.

But none of those could compare to what I found in the snack section.

That's right, cock da asses.

After seeing the title, I had to buy it. I didn't care what it tastes like; I just knew that life would be better with a box of Couque D'asses.

Oh, Japan. Never change.

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H!P Weekly Roundup #7

Doing another one of these to condense all of the new news into one post.

• Aitai Lonely Christmas 2nd Week Sales

They sold 2,239 for their second week, bringing the total to 25,921 copies sold. This puts Aitai as C-ute's best selling single of 2010. It also has a real short of surpassing Everyday Zekkouchou, which would make Aitai C-ute's best selling single since July 2009.

• DAWA gets a photobook

S/mileage member Wada Ayaka will be getting her first photobook sometime next year. The actual date is unknown, but the accompanying solo DVD releases on March 2nd.

• Manoeri's new single PV uploaded

The PV of Seishun no Serenade (Mano Erina's 9th single) was uploaded to the official Mano Erina channel yesterday. I will probably do a full review soon.

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Bijou Gaku 9th Generation Auditions Special part one

About seven hours ago the first of two Bijou Gaku Morning Musume 9th Generation Audition Special aired on TV Tokyo. This was something that I was really looking forward to, almost as much as the graduation concert itself. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait at least another week for some sort of closure to the auditions. Continue reading to see why.

The boss man himself. I think the text says something about the members being careless.

A look at Tsunku's desk. Could those pictures down there be the finalists?

A room full of aspiring auditioners.

Three random girls before they go before the judges.

Cool skirt.

Could've sworn I saw this girl somewhere before

She looks cute from far away

 Half-way through, we are shown five girls which could very well be the finalists.

I kinda hope that these aren't the only finalists. Needs more eggs

A look back at the 5th Gen audtion. Gakisaaaaan!

And Aichan <3

Definitely my favorite of the five. In this scene she sang Aitai Lonely Christmas (and forgot the lyrics).

Training in the gym

proves to be a bit much for this contestant. Poor thing.

But she is able to find comfort with another audtioner.

In the final scene, three of the girls are shown

being emotional.

So then, who are the 9th Generation members? Tune into next week to find out!

I took a lot of screencaps, but this whole thing only lasted four minutes of the total twenty-five minutes that Bijou Gaku is on for. Talk about a major letdown.

Now, I didn't exactly expect them to announce the winners this week. I was anticipating a 15-20 minute look into the whole process and a little time to get to know some of the girls and have the episode end with a cliffhanger.

But instead, the first six minutes were of yesterday's graduation concert, and a bunch of stuff most fans already knew. Only four minutes was of new footage (see the above screenshots) and we learned almost nothing about the audition participants. The rest of the time was spent doing some Manoeri palm reading, and with S/mileage eating.

Oh well, at least this means next week will be pretty awesome (fingers crossed).

You can view the video here:

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