Post #100!

Noticed that I was at 98 posts, so thought that I might make a commemorative 100 posts post once I finished up my impressions on TGS' Partition Love.
It's kinda turned out into a retrospective of 2013, given the time of the year.
Since it's pretty rambly, I'll cut it here :)


One thing about doing retrospectives, my temporal senses tend to be more focused on intensity. Like, I know that One Two Three (2012) came out before Help Me (2013), but the intensity of One Two Three makes me feel that it's more recent than Help Me.

But still, that means I can pull out the more significant events... as long as I'm getting them in the right year:

Tsunku announced that 2013 would be the (fiscal) year of °C-ute.
And while I don't deny that °C-ute had an amazing year - what with them finally going to Budokan and getting their first overseas concert - 2013 will most likely be remembered for the rebirth of Morning Musume.

This year marked a huge comeback by the Musume. 2000 people went on the dance floor, and triple good things happened.
Another thing was Reina's graduation. I felt that people were worried that MM would turn into the RihoRiho show without Reina - but I think since Tsunku had lost his vocal pillars he started making the songs more evenly spread. Though, line distribution lovers can still hate on Riho, since haters gonna hate.
Also, One Four.

It wasn't a particularly exciting year for Berryz.
They had the Budokan concert, and Miya was appointed as subcaptain. And that's about it...
If it feels brief, well, Yurushite-nyan.

As mentioned before, °C-ute had a stellar year. Standouts are the sold out 2-day Budokan and their overseas event.

Was Mano's pervy drama this year? It must've been, I'm still downloading it.

S/mileage seems to have found its footing. Meimi's vocal strengths have made her the second vocal pillar of the group. And Tsunku seems to have figured out a style that matches them well. I'm looking forward to how S/mileage does in the future.

Speaking about the future, Juice=Juice seems to be where Tsunku is flexing his creative muscles. All of their songs have been awesome, and despite not winning the Best New Artist Award, their momentum still seems to be heading forward.

Sadly, Buono! did even less than Berryz Kobo. The only thing of significance for my number zero group was their radio show, Trattoria Buono.
It's odd when you tune in for a pop rock group and get Hawaiian music.

Satoyama's ended, which means no more of the legs of DIY. I don't think they did anything much, it was more focused on Satoumi. Dia Lady was good, HI-FIN had the beach trash song, and Mellowquad had the video with the awesome Burikatsu-kun. I enjoyed all of those.

Never got into Lovendor, but I think that Tasaki Asahi girl is pretty cute. One of those where I enjoy their songs but don't really know much about the people. She's joining up with newcomer hasegawa Moemi to form Bitter x Sweet.

Aika is being deported in order to study a particularly difficult foreign language. But she's still part of H!P, so they haven't got rid of her completely though.

With AKB, there's some more temporal awareness issues. I feel like Sasshi's scandal was recent, while Miichan's was ages ago. However, they both did pretty good in the senbatsu.
Also lol at Tomochin being pissed at doing badly at senbatsu. And then going like 'I hate this system'. I was wondering what she was expecting - she had already announced her graduation, was she like hoping like one last glimmer in the limelight and disappointed that she didn't get it. If she hated the system so much, she could've abstained from it. All of the others who had announced that they were graduating hadn't participated, so what was her purpose.
Speaking of the other graduations, I'm surprised it took Akimoto Sayaka that long. If anything, she's the one I'd expect to do better without being held back by a large group of girls.
Everyone was expecting Mariko to stay until she turned 40, but after that initial reaction it just blew over.
No comments for Chiyu. And Yuko just announced her graduation at one of the biggest stages in Japan.
Music wise, I only know Koi Suru Fortune Cookie.
Watarirouka Hashiritai also disbanded, but they were hardly active by most measures.

MomoClo has been meh for me this year. Gounn, and was 5th Dimension this year?

Babymetal even with only two singles out doesn't seem to have lost momentum despite Su-metal having graduated from the parent group. I'm probably biased since I saw them live this year. Didn't go for their live in Singapore the other day though

Dempagumi.inc was an idol group whose name I was familiar with. But they've been pushing quite hard recently, and they've moved more into the spotlight. Doesn't hurt that Hyadain is involved in their music. They were in Indonesia a few weeks ago, not that I went.

I think that's everything about idols. Maybe some personal stuff?
Almost half of the 100 posts were before 2013, mostly part of the 30-day idol challenge.
No, it didn't get me to blog.

What did start me blogging though, was translating.
This is probably the first idol-related thing I translated, but it was only a month later when I listened to Hiichan singing Majiben NOW! that I just had to translate... and doing that, I felt like I really could translate.
In early October I started translating at blog! project, taking KanaTomo and RihoRiho, and expanding to Karin and Maasa.
I think it has affected my writing, in that I do write slightly more girlishly? I feel like my Japanese definitely sounds feminine, on the rare chances that I use it.
So I'm trying to convey the thoughts of teenage girls, and try to speak in their voices. This is like the closest I'll ever get to being Tsunku XD

Also went to Japan this year. Only went to one concert though, Babymetal's, since wasn't travelling with idol fans.

Lastly, I dunno if anyone reads this blog. And this post is more likely to be even worse, since it's hidden under a break with a lot of rambling. And it's not even my usual style of post. However, I'd like to thank you if you made it this far. Thanks a million!