My baby sister, aged 10 (11 in April), is the perfect example of the typical American 5th grader: her favorite movies are High School Music and High School Musical 2, her favorite artist is ALY & AJ, she thinks Nick Jonas is the the cutest thing alive, and one day she wants to be just like Miley Cyrus or Ashley Tisdale… Oh, and she is going to be my key to introducing Morning Musume to other Americans.
See, what I’ve noticed by watching my sister and her friends is that they LOVE little Asian dollmakers–like the eLouai Candybar Dollmaker. Mainly, these games are Korean, and I refuse to let my sister get into DBSK or Super Junior, but… I can give her a little taste of Asian culture with Hello! Project. I know, the H!P Kids+Kanna seemed like the more natural choice, but I thought that since my sister likes older singers… maybe she’d like MoMusu a tiny bit better.
I gave her a small taste of Morning Musume/Hello! Project: the PVs for Kanashimi Twilight, AS FOR ONE DAY, Onna ni Sachi Are, Mikan, Tanaka Reina’s Memory Seishun no Hikari and C-ute’s Tokaikko Junjou for starters. A basic summary of her thoughts are as follows:
Kanashimi Twilight
Favorite Members: Tanaka Reina, Yoshizawa Hitomi
Least Favorite Members: Kamei Eri, Takahashi Ai, Michishige Sayumi, Kusumi Koharu
I chose Kanashimi due to the pop-rock feel–it fit in with the ALY & AJ thing that my sister loves. My baby sister immediately picked out Tanaka Reina as her favorite, saying she was clearly the prettiest (she liked her hair the best), and asking if she got a solo. She also picked out Yossy, saying that she looked the most mature. She directly said, outloud, “I don’t like the one in the pink shirt… Or the one with the ugly ponytail.” (Michishige and Kusumi) I pointed out Kame-chan, saying she was my personal favorite–my sister turned and said, “She doesn’t look pretty here.” She was thrilled with Tanaka’s solo, saying it was very pretty.
She disliked Takahashi based almost solely on her dress; but, she said her voice in Kanashimi was “fake” and that she wanted to hear her sing “real.” I have no idea HOW my sister picked up on that.
As for Mikitty, Niigaki and Mitsui? Well, on Mikitty, she said she was afraid of her, but she sang nicely. She said Niigaki looked really young. And I told her Mitsui was the closest to her age, and my sister said “No, she’s like your age.” She also said, “That one sounds like the one in the sailor dress should sound.” I don’t know why she related Mitsui to Takahashi.
Her favorite OUTFITS were Niigaki’s, Mitsui’s, and Yossy’s.
AS FOR ONE DAY
Favorite Members: Yaguchi Mari
Least Favorite Members: Yasuda Kei, Abe Natsumi
Samantha didn’t sit throught AFOD. She ended up going “I like it, but I don’t like the singers except for the short one.” She took to Marippe quite nicely, saying that she was “cute, but mature.” She got through the chorus, at least, finally ending it by saying “It sounds like something Ashley Tisdale would sing.”
She doesn’t like Kei because “Kei scares me.”
Onna ni Sachi Are
Favorite Members: Tanaka Reina, Niigaki Risa, Takahashi Ai
Least Favorite Members: Kusumi Koharu
My sister discovered in ONSA that she has a deep dislike for Kusumi Koharu. I played 3 seconds of Balalaika and she ran away screaming “I LIKE THE HEAVEN HOP BETTER!” Anyway, having Koharu open in this song was like, an immediate turnoff for her. But the song turned around when she heard Takahashi Ai. It was a completely turn-around from Kanashimi; suddenly, Ai-chan was very interesting for her.
She liked the commanding, adult looks Ai gave in the PV. She liked her voice, saying it was “natural” and “real.” She also like Tanaka again, saying she was still the prettiest and her favorite. I tried pushing Kamei and Junjun on her, and she shied away–although she agrees that Junjun is gorgeous.
ONSA was her second favorite of the songs. She thought Niigaki looked pretty; she loved Tanaka’s solos; she didn’t have much to say on Mitsui, only that she was very cute.
Mikan
Favorite Members: Tanaka Reina
Least Favorite Members: Kusumi Koharu
There’s a pattern developing. Samantha wouldn’t sit through Mikan, I’m sorry to say. She said the lyrics were very pretty, but that she didn’t like it, and the the PV was too weird for her.
She noted that Tanaka was pretty; she liked Ai’s spiky hair, and she wanted to poke Kamei.
Memory Seishun no Hikari
I choose the Tanaka Reina solo from one of the Best Shots because Reina proved to be her favorite overall. Samantha turned to me and said, “I really like it. It’s pretty. It sounds like Ashley Tisdale or Vanessa Hudgens. I really like it.” She began to relate Reina to them, imagine them in HSM, maybe. I’m not entirely sure; I just know that she thought Reina was the prettiest and the best out of the 9nin lineup.
Tokaikko Junjou
Favorite Members: Suzuki Airi, Okai Chisato, Yajima Maimi
Least Favorite Members: Hagiwara Mai
My sister liked Tokaikko for several reasons:
1) The Dancing: both me and my sister have been dancing for years. I have around 13 years of dance classes under my belt, and she’s got about 7 now. We love dancing; my sister took one glance at the dance for Tokaikko and said she wanted to do it.
2) The Leads: Samantha adored Airi and Maimi. She thought they were just so good. She had no real comment on NakaSaki, but she said Maimai was too young.
3) The Clothes: She absolutely ADORED Kanna’s outfit, as well as Airi’s. She thought Chisato’s hat was cute, but said she looked kind of like a boy. She loved Maimai’s outfit the best, though, saying that she loved the jeans and that she really wanted the shirt.
4) Chisato’s WTF Face: After the scene with the baseball, my poor sister sat there like “MAIMI THREW CHISATO’S BALL!!! WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?!?!” She felt so bad for Chisato, especially after seeing the “WTF MY BALL!” face Chisato gives. It’s really not the best reason to like a PV… But… Well… Whatever.
My sister liked Yajima Maimi BEST, saying that she was like Miley Cyrus. She really enjoyed the monologue, and said it sounded cool.
Her favorite song overall was Tanaka’s Memory Seishun no Hikari; her least favorite was Mikan. Any solo Koharu stuff she got isn’t counted because she hates Kusumi Koharu with a passion.
Now, what has this taught me?
1) Tanaka Reina has a good chance of being popular in the US
Tanaka is not my favorite MoMusu, but she IS very popular in Japan; and if my sister is any indictation, she’d be popular with preteens over here. She seems like a rolemodel they could relate to (“MY NAILS ARE PRETTY!!!” or “I wanna dress sorta badass today! ♥”); she also has the voice they gravitate towards–highpitched and cute (Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Nikki Blonsky [kinda]).
2) Mikan isn’t going to be popular with anyone except hardcore MoMusu fans.
My sister said Mikan didn’t feel “right.” It was “weird.” She liked the lyrics. She liked how uplifting the WORDS were. But the song itself? No.
3) Today’s youth prefer a “mature” sound, as opposed to pure pop.
There are, of course, exceptions, but the general idea is that the mature, dance-y, rock-ish sound is getting better footing. The mature sound fits better with the tween set, because that’s what their favorite artists are putting out. Let’s face it: the HSM set isn’t singing “YOU’LL GET A CHANCE!” I mean, for Christ’s sake, Ashley Tisdale’s latest single goes “All them girls be checking my style/and I don’t even care.“ It’s got a club sound–a la, something along the lines of ONSA, that can be danced to with ease. And ALY & AJ’s songs can be related to Kanashimi, with that sort of pure pop-rock sound that sounds badass but really isn’t, because, well… they’re just too pretty to be badasses.
My sister shared Kanashimi with her best friend–they now want to learn the words to Kanashimi Twilight and argue over who should be who.
Just as long as Samantha get to be Tanaka Reina, I think she’ll be okay.
Also, since I have no idea how many people besides me watch Disney Channel: The High School Musical 2 Around the World special has a clip of Tamaki Nami. It airs January 18 (next Friday yay!) To tide us over, here’s a fun clip.
Yeah, it’s the commercial. It’s what convinced me to get my sister to watch MoMusu in the first place (that, and AAA’s Minna Star. Thank you, HSM) If you get Disney Channel, just watch for Tamaki Nami, at least xD (Not for that Indian thing; it scares me SO much).
Radicalpatriot said,
January 11, 2008 @ 2:50 am
Sounds like a great primer. Are you referring to Kanna of C-ute? She’s really come a long eway.
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Vulpi said,
January 11, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
Reading through this makes me D: and ;_;. Also, no one should ever be allowed to comment on the “realness” of a person’s voice when their only frame of comparison is Disney starlets. Because that is just a whole new realm of what.
That aside…! I can definitely see why your sister would be into Reina, she’s really Americanized. I’ve thought for awhile that she could pull off a successful solo career here, maybe backed by a band or something. I’unno. Reina’s cool. 8D
Obligatory comment on Sayu having no control over what kind of fucktarded shit the stylists put her in, etc. QQ. ;__;
Kuri {♥} said,
January 11, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
Vulpi, I ♥ you xDD
I also hate that the only comparison is Disney starlets, but… They are what little girls like, I guess. Disney, and some anime.
I can’t help Sayu either, but god bless her. At least she tries hard, I guess? I’m sorry Sayu didn’t rank higher with my little sis… On the plus side, her best friend thinks she’s cute, and I don’t doubt one of them is going to be walking around going “Usa-chan Peace!!” soon. They’re still in the stage of fighting over Reina though (in their pretend world, I am somehow Takahashi. I really don’t know what goes on with them somedays)
Soli said,
January 11, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
This is brilliant! I have a younger sister around the same age. She knows a little bit about H!P, but I totally plan to do the same kind of thing you did with your little sis. And maybe even my brother! xD
This is interesting… I’m not suprised that your sister like Onna ni Sachi Are better when her favorite artists are the older Disney singing stars. I’ll have to test that with my sister who likes Hanna Montana, if that means she likes the younger sounding songs.
-Soli
Hotaru said,
January 12, 2008 @ 12:19 am
My little sister (she’s 12, she really despises the Disney Channel, though) talks about Reina a lot too…but not in the positive way, unfortunately.
She’s my favorite member, and I’ve pointed that out a few times. The first time I showed her happened to be the Ambitious! cover…and she just laughed and said that she looked ‘cross-eyed’ (because…she does.)…So, now, whenever she sees her, its always “Oh, thats the cross-eyed girl.”
But, she is secretly in love with Hello! Project, and does not want to admit it to anyone… *dundundun*
Samantha said,
January 12, 2008 @ 2:10 am
Interesting post! The Disney Channel references creep me out a little, but hey, I understand why. And I just wanted to comment on one of the generalizations you made at the end there, because of my own experiences:
3) Today’s youth prefer a “mature” sound, as opposed to pure pop. — I’d say not necessarily on this one. You’ll have kids that prefer mature, and kids that prefer the sugary pop all around the US, still, I think. Over the summer, I participated in a variety show in my city, and I conned the directors into making a running gag out of “Ookina ai de motenashite.” I had to round up some dancers– the people my age were ridiculously shy about it (except one), so I resorted to that girl and a small bunch of middle schoolers who said they like to dance. The first time I played it, people thought I was crazy for the song, and it was total shock over the entire cast there that night.
But VERY QUICKLY– like… by the end of the first night it was introduced to everyone, people were totally ADDICTED to the song. By the next day, and especially by show nights, ALL of the kids– the middle schoolers who were already in and the others in a chorus group that came in (middle school and elementary school) wanted to be in the song, and even a huge bunch of the people my age who said no were suddenly interested. I was SO amused when the eleven-year-old boy came up to me on show night, about a half hour before the act was scheduled to go on, and BEGGED me to teach him the dance so he could be in it to– and the next night, he brought more (male) friends. Whenever I came off-stage from performing or rehearsing, people would always tell me how the middle and elementary schoolers would be dancing to the song and attempting to sing to it whenever they heard it from the stage.
And I can’t even remember the amount of times I had to write down the name of the song and group to people of EVERY age (the adults used it as a talking point whenever they saw me backstage!), because everyone admitted, “It’s just so… addicting! I seriously need to download this, because it’s never going to leave my head!”
SO, I don’t know if it’s the pure crack power of ‘Ookina ai,’ or something else, but there is STILL a pull out there for pure pop music. (And it helps when you’ve got people who aren’t ashamed to admit it!)
yossha said,
January 12, 2008 @ 7:05 am
Ahaha, interesting post! I introduced my four-year-old cousin to Berryz’s “Piriri to Yukou!” PV a few months ago, and she was totally addicted to it — I probably played the PV about a million times for her. T_T
I showed her two other Berryz PVs (“Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND” and “Happiness ~Kofuku Kangei!~”), but “Piriri” still remains her favorite and she asks me if she can listen to it every time she sees me with my iPod. Introducing her to more H!P artists is still on my ‘to do’ list, though, but I’m glad she likes them.
Amber said,
January 12, 2008 @ 7:26 am
My brother’s 16 and he’s pretty mature for his age. He usually likes rock music. It’s rare that he likes any songs but I think he said a few of the less “sugary pop” ones were good. He said all H!P sings about is love which is basically true ehh
Hanachan said,
January 13, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
DC and H!P ^^ I’m a big Disney Channel fan. It’s like a guilty pleasure, I guess-they’re just so corny and cute and fun! Anyways, it’s really interesting that a fellow DC fan hates Koharu, who is my favorite. Koharu reminds me a lot of Miley Cyrus. That she releases songs for both Kiratin Revolution and as herself is very similar to Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. Miley is definitely a little edgier (for a Disney star, at least) and cooler, and Koharu is more bubbly and weird, though. The Hannah stuff is really similar to Koharu’s Kirarin Revolution stuff.
And Kei is kinda scary as well, but that’s why I love her! And if they did a H!P version of HSM, I think Charmy would make a great Sharpay, with Yossi as Troy!
Maria said,
January 16, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
I’m just glad that I’m not alone in the disliking Koharu thing… Everyone else seems to adore her witha passion O_O
Gidget said,
February 2, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
I’ve done something similar. I play H!P stuff for my classroom (yes, I’m old…) and they love it. I tend to alternate between HSM and HSM2 and the random H!P stuff I have. I hadn’t played any of the H!P stuff for awhile, since back in November I think, and the kids started requesting it last week. They were promising all sorts of things if I would play some of it for them. They really enjoy it because it’s upbeat and they don’t have to know the words to sing along with it. LOL
The Perfume Effect « Monochrome Effect said,
February 29, 2008 @ 6:35 am
[...] this, the catchy-ness of it makes it rather universal. Even my little sister (the one from the Experiment with the MoMusu) likes Perfume, and has narrowed down the songs she wants to do for her talent show to Mr. [...]
How Popular Will Hello Project Be With Today’s Kids? « Semified said,
March 29, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
[...] Like Morning Kuri’s sister, both of my siblings sole source of entertainment lies in the weekly Disney segments which to them is pure join. However, you might find the results are very interesting as they are contrary to what Morning Kuri discovered. [...]
Kate said,
July 9, 2008 @ 11:32 am
I like Nami Tamaki, but I like Momosu, too. I can’t fight over who is better. It’s like fighting fire with fire. It can’t be helped.
Miley Cyrus Lover said,
August 3, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
High School Musical, and Hannah Montana, seem to be the biggest things these days. I’m amazed at the amount of marketing that goes into both of these Disney franchises. Granted, Miley Cryus is a very talented performer, and deserves all the publicity that she gets.