The Beginnings of a Momoiro Clover Fan 2

So yesterday I started a post explaining the small and slow beginnings of my growing interest in the idol group "Momoiro Clover Z". Today will be the post where I explain how I really got into them these past few days.

Akarin! Aarin! Momoka! Kanako↑! Shiorin! Renichan!

Introduction

Walking through

These past few days were what I would call the true beginning of my long journey into MomoClo fandom. How did I start? By simple checking the Wikipedia article for a bit and then getting their first (and only) album "Battle and Romance".

Down the MomoClo tunnel I go.

This album greeted me with something both expected and unexpected. The first track "Z Densetsu Owarinaki Kakumei" was like something straight out of a Super Sentai show, or at least it felt like it. With a typical Super Sentai announcer guy plus all those colour statements.

"RED" "YELLOW" "PINK" "GREEN" "PURPLE"... "BLUE" (ah...)

Then I blasted through the whole album and was still on the edge whether or not these girls were that great. Most of these songs were quite random with moments of rap interspersed with somewhat more tame choruses. "Kimi no Ato" stood out to me as the one song that didn't quite fit with the rest of the songs, but I thought it was a nice change of pace after all this crazy.

The problem with going through all these songs like this was that it was a bit too much to handle so none really stuck as much as the first track. However, after finishing up the first disk, I went straight for the solo disk with the 6 girls. Only two stood out to me: Akari's "fall into me" and Reni's "Koi wa Abare Ondekoza". Akari's was because of how strong her vocals were and how different her sound was compared to the others. Reni's was because of the enka-style singing and music.

Then I went out to seek more information on these girls all over the web starting from some forums and going from there. By starting at the beginning, I felt like I could follow the work in order and learn about them as they grew.

One of the first things I had to find out more about was Akari Hayami and how much of a difference it made when she left Momoiro Clover. And that's the reason why I was bouncing back between Momoiro Clover and Momoiro Clover Z, since they are the same yet quite different without Akari. The "Z" was added to the name after she left and they kind of shifted their image. Plus I found out all their songs in the "Battle and Romance" did not include her, as they went so far as to rerecord the tracks she was in originally. So I had to seek out the originals to hear her.

After I wandered around carelessly listening to some random live videos on youtube, I decided to start from the beginning. I went through the first few PVs on Youtube officially uploaded by Star Dust Digital. First up was their debut single "Momoiro Punch" (PV here) and "Mirai e Susume" (PV here). I could feel that there was something a bit different about these first two, but I didn't realize until a bit later that it was probably due to the style of the instruments and the fact that their were barely any of the solos that really defined the individuals.

Then I came across the next in line : "Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo".


The image at the top of this post is one of the covers for this single.

Now this was closer to what I'd expect from MomoClo. And this was also the first song where I could really feel the difference between Pre-Z and Z MomoClo. The part that stood out to me was the fast talking by the husky (or something) voice of Akari, a voice completely different from everyone else. Then the song went on with some solo parts which was really good since I was still learning everyone's names and voices at this point (I had been referring to them by colour before all this). But interspersed between all that was what I'd say would be the most memorable part of this song for me: Akari's "Neraiuchi" as she points and shots the camera. Her voice just blew me away again and I could not imagine this song without her anymore. So much so that I'm kind of avoiding the Z Ikuze at the moment.

After that song was a song that sounded strangely familiar to me. The song was "Hashire" and it was one of those songs I found in a live video. Although a bit generic sounding it was just the type of song that would get stuck in my head and put a smile on my face.


This is one long post right now and I'm really getting tired. I'll continue on tomorrow if I'm not stuck studying for my final final exam.

To be continued...