I acquired a copy of the H!P 2008 Winter Live DVD box from Hello! Online just yesterday, and spent my evening watching disc 1 of it. Included in the set are the individual Wonderful Hearts (disc 1) and Elder Club (disc 2) concerts, along with the joint concert (disc 3) and an extras disc (which won’t be reviewed since it’s mainly backstage footage).
In part one of this DVD box set review, we’ll take a look at the Wonderful Hearts concert! I’ll probably eventually review the Elder Club and joint concert as well, but I don’t want it to become a chore for me or a bore for my readers so I’ll just do it whenever I feel like it, and at present I just feel like writing about WH, so here we go!
Favourite song: either Chokkan 2, Special Generation, or Hand made City
Least favourite song: Omoitattara, Seishun Love Lunch, or Nanni mo Iwazu
Best thing about this concert: C-ute. as always.
This will be edited later to include pictures when it’s not 2am in the morning.
01. OPENING
… it’s an opening, what can I say. A lot of happy Hello! Project girls jumping around as the curtain raises. Lots of bright colours that remind me of the tops of the capsule toys you can get by sticking quarters into the machines at pizza places. Or maybe the bouncy balls that come out of said machines.
02. Aozora ga Itsumademo Tsuzuku You na Mirai de Are! (all)
I seriously don’t even remember listening to this song on the Rainbow 7 album (in fact, I had to consult Wiki.thePPN for the source of this musical number). It’s definitely not a very memorable song if a major H!P fangirl (i.e. moi) can’t even remember who originally sung the song, right? It’s very inspirational, though, and I guess it does make for a nice opening number since it sounds made for a huge group of girls to sing. Everyone looks awesome in this (before they get all tired and sweaty through the night); some of the colour choices for costumes are interesting (Airi’s not wearing pink, what?!) and several member expressions during the song are priceless (yes, I’m looking at you, cracktastic Koharu!) Eggs are a little lackluster in their energy as always, but hey, you’d be tired too of doing the same happy clapping motions every single concert, right? … and oh god, there are LALALA’s in this song x_x
03. Renai Revolution 21 (all)
Ahh, yes. Another amazing group song. There’s something about this line arrangement that I really like. Whoa, Sayu is getting so much better at singing live! I loved the first “chou chou chou, ii kanji” part where groups of girls would come in and start bouncing in time. There were some good Momoko moments in here too, haha. The Eri/Takahashi duet with “futari deatta chikyuu” coupled with Koharu rocking it out in the background really made me smile. I say we kick Reina out of the triangle and stick Eri and Risa in instead to make a front-girl square. Aika’s “hoi!” was adorable, haha. The Berryz were really boring this song, though. Maybe because I didn’t see much of them, and when I did their energy was losing to C-ute’s ;D The ending, with them continuing to bounce up and down in place, was kind of weird, though. RR21 is the kind of song I picture with an epicly struck pose at the end, frozen in place and smirking playfully into the camera. Guess the choreographers didn’t share my opinion.
04. Member Intro video / 05. MC 1
Useless tracks that don’t need reviewing. But Yaguchi does look gorgeous with that hairstyle =)
06. LALALA Shiawase no Uta (all)
Isn’t it a bit early in the concert to bring out this happy song? I pictured it more as a halfway-through track to refresh the crowd. It sounds a lot better being sung by all the Wonderful Hearts instead of only C-ute. Takahashi rocked her solo, Maimi did not. Having so many rainbow-attired girls waving their arms and singing the same syllable again and again does give somewhat of a cultish effect, albeit a very hyperly cute cult. When the huge group splits, I must say the arrangements of where each girl was standing according to colour SUCKED. Who had the idea to put a red, three oranges, and a dark blue next to each other on stage right? But Koharu got front and center for that segment (although the camera didn’t pan to her often), so I can’t complain -too- much.
07. Tokkaiko Junjou (C-ute)
Ohh, how I love this song. How I love C-ute’s dance skills. How I love Maimai’s attitude, how I love the expressions on their faces, how I love their voices. But GOD, how I hate them doing the wonderful choreography in these neon atrocities! The costumes were beautiful for LALALA Shiawase no Uta, they worked well enough for RR21, but Tokkaiko? Of course not! Tokkaiko requires something urban-looking and tough, like jeans and playfully loose shirts. Was Saki live-ing her solo? If so, she rocks my world. If not, shame on you Tsunku - the girl can definitely do it, so let her!
08. Chance! / 09. Happy (Kusumi Koharu)
Yay! My favourite cracktastic can’t-sing idol Kusumi-kusumi!! And no, that was not sarcasm; she is still my favourite MoMusu member despite her subpar vocal skills. This is definitely a lipsync performance (when has it not been?) but Koharu still rocks it out in all her genki glory. Unfortunately, her happiness is not always infectious, because I still don’t see any real energy in those Eggs! It’s awkward to see her wearing that red dress for Happy - it makes some of the movements she’s doing look like a really bad H!P-fied imitation of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The only difference is that Koharu’s hyperactive smile, while terrifying at times, is way too big-and-bright for the dark wiles of Jackson’s dance.
Come on, Koharu, share the drugs.
10. Tsukiatteru no ni Kataomoi / 11. Kokuhaku no Funsui Hiroba (Berryz Koubou)
Augh. I’m sick of the Kataomoi song, despite how amazing it is. This was an amazing live, though - everyone nailed their vocals (I’m suspecting lipsync for a few girls, but that’s weird that they would do lipsync for Berryz O_o). The white is also quite a bit shock after the fur-lined Skittle-coloured dresses, haha. Nothing much to say here - good blending and dancing as usual from Berryz. Kokuhaku was almost grating to listen to at times (Risako, I expected better!), but I made it through. Not one of my favourite songs so I can’t really say much. Oh! Lighting was really well done for Kokukaku - the dark blue worked well.
12. MC 2
Another useless track, although it does include some awesome Berryz and C-ute girls.
13. Mikan (Morning Musume)
Yeah! Now you’re talking good concert songs. Dancing was awkward in some spots as always (especially with the hop-on-one-leg segment), but for the most part the singing was amazing (go Risa!) and the energy levels were juuuuust right. You can really hear how pumped the crowd gets with this song, and for good reason too! Eri and Koharu are some of my favourites in this performance =) Reina, as usual, was not.
14. SEXY BOY ~soyokaze ni yorisotte~ (Morning Musume)
Whoa, double dose of win! Off to a slightly less energetic start, and the use of the Mikan costumes was weird, but it picked up after a while. Reina’s little slightly-cross-eyed head shake during the beginning sequence amuses me every time. During this song I started to notice how much Risa is starting to remind me of the all-amazing Nakazawa Yuko, especially during her line “mizushibuki agenagara, aa~” Nothing much to say about this song since it usually comes out really nicely whenever it’s performed. It’s probably just a very nice song to sing, hehe.
15. Odore! Morning Curry (Morning Musume)
I actually don’t like this song despite all of its hype. Takahashi and Risa sounded badass as usual. The voices during the chorus were a little weak, but that’s understandable since the MoMusu bunch just kind of performed three high-energy songs one after the other. There were quite a few cute moments by Aika and Eri in here =)
16. MC 3
Yawn.
17. Renai Rider (Buono!)
Excellent performance by Buono as always. I can’t think of one instance where I watched them and thought, “Damn, this sucks.” Beautiful vocals, and the girls look cute as usual. No complaints here.
18. Seishun! LOVE Lunch (Athena & Robikerottsu)
I actually… haven’t heard this song before, haha. The performance gave me a fairly good first impression, though! Risa actually pulled off the cute quite well (I usually picture her as the humorous badass one, haha), Aika was adorable, Saki was awesome as she always is during concerts, and whoa. I actually really liked Chisato in this performance, which is weird since she’s my least favourite C-ute. The actual melody of the song is another issue altogether, though; I frankly think it sucks.
19. Robokiss (Sayumi & Risako)
Mmmmm, yes. It’s not anything remotely close to W, but it IS an AMAZING Sayumi performance and one of my favourite W songs! I was amazed at how well Sayu sang all these live lines. Risako didn’t do as well as I hoped, mostly because she added quite a bit of legato to many of the verse lines (which are better suited to being abrupt and sharply enunciated, if you understand what I mean). Sayu’s facial expressions while Risako was “winding” her up was adorable, and the costumes were awesome! The two work really well together too, both character-wise, singing-wise, and physically. After all, Risako’s face reminds me of Sayu’s. Strangely. Eggs are, as always, totally dead.
20. Ai~n! Dance no Uta (Eri, Junjun, Linlin, Maasa)
Heeeeey…! Here’s a song we haven’t heard for a while! And what’s this? Linlin is performing in it? Good job Tsunku, you just blew my mind. It’s an excellent live - everyone hit their notes well. Linlin’s first “ai~n” made me laugh. She just looked so cool doing it. Maasa’s expressions are priceless here. Out of all the singers, though, I’d have to say Linlin caught my eye most here despite being my least favourite MoMusu. Her large, goofy, “=D” smile was enough to rival Koharu’s cracktastic one, but for some reason she seemed to get the personality of this song most.
21. Chokkan 2 ~nogashita sakana wa ookiizo!~ (all)
This song is AMAZING performed by so many people, especially the souda’s. It’s also really fun to see all the different costumes on the stage together. I’m really happy they made this an “all” song instead of solely a MoMusu song. I’m surprised this arrangement hasn’t been done before (or has it, and I’m just a loser living under a rock) - it’s really high energy and really captures the feel of the song. Try this next tour as well, please, Tsunku?
22. MC 4
LA LALA LA LALALALA, LALALALA LALA LA…
23. Everyday Everywhere (Takahashi, Reina)
Whoa. Tsunku just pulled out all the old-group songs he could find, huh? For newer fans, this is a downbeat Taiyou to Ciscomoon song released way back in the dizzay (1999) that contains some insanely high notes that both of the girls hit beautifully. Reina’s one-dimensional as always dancing-wise, so despite her wonderful vocals I still can’t take her seriously as anything more than a flashy diva. This song seems made for Takahashi, though. Good stuff. And gorgeous costumes.
24. EVERYDAY YEAH! Kataomoi (Captain Saki, Maimai, Kanna)
Two songs in the same concert with the word “kataomoi” in it? Blasphemy. I also dislike this song, so I don’t have much to say about it. Mai and Kanna are in it, though, so that makes it slightly better. All the Musume’s sitting on the side of the stage doing the hand motions doing the “kono koi, kono koi” part made me laugh.
25. Oujisama to Yuki no Yoru (Chinami, Yurina, Erika, Maimi)
Another good old-school song. It works pretty well with these girls too (though I can’t say I enjoy Chinami’s performance skills any more now than earlier). Not much to say - never been partial to this song, and this performance isn’t anything enough to blow me away. Nice costumes? And Maimi was awesome?
26. Renai Sentai Shitsu Ranger (mix of Musumes and Berryz)
Whoa, we’re even performing old one-shot songs, Tsunku? I applaud you for all this nostalgia (and for not putting another LOVE Machine in the setlist). No complaints here - this was an amazing song. Miyabi looked cool in the center there with her neon orange outfit, but close-ups of her face revealed that she looked a little dead at times, hehe.
27. MC 5
… LA LALA LA, LALAIKA BALA, LAILA… when will these MCs stop turning into a contest of how high-pitched and loudly we can scream? (Yes Miyabi, I’m looking at you!)
28. Meguru Koi no Kisetsu (C-ute)
I’m trying to think of one C-ute single that I hate.. and I can’t find one (yes, I even liked LALALA). This happens to be one of my favourites, and the girls rocked this performance.
29. Omoitattara Kichi desse! (Berryz Koubou)
Where is this from..? Oh, it’s an album track. No wonder I don’t know it; I almost never like album tracks, since most of them aren’t hits and end up being filler. This song is no exception. It’s a typical upbeat H!P song that has no distinct flavour that makes it stand out. Dancing was awesome, though - the Berryz have excellent balance on one leg. I hate those costumes, though (reminds me of the LALALA poufs). Please stop attiring your girls in dresses that look like shiny cylindrical-shaped trash cans, Tsunku!
30. Special Generation (Berryz and C-ute)
Heeeeey, how did I know this one was going to show up eventually? I’m almost sorry to say that C-ute rocks this song a lot more than Berryz does. The Berryz girls take the first stanza, and it sounds really solid and you’re thinking, “Hey, it can’t get better than this.” Then the C-ute girls take the next stanza, and each girl adds her own personality and flair to the words - Airi does a little low dip with the notes, Chisato adds a bit of that “kodomo ja nai” attitude to her “fura”, Saki makes hers flirtatiously breathy, Erika contributes a very passionate lyric, and Maimai sounds like… her typical self, haha. There is just so much more personality and charisma in C-ute that it was hard to watch the Berryz girls lose at their own game. And uhh.. it’s hard to take those blue dresses seriously during this song. All of the “whoa whoa yeah’s” were AMAZING this time.
31. Bon Kyu! Bon Kyu! BOMB GIRL (MoMusu)
Yay, finally some good costumes. Now why do they remind me of a cross between Happy Summer Wedding and RR21? Hm. This song was extremely high-energy (they got a good rest while the Berryz and C-utes were out on stage being pedobait), and it really surprised me how fun this song could be! Aika once again wows me with her singing - she needs some more solos, Tsunku!!
32. Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~ (MoMusu)
Not LOVE Machine, but another MoMusu icon song, it seems. This one was lacking in energy though, and also lacking in… I dunno, -innocence-. Attired in flashy red two-pieces, after singing about perfect-bodied girls, and especially after all the serious singles they’ve done (Egao, Onna, Resonant).. I just can’t seem to take MoMusu as the same kind of girlish innocent group that originally sang Go Girl (just watch the PV, where the girls are smiling and blushing at the camera - we don’t get that anymore). Besides, a lot of the original members I liked in Go Girl are gone (W, Yossie, Yaguchi, Konno) so this song just lost its shine. Didn’t like this performance.
33. Hand Made City (all)
Wow, I love this song, and I’m glad it got to be one of the near-final numbers with everyone singing! I hate all the “say!” and “come on!” adlibs shoved after lines, though. It’s a little annoying. Why are the Berryz still in that atrocious blue thing? C-ute dancing in the background with their yellow scarves are totally pulling my attention, though. So much attitude and flair <3 There was also an incredible amount of syncopation in this song; I was really surprised. Definitely one of my favourite numbers this concert.
34. MC 6
This is madness! This is…. more annoying MCs.
35. Nanni mo Iwazu ni I LOVE YOU
This doesn’t work with the high-pitched voices of C-ute and Berryz. Augh. Not a good choice for the closing song. I mean, I know it’s definitely got the right mood and stuff, but.. not good for the voices. I don’t like it. Whose idea was it to give Reina the “I love you”? >_> This just ruined my end of the concert. And that makes for THREE songs this concert with a large amount of LALALA’s. What is this blasphemy?