PART 1
http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?/ ... ei-part-1/
Spoiler: show
After Tsunku♂'s interview with longtime Hello!Project fan Tower Records President Minewaki, he wanted to hear Tsunku♂'s thoughts on the current Hello!Pro Kenshuusei [trainees], so here he provides his in-depth analysis of them while watching the Hello!Project Kenshuusei Recital 2020 ~Summer Ability Diagnostic Test~.
(Text: Tsunku♂ / Editing: Ozawa Aya / Illustrations: Mizushina Takayuki / Translation: Lurkette)
The conversation with Tower Records president Minewaki has ended, but because there wasn't enough time that day, there was something we didn't get to talk about: the current state of the Hello!Pro Kenshuusei. As expected, he's familiar even with the trainees, and he knows much more about them than I do right now.
So I watched the Hello!Project Kenshuusei Recital 2020 ~Summer Ability Diagnostic Test~ and I learned some things, too. Seeing this for the first time, I had things I wanted to communicate to each of them, so I'm going to analyze them in order of their performances and express my thoughts. You can buy a Blu-ray of the event, but they uploaded a digest video, too, so please watch that. I think you'll get the gist.
I do wonder if people will say, "You're completely wrong!" or "She's not normally like that..." but please understand that today this is an analysis of where they were at the 2020 summer test. It's my first time seeing it and I don't know what the final results from the judges were. I'm going to go in order of seeing them. It's kind of exciting!
I don't know what sort of awards Hello!Pro gives out, generally, so I approached it with what sort of awards I would give out. There are girls in here who have already debuted by now, and it's possible there have been changes in the trainee lineup, but let's go ahead and watch the recital! I'll also do a comprehensive analysis at the end.
中山夏月姫（Nakayama Natsume） "Namida no iro"
After all is said and done, she has a good name. Her parents really thought up a great one! Her looks are good, her figure has a nice balance. Her arms and fingers are long and beautiful, so she brings the performance to life with them. She has a good hold on the mic so it seems like she'll do well with live performances. Her vocal quality is fairly good, and her expressions when she sings are very cute.
<Room for growth>
When you have a solo performance like this, you're always holding the mic in one hand, so you only dance with one hand. The dance performance becomes uninteresting in those cases, so variation of movement in your free hand is important. If you're moving it, there needs to be some differentiation in there.
It's necessary for her to drill that 16-beat into her body when she's still at this early stage. It's not good to stop keeping rhythm at the chorus. Also, she tends to push her voice out so much so she gets short of breath. She can work on getting more stamina, but she should watch and learn from others to get better techniques when singing live. She's got a firm grasp on the pitch. Her expressions are really good~.
豫風瑠乃（Yofu Runo） "Umaretate no Baby Love"
This girl also has a miraculous name. She leaves this impression of being translucent, she right away gives me the sense of an honor student, but I wonder what kind of girl she really is? The fans would know more, surely (laughs). I feel like she's tough underneath, too, so I think she could go pro with this. She's also a looker and a singer. I'm excited to see more from her. Her voice is good, at any rate. The build-up and natural quality of her voice almost goes into a falsetto, which is quite pleasant. Yeah, her singing is really good.
<Room for growth>
Maybe it's because she's used to being a back-up dancer for her seniors and not singing most of the time, but when she starts singing, I can see parts where she dropped the rhythm of the song for some reason. That's a phenomenon that's not just limited to her. Her vocal build-up is good, so when she don't have the rhythm firmly in her body, the song frequently undulates with her head. This is a waste.
I dare say she'll be a vocal center of Hello!Pro in the future, so for right now I want her to acquire rhythm. She'll improve if she pays more attention to when the rhythm disappears in her singing and dancing during that instrumental break in the B melody!
橋田歩果（Hashida Honoka） "One Summer Night~Manatsu no Kesshin"
She looks younger than she actually is, I wonder if that's on purpose!? Just talking about her looks, she's an early Hello!Pro type. However, as a singer she's more contemporary. It's easy to hear her voice coming through the mic. My ears drink it in. Normally it's easy to put too much space in-between your mouth and the mic when you use a stand, but she's got a good hold on it.
<Room for growth>
Since her voice carries so easily into the mic, from the standpoint of a recording director, she'd be easy to help lay tracks down. Well, that doesn't mean so much that it's useful, but rather that it comes in flat. Perhaps she isn't even aware of it. I get this flat feeling from that emotionless, simple way of singing, so to be more professional, she should leave this behind and not develop it in a strange direction.
Using both hands in this performance is the right way to go. She has the rhythm in her voice so she's easy to listen to, her enunciation is good, her rhythm is good. That said, just in that block of the lyrics of "Konya kimi ni~" the rhythm goes flying out the window. I want her to figure out for herself why that happened.
植村葉純（Uemura Hasumi） "Miss Love Tantei"
Watching her performance, she brings it~. It's impressive that she can give this kind of performance at this age. This wasn't something she learned yesterday, this is something I bet she was brought up with, for her to have this kind of awareness from childhood. Her arms and legs are long, that balance is good. With the sense I'm getting from her, she might get some curious advice from other people, but it might be better for her to ignore that for the time being and try going the way she wants to.
<Room for growth>
In terms of the mood and performance, her voice is still childish, as a matter of course. I feel like it's right on the verge of changing. I expect she'll be a lot more stable in another year. With that in mind, it would be best for her to do singing drills for right now, so that she can be that stable when that time comes. She could also use some fine-tuning with the length of the notes, including with her tongue movements. Listening to her now, she goes a little long when she stops the notes. It's like a bike that doesn't stop right away when you hit the brakes. That's not good, so I hope she can get to where she can cut those notes off cleanly, more naturally.
米村姫良々（Yonemura Kirara） "Kiseki no kaori dance."
What strikes me isn't just the name Kirara, it's that her very existence shines, this girl. Humans are quite mysterious, I think, beings of both light and darkness. Surely she is a natural star, but she really is light itself. This is a particular kind of talent. I want them to let her shine and pull Hello!Pro forward.
<Room for growth>
First of all, what I thought was disappointing was her mic hold. There was a gap of 1~1.5 cm between the mic and her mouth, which isn't quite right. A waste. Her voice is a little thing (not a bad thing, just a characteristic), so the key sounds high. So when she pulls the mic away, it can't pick up the low tones. It really is a waste. I expect her song choice is to some extent a reaction to her own singing, and that confidence overflows from her voice and expression. The fans should be all on board with her, so to grow that even further, I want her to please study up on how to sing and make the most of the capabilities of the microphone (how to hold the mic).
In the intro, she feels bouncy (temperament-wise) without forcing the rhythm in there. It's a shame that that seems to disappear once she sings the chorus. This is absolutely a spot to improve. Though, she's a natural at dancing (in terms of rhythm and bounce).
北原もも（Kitahara Momo） "Tokaikko junjou (2012 shinsei naru ver.)"
She's such a Hello!Pro girl!? That's my feeling. She seems like someone to rely on, like an older brother, someone who will push themselves for you. In terms of looks, she shows lots of different expressions, and I could see her working as an actress in the future, too. She's tied up everything well between the choreography and the song (and the rhythm) and the lyrics, and she's a girl who can make that performance natural rather than thinking about it.
<Room for growth>
I feel like she's the type who can master anything if she puts her mind to it, so I want her to pull everything together to improve, including her expressions, her movements (performance-wise), her singing, and her character (be careful not to make it too tiresome). She could be the center of Hello!Pro with all of that. If she were to get put into a shuffle unit, for example, the vocal director would be at ease just because she's there. She has the makings of someone who could earn that much trust, so I want her to grow more. Putting all of it together is the key.
村越彩菜（Murakoshi Ayano） "Tabidachi no haru ga kita"
She seems so pure~. Without a doubt, she'd in Japan's top 3 of "kids I'd want to be my grandchild," right? This is something you can't manufacture, so I want her to maintain it for as long as she can. What's great about her is that she is completely unaware of when she does something amazing. What is this sense of security I feel from her? It's that her performance is so stable.
There's also no sense of intimidation, like she's forcing something on you. It's not that she's being cutesy, either: she can dance well. Her one-handed performance is just like that of a Shouwa-era idol, and while that tends to be heavy on hand gestures, it's great that she doesn't go that way. Her singing and dancing are in sync. Her rhythm is good, too.
<Room for growth>
She'll gradually get better at those fine movements of her fingers or in dancing if she keeps at it like this, so what she needs to work is her singing. Each phrase of her singing is a little long. If that keeps up the whole time of any song, it gets tiring to listen to.
She should train her throat muscles to end the notes more naturally, so that she's not sharply cutting them off. In bicycle terms, it's not a bike that's too effective at braking and throws you over the handlebars, and it's not a bike with soft brakes that will go way past where you intended to stop. It's the feeling of innocently stopping right where you want to stop, even if you don't hit the breaks until the last moment. This is a professional technique, but anyone can do it. Do your best! The brake example is my word of advice to all the trainees!
西﨑美空（Nishizaki Miku） "Special Genera~tion"
She left a really good impression on me with her ability to smoothly change how she was holding the mic while singing. She gives me a calm feeling, she's a healing type. It's this indescribable healing beam of light you feel from her singing and dancing. This is also a kind of talent. You couldn't learn it if you tried. So while she's in Hello!Pro, even as a trainee, it might be better for her not to aim for something different, but rather keep going forward in this same direction, right?
<Room for growth>
Trying to improve might run counter to that healing quality, but if I'm picking something to talk about, it's that she's quick to raise the pitch, I suppose. It gets a little high at times. There are some more minute things to say as a singer, but if I were to point those out, this "indescribable" quality she has now might completely be uprooted... No matter how many times I listen to her, I think how she is now is best, for the time being. If I get another chance later, that might be the time to point out these little details. Maintaining is difficult enough on its own, because everyone gets a little complacent.
小野田華凜（Onoda Karin） "'Hitori de ikiraresou' tte sorette nee, homete iru no?"
Yep, she's been training a lot on rhythm, both feeling it in the song and in her body movements, and coupled with her natural ability, her current total score is high. I think she may also have confidence in that. For Hello!Pro to raise their collective skills, it's necessary to make a place for a girl like this.
<Room for growth>
Because she's got everything together, I'll look at her more severely, and one thing is that the rhythm stops completely when she holds notes. The rest are emotional arguments, but the greatest thing is when you sing in a way that makes people naturally want to hear more from you. If you try to force them to hear you, to grab their ears, if you're not careful it turns into a lecture and people will pull away.
Girls who are good at singing are forever a question. How to keep it natural, unforced? If you think about it for 24 hours, you'll find an answer popping up somewhere. I expect great things.
PART 2
http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?/ ... ei-part-2/
Spoiler: show
After Tsunku♂'s interview with longtime Hello!Project fan Tower Records President Minewaki, he wanted to hear Tsunku♂'s thoughts on the current Hello!Pro Kenshuusei [trainees], so here he provides his in-depth analysis of them, as well as awards of his own making, while watching the Hello!Project Kenshuusei Recital 2020 ~Summer Ability Diagnostic Test~.
(Text: Tsunku♂ / Editing: Ozawa Aya / Illustrations: Mizushina Takayuki / Translation: Lurkette)
The conversation with Tower Records president Minewaki has ended, but because there wasn't enough time that day, there was something we didn't get to talk about: the current state of the Hello!Pro Kenshuusei. That's why I decided to watch the Hello!Project Kenshuusei Recital 2020 ~Summer Ability Diagnostic Test~ and give my own thorough analysis of the members and gain a little more understanding of the current trainees for when I get to talk to President Mineaki again.
In the first part, I talked about Nakayama Natsume, Yofuu Runo, Hashida Honoka, Uemura Hasumi, Yonemura Kirara, Kitahara Momo, Murakoshi Ayano, Nishizaki Miku, and Onoda Karin.
Now for part 2. At the end I'll give general comments on the bunch and announce awards. Look forward to it!
窪田七海（Kubota Nanami） "Watashi no miryoku ni kidzukanai donkan na hito"
Oh~, she seems like a girl who has the ability to self-produce, like she'd look in the mirror over and over thinking about the patterns of her facial expressions. That's my thinking. Before being made to consider whether she has that minute rhythm down or not, even when she's jumping, during the chorus, too, you can clearly hear her singing. That's because her mic hold is also great, she seems like a really strong one, like a professional.
<Room for growth>
She's a little bit older compared to the others, but in terms of public recognition, she still has plenty of room to develop. Just as I wrote at the start, endless effort, days spent thinking about how to produce yourself, how to lift yourself up, is so important. If she does that, she'll seem more professional, and I think the adults (staff) will think about wanting to give her work, making her leader of a group, and giving her responsibility of a team.
平山遊季（Hirayama Yuki） "Come with me"
I see, she also seems like she has warmed up, in terms of age. She cuts off the notes of the song at the right length, and her build-up is good, too. In terms of performance, it seems like she's working on strengthening her muscles, down to her fingertips, to get those sharp little movements down.
When it comes to muscle, there are largely two kinds of training: lifting weights for big muscles, like the kind you need to knock down your opponent in a boxing match, and for those smaller muscles, working to jab at your opponent over and over again. It started with Michael Jackson and is still around today in K-pop-style dancing, and I think those small muscle movements make dances look so much cooler. In this case, it means that since she has worked on those muscles, I can see she dances well, even down to her fingers.
<Room for growth>
What separates her from the other trainees is that minute muscle she has worked on. It's like she did drills of how many jabs she could hit in 30 seconds. She isn't boxing, though, so it's not just about forward jabs, but upward jabs, side-to-side jabs, downward jabs, working in every direction to be able to do those small, swift motions, that's what's important. It's not just about moving your hand in a fist, how fast can you move your fingers in 30 seconds? Same thing with your legs and feet. Do it as much as you can in a day.
This isn't limited to her, if you can do this every day for an hour, after about 6 months, you'll be able to give an incredible performance. I bet after 6 months she'll be able to move the fastest of all the trainees. Will Hirayama outrun everyone, or will the rest surpass her? I'm excited to find out.
To say one thing about her singing, when she holds out the notes for the "kokkara~jan" part, the rhythm completely disappears. It's a waste.
斉藤円香（Saitou Madoka） "Konya dake ukaretakatta"
I have an affinity with her because she also seems like a very Hello!Pro type of girl. I don't know how long she's been studying as a trainee, but I feel like she's perhaps someone who's quite capable on top of her training (perhaps from going along to the concerts of her seniors, as a trainee). I sense she puts in a lot of effort and doesn't have any intention of losing. She left me with the impression that she has taken some singing techniques from her seniors, listening to the ones who are good at singing and going, "I see, I should do it like this."
<Room for growth>
She says each word well in her singing, so she's very easy to listen to, rhythmical. That being said, if there's somewhere she can still grow, it's in choreography first. In general, she's a little fast. On a 4-count, she starts the 1 early, meaning that she's not going until the end of the 4 count. This should be corrected, firstly. If she doesn't understand what I'm talking about, then she should start by gaining an understanding of what this sort of thing means.
At the same time, when she moves her free hand, the one not holding the mic, her body loses the rhythm. It's proof that she doesn't have the rhythm established in her whole body, because her body loses it when she focuses on her hand. If she can train on getting general rhythm, then she could break into the upper ranks of her Hello!Pro seniors that came before her.
江端妃咲（Ebata Kisaki） "21ji made no Cinderella"
What is this, this peace of mind I feel? She's a gifted girl, who should make past Hello!Pro fans feel secure, even with her song selection. Neither her singing nor her dancing are outstanding, but the security I feel from her is a professional level talent. It's the feeling of the first step you take past the gates of Sanrio Puroland. But her singing and dancing are actually stable, meaning she can focus on her character. Her rhythm while dancing is steady, too, because I assume she has it firmly trained in her body.
<Room for growth>
More so than dreaming of being a great singer or a sharp dancer, she should focus on keeping a good balance of things like she has now. Her vocal quality is good (it comes smoothly into the ear), and the key isn't too difficult, so if she can learn to sing more low-key songs, her listeners will want to hear more from her. Practicing those kinds of songs would be good. Personally, she's quite an all-around girl.
為永幸音（Tamenaga Shion） "Daite yo! PLEASE GO ON" *Currently an Angerme member
She's the type who can sing with her face. She has impact, and she has the soul of someone who wants to be a singer, who wants to do this professionally, she really makes me feel that from her. I think she also has confidence in herself, since she picked a Goto song.
<Room for growth>
After she danced so stably in the intro, the rhythm suddenly goes away when she gets to the A melody. It's completely gone when she sings the B melody. I don't think she needs to spend an awful amount of time drilling the rhythm down, not for her. Please, for a moment, forget your own dancing up until now, put the basics of rhythm in one more time. If you focus on singing to the rhythm, not dancing to the rhythm, the dancing will bring the rhythm out as a result, I think.
松原ユリヤ（Matsubara Yuliya） "Akai earphone"
I quickly realized she's great! I couldn't tell you why right away if you asked me, but she's good, somehow. I'm not familiar with the original dance to this song so I can't compare, but her dancing on this day, it's indescribable, I might like this vexing feeling.
<Room for growth>
In the first half, her mic hold was really stable, but when she got to the chorus, she used both hands to dance so the mic would get closer and farther than it should have been. It's a waste of a stable voice if no one can hear it, because then it sounds worse than it actually is.
It seems like her voice still has some time before changing, but now is probably when it will start settling in. She was using her fingers in her dancing, but it seemed somewhat slow. Maybe I should say she's lacking in sharpness. She should work on those muscles, like how I described with Hirayama earlier.
山田苺（Yamada Ichigo） "SHALL WE LOVE?"
Wow, what a nice name. She 's a bit older than some of the other girls, so I feel like she's paying more attention to those fine finger movements. It feels good to watch her dance. This song was originally sung by three people, but she sang it well as a solo. Her expressions while singing were very good.
She put the meaning of the lyrics in her singing without forcing in some level of personal pride, her calm singing made me feel like I was watching an athlete!? It feels like she gave us a peek at the charm women have in their strength of will.
<Room for growth>
She's a girl who can dance from the get-go. If you count out the dance for this song, it's a 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, with the accent on the 3. If you do the accent on every 3 count, the dance comes together, and it will make for a sharper performance. Right now she doesn't have any accents, I can see her forcing her whole body into it. She's fast, so to speak. That needs work.
石栗奏美（Ishiguri Kanami） "Resonant blue"
She's a bold singer. She gives facial expressions like she has some experience performing, to an extent. I wonder if it's because she's been a trainee for a while, or if it's because she learned piano or ballet when she was little and did performances that way? I don't know, but she's stable. Her singing had bounce, and she rode out the rhythm in the phrasing, and it all felt very natural, which was great.
<Room for growth>
However, there's a specific rhythm from verse to verse in this song, but her dancing didn't have that rhythm at all so the song and dance were not in sync. Because of that, it's unfortunate that a performance she worked so hard on can't be regarded as highly. The chorus has a simple bass rhythm, so if she can get to where she hears that reliably (maybe it's more correct to say get to where she can hear it), the beat should come from her body naturally. She's not Sato Masaki, but if she listens to the backtrack so much that she wears the grooves down, her singing and dancing should synchronize together better.
広本瑠璃（Hiromoto Ruli） "Tachiagirl"
Woah! This girl also makes me feel at ease. It might be the case in terms of concerts these days that neither the fans nor the members get gleeful from a show, but fans spend money online or in person to see concerts to give them energy. I'm very happy to see a girl like this who embodies the sort of smile and performance that give people that energy. I ended up thinking, "Yep, this is the stuff."
<Room for growth>
I wrote this before, too, but this feeling at ease is because she can sing and dance fine, so she should turn her eye to her character more. She should work on those basics while she's still at this stage. If I might impose, her rhythm disappears at the long "ga" note of "Tachiagaaru." Whether it's a half note or a whole note, I want her to feel that 16-beat the whole time. Well, that's not just with her, that goes for everyone.
Tsunku♂'s own original awards!
Overall #1: Yonemura Kirara
Best singer: Yofuu Runo
Best Hello!Pro: Hiromoto Ruli
Tsunku♂ Award: Yamada Ichigo, Nakayama Natsume, Murakoshi Ayano
Best performance: Saitou Madoka, Kubota Nanami
Most potential: Nishizaki Miku
Singing award: Hashida Honoka, Hirayama Yuki, Onoda Karin
Cute award: Ebata Kisaki, Matsubara Yuliya
Self-produce award: Ishiguri Kanami, Tamenaga Shion (now in Angerme)
Nice character award: Uemura Hasumi, Kitahara Momo
On the whole, I think there are a lot of really charming girls here. I would make 3 or 4 groups out of them as they are, because I was really left with an impression that there are many girls with some natural singing ability. As a result, I gave out a lot of singing awards.
Also, there weren't any girls at this time who really broke out from the pack, meaning that there weren't any with stand-out abilities, but I recognize that they're in an environment where they can devote themselves to training. Please understand, though, that if they put in a bit more effort, they can make themselves different from the other girls. If they all put in that little bit of effort, Hello!Pro's general skill level will rise accordingly, and there will be a clear difference between them and idols from other organizations.
I also think there are some girls who could have incredible personalities come out if the adults could prod them in the right way, like what happened with Wada Ayaka once. I don't think people at the management and staff level should be working with them, they should try collaborating with comedians or doing a show with rotating MCs (on YouTube, too! These days). Sometimes they'll fall flat, sometimes they'll hit it out of the park, but they will grow from those different experiences, won't they?
What was interesting for me this time was reviewing them without any personal attachment or bias, because I don't know the particulars of how long they've been training or how they're received by the public. I got to see all of them for the first time with no prior information.
I don't know how the judges actually evaluated them or what awards they got, but there wasn't a single girl who I didn't think had more room to grow. I felt like there might be some girls who already consider themselves as passable and complete to an extent, though, so I want them aim higher and higher, without relying on their own perceived limits or current state. I'm excited for their futures.
Now, when I see President Minewaki again, I'll be able to talk a little bit about them, "How about this girl! That girl is like this!" I wonder if they'll do another test this year!? I'm looking forward to it.
