Updates & Changes

Honestly, I have no clue if anyone even reads these. That's fine though, because I've decided that I won't be posting reviews on this blog anymore. I can't do reviews with any kind of frequency because I just don't have any type of motivation to do it. I also don't have any interest in posting recommendations anymore on here. If there is someone out there who liked to read my reviews/top 10 lists or whatever, I will be (eventually) starting to do reviews on the Rate Your Music site and doing top music of the year lists at the end of the year. So why am I posting this instead of just deleting the blog? Well, that's because I'd like to keep this up as a place to post romanized lyrics of fairly unknown Japanese groups like Galette, Coco Decoru, and others I have CDs from. I'll also still post my top members/thoughts of the year for Hello Project & 48G because I have no other place to do that. The posts will be few and far between, but they'll be up for people on the internet to find whenever. I'll be deleting this post + all of my old reviews/top lists except the G lyrics and member top lists probably in another month or so. If anyone did ever read these, thank you! I do and always will appreciate that, but my interests (+time constraints, money issues, etc.) have changed too much to want to continue this blog. I hope that anyone who comes across this will enjoy finding lyrics and such in the future!

Top 48G Members Mid Year 2017

I haven't really been following 48G this year. Me following 48G was always contingent on me buying their singles and albums for my collection, but because I just haven't had the money recently to do so, I've been paying less and less attention to the groups. It also doesn't help that releases have been few and far between for all of the groups.

AKB48

Neither of their singles this year have done anything for me. The B-sides have been meh (minus that SakamichiAKB song). The group has been kind of meh in graduation announcements. I'm semi-excited for Sousenkyou, but if Sasshi wins again I'm going to be disappointed. From my list in December, I lost Kira Takahashi. She should've been promoted and maybe she would've stuck around. AKB has a lot of KKS that really need to be promoted already. Surprised that Miichan hasn't announced yet. She really should (as should Mayuyu and Yukirin). It's time for the original members to leave.

#1: Minami Minegishi (-)

#2: Mayu Watanabe (+1)

#3: Mion Mukaichi (+1)

#4: Nana Okada (-2)

#5: Hijiri Tanikawa (-)

#6: Yuki Kashiwagi (-)

#7: Riona Hamamatsu (NEW)

#8: Nao Nomura (NEW)

#9: Saho Iwatate (NEW)

#10: Hinana Shimoguchi (NEW)

SKE48

SKE has been a non event this year. Sure they released an album, but that was way back in February and still no single yet this year. They were also a non event last year (though I loved Chicken Line). I actually completely forgot that SKE recruited an 8th generation. That's how little I've been paying attention recently. I'm actually surprised I haven't lost anyone from my list last year. I thought for certain I'd lose at least one or two. I guess the graduation torrent from SKE has slowed this year and they're starting to stabilize with the younger gens.

#1: Rara Goto (-)

#2: Oka Suenaga (+3)

#3: Jurina Matsui (-1)

#4: Ryoha Kitagawa (NEW)

#5: Akari Suda (+1)

#6: Marika Tani (+3)

#7: Haruka Futamura (NEW)

#8: Ayaka Ota (NEW)

#9: Natsuki Takatsuka (-2)

#10: Sarina Souda (NEW)

NMB48

Still thinking Sayaka will graduate this year or at least announce. Especially because she didn't participate in Sousenkyou. Has NMB released any singles this year? I can't remember if Boku ga Igai was this year or last year. Shows how much I've been paying attention haha.

#1: Sayaka Yamamoto (-)

#2: Rina Yamao (+2)

#3: Ririka Suto (-1)

#4: Narumi Koga (+6)

#5: Kanae Iso (+4)

#6: Fuuko Yagura (-3)

#7: Rurina Nishizawa (+1)

#8: Mizuki Uno (NEW)

#9: Azusa Uemura (NEW)

#10: Ayaka Yamamoto (NEW)

HKT48

Sasshi can leave now. I'd be good with that. Especially because they're making her be part of HKT, STU, AND AKB songs. Just leave already and leave spaces for girls who need it gosh. HKT released a single this year right? It was that bug song I believe. I don't think I've listened to it yet. Oh well. I'm slightly surprised I lost Haruka from December. Wasn't expecting that. I think Meru's going to be gone by year end. Don't know why, just a feeling. Anna will certainly be gone too. I can't imagine she'll hold out much longer with all the drama surrounding her.

#1: Meru Tashima (-)

#2: Nako Yabuki (-)

#3: Nao Ueki (+4)

#4: Mio Tomonaga (NEW)

#5: Miku Tanaka (NEW)

#6: Haruka Kodama (-1)

#7: Emiri Yamashita (-1)

#8: Maria Imamura (NEW)

#9: Anna Murashige (NEW)

#10: Sakura Miyawaki (-7)

NGT48

I still haven't listened to their debut song. From what I've heard about it, it seems like it will just be meh anyway. We'll probably see one more grad this year, after Sousenkyou. Still surprised that Mizusawa left so soon.

#1: Yuka Ogino (-)

#2: Tsugumi Oguma (NEW)

#3: Rena Hasegawa (NEW)

#4: Reina Seiji (-1)

#5: Mau Takahashi (NEW)

#6: Minami Kato (-)

#7: Miharu Nara (+2)

#8: Ayaka Tano (NEW)

#9: Riko Sugahara (NEW)

#10: Anju Sato (-5)

STU48

Cuca joined a group! I'm so happy for her! Too bad she wasn't included in their debut song, although the song was incredibly boring so meh. Hopefully they do a dance number soon and she gets to shine! I'm predicting one grad this year before a team is formed. They're all new so no positions.

#1: Miyu Sakaki

#2: Akari Fukuda

#3: Miyuna Kadowaki

#4: Yuri Torobu

#5: Aoi Hyodo

#6: Saki Sugahara

#7: Yumiko Takino

#8: Chiho Ishida

#9: Ayumi Ichioka

#10: Nonoka Shintani

Nogizaka46

If not the end of this year, next year there's going to be a mass grad of a lot of first gen. They've been in the group for, what, six years now? A lot are probably thinking about the future at this point. Influencer was ok as a single, haven't heard the B-sides. Then they released an album, which I also haven't heard anything from. Hopefully once things settle down for me I'll be able to catch back up.

#1: Rina Ikoma (-)

#2: Minami Hoshino (-)

#3: Maaya Wada (-)

#4: Miria Watanabe (NEW)

#5: Manatsu Akimoto (+1)

#6: Erika Ikuta (+2)

#7: Sayuri Matsumura (NEW)

#8: Asuka Saito (-1)

#9: Sayuri Inoue (NEW)

#10: Reina Sakurai (-1)

Keyakizaka46

It's the only group that I semi-payed attention to the music of this year! Fukyouwaon was AMAZING. More like that for 48G please. I do predict more Keyaki grads by the end of the year. Maybe from the weird Hiragana system. I wasn't a huge fan of Techi when the group first started but gosh she's a perfect center.

#1: Yurina Hirate (+1)

#2: Yui Imaizumi (-1)

#3: Mizuho Habu (NEW)

#4: Mana Takase (NEW)

#5: Memi Kakizaki (NEW)

#6: Kyoko Saito (NEW)

#7: Nanako Nagasawa (-4)

#8: Rina Uemura (+1)

#9: Yuuka Kageyama (NEW)

#10: Nijika Ishimori (-4)

SNH48

I'm still not sure what to think on all the China48 groups. I haven't heard any of their new music this year. I'll get around to it eventually. I'm actually surprised that more of my positions didn't change from December.

#1: Mengying Lv (NEW)

#2: Beiting Qian (+6)

#3: Yi Zhang (NEW)

#4: Xinwen Sun (NEW)

#5: Jiaying Chen (+1)

#6: Jiongran Liu (NEW)

#7: Rui Sun (-3)

#8: Xiaoyin Kong (-1)

#9: Zhilin Shen (NEW)

#10: Wanqing Hao (NEW)

BEJ48

#1: Xinyi Ren (+5)

#2: Xian Liu (NEW)

#3: Xiang Li (NEW)

#4: Congcong Niu (NEW)

#5: Shuli Tian (NEW)

#6: Shan Sun (-2)

#7: Xiaohui Hu (NEW)

#8: Shuxian Liu (NEW)

#9: Hongyao Li (NEW)

#10: Yixuan Duan (NEW)

GNZ48

#1: Lirong Huang (NEW)

#2: Yirui Long (NEW)

#3: Siyue Wang (NEW)

#4: Cuifei Wang (NEW)

#5: Yuanjing Gao (NEW)

#6: Yuqi Chen (-1)

#7: Lifei Liu (-3)

#8: Qiulin Du (NEW)

#9: Qianqian Liu (-6)

#10: Yihong Li (NEW)

SHY48

#1: Xiao Yang

#2: Feiyan Wang

#3: Siyu Guan

#4: Jiarui Zhao

#5: Yunhan Yang

#6: Shihan Feng

#7: Jiale Han

#8: Zixi Lai

#9: Zhixian Gao

#10: Mengting Gong

H!P Top Members/Thoughts Mid Year 2017

This probably should've been done already lol. H!P has been crazy this year. Between graduation announcements, crazy shake ups with Country Girls, random KSS being promoted to nothingness. It's actually awesome. I love shake ups. I'm still disappointed that there still hasn't been any new album announcements (no, I don't count Momoko's compilation Country Girls tacked on thing). All of the groups minus Kobushi need a new one. Very happy C-ute got their best collection with B-sides though. That was a plus.

Morning Musume

-"Morning Musume won't have any graduations this year!" People said. People were wrong and I knew they would be. You seriously didn't think that after 6 years in the group 9th/10th wouldn't have at least one girl leave per year til they're gone? That's denial. I was also right about 10th not leaving all as a group. Haruka being the next to go, however, was surprising. I figured she'd be one of the last of the 9th/10th to go. I still think there will be a 14th gen/13.5 gen this year. With the KSS being up in the air and CG members as well, there will definitely be a new member or new added. Please be Musubu. Please be Musubu. I'll take Reina too.

#1: Masaki Sato (-)

#2: Akane Haga (+1)

#3: Miki Nonaka (-1)

#4: Sakura Oda (-)

#5: Reina Yokoyama (+6)

#6: Ayumi Ishida (+1)

#7: Maria Makino (-1)

#8: Haruna Ogata (+1)

#9: Erina Ikuta (-1)

#10: Haruna Iikubo (-1)

#11: Kaede Kaga (+1)

#12: Mizuki Fukumura (-1)

Angerme

Ayaka was made H!P leader! Yes! I'm so so glad that they didn't pass her up just to favor Musume. She really deserves the position. I've also changed my mind about her announcing this year. I do think she will leave next year, but I don't think the announcement will be until next year because of all of the changes in H!P at the moment. I also don't think Maho is coming back. I love her and I wish she would, but she's been gone so long and their newest single really feels like an indication that she's not coming back. She needs to do what's best for her mental health and if that's not coming back, I hope she chooses it instead of hurting herself. Still think a second gen will be leaving this year. I'm going with Rina. I'd like to see Nanami get put here. She doesn't really have the "Angerme look", but I'd think it'd be a challenge for her. Ruru would also be nice in this group.

#1: Ayaka Wada (-)

#2: Mizuki Murota (-)

#3: Maho Aikawa (-)

#4: Rikako Sasaki (-)

#5: Moe Kamikokuryou (-)

#6: Kana Nakanishi (+1)

#7: Rina Katsuta (+1)

#8: Akari Takeuchi (-2)

#9: Momona Kasahara (-)

Juice=Juice

If they add a new girl to Juice, we're definitely seeing a graduation this year and I don't think it'd be either Tomoko or Yuka. I really hope they don't add new members to Juice. They need at least one group to stay static to be like C-ute. The only member out of those up in the air I'd be slightly ok with joining JJ would be Reina. She's close enough in age to the others, but I still wouldn't prefer it. If management adds Ayano because "Haha Karin and Ayano twinsies!" I'm giving up on H!P.

#1: Karin Miyamoto (-)

#2: Sayuki Takagi (-)

#3: Yuka Miyazaki (+1)

#4: Akari Uemura (-1)

#5: Tomoko Kanazawa (-)

Country Girls

I'm slightly disappointed that they're being made a sub group after Momoko leaves. However, I don't think it's because Momoko's leaving. I think that both Risa and Mai started discussing their own graduations with management and that is why they're going part time. Management didn't want to lose two more members (i.e. lose even more money), so they talked them into the part time thing. Once the graduation wave this year slows down, I can see Risa graduating and Mai soon after that. Effectively ending Country Girls. Management also knew that losing three members at once would destroy Country Girls, leaving the other three left no hopes of gaining traction even if they added more, so they decided to just place them in other groups so they wouldn't lose even MORE money. I'd like to see Chisaki in Tsubaki or a new group, Musubu in Musume or Tsubaki, and Nanami in any group but Musume.

#1: Musubu Funaki (-)

#2: Risa Yamaki (-)

#3: Chisaki Morito (-)

#4: Mai Ozeki (+1)

#5: Nanami Yanagawa (-1)

Kobushi Factory

I was wrong about them sticking together for a year or so. I'm not shocked that Rio's leaving, but I'm slightly disappointed they didn't stick it out whole for another year. I think we'll see a second graduation next year and then they'll be static after that like JJ and C-ute. I'd really rather they didn't add anyone new to Kobushi. Can we have more than one static group please? I don't particularly care for Kobushi, but they work well together as a unit and I don't want a new member wrecking that. If they absolutely have to add someone new, Ayano would work well. I'd be so pissed if they added Musubu to Kobushi though. She has an excellent voice but I don't think she fits the group AT ALL. Please don't H!P. Please.

#1: Rei Inoue (-)

#2: Sakurako Wada (+1)

#3: Minami Nomura (-1)

#4: Ayano Hamaura (+1)

#5: Natsumi Taguchi (+1)

#6: Rena Ogawa (+1)

#7: Ayaka Hirose (-3)

Tsubaki Factory

I still think there will be a graduation this year. Either Risa or Ami. I'm glad they did very good with their first single release. I was a little worried for them. I wouldn't mind some of the girls going into Tsubaki. Musubu would be cool, so would Ruru or Reina. I don't think Ayano would fit, Chisaki would be ok but I'd rather see a group built around her, and I just don't really like Nanami so I don't want her here either but wouldn't be upset if she was. Actually, I think it'd be cool to get some other KSS to be a new gen with some of the transfer girls. That'd be exciting.

#1: Kisora Niinuma (-)

#2: Yumeno Kishimoto (+1)

#3: Mao Akiyama (-1)

#4: Mizuho Ono (-)

#5: Risa Ogata (+1)

#6: Saori Onoda (+1)

#7: Kiki Asakura (-2)

#8: Ami Tanimoto (-)

#9: Riko Yamagishi (-)

??????

This section is for the "yeah you're totally going to debut, we just don't know what to do with you yet!" girls. They're not quite KSS, not quite full members. I'm going to include Momohime & Kurumi in this just because who knows what they heck they're about.

#1: Reina Ichioka

#2: Ruru Danbara

#3: Momohime Kiyono

#4: Kurumi Takase

#5: Ayano Kawamura

Kenshuusei

I'm glad that we got a fairly large generation this year so far, but I hope there's more to come. They need to build up good girls in the KSS again since the program has been pretty gutted in recent years. I was wrong about KSS going to UUG and only slightly disappointed that didn't happen. I don't really follow UUG so meh. Also surprised that no one's really dropped out since MM's auditions. I guess the overwhelming about of debuts recently is keeping girls around.

#1: Hikaru Inoue

#2: Kokoro Maeda

#3: Kizuki Horie

#4: Shiori Nishida

#5: Sakiko Kodama

#6: Reina Doi

#7: Rin Hashisako

#8: Mizuki Kanatsu

#9: Yuhane Yamazaki

#10: Natsume Nakayama

#11: Kotomi Ono

#12: Saya Eguchi

#13: Risa Shimakura

#14: Ichigo Yamada

#15: Kurumi Noguchi

#16: Minami Okamura

#17: Kirara Yonemura

#18: Riai Matsunaga

#19: Marina Hibi

Hokkaido Kenshuusei

Still don't really care about them. Hated Real Little Girl. Can H!P add one to a group so I can form a real opinion on the girls?

#1: Ryo Kitagawa

#2: Minori Kawano

#3: Kanami Ishiguri

#4: Mei Yamazaki

#5: Hikari Sato

#6: Haruka Ota

#7: Yume Kudo

Music Recommendations (Jan. 27, 2017)

I figure while I'm already on here, what the heck lol. I also mainly want to feature one song in particular which is why I end up posting these in the first place.

Urbangarde - Kuchibiru Democracy (2015) (J-Pop/J-Rock)

I looooooove this. Love it so much I actually listened to the entire album. I never do that. Usually albums just go onto my "I'll get to this eventually" list and it takes me a year or so to get to it. The album is equally as good as the song.

CLC - Meow Meow & Liar (2017) (K-Pop)

Their comeback was a cheap rip off of 4Minute. There. I said it. Hobgoblin is a fun song yes, but Hyuna ruined CLC by trying to make them EXACTLY into 4Minute. And does she love the sound of her voice so much to make the one rapper girl sound exactly like her? Gosh that was the most offputting thing I've ever experienced in K-pop. Hyuna needs to stay away from CLC unless she has some fresh ideas for them. These two album tracks on the other hand are great. They're tropical house/K-pop sounding would have worked much better for a retooled CLC. Make them more of a cool "bad girl" group, but with something fresher and less sounding of desperation.

Seohyun - Don't Say No (2017) (K-Pop)

I love this new K-pop trend. Bright colors and house fusions. It's so hilarious to me how obvious the trends show up in K-pop. No. K-pop is nothing like Western music at all *rolls eyes*.

Predianna - Cry Like This (2017) (J-Pop)

Tsubaki Factory - Hatsukoi Sunrise (2017) (J-Pop)

My babies! Mark my words. They are H!P's next big thing.

Dreamcatcher - Chase Me (2017) (K-Pop)

Enjoy!

Music Recommendations (Jan. 6, 2017) + Welcome 2017!

Guess who totally fell off the face of the planet & didn't post a day #25 for the countdown? I'm always super busy on Christmas Eve and with Christmas itself being on Sunday this year I was busier than usual that day. I kept thinking about it, but the further away it got from day 25 the less I wanted to post anything lol. Whatever, the post was just supposed to be a Merry Christmas message anyway. Woo hoo? But anyway, it's now 2017! Thanks to anyone who read any of my posts last year! I think starting the year off with a music recommendation post is a great idea (especially cause I found a super duper awesome song today & I just had to share it with the world lol)

Broods - Free

This song is SO GOOD. Oh my gosh. Where has this song been in my life in the 10 months it's been on YouTube and my not knowing about it? I love this type of music and I really need to check out their album....after I get through the other pile of albums from 2016 I still haven't listened to yet.

Speaking of 2016 albums....this is just an aside it has nothing to do with anything tbh....was anyone else super disappointed with Britney Spears' Glory album? All I see is praise for the thing but I thought it was her worst album since In The Zone (which also seems to be super praised but again I don't really care for it). Really there wasn't a single song on the album I really cared for, usually there's at least one or two songs I like off of pop albums but Glory was just bad.

Neptunica - Alive (ft. Matt Defreitas)

Woooo EDM awesomeness! It's not often I like a song from Trap Nation (I'm more into MrRevillz type music), but this is amazing.

Rev. from DVL - Vampire

You'd think with Kanna Hashimoto centering them that they'd be more of a cutesy type group but I love that they've got that more H!P-ish style to them. The English bits are a little weird in the song but it's still super catchy. Another totally random side thought, the day before their company posted this I became a vampire in Skyrim. I thought it was amusing.

Gang Parade - Plastic 2 Mercy

This song shocked me. I do not like BiS or it's 20,000 clones/sister groups. I don't like the "alternative idol music" because it's usually just bland rock/alt with the terrible nasally idol singer voice over top and it's so off putting. At least with pop/dance numbers the music can mask the terrible singing but it does not suit rock music in the slightest. It's why I was so surprised that this is a dance track and not a rock song. I wouldn't call this song a favorite or something I'd play a lot, but it's cool to hear a song like this from one of those BiS clone group things. However they're related.

Honey Spice - Don't Let Me Go

This is a pretty typical idol pop dance track, but these girls have a lot of potential in my opinion so I'd love to see more people listen to them/know about them. Their voices also aren't completely terrible for a super indie group.

Music Recomendations (December 4, 2016)

Am I allowed to do two posts in a day? I don't think I've ever done that lol. Well, I'm actually avoiding working on some things and was thinking how I haven't done anything like this recently, so why not! Since I haven't done it in so long, I'll just explain the purpose of this kind of post. Essentially, I love music and I can't stand how there's hardly any type of blogs out there that have just a list of songs to listen to. I'm lazy, just give me lists! So I figured why not do that sometimes on my blog? Unfortunately I haven't really been keeping up with that, but I still want to do it every once in a while. What I do is just list some songs, link their videos, and maybe give a little blurb about what the song is like. So...onward to music!

Park Ki Ryang - Hustle (ft. Mechilling) (2016)

This is such a bad song to start out with because no one's going to want to look at the rest because of my terrible music taste lol. Okay, this song is kinda bad, but it's a guilty pleasure type of song. Catchy, mindless, dancey. Great as a distraction in my opinion.

Lindsey Stirling - Hold My Heart (ft. ZZ Ward) (2016; from the album Brave Enough)

Violins & dance music? Yes please! Best song on her new album from the singles I've heard so far. I love when she teams up with vocalists.

Playback - Playback (Areia Remix) (2016)

Is a remix cheating? I actually disliked the original, but I heard this two days ago and I'm just obsessed with that instrumental. Props to the remixer because wow it's one of the best pieces of pop music ever.

JoJo - FAB. (ft. Remy Ma) (2016; from the album Mad Love)

If you're not big into songs with a lot of swearing, don't listen to this one. This type of song isn't usually my thing, but it's just so catchy and attitude filled. Love it! The rap is slowing growing on me too (not a rap fan at all).

Predia - Kindan no Masquerade (2017)

Predia's newest single! I'd say that if you're mainly a K-pop/Western pop person, this is probably a good group to get started on if you want to look into J-pop. They have amazing vocals and their music is modern dance pop.

Peter Possession - Have You Here (ft. Matt Pardus) (2016)

It's probably pretty clear what type of music I prefer huh? The instrumental is so awesome.

Sabina Ddumba - Not Too Young (2016)

Discovered this from YouTube a couple of days ago. Pure pop perfection. Love it.

Dear Kiss - Shiny Shy Girl (2016)

Okay final one. I semi-like this. It's an okay J-Pop song. BUT I just found out that Nonoko from Galette recently joined this group!!! AHHH *Excited dancing* I love her & I'm looking forward to following Dear Kiss. Saki Shishima who left Galette early this year is also in this group. Hoping Yui Komori will come along too because she & Nonoko were my favorite Galette girls and I'd love to see them stick together.

Hope you enjoy!