Jpop Wrap up January - June 2015

Half of the year 2015 is already over. The time flies so fast and I don't have enough time to do seperate posts for all the songs that I liked over the last 6 months. so I will again do a little wrap-up of Japanese songs.

02.04 Angerme - Taiki Bansei/ Otome no Gyakushuu

First up is the first single of this group with their new name. This is also the debut for the 3rd gen.
While Taiki Bansei is a up-beat and happy song, Otome no Gyakushuu is pretty dark, musical-like song. I like both songs a lot, though I think the second song is so much more interesting. It's nice to see this group experimenting a bit and I'm excited for their next single (that I will definitely review!).

3.25 Fairies - Kiss me baby

Oh right, I keep on forgetting about this group and then they appear again. Kiss me baby is a very cool song. I have the feeling Fairies keep getting better, which is awesome. It's still sad to see the lines not being distributed very well, but I love how Sora is getting so many lines here. *-*

04.01 C-ute - Gamushara Life/ Tsugi no Kadou wo magare

I talked about The Middle Management, which is my favourite song of this single. But the rest is also pretty awesome. I love both songs, especially Gamushara Life. That song is just so important and I cried at the live performance from last weeks Haro Sute.. :')

04.22 HKT48- 12byou/ Daite Twintail

HKT48's first single of the year honestly didn't really impress me as much as the other 48/46 stuff that was relased. But it is still a catchy and fun song. Just not as catchy as their previous songs in my opinion. But the B-side Daite Twintail is a greaaaat song and I love it so much. *-*

05.20 Takoyaki Rainbow - Genki Uri no Shoujo ~Namihana Meiuta Gojuu Sen~

Since I don't really like Momoiro Clover Z and Team Syachihoko's newest singles thaaat much, Takoyaki Rainbow is my saving grace from Stardust/ 3B Junior. I know them since fall 2014 and always tgought they were funny, though never caring thaaat much for them. Well, this single changed that. It is my favourite single by them, because it's just sooo damn catchy. The girls are really cute and I will keep my eye open on them. :)

06.10 Mayuyu - Deai no Tsuzuki

Mayu's newest solo single is a gem and probably one of my favourite song from her ever! She improved so much, so I hope she will continue to be a solo singer for a very long time. :)

06.17 Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku - Natsu Daze Jonny

Okay, EbiChuu's newest release is pretty darn awesome. You can't not love them, right? They are an awesome group and even though I'm not following them thaaat much, I like quite a few of their songs. This is no exception and the video is just so CRAZYYY!

So yeah, that's it for now. :)
There are still a lot of awesome songs that I haven't talked about.

Oh right, I'm always open for new artists and songs, so don't hestistate and drop a comment if you have a suggestion. :D

Jpop recap: October - December

Today I will do a special post. Since I wasn't able to post that much from October to December and there are a lot of awesome songs I didn't review, I will talk about them in this one post. All of these songs deifnetely deserve a whole review, but I just don't have the time to do that. At least I get to talk a bit about them in this post. And who knows, perhaps I feel motivated to make a real review of any of these songs in the future. ^-^

10.01 French Kiss - Omoidasenai Hana

Starting with a release of the start of October is the new single of French Kiss. Many AKB sub-units are disbanding, but this group stays strong. Whilst I do think this is an awesome group, I don't care for them thaaat much. But Omoidasenai Hana is a really, really beautiful and soothing ballad. It is a bit mean to see Yukirin getting all the spotlight and solo lines, but this doesn't change the fact that this is probably my favourite French Kiss song ever. The video is also very nice, since it's all natural and mosly OUTSIDE. There are lots of flowers (-> title) and the members look geourgous. Then there's a little (love) story of a little girl and a little boy. The girl is actually played by Murashige Anna's sister, which is pretty interesting if you ask me. :D

10.08 DIVA - Discovery

Next up is another AKB sub-unit it is DIVA's last single, since they disbanded after it. This is pretty sad, since DIVA always was my favourite unit and had the awesome talented members in it. I'm really happy that Yuka returned for the last single and the album, so we could enjoy her voice once more. Well, Discovery is a pretty catchy song, though it wasn't hooked at first. Now I like it, but I don't think it's one of their best songs. The video is pretty simple, but I like how there are these doors that everyone is leaving through at the end. That's a nice symbolism for the group's end. Everyone looks of pretty cool and I also like the dance.

10.18 Nogizaka46 - Ano hi boku wa tossa ni Uso wa Tsuita

This was the Undergirls song of Nogizaka46's newest single. It's a very beautiful song and shows again that Nogizaka46 has so much quality. Center is Inoue Sayuri and she also plays the lead in the music video together with Ito Marika. The video is also very beautiful, yet sad. It shows the struggles of Marika and the friendship of her and Sayuri. The girls are really great actors and I just really love the pace of the video.

10.22 Sakura Gakuin - Heart no Chikyu

Even though I never wrote about them, I've actually already known Sakura Gakuin since around April. The Babymetal hype started and I didn't want to be mainstream, so I checked out the original idol group of the trio. :P And I was surprised to see that they are an awesome group with lovely members. I even watched a lot of shows, and started to I like this group. (I also love Babymetal, don't get me wrong^^) So now they finally released a new single and I simply love it. Heart no Chikyu kind of follows the inetersting up-beat style of SG's previous songs and is so catchy. The video is very natural (wow, the second natural one in this post) and the members are some kind of Forest girls. Some of them looks soo different, I couldn't even recognize them. xD There are also the normal SG girls doing the dance as cheerleaders and interestingly they forest girls (lead by Mao) find them in the end. I really love the video. *-*

11.05 NMB48 (Team N) - Kyusen Kotei

This is actually a B-side of Rashikunai (which I did review). In my opinion, the single had some pretty good B-sides, but this one is the most unique. I really like the retro style of the song and the video. The members all look so awesome!

11.12 Berryz Koubou - Romance wo katatte/ Towa no Uta

This is Berryz final single and I feel so bad for not reviewing this. At least I'm happy they went out with a bang and made this their highest selling single ever and also the highest H!P kids selling single (they surpassed C-ute with that). But I have to admit I wasn't really hooked on any of the songs at first. But listening to it more and more I came to like this double A-side.
Romance wo katatte is a beautiful song and has a kind of Christmas feeling to it. (especially since they are singing about a White Romance)
The video is very simple, but I like it. *-*

Towa no Uta is a bit more upbeat. I like it less than the first A-side, but it's still a good song. The video is very ineteresting and nostalgic since it shows old videos of the members. This shows me that I will miss this group, even though I wasn't always their biggest fan.

11.19 °C-ute - I miss you/ The Future

Following Berryz is yet another H!P group: °C-ute. They again released a very good single this time.
I miss you is a very interesting song. It's a ballad but the members have different parts that are overlapping. The members have very good voices, so I think this type of song really works with them, even though it's a bit confusing at first. I really liek it and it is definetely my favourite and most played song of this list here. The video is very pretty and it's nice to see it being shot in one-shot (kind of, since there are many perspectives).

The Future is the weaker song of this single, but it's still good in my opinion. It's a more typical C-ute dance song and the video also only showcases their dance moves.

12.10 Team Shachihoko - Shampoo Hat

The newest single of this group is a lot slower than their previous sings. Team Syachihoko was famous for their crazy releases, but this is a pretty normal song. I still like it and it's a nice change, showing that they are also able to be normal. xD But I really hope they will do something different for their next single again. The video is also not that interesting and I wonder why everyone is so crazy about these round things. xD

12.17 Itano Tomomi - Come Party

Lastly this is Tomochin's new single that follows the style from her album which means Gangster Tomochin is back. Honestly, this song is a big mess and silly, but it's soooo catchy. I don't even know why I love it so much and I'm probably in the minority again. I love Tomochin's voice and even her rap part is so funny. XD Tomochin is mostly partying in the video (makes sense) but I really like how she's styled as a joker. The little girls as cheerleaders are also very cute, especially that one girl is having so much fun. :D

So, this has been my post about some of my favourite songs that I didn't write about before. There are still a few songs from this year I will review (AKB, SKE, Milky) but I'm already looking forward to next year in terms of Japanese music!

J-pop Wrap-up Novermber 2013

A bit later but here is my J-pop Wrap-up. Like K-pop there were also really amazing releases in the J-pop world, especially from smaller groups! Also, expect the C-ute review somewhere next week and I already started Sanseii Kawaii (yeay). Oh, and my first ever Nogizaka46 review! It will take some time but I really want to talk about Barrette!! But let's look at a few other  songs that aren't H!P or 48/46! :)

6.11 Momoiro Clover Z - Gounn

Almost a year after their last single, Momoiro Clover Z is finally back with their new single. ''Gounn'' inspirated by buddhism and has a more oriental sound. Well, at least the instruments.. The Momoclo members still have the same typical Japanese vocals (Kanako's screaming.. >.<). Well, the song is catchy and funny, but I don't think it can match up with their other singles. After the long wait I honestly expected a bit more.. Seems like they don't want to risk anything now that Momoclo is so popular.. I espected more craziness!!! But the song is still nice.. I like it, but it's just not their standard in my opinion..

The video though.. xD Well, it's really cool. The members are some sort of buddhist gods and they are in a really amazing world (it looks so cool!). Oh and there are thousands of mandalas.... xD Cool video ;)

13.11 Idoling Neo - mero mero

Idoling Neo is a sub group of Idoling consisting of their 6th generation + 4th generation member Ito Yuna. I actually don't really know that much about Idoling! and since I didn't really like their song Shout!, I tried Idoling Neo and surprisingly I really liked them! I don't know how to describe ''mero mero'' but it's definetely a more serious song even though the title sound like it is a fun song. It's a bit electronic and I think it has a very interesting, edgy sound. As for the video I think it's very beautiful. Okay there are a few random scenes, but it looks pretty natural and the colours are nice. The staring into the camera makes the video also more serious. A highlight is of course that half Brazilian girl (so cool!!). There is also a very young girl (she seems to be center) and she looks pretty cute. But she's so skinny.. Well, she's still young.. 

20. 11 Tokyo Girls' Style - Chiisana Kiseki
And here I thought this will be a boring song but NO!! When they start to sing with their beautiful voices it gets actually really nice. Okay, perhaps not as beautiful as Yakusoku but Tokyo Girls' Style finally amazed me with a song again!! And the video is just so simple but still awesome! Expecially when they stand in front of that building. I love it when idols go outside in their videos! xP And Mei looks soooo awesome here!! It's sad that she's more in the back but I really like her!

20.11 Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku - Mikakunin Chuugakusei X
A group I never talked about before, yes.. xD It's once again another sister group of Momoclo: Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku. Their songs are also pretty crazs and Mikakunin Chuugakusei X is no exception. It is really a fun song that gets stuck in your head very easy. The chorus is just so hyper energetic while the verses are a lot slower. Okay, not really slow, but they aren't as loud as the chorus. But that's actually really good and the song is awesome! As for the video.. LOL xD It's just so random with the grashopper guy and how they fight against him. It's really funny and I think this one girls that speaks in the beginning looks so crazy xD

News
I didn't talk about the AKB48 Draft, right? Well, most of the girls I liked have been drafted so I'm really happy!! Here is the full list:
Team A: Nishiyama Rena, Takita Kayako
Team K: Gotou Moe, Shimoguchi Hinana
Team B: Yokoshima Aeri, Kawamoto Saya
Team S: Matsumoto Chikako
Team KII: Goudo Saki, Takatsuka Natsuki, Suzuki Nene, Arai Yuki, Souda Sarina
Team E: Koishi Kumiko, Takatera Sana, Fukushi Nao
Team N: Sutou Ririka
Team M: Takei Sara
Team BII: Iso Kanae, Naiki Kokoro
Team H: Yamamoto Nao

Well, I'm happy to see that Aeri got picked. And Team B isn't a bad Team. Actually, especially the girls that got picked by the AKB teams are really lucky. And Yuko showed again that Team K is all about teamwork. She pciked Moe and Hinana who are both really young and seemed to get really good along with each other! I REALLY like both of them so it's great that they are in my favourite Team! And Team KII, wow Churi really wanted as much as possible it seems.. xP That makes this team really sympatic and especially Churi!! Oh and also, about Kayako. Well, we officially have our first bisexual member here.. xD I think it's cool, but I really hope there wont be any hating etc.. (until now the fan response seems to be good.. xD)