The H!P Musings/Rants Thread

[Zunu]

That van life channel looks pretty interesting!

[Amped]

yes it is relaxing.

~~~~~

After Juice=Juice Kudo Yume's photobook was announced, she hasn't blogged for 3 days now, which is strange for her.

[Starra]

So, uh, hi. Haven't been around in a while.

H!P still controls my life, and I'm currently putting together a comprehensive, definitive Hello! Project database. I'm hoping to cover everything (members, post-H!P stuff, songs, releases (CDs/DVDs/books/digital), magazines, TV/radio/internet appearances, concerts/events (everything, not just what's been released), etc. It's far from complete and I'm only up to 2006 releases.

For a sense of scale, the database currently has roughly 21,000 records. This includes:

Spoiler: show

-283 H!P members (this includes those Gatas Brilhantes H.P. members who may or may not technically have been part of H!P itself.)
-2,500ish non-H!P members (of other groups/artists and people who participated in things that feature H!P members.)
-850 artists
-317 units (different to artists for database reasons.)
-4,900ish H!P songs (haven't added 2022 songs, will do those when I get to them.)
-800ish non-H!P songs (featured on omnibus releases & covers performed at concerts/events, etc.)
-180ish staff (song credits, directors/photographers, etc.)
-6,480ish releases (and I'm probably missing a couple of very obscure things.)
-570ish magazines (very preliminary.)
-370ish music videos
-1,070ish other videos (making ofs, bonus/special footage, CMs, VTRs, etc.)
-550ish concerts/events (up until and including 2006.)
-1,070ish performances (complicated to explain but yeah.)
-35 theatre productions (musicals & stage plays)/movies (so far I'm only doing what's been released on VHS/DVD, will add other ones afterwards.)
-60ish regular shows (very preliminary.)
-1,160ish episodes (mostly just added ASAYAN, Hello! Morning and Hello! Station as proof of concept.)
-50 non-H!P videos (Tsunku comments, videos on omnibus releases, etc.)

Here's a very quick mockup of a release page. For releases that have performances and videos of any kind, if you click on them, it'll lead you to their database entry. Same with songs and members, artists, units, etc. Do note that the layout is probably going to be quite different by the time the database is actually ready to go... which is still ages away. I've been working on it since March and I still have over 5,000 releases to fill out. That's not counting songs, concerts/events/performances, magazines, media appearances, or anything else really.

And yes, I plan on documenting all performances. Although because of how it works, it sometimes ends up looking very messy.

Now... I actually come asking for help. My stupid brain has decided it wants to include official website profile images for releases that have them. However, I'm finding it impossible to locate basically anything from before 2007/8, even using Wayback Machine. If anyone has the old, shitty, LQ and badly edited official website profile images of anybody from, like, 2006 and before, and is willing to upload them, I would greatly appreciate it.

As an example, here are the Resonant Blue ones. I know they're much lower quality than any official photos they put out for sale, but I want to use what was actually on the website for my database for consistency (which is something UP-FRONT has never seemed to believe in and it makes me want to scream).

They definitely had them from 2005 onwards, but I'm unsure of how frequently they were updated before that. They exist (or at least existed), though. I found a couple for Koko ni Iru zee! and Hyokkori Hyoutanjima floating around on Wayback Machine.

[aeon]

^I've actually been working on my own DB as well for the purpose of ease of look-up of certain H!P data. And although it may not be as comprehensive as yours (mostly just idol, songs and performance data from 2019-present [work in progress]), it may be of some use to you if you're interested, depending on how translatable it'll be.

[Zunu]

Here I was thinking that Starra would forever remain un-out-Starra-able, but she's burst from the woodwork and somehow managed to out-Starra herself.

Sorry for stating the obvious, but this is exactly like when Portishead just casually dropped their masterpiece "Third" after an 11 year hiatus.

[Starra]

^I've actually been working on my own DB as well for the purpose of ease of look-up of certain H!P data. And although it may not be as comprehensive as yours (mostly just idol, songs and performance data from 2019-present [work in progress]), it may be of some use to you if you're interested, depending on how translatable it'll be.

Hah! Great minds think alike, I guess. Honestly there's certainly no harm in having multiple sources at all. As I said, mine is extremely convoluted and probably messy. But that's how my brain works. I'm never satisfied with other databases and always feel like they're missing things that... nobody but me cares about, probably. Oh well.

I indeed would be interested, if that's okay! I'm going in chronological order from 1997 onwards (technically 1993 because Inaba Atsuko was in a few things before joining H!P, but that's besides the point) so I won't get to 2019 for quite some time, but I'll take anything that'll make it easier lol.

Here I was thinking that Starra would forever remain un-out-Starra-able, but she's burst from the woodwork and somehow managed to out-Starra herself.

Sorry for stating the obvious, but this is exactly like when Portishead just casually dropped their masterpiece "Third" after an 11 year hiatus.

You underestimate my powers. With time, I only continue to evolve. This isn't even my final form. Translation: Autism is a helluva drug.

[Zunu]

(technically 1993 because Inaba Atsuko was in a few things before joining H!P, but that's besides the point)

I read that as "Maeda Atsuko" at first and I was like, is Starra taking the piss or did I miss something? And speaking of brainfarts:

BEYOOOOONDS Okamura Minami's 1st photobook "Miimi" preview

My brain refuses to not see that as "Mümi." Which makes me think in turn, Moomin --> Sweden --> another long departed jplop member: aggisu. If she in turn popped from out of the permafrost it could only mean the Jplopcalypse is nigh.

[Moh]

I miss aggisu tbh. I still think of her when I see octopus shaped things.

[aeon]

Hah! Great minds think alike, I guess. Honestly there's certainly no harm in having multiple sources at all. As I said, mine is extremely convoluted and probably messy. But that's how my brain works. I'm never satisfied with other databases and always feel like they're missing things that... nobody but me cares about, probably. Oh well.

I indeed would be interested, if that's okay! I'm going in chronological order from 1997 onwards (technically 1993 because Inaba Atsuko was in a few things before joining H!P, but that's besides the point) so I won't get to 2019 for quite some time, but I'll take anything that'll make it easier lol.

No worries at all! I decided to start from the present and work my way back because, with the wealth of information floating around nowadays, it would be easier (still extremely time consuming). So, technically, you're doing all the hard work lol. But anyways, just let me know where I should reach out to so we can touch base on how to get the process started.

[JonCC]

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Pretty spot on assessment of both groups.