It's the beautiful slightly tomboyish "cool beauty" Akari Hayami's Birthday!
Though she is not a part of Momoiro Clover Z, she will always be remembered as part of Momoiro Clover. She was especially good at MC and rapping like no other member. And her voice was the most unique out of all of them.
I've been meaning to attempt to get [back] in shape for a while and I thought "Running is easy!", but I was too lazy to even start it. Partly because I don't like people staring, partly because I also sprint halfway through due to boredom and that causes me to be drained really quickly.
So I tried out "Runnin' with Zombs" (really called "Zombies, Run!") after hearing about it a while back. I didn't think I find the "time" to do it, but today there was a random power outage (probably city work), so I decided to take the opportunity to go out and do something. I put on my cheapo headphones and zip up my light coat and walked out while listening to the sounds of the drama.
At first I didn't know whether to run or not since you start in a helicopter, so I just leisurely walked. I felt a bit weird walking/jogging with headphones on, so maybe I'll just wear in-ears instead. The jog was fun, but cut short since I had the bright idea to restart the thing plus I had to get to class later.
In the end it was quite nice, and having Momoiro Clover blasted into my ears while running away from zombies was also an pleasant experience. I'll just have to keep this up every few days and maybe I'll be a little more fit.
So I was looking through even more Momoiro Clover videos, when I decided to do more research on their alter ego personas "UFI" or the Unidentified Fantastic Idols (in the first season). Turns out they're the titular idols of the show of the same name also known are ウレロ☆未確認少女 (Urero☆Mikakunin Shoujo), which I believe follows this entertainment agency that manages UFI. I'm not so clear on the details so don't quote me on this.
The great thing about it is, as the title of this post states, the fact that Akari Hayami plays a main character in this silly show! That means she gets to work with Momoclo again, albeit in a funny little sitcom.
I'm not quite sure when UFI gets introduced, but from the first episode, I'm already hooked by the comedy.
Oh and I also got a chance to watch a silly little birthday video for Akari... which I will post when the time comes.
So today I spent most of the day watching even more Momoiro Clover stuff including the first disk of the 4.10 Haru no Ichidaiji 2011 concert which was actually Momoclo All Stars 2011. It featured some neat stuff including solo songs, unit songs, and even Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku (aka Ebichu), the sister group of Momoclo.
Here's a video of Momoka's solo song " ありがとうのプレゼント" (Arigato no Present)
And Kanako "太陽とえくぼ" (Taiyou to Ekubo) aka Sun and Dimples! With Ebichu!
This hilarious song by DekoMayu (Forehead and Eyebrows!) who are Kanako and Akarin.
Plus a bunch of other stuff that you may or may not find on youtube. The intro sequence and Pinky Jones with the masks is an especially unique moment probably not found in many other lives. I also really liked "Tsuyoku Tsuyoku" even if it was a cover song. The missing Ano Sora he Mukatte was different, though it did end up playing (albeit the normal ending instrumental).
And also got a new free phone. It's quite slow compared to my other one, though it probably has a better chance of being updated to Jelly Bean.
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.
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.
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.
Today (and parts of yesterday) was the day I started to actually delve into Momoiro Clover Z's vast musical library. Little did I know that was in for a crazy ride.
This post will be a brief history of how I very recently got engulfed in the great fires of fandom of Momoiro Clover Z (shortened to MomoClo in this pos).
Momoiro Clover Z plus Idolm@ster style? Awesome. | Source
Prologue
I actually first knew about MomoClo for about a year and a half already. I started with a random song I found on youtube called "Kono Uta" (I'll put embed videos after my long blocks of text). Or was is that one Pokemon song? I'm not quite sure but they were probably my first dip into the world of MomoClo. I thought the songs were catchy and the PVs (or MVs?) were quite nice. I especially like the whole Super Sentai styled colour schemes going on. After this little taste of MomoClo, I decided that they were a pretty neat group, but I guess I was a bit too intimidated by these so-called "Idol" groups with large amounts of singles and albums. It was "too much" for me even though these girls' numbers don't even compared to the biggies like AKB48 or Morning Musume. So I set them aside for another day, hoping to one day come back.
Kono Uta PV
The next encounter with MomoClo was a very neat "ah ha!" moment for me. It was during my viewing of Mouretsu Space Pirates opening and ending. I was absolutely blown away by such a great opening theme that I wondered right away who sung it. Turns out it was Momoiro Clover Z! A familiar yet unfamiliar name to me at that moment in time. They also sung the pretty nice though not quite as great ending theme as well. At this time I was dead set on acquiring the single... after I had finished the series. I didn't want the greatness to wear off and I wanted to listen to that song every single episode! But as fate (and laziness) would have it, I put the series on hold for a long period of time, having only watched the first episode for probably 3 or 4 seasons.
Moretsu Uchu Kokyokyoku Dai 7 Gakusho 'Mugen no Ai', the opening of Mouretsu Uchuu Kyodai (Bodacious Space Pirates)
Then came the past summer. I had time and my brother who I usually watched with was also quite free. So I went and got a whole bunch of episodes because "WhyNot?" (forgive the silly pun). The opening was still as fresh and great as ever and my interest was still high for MomoClo. Still I was reluctant to walk down the path of real idoldom, partly because of my large interest in Idolm@ster at the time (though I still am). Then as we watched through a few arcs we stopped right at the end of the Golden Ship arc, which landed on episode 13. Why did we stop? Perhaps it was due to more laziness to continue. Or maybe it was because we wanted to savour "high point" and not wring out all the goodness of the series too early. Or maybe it was just because the last episode wasn't released by that particular fansubber yet so we couldn't properly marathon to the end if we wanted to.
So that was it... we stopped halfway and it's been on hold ever since. I still hadn't gotten around to getting my hands on that great song. I still hadn't gotten around to giving MomoClo a proper listening.
