Kami-Sama, Kasa Wo In Sasete Kudasai
30 May 2008
This episode of Haromoni@ appears to follow directly on from last week's. In fact it's more like one episode cut into two parts than two separate episodes. They're wearing the same fairy dresses from earlier and there's only two segments to the whole show. The 'clips roll' even shows the same videos from last week. Should be quite a short review then!
The first clip features a GakiKame Theatre quiz. The members have to guess how many takes it took for Kamei Eri to throw an umbrella into a small basket. They were given the choice of 'big' - 50 takes or more; or 'small' - 49 takes or less. If anyone got the exact number of takes then there would be a prize. Everyone except Jun Jun and Takahashi Ai voted for 'big'.
They played the clip and it was clear from the first ten takes that we might be here for some time. By the 40th attempt Eri had been there for an hour. Eri was clearly starting to get frustrated by this point and started shouting random things to no one in particular. The neighbours must have wondered what the hell was going on. On the 49th attempt she got extremely close but it didn't go in so Jun Jun and Ai lost the quiz. In the end it took Eri 139 attempts to get the umbrella into the basket.
Because Jun Jun was the furthest away from the correct answer she would have to do a penalty game. They surprised her by suddenly popping a balloon right next to her and filmed it in super-slow motion. Seeing Jun Jun's shock in slow motion was quite funny but what made it even better was Kyabetsu's face in the background. One of the funniest things I've seen in awhile.
The second part of the show was taken up with the memory challenge to determine the most stupid person from the group. The members with the lowest scores from the previous rounds would compete. This meant Jun Jun, Lin Lin, Eri and Michishige Sayumi would be taking part. To make it easier they'd chosen thirty different things and places that only had two characters in their name.
Everyone got off to a flying start and clocked up three correct answers. All except Eri who didn't get any. It wasn't until the fourth round that she managed to get her first correct answer. Jun Jun was easily the strongest contestant this time and only got one incorrect. I really liked the bit when Jun Jun got the Monet card and they immediately cut to Sayumi who got the Manet card. That quick one-two cut was brilliant to watch, especially with Sayumi's smile as she held up the card.
What happened at the end was quite unbelievable. Sayumi, Eri and Lin Lin all got the same sequence of cards four times in a row and each time they couldn't get it right. Sayumi got Pele (Brazilian football player), Eri got Taka (a bird of prey) and Lin Lin got Mugi (wheat). Eri eventually got hers correct and Jun Jun had to answer Lin Lin's card. The Pele card would end up deciding the loser between Lin Lin and Eri. Eri failed to get it right and Lin Lin triumphantly held the card aloft and answered, "Pele!".
Final scores were - Jun Jun: 11, Sayumi: 7, Lin Lin: 7, Eri: 5, and thus Eri was declared the most stupid /laugh. They even gave her a new nickname - AhoKame. This episode was a lot of fun to watch. Next week's might be even funnier. They're having Satoda Mai as a guest and it looks like she'll be competing with Eri in another memory challenge. This time it will be things with a single character name. Should be very interesting to watch.
Posted byHocchan at 7:14 pm 0 comments
Fainaru An-tsubo?
23 May 2008
I've been so preoccupied with Final Fantasy XI recently that I haven't had time to write a synopsis for the last two episodes of Haromoni@. I'll have to get both of them done soon or I'm going to regret it later.
The theme for last week's outfits was 'fairies' so they were wearing nice pastel-coloured dresses and fairy wings. I thought that Tanaka Reina and Michishige Sayumi looked the best in their blue and yellow dresses. I noticed that Reina still had her skull earrings on - not sure they match the theme very well but I'll let her off :). Before the first clip Sayumi did a pun at the narrator's request but I didn't really understand what it was about. I think it was some sort of play on words. The pose at the end was very cute though and that's all that matters.
The first video of the show featured Takahashi Ai as the ultra high tensioned Tsubo-Tsubo Man. The sparkly gold jacket with the pink top hat looked very much like the outfits they used to have in the old Hello!Morning shows. The whole segment in fact had a very nostalgic in feel to it. It started with some secret footage of Kamei Eri being led into a room where Ai was waiting. Kusumi Koharu and Reina mentioned that Eri seems to be easily tricked into these things. It does seem like she's the victim of these little pranks quite often.
Once in the room she looked kind of bewildered as Tsubo-Tsubo Man constantly laughed at his own (very cheesy) jokes. After settling her down in the couch Tsubo-Tsubo Man began the little quiz. It was a multiple choice question concerning the first person to wear 'panties' in Japan. To represent each of the answers they'd stuck little stickers on different points of Eri's foot. If she got the wrong answer then the foot massager would inflict pain on her, just like in previous Hello!Morning episodes. As was expected, Eri chose the wrong answer and was duly punished. It was just like the good old days.
The next segment was quite funny. It featured Koharu doing a voice dub for a short clip of Reina, Sayumi and Eri. The original dialogue wasn't that funny but the facial expression from Reina was hilarious. Koharu put her Kirarin Revolution experience to good use and did a superb job of re-dubbing the voices. The ending phrase, "Tako de~su" went perfectly with the clip. Hopefully this segment will continue in the future as quite enjoyed it.
There was a return of Princess Wai Wai with another simple magic trick. She turned a pot full of corn into popcorn just by shaking it. It wasn't hard to guess that the popcorn was hidden underneath and that the act of shaking would cause the heavier corn to sink and give the appearance of it turning into popcorn. Sayumi only got two stars because the members said that they just had to watch the end of the show for the answer. Then Reina remarked that she'd never seen the end of the show /laugh.
Finally we get onto the memory contest grand final! It promised to be quite the showdown between Ai and Mitsui Aika. They were given twenty minutes to memorise the names of fifty different animals. This was probably the toughest topic to date. The rules were changed slightly for the final. They would take it in turn to draw a card from the pack. If they answered correctly then they would get that card. If they answered incorrectly then it would be passed over to their opponent. Whoever had the most cards at the end would be declared champion.
It didn't start very well for Ai who couldn't name the very first card. It passed over to Aika who had no problems with it. They continued for a short while and after eight cards the score was 5-3 to Aika. It all started to go wrong for Ai again on the next card when she got it wrong because of a single syllable. I think from this point the motivation deserted her and it became a bit of a one horse race. Not even the encouragement from Jun Jun could help Ai.
After eighteen cards the score was a whopping 15-3 to Aika. It looked very much like it would be a complete whitewash. However, something clicked inside Ai and she began to get her questions right. It wasn't enough to stop Aika though who didn't get a single question wrong. By the end the score was 34-16 in Aika's favour. It could have been a lot worse for Ai but she fought bravely until the end. Good on her!
And so it's been decided. No one can beat Aika at the memory challenge segment. She's declared the all time champion. I'll have to congratulate her on this achievement. Her memory is certainly very good. I think in all the challenges she's done she's only got one or two incorrect. That's a pretty amazing record. And with that result we can say goodbye to the memory test segment. Or can we...?! Because the next episode features another contest but this time it will be to decide the stupidest member. It's Mechaike all over again!
Posted byHocchan at 4:47 pm 0 comments
One...Two...Three... Part Seven (Final)
21 May 2008
Since I've stopped the tally earlier than I thought I would, I probably don't have a large enough sample size to make any definite conclusions but I think I have enough data to work with (I said 'I' five times in one sentence! Seven if you count these too). In total I've tallied seventeen episodes of Haromoni@ starting with the episode dated 6 January 2008 and ending on the episode dated 27 April 2008.
Final Placings
Takahashi Ai : 4-5-3-3-2-1-4-5-2-3-2-1-4-2-5-4-4
Niigaki Risa : 1-1-2-1-1-3-1-4-3-1-6-2-2-3-1-4-1
Kamei Eri : 5-1-4-1-3-2-3-2-1-1-3-4-1-4-4-1-2
Tanaka Reina : 2-3-1-5-4-7-7-1-4-5-1-3-3-1-1-8-5
Michishige Sayumi : 3-4-5-4-4-8-8-6-5-6-4-5-5-6-6-2-7
Kusumi Koharu : 7-8-6-6-8-3-5-7-6-8-8-9-6-5-9-9-3
Mitsui Aika : 9-9-8-9-7-6-2-3-7-8-8-7-7-7-8-3-5
Jun Jun : 6-6-8-8-9-3-9-8-7-7-5-6-9-8-1-6-9
Lin Lin : 8-7-7-7-6-9-6-8-9-4-7-8-8-9-6-7-8
First Place Finishes
Niigaki Risa : 8
Kamei Eri : 6
Tanaka Reina : 5
Takahashi Ai : 2
Jun Jun : 1
Michishige Sayumi : 0
Kusumi Koharu : 0
Mitsui Aika : 0
Lin Lin : 0
Niigaki Risa was easily the most popular member with 8 first place finishes. That's over 50% of the episodes I tallied where Risa was top of the rankings. Kamei Eri the next most popular member with 6. Surprisingly, Tanaka Reina managed to get 5; only 1 behind Eri. I didn't think she'd gotten that many until I totalled them up. Takahashi Ai, who I thought had a more consistent run that Reina, only got 2. I'm extremely happy that Jun Jun managed to finish in first place on one occasion (even if it was shared with two other people). The rest of the members didn't get any first place finishes.
Top Three Finishes
Niigaki Risa : 14
Kamei Eri : 12
Tanaka Reina : 9
Takahashi Ai : 9
Mitsui Aika : 3
Jun Jun : 2
Michishige Sayumi : 2
Kusumi Koharu : 2
Lin Lin : 0
Once again we can see that Risa dominates the table with 14. Had it not been for three episodes where she placed 4th/4th/6th then she'd have a perfect top three record. As with the first place rankings, Eri wasn't too far behind Risa with 12. Reina and Ai both got 9 which shows that they're more even than the First Place Finishes results indicate. All the other members performed about the same, with Mitsui Aika slightly ahead on 3. Well, all except poor Lin Lin who never got a top three finish.
Bottom Three Finishes
Lin Lin : 13
Mitsui Aika : 12
Jun Jun : 10
Kusumi Koharu : 9
Michishige Sayumi : 3
Tanaka Reina : 3
Takahashi Ai : 0
Niigaki Risa : 0
Kamei Eri : 0
No surprises here, Lin Lin was almost always in the bottom three. Kusumi Koharu and Aika still managed to get less than Lin Lin even though they were absent from a few episodes. Big gap to Michishige Sayumi and Reina who managed to get away with only 3 bottom three finishes. A perfect record for Ai, Risa and Eri who never dropped into the bottom three at all.
Highest Number of Appearances in One Episode
Tanaka Reina : 136
Kamei Eri : 128
Niigaki Risa : 124
Takahashi Ai : 121
Michishige Sayumi : 105
Jun Jun : 101
Kusumi Koharu : 94
Lin Lin : 91
Mitsui Aika : 85
Reina holds the record for the most attention in a single episode with 136. That was on the Viking Buffet episode though so it might not have been completely fair. Eri manages to beat Risa's record at last with 128. Ai isn't far behind Risa with 121. Jun Jun's first place finish helps her to get close to Sayumi's total. Sadly, Aika's highest total only amounted to 85 which put her in last place.
Conclusions
So what did we learn from this pointless exercise? Firstly, that Risa is the most popular member in terms of airtime on Haromoni@. The camera always focuses on her no matter where she's seated. She's clearly a director's favourite, perhaps because of her reactions to things. I also think her leadership qualities are evident in a lot of the shows. She seems more of a leader than Ai at the moment.
Secondly, perhaps unsurprisingly, the seventh and eighth generations get a raw deal when it comes to exposure. Maybe it's because the director doesn't feel they're as popular as the fifth and sixth generations, or maybe it's because they don't show enough reactions to the clips but they're just not appearing as much as the older members.
And lastly, I learnt that pausing footage every three seconds and trying to keep track of multiple images at once is very tiring. I didn't have any idea of how tough it would be. I'll think twice about the logistics of such an undertaking in the future...
Posted byHocchan at 3:48 pm 0 comments
Ishikawa Rika Ni Musume Ouendan
17 May 2008
Another pointless post to show off my new desktop wallpaper. It's from the blog of a Japanese Ishikawa Rika fan. The guy (I assume it's a guy) makes some very nice looking wallpapers featuring various members of Hello!Project.
This particular wallpaper caught my eye because Sayumi looks absolutely divine in that pose. I also love the fact that she's wearing the outfit from Ojigi 30 Degrees. If you'd like to take a look at some of the other wallpapers, you can find the blog at the following link.
Posted byHocchan at 5:39 pm 0 comments
One...Two...Three... Part Six
16 May 2008
Here we go with the penultimate part of the great Haromoni@ tally. I would like to continue this series on for a little longer but it's too much work. I have to pause the footage every couple of seconds and tally each member. It takes almost an hour each episode. I wish there was an easier way to do it because that would make it less tedious and I would be more inclined to continue. Sadly, I can't think of one so, for the time being, this will be the last tally.
MouTube episode XIV - 20 April 2008
Kamei Eri : 71
Michishige Sayumi : 67
Mitsui Aika : 66
Takahashi Ai : 64
Niigaki Risa : 64
Jun Jun : 59
Lin Lin : 53
Tanaka Reina : 48
Kusumi Koharu : 36
Jun Jun and Aika featured heavily at the start of this episode because of their little competition. They didn't appear in the rest of the programme though so the other members managed to catch up. Eri just managed to edge ahead and claim first place due to the GakiKame NG clip. Reina did really poorly in this episode, slipping to eighth place. It was still some way ahead of Koharu in last place though.
MouTube episode XV - 27 April 2008
Niigaki Risa : 109
Kamei Eri : 101
Kusumi Koharu : 94
Takahashi Ai : 64
Tanaka Reina : 62
Mitsui Aika : 62
Michishige Sayumi : 55
Lin Lin : 42
Jun Jun : 33
Koharu managed to get a good lead at the beginning thanks to the performance of 'Anataboshi'. She couldn't manage first place, however, due to the enormity of the GakiKame Theatre. She managed add to her score at the end with the memory test and finished in third. None of the other members really came close to the top three. Jun Jun has fallen to last place again despite her amazing finish a couple of episodes ago.
There we have it. Seventeen episodes tallied since the start of the year. I'll do a quick review of the data and come up with some pointless facts and figures next time. Then I'll be done and dusted, yay!
Posted byHocchan at 4:52 pm 0 comments
Shinu Ki Da Yo!
12 May 2008
The memory contest continues this week with the challengers from 'B' block. This groups consists of Takahashi Ai, Kamei Eri, Lin Lin and Kusumi Koharu. I didn't find this episode to be as interesting to watch as last week's. Perhaps it's because none of my favourite members were in this group, or perhaps it's because they took it too seriously, but it just didn't seem as much fun to watch.
Once again the members were given ten minutes to memorise all thirty items. I thought it was a little unfair to seat them all right next to each other. I'd find it hard to concentrate with everyone talking at the same time. I liked Lin Lin's method of slapping the cards and repeating the name, that was funny to watch. Their topic this time was 'things you would find in a school'. This included various sporting equipment (shuttlecock, starting block), musical instruments (Glockenspiel, Cabasa) and scientific apparatus (magnets, measuring cylinders). The rules of the contest remained the same, ie. one point for each card; card gets discarded if all members answer incorrectly.
It started quite well for all the members. Everyone got their first round cards correct, including Lin Lin who got the 'Bell Lyre' card. Personally, I've never even seen or heard of a Bell Lyre before. It certainly looks very odd. The second round was no problem either. Ai got a tricky card which turned out to be 'Alnico magnets' (Alnico is an alloy of Aluminium, Nickel and Cobalt). I thought all magnets were ferrous but obviously I was wrong. On the third round Lin Lin got her first incorrect answer. It was 'Ferrite magnets' on the card but she called them 'iron stones'. This was swiftly followed by Eri's first incorrect answer. She couldn't get the name of the thing you play Badminton with (shuttlecock).
Fifth round and Eri once again got her card wrong (pipettes). Koharu picked up the 'shuttlecock' card and also got the name wrong. On the sixth round everyone got theirs right except Lin Lin. She picked up the 'separating funnel stand' card and had a funny moment trying to say the name. Seventh round and Ai got her first incorrect answer. Up until this point she hadn't got a single one wrong. Lin Lin also picked up the troublesome 'shuttlecock' card and called it a seatbelt.
On the eighth round Lin Lin had another faux pas by calling the separable flask a goldfish bowl. Poor Lin Lin, she obviously has a distinct disadvantage in this competition. From the ninth round onwards the wrong answers starting pouring in from everyone except Ai. No one could get the 'pasteboard' card so it got discarded. The 'Archimedean Screw' and 'separable flask' cards also met the same fate. Finally, everyone got the last card incorrect except Ai, who seemingly managed to pull the name out of nowhere.
It wasn't much of a contest in the end. Ai managed to get pretty much everything correct and only dropped a few points. She finished first with 11 points; 4 points ahead of Koharu in second place. Eri finished in third place with 6 points and Lin Lin was last with only 3 points. Therefore, Aika and Ai will have a face off in next week's episode to decide the winner. Before this episode you would have tipped Aika to breeze through the competition. But after seeing Ai's performance this week it's hard to say. It'll definitely be worth watching next week.
Posted byHocchan at 12:56 pm 0 comments
Onegai Tomato Kite
09 May 2008
It looks like the battle between Jun Jun and Mitsui Aika on the memory test segment has started a full scale war between all the members. They're all competing to be the ultimate memory champion. It looks like this contest will span at least two episodes; most probably three. The outfit they're wearing for it seems to match the occasion. The theme is 'bujutsu' (which can be translated as martial arts) - quite fitting for a battle of attrition. Although I think it would have looked better if the hakama weren't white like the gi. However, I was pleased to see that they were still wearing the hachimaki, I'm a big fan of those. The katana were a nice touch but I doubt many of the girls know how to wield one properly.
For this contest they've split the members into two groups - 'A' block and 'B' block. 'A' block consists of Niigaki Risa, Michishige Sayumi, Tanaka Reina, Mitsui Aika and Jun Jun. I think they should have put Jun Jun and Aika in separate groups to make it more interesting. The topic of choice for 'A' block was the names of vegetables. There were thirty different ones to remember in total. But they weren't your usual peas and carrots (although they put tomato in there as a freebie) but rather things like artichoke, molokhia and okra. The main aim was to collect as many cards as possible by naming the vegetable depicted on it. Whoever had the most cards at the end would progress onto the final round. If all the members failed to name the same card then that card got discarded from the pack.
Sayumi went first but she couldn't recall the name of the vegetable. Everyone else got their first attempt correct. Back with Sayumi, she was already in trouble and praying for tomato to appear. Her wish wasn't granted though and she ended up with something else. I liked how Kusumi piped up and told her it was hopeless. Kusumi was right and Sayumi answered incorrectly. Once again the other members got the name of their cards correct. Onto the third round and it was back to Sayumi. She was praying for tomato again but it wasn't to be. Luckily, this one she did know the answer to and Sayumi finally got her first point! All the other members got theirs right again. On the fourth round a miracle occurred. Sayumi's prayers were answered and she was finally blessed with the elusive tomato card! Her joy was evident as she waved the card around and gave a rendition of the ten-second tomato act from a few shows ago. Aika and Risa also got their fourth round cards correct but Reina and Jun Jun didn't and dropped their first points.
Things were starting to get tough now and a lot of incorrect answers started to appear, including Aika's first ever incorrect answer, much to everyone's suprise (and Reina's delight). Risa's card on the fifth round turned out to be the most troublesome one of them all. The name of the vegetable was 'o-o-ku-ro-gu-wa-i'. Risa got the third syllable wrong and it was deemed incorrect. I absolutely adored her "Huh!?" when the narrator went, "Oh?" after hearing her first answer. It was like, "Huh!? Don't ask me to repeat myself, punk, or I'll hurt you!". Absolutely brilliant facial expression. I love the way her hair is styled this week with the hachimaki.
After Risa came Jun Jun who got the card Aika couldn't answer. Jun Jun very nearly got the name correct but was a couple syllables out. She tried to find divine inspiration by staring up into Heaven. The narrator remarked that she looked like Saint Francis Xavier. From the way she was clutching that picture card I can sort of see the resemblance.
The rest of the competition proceeded without too much incident. Each member got the 'ookuroguwai' card and all got it wrong. Jun Jun looked like she had given up and didn't get any more correct. Sayumi made a late surge and managed to collect a set of three cards that looked very similar. Looks like those vegetables were her speciality. There was no stopping Aika as she cleared all her remaining cards. Reina correctly named the card that both Jun Jun and Aika got wrong. It was during this question that I noticed the skull earrings that she was wearing. Those are some awesome looking earrings, I have to say.
It was a very close run thing by the end. Aika just about held onto her lead with 8 points. Reina secured second place by getting the final card correct. Risa, despite starting strongly, dropped too many points and came in at third place. Sayumi got a respectable 5 points and finished above Jun Jun, who only ended up with 3 points.
Next week's episode will feature the competition between Takahashi Ai, Kamei Eri, Kusumi Koharu and Lin Lin. I'm guessing that the winner of that will face a final showdown in the show after that to decide the ultimate champion. I'm looking forward to it!
Posted byHocchan at 2:24 pm 0 comments
One...Two...Three... Part Five
03 May 2008
MouTube episode XI - 30 March 2008
Kamei Eri : 112
Niigaki Risa : 103
Tanaka Reina : 97
Takahashi Ai : 83
Michishige Sayumi : 68
Kusumi Koharu : 61
Mitsui Aika : 42
Lin Lin : 36
Jun Jun : 29
This episode was dominated by the GakiKame production at the start so it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that Eri and Risa would come out on top. Reina very nearly got into the top two with Tanaka Deka but was a few points short. Despite not being in the studio for most of the show Aika still managed to beat Lin Lin and Jun Jun by quite a few points.
MouTube episode XII - 6 April 2008
Tanaka Reina : 66
Takahashi Ai : 58
Niigaki Risa : 57
Kamei Eri : 56
Kusumi Koharu : 53
Michishige Sayumi : 52
Mitsui Aika : 51
Jun Jun : 50
Lin Lin : 48
Not much to separate the members in this show. Only Reina has any sort of sizeable lead. The camera tended to do long, single panning shots across the table and then back again. It's nice to see the younger members getting the same amount of exposure as the older members.
MouTube episode XIII - 13 April 2008
Niigaki Risa : 101
Tanaka Reina : 101
Jun Jun : 101
Kamei Eri : 97
Takahashi Ai : 95
Michishige Sayumi : 87
Lin Lin : 87
Mitsui Aika : 82
Kusumi Koharu : 71
This was probably one of the toughest episodes to tally so far. The performance of 'Resonant Blue' at the beginning of the show meant that each member had clocked up over thirty appearances by the end of three minutes. As a result the totals for all members are quite high. I'm shocked but extremely happy that Jun Jun has managed to get a joint first place along with Risa and Reina. Very interesting episode.
I'm going to try and get the last batch finished as soon as possible after this Sunday's episode. Once that's done I think I'll stop and do a review of the data and make an overall ranking for each member. I'm too tired to continue this project for much longer. It's finally getting to me.
Posted byHocchan at 3:47 am 2 comments
