A New Group Appears in the Idol World!

So, anyone who follows Hello!Project whatsoever is very aware of the new group Juice=Juice. Everyone has some different opinions on the new group- the members chosen, the eggs who were not chosen, their image, their sound, etc. Here I'm going to blog about the group and my opinions!

First, I'm going to start with the members of this group:

Miyazaki Yuka

Yuka is 18, going on 19 very soon, and is the only member who is not a H!P Kenshuusei to be added to Juice=Juice. Personally, I think it was a good decision. She is talented, pretty, and older. I think she will be very good for the group, and will be good for anyone who took special notice of her in the unit Green Fields and wanted to get to know her better. She has a really nice voice that is only going to improve in an active group. Her "fruit" (color) is Peach. I personally really look forward to getting to know her better.

Kanazawa Tomoko

Tomoko is 17 and super pretty. She was first introduced to us at the December 2012 H!P Kenshuusei concert, so she has been in training a very short time before being chosen for a group. Her fruit color is Apple. We know very little about her at this point, but I am really excited for that to change. I can see her trying to take on a very 'cool' sort of image. Her profile picture and color give off that vibe for me. Also, I read that she likes the idol group Fairies (a favorite group of mine, read about them in this blog post) and they have a very mature and cool sort of image, so she might really like that sort of image and want it for herself.

Takagi Sayuki

Sayuki is 15 and a total cutie. She's been in H!P Kenshuusei since 2009, and the training shows. She has surprisingly strong vocals despite her baby face, and is a pretty powerful dancer. She gives a really great performance. Her color is Lemon (which is pretty impossible to read on white, and for that I apologize. xD) Sayuki is a favorite of mine, and may end up as my oshi in Juice=Juice. Only time will tell~

Otsuka Aina

Aina is 14 and the short-haired member of the group. (Clearly I'm running out of things to say, but personally I love seeing a group with one girl with shorter hair. xD) Aina was first seen by H!P fans in the 9th generation Morning Musume auditions. She did not pass, but in 2011 was added to Hello!Project's kenshuusei program. Her fruit color is Orange. I was a fan of Aina during the auditions, finding her to show a lot of potential and to be the best singer at that time. I've followed her a bit since then, quite liking her, but not completely considering her a bias of mine. However, I was very excited to see she would be in this new group, and after seeing her perform with them, I fell for her all over again, and am really excited to see more of her in this group. Clearly, she is the other girl in this group who may end up as my oshi. It's a tough battle! xD

Miyamoto Karin

Karin is 14 and is the most experienced member. She joined H!P kenshuusei in 2008, and since then has been in the shuffle unit Shin Mini Moni, and has also been in many plays/musicals, has had some photoshoots in magazines such as UTB, and has done solo work as kopink, with 5 digital singles and a mini-album releasing on March 20th. Her color is Grape. Karin is definitely talented as a singer and dancer, and I hope Juice=Juice gives her a chance to shine (as she has been waiting for this for several years) as well as show/develop more of her personality which, I feel, we have seen surprisingly little of in her 4 and a half years with H!P kenshuusei.

Uemura Akari

Akari is 14 and surprisingly the youngest member of Juice=Juice. (She has a rather mature appearance, so, compared to the other girls, I find it a small shock she is the youngest. xD) Akari was added to Hello!Project kenshuusei suddenly in 2012, and drew a bit of attention at that time. She was in the 213th issue of UTB, and will be in a stage play with several current and past H!P members in April. Her fruit color is Melon. Akari gives off a 'cool' image to me. We have seen surprisingly little of her since she joined H!P kenshuusei, but it seems that will finally change.

Those are the members of the new H!P group known as Juice=Juice! Despite the definite cuteness quality of some of the members, we were told by Tsunku Juice=Juice would have a cool, sexy image. This shocked many fans, but when you take a second look, I think it's very possible and can really work for them. Especially as they are an indie group- by their major debut I am sure they will have had the time to truly perfect this image. Tomoko and Akari already give off quite a cool image naturally, and though Aina can be really adorable, she is great at showing a bit of attitude. Yuka is going on 19, so I am positive she can pull this image off. Sayuki and Karin are the biggest "cute" looking members of the group, but they are also the two with the surprisingly strong, mature voices and the most dance training. I truly believe this image could work well for them.

Many people are upset about eggs who did not make it, but I do not worry. H!P is getting older, and will need to begin building some new groups, as much as I hate to think it. The members not chosen likely did not fit the image of this group, and they are going to be added to a new group in the future, that may even already be in the planning process. I expect a group very different from Juice=Juice, a group with a fun, lively, energetic, and maybe childish sort of feel. So don't lose hope if you are fans of eggs not chosen- I can see them fitting very well into a group more like that!

Juice=Juice will be releasing their first indie single, Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne,

 on April 3rd, and many of are extremely excited for it. If you have not seen it yet, I definitely recommend you check out this video of the live performance:

All of them performed really well, and it was live, which makes it more impressive for me. The dance is very cool, the song has an awesome sound (loving that saxophone <3) and all the girls are very capable singers. I was pleasantly surprised by Tomoko's voice when I heard it- it's really great! Karin, Sayuki, and Aina all shine a lot on the dancing, and that smile Aina has going on is too cute. 

All in all, a really great first release, and a really promising group.

I highly recommend everyone buy their first indie single, if you like them at all and can even possibly afford to. It's a great song and a promising group of girls, and I'm really hoping it can sell well. 

If you are interested in grabbing a copy, please buy from the link below! I will get CDJapan points so I can buy the single, too. (Currently, I only have $2, which overs about 2/5ths of the shipping cost. However, thanks to those of you who have bought things through my blog, I have 761 CDJapan points. So I only need about 300 yen to be able to grab this! I'd like to say thank you SO much to those of you who have bought through my blog, it means the world to me. And anything you buy by March 31st will give me the points by April, so I can grab Juice=Juice's debut single! If you have anything you plan to buy from CDJapan soon, let me know and if it's something I have interest in, I will blog about it and post a link on my blog so you can buy through me. It'd mean so much to me!)

Buy Here

Hopefully this single sells really well for an indies single, and the group gets some attention and makes a quick debut!

And now, some questions for those willing to comment:

♪ What was your first reaction upon hearing there would be a new H!P group?
♪ Do you think you will like Juice=Juice?
♪ Do you have a favorite member yet? (If so, who?)
♪ What do you think of their first single?
♪ Did you buy or do you plan to buy their first single?

Hop☆Step☆JUMP! and Grab Your Dreams!

Today is a Fairies blog post, which I am really excited to do considering Fairies is my #2 idol group- I lovelovelove Fairies <3

My friend pointed out that my blog title, Hop☆Step☆JUMP!, now isn't only a Buono reference, but a Fairies reference as well! :D So that's why I used the lyrics to their song "Hero" as the title of this post~

Fairies started as a 7-member group, but as of January 17th, are down to a 6-member group. (Which kills me inside, as Kawane was fantastic and the first girl in Fairies to catch my attention.) The members are as follows:

                  Shimomura Miki, Age 14   Hayashida Mahiro, Age 14     Fujita Miria, Age 14

  

                   Ito Momoka, Age 15          Nomoto Sora, Age 15            Inoue Rikako, Age 16


Fairies have a very cool, mature sort of image, and seriously rock it. Here is an example, with my personal favorite single by them, "Beat Generation":

However, they are able to pull of  cuter, more typical idol style as well, when they want, and still manage to really stand out! Here is an example with "Sweet Jewel":

Now, one thing that clearly should stand out when you watch Fairies is their dancing. Dancing is sort of Fairies gimmick- they are definitely a dance group, and they are really good at it! They are tight and strong with ll their moves, and very exact and synchronized. In their first single, they all did  double pirouette! I'd never seen an idol group try something like that, so I was definitely impressed. As a dancer, this group appeals to me a lot.

Every member is a good dancer and they are capable of many different styles, and each girl has their specialties. Sora, with 7 years of 'lock' dancing is a fantastic hip-hopper and also handles the more dramatic jazz moves very well. Miria and Rikako are very good with body movements more so than arms and feet, though they can do all of that, and are just generally very charming while they dance- it's easy to be drawn to them. Mahiro joined the group having more difficulties with the dances, but quickly stepped up and is now very capable of participating in whatever kind of dance necessary, and has gotten much better with arm movements. Momoka and Miki would have to be the two all-around best dancers, easily handling any style and really shining while dancing, whatever it may be.

I find these girls all so charming and enjoyable to watch. Here are some of my favorite Fairies dance performances below:

These dance videos are all from their tv show Harajuku Kirakira Gakuin. They didn't only dance on their show, though. They also did covers of old songs from (mostly) the 80's- in English! Though their accents are pretty strong, the covers are really enjoyable and rather impressive. The vocals are great and they have original choreography for each song. Interested? Check out a couple of their covers below:

Fairies is full of such cute, talented girls. The only thing I ever wished was maybe a little different with Fairies is tat three members who hardly sing- Miria, Miki, and Mahiro- would get some lines. Well, now, it has been announced Fairies is going to have a unit called M3 made up of just those three! Fairies will still exist no differently, but now these three girls have another place to shine as well. I'm really really excited for it! 

We've now gotten a preview of M3's first single, Yumemiru Dancing Doll, which will release on March 27th. It's very different from Fairies usual sound, but very fun, cute, and extremely addicting!

Both the look and sound have a cute little retro feel. On first look/play I was a little skeptical, but now I can't stop playing this short preview over and over! I have high hopes for this unit, and will definitely be purchasing this single. If you like Fairies, or these members, or the song- you should, too!

CD+DVD Version   CD+PB Version    CD Only Version

There are still a couple first press versions left, which come with a bonus photo, so grab it while you can!

The DVD on the CD+DVD version has the Music Video on it, the Making Of of the music video, as well as "10 minute recording footage" or something like that, not 100% sure what it's supposed to mean, to be honest. xD

The CD+PB version comes with a 28-page photo book of the girls. Definitely worth grabbing! 

I hope this post got you a bit interested in Fairies, and I hope some of you are as excited for M3's single as I am and maybe think of purchasing it! :D Thanks for reading~

Welcome to the iDOL Street Show!

Hi everyone! So, tonight I decided I want to blog about an agency I have been getting REALLY interested in called iDOL Street. And, if you don't know what iDOL Street is or don't follow them, you should seriously give this blog post a chance because iDOL Street is seriously amazing and full of such great girls.
I'll admit this will likely be a pretty long post, as I'm covering a bit about an entire label, but if you don't know much about iDOL Street, I truly think you should at least skim it or check out the videos.
I really think iDOL Street has a lot worth loving for any idol fan. 
This post will have information on iDOL Street and the groups as well as videos and music clips. :)

iDOL Street is a label under Avex. There are two things I really love about iDOL Street. The first is that so many of the girls have some serious talent- singing and dancing. iDOL Street has some girls with some AWESOME vocals. But they are also cute and entertaining as idols. The other thing I really like is that each group under iDOL Street very much so has it's own sound. Sort of like each group has a theme? It's really makes them more enjoyable somehow.

The first group to debut under iDOL Street is SUPER☆GiRLS. SUPER☆GiRLS is a group that debuted with 12 members in 2010, though is currently down to 10. They are cute charming girls and the group generally has some really nice vocals. 

Out of iDOL Street, this is the group I'd say has the most generic idol sound. It's kind of their thing. But it's actually really enjoyable. They have a nice generic pop sound that you'd expect from idols, but it really works for them. In fact, if you ask me, I could honestly tell you that I don't think they have a single bad song. 

Although I consider them the iDOL Street 'generic' sounding group, because of this they also seem to have the most freedom with their music. They generally have a nice pop sound but they are able to put it to many different uses. They also have some great singers and so they are able to throw in some nice harmonies, which I love. They also give fantastic live performances.

This is SUPER☆GiRLS first single:

      

And here is their most recent single:

They also have an album, titled "Celebration", being released on the 20th of this month! It's bound to be great, and I highly recommend you buy it if you have interest in the group. It will be their third album released, not including their digitally released instrumental album.

Here are some song previews from their upcoming album release:

Rave Together:

Junjou Cinderella:

DREAM SEEKER:

Renai Manifest:

And this is the song the album is named after:

If you have interest in the album, you should definitely consider buying it! On CDJapan, all three versions still have first press available as of right now! That means they also come with a photo :)

You can buy the album below:

 

CD Only Version  

  

  CD+DVD A  

  

  CD+DVD B

Please remember, if you are indeed interested in buying the album, to click those links and buy through there, as I will get a percentage of what is spent (at no extra cost to you) so I can buy some idol cds as well.

The next idol Group to debut under iDOL Street is Cheeky Parade! This group is still extremely new, just releasing their debut single last month. (Although they had an indies single released before that.) 

This group is iDOL Streets energetic, over-the-top, hyperactive group. They are weird and crazy and totally fantastic.

They are releasing their second major single on April 10th! It is titled "C.P.U !?" which apparently stands for "Cheeky Parade Understand !?" The MV and song are both fun and crazy, and have a sort of virtual/video game theme to them. Anyway, it's a blast, and you can watch it below:

Personally, I love this single and am trying right now to get the money together to be able to afford buying at least the Regular Edition. I've been following these girls since the start and have loved them, and they just keep getting better! So hopefully I can buy this release and support them.

And if you can, you should, too! ;D

The single can be bought here:

Regular Version                             CD+DVD Version

If you like the group/song and can afford it, please consider buying the single! (And of course, make sure you click through those links before buying to help me out.) I'm really hoping for high sales on this one. This is a group that really deserves it!

And, for just a little more of a taste of Cheeky Parade, here is them performing "Cheeky Dreamer", their indie release, live!

They give a really fun live performance. :)

And, here is my oshi of the group, Mariya, singing a bit of a solo song~

The last group under iDOL Street is GEM, which just performed for the first time ever last month. (The above video introduces each girl about half-way through.) GEM is full of some crazy cute and crazy talented girls with some great personalities. I could see this group being big. (Or, at the very least, they deserve to be big.) 

This group covers iDOL Streets 'cool' image. They have a very cool and mature kinda almost R&B sort of sound. Despite their young look and age, they really pull it off. I think these girls could really go a long way.

Here's GEM with their original song, Speed Up!

If that's not great, I honestly don't even know what is. And, these girls haven't even made a major debut! In fact, even under their own label, they are still regarded as trainee members, called streetsei. (Something like H!P eggs or AKB KKS.) However, they've got loads of talent, and I can't wait until they release a single, because I will be buying it.

Currently, GEM is often performing in a group of 7 of the members (which is switched up a bit now and then) being called GEMSTAR. Here is GEMSTAR performing GEM's other original song, Do it Do it at their first live on February 11th!

And, if you want a taste of some of the talent in GEM, check out Maaya (the girl in red) performing a solo!

I'm definitely going to be following this group. They are brand new and so young but their music is phenomenal, they are great performers and have SO much talent. 

Lastly, I want to talk about the streetsei. These are the iDOL Street trainees (which, as I have already stated, the above group GEM is still apart of.)

All the trainee members are separated into 5 smaller groups that they perform lives in. The groups are e-Street Sapporo, e-Street Tokyo, w-Street Nagoya, w-Street Osaka, and w-Street Fukuoka. What's really cool is that, just like each iDOL Street group seems to have it's own feel and image to it, so does each group. Each group gives off a different feeling and has different sorts of motions and such. It's very cool because it makes it easier to find one specific one suited for you. 

Two of the trainee groups were given an original song (and hopefully the others are, as well, soon!) but for the most part these groups perform iDOL Street songs and sometimes throw in covers of other groups like the ***48's, H!P, and even E-girls!

Below is each group performing.

Sapporo performing a song by their seniors, SUPER☆GiRLS, "Tokimeki Shoku no Kaze to Kimi"

Tokyo performing a song made for the Streetsei (And then given to Cheeky Parade on their first indie single) "Zettai! Love Magic"

Nagoya performing their (AMAZING) original song, which is one of my favorite songs right now, "Kitto for You"

Osaka performing their energetic original song, "Onegai Moonlight"

Lastly, we have Fukuoka doing a cover of S/mileage's "Suki-chan"

Well, after that (massive) post, I hope you can see a bit of what I see in iDOL Street. There are a lot of great idols and great songs and just amazing girls. I really hope you'll give iDOL Street a try! (Whether that means looking more into them, downloading some of their songs, or buying some CDs/merch!)

If you are like me and are the type to be interested in magazines, I have some good recent ones with iDOL Street girls in them below! (One thing I like about magazines is they have a lot of different idols in them, so somehow it makes it more worth buying? xD) 

So, if you want to grab something like that, here are some good choices!

Idol Graph Photogenic

This has some really nice shots in it of some great idols, two of which are iDOL Street members! Maeshima Ami of SUPER☆GiRLS and Sekine Yuna of Cheeky Parade.

Front Cover:

Back Cover:

Top Yell 2013 March

Top Yell has lots of pics and some articles along with some really cool live shots and backstage offshots. It has TONS of idol groups in every issue, but this issue happens to have a focus on iDOL Street. It also comes with a double-sided SUPER☆GiRLS poster.

BLT U-17 Vol. 25

This one has some absolutely gorgeous photos of SUPER☆GiRLS and Cheeky Parade both. Absolutely gorgeous, and quite a few!

Or, if you're really getting interested in iDOL Street, I highly recommend you grab an iDOL Street Official Book! Full of great pictures, some articles for those of you who can read Japanese, and it's all about iDOL Street and iDOL Street only! 

There are two of these iDOL Street Official Books, and you can find both below:

iDOL Street Official Book Vol. 1

This one is the first, from in 2011, so it is just SUPER☆GiRLS and the Streetsei at that time (which is mostly the Cheeky Parade members!) This issue comes with a random poster of either SUPER☆GiRLS or the Streetsei.

iDOL Street Official Book Vol. 2

This is Volume 2, released in summer of 2012. It has a front and back cover, the back featuring Cheeky Parade. There is a lot on SUPER☆GiRLS and Cheeky Parade, as well as the 7 Streetsei at the time. Then, there is coverage from the 3rd generation iDOL Street auditions and profiles for the winners, the 3rd generation Streetsei girls. This has some stunning photoshoots along with some live shots and articles. It also comes with two photos (randomly chosen from 54 different ones) that can be any member of iDOL Street at that time.

And, that is where I end my post. If any of you actually truly READ that whole thing, you need both a reward and...probably something else to do with your life ;p Not that I can talk, I took the time to write the thing, after all xD

I did so because I truly love iDOL Street and think they are fantastic and so worth everyone looking into. So I hope you at least played some of the videos :)

Some questions for those of you willing to leave comments~

♥  Had you heard of iDOL Street before this post?

♥  Had you followed any of the groups previous to this post?

♥  Are you more interested in iDOL Street after this post? (Maybe interested in following some of the groups/girls?)

♥  Did you actually read this whole post? ;p (I'm truly curious if anyone did xD)

Thank you for visiting my blog and checking out my iDOL Street! I leave you with iDOL Streets song, Asu e Step, which includes all of the members before 3rd Generation Streetsei.

P-P-P Party Party CELEBRATION

Ok so this post is going to be a little "Blog Re-opening!" post and a "Berryz Koubou New Single!"

Both of which are causes for celebration ;D

Anyway, welcome to my blog! My name is Caitlin, I am now 18 years old which is kind of freaking me out beyond belief, and...well, I love idols, if you didn't guess that. :P
For a long time I've meant to get back to blogging but just haven't done it. However, recently, I've gotten into a lot of new idol groups, and more into old ones, and I just feel like I need somewhere to rant about them?

Anyone who read my last blog knows I tend to make long posts. Hopefully they won't be too insane, but hey, that's me. Just a warning ahead of time. ;p

The blog has gotten a new banner for it's re-opening, as well as a twitter feed (follow me if you'd like!) and a new page which I ask you check out, please! (The "Best of Idol Blog Photos" page.) It's something new I'm doing that I thought would just be a fun little thing to add to the blog, and it's something you can all participate in, and I hope you do! Hoping to see a large range of different idols, from the most mainstream to ones I never even knew existed. It will be interesting for  lot of fans, I think, including me, and may get us curious about other idol groups. So please take a look at the page!

I am also hoping to open an idol radio station. I don't know how soon it will be, as the site I'm using can take quite a while getting all my music on there, but I am working hard on it and will hopefully have it up and running soon. It will be called "idol BEATS" which is pretty uncreative, honestly, but I was listening to Fairies' "Beat Generation" and it's what I came up with. The radio station will have the goal of playing all idol stuff. Like, mainstream and indie. I want to play tons of idols, even ones I don't really follow. I want it to be a station that plays idols 24/7 with a good mix of everything, and gives people the opportunity to find new groups they've never heard of. (So if you know some good groups I may not know, comment them please!) I will have a link to the station from the blog when it's ready :)

And now, onto Berryz' new single, "Asian Celebration"! 

I was debating what my first post should be about. I feel like I have a lot I want to post and talk about, and then today I woke up to see Berryz Koubou's new MV was up. They also happened to have the closest release date out of the groups I wanted to talk about, so I decided to go for it.

Now...I haven't been all that into Berryz lately. Well, that's not quite right...I love them, but lately their music itself has been kinda whatever with me? Nothing has been bad, but nothing has grabbed me really, either. Which has kinda sucked.

Now, I'm not exactly in love with song, but I think it's very fun and extremely catchy. (Not one of you who has heard it can honestly say the chorus wasn't replaying in your head or you didn't sing it out loud after listening!) The music video is a bit of a sparkle overload, but somehow it kind of works with the rest of the MV and the song? It's very disco-ish and I enjoyed watching it quite a bit.

I'm sure you've all probably seen it, but here is the MV:

One thing I have to say...is it just me, or does it seem very Miya-focused? Definitely not complaining, she'd be the one I'd watch if it wasn't, anyway, but somehow it seemed like up until about 1:08 she WAS the MV.

I think her talking parts are pretty adorable. She makes me kinda think of like the person on the intercom or whatever when you're on an airplane at the beginning. Is that just me? ^^; Anyway, it's really cute. Miyabi is a very charming person, so filling the beginning up with her is a good move if you ask me ;)

Captain looks absolutely fabulous. She is obviously the best dancer but her even just bouncing to the music seems to out do everyone elses...well, everything. xD Captain was the second half of the MV for me <3

I took notice of the dance after this. It looks very simple but very very fun. Like  line dance? Not quite, but that sort of nature. Easy to pick up but somehow fun, especially in a group of people. 

And then Chinami was singing. And then Chinami was singing quite a lot.

And I was very happy.

And I came to the realization everyone is singing in this.

And it sounds great.

So A+ to Berryz in that respect. 

This is Berryz Koubou's 31st single and it is releasing on March 13. We have gotten low quality cover previews, and they have me actually really excited for the high quality previews.

The reason I'm excited and curious is I really want to see those alternative outfits! Limited B and C seem to have more casual outfits, and then Limited D with this random cool blue theme? 

I look forward to seeing them in high quality! ^^

You can buy the single from CDJapan here:

Regular Edition  Limited A  Limited B  Limited C  Limited D

If you haven't bought it yet but plan to, please click the above links! If you buy through those links, I'll get points on CDJapan so I can actually get the idol stuff I want and properly support the groups I follow ahahaha. 

So it'd really mean a lot to me if you click them. <3

Anyway, I suppose that's the end of this blog post~

So, if you're up for commenting, I got some questions for you ;D

❤  Did you read my old blog?

❤  Do you plan to read my re-opened blog?

❤  What are some indie or non-mainstream idols you like?
❤  What do you think of the Weekly Best of Idol Blog Photos I'm doing? (Go check the page if you haven't! 

❤  How do you feel about Asian Celebration? (Song and MV)

❤  Are you buying/have you already bought the single?

Thanks so much for reading! <3 Bye~