It’s amazing how much watching a PV over and over again can change one’s opinion on a video and song.  This time, it’s the video that’s making me re-think my opinion of it.  In a previous entry I expressed my dislike for the PV and my initial reaction was irritation.  I figured that I was let down once more by H!P.  But then, I watched it more and then started to read more in forums and H!P blogs.  What I found incredibly fascinating was the people at HNPH posted in a recent entry.  About how fans in Japan actually loved the video and the concentration on just three of the girls.  It made me realize how drastically different that we outside of Japan and Asia think of things.  For many people, the song angered them due to the fact that not only were a majority of the girls denied solo lines, but also that the video seemed to only focus on Kusumi Koharu, Tanaka Reina, and Takahashi Ai.  When I heard that Japanese fans actually liked the video that way, I couldn’t put my finger on why. Until I read the article as a whole and the point was made that groups like EXILE only had on main singer.  It really made me start to realize how the undistributed lines might actually help Morning Musume in the long run.  How focusing on just three girls makes it feel less like the typical idol group, and more like an actual music group.  It was that epiphany that made me realize how little I really did understand.  Apparently the Japanese fans are getting it, and we are not.  At least, that was until it was pointed out to me.  EXILE is a group that is wildly successful and more over in recent years.  Tsunku must have seen this and realized that if he wanted to continue  to put Morning Musume as a flagship group, he was going to have to update himself.

Reading through the forums also told me various things.  That the PV we have seen on Dohhhup is actually the dance version (though it is the official release) and there is an ‘image’ version.  Just read through the thread at Hello-Online and you’ll get tons more information.  Tsunku apparently has been struggling for awhile to get the sound right, and to be honest, I’m in awe of him.  So many times before I’ve wanted to shake him around to hopefully knock sense into him, and now I’m left floored.  The man knows exactly what he’s doing.  The one obvious thing I did like straight from the beginning was the style of song and the fact that it is a song I could hear non-Momusu fans listening to and never once assuming it was a song by the group.  This truly is a new Morning Musume and the fact that they are maturing, and allowing the group to mature without selling out to be pushing sexy to the point of annoying, is fantastic.

I also want to note that have a group where there is a focus on just one to three members has worked outside of Japan as well.  There’s a British boy (now man) band called Take That.  They were extremely famous in the UK from 1991 to 1996, and there was a huge focus on one or two of the guys in the group.  They all got some screen time, but a majority of the time the guys did the backing vocals.  They were likened until the Beatles because young and old liked them.  After their break up, they reunited in 2005 and have once again met with major success, keeping the same formula.  I feel pretty ashamed for bashing groups now that focus too much on certain girls.  While I do believe certain girls get the focus or lines when they shouldn’t, I am no longer going to argue that there should be more even line distribution.  If anything, mad props for keeping it simple.