IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

I cannot believe I am doing one these "Important Announcement" now. Usually when we see such titles in Hello! Project sites we would cringe with fear. ^_^

In any case, here's what I wanted to say...

For the past one year, (Yeah, i have totally missed out celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, oh well...) this has been a wonderful blogging experience. I have had a run at running other blogs, but this one has been the most active of them all. Thinking back, it has been Aibon who had inspired me to start blogging about Hello! Project, though mostly about Morning Musume in particular. In other words, as much as we H!P fans hated the scandals, it was through a scandal that gave this blog its life. Kinda funny, come to think of it...

From blogging in Hello Non-Pro Hour, I have certainly learned a lot of things about writing, and have dedicated to producing the most quality of posts I can. I attribute this to my participation of certain forum (for those who know me, know which one I am talking about) that encourages forumers to post quality messages instead of one liners. As a result, my love for literature and expression through texts have really shown. Gradually, I find that I became interested in the world of journalism and a newfound respect for it. It has certainly changed the way I look at blogging and the age of digital news. Recently, the participation of fellow bloggers Anna and Gaki have really helped in providing a different feel of input and I enjoyed every minute of it. I learn a lot from them as well.

Most of all, I have nothing but thanks to all the readers that keep coming back to read all the rubbish that I have written all this while. In actuality, it is the comments left by all readers that keep motivating me to keep blogging regularly.

As the famous Oracle (The Matrix) says... "Everything that has beginning has an end". The time has come for Hello Non-Pro Hour to come to its end...











HOWEVER....


I am proud to announce that due to the steady growth of Hello Non-Pro Hour, and in part of my interest of giving it more journalistic elements, I will be migrating it to a brand new domain, and subsequently be renamed to HNPH. Fellow bloggers Gaki and Anna will be joining me in this endeavor. This new site will include new features and cool stuff that cannot be done by remaining as a blog only. Plus, a new forum will be introduced, to provide more room for discussions instead of doing it in the comments section.

Will let everyone know of the launch dates and the URL soon. I cordially invite all of you to come over and continue the fun with me. Stay tuned, peoples!



No charge for the fright. I learn this from Ray.....(^o^)/


Peace (^_^)v

jinryuichi
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This Week in Morning Musume

This Week in Morning Musume :Edition #3

The week of December 10 to 16th continued December’s theme of not a lot is going on editions of this week in Morning Musume. The main national appearance for the week was the Best Artist 2007 show. The 2007 Best Artist appearance was another of the 10th Anniversary special medley performances, which unlike the seemingly rushed FNS performance, was the perfect blend of performance and symbolism. With an opening pose featuring the two faces of the present and past, Takahashi Ai and Abe Natsumi, to the closing shot of the two leaders Takahashi and Nakazawa Yuko kneeling side by side. As HNPH columnist Anna earlier pointed out, the performance left little to find fault with as an audience representing 30 artists or groups showed their spirited support for one of the standout performances of the evening. Outside of their weekly schedule and a cable television special, only one other national television event occurred during the week as Takahashi Ai and Tanaka Reina appeared on the animal themed variety show 'Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen' (Genius! Shimura Zoo), were they mostly watched videos about celebrities pets.

Other news for the week
Outside of their weekly scheduled radio shows Takahashi Ai was a guest on Dreams Come True`s weekly radio show .The group are fans of Morning Musume as our a number of groups and artists and Takahashi appeared as a special guest . Finally Michishige Sayumi`s new photo book titled Sou Sou was released on the 15th. With Morning Musume photo books currently a big seller nationwide, it is likely that Michishige`s Sou Sou could follow the same path as Kamei Eri`s Maple and reach #1.

Related Video
Best Artist 2007
Best Artist 2007

Genius! Shimura Zoo (Edited for Morning Musume`s total air time)
Genius! Shimura Zoo

Haromoni@
Haromoni@

Notice: with only two full group events scheduled for the rest of 2007, the fourth edition may skip a week, return in two weeks, and be a two-week end of the year special.
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This week in Morning Musume

This Week in Morning Musume for November 30- December 9 Edition.

This week in Morning Musume returns in it`s standard edition size. With the year coming to an end Morning Musume`s schedule is also slowing down ,in fact the entire month is scaled back compared to November .The only major news worthy appearances between the November 30 -December 9 time period was their tour ending shows in Tokyo and their FNS Kayou Matsuri 2007 appearance .

On the fifth Morning Musume and other H!P artists were part of the FNS Kayou Matsuri 2007. The FNS Kayou Matsuri is traditionally one of the most viewed ,single night year ending music programs in Japan ,with a line up selected by invitation only , an audience of around 27-30 million tune in each year to watch the nations top 28-38 music artists or groups perform . As with their upcoming, Kouhaku Uta Gassen appearance, these invitation only events signifies to everyone watching that you are regarded by the music industry as one of their elite performers.
With Morning Musume celebrating their Tenth Anniversary , this years FNS Kayou Matsuri performance was a medley with all current and active former Morning Musume members involved . Morning Musume`s Internet Program series for Yahoo Japan, Gyao and Biglobe also continued to air .

Kusumi Koharu who often appears on Oha Sta in support of her anime , made her most recent appearance on the 3rd. Kusumi`s anime is a major product producing industry all on it`s own, as her popularity with young girls who maybe a little young yet to understand Morning Musume as idols continues to rise . Anime has always been an important and lucrative revenue source for Japanese music artists and it is no surprise that Morning Musume, who are in a genre built on TV image and product sales over CD sales is becoming more active in that field .


Mobile Musume

December 1st Takahashi Ai released her journal entry. Takahashi reflected on the just completed tour as being the birth of a new Morning Musume .Takahashi admitted that the group had some uneasiness about making this first step in their future, but the staff and fan reaction quickly helped those feelings fly away.

For 2008, Takahashi says they plan to show everyone that they are not a newborn Morning Musume anymore, but the Morning Musume and that they are powerful. She also wants to continue bringing out their individual personalities and help everyone learn about them more.

Random News
Oricon`s special on Morning Musume`s trip to Korea and Taiwan was the 5th highest read article on Oricon for the month of November. Their Barks article series also ranked in the top five on their web site for the month. The Kindai Magazine featured Morning Musume on the cover and had features on all the current groups in H!P .H!P is a regular feature in Kindai Magazine. Finally, Morning Musume as part of their partnership with Nintendo released their likeness in Mii format for downloading.

Morning Musume Mii

This editions related videos
FNS Performance
FNS Performance

Oha Sta and the product business that is Kirarin Revolution
Oha Sta

December 9th Haromoni@
Haromoni@

Regular National Weekly Scheduled Programs
Morning Musume`s weekly scheduled programs are the same every week.
Television
Haromoni@ (Sunday Mornings)
Uta Doki (Airs nightly in a five-minute segment as a promotional ad)
Kirarin Revolution (Friday Evenings)
Robby & Kerobby (Sunday Mornings)
Radio
Young Town: Takahashi Ai & Michishige Sayumi (Saturday Nights)
FIVE STARS: Tanaka Reina (Wednesday Nights)
Say Hello Love: Mitsui Aika (Thursday Afternoon)
USA-chan Peace: Michishige Sayumi (Thursday Nights)
GAKI-KAMEI: Niigaki Risa & Kamei Eri (Saturday Nights)

Upcoming National Events
11th: Morning Musume will be on NTV 130 Million Choose Best Artist of 2007
15th: Takahashi Ai and Tanaka Reina will appear on a wild life educational variety show
21st: Morning Musume will make an appearance on Music Fighter
31st: Morning Musume will be on the most watched year ending show in Japan Kouhaku Uta Gassen
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This Week in Morning Musume: Special Long Edition

New Feature:
This Week in Morning Musume:
Special Long Edition.

This week in Morning Musume is a news recap of the weekly events in the world of Morning Musume. This week in Morning Musume will serve as a way to catch up on any media related events that took place in the week that was for Morning Musume .When events warrant special coverage will be devoted to the news.

Starting December 9th, this will be a weekly recap; however, this is a special extra long edition. This special edition will recap November and give a look at the Korean and Taiwan trips .


October
Morning Musume the Ambassadors of JPOP

The last week of October saw Morning Musume venture outside of Japan for promotional trips to Korea and Taiwan. The trips were to design to establish a foothold in the two nations and lay the groundwork for product releases and possible concerts. On the surface, the events favored a return trip to Taiwan more so then Korea. While the Korean visit was lower key then the Beatles like mania Taiwan venture. Morning Musume, clearly has a fan base in both countries .An article in the Korean Times on November 4th, reported that Morning Musume was the third most searched music artist in Korea.
Korea Times

Related Videos
Television Interview #1
Television Interview #2
Press Conference

Taiwan
Morning Musume closed out the month of October with a full unit promotional trip to Taiwan that had to exceed their expectations. Taiwan was madness from the moment that they landed, and resembled the 1960`s when the British Rock Group the Beatles landed on the music scene. Early indications are that Taiwan is ready for Morning Musume, their All Singles Complete CD debut at #1 on the Japanese Music Charts and #11 on the Global Music Charts in Taiwan.

Tanaka Reina did a little Taiwan reporting on her radio show recently. Tanaka said that the event was a big success for Morning Musume .Not only did they do the standard media events that they do in Japan, but that Junjun symbolically took the lead and helped everyone out with their Chinese. Tanaka called Junjun a big help to the group in Taiwan. Tanaka finished her report by saying that the Taiwanese fan base was largely women and that a fan went through the hand shake event line five times .She said that the hand shake event was great as a lot of people were there and only those who had purchased the CD were allowed to attend.

Related Videos
EDIT : New Video From MTV Taiwan
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Taiwan TV news covering the arrival of Morning Musume and the fan conflict at the airport.
Taiwan TV News

MTV Taiwan with Morning Musume on a night out on the town .
MTV Taiwan
Morning Musume on a TV Television show.
Sunday Night Fever TV Show

November
As October ended November got underway, Morning Musume settled in for a typical month for them in Japan. Takahashi Ai continued her hectic leadership schedule of reaching out to everyone about Morning Musume by doing a number of print and electronic media interviews. Barks spent the day on the set of Haromoni, and did a full feature story on the experience. The article talked about the tapings and praised Takahashi as being the perfect choice for leader at this stage of their career. They found her to be a very powerful leader who was involved in every aspect of Morning Musume both on and off camera, ensuring that every member’s talents can come out on Television. Barks also expressed what a number of media outlets voiced in November that Mikan was a very solid song.

Takahashi also on behalf of Morning Musume sent year ending well wishes to the Walker Magazine .Walker is a magazine that is a sort of "what's hot and happening" type of magazine, a magazine for nightlife and trendsetters. Walker is published in Tokyo and is in a number of Japanese cities as well as Hong Kong and Morning Musume throughout their career has been a part of their magazine.

Television Appearances

Takahashi Ai, Kamei Eri and Linlin every Thursday were guest VJ on MTV Japan .Were they selected their favorite songs and talked about them. The series was filmed before their Taiwan trip as Takahashi still had throat problems and was sounding horse .Niigaki Risa; Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi and Tanaka Reina were MC for Utadoki. Weekly Morning Musume Haromoni, Kirarin Revolution and Robby & Kerobby (Kusumi Koharu and Niigaki Risa`s respected Anime programs) aired .The last episode of Haromoni for the month revealed that Aika Mitsui would be joining the cast of Kirarin Revolution as the Voice of Michishige`s cat drawing from an earlier episode.

Morning Musume or selected members also made a number of television appearances in addition to their regular programs and the MTV VJ series. Members of Morning Musume appeared on the following shows as guests .Minasan no Okage ,ROQ (Real Original Quality) Hit TV, Mezamashi Doyoubi morning show, Music Japan, Pankin` Randa , MTV Special Karaokee, MIDTOWN TV Nama Yaguchi (Yaguchi Mari’s TV show) were Michishige declared in the introductions that she was the leader of sexiness as she is moving away from her princess routine. Nama Yaguchi is quickly becoming a new home location for Morning Musume as they have had two full show appearances since October and Utaban. Morning Musume`s appearance on Utaban could not have been more perfectly timed. With Morning Musume the secondary guest to KAT-TUN, they opened the show with a performance of their new single Mikan and later in the show took part in a quiz game. Mikan reported sales increases across the board, including the recently criticized in Japanese media Oricon sales rankings, were Mikan enjoyed a 16-point jump the following day.

Related Videos
Takahashi Ai & Junjun were on Minasan no Okage
Junjun was the focus of this show for Morning Musume .
Minasan no Okage
Utaban
Utaban

(Edit)
Links to reports on Oricon`s rankings questions recently reported in Japanese media (English Translations)
Oricon/Hiro Ugaya
HNPH Report April 2007 (Jin was the first to report this claim for HNPH)
jinryuichi-hnph
Feb 9 2007 Nikkei Entertainment claims on Oricon
Nikkei Entertainment


Internet Appearances
Takahashi Ai, Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi, Kusumi Koharu and Junjun were at Ameba Studio. Morning Musume were on Yahoo Music Live Studio and done a number of video messages for different internet magazines.

Radio Appearances
Morning Musume in addition to their weekly radio shows were guests on a wide range of radio shows. While I have the files to all these broadcasts, unless you understand Japanese and certain puns or slang it maybe hard to follow. Members of Morning Musume were on the following non Morning Musume radio shows, in November. USHIBARA Idol Radio, FM-Fuji Radical League, Bayfm ON8 radio show, YanPeace radio show, InterFM radio 'The DAVE FROMM SHOW', Fm Yokohama 'tre-sen'.

Selected Radio Broadcasts
Here is one episode each of their weekly radio shows. On their radio shows, they are much looser and relaxed to a degree of what their managers will let them do. Morning Musume`s public life is closely controlled to maintain a certain image at all times.

Radio Show: Young Town Saturday 11.24.2007 (Takahashi Ai, Michishige Sayumi)
Young Town Saturday

Michishige Sayumi no Konya mo Usachan Peace 80 minute show SP!!! #58 - 11.15.07
Guests: Tanaka Reina and Kamei Eri.
-a special present for Tanaka Reina's 18th Birthday given by Sayu.
Michishige Sayumi no Konya mo Usachan Peace

GAKI-KAMEI Radio Show #033 - 11.17.07
Guest: Ai-chan
GAKI-KAMEI Radio Show

InterFM [FIVE STARS] Wednesday Tanaka Reina radio show #008 - 071121
Reina's playlist this week, Nov. 21, 2007
Mikan
Judy & Mary : Classic
Backstreet Boys : I Want It That Way
Takui Nakajima : CRY CRY CRY
Bonkyu! Bonkyu! BOMB GIRL
Wednesday Tanaka Reina radio

Concerts
Morning Musume continued their sold out tour schedule .One of the great things about wotas is that they audio record every concert and post them on the internet.

2007-11-03	15:30	Mie Prefecture Fine Arts Center
2007-11-03	19:00	Mie Prefecture Fine Arts Center
2007-11-04	15:30	Shizuoka City Culture Hall
2007-11-04	19:00	Shizuoka City Culture Hall
2007-11-11	15:30	Aichi Welfare Pension Hall
2007-11-11	19:00	Aichi Welfare Pension Hall
2007-11-17	15:30	Osaka Welfare Pension Center
2007-11-17	19:00	Osaka Welfare Pension Center
2007-11-24	15:30	Tokyo Welfare Meeting Hall
2007-11-24	19:00	Tokyo Welfare Meeting Hall
2007-11-25	14:30	Tokyo Welfare Meeting Hall
2007-11-25	18:00	Tokyo Welfare Meeting Hall

Concert Audio Recording (Full concert sample for everyone)
Tanaka Reina Birthday Concert
Morning Musume Concert 11-11-07 Nagoya Day
Nagoya Day
Morning Musume Concert 11-11-07 Nagoya Night
Nagoya Night

Mobile Musume
Pocket Morning Weekly Q&A: Each week fan club members are sent a message were the members of Morning Musume are asked a question that they answer in off beat fashion. The answers often reflect their on air personalty, however every now and then they throw you a surprise answer that leaves you laughing or wondering how long it has been since some have seen their family or had breaks to rest.


Other News
Morning Musume was in or will be in a number of magazines over the November -January period, Niigaki Risa and Tanaka Reina continued their journal series that are published in Japan. (They are not real personal journals; they are very controlled by the agency). Yahoo Japan had a buyer’s poll and Morning Musume won with 45 % of the votes as to what group that you were most interested in buying .KAT-TUN was second at 17%. When Mikan was released on television and Internet at the same time, The Internet video sites crashed immediately and were sluggish the entire first full day after release. The top private University in Japan Waseda University held a Morning Musume fan event. Members of the University performed a full Morning Musume concert. Tsunku posted a message on his web site discussing the meaning of the new single and what he expects from each of the members of Morning Musume in the future. He was very clear in his words and expectations for each member, Morning Musume is not ending anytime soon.

Other Related News
Mainichi Daily News had a picture layout of Morning Musume in Taiwan
Mainichi Daily News
Morning Musume special page on Oricon
Oricon Special



This Week in Morning Musume will return the week of December 9th in it`s normal small format size, recapping events from December 1-8 .



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