[2018.06.13] Morning Musume - Are you Happy? / A gonna

[Elpis]

Are you happy has grown on me a bit before o break he points to where I don’t hate a single. But as far as graduation singles go, this release is just crappy.

[Shoujo Q]

I find it fitting in a way that Are You Happy opens the same exact way The Manpower does. Which, if also my LEAST favorite graduation single of all time. This is now my 2nd. It's not the first, because The Manpower's PV still sucks ass. (The Alt version is better, but that's not the official PV so it can't count.)

[Anderei]

Performance of both songs on FULL CHORUS.

[Shoujo Q]

12th Gen recording for Are You Happy?
 
Honestly, I expected Maria to suck. Haruna and Akane surprised me. Miki is her usual self.

[Zoe]

Akane needs to develop some vibrato. That was Kanon's problem too.

[Farrah]

The last time I heard these songs was when their respective music videos came out, so I decided to give them another chance and listen to them one more time, just to give them a final chance and... yeah, no.  This single is seriously just complete and absolute trash, there is no saving it lmao.  MM are officially H!P's weakest group at the moment, and that's really unfortunate since they're the flagship. 

[honey]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Farrah" data-cid="214062" data-time="1528496362">
The last time I heard these songs was when their respective music videos came out, so I decided to give them another chance and listen to them one more time, just to give them a final chance and... yeah, no. This single is seriously just complete and absolute trash, there is no saving it lmao. MM are officially H!P's weakest group at the moment, and that's really unfortunate since they're the flagship.</blockquote>


I wonder what the sales on this are going to look like. I’m honestly hoping it does poorly because I want to believe it’d shake up how they’re managing the group and maybe prompts them to start clearing house on the dead weight members.

[arcobaleno]

Now that I've finally really listened to this single, I actually like both songs. The production isn't anything amazing, and they were rushed, what with so many repetitive elements in both songs, but I enjoy them, and they've stuck in my head all day.
 
But yeah, all in all, this is basically just another footnote in their very unvaried discography, and in the grand scheme of things, is a forgettable single as a whole.

[yuzuriha]

That was the first time I thought Akane looked like baby sayu.  Ugh some of those notes were just painful to hear them not hit.

[DonJuan]

1st day on Oricon #1 with 100,436 sold


#1 - Morning Musume. '18 / 100,436

#2 - Generations from EXILE TRIBE / 75,804

#3 - Fudanjuku / 10,896

[Anderei]

I wonder how much it'll sell the rest of the week, though.

[Anderei]

At #3 with 4,761 for day 2.
 
Probably still gonna get #1 because evil always wins.

[Elpis]

Morning Musume always sells a lot the first day because of preorders and fairly decently the rest of the week, but they don’t usually chart well after that or at all.

[Farrah]

These sales are a perfect example of why I really can't stand what handshake events and such have done to idol groups LOL as long as you have a strong enough following, you can put out absolute trash and still get solid numbers as long as you do some handshake events.  MM have some amazing singles in their discography that struggled to sell 30k-50k (Shouganai Yume Oibito, for one) but now that they've adapted to the new way of the industry, they can put out a single that disappoints 90% of the fanbase and still make dolla dolla bills all because some perv is so desperate to touch a little girl's hand, he'll buy 500 copies of the single LOL.  Ughhh, I know I sound mad but it's just so irritating!  I feel like the AKB sales model is sucking all the life out of the idol scene.

[Zoe]

Didn't Oricon change their tracking method though cause of bulk orders?

[Farrah]

Yeah, it's harder to rank highly on Oricon now from bulk-buying - although not impossible. But I'm speaking more in terms of sales than chart rankings.  It kills me that tons of fans hated this single but went out and bought every version of it anyway, because they wanted to get into a handshake event or because they wanted to show support.  Everyone complains that MM are stagnant, everyone complained that this single felt rushed and low quality... but those complaints mean nothing if you happily hand your money over anyway! 
 
Some degree of this has always existed in idol fandoms, I mean, the whole thing is a cult of personality anyway, with many fans caring more about the cute girls than the music - but that's seriously out of control now compared to say, 10 years ago haha.  The company is out there to meet demand, and by buying a single that you hate (much less 5 or 6 special versions of it!), you're telling the company that what you're demanding is shitty songs with shiny handshake tickets.

[Anderei]

I felt like the rule changes only affected everyone for a release or two and that was it. I think it was meant to hurt AKB the most and they’ve got so many groups doing handshakes now that it didn’t even matter.
 
I do wonder if Japanese fans liked this more than we did.

[DonJuan]

It still hurts AKB quite a bit I guess, considering the recent differences for Teacher Teacher (1,5 million on oricon, 2,5 million on billboard).
 
However, after I got into an argument with certain people on H!O about how handshake and other special events with their tickets sold through music singles ruins the thought behind a general ranking system but that person telling me that the Japanese music market would collapse without handshake events I can't say much about it anymore. Maybe we should answer with "then perish", considering oricon is pretty backwards and the best chart to measure interest is the digital one after all, since people rarely buy a single digitally more than once. (I know it's possible but probably not in the numbers physical sales are manipulated.)

[Anderei]

Their Oricon numbers haven't really changed, despite the new rules, and that's the chart they care about. No one cares about Billboard except for the idol fans. Maybe it would have if it was 2010 and their sales efforts were still mostly the result of one group. Who knows. 
 
Idol groups need physical charts, though. Not a single one has any real success on any of the digital charts these days, and if they do it lasts maybe a week or two. Sales are going up, but interest is definitely going down. I feel like it's definitely fewer people buying more tickets as a whole. AKB's sales actually kind of suck when you take into account just how many girls it takes to get them there. They're selling the same as they did eight years ago, with probably over triple the number of girls.

[Zange]

Are you happy? now has a VR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJXzkneNA24
Definitely a first here, I'm sure...

[aine]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Zange" data-cid="214199" data-time="1529116730">
Definitely a first here, I'm sure...</blockquote>
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpafGx8UIk0' class="bbc_url" title="External link">Nah</a>

[Anderei]

At #5 day 3 and at #4 today.


Angerme are 2 today lmao.

[Shoujo Q]

That should be the end of AKB on the top. Senbatsu is over, no need to stockpile singles. 
 
Not sure how Angerme got up that high. Must have had an event.
 
2nd Recording Session on Upcoming, this time with Iikubo, Ikuta and Fukumura. 
 
 
In commenting on that VR of Are You Happy, the part where they go into the circle, that was great. Best part of the whole experience. 

[JPope]

[quote="aine"]
 
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Zange" data-cid="214199" data-time="1529116730">
Definitely a first here, I'm sure...
</blockquote>

<a class="bbc_url" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpafGx8UIk0" title="External link">Nah</a>
 
[/quote]
 
I miss that era of Morning Musume where nobody cared about dancing because every song was a fucking jam.

[Zoe]

Haruna and Erina sounded pretty solid in the recordings. Wish they showed more of the harmonies for Mizuki though.

[zlilzlilzlil]

So MM did score first on Oricon with 114105 copies.
second place sold 89778...

[Zange]

Aaaaand now A gonna has a VR video, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XFLqZQ_Loo
 
That is some interesting video structure there.... (Edit: If you're watching on a desktop at least...)

[Anderei]

[quote="zlilzlilzlil"]
So MM did score first on Oricon with 114105 copies.
second place sold 89778...
[/quote]
 
 
We really are living in the darkest timeline.

[honey]

What the fuck lol.


It sucks this number just gets farmed by having handshake events. There’s no reason for anyone to try harder if the wota don’t give a shit about the quality of the music anymore. There will be a downfall to this eventually I guess.

[momoirosaya]

I’m kinda disappointed there wasn’t a third song with Oharu Center. Like, I think every girl should get to experience being center once - especially at graduation. But I guess it was just too sudden of an announcement.