New headers are up!

If you’re curious, they’re all in this post, because it’s not actually easy to see them all.

You may notice that some of the headers are split down the middle, because the header up top is actually split down the middle. They look better up in the header.

I should make some male group headers. I’ll do it later.

You may recognize this header as the first one I had… I really love it, so I’m putting it back up. I’ll probably take it down again sometime in the future though.

This was made with screencaps from her Love & Peace = Paradise PV.

This was the previous header, and the only other old one I’m putting up. I couldn’t make a replacement AKB48 themed header that I liked :/

This was a screencap from their Iiwake Maybe PV.

Random song of the week #8: Kiss no Ryuusei

So I forgot last week… whoops.

Actually, I’ve been distracted with plotting things that are never going to get written -_-;

Oh, and making new headers for the blog. I discovered wordpress has enabled rotating banners.

I’ll let everyone know when I update them.

Also, I swear I will do that poll post -_-; I forgot about that too…

This weekly segment involves me opening a music player (it’ll be either iTunes or the last.fm scrobbler) and hitting “play” while it’s on shuffle.

Conditions to the song that will be posted:

No instrumental versions. If they come up, I’ll just talk about the regular version of the song.

No repeats. If it’s already come up in this section, I’m not going to talk about it again.

At the moment, I don’t know whether I should include or exclude Western artists, since they don’t really fall under the scope of my blog. For now, if they come up, I’ll put them in a list in the post, and skip to the next song. (unless people really want me to talk about them for some reason)

Songs skipped this week: none.

This week’s song: no3b’s “Kiss no Ryuusei”

My second favorite no3b song! (the first being “Tane” for some reason)

If you like this, you’ll probably like S/mileage’s “Hatsukoi no Anata E“. (only song I could think of off the top of my head)

Random song of the week #7: Super Euro Flash

Helloooooooo.

I’m currently debating the pros and cons of making a visual novel game with the Ren’Py software.

(I have the slight beginnings of a plot… hahaha -_-; someone talk me out of this)

I randomly remembered I have polls on the sidebar, so I will probably make a post with the results sometime this week!

ON TO THE POST.

This weekly segment involves me opening a music player (it’ll be either iTunes or the last.fm scrobbler) and hitting “play” while it’s on shuffle.

Conditions to the song that will be posted:

No instrumental versions. If they come up, I’ll just talk about the regular version of the song.

No repeats. If it’s already come up in this section, I’m not going to talk about it again.

At the moment, I don’t know whether I should include or exclude Western artists, since they don’t really fall under the scope of my blog. For now, if they come up, I’ll put them in a list in the post, and skip to the next song. (unless people really want me to talk about them for some reason)

Songs skipped this week: none.

This week’s song: Hinoi Team’s “SUPER EURO FLASH”

SUPER EURO FLASH WHOA-OH

Hinoi Team songs are always fun to dance to. And they have really simple dances!

But that’s because they’re para para dances XD

I always enjoy listening to Hinoi Team; they’re the first idol group I ever listened to. Even if I only learned one member’s name. Guess who.

Asuka Hinoi.

Unsurprising, isn’t it?

(I miss this group’s songs…)

Random song of the week #6: Akihabalove

I saw this today: GReeeeN’s PV preview for “Hana Uta.”

I LOVE IT ALREADY.

Anyway, on to the weekly post!

This weekly segment involves me opening a music player (it’ll be either iTunes or the last.fm scrobbler) and hitting “play” while it’s on shuffle.

Conditions to the song that will be posted:

No instrumental versions. If they come up, I’ll just talk about the regular version of the song.

No repeats. If it’s already come up in this section, I’m not going to talk about it again.

At the moment, I don’t know whether I should include or exclude Western artists, since they don’t really fall under the scope of my blog. For now, if they come up, I’ll put them in a list in the post, and skip to the next song. (unless people really want me to talk about them for some reason)

Songs skipped this week: “Angel in the Night” – Basshunter
“Done Stealin’” – Carolina Liar
“Strange World” – Parachute
“A Million Ways” – OK Go

This week’s song: Perfume×DJ momo-i’s “Akihabalove”

You know, I’ve never watched the PV for this song before (I didn’t even know it existed). They dance so well together ^^

This is a pretty old song, and one of those few where their voices aren’t altered. It’s actually one of the first few Perfume songs I fell in love with (the other one being Dream Fighter).  I recommend this song for those of you who don’t like Perfume’s usual sound.

(Now that I’ve seen the PV, I want to learn the dance… ahahaha)

And here’s an AKB48 post on their sales.

(clearly I need to find better ways to title things…)

I commented on AKB48′s “Everyday, Kachusha” sales in an earlier post and how amazing it was, even if I didn’t like the song. Now they’ve broken the #1 record! Which is super amazing, but it still doesn’t help my opinion on the song (perspective-wise, I like it less than “Ponytail to Shushu,” which means I will probably never listen to it ever again).

I’m not going to type a whole post about “deserving sales” (they have worked awfully hard to get to this point), but you can either read Aimxaim’s post over at Janakya Mottainai or that one I wrote last year around this time in regards to Ponytail‘s sales if you feel kind of iffy as to whether the single actually should have sold as much as it has. If this were any release besides the voting single it probably would have sold about 600,000-800,000 first day. (I think. I haven’t really been keeping tabs on first day sales for AKB48 lately)

Reading back through the post I wrote last year (and finally making those corrections in regards to “senbatsu” and “voting”), this jumped out at me:

I’m hoping that the voting sales just inflated the sales of the song and that this isn’t a mark of the current music trend in Japan. Because Ponytail is really nothing special. It just happened to be the voting single. And with every voting single from now on, I can almost guarantee sales will be inflated. They don’t even have to put out a good song to make it sell an insane amount. That’s the other thing that bothers me. They know it’s going to sell well, so they don’t even try.

On the plus side, the sales were a reflection of AKB48′s popularity and the song didn’t really seem to have an effect on Japan/AKB48′s general music trend (EmEl was right!); on the downside I was right about the voting single thing and that they didn’t have to put out a good song to get the single to sell well.

I wish they’d tried with this release :/ Oh well. I’m looking forward to final election results! (I’m personally rooting for Kojiharu)

Auditions :/

I believe the emoticon expresses all my feelings on the thought of S/mileage auditions and potential changeups (removing members? PLEASE NO).  Even if Tsunku said at the group’s inception that the members might get shuffled around, I was hoping it wouldn’t happen.

As it turns out, it will. Tsunku made a statement about the group “lacking something” when he made his announcement. The solution was clearly to put more people into the group. (those are my words, not his)

Whoever’s idea this was, it’s not going to go well. I haven’t read the reactions over at H!O, but they probably won’t be good. Also, the girls themselves don’t seem very excited about it.  And, as Arche-JoIyO pointed out, it could be like Kanna in °C-ute all over again, where some fans never really grew to accept the her addition (assuming this is only a one-shot thing, which it probably won’t be). I’m somewhat okay with adding someone, as long as no one is demoted.

Yuuka’s sad face broke my heart </3

Aw Yuuka :(

I’m really hoping Akari is put into the group, even if there’s probably a 0.00000001% chance. Especially since she’s not an H!P Egg anymore…

Not really related to my blog, but…

…new Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton songs! \o/

I was just listening to Vanessa Carlton today, wondering what happened to her, and then I went online and saw this! You can download the song for free if you are so inclined, there’s a link on the page.

And Michelle Branch’s new song is here:

Looks like she will release a new album this year :D